Critical Values for the Robust Rank-Order Test

ABSTRACT

The nonparametric Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test is commonly used by practitioners for detecting differences in location (mean, median) between two samples. Earlier work has shown this test to have a number of disadvantages, most of which are remedied by use of the alternative robust rank-order test. Use of the robust rank-order test has been limited, perhaps partly because exact critical values have up to now been available for only a small number of sample-size values, and not for all of the commonly used levels of significance. This article expands what is known about the distribution of the robust rank-order test statistic; critical values are given for more sample sizes and for more levels of significance.     

Maximum Test versus Adaptive Tests for the Two-Sample Location Problem

For the non-parametric two-sample location problem, adaptive tests based on a selector statistic are compared with a maximum and a sum test, respectively. When the class of all continuous distributions is not restricted, the sum test is not a robust test, i.e. it does not have a relatively high power across the different possible distributions. However, according to our simulation results, the adaptive tests as well as the maximum test are robust. For a small sample size, the maximum test is preferable, whereas for a large sample size the comparison between the adaptive tests and the maximum test does not show a clear winner. Consequently, one may argue in favour of the maximum test since it is a useful test for all sample sizes. Furthermore, it does not need a selector and the specification of which test is to be performed for which values of the selector. When the family of possible distributions is restricted, the maximin efficiency robust test may be a further robust alternative. However, for the family of t distributions this test is not as powerful as the corresponding maximum test.     

Adaptive Procedures for the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney Test: Seven Decades of Advances

The Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test has dominated non parametric analyses in behavioral sciences for the past seven decades. Its widespread use masks the fact that there exist simple “adaptive” procedures which use data-dependent statistical decision rules to select an optimal non parametric test. This paper discusses key adaptive approaches for testing differences in locations in two-sample environments. Our Monte Carlo analysis shows that adaptive procedures often perform substantially better than t-tests, even with moderately sized samples (80 observations). We illustrate adaptive approaches using data from Gneezy and Smorodinsky (2006 Gneezy, U., Smorodinsky, R. (2006). All-pay auctions: an experimental study. J. Economic Behav. Organizat. 61(2): 255275.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and offer a Stata package to researchers interested in taking advantage of these techniques.     

Data Driven Rank Test for Two-Sample Problem

Traditional linear rank tests are known to possess low power for large spectrum of alternatives. In this paper we introduce a new rank test possessing a considerably larger range of sensitivity than linear rank tests. The new test statistic is a sum of squares of some linear rank statistics while the number of summands is chosen via a data-based selection rule. Simulations show that the new test possesses high and stable power in situations when linear rank tests completely break down, while simultaneously it has almost the same power under alternatives which can be detected by standard linear rank tests. Our approach is illustrated by some practical examples. Theoretical support is given by deriving asymptotic null distribution of the test statistic and proving consistency of the new test under essentially any alternative.     

An Affine-Invariant Generalization of the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test for the Bivariate Location Problem

This paper proposes an affine‐invariant test extending the univariate Wilcoxon signed‐rank test to the bivariate location problem. It gives two versions of the null distribution of the test statistic. The first version leads to a conditionally distribution‐free test which can be used with any sample size. The second version can be used for larger sample sizes and has a limiting χ₂² distribution under the null hypothesis. The paper investigates the relationship with a test proposed by Jan & Randles (1994). It shows that the Pitman efficiency of this test relative to the new test is equal to 1 for elliptical distributions but that the two tests are not necessarily equivalent for non‐elliptical distributions. These facts are also demonstrated empirically in a simulation study. The new test has the advantage of not requiring the assumption of elliptical symmetry which is needed to perform the asymptotic version of the Jan and Randles test.     

A uniform saddlepoint expansion for the null‐distribution of the wilcoxon‐mann‐whitney statistic

The authors give the exact coefficient of 1/N in a saddlepoint approximation to the Wilcoxon‐Mann‐Whitney null‐distribution. This saddlepoint approximation is obtained from an Edgeworth approximation to the exponentially tilted distribution. Moreover, the rate of convergence of the relative error is uniformly of order O (1/N) in a large deviation interval as defined in Feller (1971). The proposed method for computing the coefficient of 1/N can be used to obtain the exact coefficients of 1/Nⁱ, for any i. The exact formulas for the cumulant generating function and the cumulants, needed for these results, are those of van Dantzig (1947‐1950).     

A Flexible Nonparametric Test for Ordered and Umbrella Alternatives

A flexible and robust test for the ordered and umbrella alternatives is proposed in this paper. A two-step procedure is presented to make the proposed test be easily applicable. Type I error and power of the given approach are thoroughly investigated by extensive Monte Carlo studies.     

Rank Tests for Two-Sample Problems Based on Multiple Type-II Censored Data

In this article, we study the effect of censoring on the asymptotic efficiency of the two-sample rank tests based on multiple Type-II censored data. Since the scores generating functions associated with these test statistics have a finite number of jump discontinuities, we use a slightly modified version of a theorem of Dupac and Hajek (1969 Dupac , V. , Hajek , J. ( 1969 ). Asymptotic normality of simple linear rank statistics under alternatives II . Ann. Math. Statist. 40 : 1992 – 2017 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) to obtain their asymptotic distributions under fixed alternatives. This modified version, which leads to a simpler centering constant, is proved by Dupac (1970 Dupac , V. ( 1970 ). A contribution to the asymptotic normality of simple linear rank statistics . In: Puri , M. L. , ed. Nonparametric Techniques in Statistical Inference . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . [Google Scholar]) in the light of results of Hoeffding (1968 Hoeffding , W. ( 1968 ). On the Centering of Simple Linear Rank Statistics. Instit. Statist. Mimeo Series No. 585, University of North Carolina . [Google Scholar]), an earlier version of Hoeffding (1973 Hoeffding , W. ( 1973 ). On the centering of simple linear rank statistics . Ann. Statist. 1 : 54 – 66 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Hence, we obtain the Pitman ARE's of these rank tests relative to the corresponding tests based on the complete samples. The ARE's are computed for some well known rank tests for two-sample location and scale problems, when the combined ordered samples from different underlying distributions are censored using triple and lower order Type-II censoring schemes. The effect of all these censoring schemes on the ARE's of the different tests is examined numerically. It is found that there is a gain in efficiency due to censoring in many of the cases considered here. This suggests that in such cases it is possible to improve the efficiency of rank tests by discarding suitable portions of the data.     

Modified Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney Test and Power Against Strong Null

The Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney (WMW) test is a popular rank-based two-sample testing procedure for the strong null hypothesis that the two samples come from the same distribution. A modified WMW test, the Fligner–Policello (FP) test, has been proposed for comparing the medians of two populations. A fact that may be under-appreciated among some practitioners is that the FP test can also be used to test the strong null like the WMW. In this article, we compare the power of the WMW and FP tests for testing the strong null. Our results show that neither test is uniformly better than the other and that there can be substantial differences in power between the two choices. We propose a new, modified WMW test that combines the WMW and FP tests. Monte Carlo studies show that the combined test has good power compared to either the WMW and FP test. We provide a fast implementation of the proposed test in an open-source software. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

A Framework for Random-Effects ROC Analysis: Biases with the Bootstrap and Other Variance Estimators

In this article, we analyze the three-way bootstrap estimate of the variance of the reader-averaged nonparametric area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The setting for this work is medical imaging, and the experimental design involves sampling from three distributions: a set of normal and diseased cases (patients), and a set of readers (doctors). The experiment we consider is fully crossed in that each reader reads each case. A reading generates a score that indicates the reader's level of suspicion that the patient is diseased. The distribution of scores for the normal patients is compared to the distribution of scores for the diseased patients via an ROC curve, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) summarizes the reader's diagnostic ability to separate the normal patients from the diseased ones. We find that the bootstrap estimate of the variance of the reader-averaged AUC is biased, and we represent this bias in terms of moments of success outcomes. This representation helps unify and improve several current methods for multi-reader multi-case (MRMC) ROC analysis.     

Heterogeneity of variance and biased hypothesis tests

This study examined the influence of heterogeneity of variance on Type I error rates and power of the independent-samples Student's t-test of equality of means on samples of scores from normal and 10 non-normal distributions. The same test of equality of means was performed on corresponding rank-transformed scores. For many non-normal distributions, both versions produced anomalous power functions, resulting partly from the fact that the hypothesis test was biased, so that under some conditions, the probability of rejecting H ₀ decreased as the difference between means increased. In all cases where bias occurred, the t-test on ranks exhibited substantially greater bias than the t-test on scores. This anomalous result was independent of the more familiar changes in Type I error rates and power attributable to unequal sample sizes combined with unequal variances.     

Robust suptest for the genetic association study under genetic model uncertainty

In case–control studies the Cochran–Armitage trend test is powerful for detection of an association between a risk genetic marker and a disease of interest. To apply this test, a score should be assigned to the genotypes based on the genetic model. When the underlying genetic model is unknown, the trend test statistic is quite sensitive to the choice of the score. In this paper, we study the asymptotic property of the robust suptest statistic defined as a supremum of Cochran–Armitage trend test across all scores between 0 and 1. Through numerical studies we show that small to moderate sample size performances of the suptest appear reasonable in terms of type I error control and we compared empirical powers of the suptest to those of three individual Cochran–Armitage trend tests and the maximum of the three Cochran–Armitage trend tests. The use of the suptest is applied to rheumatoid arthritis data from a genome-wide association study.     

An Improved Method on Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test for Gene Selection from Microarray Experiments

Selecting a small subset out of the thousands of genes in microarray data is important for accurate classification of phenotypes. In this paper, we propose a flexible rank-based nonparametric procedure for gene selection from microarray data. In the method we propose a statistic for testing whether area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for each gene is equal to 0.5 allowing different variance for each gene. The contribution to this “single gene” statistic is the studentization of the empirical AUC, which takes into account the variances associated with each gene in the experiment. Delong et al. proposed a nonparametric procedure for calculating a consistent variance estimator of the AUC. We use their variance estimation technique to get a test statistic, and we focus on the primary step in the gene selection process, namely, the ranking of genes with respect to a statistical measure of differential expression. Two real datasets are analyzed to illustrate the methods and a simulation study is carried out to assess the relative performance of different statistical gene ranking measures. The work includes how to use the variance information to produce a list of significant targets and assess differential gene expressions under two conditions. The proposed method does not involve complicated formulas and does not require advanced programming skills. We conclude that the proposed methods offer useful analytical tools for identifying differentially expressed genes for further biological and clinical analysis.     

An Approximation for the Test of the Equality of the Smallest Eigenvalues of a Covariance Matrix

A limiting distribution of the likelihood ratio statistic for the test of the equality of the q smallest eigenvalues of a covariance matrix is obtained. This distribution can be used as an alternative to the chi-squared distribution which is usually used with this test. It is shown that this new method yields reasonable significance levels for those situations in which the chi-squared approximation is inadequate.     

Win statistics (win ratio,win odds,and net benefit) can complement one another to show the strength of the treatment effect on time-to-event outcomes

Conventional analyses of a composite of multiple time-to-event outcomes use the time to the first event. However, the first event may not be the most important outcome. To address this limitation, generalized pairwise comparisons and win statistics (win ratio, win odds, and net benefit) have become popular and have been applied to clinical trial practice. However, win ratio, win odds, and net benefit have typically been used separately. In this article, we examine the use of these three win statistics jointly for time-to-event outcomes. First, we explain the relation of point estimates and variances among the three win statistics, and the relation between the net benefit and the Mann–Whitney U statistic. Then we explain that the three win statistics are based on the same win proportions, and they test the same null hypothesis of equal win probabilities in two groups. We show theoretically that the Z-values of the corresponding statistical tests are approximately equal; therefore, the three win statistics provide very similar p-values and statistical powers. Finally, using simulation studies and data from a clinical trial, we demonstrate that, when there is no (or little) censoring, the three win statistics can complement one another to show the strength of the treatment effect. However, when the amount of censoring is not small, and without adjustment for censoring, the win odds and the net benefit may have an advantage for interpreting the treatment effect; with adjustment (e.g., IPCW adjustment) for censoring, the three win statistics can complement one another to show the strength of the treatment effect. For calculations we use the R package WINS, available on the CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network).     

A Nonparametric Test Procedure Based on Quantiles for the Right Censored Data

In this study, we propose nonparametric tests using the several quantile statistics simultaneously for the right censored data. First of all, we consider statistics of the quadratic form with estimated covariance matrices. Then we derive the limiting distribution using the large sample approximation theory. Also we consider different forms of statistics such as the maximal and summing types with their limiting distributions. Then we illustrate our procedure with examples and compare performance among tests with empirical powers through a simulation study. Also we comment briefly on some interesting features including re-sampling methods as concluding remarks. Finally in Appendices, we provide proofs for the theoretic results needed for the derivation of the limiting distributions of the proposed test statistics.     

A Confidence Interval and Test for the Mean of an Asymmetric Distribution

ABSTRACT

A confidence interval and test are obtained for the mean of an asymmetric distribution using a random sample of size n. The method is based on N. J. Johnson's (1978 Johnson , N. J. ( 1978 ). Modified, t tests and confidence intervals for asymmetrical populations. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 73 ( 363 ): 536 – 544 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) modified t-test, where terms of Cornish–Fisher expansions involving the third moment are used to adjust the conventional statistic to have more closely a Student's t-distribution with n ? 1 degrees of freedom. Johnson's (1978 Johnson , N. J. ( 1978 ). Modified, t tests and confidence intervals for asymmetrical populations. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 73 ( 363 ): 536 – 544 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) test cannot be inverted uniquely, so a corresponding confidence interval for the mean may be disjointed. However, an artificial term of small order can be added to make inversion of the test a uniquely defined operation, which prevents such disjointedness. The resulting one-sided and two-sided intervals perform better than others in the literature with skewed distributions, and have good performance with a normal distribution. The two-sided interval may be recommended for general use if the sample size is 10 or more and the nominal confidence coefficient is 95% or less, or if the sample size is 30 or more and the confidence coefficient is 99% or less.