Using R Package NNMAPSlite to get City Environmental vs Mortality Dataset - r

Question

I have several question for those who have worked with R studio. Currently I need to work with NMMAPSlite package. However, I found that there is an issue from the package itself when I wanted to initialise the database connection to remote DB that store the NMMAPS City dataset.
In short, I need help to either
resolve the problem with NMMAPSlite old R package or
where to find the NMMAPS dataset in csv format
BACKGROUND
As a background, I'm using NMMAPSLite packages with intend to reproduce paper of Antonio Gasparrini. Attached at the bottom is the code base I would like to run. It requires:
require(dlnm);
require(NMMAPSlite)
Now the package NMMAPSlite has been deprecated it seems, so I managed to install the dependencies and the package from archive. I will elaborate below on the links required to get the dependencies for NMMAPS and DLNM as well.
PROBLEM
The problems occur when calling initDB() where it says it failed to create remoteDB instance due to invalid object creation. But I suspect, rather, the error comes from the fact the url is not supported. Here is the NMMAPS docs that describes the initDB() function. The db initialisation is necessary to read the city dataset.
The following is the error from R Console when running initDB()
creating directory 'NMMAPS' for local storage
Error in validObject(.Object) :
invalid class “remoteDB” object: object needs a 'url' of type 'http://'
In addition: Warning message:
In grep("^http://", URL, fixed = TRUE, perl = TRUE) :
argument 'perl = TRUE' will be ignored
QUESTIONS
I know this packages NMMAPS are deprecated and too old perhaps, but I really want to reproduce/replicate Antonio Gasparrini's paper: Distributed lag non-linear models for the purpose of my undergraduate thesis project.
Hence,
I wonder if there is anyway to get NMMAPS Dataset for cities environment data vs mortality rate. I visited the official NMMAPS Database but the link for downloading the data is either broken or the server is already down
Or you can also help me to find out if there is equivalent to NMMAPSlite package in R. I just need to download the cities dataset that contains humidity trend, temperatures trend, dewpoint, CO2 trends, Ozone O3 trend, and deaths/mortality rate with respect to time at any particular city for over 2 years. The most important that I need is the mortality rate and Ozone O3 trend.
Or last effort, perhaps do you mind suggesting me similar dataset that is used by his paper? Something where I can derive/analyze time relationship to estimate mortality rate given environmental and air polution information?
APPENDIX
Definition of initDB
baseurl = "http://www.ihapss.jhsph.edu/NMMAPS/v0.1"
function (basedir = "NMMAPS")
{
if (!file.exists(basedir))
message(gettextf("creating directory '%s' for local storage",
basedir))
outcome <- new("remoteDB", url = paste(baseurl, "outcome",
sep = "/"), dir = file.path(basedir, "outcome"), name = "outcome")
exposure <- new("remoteDB", url = paste(baseurl, "exposure",
sep = "/"), dir = file.path(basedir, "exposure"), name = "exposure")
Meta <- new("remoteDB", url = paste(baseurl, "Meta", sep = "/"),
dir = file.path(basedir, "Meta"), name = "Meta")
assign("exposure", exposure, .dbEnv)
assign("outcome", outcome, .dbEnv)
assign("Meta", Meta, .dbEnv)
}
Code to run:
The error comes from line 3
require(dlnm);require(NMMAPSlite)
##############################
# LOAD AND PREPARE THE DATASET
##############################
initDB()
data <- readCity("ny", collapseAge = TRUE)
data <- data[,c("city", "date", "dow", "death", "tmpd", "dptp", "rhum", "o3tmean", "o3mtrend", "cotmean", "comtrend")]
# TEMPERATURE: CONVERSION TO CELSIUS
data$temp <- (data$tmpd-32)*5/9
# POLLUTION: O3 AND CO AT LAG-01
data$o3 <- data$o3tmean + data$o3mtrend
data$co <- data$cotmean + data$comtrend
data$o301 <- filter(data$o3,c(1,1)/2,side=1)
data$co01 <- filter(data$co,c(1,1)/2, side=1)
# DEW POINT TEMPERATURE AT LAG 0-1
data$dp01 <- filter(data$dptp,c(1,1)/2,side=1)
##############################
# CROSSBASIS SPECIFICATION
##############################
# FIXING THE KNOTS AT EQUALLY SPACED VALUES
range <- range(data$temp,na.rm=T)
ktemp <- range [1] + (range [2]-range [1])/5*1:4
# CROSSBASIS MATRIX
ns.basis <- crossbasis(data$temp,varknots=ktemp,cenvalue=21, lagdf=5,maxlag=30)
##############################
# MODEL FIT AND PREDICTION
##############################
ns <- glm(death ~ ns.basis + ns (dp01, df=3 ) + dow + o301 + co01 +
ns(date,df=14*7),family=quasipoisson(), data)
ns.pred <- crosspred(ns.basis,ns,at=-16:33)
##############################
# RESULTS AND PLOTS
##############################
# 3-D PLOT (FIGURE 1)
crossplot(ns.pred,label="Temperature")
# SLICES (FIGURE 2, TOP)
percentiles <- round(quantile(data$temp,c(0.001,0.05,0.95,0.999)), 1)
ns.pred <- crosspred(ns.basis,ns,at=c(percentiles,-16:33))
crossplot(ns.pred,"slices",var=percentiles,lag=c(0,5,15,28), label="Temperature")
# OVERALL EFFECT (FIGURE 2, BELOW)
crossplot(ns.pred,"overall",label="Temperature", title="Overall effect of temperature on mortality
New York 1987–2000" )
# RR AT CHOSEN PERCENTILES VERSUS 21C (AND 95%CI)
ns.pred$allRRfit[as.character(percentiles)]
cbind(ns.pred$allRRlow,ns.pred$allRRhigh)[as.character(percentiles),]
##############################
# THE MOVING AVERAGE MODELS UP TO LAG x (DESCRIBED IN SECTION 5.2)
# CAN BE CREATED BY THE CROSSBASIS FUNCTION INCLUDING THE
# ARGUMENTS lagtype="strata", lagdf=1, maxlag=x
Resources for your context
Distributed lag non-linear models link
Rstudio's NMMAPSlite Package docs pdf download
Rstudio's DNLM Package docs pdf
Duplicate questions from another forum: forum
How to install package from tar/archive: link
Meanwhile, I will contact the author of this package and see if I can get the dataset. Preferable in csv format.

Answer 1

It seems that your code is based on R ver. < 3.0.0. You might find it difficult to reproduce the paper as the current R is typical > 4.0.0. You could try to install the windows version of NMMAPS database from the link given by 'Lil'. But, you will need to install an older version of R (2.9.2).
Or, you could hang on with the latest version of R and make a simple search on GitHub. In case you haven't found the NMMAPS database, you will find how to deal with the database here.

Answer 2

you could try this link http://www.biostat.jhsph.edu/IHAPSS/data/NMMAPS/R/ to download the package. There you have the city-data compressed where you can choose New York manually if initDB does not work.