A very powerful R package, which is able to perform most of the functions mentioned earlier plus some others, has been developed and titled np. This package offers many powerful functions but some users might find it inconvenient to use because of the computationally intensive nature of many of the functions contained within it.
We have so far attempted to fit a curve or surface to data points to either understand the basic trend in the data or come up with a general estimate of a dependent variable based on one or two independent variables. However, what if we want to create regression curves to figure out where a member of the population ranks in comparison to others within the population? This kind of task is routinely carried out with height and weight data in the form of pediatric growth charts that are used to monitor development during routine visits to the pediatrician. The basic idea is that instead of fitting...