Articles or Studies that uses:

Pearson Product Correlation

In 1999, Scientists in China wanted to know if there was a relationship between how weedy rice
populations are different genetically. The goal was to find out the evolutionary potential of the
rice. Pearsons correlation between the two groups was analyzed, showing a positive Pearson
Product Moment correlation of between 0.783 and 0.895 for weedy rice populations. This figure
is quite high, which suggested a fairly strong relationship.

Spearman Rank Correlation

Researchers examined the association between trends in antidepressant prescribing and suicide
rates between 1991 and 2000 in Australia.1 A retrospective analysis of national databases was
undertaken. Participants were aged 15 years or more. The primary outcomes were trends in
suicide rates and antidepressant prescribing, according to sex and 10 year age groups. The trend
in suicide within each age group was measured by the difference between the suicide rates per
100000 people in two five year periods (1986-90 and 1996-2000). Trends in antidepressant
prescribing were assessed by the change in defined daily dose per 1000 days, as indicated by the

difference between 1991 and 2000. A positive trend in suicide rates or antidepressant prescribing
within an age group represented an increase from 1991 to 2000.
The researchers reported that although overall national rates of suicide did not fall significantly,
the incidence decreased in older men and women and increased in younger adults. Rates of
antibiotic prescribing increased across all age groups in both men and women. The association
between trends in suicide rates and antidepressant prescribing were measured by Spearmans
rank correlation coefficient. There was an inverse correlation between trends in antidepressant
prescribing and suicide; with the largest declines in suicide in the age groups with the greatest
increase in exposure to antidepressants. The association was significant in women (rs=0.74;
P<0.05) but not in men (rs=0.62; P<0.10).
It was concluded that an increase in antidepressant prescribing may be a proxy marker for
improved overall management of depression. If so, increased prescribing of selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors in general practice may have a quantifiable benefit on the mental health of the
population.
Paired Sample T-Test (dependent T-Test)
In an experiment to compare anxiety levels induced between looking at real spiders and pictures
of spiders, the following data was collected from 12 people with a fear of spiders
(arachnophobia): Suitable null and alternate hypotheses could be: H0: There is no difference in
mean anxiety scores between looking at real or pictures of spiders, and H1: There is a difference
in mean anxiety scores between looking at real or pictures of spiders

Results: Following the steps in SPSS (PASW) outlined previously, you should get the following
output:

Conclusion: You would report something along the lines that there is evidence to suggest that
participants experienced statistically significantly greater anxiety (p = 0.031) when exposed to
real spiders (mean = 47.0 units, SD = 9.3) than to pictures of spiders (mean = 40.0 units, SD =
11.0).`The 95% confidence interval for the difference is (-13.2,-0.77).
# Example taken from Field A (2009) Discovering statistics using SPSS 2 nd ed. Sage
Publications

Independent T-Test
Spinal Cord advance online publication 13 October 2015; doi: 10.1038/sc.2015.167
Changing demographics of spinal cord injury over a 20-year period: a
longitudinal population-based study in Scotland
Study design:
A retrospective cohort study.

Objectives:

To review demographic trends in traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) and non-traumatic spinal
cord injury (NTSCI).
Setting:
The Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit (QENSIU), sole provider of treatment for
TSCI in Scotland; a devolved region of the UK National Health Service.
Methods:
A retrospective review of the QENSIU database was performed between 1994 and 2013. This
database includes demographic and clinical data from all new TSCI patients in Scotland, as well
as patients with severe NTSCI.
Results:
Over this 20-year period there were 1638 new cases of TSCI in Scotland; 75.2% occurring in
males. TSCI incidence increased non-significantly (13.3 per million population to 17.0), while
there were significant increases in mean age at time of TSCI (44.152.6 years), the proportion of
TSCIs caused by falls (4160%), the proportion of TSCIs resulting in an American Spinal Injury
Association Impairment Scale score of C and D on admission (19.728.6% and 34.539.5%,
respectively) and the proportion of cervical TSCIs (58.466.3%). The increase in cervical TSCI
was specifically due to an increase in C1C4 lesions (21.731.2%). NTSCI patients (n=292)
were 5 years older at injury, more likely to be female (68.1% male) and had a range of diagnoses.
Conclusion:
This study supports the suggestion that demographic profiles in SCI are subject to change. In
this population, of particular concern is the increasing number of older patients and those with
high level tetraplegia, due to their increased care needs. Prevention programmes, treatment
pathways and service provision need to be adjusted for optimum impact, improved outcome and
long-term care for their target population.

Analysis of Variance
Analysis of the effects of depression associated polymorphisms on the
activity of the BICC1 promoter in amygdala neurons.
Abstract
The Bicaudal C Homolog 1 (BICC1) gene, which encodes an RNA binding protein, has been
identified by genome wide association studies (GWAS) as a candidate gene associated with
major depressive disorder (MDD). We explored the hypothesis that MDD associated singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affected the ability of cis-regulatory elements within intron 3
of the BICC1 gene to modulate the activity of the BICC1 promoter region. We initially
established that the BICC1 promoter droveBICC1 mRNA expression in amygdala, hippocampus
and hypothalamus. Intriguingly, we provide evidence that MDD associated polymorphisms alter
the ability of the BICC1 promoter to respond to PKA signalling within amygdala neurones.
Considering the known role of amygdala PKA pathways in fear learning and mood these
observations suggest a possible mechanism through which allelic changes in the regulation of
the BICC1gene in amygdala neurones may contribute to mood disorders. Our findings also
suggest a novel direction for the identification of novel drug targets and the design of future
personalised therapeutics.
Data analysis
Sample sizes (n 3) were based on pooled amygdala neurones recovered from at least three
individual rat neonates. Statistical significance of data sets were analysed using either two way
analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis with Bonferonipost hoc tests or using two tailed
unpaired parametric Student t-test as indicated using GraphPad PRISM version 5.02 (GraphPad
Software, La Jolla, CA, USA).

Result
BICC1 displays spatially discrete mRNA expression within components of the limbic system
Our previous GWA analysis provided a compelling case for examining the involvement of allelic
variations within intron 3 of the BICC1 gene in major depressive disorder.7 We also provided
evidence that the long isoform of BICC1(isoform 1), that includes the first seven exons (Figure
3a), showed strong differential expression in specific nuclei of the human brain.7 In contrast, the
short isoform (isoform 2, lacks the first 7 and last 3 exons), although detectible in kidney and
bone tissue, demonstrated consistently low expression in all brain tissues.7These observations
argue against a role for the short isoform in brain function and, for this reason, we concentrated
our analysis on the long isoform. Although our microarray analyses were highly informative they
lacked the resolution to determine the specific regions of the brain that expressed BICC1. For
this reason we used in situ hybridisation using probes derived from the full
length BICC1 complementary DNA that reflects the long isoform, on sections of adult male
mouse brain to determine whether BICC1 mRNA was expressed throughout the brain or
displayed discrete regions of expression. These in situ analyses demonstrated that, although full
length BICC1 transcript expression was present in the majority of tissues at low levels, areas of
higher expression were evident within discrete components of the limbic system including the
hippocampus, the hypothalamus and the amygdala (Figure 1). There was also evidence of
increased expression within the cingulate cortex and the thalamus (Figure 1). Because the limbic
system plays a critical role in conditioned fear and mood modulation these observations support
a role for changes in the expression of BICC1 long isoform in contributing to mood disorders.

Influence of neurological lesion level on heart rate variability

and fatigue in adults with spinal cord injury
Original Article
Spinal Cord , (13 October 2015) | doi:10.1038/sc.2015.174
Objectives:
To determine the influence of spinal cord injury (SCI) and neurological level on heart rate
variability (HRV) and associations with fatigue.
Setting:

SCI rehabilitation outpatient and community settings in New South Wales, Australia.

Methods:
Participants included 45 adults with SCI living in the community and 44 able-bodied controls.
Socio-demographic, neurological injury, psychological, HRV and eye blink variables were
assessed. Multivariate analysis of variance and post hoc protected t-tests were used to determine
differences in HRV and fatigue as a function of the neurological level. Analysis of variance was
used to determine the relationships between these factors.
Results:
Participants with SCI had significantly reduced sympathetic activity. Those with tetraplegia had
lowered sympathetic activity compared with those with paraplegia and able-bodied controls.
Neither were differences in parasympathetic activity found between groups nor were there any
significant differences found for the time domain or non-linear domains. Higher levels of fatigue
were found in the SCI sample, and participants with tetraplegia had higher fatigue levels
compared with those with paraplegia. Fatigued participants were more likely to have altered
autonomic functionthat is, reduced sympathetic activity.
Conclusions:
Higher levels of neurological impairment in people with SCI are more likely to result in
disordered cardiovascular control involving reduced sympathetic activity, whereas elevated
fatigue was found to be associated with increased sympathetic dysfunction. Findings highlight
the need to address risks associated with this dysfunction, such as improved HRV and fatigue
screening for people with SCI and improved education on cardiovascular risk factors.

Critical Analysis on Spearmans Rank Order Correlation

If you have done scattergraphs, Spearmans Rank offers you the opportunity to use a statistical
test to get a value which can determine the strength of the relationship between two sets of
data

In the above, rs refers to the overall value or rank

The equation has to be done before the value is taken away from 1
In the above equation, the sign means the total of
d2 is the first thing we will try to establish in our ranked tables (see next slides)
n refers to the number of sites or values you will process so if there were there 15 river sites,
n would be 15. If there were 20 pedestrian count zones, n would be 20, and so on
To test for a rank order relationship between two quantitative variables when concerned that one
or both variables is ordinal (rather than interval) and/or not normally distributed or when the
sample size is small. Thus, it is used in the same data situation as a Pearson's correlation, except
that it is used when the data are either importantly non-normally distributed, the measurement
scale of the dependent variable is ordinal (not interval or ratio), or from a too-small sample. It is
important to remember the null hypothesis.
Hypothesis: The variables do not have a rank-order relationship in the population represented by
the sample.

To reject the Hypothesis: is to say that there is a rank-order relationship between the variables in
the population.
The data: The variables for this analysis are fishnum (number of fish displayed) and fishgood
(rating of fish quality on a 1-10 scale).
32,6

41,5

31,3

38,3

21,7

13,9

17,9

22,8

24,6

11,9

17,7

20,8

Research Hypothesis: Knowing that store owners are often over-worked, the researcher
hypothesized that stores with fewer fish would have healthier fish (thus predicting a negative or
inverse relationship between these variables in this population).
Hypothesis for this analysis: There is no rank order relationship between the number of fish
displayed in pet stores and the quality rating of the fish.
Step 1 Rearrange the data so that scores from each subject are in the appropriate columns, one
for each variable.
fishnum
32
41
31
38
21
13
17
22
24
11
17
20

fishgood
6
5
3
3
7
9
9
8
6
9
7
8

Step 2 Rank order the scores SEPARATELY FOR EACH VARABLE with the smallest score
getting a value of 1. Cases with the same score each receive the average rank they would have
received. For example, there are two scores with values of 17. We wouldn't want to rank them 3
and 4, because it makes no sense to give different ranks to values that are the same! Instead, we
will assign the average rank ( [3+4] / 2 = 3.5) to both.
fishnum

rank
fishnum

fishgood

rank
fishgood

32
41

10
12

6
5

4.5
3

31
9
3
1.5
38
11
3
1.5
21
6
7
6.5
13
2
9
11
17
3.5
9
11
22
7
8
8.5
24
8
6
4.5
11
1
9
11
17
3.5
7
6.5
20
5
8
8.5
Step 3 For each pair of scores, compute the difference (d) between the ranks, compute the square
of this difference (d) and then find the sum of these squared differences (d)
rank
fishnum

rank
fishgood

10
12
9
11
6
2
3.5
7
8
1
3.5
5

4.5
3
1.5
1.5
6.5
11
11
8.5
4.5
11
6.5
8.5

5.5
30.25
9
81
7.5
56.25
9.5
90.25
-0.5
.25
-9
81
-7.5
56.25
-1.5
2.25
3.5
12.25
-10
100
-3
9
-3.5
12.25
d =
531
Step 4 Determine the sample size (n) for the analysis
N = 12
Step 5 Compute Spearman's correlation (r) using the following formula.
6 * d
6 * 531
3186
rS= 1 - --------- = 1 - ---------- = 1 - ----- = 1 - 1.86 = -.86
N * (N-1)
12 * (12-1)
1716

So we have our Spearmans Rank figure.But what does it mean?

-1

-.86

Your value will always be between -1 and +1 in value. As a rough guide, our figure of -.86
demonstrates there is a fairly negative relationship. It suggests There is no rank order
relationship between the number of fish displayed in pet stores and the quality rating of the fish.
For the example data, we would decide to reject the null hypothesis, because the absolute value
of the obtained r (.86) is larger than the critical rs(.588).
Just looking at a line and making an estimation isnt particularly scientific. To be more sure, we
need to look in critical values tables to see the level of significance and strength of the
relationship. This is shown overleaf
Step 6 Look up the critical value of r for the appropriate sample size.
critical r (N = 12, a = .05) = .588
Step 7 Compare the obtained r and critical r values and determine whether to retain or reject the
null hypothesis (that there in no rank order relationship between the variables in the population
represented by the sample). Remember that correlation values can be positive or negative, and so
we will compare the absolute value of the obtained r to the critical r.
-- if the absolute value of the obtained r is less than the critical r, then retain the null hypothesis
and conclude that there is no rank order relationship between the two variables, in the
population represented by the sample.
-- if the absolute value of the obtained r is greater than the critical r, then reject the null
hypothesis and conclude that there is a rank order relationship between the variables in the
population represented in the sample.

0.05 level

0.01 level

1. This is the critical values table and the n column shows

12

0.591

0.777
the numbers of sites or zones you have studied. In our case,

14

0.544

0.715

16

0.506

0.665

18

0.475

0.625

2. If look across we can see there are two further columns-one

20

0.45

0.591

labeled 0.05, the other 0.01.

22

0.428

0.562

24

0.409

0.537

.
The first, 0.05 means that if our figure exceeds the value, we

26

0.392

0.515

can be sure that 95 times in 100 the figures occurred because

28

0.377

0.496

a relationship exists; and not because of pure chance.

30

0.364

0.478

we looked at 12 zones.

We can see that in our example our figure

The second, 0.01, means that if our figure exceeds this value,

of .86 exceeds the value of 0.591 at the

we can be sure that 99 times in 100 the figures occurred

0.05 level and also comfortably exceeds

because a relationships exists, and did not occur by chance

value at the 0.01 level too.

On the example above, we can see that our figure of .86 exceeds the values of both the

95% and 99% levels. The figure is therefore highly significant.

I therefore conclude that this figure is strongly significant and that the store with fewer
fish would have healthier fish are clearly rated.