A chemical that acts at molecular level causing a perturbation in the biology of the organism exposed to it.
Key Event (KE)
A measurable change in the biological or physiological state of the organism which eventually leads to an adverse effect.
Adverse Outcome (AO)
The terminal KE that corresponds to the stressor-induced adverse effect.
Molecular Initiating Event (MIE)
The originating KE that corresponds to the stressor-induced molecular event.
Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP)
A linear sequence of events that captures information on a biological target perturbed by a stressor (MIE), and the cascade of KEs following this perturbation that culminates into one or more AOs.
Level of relevance
A qualitative score used to identify the relevance of stressor-AOP association within the stressor-AOP network.
Coverage score (CS)
Fraction of KEs associated with the stressor for a given AOP. A real number between 0 and 1.
Stressor-AOP network
A bipartite graph that links stressors to different AOPs.
Stressor-species network
A bipartite graph that links stressors to different species where the edge attribute is either toxicity value or bioconcentration factor signifying.
Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD)
A statistical tool used to perform ecological risk assessment based on chronic/acute toxicity data.
SSD Toolbox
A MATLAB based tool developed by the US EPA to construct SSDs.
ssdtools
A R-based package developed by developed by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy of British Columbia to construct SSDs.
Best-fit model
The statistical distribution that fits to the cumulative toxicity data based on the minimum corrected Akaike Information Criterion (AICc). The statistical distributions used are - Log-Normal, Log-Logistic, Log-Gumbel, Weibull and BurrIII.
Model average values
A weighted statistical average of a quantity calculated across five statistical distributions - Log-Normal, Log-Logistic, Log-Gumbel, Weibull and BurrIII.
HC05
The harzardous concentration of a chemical which is harmful to 5% of the species in the environment derived using a SSD.
Users can navigate to the BROWSE page to browse all heavy metals. Clicking on a button in the BROWSE page leads to the chemical-specific pages tabulating the corresponding chemicals along with the links to the networks and downloadable files.
NAVIGATING CHEMICALS PAGE
Users can navigate to the chemical page by using the navigation sidebar. Further, the users can navigate to the corresponding chemical information page in CAS Common Chemistry or in PubChem by clicking on the corresponding chemical identifier in the 'Chemicals List'.
VISUALIZE OR DOWNLOAD NETWORKS
Users can navigate to any of the sections within the chemical page containing corresponding data to either visualize the network by clicking 'Visualize Network' or download the network in Cytoscape file format by clicking on 'Download Network'. This downloaded file can be viewed using a local Cytoscape software. Once the user clicks on the 'Visualize Network' option they can click on the 'Return' button on top-left of the screen to navigate back to the previous section.
SELECTION OF NODES
The network visualization page for a chemical is interactive. Users can select and drag any of the nodes. Also, they can select a group of nodes by holding the cursor and choosing the nodes with a rectangular selection box. Once selected, users can move the group around by clicking and holding one of the nodes in the group.
ZOOM IN/OUT
Users can zoom in and out by using the scroll gesture on their touchpad or by using the scroll button on their mouse. Users can click on 'Fit to window' option on the right panel to fit the network to the screen size.
DRAG NETWORK CANVAS
Sometimes the networks are too large to fit the screen. In such cases, users can click and hold (in MacOS) or double-click and hold (in Windows) to activate the drag canvas option and continue holding and move the cursor around the screen to navigate through the canvas.
GETTING THE EDGE ATTRIBUTES IN THE NETWORK VISUALIZATION PAGE
To retrieve the edge attributes of an edge of interest in the network visualization page, users can select the edge of interest, then select the 'Show/Hide Table' option on the right panel and navigate to the Edge information tab at the bottom of the screen. Here, users can scroll left or right to get all edge attributes including 'Level of Relevance' and 'Coverage Score'.
SSD
Users can view the SSD plots by clicking on 'View Plot'. Further, users can download the raw data used to construct SSD by clicking on 'Download Data'.
DISCLAIMER
The authors are not liable for any inaccuracies or omissions of chemicals or their associations with Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) and different species on this website. Users are advised to exercise their own discretion when assessing the weight of evidence for heavy metals and AOP associations. HC05 values and other statistics derived from Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSDs) should be interpreted cautiously and independently verified. The sole purpose of this website is to support future basic research, and it does not necessarily reflect the views or objectives of our employers or funders.
