In Britain, the performance of all state primary schools is assessed by students’ attainment levels in a set of standardized tests administered to pupils at the ages of 7 and 11 (the so-called Key Stages 1 and 2, respectively). These data are analysed for 3687 schools in northern England. In particular, school performance is linked to the number of students taking the test at each school and to...

BACKGROUND Use of single measurement of risk factors can distort their estimated effects, due to random error in measurements. The aim of this study was to examine the extent of underestimation in the estimated effect of common variables in physical exam i.e. systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) and body mass index (BMI) on cardiovascular diseases in Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (...

In this work we compare two different random dilutions on a mean field ferromagnet: the first model is built on a Bernoulli-diluted graph while the second lives on a Poisson-diluted one. While it is known that the two models have, in the thermodynamic limit, the same free energy, we investigate on the structural constraints that the two models must fulfill. We rigorously derive for each model t...

BACKGROUND Elevated lipoprotein(a) levels are associated with myocardial infarction (MI) in some but not all studies. Limitations of previous studies include lack of risk estimates for extreme lipoprotein(a) levels, measurements in long-term frozen samples, no correction for regression dilution bias, and lack of absolute risk estimates in the general population. We tested the hypothesis that ex...