Sunday, December 30, 2012

World Cup 2010 Heatmap

I am reading Visualize This by Yau at the moment. It is full of really pretty visualization ideas and examples. One it has is creating a heatmap of NBA players. To practice this visualization I have made one of World Cup 2010 players. The dataset I got from the Gardian Data blog 'World Cup 2010 statistics: every match and every player in data'. The data only has 5 qualities quantified but that is good enough to practice making heatmaps.
The R Package code I used is below
library(RColorBrewer)
#save the guardian data to world.csv and load it
players2<-read.csv('World.csv', sep=',', header=TRUE)
players2[1:3,]
#players with the same name (like Torres) meant I had to merge surnames and countries
players2$Name <-paste(players2[,1], players2[,2])
rownames(players2) <- players2$Name
###I removed one player by hand
###I now do not need these columns
players2$Position <- NULL
players2$Player.Surname <- NULL
players2$Team <- NULL
players3 <-players2[order(players2$Total.Passes, decreasing=TRUE),]
### or to order by time played
###players3 <-players2[order(players2$Time.Played, decreasing=TRUE),]
players3 <- players3[,1:5]
players4<-players3[1:50,]
players_matrix <-data.matrix(players4)
###change names of columns to make graph readable
colnames(players_matrix )[1] <- "played"
colnames(players_matrix )[2] <- "shots"
colnames(players_matrix )[3] <- "passes"
colnames(players_matrix )[4] <- "tackles"
colnames(players_matrix )[5] <- "saves"
players_heatmap <- heatmap(players_matrix, Rowv=NA, Colv=NA, col = brewer.pal(9, 'Blues'), scale='column', margins=c(5,10), main="World Cup 2010")
dev.print(file="SoccerPassed.jpeg", device=jpeg, width=600)       
#players_heatmap <- heatmap(players_matrix, Rowv=NA, Colv=NA, col = brewer.pal(9, 'Greens'), scale='column', margins=c(5,10), main="World Cup 2010")
#dev.print(file="SoccerPlayed.jpeg", device=jpeg, width=600) 
dev.off()
Nothing very fancy here. Just showing that with a good data source and some online tutorials it is easy enough to knock up a picture in a fairly short time.

Monday, December 24, 2012

The Price Of Guinness

When money's tight and hard to get 
And your horse has also ran, 
When all you have is a heap of debt - 
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.
Myles Na Gopaleen

How much has Guinness increased in price over time? Below is a graph of the price changes. The data is taken from a combination of the Guinness price index and CSO data

The R package code for this graph is below.

pint<-read.csv('pintindex.csv', sep=',', header=TRUE)
plot(pint$Year, pint$Euros, type="s", main="Price Pint of Guinness in Euros", xlab="Year", ylab="Price Euros", bty="n", lwd=2)
dev.print(file="Guinness.jpeg", device=jpeg, width=600)       
dev.off() 
Paul in the comments asked a good question. How does this compare to earnings?
        price   Earnings/Price     Earnings per Week (Euro)
 2008   4.22    167.31                 706.03
 2009   4.34    161.69                 701.73
 2010   4.2     165.02                 693.08
 2011   4.15    165.81                 688.11
 2012   4.23    163.56                 691.87
Here the earnings are average weekly earnings which is the modern and slightly different value to average industrial wage which the Pint Index used. It shows that even with a price drop in Guinness the total purchasing power of pints with wages decreased. This is based on gross wages increases in tax probably made the situation based on net wages worse.

Pintindex.csv is

Year,  Euros 1969, 0.2 1973, 0.24 1976, 0.48 1979, 0.7 1983, 1.37 1984, 1.48 1985, 1.52 1986, 1.64 1987, 1.73 1988, 1.8 1989, 1.87 1990, 1.93 1991, 2.02 1992, 2.15 1993, 2.24 1994, 2.34 1995, 2.42 1996, 2.5 1997, 2.52 1998, 2.65 1999, 2.74 2000, 2.88 2001, 3.01 2002, 3.24 2003, 3.41 2004, 3.54 2005, 3.63 2006, 3.74 2007, 4.03 2008, 4.22 2009, 4.34 2010, 4.2 2011, 4.15 2012, 4.23

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Cystic Fibrosis Improved Screening

In the first post I claimed that like Tay-Sachs in Israel Cystic Fibrosis could be drastically reduced with some relatively inexpensive genetic testing. In the second further analysis suggested that such genetic screening of the Irish population would pay for itself several times over. In this post I want to see if some form of targeted screening could be shown to be as cost effective as currently implemented screening.

Currently there is free screening for people who has relatives with CF and their partners. I assume they include second cousin as a relative. Based on this paper and some consanguinity calculations I calculate that an Irish couple with one of their second cousins has CF have about twice the chance of having a child with CF as the general population. This means you can be tested for free currently if you have about a 1 in 700 chance of having a child with cystic fibrosis whereas the general population with a 1 in 1444 chance. If a test can be focused the test so that it is twice as good as random screening that should be enough by current standards to be rolled out.

How could a non random screening be made this focused?

1. Geographic area. Some areas of the country might be more likely to have CF carriers than others. Targeting screening in these areas might make it twice as effective. The Cystic Fibrosis Registry of Ireland annual report 2010 gives numbers for Irish counties. 4 counties do not have their numbers listed but I have estimated these based on their population.

This map is based on the figures of people with CF found in the registry. This could be a biased sample or people could have moved. A better measure would be babies born with CF in each county.

Number of people with CF in each county might be useful for deciding how to allocate some treatment resources. What % of people have CF is more interesting for screening though. To work this out we first need the numbers found in each county.

The number of people with CF in the registry per ten thousand people is

I can send anyone who wants them full sized versions of these maps or the r package code I used to generate them. The code I used is below

library(RColorBrewer)
library(sp)
con <- url("http://gadm.org/data/rda/IRL_adm1.RData")
close(con)
people<-read.csv('cases.csv', sep=',', header=TRUE)
pops = cut(people$cases,breaks=c(0,2,10,20,30,40,50,70,150,300))
myPalette<-brewer.pal(9,"Purples")
spplot(gadm, "pops", col.regions=myPalette, main="Cystic Fibrosis Cases Per County",
       lwd=.4, col="black")
dev.print(file="CFIrl.jpeg", device=jpeg, width=600)
dev.off()
population<-read.csv('countypopths.csv', sep=',', header=TRUE)
pops = cut(population$population,breaks=c(0,20,40,60,70,80,100,160,400,1300))

myPalette<-brewer.pal(9,"Greens")
spplot(gadm, "pops", col.regions=myPalette, main="Population in thousands",
       lwd=.4, col="black")
dev.print(file="PopIrl.jpeg", device=jpeg, width=600)       
dev.off()

gadm$cfpop <- people$cases/(population$population/10)
cfpop = cut(gadm$cfpop,breaks=c(0,0.5,1,1.5,2,2.5,3,3.5))
gadm$cfpop <- as.factor(cfpop)

myPalette<-brewer.pal(7,"Blues")
spplot(gadm, "cfpop", col.regions=myPalette, main="CF/Population Irish Counties",
       lwd=.4, col="black")
dev.print(file="CFperPopIrl.jpeg", device=jpeg, width=600)       
dev.off() 
If this result was replicated in a more complete analysis just picking the darker counties could get you the two times amplification needed to have a test as strong as the currently paid for ones.

2. Pick certain ethnic minorities. Some groups have higher levels of CF than the average population. For example travellers have higher levels of some disorders. 'disorders, including Phenylketonuria and Cystic fibrosis, that are found in virtually all Irish communities and probably are no more common among Travellers than in the general Irish population. The second are disorders, including Galactosaemia, Glutaric Acidaemia Type I, Hurler’s Syndrome, Fanconi’s Anaemia and Type II/III Osteogenesis Imperfecta, that are found at much higher frequencies in the Traveller community than the general Irish population'. 'There is no proactive screening of the Traveller population no more than there is proactive screening of the non-traveller Irish population'. I do not think deliberate screening of one ethnic group, unless that group themselves organise it, is a good idea. Singling out one ethnic group for screening risks stigmatising its members and reminds many of the horror of eugenics.

3. Certain disorders seem to cluster with CF. 'In 1936, Guido Fanconi published a paper describing a connection between celiac disease, cystic fibrosis of the pancreas, and bronchiectasis'. Ireland also has the highest rate of celiac disease in the world (about 1 in 100). If CF and celiac disease or some other observable characteristic are also correlated in Ireland testing people with celiac disease in their family could also provide amplification of a test.

4. Screening parents undergoing IVF. HARI was the first clinic in Ireland to offer IVF and it currently receives up to 800 enquiries a year specifically about the procedure. It carries out over 1,350 cycles of IVF treatment annually and over 3,500 babies have been born as a result. The Merrion Clinic carries out up to 500 cycles of IVF per year, while last year, SIMS carried out 1,063 cycles." IVf is roughly 33% effective per cycle so this means about 1000 children are born through IVF from these three Irish clinics here each year. Screening of these parents would prevent roughly one CF case per year. Screening people who use IVF does not prevent many cases. It can be used by people who know they are CF carriers to avoid having a child with CF though.

Concerns about the privacy and security of a general genetic screening program of the Irish population should not be ignored. Cathal Garvey on twitter pointed out that this screening would require 'With explicit informed consent & ensuing destruction of samples, Just wary of prior shenanigans of HSE bloodspot program. i.e. it's already fashionable among governments to abuse screening programs to create 'law' enforcement databases. Without clear guarantees against that, must weigh the costs of mass DNA false incriminations vs. gains of ntnl screening prog!' I agree that any genetic screening program for Ireland would have to ensure privacy for the individual.

Screening the general population for carriers of serious genetic disorders would save money and suffering. If the level of savings are not sufficient for general screening focusing on certain locations or relatives of people who suffer from disorders that co-occur with CF could amplify the returns sufficiently to be as useful as current screenings.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Gluten Levels of 73 Beers

I often hear it asked what the gluten content of various beers are. Particularly in relation to celiacs who want to avoid gluten. This post is just a direct google translate of a Swedish research paper. PDF's can be hard to search as can Swedish documents for English speaking users. I am just putting up this translation to aid people searching for this research on beer gluten levels. The appendix here is from the Swedish National Food Agency (NFA). This is from a regularly cited report "Gluteninnehåll i de öl som analyserats vid Livsmedelsverket". Gluten content in beer. SLV. 2009 which is difficult to find online. This commonly linked to location linked to but it is dead.
Gluten content of the beers analyzed at the NFA
A total of 73 analyzed beer. For 12 of these low gluten content of 50 mg gluten per liter or higher.
A further 11 beer contained between 41 and 50 mg of gluten per liter. The list is sorted alphabetically by
manufacturers.
One should be aware that the consumption of beer can lead to increased intake of gluten, even if concentrations gluten in beer
is on a par with those found in foods that are appropriate for gluten intolerance.
Consumption of 0.5-1 liters of beer can in some cases make a significant contribution to the daily intake of gluten,
as for an adult celiac disease should be below 50 mg per day gluten.
The table sometimes describes the gluten level as ep = Not detected, which means less than 10 mg per liter gluten
Manufacturer Alcohol Strength Color Names ppm gluten (Mg / l)
AB Åbro Brewery, Sweden 3.5 light Åbro Original ep
AB Åbro Brewery, Sweden 3.5 Light 18:56 ep
AB Åbro Brewery 5.2 light Andersson Beer 47
AB Åbro Brewery 5.2 light Småland 41
Arthur Guinness Son & Co., Dublin, Ireland 3.5 dark Guinness Draft 48
Arthur Guinness Son & Co., Dublin, Ireland 5 dark Guinness Extra Stout 62
Brau Union Österreich AG 2.8 light Zipfer 23
Carlsberg, Denmark 2.8 light Carlsberg Beer 15
Carlsberg, Denmark 3.5 light Carlsberg Beer 21
Carlsberg, Denmark 3.5 Dark Carnegie Porter 20
Carlsberg, Denmark 4.1 light-Saxon gluten ep
Cerveceria Modelo, Mexico 4.6 Light Corona Extra ep
Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, Mexico 4.5 light Sun ep
Erdinger Weissbräu, Germany 5.3 light Erdinger Weissbier 1188
Erdinger Weissbräu, Germany 5.6 Dark Erdinger Weissbier obscure 1224
Eriksberg 5.6 dark Christmas beer 33
Falcon Breweries, Sweden 2.8 light-Falcon 28
Falcon Breweries, Sweden 3.5 between Falcon Ale 22
Falcon Breweries, Sweden 3.5 light Falcon Extra brew 24
Falcon Breweries, Sweden 3.5 light Falcon Pilz 67
Falcon Breweries, Sweden 5.2 between Bavarian Falcon 55
Falken Falkenberg 3.5 Dark Beer July 49
Grolsche Bierbrowerij, Holland 3.5 light Grolsch Premium Stock 15
Harboes Brewery, Denmark 2.2 Light The Cheerful Dane 25
Harboes Brewery, Denmark 2.8 light Dansk Pilsner premium beer 42
Harboes Brewery, Denmark 3.5 light Dansk Pilsner premium beer 34
Harboes Brewery AB Denmark 3.5 lighting Christmas beer 31
Harboes Brewery AB Denmark 7.3 light Bjørne brewer 49
Hartwall PLC, Tornio, Finland 3.5 light Lapin Kulta ep
Hartwall PLC, Tornio, Finland 5.2 light Lapin Kulta Premium stock ep
Heinecken Brouwerijen Holland Heineken Light 3.5 45
Hofbräu, Germany 6.3 light Hofbräu October-fest bier 26
Inbev UK Limited 3.5 dark Murphys Irish Strout 43
Jämtland Brewery Ltd 6.5 dark Christmas beer e.p.
Kopparberg Brewery 5.3 light Fagerhult Exports III 93
Kra'sne'Březno 4.8 dark Zlatopramen 47
Kronenbourg Strasbourg, France 5.0 light Kronenbourg 1664 97
Krönleins Brewery AB Halmstad 5.3 dark Christmas beer exports 33
Löwenbräu, Germany 6.1 light Lowenbrau October-fest bier 21
Mariestad Brewery Ltd [Spendrups] 2.8 light Mariestads 40
Mariestad Brewery Ltd [Spendrups] 3.5 light Mariestads e.p.
Mariestad Brewery Ltd 3.5 between Julebrygd 60
Pivovar Nova Paka, Czech republic 2.8 light BrouCzech ep
Pivovary Staropramen 3.5 light Staropramen 21
Pripps Sweden 2.2 light Pripps Light beer 17
Pripps Sweden 3.5 Pripps Blue Light Special Stock 32
Pripps Sweden 3.5 light Pripps Blue Pure 28
Pripps (Carlsberg) 5.0 dark Christmas beer 33
Pripps (Carlsberg) 5.2 light Pripps Blue 66
Shepherd Neame Whitstable Kent 3.5 between Bishops Finger ep
Singha Corp. Thailand 5 Light Singha Premium stock beer 17
Source Castle Brewery 3.5 Uppsala dark Christmas beer 23
Source Castle Brewery Ltd 3.5 Light White Weissbier 67
Source Castle Brewery Ltd 3.5 from Vienna ep
Source Castle Brewery Ltd 9.0 dark Imperial Stout 50
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 2.0 dark Gammeldags Moderate Drinking ep
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 2.1 light Spendrups Premium Stock 31
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 2.8 light Norrland Gold 21
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 3.5 light Norrland Gold 35
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 3.5 light Spendrups Premium Gold ep
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 3.5 light Spendrup Bright Brew 28
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 3.5 light Odin Pilsner 46
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 5.0 light Spendrups Premium Stock 53
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 5.2 dark Christmas beer 24
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 5.3 light Mariestads Exports 45
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 5.3 light Norrland Gold 38
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 5.3 dark Norrland July ep
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 5.9 light Spendrups Premium Gold 35
Spendrups Brewery Ltd 7.0 dark julbock 34
Starobrno Brewery Czech 3.5 light Starobrno Premium Stock 21
St Peters Brewery *, UK 4.2 Light St. Petersburg G-free (gluten-free) ep
Tuborg Copenhagen, Denmark 3.5 light Tuborg Beer Premium Gold 28
Zeunerts AB, Sollefteå 5.1 dark Christmas beer 37
* According to the ingredients list on the brew sorghum.
e.p. = Not detected, which means less than 10 mg per liter gluten
My favorite beer blog is by the beer nut and this links to his gluten free section.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Cystic Fibrosis Carrier Screening

In my last post Cystic Fibrosis Screening I described how Tay-Sachs had been nearly eradicated in Israel and America and did a rough calculation as to why it would be cost effective to run a similar program to screen for Cystic Fibrosis in Ireland.

In this post I am going to take a closer look at the figures involved to give more evidence that such a screening program is justified.

The Cystic Fibrosis approve of genetic carrier screening for those related to people with CF and their partners. Genetic Carrier Testing For Cystic Fibrosis. 'Carrier testing is limited to adults over the age of 16 where there is a family history of CF, or where a family member has been found to be a carrier of a CF mutation' says the lab that does the testing.

[in the UK] 'A disadvantage of cascade testing is that it will not identify the majority of carrier couples since more than 80% of affected infants are born in families without a prior history of the disease'. Testing relatives though useful only covers a small fraction of potential CF cases.

This screening of relatives is paid for out of public funds

"How much does the test cost? GP fees will apply for arranging the blood test but molecular genetic testing at NCMG and any genetic counselling you may have is a public service and therefore free of charge".

This means that CF Ireland and the health service are involved in and support CF carrier screening. This means some of the moral objections to public screening that might have existed are not present.

What would population wide screening cost? The cost of genetic screening has fallen amazingly fast. for example here is the cost of sequencing an entire genome compared to Moores law.

23andMe a private company has recently announced it will for $99 dollars. This test checks for over 200 genetic markers including some forms of cystic fibrosis. This is further confirmation that genetic screening is getting much cheaper fast and that its current cost is quite low at less than a tenth of the cost of a night in hospital.

The list price of sending a sample from every 16 year old to 23andMe each year would at present be $7.5 million. There are reasons you might not want a private company to do this but it gives a baseline cost. This $7.5 million is the lifetime cost of under 8 CF patients 'However, the lifetime medical cost of the care of a CF child in today’s dollars was estimated to be slightly >$1,000,000'. To be economical, at US prices, this screening would have to prevent 8 of the roughly 40 CF sufferers born a year. Other genetic disorders are also screened for this $99 cost including many of those listed here. None of these are as common as CF in Ireland but these other disorders should be included in a full cost benefit analysis of genetic screening for the Irish population.

This $100 dollar cost is slightly deceptive as once someone finds out they are a CF carrier there are several options available to them. These vary in cost. They can decide (or matchmakers can ensure) not to have children with another carrier. If they do decide to have children with another carrier they can use IVF techniques to ensure an embryo without CF is implanted. Many of the cost analysis of CF screening (like the Rowley et al paper) include the possibility of screening a fetus for CF and terminating the pregnancy if found. This option is not legal in Ireland. They can ignore their and their partners screening results and have a baby as normal with all the risks that entails.

These costs and the probabilities on each have been worked out for the US in the 1998 paper Prenatal screening for cystic fibrosis carriers: an economic evaluation. 'the marginal cost for prenatal CF carrier screening is estimated to be $8,290 per quality-adjusted life-year. This value compares favorably with that of many accepted medical services. The cost of prenatal CF carrier screening could fall to equal the averted costs of CF patient care if the cost of carrier testing were to fall to $100'. This QALY cost figure is used by health care economists to decide which treatments and screenings meet a cost benefit analysis. The wikipedia page on QALY describes the measue well. According to this paper screening in the US, where CF is about four times rarer, is cost effective for the general population at current screening prices.

The paper 'Economic evaluation of cystic fibrosis screening: A review of the literature' has further figures on the cost of screening. This paper is from 2008 and the figures it quotes can be from years before then. As an example of how much screening costs have dropped in that time 23andMe screening cost $999 in 2007 and is now $99 and screens for more genetic markers.

In the UK £30,000 per QALY is generally considered cost effective.

In Ireland what is the cost for a QALY? 'In Ireland, there is no fixed and generally agreed cost effectiveness threshold below which health care technologies would be considered by policy makers to be cost effective'. ’Pee-in-a-pot’ screening in third level institution/college settings may be considered cost effective if a cost effectiveness threshold in the region of €45,000 per QALY gained is used. This €45,000 per QALY gained seems to be a generally accepted figure.

There are more costs to screening than can be supped up in a € per QALY figure. Any screening will induce worry for example. Prostate, breast cancer and other screenings all also induce extra human costs not measurable in QALY though. These common screenings also have to meet these cost per QALY standards.

Given the US analysis at $8,290, screening costs having dropped drastically since then and the high rate of CF gene in the Irish population this implies to me full CF screening of the Irish population would be very cost effective.

Friday, December 07, 2012

Cystic Fibrosis Screening

Approximately 1 in 25 Ashkenazi Jews are carriers of Tay-Sachs disorder which is a really nasty genetic disorder that kills children who have inherited two copies of the Tay-Sachs variant of the gene from their parents by the age of four.

This disease does not effect many kids anymore though

of the 10 babies born in North America in 2003 with Tay-Sachs, not a single one was Jewish.

Figures from Israel paint a similar picture.

According to Prof. Joel Zlotogora, who heads the Health Ministry's Department of Community Genetics, just one baby was born with Tay-Sachs in Israel in 2003. Insofar as is known, not a single baby in Israel was born with Tay-Sachs last year,(2004)

Israel almost ten years ago pretty much eradicated a really nasty genetic disease. This has been done by screening people so that they know they are carriers. If they find out early in a relationship that their partner is also a carrier people tend to decide they are incompatable. IVF techniques allow testing of preimplantation embryos for certain genetic disease before implantation. Finally 'the general public in Israel is advised to carry out, at the expense of the state, genetic tests to diagnose the disease before the birth of the baby. In the event an unborn baby is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs, the pregnancy is usually terminated'.

The Cystic Fibrosis variant of the gene is carried by 1 in 19 Irish people. This is the highest rate in the world. CF is an unpleasant disease but not nearly as unpleasant as Tay-Sachs. It is however the most common genetic disorder in Ireland and one that is more common than Tay-Sachs, which screening eradicated nearly a decade ago.

75,554 children born in Ireland during 2009. Testing newborns would be unfair for reasons of consent but a genetic test for CF could be offered to adults. Genetic carrier test costs a bit over 100 euro (but the costs has been dropping exponentially for the last several years). Testing in bulk means this screening could come in at under 7 euro million a year. Much of the cost in testing involves collection and processing of samples. This means other less common genetic disorders could be screened for at little extra cost.

A bed in an Irish hospital costs €910 per day. This is semi private room and I believe CF rooms need to be more isolated than this. That is €332150 per year. For the 20 beds in the St Vincents unit that costs (roughly) 6.5 million per year. The cost of screening every 18 year old for CF is roughly that of running one ward in St Vincents for a year.

This cost benefit analysis of screening for CF of one ward ignores all the other medical costs involved in CF but worse it ignores the suffering of the 35-40 children (one in 1,461) born with the disorder every year. The termination of fetus' with CF would not be supported in Ireland. CF compared to Tay-Sachs is a mild disorder and Irish people have a different opinion on termination to Israeli's. But with voluntary screening CF cases would significantly reduce just from partner selection alone.

I think at least a cost benefit analysis and a debate on the morality of genetic screening of the general population should take place.