Abstract

KRUGER, P.S.  and  YADAVALLI, V.S.S.. The curse of counting and the destiny of data. S. Afr. J. Ind. Eng. [online]. 2018, vol.29, n.3, pp.188-201. ISSN 2224-7890.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7166/29-3-2059.

Writing numbers for counting and record-keeping predates the art of writing by a considerable margin. Never in the history of humankind has the urge to count and to measure everything been so prevalent as today. Numbers were traditionally used to count, measure, and label, but simple numbers have transformed into 'DATA', which has become an important, intrinsic, and all invasive part of life. Furthermore, the transformation from data to useful knowledge (and maybe some wisdom) requires, inter alia, the application of statistical analysis and mathematical modelling. Two applications illustrating this process will be presented: The possible existence of an association between some human characteristics - for example, neck circumference and general health - will be investigated, and a model based on nonlinear regression presented. A system dynamics model to investigate the dynamic characteristics of a human sub-system will be developed and discussed. This paper is merely an attempt to investigate the possibility and viability of developing data-dependent models of a medical nature.

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