Assessing the assumption of multivariate normality is required by many parametric multivariate statistical methods, such as MANOVA, linear discriminant analysis, principal component analysis, canonical correlation, etc. It is important to assess multivariate normality in order to proceed with such statistical methods. There are many analytical methods proposed for checking multivariate normality. However, deciding which method to use is a challenging process, since each method may give different results under certain conditions. Hence, we may say that there is no best method, which is valid under any condition, for normality checking. In addition to numerical results, it is very useful to use graphical methods to decide on multivariate normality. Combining the numerical results from several methods with graphical approaches can be useful and provide more reliable decisions. Here, we present an R package, MVN, to assess multivariate normality. It contains the three most widely used multivariate normality tests, including Mardia's, Henze-Zirkler's and Royston's, and graphical approaches, including chi-square Q-Q, perspective and contour plots. It also includes two multivariate outlier detection methods, which are based on robust Mahalanobis distances. Moreover, this package offers functions to check the univariate normality of marginal distributions through both tests and plots. Furthermore, especially for non-R users, we provide a user-friendly web application of the package. This application is available at
ROC curve analysis is a fundamental tool for evaluating the performance of a marker in a number of research areas, e.g., biomedicine, bioinformatics, engineering etc., and is frequently used for discriminating cases from controls. There are a number of analysis tools which are used to guide researchers through their analysis. Some of these tools are commercial and provide basic methods for ROC curve analysis while others offer advanced analysis techniques and a command-based user interface, such as the R environment. The R environmentg includes comprehensive tools for ROC curve analysis; however, using a command-based interface might be challenging and time consuming when a quick evaluation is desired; especially for non-R users, physicians etc. Hence, a quick, comprehensive, free and easy-to-use analysis tool is required. For this purpose, we developed a user-friendly webtool based on the R language. This tool provides ROC statistics, graphical tools, optimal cutpoint calculation, comparison of several markers, and sample size estimation to support researchers in their decisions without writing R codes. easyROC can be used via any device with an internet connection independently of the operating system. The web interface of easyROC is constructed with the R package shiny. This tool is freely available through www.biosoft.hacettepe.edu.tr/easyROC.
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