There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS. By Oscar Kempthorne. New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1952. 631 pp. $8.50. This book by a teacher of statistics (as well as a consultant for \"experimenters\") is a comprehensive study of the philosophical background for the statistical design of experiment. It is necessary to have some facility with algebraic notation and manipulation to be able to use the volume intelligently. The problems are presented from the theoretical point of view, without such practical examples as would be helpful for those not acquainted with mathematics. The mathematical justification for the techniques is given. As a somewhat advanced treatment of the design and analysis of experiments, this volume will be interesting and helpful for many who approach statistics theoretically as well as practically. With emphasis on the \"why,\" and with description given broadly, the author relates the subject matter to the general theory of statistics and to the general problem of experimental inference. MARGARET J. ROBERTSON

The Design and Analysis of Experiments

Linear models

Piecewise polynomials or splines extend the advantages of polynomials to include greater flexibility, local effects of parameter changes and the possibility of imposing useful constraints on estimated functions. Among these constraints is monotonicity, which can be an important property in many curve estimation problems. This paper shows the virtues of monotone splines through a number of statistical applications, including response variable transformation in nonlinear regression, transformation of variables in multiple regression, principal components and canonical correlation, and the use of monotone splines to model a dose-response function and to perform item analysis. Computational and inferential issues are discussed and illustrated.

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Monotone Regression Splines in Action

The British Thoracic Society first published management guidelines for community acquired pneumonia in children in 2002 and covered available evidence to early 2000. These updated guidelines represent a review of new evidence since then and consensus clinical opinion where evidence was not found. This document incorporates material from the 2002 guidelines and supersedes the previous guideline document.

https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/66/Suppl_2/ii1.full.pdf

British Thoracic Society guidelines for the management of community acquired pneumonia in children: update 2011

Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein in WHO defined severe and very severe community acquired pneumonia: A hospital based cross-sectional study

Intervention Based on Dynamics of Postural Control in Children with Cerebral Palsy- An integral approach

The present study was carried out to establish physiological norms (best regression equation) to predict peak expiratory flow values among the North Indian male population with a statistically appropriate model. The study aims to establish the best statistically sound multiple regression model for predicting peak expiratory flow rate in the North Indian healthy population considering age, height and weight as predictor variables. One hundred and thirty-seven normal male subjects aged between 20 and 69 years, who had come from different parts of Lucknow to attend a science exhibition, India were selected for the study. The ordinary least square multiple regression model was used for the study. Residuals in this model were heteroskedastic. Therefore, the model proposed by Prasad et al. and the weighted least square models were also used for the study. All the models were compared statistically. The proposed weighted least square model was found to be best fitting model, which had minimum residual standard deviation, maximum explained variation and most precise regression coefficient estimates.

Prediction models for peak expiratory flow rates in North Indian male population based on ordinary and weighted least square estimation

AIM Several studies have shown that colchicine exhibits an improvement in the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (OA) but its effect on disease progression is unknown. To clarify the mechanism of action this study was done to see if colchicine prevents degradation of collagen fiber network in OA by studying serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) levels, a marker of cartilage turnover, over a period of 1 year. METHODS Seventy-five patients received colchicine plus paracetamol and 75 received placebo alone for the same time period. Serum COMP assays were done at baseline, 2 months and 1 year by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. These markers were compared between visits using repeated measures analysis of variance. RESULTS Serum COMP levels in the paracetamol-alone group did not show significant change between baseline and 2 months; however, there was a significant increase in serum COMP levels from 2 months to 1 year, suggesting increased uncoupling of proteoglycans from collagen and disease progression. No such change was seen in the colchicine group, signifying lack of progression of disease in this group. CONCLUSION Colchicine may act as a disease-modifying agent in OA.

Does long term colchicine prevent degradation of collagen fiber network in osteoarthritis

Introduction Childhood and adolescence require adequate amount of micronutrients for normal growth and development. The primary objective of study was to assess the prevalence of deficiencies of Vitamins (Vitamin A, 25 Hydroxy Vitamin D, Vitamin B12 and Folate) and minerals (Calcium, Zinc, Selenium and Iron), among urban school going children aged 6–11 and 12–16 years in ten cities of India. Secondary objective was to find the association between micronutrient deficiencies with sociodemographic and anthropometric indicators. Methods A multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted across India. Participants in the age groups of 6 to 11 years (group 1) and 12 to 16 years (group 2) were selected from randomly chosen schools from each center. Data on socio economic status, anthropometric measures was collected. Blood samples were collected for biochemical analysis of micronutrients. Point estimates and 95% confidence intervals was used to assess the prevalence of deficiencies. Associations were observed using chi square, student t test and ANOVA test. Results From April 2019 to February 2020, 2428 participants (1235 in group 1 and 1193 group 2) were recruited from 60 schools across ten cites. The prevalence of calcium and iron deficiency was 59.9% and 49.4% respectively. 25 Hydroxy Vitamin D deficiency was seen in 39.7% and vitamin B12 in 33.4% of subjects. Folate, Selenium and Zinc were deficient in 22.2%, 10.4% and 6.8% of subjects respectively. Vitamin A deficiency least (1.6%). Anemia was prevalent in 17.6% subjects and was more common among females. Conclusion One or more micronutrient deficiencies are found in almost one half of school going children in urban area. Hence efforts must be made to combat these on priority. Trial registration number CTRI/2019/02/017783.

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Girdhar G. Agarwal

Papers

Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein in WHO defined severe and very severe community acquired pneumonia: A hospital based cross-sectional study

Intervention Based on Dynamics of Postural Control in Children with Cerebral Palsy- An integral approach

Prediction models for peak expiratory flow rates in North Indian male population based on ordinary and weighted least square estimation

Does long term colchicine prevent degradation of collagen fiber network in osteoarthritis

Prevalence of specific micronutrient deficiencies in urban school going children and adolescence of India: A multicenter cross-sectional study