Homework answers / question archive / Real Statistics – Real Decisions Putting it all together The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is required by law to publish a report on assisted reproductive technologies (ART)

Real Statistics – Real Decisions Putting it all together The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is required by law to publish a report on assisted reproductive technologies (ART)

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Real Statistics – Real Decisions Putting it all together

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is required by law to publish a report on assisted reproductive technologies (ART). ART includes all fertility treatments in which both the egg and the sperm are used. These procedures generally involve removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman’s body or giving them to another woman.

You are helping to prepare the CDC report and select at random 10 ART cycles for a special review. None of the cycles resulted in a clinical pregnancy. Your manager feels it is impossible to select at random 10 ART cycles that did not result in a clinical pregnancy. Use the pie chart at the right and your knowledge of statistics to determine whether your manager is correct.

EXERCISES

1. How Would You Do It?

(a) How would you determine whether your manager’s view is correct, that it is impossible to select at random 10 ART cycles that did not result in a clinical pregnancy?

(b) What probability distribution do you think best describes the situation? Do you think the distribution of the number of clinical pregnancies is discrete or continuous? Explain your reasoning.

2. Answering the Question

Write an explanation that answers the question, “Is it possible to select at random 10 ART cycles that did not result in a clinical pregnancy?” Include in your explanation the appropriate probability distribution and your calculation of the probability of no clinical pregnancies in 10 ART cycles.

3. Suspicious Samples?

Someone tells you that the samples below were selected at random. Using the graph at the right, which of the following samples would you consider suspicious? Would you believe that the samples were selected at random? Explain your reasoning.

(a) Selecting at random 10 ART cycles among women of age 40, eight of which resulted in clinical pregnancies.

(b) Selecting at random 10 ART cycles among women of age 41, none of which resulted in clinical pregnancies.