School of Science
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MAT5212 BIOSTATISTICS ASSIGNMENT 1
DUE DATE: 6:00 PM AWST THURSDAY 1ST APRIL 2021
PURPOSE:
This assignment will provide you the opportunity to further develop your skills in parametric statistical analysis. Through this assignment, you will evidence all four of the unit learning outcomes.
DESCRIPTION:
There are four questions in this assignment. You will perform statistical analysis for all four questions. This will include selecting the most appropriate hypothesis test, performing descriptive statistics, stating and checking assumptions, performing appropriate estimations, and performing hypothesis testing (including relevant posthoc analyses, if necessary). You are expected to present your analyses in a manner consistent with the scientific literature. Figures and tables should be formatted appropriately (with captions/titles and axis labels) and written text should guide your reader through your analyses, justifications, and interpretations.
Note on assumptions: if your assumptions are violated, you may proceed with the most appropriate hypothesis test. If this happens, you are required to report on the potential consequences and how you would overcome the violation(s) in future practice.
GUIDELINES:
1. This is an individual assignment. You will receive a unique data file for this assignment, which must be used to complete your assignment. This data file will be emailed to your ECU student email address by 12:00 pm (noon) 12th March 2021. If you do not receive your data file, please first check your junk mail folder in your email. If you are still unable to find your data file, please email your unit coordinator from your ECU student email account.
2. All calculations and statistical tests should be carried out in SPSS. It is recommended that you save copies of your SPSS data files (.sav) and output file (.spv) as you may be asked to submit your SPSS output file (showing computations) in the future.
3. All questions must be presented in the order given. Start each question on a new page, with a bold heading stating “Question #”. Do not copy the question itself onto the assignment document as this will be flagged by Turnitin.
4. Assignments must be typed and presented in a Microsoft Word document (.docx) or a .pdf file; failure to do so will result in the assignment not being marked.
5. Please save your assignment using the following filename structure: Surname_studentID_MAT5212_A1.
6. The marking rubric can be found on the Assignment 1 page of Blackboard. To receive marks for each question, the correct statistical test must be used. Failure to use the correct test will result in a loss of marks in other marking criteria.
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7. Students are expected to evidence appropriate academic integrity practices. This includes paraphrasing and citing any ideas that are not your own. Content should be based on reputable resources such as textbooks and peer-reviewed literature. The referencing style APA 7th must be used for in-text and end-text references.
QUESTION 1
Particulate matter contributes to air pollution and can lead to adverse respiratory health outcomes. Industrial production and combustion by-products are key sources of airborne particulate matter. As such, a group of researchers sought to determine whether the amount of airborne particulate matter was different across large urban areas, suburban areas, rural areas, and remote areas. The concentration (??g/m3) of fine particulate matter was measured across several sites and recorded. The data for this question can be found in the ‘Q1_Pollution’ sheet of your excel file.
QUESTION 2
Sustainability is important to the fishing industry. In efforts to improve sustainability of rock lobsters, commercial hatcheries are now being used. To optimise efficiency in culturing practices, it is important to understand factors that affect incubation time (i.e. time it takes for eggs to hatch). One possible factor is incubation temperature. Data were collected on the hatching times (in days) of rock lobster eggs incubated at two different temperatures, 25°C and 35°C. Evaluate whether incubation temperature has a significant effect on hatching time. The data for this question can be found in the ‘Q2_Lobster’ sheet of your excel file.
QUESTION 3
Glucocorticoids are a class of steroid hormones that are naturally produced by the adrenal glands. Synthetic glucocorticoids are a class of anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat diseases such as arthritis, severe asthma, multiple sclerosis, and some cancers. Glucocorticoid treatment can cause a phenomenon called adrenal insufficiency, which is the suppression of natural glucocorticoid production. To determine how long it takes for adrenal suppression to occur, 30 patients requiring glucocorticoid treatment were recruited. Their urine concentrations (ng/ml) of the dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), a marker for adrenal insufficiency, were measured at 4 time points: 0 hours (just before taking treatment, T0), 12 hours after treatment (T1), 24 hours after treatment (T3), and 48 hours after treatment (T4). Use the data in the ‘Q3_Steroids’ sheet of your excel file to answer this question.
QUESTION 4
A study was conducted to determine if the time from ingestion to headache relief is less for the liquid capsule form of an analgesic drug (i.e. painkiller) versus the tablet form, at the 1% level of significance. To perform this study, 25 participants were recruited. They were first treated with the tablet form of the analgesic. Following a 2-week washout, they were then treated with the liquid capsule form of the analgesic. The times (in minutes) to pain relief are in your excel file in the
‘Q4_Analgesics’ sheet.
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