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- INTRODUCTION
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Arcus is a general statistical analysis package which has been
- developed with the needs of medicine, biomedical and social
- sciences in mind. It has also proved popular with education and
- the many branches of commerce which need to investigate patterns
- in human populations. The Arcus project was started because the
- aims listed below were not met by any other program for the PC,
- this remains true.
-
- 1. A collection of the most commonly used statistical
- procedures using sound modern methodology to achieve
- accuracy and to avoid the compromise of approximation where
- possible.
-
- 2. A user friendly approach which is intuitive and requires
- little reference printed literature.
-
- 3. A detailed coverage of the statistical procedures which are
- done badly or not at all by the well known commercial
- packages.
-
- 4. A toolbox of basic statistical procedures such as
- distribution functions which can be useful in research
- but are seldom found in an easily accessible form in the
- commercial packages. You can replace your tables with Arcus.
-
- 5. A project which does not depend upon financial success for
- its future development. This project is to be supported
- indefinitely.
-
-
- INTERACTING WITH ARCUS
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- The Arcus user interface consists of plain key icons which can
- be selected by moving the highlighted centre using the cursor
- keys and then pressing the enter key to select the highlighted
- key icon. Alternatively the key represented by the icon may be
- pressed. To avoid conflicts with non-standard hardware, Arcus
- does not use graphics based windows or a mouse.
-
- The menus are a branch system in which the escape key will move
- you backward to the major titles.
-
- Flashing messages inform you that the computer is occupied with
- a task and you should wait accordingly. If a process seems to
- be taking a long time please be patient, the programs are highly
- unlikely to crash.
-
- Results from Arcus are displayed one screen at a time and you
- can obtain a printed copy of results by pressing the print screen
- key. Firstly, make sure that your printer is properly set up.
-
- The graphics provided within Arcus are for instant visual
- analysis only. There many good presentation graphics packages
- and spreadsheets available which can comma delimited ASCII files
- exported from Arcus. If you still wish to print a graphics screen
- then you may press [p] in order to dump a displayed graph to an
- Epson FX or Hewlett Pakard Laserjet compatible printer.
-
- The Pictorial Statistics - Frequency Distribution Histograms,
- Box and Whisker plots, Scattergrams and Normal Plots - use the
- standard ASCII character set so that you can print them using
- any standard printer by pressing the print screen key.
-
- Support for many different monitors has been built into Arcus
- but I can not guarantee that every possible hardware
- configuration will display all Arcus screens perfectly. If you
- find any problems please report them by writing to the address
- found under the registration section of this document. All
- reports will be acted upon and replied to without delay.
-
- Arcus can use any data which is stored as columns of numbers in
- ASCII files generated by databases, word processors or
- spreadsheets. For further details please consult the help
- section in the ASCII file importer. This may be found under the
- `File and Data Manipulation Menu'. Data may also be imported
- from Lotus compatible WKS or WK1 files and the consistency of
- gaps as missing data in these files is maintined.
-
-
-
- FILE ORIENTATED FUNCTIONS
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Arcus can work with files of variables which contain information
- as data points. For example the file called test (supplied) has
- two variables, SMD(mcg/ml) and Absorbance, and each of these
- contains six data points corresponding to matched results for a
- standard curve from a colorimetric assay.
-
- Worked Example:- A standard curve.
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Go to `File Orientated Functions' from the main menu.
-
- Go to `File & Data Manipulation' and select the spreadsheet.
-
- Enter drug concentration and absorbance values in two columns.
-
- Name the two columns / variables using [F3].
-
- Exit the spreadsheet using [Esc].
-
- Save your data on disk if you wish to.
-
- Return to the `File orientated Functions Menu' then select
- Regression and Correlation.
-
- Select Linear Regression.
-
- Enter the number corresponding to each of your defined variables
- (drug conc. as independent (abscissa) and absorbance as dependent
- (ordinate).
-
- You can then interpolate x(drug concentration) values for any
- number of y(absorbance) values which you enter, or vice versa.
-
-
- OVERVIEW (not all functions listed)
-
- Arithmetical.....Transformation of one variable
- ...New variable created as a function of two others
-
- Basic Statistics.....Descriptive statistics on x variables
-
- Pictorial Statistics.....Frequency Distribution Histogram
- ...Box and Whisker Plot
- ...Scattergram and Normal Plot
-
- Parametric Methods.....Student's t two sample unpaired and paired
- ...Student's t single sample
- ...Z (normal distribution) tests
- ...F (variance ratio) test
- ...Shapiro-Wilk test of normality
-
- Nonparametric Methods.....Mann-Whitney (Wilcoxon rank sum)
- ...Wilcoxon signed rank
- ...Spearman's rank correlation
- ...Kendall's rank correlation
- ...Save ranks, sorted data and normal scores
-
- Regression & Correlation.....Linear and Pearson's correlation
- ...Polynomial
- ...Multiple Linear
- ...Exponential, Geometric and Hyperbolic
-
- Analysis of Variance.....One way with Scheffé, Newman-Keuls and t tests
- ...Kruskall-Wallace with multiple comparisons
- ...Two way randomised block design +/- replicates
-
-
- INSTANT FUNCTIONS
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- These do not require data to have been prepared in columnar
- format.
-
- Distributions....Normal (+ inverse)
- ..Chi squared (+ inverse)
- ..Student's t (+ inverse)
- ..Snedecor's F (+ inverse)
- ..Studentized Range Q (+ inverse)
- ..Binomial
- ..Poisson
- ..Spearman's Rho
- ..Kendall's Tau (Hotelling Pabst)
- ..Mann-Whitney U
- ..Wilcoxon signed rank
-
- Chi squared...2 by 2 with logit and Cornfield C.I.
- ..2 by k +/- trend
- ..r by c +/- trend
- ..McNemar's and exact alternative
- ..Mantel-Haensetzel
- ..Woolf
-
- Exact...Fisher's
- ..Exact C.I. for 2 by 2 odds
-
- Sign test with exact C.I.
-
- Proportions...Single
- ..Unpaired
- ..Paired
-
- Sample size...Population survey
- ..Unpaired case-control
- ..Paired case-control
-
- Randomization
-
- Clinical / Epidemiological..Bayesian..Basic
- ..False result probabilities
- ..SMR's
- ..Life tables
-
- nb. Throughout Arcus confidence intervals are given wherever
- possible
-
-
-
- THE SPREADSHEET
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- A spreadsheet is the most effective data editor for columns of
- numbers thus one has been developed as part of the file
- orientated functions. The size of the Arcus spreadsheet will
- adjust to the data capacity which you have selected the default
- is 30 by as may rows as can be accommodated by available free
- memory.
-
-
- Key assignment of the spreadsheet
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- [F1]............help
-
- [F2]............insert a cell
-
- [Shift] + [F2]..delete a cell
-
- [F3]............name the column being worked upon
-
- [F4]............delete a variable
-
- [Esc]...........return to file & data manipulation menu
-
- [Home]..........move to row 1 column 1
-
- [End]...........move to last number entered in current column
-
- [Page Up].......move up a screen
-
- [Page Down].....move down a screen
-
- [space bar].....enter a missing data value
-
-
-
- BENEFITS OF REGISTRATION
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- You may evaluate this shareware edition of Arcus Professional for
- 30 days. After this time you should register. Registration is
- not expensive and you will gain many benefits:-
-
- Upon registration you will be sent the latest edition of Arcus
- Professional together with a user's manual. Then, as a
- registered user you will receive information about any
- developments in the Arcus project and future upgrades will be
- offered to you at a reduced price. Existing users have already
- had a major influence in steering the development of Arcus and
- as a registered user your suggestions will be given priority.
-
-
- Registration fee is 79 pounds sterling
- A ten user departmental licence is 249 pounds sterling
- Larger site licences and introductory talks can be arranged
-
- 25% OF ALL PROFITS ARE GIVEN TO CHARITY - currently Help The Aged
-
- The following two pages contain an invoice and the author's
- address.
-
- Arcus is a sound investment, this product is to be supported
- indefinitely.
-
-
-
-
- INVOICE (page 1 of 2)
- Remit to: From:
-
-
- Iain E. Buchan
- Medical Computing
- Pine Crest
- Turnpike Road
- Aughton
- West Lancs.
- L39 3LD
- England
-
- Contact name and occupation:
-
-
-
- Qty Unit Price Total
-
- ___ Arcus Professional (1 user) 79.00 _____
- ___ Upgrade to Arcus Professional (1 user) 19.00 _____
- ___ Departmental Licence (10 users) 249.00 _____
- ___ Departmental Upgrade (10 users) 89.00 _____
- Total _____
-
-
-
- (Prices are in pounds sterling)
-
- INVOICE (page 2 of 2)
-
-
- I require 5 1/4 inch ____ 3 1/2 inch ____ disks. (tick one)
-
-
- I require the special version of Arcus professional which uses
- the extra capabilities of 286, 386 and 486 processors to run
- faster but I acknowledge that this (Arcus Pro-286) will not run
- on anything less than a 286 DOS computer ____. (tick if
- appropriate)
-
-
- A shareware version of Arcus has been accepted by the customer.
- Upon receipt of this paid invoice, a full latest version of
- Arcus Professional on the specified disk type and a printed
- manual will be sent.
-
-
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
- Ordering from outside the UK: Please send all cheques and
- remittances in pounds sterling, payable to Iain Buchan.
-
- If you have any questions please ring (UK) 0695 424 034
-
-