Posted: March 26th, 2021

QUESTION 1Particulate matter contributes to air pollution and can lead

MAT5212 BIOSTATISTICS ASSIGNMENT 1
QUESTION 1Particulate 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 2Sustainability 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 3Glucocorticoids 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 4A 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.Page 2 of 2