Details of LS3207 (Spring 2021)

Level: 3 Type: Theory Credits: 4.0

Course CodeCourse NameInstructor(s)
LS3207 Biostatistics Neelanjana Sengupta,
Somdatta Sinha

Preamble
The course offers a comprehensive statistical background to Biology majors to equip them towards
understanding, analysing and interpreting large-scale research data.

Syllabus
A. Scales and variables
B. Descriptive statistics, Exploratory Data Analyses
C. Introduction to Probability
Review of basic results from probability; random variables and expectations;
Probability Distributions Discrete and Continuous. Binomial, Poisson, Gaussian or Normal
distributions.
Examples of other types of distributions in Biology with examples: Geometric, Negative
Binomial, Lognormal distributions.
D. Sampling Distributions of an estimator.
Populations and Samples; estimators and parameters; Definition of a Statistic.
Distribution of Sample Mean and Variance. Central Limit Theorem, and its Applications.
Students t-distribution, Chi-squared distribution and F-distribution.
E. Concept of hypothesis testing
Null and Alternative Hypothesis, Statistical Significance, Type 1 and Type 2 Errors, Standard
Errors, Confidence Intervals.
Testing of hypotheses about one and two means using t-test; Accounting for sources of
variation; comparing two means using the within-sample and among-sample mean variation using
F-test.
F. Linear Statistical Models
Correlation
Simple and Multiple Linear Regression, Assumptions and Derivation. Least Squares based
Estimation.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) - Single factor ANOVA
G. Experimental design random and fixed factors; blocks; nested factors; multiple comparisons
H. Analysis of Variance
Single-factor ANOVA.
Two-factor ANOVA; main effects, interactions and their interpretation
I. Non-Parametric Statistical tests.
J. Short Group Projects on data analysis.

References
1. George W. Snedecor and William G. Cochran, Statistical Methods 8th Ed(1989)
2. Robert R. Sokal and F. James Rohlf, Biometry: The Principles and Practices of
Statistics in Biological Research (1994)
3. Richard A. Johnson and Dean W. Wichern, Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis
(6th Edition) (2007)
4. Nicholas J. Gotelli and Aaron M. Ellison, A Primer of Ecological Statistics. (2004)
5. Brian S. Everitt, Sabine Landau, Morven Leese and Daniel Stahl, Cluster Analysis
(Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics) (2011)

Course Credit Options

Sl. No.ProgrammeSemester NoCourse Choice
1 IP 2 Elective
2 IP 4 Core
3 IP 6 Not Allowed
4 MR 2 Not Allowed
5 MR 4 Not Allowed
6 MS 10 Not Allowed
7 MS 4 Not Allowed
8 MS 6 Core
9 MS 8 Core
10 RS 1 Elective
11 RS 2 Elective