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Course Notes - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Course Notes - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Course Notes - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

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3 Data <strong>and</strong> Study Designs3.1 Basic definitionsDefinitions• Each question has a numerical answer (counts, probabilities, proportions,...).• Need a toolkit for numerical description <strong>and</strong> for answering numericalquestions.• Inference – formal name given to learning from data using statisticaltools.• We need some agreed terminology.Population• Population Complete set <strong>of</strong> entities or elements or units or subjectsthat we wish to describe or make inference about. Real orhypothetical.Well-defined- The collection <strong>of</strong> words in poems by W. B. Yeats.- All the rimu trees in Tongariro National Park.Not well-defined- The population <strong>of</strong> New Zeal<strong>and</strong>. Right now? Past? Future?- Banks Peninsula Hector’s dolphins. Which dolphins shouldwe include?- Target population in a drug trial. All alive or who will ever beborn? Over a certain age? Only those people who can affordthe drug?Which population have we studied? Which are we interested in?9

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