The parameter for a (0.207) indicates the predicted consumption when temperature is equal to zero. It should be noted that although the parameter α is required to make predictions of ice cream consumption at any given temperature, the prediction of consumption at a temperature of zero might be of limited usefulness, particularly when the observed data does not include a temperature of zero in it’s range (predictions should only be made within the limits of the sampled values). The parameter β indicates that for each unit increase in temperature, ice cream consumption increases by 0.003 units. The significance of the relationship between temperature and ice cream consumption can be estimated by comparing the deviance statistics for the two nested models in the table below; one that includes temperature and one that does not. This difference in deviance can be assessed for significance using the F-statistic.