We consider a two-group randomized clinical trial, where mortality affects the assessment of a follow-up continuous outcome. Using the worst-rank composite endpoint, we develop a weighted Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test statistic to analyze the data. We determine the optimal weights for the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test statistic that maximize its power. We derive a formula for its power and demonstrat...

BACKGROUND Spatial scan statistics are widely used for spatial cluster detection, and several parametric models exist. For continuous data, a normal-based scan statistic can be used. However, the performance of the model has not been fully evaluated for non-normal data. METHODS We propose a nonparametric spatial scan statistic based on the Wilcoxon rank-sum test statistic and compared the per...

Methods We performed a retrospective observational study in a 24 bed tertiary mixed medical surgical ICU in a teaching hospital in the Netherlands. Patients admitted to the ICU in the period between January 1th 2008 and November 1th 2014 were screened for eligibility. Inclusion criteria were: 1. ≥ 18 years. 2. Length of stay (LOS) of ≥ 72 hours. Readmissions to the ICU were excluded. The primar...

Methods The unit analysis was a person-regimen of 2 NRTI (NNRTI, PI/r) lasting ]90 days. Adherence was measured by the proportion of days covered using pharmacy refill data. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare CNA, PNA and total non-adherence (TNA) in the following groups: STR vs its components (EFV TDF/FTC) and non-FDC vs FDC vs STR. The level of adherence per group and the impact o...

Methods Multiphoton confocal microscopy images were recorded over 45 minutes in intact renal sections (taken from healthy rats) incubated in either physiologic saline solution (PSS) (n = 6), sham serum (n = 3), septic serum (n = 3), and septic serum co-incubated with 10nM of the anti-oxidant 4-OH-Tempo (n = 4). Pooled septic serum was obtained from (n = 5) rats 24 hrs after induction of faecal ...

We performed multifractal analysis of fetal heart rate (FHR) variability in fetuses with and without acidosis during labor. Multifractal analysis was performed on fetal electrocardiograms in 10-minute sliding windows within the last 2 hours before delivery in 45 term fetuses divided in three groups according to umbilical arterial pH and FHR pattern: group A had pH ≥7.30 and normal FHR, group B ...

When evaluating and signing players, Major League Baseball teams face incomplete information regarding a player’s true value. This paper explores how teams deal with such uncertainty and whether their approaches toward high-risk free agent signings and low-risk contract option decisions differ. I use seemingly unrelated regression to estimate the relationships between past performance and futur...

We describe a case study, which shows how important negative results are in uncovering biased evaluation methodologies. Our research question is how to compare a recommender algorithm that uses an RDF graph to a recommendation algorithm that uses rating data. Our case study uses DBpedia 3.8 and the MovieLens 100k data set. We show that the most popular evaluation protocol in the recommender sys...

The aim of this biomechanical study was to investigate knee joint kinematics following total knee arthroplasty. We compared eight congruent posterior cruciate ligament retaining and four ultracongruent cruciate sacrificing Natural Knee prostheses to the untreated human cadaveric knee joint. A six-degree-of-freedom testing device was used to evaluate knee joint kinematics with a load of 300 Newt...

BACKGROUND To examine whether maternal serum levels of müllerian-inhibiting substance (MIS) differ in Down's syndrome and unaffected pregnancies. METHODS Case-control study was conducted using stored serum from an antenatal screening programme. Sera from 25 Down's syndrome pregnancies were retrieved from -20 degrees C storage together with 125 unaffected controls individually matched for mate...