Mathematics posts

May 16, 2011
10:00 AM
841 views

Stats and Methods Urban Legend 4: Effect Size vs. Hypothesis Testing

Yet another article in the null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) and effect size testing (EST) debate. Perhaps we should use both?... Read more »

Cortina, J., & Landis, R. (2010) The Earth is not round (p . Organizational Research Methods, 14(2), 332-349. DOI: 10.1177/1094428110391542

Cohen, J. (1994) The earth is round (p . American Psychologist, 49(12), 997-1003. DOI: 10.1037//0003-066X.49.12.997

May 3, 2011
10:00 AM
750 views

Stats and Methods Urban Legend 3: Myths About Meta-Analysis

by Richard Landers in NeoAcademic

In what I can only assume is a special issue of Organizational Research Methods, several researchers discuss common statistical and methodological myths and urban legends (MUL) commonly seen in the organizational sciences (for more introduction, see the first article in the series). Third up: Aguinis et al.[1] write “Debunking Myths and Urban Legends About [...]... Read more »

Aguinis, H., Pierce, C., Bosco, F., Dalton, D., & Dalton, C. (2010) Debunking myths and urban legends about meta-analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 14(2), 306-331. DOI: 10.1177/1094428110375720

April 27, 2011
10:00 AM
763 views

Stats and Methods Urban Legend 2: Control Variables Improve Your Study

by Richard Landers in NeoAcademic

The use of control variables to purify statistical analyses is most often an invalid approach to solving the problem of poor methodology and design.... Read more »

Spector, P., & Brannick, M. (2010) Methodological urban legends: The misuse of statistical control variables. Organizational Research Methods, 14(2), 287-305. DOI: 10.1177/1094428110369842

April 25, 2011
10:00 AM
1,059 views

Stats and Methods Urban Legend 1: Formative Measurement

by Richard Landers in NeoAcademic

There are two models of the relationships between constructs and measures: reflective and formative. And formative's got some issues.

Some related articles on Neo-Academic:Predicting Dropout Rates for Students Completing Online Surveys
The Lies That Data Tell
GRE: The Personality Test
... Read more »

Edwards, J. (2010) The fallacy of formative measurement. Organizational Research Methods, 14(2), 370-388. DOI: 10.1177/1094428110378369

April 22, 2011
12:00 AM
880 views

Inevitability of the Improbable

by Mika McKinnon in GeoMika

A philosophy of science discussion of the reality of low-frequency events (particularly catastrophes) occurring on geologic timescales.... Read more »

Wilson, R., & Crouch, E. (1987) Risk assessment and comparisons: an introduction. Science, 236(4799), 267-270. DOI: 10.1126/science.3563505

April 20, 2011
12:20 PM
1,227 views

Calculating minimum energy urban layouts

by James Keirstead in James Keirstead.ca

Designing a new eco-city? Wondering if your master plan is ambitious enough or if you could go further? We have a new paper out describing how mixed-integer linear programming and Monte Carlo analysis can be used to calculate a minimum energy urban layout as a benchmark for evaluating master plans and policy options.... Read more »

Keirstead, J., & Shah, N. (2011) Calculating minimum energy urban layouts with mathematical programming and Monte Carlo analysis techniques. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.12.005

April 4, 2011
04:10 PM
883 views

It’s Not The Coach’s Fault

by Brian Mossop in The Decision Tree

My latest story for Wired Playbook discusses recent research from a group that analyzed 46 seasons of professional German soccer league data to determine that firing a coach mid-season — a tactic clubhouses use to jump-start a fledgling team — has absolutely no effect on the squad’s performance.... Read more »

Heuer, A., Müller, C., Rubner, O., Hagemann, N., & Strauss, B. (2011) Usefulness of Dismissing and Changing the Coach in Professional Soccer. PLoS ONE, 6(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017664

March 22, 2011
11:18 AM
1,158 views

One Nanostep for Technology, One Quantum Leap for Psychiatry

by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers

do_sud_thumb("http://neurobonkers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/computer-doctor.jpg","One Nanostep for Technology, One... Read more »

Khodayari-Rostamabad A, Reilly JP, Hasey G, Debruin H, & Maccrimmon D. (2010) Diagnosis of psychiatric disorders using EEG data and employing a statistical decision model. Conference proceedings : .. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference, 4006-9. PMID: 21097280

Khodayari-Rostamabad, A., Hasey, G., MacCrimmon, D., Reilly, J., & Bruin, H. (2010) A pilot study to determine whether machine learning methodologies using pre-treatment electroencephalography can predict the symptomatic response to clozapine therapy. Clinical Neurophysiology, 121(12), 1998-2006. DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2010.05.009

Charles DeBattista, Gustavo Kinrys, Daniel Hoffman, Corey Goldstein, John Zajecka, James Kocsis, Martin Teicher, Steven Potkin, Adrian Preda, Gurmeet Multani, Len Brandt, Mark Schiller, Dan Iosifescu, Maurizio Fava. (2011) The use of referenced-EEG (rEEG) in assisting medication selection for the treatment of depression . Psychiatric Research, 15(12), 64-75. DOI: The use of referenced-EEG (rEEG) in assisting medication selection for the treatment of depression

March 21, 2011
06:48 AM
1,112 views

Sidney Coleman’s QFT lectures

by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection

This post is just to point out to my readers that the lectures of Sidney Coleman on QFT are now available in TeX and pdf format. I have taken this information from Lubos’ site. The link for the full pdf is this. For this excellent work the person to be grateful is Bryan Chen a [...]... Read more »

Coleman, S. (1977) There are no classical glueballs. Communications in Mathematical Physics, 55(2), 113-116. DOI: 10.1007/BF01626513

Marco Frasca. (2009) Exact solutions of classical scalar field equations. arxiv. arXiv: 0907.4053v2

March 21, 2011
12:09 AM
1,278 views

Darwin Eats Cake: Lyapunov Exponent

by Jon Wilkins in Lost in Transcription

So, you may or may not know that The Hives also said this.

URL for hotlinking or embedding: http://www.darwineatscake.com/img/comic/10.jpg

For more, go to Darwin Eats Cake.

PARKS, P. (1992). A. M. Lyapunov's stability theory—100 years on. IMA Journal of Mathematical Control and Information, 9 (4), 275-303 DOI: 10.1093/imamci/9.4.275

... Read more »

PARKS, P. (1992) A. M. Lyapunov's stability theory—100 years on. IMA Journal of Mathematical Control and Information, 9(4), 275-303. DOI: 10.1093/imamci/9.4.275

March 18, 2011
02:00 AM
771 views

Green’s functions

by Christine Corbett Moran in Cosmic Rays

Some of the most important equations in physics can be solved by constructing a beast with a curious set of properties, called a Green’s function. This post contains some interesting nuggets from a lecture I gave on St. Patrick’s day about Green’s functions to the course I assist, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences II. I’ll give some historical background about the life of George Green, the functions’ namesake, introduce what a Green’s function actually is–and what exact........ Read more »

George Green. (1841) An Essay on the Application of mathematical Analysis to the theories of Electricity and Magnetism. Crelle's Journal. arXiv: 0807.0088v1

March 16, 2011
07:02 AM
1,069 views

So how are your math skills?

by Doug Keene in The Jury Room

Math is often seen as a necessary evil. But math literacy plays a part in virtually all civil trials, and you need to understand how to manage that effect. You’ll want to prepare. We’re here for you. Even when you don’t know you’re not really that good at math. Litigation involves numbers. Sometimes the numbers [...]

Related posts:Trial Skills Journal on the Web: The Jury Expert
A picture is worth a thousand words…
Outsmarting your biases & helping jurors outsmart theirs too
... Read more »

Pandelaere, M., Briers, B., & Lembregts, C. (2011) How to make a 29% increase look bigger: The unit effect in option comparisons. . Journal of Consumer Research. info:/

March 11, 2011
06:30 PM
879 views

Are Species Abundance Distributions Biologically Meaningful?

by Michael Long in Phased

A common ecological assumption is fundamentally challenged.... Read more »

Warren II, R. J., Skelly, D. K., Schmitz, O. J., & Bradford, M. A. (2011) Universal Ecological Patterns in College Basketball Communities. PLoS ONE, 6(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017342

March 10, 2011
05:01 PM
1,313 views

Defending Your Territory: Be Smelly, Be Fast

by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal

Welcome to the third installment of Animal Territoriality Week. See part 1 here, and part 2 here.

In 1994, a disease called sarcoptic mange swept through Bristol's fox population, severely crippling the population and killing most of the individuals. Professor Stephen Harris of the University of Bristol, who had been studying the movements and territories of those foxes, noticed that as the animals in one territory died, neighboring foxes were able to colonize the vacant areas in 3-4 days. He........ Read more »

Luca Giuggioli, Jonathan R. Potts, & Stephen Harris. (2011) Animal Interactions and the Emergence of Territoriality. PLoS Computational Biology, 7(3). info:/10.1371/ journal.pcbi.1002008

March 10, 2011
10:16 AM
1,371 views

Math is not for girls: The stereotype begins early!

by Nestor Lopez-Duran PhD in Child-Psych

Imagine yourself an elementary school teacher. One of your female students fails to complete an arithmetic assignment and offers an excuse that ‘‘Girls don’t do math.’’ What might be a pretext for avoiding homework could also be the outcome of social-cognitive development. Combining cultural stereotypes (‘‘Math is for boys’’) with the knowledge about one’s own gender identity [...]

... Read more »

Dario Cvencek, Andrew N. Meltzoff, & Anthony G. Greenwald. (2011) Math–Gender Stereotypes in Elementary School Children. Child Development. info:/

March 1, 2011
01:58 PM
1,538 views

How Long Do Stem Cells Live?

by Sanford- Burnham in Beaker

Have you or a family member donated bone marrow or received a transplant? We’d love to hear what this type of research means to you. Please drop us a line in the comments below.
When patients receive a bone marrow transplant, they are getting a new population of hematopoietic stem cells. Fresh stem cells are needed [...]... Read more »

Sieburg HB, Rezner BD, & Muller-Sieburg CE. (2011) Predicting clonal self-renewal and extinction of hematopoietic stem cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. info:/10.1073/pnas.1011414108

February 23, 2011
12:51 PM
1,070 views

Cell ontologies and computer code

by David Basanta in Cancerevo: Cancer evolution

A few weeks ago I attended the 4th Cell Behavior Ontology workshop organised by James Glazier and the Biocomplexity Institute at Indiana University. The idea is that we could use ontologies to describe both computational models and experimental data...... Read more »

Hanson, B., Sugden, A., & Alberts, B. (2011) Making Data Maximally Available. Science, 331(6018), 649-649. DOI: 10.1126/science.1203354