Computer generated Monte Carlo techniques were used to compare the power of Wilcoxon's rank-sum test to the power of the two independent means t test for situations in which samples were drawn from (1) uniform, (2) Laplace, (3) halfnormal, (4) exponential, (5) mixed-normal, and (6) mixeduniform distributions. Sample sizes studied were (n ,n) = (3,9), (6,6), (9,27), (18,18), (27,81), and (54,54)...

This paper proposes a binary adaptation of the recently proposed meta-heuristic, Equilibrium Optimizer (EO), called Discrete EO (DEO), to solve optimization problems. A U-shaped transfer function is used map continuous values into domain. To further improve exploitation capability DEO, Simulated Annealing (SA) as local search procedure and combination named DEOSA. The DEOSA algorithm applied 18...

OBJECTIVES One of the goals of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is to attenuate HIV-induced systemic immune activation and inflammation. We determined the dynamics of biomarkers of immune activation, microbial translocation and inflammation during initial ART with a nucleos(t)ide-sparing regimen of darunavir/ritonavir plus raltegravir. We also evaluated associations between these biomarkers and the...

Abstract: A rank-based test of the null hypothesis that a regressor has no effect on a response variable is proposed and analyzed. This test is identical in structure to the order selection test but with the raw data replaced by ranks. The test is nonparametric in that it is consistent against virtually any smooth alternative, and is completely distribution free for all sample sizes. The asympt...

This paper reports a survey and case study research outcomes on the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the ranking method of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Business Excellence Model in Iran’s Automotive Industry and improving benchmarking process after assessment. Following the global trend, the Iranian industry leaders have introduced the EFQM practice to thei...

OBJECTIVE A method that would allow in situ comparison of the degrees of adherence to genital epithelia by the biofilms of the normal flora. SUBJECTS Four healthy women. SETTING Departments of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, and of Medicine, University of British Columbia. METHODS In situ, scraped specimens were taken from the vagina and ectocervix before and after vigorous va...

INTRODUCTION Prevention programs have not achieved the expected results in preventing mortality from breast and cervical cancer in Mexico. Therefore, we propose a complementary strategy. METHODOLOGY An educational strategy for high school students in Mexico (2011-2013) was designed (longitudinal design, two measurements and a single intervention). The postintervention assessment included: 1) ...

The assessment of overall homogeneity of time-to-event curves is a key element in survival analysis in biomedical research. The currently commonly used testing methods, e.g. log-rank test, Wilcoxon test, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, may have a significant loss of statistical testing power under certain circumstances. In this paper we propose a new testing method that is robust for the compariso...

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been used as a model in neuroscience but knowledge about its behavior is limited. The aim of this study was to determine the preference of this fish species for a dark or light environment. Initially we used a place preference test and in a second experiment we applied an exit latency test. A two-chamber aquarium was used for the preference test. The aquarium con...