Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M R Kibby.
Four spreadsheet templates have been devised to ease certain laboratory operations, namely preparing buffers by mixing solutions, calculating required rotor speeds to achieve particular g-values, preparing and utilising isokinetic gradients to determine sedimentation coefficients, and calculating purification tables. Their use in designing experiments is described briefly.
Four spreadsheet templates are presented to carry out routine statistical analyses with relatively small amounts of data: two-sample Student's t test, one-factor analysis of variance with replication, two-factor analysis of variance with replication, and Wilcoxon's non-parametric two-sample T-test (Mann and Whitney U-test). The use of sometimes complex IF and logic (AND, OR) functions in these templates is a means of maintaining a neat output presentation by avoiding error values, selection of appropriate forms of the t-test, and iteratively assigning mean ranks to data in the non-parametric test. The advantages of the spreadsheet approach accrue through using a multi-purpose package rather than dedicated statistics programs, having usually unobstructed access to the program for modification, relative ease of programming spreadsheets, and ease of correction and alteration of input data. Disadvantages are the limited size of templates and the small number of templates available. Spreadsheets represent a declarative form of programming rather than procedural, with consequent advantages in specifying the problem to be solved, which may have particular application in teaching statistics and programming at undergraduate level.
Electronic spreadsheets computerise the traditional layout of any tabulation or complex calculation done with pencil, paper and calculator. They therefore have great potential in aiding routine calculations which might be done by these means or with a small BASIC computer program. Their simple structure and strong affinity with traditional methods make them particularly suitable for those who have not yet mastered the art of programming. However, a necessarily brief review of their application to science and technology demonstrates that this potential is not being realised in comparison with their wide-spread usage in the business world. The application of both Multiplan and Visicalc running respectively on the Macintosh and the Apple IIe microcomputers in four types of calculation is demonstrated: tabulation, curve-fitting and statistics, simulation, and numerical approximation. Advantages are found in the concurrent display of data and results, the ease of correction or modification of data and the escape from traditional linear programming methods. The spreadsheet format imposes its own constraints. It is not so flexible as BASIC, it demands more memory and may have a slower execution time than a program written in a high-level language, and it is more difficult to produce graphical output.
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