Flashcards on Fundamental Structure of Matter
Medical Biophysics: Units, Data, and Statistics for Students
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Biostatistics
39 cards
Card 1
Question: What kinds of questions does biostatistics help answer in biomedical research and clinical trials?
Answer: Questions such as which drug is more efficient, whether a treatment affects a disease, and which parameter best assesses risk.
Card 2
Question: What are the two major branches of statistics mentioned and what does each do?
Answer: Descriptive statistics: description, summary, and sorting of results. Inferential statistics: uses sample data to make inductions about the population
Card 3
Question: Define qualitative (non-numerical) data and name its two subtypes.
Answer: Qualitative data are non-numerical. Subtypes: nominal (cannot be ordered) and ordinal (can be ordered; order matters for analysis).
Card 4
Question: Give an example of a nominal variable and an example of an ordinal variable from biomedical contexts.
Answer: Nominal: eye colour (blue, green, brown). Ordinal: disease state (mild, moderate, severe) or level of education (elementary, secondary).
Card 5
Question: Define quantitative data and name its two subtypes.
Answer: Quantitative data are numerical. Subtypes: continuous (any value from an interval) and discrete (only specific values).
Card 6
Question: How is a measurement with uncertainty recorded according to the slides?
Answer: As a complete record: number, unit, and uncertainty, written as x0 ± Δx where Δx is the absolute uncertainty.
Card 7
Question: What is absolute uncertainty, relative (fractional) uncertainty, and percentage uncertainty?
Answer: Absolute uncertainty: Δx. Relative (fractional) uncertainty: Δr x = Δx / x0. Percentage uncertainty: Δ% x = (Δx / x0) × 100%.
Card 8
Question: What question do measures of location answer in a dataset?
Answer: They answer 'Where do our values lie?' — e.g., what is the average body height of people in the class.
Card 9
Question: How is the arithmetic mean (average) calculated?
Answer: Sum all values and divide by their number (n).
Card 10
Question: What is the mode of a dataset?
Answer: The most frequent value, often denoted ĥx.