MATERIALS AND METHODS: A list of fellowship programs was obtained from the website of American Society of Craniofacial Surgery (ASCFS). Faculty demographics and institution characteristics were obtained from official program websites. H-indices for each faculty member were calculated using the Scopus database (Elsevier, USA). Data was assessed using bivariate analysis (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-W...

Affine invariant analogues of the two-sample Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon rank sum test and the c-sample Kruskal-Wallis test for the multivariate location model are introduced. The definition of a multivariate (centered) rank function in the development is based on the Oja criterion function. This work extends bivariate rank methods discussed by Brown and Hettmansperger (1987a,b) and multivariate sign...

The well-known Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon (MWW) statistic is based on empirical distribution estimates. However, the data are often drawn from smooth populations. Therefore, smoothness characteristic not preserved. In addition, several authors have pointed out that an inadmissible estimate. Thus, in this work, we develop versions of MWW function This approach preserves characteristics and allows eff...

INTRODUCTION Prenatal screening and diagnosis is important for the detection of birth defects and genetic diseases. The nationwide proficiency testing (PT) of maternal serum prenatal screening in second trimester in China has been launched since 2003 and partly reflected the performance of screening laboratories. This study analysed the 2015 PT results to examine the performance of clinical lab...

PURPOSE To evaluate morphologic changes in meibomian glands (MGs) and the status of periglandular inflammation in patients with primary and secondary Sjögren's Syndrome (SS) using in vivo confocal laser microscopy (LSCM). METHODS Twenty patients with primary SS (SSI), 25 with secondary SS (SSII), 20 with MG dysfunction (MGD), and 25 age- and gender-matched control subjects were enrolled conse...