The radial artery is larger than the ulnar.

The radial artery is presently widely used as a bypass graft for coronary artery reconstruction. However, the traditional opinion that the ulnar artery is the larger forearm artery has been questioned.The internal diameters of the radial and ulnar arteries were measured at the wrist in postmortem angiograms of 24 cadavers. Differences in mean values of variables between ulnar and radial arteries were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test.The mean diameter of the radial artery was 28% larger than that of the ulnar artery in the right arm (p0.001) and 26% larger in the left arm (p0.001). In the right arm the radial artery was dominant in 20 of 24 cadavers (83%), the ulnar artery in 3 of 24 (13%), …

Scores for functional disability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis are correlated at higher levels with pain scores than with radiographic scores

Objective To analyze correlations of functional disability scores with other measures of clinical status, in particular, Larsen radiographic scores and pain scores, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods The functional capacity of 141 patients with RA (102 women, 39 men; median age 57 years; median disease duration 11.8 years; 83% rheumatoid factor positive) was assessed according to the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). Other variables studied included Larsen scores for radiographic damage of the small joints of the hands, wrists, and feet, pain scores by visual analog scale (VAS), Disease Activity Scores, general health scores by VAS, and Beck Depression Invento…

Impact of endovascular treatment on clinical status and health-related quality of life.

Background and Aims: Investigating the impact of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) on clinical status and health related quality of life in patients with claudication and critical limb ischaemia (CLI). Material and Methods: 61 patients and 64 limbs underwent a primary PTA (30 claudication and 34 CLI cases). Clinical status was graded according to Ahn and Rutherford and ankle/brachial index (ABI). Quality of life was assessed using the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) preoperatively, one month and one year after the procedure. Triplex scan evaluation of the treated arterial segment was carried out postoperatively and one year after the procedure. Results: Claudication: 24/27 patient…

Tests of multinormality based on location vectors and scatter matrices

Classical univariate measures of asymmetry such as Pearson’s (mean-median)/σ or (mean-mode)/σ often measure the standardized distance between two separate location parameters and have been widely used in assessing univariate normality. Similarly, measures of univariate kurtosis are often just ratios of two scale measures. The classical standardized fourth moment and the ratio of the mean deviation to the standard deviation serve as examples. In this paper we consider tests of multinormality which are based on the Mahalanobis distance between two multivariate location vector estimates or on the (matrix) distance between two scatter matrix estimates, respectively. Asymptotic theory is develop…

Tests of Independence Based on Sign and Rank Covariances

In this paper three different concepts of bivariate sign and rank, namely marginal sign and rank, spatial sign and rank and affine equivariant sign and rank, are considered. The aim is to see whether these different sign and rank covariances can be used to construct tests for the hypothesis of independence. In some cases (spatial sign, affine equivariant sign and rank) an additional assumption on the symmetry of marginal distribution is needed. Limiting distributions of test statistics under the null hypothesis as well as under interesting sequences of contiguous alternatives are derived. Asymptotic relative efficiencies with respect to the regular correlation test are calculated and compar…

Effectiveness of Distance Technology in Promoting Physical Activity in Cardiovascular Disease Rehabilitation : Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial, A Pilot Study

BackgroundPhysical activity is beneficial for cardiovascular rehabilitation. Digitalization suggests using technology in the promotion of physical activity and lifestyle changes. The effectiveness of distance technology interventions has previously been found to be similar to that of conventional treatment, but the added value of the technology has not been frequently studied. ObjectiveThe aim of this pilot study was to investigate whether additional distance technology intervention is more effective in promoting physical activity than non-technology–based treatment in 12 months of cardiac rehabilitation. MethodsThe cardiovascular disease rehabilitation intervention consisted of three 5-day…

On Mardia’s Tests of Multinormality

Classical multivariate analysis is based on the assumption that the data come from a multivariate normal distribution. The tests of multinormality have therefore received very much attention. Several tests for assessing multinormality, among them Mardia’s popular multivariate skewness and kurtosis statistics, are based on standardized third and fourth moments. In Mardia’s construction of the affine invariant test statistics, the data vectors are first standardized using the sample mean vector and the sample covariance matrix. In this paper we investigate whether, in the test construction, it is advantageous to replace the regular sample mean vector and sample covariance matrix by their affi…

Influence functions and efficiencies of the canonical correlation and vector estimates based on scatter and shape matrices

In this paper, the influence functions and limiting distributions of the canonical correlations and coefficients based on affine equivariant scatter matrices are developed for elliptically symmetric distributions. General formulas for limiting variances and covariances of the canonical correlations and canonical vectors based on scatter matrices are obtained. Also the use of the so-called shape matrices in canonical analysis is investigated. The scatter and shape matrices based on the affine equivariant Sign Covariance Matrix as well as the Tyler's shape matrix serve as examples. Their finite sample and limiting efficiencies are compared to those of the Minimum Covariance Determinant estima…

Sign test of independence between two random vectors

A new affine invariant extension of the quadrant test statistic Blomqvist (Ann. Math. Statist. 21 (1950) 593) based on spatial signs is proposed for testing the hypothesis of independence. In the elliptic case, the new test statistic is asymptotically equivalent to the interdirection test by Gieser and Randles (J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 92 (1997) 561) but is easier to compute in practice. Limiting Pitman efficiencies and simulations are used to compare the test to the classical Wilks’ test. peerReviewed

On Mardia's tests of multinormality

Rank scores tests of multivariate independence

New rank scores test statistics are proposed for testing whether two random vectors are independent. The tests are asymptotically distribution-free for elliptically symmetric marginal distributions. Recently, Gieser and Randles (1997), Taskinen, Kankainen and Oja (2003) and Taskinen, Oja and Randles (2005) introduced and discussed different multivariate extensions of the quadrant test, Kendall's tau and Spearman's rho statistics. In this paper, standardized multivariate spatial signs and the (univariate) ranks of the Mahalanobis-type distances of the observations from the origin are combined to construct ranks cores tests of independence. The limiting distributions of the test statistics ar…

Sickness Absence at Work and Supporting Being Present At Work, Among Employees Working Different Shifts in the Forest Industry

Objective: Shift work has negative effects on employee overall health, including sleep disorder, depressive symptoms, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The association between shift work and the prevalence of sickness absence has been less studied. This study investigated sickness absence among employees working different work shift schedules in the forest industry. Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study used employee (N=636) data from forest industry sick-leave registers. The study population (n=280; women n=90 and men=189) worked five different shifts. Each of the five shifts was analyzed separately for sickness absence rate and the results were compared using independent…

Flies in the north: locomotor behavior and clock neuron organization of Drosophila montana.

The circadian clock plays an important role in adaptation in time and space by synchronizing changes in physiological, developmental, and behavioral traits of organisms with daily and seasonal changes in their environment. We have studied some features of the circadian activity and clock organization in a northern Drosophila species, Drosophila montana, at both the phenotypic and the neuronal levels. In the first part of the study, we monitored the entrained and free-running locomotor activity rhythms of females in different light-dark and temperature regimes. These studies showed that D. montana flies completely lack the morning activity component typical to more southern Drosophila speci…