BIOL 51A - Biostatistics
Instructor
E. Andrés Houseman, Sc.D.
Office: Goldsmith 301
Email: houseman@brandeis.edu
Office hours: W 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Teaching Assistants
Jennifer James jjames@brandeis.edu
Apratim Roy apratim@brandeis.edu
Yurong Zhang ray8511@brandeis.edu
Course information
Meeting times: MW 6:40 – 8:00pm
Meeting place: 122 Gestenzang
Course description
This is an introductory statistics course, with a focus on applications in biology, medicine, and public health. The course will meet regularly, as outlined in your schedule, for a series of 1.5 hour lectures.
Textbooks
Required: Pagano & Gauvreau (2000), Principles of Biostatistics, 2nd Ed. Duxbury Thomson Learning, Pacific Grove, CA, USA.
|
Week |
Subject |
P&G Reading |
|
1 (1/16-23) |
Administrative introduction; introduction to Biostatistics; descriptive statistics |
Chs 2-3 |
|
2 (1/28-30) |
Descriptive statistics (continued), basics of probability |
Ch 6 |
|
3 (2/4-6) |
Diagnostic tests and Bayes Theorem; probability distributions |
Chs 6-7 |
|
4 (2/11-13) |
Probability distributions (continued); sampling distributions; inductive logic and statistical inference |
Ch 8 |
|
5 (2/25-27) |
Confidence intervals and hypothesis testing |
Chs 9-10 |
|
6 (3/3-5) |
Two-group comparisons, proportions |
Ch 11 |
|
7 (3/10-12) |
Categorical data (continued); MIDTERM |
Chs 14-15 |
|
8 (3/17-19) |
Linear models (ANOVA, regression) |
Chs 12, 19 |
|
9 (3/24-26) |
Linear models (ANOVA, regression) |
|
|
10 (3/31-4/2) |
Introduction to logistic regression |
Ch 20 |
|
11 (4/7-9) |
Rates and life tables |
Chs 4-5 |
|
12 (4/14-16) |
Introduction to survival analysis |
Ch 21 |
|
13 (4/21-23) |
Nonparametric methods |
Ch 13 |
|
14 (4/28-30) |
Introduction to statistical methods for bioinformatics (descriptive methods, multiple comparisons, false discovery rate) |
- |
Grading
30% Homework
30% Midterm
40% Final
Homework: Approximately 10 assignments. All but one assignment will consist of 4-5 extended word problems. The remaining (the third or fourth) will be a short paper (1-2 pages) in response to a reading assignment. Grading will be on a coarse 4-point scale, 0-3, where 4 will be awarded if every problem was attempted honestly with sufficient level of detail.
Midterm and Final: Closed-book, closed-notes, multiple-choice, short answer, with some calculations. Calculators will be permitted.