Over a quarter-century ago, Alan Agresti (Biometrics, 1980) proposed using the generalized odds ratio (genOR) to summarize the association between two ordinal variables. Unfortunately, genOR is still largely unknown, even though it is elegantly straightforward and fills key voids in the working statistician’s toolbox. An extension of it, a statistic we are calling “WMWodds,” is an ideal effect-...

Some adaptive test procedures are developed for the generalized Behrens-Fisher problem. The one having a deterministic approach is based on calculating a measure of symmetry from each sample and using them as a basis for choosing between the modified Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test (Fligner and Policello, 1981) and the modified Mood’s median test (Fligner and Rust, 1982). The other one is a probabil...

PURPOSE To evaluate the efficacy and safety of 0.18% sodium hyaluronate ophthalmic solution (Rejena, Vismed) compared with its vehicle for the treatment of signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. DESIGN Randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. METHODS A total of 444 subjects with dry eye disease were randomized 1:1 to active study drug (n = 221) or vehicle control (n = 223) in this mul...

INTRODUCTION 'Decompression stress' is commonly evaluated by scoring circulating bubble numbers post dive using Doppler or cardiac echography. This information may be used to develop safer decompression algorithms, assuming that the lower the numbers of venous gas emboli (VGE) observed post dive, the lower the statistical risk of decompression sickness (DCS). Current echocardiographic evaluatio...

BACKGROUND Despite proven efficacy of the prevention mother-to-child transmission of HIV strategy, its adoption in Africa has remained slow. In Kenya, its effectiveness remain unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a prevention of mother-to-child transmission program in Kenya. METHODS This retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed 2,642 records of HIV-exposed inf...

McElduff F, Cortina-Borja M, Chan SK, Wade A. When t-tests or Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests won’t do. Adv Physiol Educ 34: 128–133, 2010; doi:10.1152/advan.00017.2010.—t-Tests are widely used by researchers to compare the average values of a numeric outcome between two groups. If there are doubts about the suitability of the data for the requirements of a t-test, most notably the distribution bei...

AIM To examine the influence of a practical surgical course on the number of minor surgical procedures performed by family physicians. METHODS We compared the number of minor surgical procedures performed by family physicians in 59 offices in the city of Osijek and surrounding rural area during 12 months before and after the 40-hour practical surgical course held in September 2006 by surgeons...

Classical approaches for analyzing reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) data commonly require normalization before assessing differential expression (DE). Normalization often has a substantial effect on the interpretation and validity of the subsequent analysis steps, but at the same time it causes a reduction in variance and introduces dependence among the nor...

Most conventional statistical tests for analyzing RT-qPCR data require normalization before differential expression can be assessed. This normalization can have a substantial effect on the interpretation and validity of the statistical test, but this effect is often ignored. Therefore the uWMW test, as proposed in [1], extends the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test so that the normalization is incorpor...

BACKGROUND Interscalene brachial plexus (ISB) block is often associated with phrenic nerve block and diaphragmatic paresis. The goal of our study was to test if the anterior or the posterior ultrasound guided approach of the ISB is associated with a lower incidence of phrenic nerve blocks and impaired lung function. METHODS This was a prospective, randomized and single-blinded study of 84 pat...