Practical Data Management and Statistical Computing (BioEp691F)

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Research Problems	Homework	Group Problems/ Exams
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Final Exam

Due: 12/20/99 404 Arnold (9AM)

Dr. Ira Ockene at the UMass Medical center recently completed a reseach study to investigate seasonal realationships in serum cholesterol. A colleague of yours has asked you to use some of the data from this study to attempt to answer some questions about the possible effect of weather (temperature, cloud cover) on caffeine and alcohol consumption and mood among people aged 30 or less. In particular, do people drink more caffeine (or alcohol) when it is colder outside, or cloudy? Also, is there any evidence that temperature or cloud cover affects a persons mood?

You are asked to investigate these questions using data that have been provided from the Seasons study. To do so, you should:

• write a report (5 pages or less) that summarize your results.
• attach a copy of any programs that you use in the process in an appendix to the report.
• create WEB page(s) for your report that are clearly linked as FINAL 691F on your home page. [NOTE: To insure that your work is not copied, do not upload your actual solution to the WEB pages until after 9AM on 12/20/99.]

Data that have been provided include the following:

• Weather Data for Worcester Mass. in 1995: fe99w1.sd2 (Contents)
• Dietary and Mood Data (24 hour telephone interviews: fe99d1.sd2 (Contents)
• Baseline data: fe99b1.sd2 (Contents)

Note: The persons mood was self reported on a 9 point scale, where 1 represented "awful" and 9 represented "great".

Guidelines:

1. You are to complete this exam on your own, with no help from anyone. If you have questions on any part of the exam, ask the instructor.
2. Five points will be deducted from the exam score for every hour the exam is late.
3. Finally, your colleague has said that she can pay you for 10 hours of work to complete this project. The rest of the time will go uncompensated.