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Some optimum nonparametric procedures for estimating and testing contrasts in two-way layouts are proposed and studied. These procedures are based on the Chernoff-Savage [4] type of rank order statistics which include the Wilcoxon and normal scores statistics among others. In the first three sections, the properties of the proposed point estimators of contrasts, such as symmetry, invariance and asymptotic normality, are studied and their asymptotic relative efficiencies with respect to the corresponding least-squares estimators are obtained. In particular, it is shown that the procedures based on the normal scores statistics are asymptotically at least as efficient as the corresponding procedures based on the method of least squares, whatever be parent cumulative distribution functions. In sections 4 and 5, the corresponding problems of testing and confidence intervals are discussed, and generalized to two-way layouts with several observations per cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Order statistics from a strongly unimodal distribution are strongly unimodal. In this note, authors focus on the strong unimodality of order statistics. Alam points out the relevance of the unimodality of order statistics for the construction of shortest confidence intervals for the largest of several location parameters. Under some regularity conditions, distribution of an order statistic is known to converge to a unimodal distribution. It is thus not surprising that some order statistics are unimodal even though the population may be far from unimodal. For instance, the bimodal density of an example, where all the order statistics, beginning with samples of size 2, are unimodal. On the other hand, order statistics from unimodal populations need not be unimodal. The main result of this note points out that order statistics from strongly unimodal distributions are necessarily strongly unimodal. As a consequence, normal order statistics are not only unimodal, they are strongly unimodal.