1.What is random digit dialing (RDD) and how is it used? Visit the web site of a national polling or news organization, and conduct a search of its FAQs regarding the organization's methods of sampling and the use of RDD. Write a report in which you summarize the use of RDD by the polling or news organization.
http://www.gallup.com
http://www.roper.com
http://people-press.org/
http://www.usaweekend.com
http://www.library.yale.edu/socsci/opinion/pollingorganizations.html
Describes how and why RDD works
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/152/6/585
Describes pros and cons of RDD use. Heavily referenced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_digit_dialing
Explains RDD and RBS. Lists public pollsters in the sidebar.
http://www.pollster.com/guest_pollsters_corner/amy_simon_random_digits_or_lis_1.php
2.A promising possible HIV vaccine recently failed.Please read this Seattle Time article for the basics on the story. The vaccine was produced by Merck, a major drug maker worldwide. Merck released a press release confirming the failed vaccine, called V520.
In many locations the experiment has been called the “Step Study”. The Step Study is being partially administered by the HIV Vaccine Trial Unit and locally contracted to Seattle based Fred Hutchins Cancer Research Center to administer the study. The HIV Trail Unit is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which has also acknowledged the failed vaccine, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Read the following questions, and then read the links above to answer the questions. Please feel free to do your own internet searches and to post these sites on the discussion board. You are welcome to ask me for clarity.
Identify the following items, if you cannot tell, then hypothesis, and state so.
a)Was this an observational study or an experiment?
b)Which question is appropriate and answer it?
i.What are the experimental units?
ii.Who are the subjects?
c)How many factors are there (before unblinding)?
d)How many treatments are there (before unblinding)?
e)What is the response measured?
f)Discuss whether the study was blind or double blind (before unblinding).
g)Explain what statistically significant means in the context of the vaccine.
h)Discuss the nature and scope of the conclusion the experiment can reach.
i)Discuss the implications of un-blinding the participants. Be sure to include points of view of the scientist (test administrators, Merck, and the search of the truth) and from the point of view of patients rights (the need to know whether they were given the vaccine or a placebo).
