Independent Variable: Our goal is to measure the minimum amount of lipopolysaccharide needed to induce the presence of inflammatin, thus, the amount, in milligrams(mg), of lipopolysaccharide given to the test subject is our independent variable.
Dependent Variable: Presence and amount of inflammotin in test subject after being given the assigned dosage of lipopolysaccharide.
Experimental Design
Groups
6 groups total:
Each of the six groups will be taking the following incremental dosages of the agent lipopolysaccharide, which has 2mg increments, beginning at 0mg for the control:
Group 1 (Control Group) will be given 0mg
Group 2 takes 2mg
Group 3 takes 4mg
Group 4 takes 6mg
Group 5 takes 8mg
Group 6 takes 10mg
Note: Prior work has shown that a 10mg dose of polysaccharide will induce the presence of Inflammotin.
Age Ages vary from 60-80.
Number of subjects per group 20 subjects per groups. 5 people per each age range will be in each group. 5 people form 60-64, 5 people form 65-70, five people from 70-74, and five people from 75-80.
Subject Selection
Subjects will range between the ages of 60-80. Subjects will be required to not have the inflammatory protein Inflammotin in their system as to prevent prior levels from skewing results. Minimal health problems in subjects will be required and the review of health records will be conducted prior to taking the drug as to not have the lipopolysaccharide affect other health problems or vice versa.
To combat randomization and bias people will be from various ethnic backgrounds and gender as to not bias one ethnicity or gender. Each group will have one subject of each age ranging from 60-80 to reiterate randomization and prevent bias against a certain age.
Sources of Error and Bias
Sources of error:
One source of error could come from the fact that people are aware of the effects of the lipopolysaccharide.
Another error source could come from improper collecting of blood samples leading to skewed results.
A third error source could come from outside influences such as diet, stress, and etc.
Controls for the sources of error:
In order to prevent people's perceptions from skewing data, the experiment will be double blind so researchers and subjects do not react to knowledge of the dosage being administered.
To combat the improper collecting of data, multiple samples will be taken and compared to previous samples of the subject to eliminate any outliers in the information collected.
To control the changes made from outside influences, the awareness that things other than the drug could change Inflammotin levels allows researchers to give rationale for any levels that do not follow the expected results in the hypothesis.
BME 100 Fall 2015
