Deriving the Mean, Median, Mode, and Standard Deviation of Toxicology

BOS4201 Unit 3: Toxicology
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BOS4201 Unit 3: Toxicology
Question 1: A population of individuals was exposed to lead contamination in drinking water at the concentration of 27 parts per billion (ppb). The following represents a small sample set from the population indicating the level of response to the contaminant rated on a scale from 1–20. Within your response, please explain how you calculated your answer (1 indicating minimal effects and 20 indicating maximum effects to the lead exposure).
Given the data set 9, 12, 7, 15, 8, 9, 10, calculate the following results:
* Mean
The mean of a set of numbers is found by averaging them through summing them up and afterwards dividing the sum by the count of numbers in the set. In this case, the count of numbers is 7.
Sum = 9+12+7+15+8+9+10
= 70
Therefore, mean = sum/count
= 707= 10
* Mode
The mode represents the number that appears the most in the given values. Therefore, in this case, number 9 occurs twice in the set.
Therefore, the mode = 9
* Median
The median value represents the middle number in the set of values sorted in either descending or ascending order.
In this case, the values in ascending order are 7,8,9,9,10,12,15.
Therefore, the median value is 9 since it lies in the fourth position which represents the middle value in the set.
Median = 9
* Standard deviation
Standard deviation measures the spread of numbers by measuring how the numbers differ from the mean of the set of values.
In this case, the first step involves finding the mean where it is:
9+12+7+15+8+9+107 = 707 = 10
Then, the mean is subtracted from each value in the set and the value found squared:
= (9-10)2, (12-10)2, (7-10)2, (15-10)2, (8-10)2, (9-10)2, (10-10)2
= 1, 4, 9, 25, 4, 1, 0
Therefore, the mean of the squares is calculated. In this case, 1 is subtracted from the count of the values since a sample is being used and not the entire population.
1+4+9+25+4+1+07-1 = 446 = 7.3333
= 7.3
Finding the square root, 7.3 = 2.7018
Standard deviation = 2.7
Question 2: Discuss the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). What was DDT initially used for, and how does it work as a pesticide? Explain the benefits of DDT, and then discuss how DDT moves through the environment.
DDT was initially used as an insecticide in farming to improve agricultural yields in addition to the treatment of lice. DDT became popular due to its persistent nature hence was viewed as an effective pesticide. Furthermore, its effectiveness in combating diseases such as malaria, typhus and other insect-borne diseases was unmatched. For instance, the use of DDT helped reduce the cases of malaria significantly during World War II CITATION Cen17 \l 2057 (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2017).
DDT is insoluble in water meaning that i...