MEDICAL AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS
Course unit partition: BORGO VAL DI TARO/FIDENZA

Academic year 2008/09
1° year of course -
Professor
Academic discipline
Fisica applicata (a beni culturali, ambientali, biologia e medicina) (FIS/07)
Field
Ambito aggregato per crediti di sede
Type of training activity
Base
15 hours
of face-to-face activities
1.5 credits
hub: BORGO VAL DI TARO/FIDENZA
course unit
in - - -

Course unit partition: MEDICAL AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS

Learning objectives

This course aims to give basic training for other important subjects such as, for example, physiology. The course also introduces many principles and concepts for understanding the current technologies that are useful for diagnosis and treatment.

Prerequisites

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Course unit content

<br />Fundamental Laws of Dynamics <br />
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Vectors and scalars. Units, dimensions. Velocity and acceleration. Newton's laws. Newton's law of gravitation. Acceleration of gravity. Difference between mass and weight. Work, power and energy. Types of energy: thermal, chemical, potential, kinetic, nuclear. Energy conservation law. Friction. Static and dynamic friction. Force and moment of a force. Centre of gravity, barycentre. Equilibrium state of a rigid body. Levers and applications to the human body. Structure of solids. Elastic properties of a body, Young's modulus. Elastic behaviour of blood vessels and bones. <br />
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Fluids and Fluid Dynamics <br />
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Pressure, Stevino’s law. Pascal’s law. Archimedes’ principle. Torricelli barometer.Flow rate. Characteristics of an ideal fluid. Bernoulli’s theorem. Applications of Bernoulli's theorem to blood circulation. Real fluids. Laminar flow. Turbulent flow. Reynolds number. Blood pressure measurement. Surface tension and capillarity. <br />
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Waves, Optics, Electrostatics, Electricity, Magnetism and Radiation. <br />
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Vibrations: harmonic, damped, forced motions, and resonance. Characteristics of waves, the wave equation, superposition and interference of waves, stationary waves. Sound waves, the ear and hearing, interference of sound, beats. Ultrasound. Doppler effect. The Doppler echo in diagnostics: an application of the Doppler effect. <br />
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Light. Geometrical optics: refraction, reflection, Snell's law, total reflection. Lenses and Dioptres. Creation of an image with a thin lens. The human eye, basic optical instruments. Interference of light. Diffraction of light. <br />
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Electrostatics: electric charge. Coulomb’s law. Electric field Electric potential Electric current: definition of resistance. DC (direct current) circuits. Ohm's laws. Serial and parallel resistors. Kirchhoff's law. Resistance, capacitance and inductance in an AC (alternating current) circuit. Theorem of Gauss. Flux of an electric field. Electrocardiogram. Series and parallel capacitance. Dielectrics. <br />
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Magnetic Field. Electromagnetic field. Motion of charges in a magnetic field. Biot-Savart law and Ampere's law. Force generated between current-carrying conductors. Magnetic Induction: Faraday's law and Lenz's law. <br />
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The atom. Radioactivity, law of radioactive decay, half-life. Electromagneticspectrum. Photons as particles and waves. Production and applications of X rays. <br />
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Statistics <br />
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Introduction: medical statistics and related disciplines. Logic and statistical planning. <br />
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An outline of combinatorial analysis: permutations, arrangements, combinations. Applications. <br />
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An outline of calculus of probability: simple and compound probability, Bayes theorem. <br />
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Odds. ! Odds ratios. Likelihood ratios. Applications. <br />
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Probability distributions: binomial distribution, Poisson distribution, normal and standard normal distribution. Tables and their use. <br />
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How to summarize data. Units of measure. Measurements of position, order and variation. Indices of central tendency, mean median, mode. Indices of variability, variance, standard deviation, CV. Percentiles and their use. <br />
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General principles of statistical interference. Sampling distribution. Hypothesis and hypothesis testing. Type 1 and 2 errors. Power of a test and operating curve. Parametric tests: Student t-test, an outline of variance analysis. Non-parametric test: Wilcoxon test, Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Friedman test, median test, Chi-square test, Fisher exact test. <br />
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An outline of linear regression and correlation. 

Full programme

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Bibliography

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Physics With Illustrative Examples From Medicine and Biology George B. Benedek Felix M.H.Villars- Srpringer <br />
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Fisica con Applicazioni in biologia e inMedicina. F. Borsa, D. Scannicchio Edizioni Unicopli <br />
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Stanton A. Glantz ?Statistica per discipline Bio-mediche? ed. McGraw-Hill <br />
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Sidney Siegel, N. John Castellan Jr. ?Statistica non parametrica? ed. McGraw-Hill <br />
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Lecture notes

Teaching methods

Teaching is by means of classroom lectures, usually with the use of Power Point presentation. <br />
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Students are assessed through a written or oral exam, if considered necessary.

Assessment methods and criteria

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Other information

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