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We have assessed the medium-term effect of a short course of high-dose, alternate-day prednisolone on adult nephrotic patients with membranous nephropathy, using a randomized, prospective, double-blind, controlled trial. Patients were entered over the period 1981 to 1984 and were observed for a minimum of three years. One hundred and seven adult patients who had not previously received immunosuppressive treatment were included in the trial. One hundred and sixty further patients, excluded from the trial, but with membranous nephropathy were identified, followed and assesed retrospectively at the end of the trial. At 36 months there was no significant difference between control and treatment group in plasma creatinine, creatinine clearance or 24-h excretion of protein. At between three and six months serum albumin concentrations were higher and protein excretions lower in the treatment group compared to controls. No significant benefit was therefore observer on renal function in the medium term.

SUMMARY This paper shows that the notion of minimizing the disagreement between parallel assessments of the same quantity unifies a number of current methods of scaling and leads to straightforward extensions to cover new problems. Applications are found in the assessment of physical maturity, the measurement of children's behaviour, and in longitudinal studies with sets of items at several occasions.

RESP-4818

Scientific computing in Great Britain has changed quite markedly since the Flowers' report appeared in December 1965, and one aspect of this change is the increased acceptance of FORTRAN. It is now taken for granted that any computer for scientific use will possess a FORTRAN compiler, and that this will be compatible with one or other of the ASA specifications (American Standards Association, 1964, 1965). As well as this, most FORTRAN IV compilers now offer a range of features over and above the minimum needed for ASA compatibility. If these extra features are examined a certain measure of agreement between the different compilers is apparent, and this leads to the idea that the time is ripe for a third level of 'standard FORTRAN' standing to FORTRAN IV much as this does to FORTRAN II or ASA Basic FORTRAN. This note aims at setting out some ideas for such a language. It is in many ways remarkable that a language as old as FORTRAN is still in use at all, and any 'extended FORTRAN' must be able to stand the competition of newer languages such as ALGOL and PL/I. One reason for survival seems to be the fact that its very limitations, while not too serious from the user's point of view, make it relatively easy to compile. Fast compiling is important for a language much used in teaching since students' exercises spend most of their time in the compiling phase, and indeed the same consideration is important in any research-based computer centre where the ratio of new programs to old will always remain high. It follows from this that an extended FORTRAN, while aiming to remove some of the limitations of FORTRAN IV, should remain simple in structure, and that it may be necessary to exclude features which, while occasionally useful, would complicate the compiler structure to an unacceptable extent.