Release Notes

This release includes a number of fixes and some maintenance and parameter adjustments.

General fixes & changes

• Fix for incorrect water-filled porosity in the capillary zone (θ_wcz):

  By default, θ_wcz amounts to 0.34 (FL/BRX) or 0.391 (WAL) for the "generic" soil layer type. However, for a newly created simulation – which has one “generic” standard soil layer by default – this parameter was systematically set to 0 instead of the correct default value. For all other simulations, i.e., simulations where the default “generic” soil layer has been replaced by (an)other soil layer(s), the correct (default) value for θ_wcz is set. Also, in simulations where a second/third/… generic soil layer has been added, the correct (default) value for θ_wcz will be taken.

  We have discussed this issue with the FL, BRX and WAL government. In case the involved simulation(s) is (are) resulting from a closed file, you don't have to do anything. In other cases, i.e., when you want to make re-use of an involved simulation (created before release 1.2.5), either for creating a new simulation (by using the copy function) or for doing new calculations with the respective simulation, you manually have to adjust this parameter value. How can you do this?

• Switch to Tier 2 mode and go to the “Soil” tab;
• Select the generic soil layer, click on the “Customize” button and modify the soil layer name;

• Behind "θ_wcz (m³/m³)", enter 0.34 (FL/BRX) or 0.391 (WAL) instead of 0.

  Contact us via info@s-risk.be if you have further questions!

• Changed thousands separator for numbers to space, to avoid confusion with decimal numbers. 
• Adjustments to summary report, so it will be saved correctly to PDF in Chrome.

Parameter adjustments

The Walloon government decided to change the toxicological threshold values of some default WAL chlorinated substances:

• for hexachlorobenzene, the values for systemic threshold effects have been changed:
  • oral TDI and dermal TDU: 5.0E-5 mg/kg bw/d;
  • TCA: 2.45E-4 mg/m³;
• for pentachlorobenzene, the TCA value for systemic threshold effects has been changed: 2.8E-3 mg/m³;
• for 2,3,4,6 tetrachlorophenol, the TCA value for systemic threshold effects has been changed: 0.35 mg/m³.

Please, be careful when making re-use of simulations (created before release 1.2.5) containing these substances, either for creating a new simulation (by using the copy function) or for doing new calculations with the respective simulation! In both cases, you manually have to adjust this parameter value. How can you do this?

• Switch to Tier 2 mode and go to the “Chemical” tab;
• Select the appropriate chemical, click on the “Customize” button and modify the chemical name;
• Go to the “Risk” tab and select the respective chemical;
• Within the “Threshold effects – Systemic effects” panel, enter three times the appropriate value for TDI, TDU and/or TCA.

Contact us via info@s-risk.be if you have further questions!

This version is a minor update with reporting improvements and fixes for some specific operational issues.

• exposure routes are now more clearly labeled in the summary report
• additional link is available to the summary report, in case it doesn't auto-appear after calculation
• fix for counting the number of simulations being processed
• minor improvements in the summary report
• exposure routes are now shown in the same order everywhere in the reports

This release is the first public release in the 1.2 series. It introduces a new, much-requested archiving feature, and a range of backend changes to enable the use of S-Risk in the Walloon region. During this process, a considerable number of generic S-Risk issues were fixed and improved, too.

New features

• added "Archiving" functionality for the simulation overview: simulations not consulted during the last two years, will be archived automatically; other unneeded simulations can be moved manually out of the way

Introduction of S-Risk Wallonia

• parameter database is extended to cover Walloon-specific studies - available in Walloon S-Risk accounts. This includes additional chemicals, soil layers, land uses and fine-tuning of default parameter values to the Walloon legislative and environmental context.
• extended account functionality to cover Walloon accounts next to Flanders/Brussels accounts
• interface adjustments to indicate the S-Risk region associated with the logged in account
• introduced read-only accounts for transitioning customers
• revised of the licensing agreement and registration system to cope with the new cross-regional context

General fixes & changes

• further structural changes to the database to improve performance and responsiveness 
• backend improvements for database consistency and robustness of parameter defaults
• fine-tuning of the optimization algorithm to ensure results in a wider range of concentrations
• fine-tuning of the comment requirements when changing parameters
• minor corrections and adjustments in parameter database:
  • "total time on site" parameter corrected for some scenarios - without influence on the results
  • default value for ABS_dermal for blank chemicals is changed to 0.25
  • corrected the CAS numbers for Zinc, Arsenic and Trichloroethene
• improved validation of parameters in Chemical & Risk tabs and related in-browser error reporting
• fixed some issues in the Graph tab
• functionality improvements in Risk tab, to improve consistency of risk parameters
• fixed issues with display of soil/dust ingestion values in Scenario tab
• fixed issue where Water tab - water consumption factors were uneditable in some cases
• fixes, improvements and adjustments to the reports, both the summary report and the extended PDF report

Released on February 2nd, 2016.

List of changes in this release