The Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon (MWW) test statistic, while distribution-free, suffers from a loss of efficacy for certain underlying distributions. In this manuscript, we instead use a data-adaptive weighted generalized Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon (AWGMWW) test statistic, one that is optimal in the Pitman Asymptotic Efficacy (PAE) sense, to discern differences in hippocampus shape among twin populations w...

ion/Flexibility (Wisconsin Card SortingTest; Heaton et al, 1993) The percentage of perseverative errors was used as the central parameter. Statistical analyses Frequency counts and descriptive statistics were calculated for initial basic symptoms, observed and self-perceived psychopathology. Differences in initial psychopathology between those patients at risk who experienced a transition to ps...

Motivated by recent applications of the Mann–Whitney U test to large data sets we took a critical look at current methods for computing its significance. Surprisingly, we found that the two fastest and most popular tools for exact computation of the test significance, Dinneen and Blakesley’s and Harding’s, can exhibit large numerical errors even in moderately large datasets. In addition, anothe...

Obesity is frequently associated with insulin resistance. Recently an important role of the cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha in mediating insulin resistance of obesity through its overexpression in fat tissue has been reported. In order to examine the relation of insulin resistance to obesity and to serum neopterin, as a parameter of immune activation, we studied 1234 otherwise healthy outp...

In a prospective, randomised trial of 81 patients with fractures of the ankle of AO types A, B and C we compared two regimes of postoperative management after internal fixation. The patients were mobilised either non-weight-bearing with crutches or weight-bearing in a below-knee walking plaster. We found a temporary benefit in subjective evaluation only (65 v 50 points, Mann-Whitney test, cft, ...

In many research disciplines, hypothesis tests are applied to evaluate whether findings are statistically significant or could be explained by chance. The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney (WMW) test is among the most popular hypothesis tests in medicine and life science to analyze if two groups of samples are equally distributed. This nonparametric statistical homogeneity test is commonly applied in molec...

An analysis method previously used to detect observed intrato multidecadal (IMD) climate regimes was adapted to compare observed and modeled IMD climate variations. Pending the availability of the more appropriate phase 5 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP-5) simulations, the method is demonstrated using CMIP-3 model simulations. Although the CMIP-3 experimental design will almost cert...