Mathematics posts
- November 7, 2012
- 10:10 AM
- 352 views
Political Animals
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
Now that we are finally on the other side of one of the longest, most expensive political campaign seasons of United States history, we find ourselves with a new mixed-bag of leaders. Our nation’s decision-makers include career politicians and new freshman politicians; they include lawyers, military members, doctors, businessmen, farmers, ministers, educators, scientists, pilots, and entertainers; they include Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Quakers, Mormons, Buddhists and Muslims; they include ........ Read more »
Couzin, I. (2009) Collective cognition in animal groups. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(1), 36-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2008.10.002
List, C., Elsholtz, C., & Seeley, T. (2009) Independence and interdependence in collective decision making: an agent-based model of nest-site choice by honeybee swarms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1518), 755-762. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0277
Seeley, T., Visscher, P., Schlegel, T., Hogan, P., Franks, N., & Marshall, J. (2011) Stop Signals Provide Cross Inhibition in Collective Decision-Making by Honeybee Swarms. Science, 335(6064), 108-111. DOI: 10.1126/science.1210361
Dell'Ariccia, G., Dell'Omo, G., Wolfer, D., & Lipp, H. (2008) Flock flying improves pigeons' homing: GPS track analysis of individual flyers versus small groups. Animal Behaviour, 76(4), 1165-1172. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.05.022
- November 2, 2012
- 02:11 PM
- 381 views
Math-Phobes Experience Arithmetic like Bodily Pain
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
If subtraction makes you sweat, division gives you diarrhea, and the Pythagorean theorem inspires panic attacks, you might be afflicted with math anxiety. Others may not always be sympathetic to your fear of tipping in restaurants without your cell phone. Brain scans, though, show that people like you suffer from more than just nerves. In people who are highly anxious about math, the threat of doing arithmetic activates the same brain areas as a punch in the stomach.
Researchers at the Unive........ Read more »
Lyons, I., & Beilock, S. (2012) When Math Hurts: Math Anxiety Predicts Pain Network Activation in Anticipation of Doing Math. PLoS ONE, 7(10). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048076
- October 27, 2012
- 04:49 AM
- 283 views
Is fMRI About To Get Fifty Times Faster?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
According to a paper just published, a new technique of functional MRI scanning (fMRI) could soon allow neuroscientists to measure brain activity far faster: Generalized iNverse imaging (GIN): Ultrafast fMRI with physiological noise correctionAuthors Boyacioglu and Barth claim remarkable things for the technique:We find that the spatial localization of activation for GIN is comparable to an EPI protocol and that maximum z-scores increase significantly... with a high temporal resolution of 50 mil........ Read more »
Boyacioglu R, & Barth M. (2012) Generalized iNverse imaging (GIN): Ultrafast fMRI with physiological noise correction. Magnetic resonance in medicine : official journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine / Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. PMID: 23097342
- October 25, 2012
- 10:15 PM
- 298 views
Ohtsuki-Nowak transform for replicator dynamics on random graphs
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
We have seen that the replicator equation can be a useful tool in understanding evolutionary games. We’ve already used it for a first look at perception and deception, and the cognitive cost of agency. However, the replicator equation comes with a number of inherent assumptions and limitations. The limitation Hisashi Ohtsuki and Martin Nowak wanted [...]... Read more »
Ohtsuki H, & Nowak MA. (2006) The replicator equation on graphs. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 243(1), 86-97. PMID: 16860343
- October 25, 2012
- 02:53 PM
- 347 views
Why You Should Reject the “Rejection Improves Impact” Meme
by caseybergman in I wish you'd made me angry earlier
Over the last two weeks, a meme has been making the rounds in the scientific twittersphere that goes something like “Rejection of a scientific manuscript improves its eventual impact”. This idea is based a recent analysis of patterns of manuscript submission reported in Science by Calcagno et al., which has been actively touted in the [...]... Read more »
Calcagno, V., Demoinet, E., Gollner, K., Guidi, L., Ruths, D., & de Mazancourt, C. (2012) Flows of Research Manuscripts Among Scientific Journals Reveal Hidden Submission Patterns. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1227833
- October 22, 2012
- 02:00 AM
- 257 views
Evolutionary games in finite inviscid populations
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Last week, we saw how to deal with two-strategy games in finite inviscid populations. Unfortunately, two strategy games are not adequate to model many of the interactions we might be interested in. In particular, we cannot use Antal et al. (2009a) to look at bifurcations and finitary/stochastic effects in tag-based models of ethnocentrism, at least [...]... Read more »
Antal T, Traulsen A, Ohtsuki H, Tarnita CE, & Nowak MA. (2009) Mutation-selection equilibrium in games with multiple strategies. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 258(4), 614-22. PMID: 19248791
- October 18, 2012
- 02:00 AM
- 318 views
Risk-dominance and a general evolutionary rule in finite populations
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
In coordination games, the players have to choose between two possible strategies, and their goal is to coordinate their choice without communication. In a classic game theory setting, coordination games are the prototypical setting for discussing the problem of equilibrium selection: if a game has more than one equilibrium then how do the players know [...]... Read more »
Antal, T., Nowak, M.A., & Traulsen, A. (2009) Strategy abundance in games for arbitrary mutation rates. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 257(2), 340-344. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.11.023
- October 16, 2012
- 06:45 AM
- 316 views
Nobel prizes and marriage markets
by Jason Collins in Evolving Economics
The committee for selecting the 2012 winners of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (remember, it is not an original Nobel Prize) seems to have done a better job than the Peace Prize Committee. Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapely have been awarded the prize ”for the theory of stable allocations [...]... Read more »
Gale, D., & Shapley, L. (1962) College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage. The American Mathematical Monthly, 69(1), 9. DOI: 10.2307/2312726
- October 14, 2012
- 11:30 PM
- 296 views
Slides for Roca, Cuesta & Sanchez’s EGT: Temporal and spatial effects beyond replicator dynamics
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Last Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 we discussed Roca, Cuesta & Sanchez (2009) Evolutionary games theory: Temporal and spatial effects beyond replicator dynamics. The hope was to have a review as amazing as Szabo & Fath (2007), and we divided the work in a similar way. Thomas Shultz presented Section 2: Basic concepts and results of [...]... Read more »
Carlos P. Roca, José A. Cuesta, & Angel Sánchez. (2009) Evolutionary game theory: Temporal and spatial effects beyond replicator dynamics. Physics of Life Reviews, 208-249. arXiv: 0911.1720v1
- October 14, 2012
- 05:55 AM
- 352 views
Citizen science and digital platforms: folding it all the way to outer space
by Cobb & Hecht in Do You Believe In Dog?
ScienceRewired is a philanthropic initiative that aims to promote public engagement in science through digital and social technologies. Their mission is to aid non-technical science practitioners and the digital domain in working together, to look at science from new perspectives while helping educate and empower individuals to create significant positive change in the world. Their focus spreads across science education, science communication and citizen science initiatives – what’s not to........ Read more »
Hand Eric. (2010) Citizen science: People power. Nature, 466(7307), 687. DOI: 10.1038/466685a
Khatib F., Cooper S., Tyka M. D., Xu K., Makedon I., Popovic Z., Baker D., & Players F. (2011) From the Cover: Algorithm discovery by protein folding game players. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(47), 18953. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1115898108
Wiggins Andrea, & Crowston Kevin. (2011) From Conservation to Crowdsourcing: A Typology of Citizen Science. System Sciences, 10. DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2011.207
Parsons Jeffrey, Lukyanenko Roman, & Wiersma Yolanda. (2011) Easier citizen science is better. Nature, 471(7336), 37. DOI: 10.1038/471037a
- October 11, 2012
- 11:30 PM
- 341 views
Start of ethnocentric cooperation
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Szabo & Fath attribute the first study of evolution of tag-based cooperation to Hales (2000); an unfortunate attribution for two reasons. First, Hales (2000) used tags in a way that is significantly different from the modern treatment. Instead of interacting with people regardless of tag, and then making a decision to cooperate or defect based [...]... Read more »
Riolo, R., Cohen, M., & Axelrod, R. (2001) Evolution of cooperation without reciprocity. Nature, 414(6862), 441-443. DOI: 10.1038/35106555
- October 7, 2012
- 04:32 AM
- 666 views
Reality: Is matter real?
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
NOTHING seems more real than the world of everyday objects, but things are not as they seem. A set of relatively simple experiments reveals enormous holes is our intuitive understanding of physical reality. Trying to explain what goes on leads to some very peculiar and often highly surprising theories of the world around us.... Read more »
Jan Westerhoff. (2012) Reality: Is matter real?. New Scientist. info:/
- September 21, 2012
- 04:20 PM
- 333 views
William Gosset: A True Student
by Pranab Chatterjee in Scepticemia
Today I attended a Basic Epidemiology class meant for the undergraduate students as I thought it would be good to brush up on my basic knowledge. The topics for the day were Hypothesis Testing and An Introduction to Randomized Controlled Trials, both pretty important ones, no matter which level you are studying at. What struck [...]... Read more »
Raju TN. (2005) William Sealy Gosset and William A. Silverman: two "students" of science. Paediatrics, 116(3), 732-735. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2005-1134
- September 10, 2012
- 06:04 PM
- 546 views
IU mathematician offers unified theory of dark matter, dark energy, altering Einstein field equations
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A pair of mathematicians — one from Indiana University and the other from Sichuan University in China — have proposed a unified theory of dark matter and dark energy that alters Einstein’s equations describing the fundamentals of gravity.
Shouhong Wang, a professor in the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Mathematics, and Tian Ma, a professor at Sichuan University, suggest the law of energy and momentum conservation in spacetime i........ Read more »
Indiana University. (2012) IU mathematician offers unified theory of dark matter, dark energy, altering Einstein field equations. Indiana University News Release. info:/
- September 8, 2012
- 07:57 AM
- 325 views
Sun loses grip on Earth’s temperature changes
by Andy Extance in Simple Climate
Patterns in the heat we feel stopped being caused by the Sun since the 1970s, mathematical tests done by Antonello Pasini from the Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research in Rome and his teammates show, with greenhouse gases and other human influences likely to be drowning its influence out. ... Read more »
Antonello Pasini, Umberto Triacca and Alessandro Attanasio. (2012) Evidence of recent causal decoupling between solar radiation and global temperature . Environmental Research Letters. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/3/034020
- September 6, 2012
- 12:19 PM
- 248 views
When Data Filtering Introduces Bias (fMRI Edition)
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
A couple of months ago I blogged about a paper showing that 'filtering' of EEG data can create spurious effects.Now, we read about another form of bias that filters can introduce, this time for fMRI: Filtering induces correlation in fMRI resting state data.Australian neuroscientists Catherine Davey and colleagues consider temporal filtering of fMRI data in studies looking at correlation (brain functional connectivity).Because both very high frequency and very slow changes in the fMRI signal are ........ Read more »
Davey CE, Grayden DB, Egan GF, & Johnston LA. (2012) Filtering induces correlation in fMRI resting state data. NeuroImage. PMID: 22939874
- August 26, 2012
- 02:44 PM
- 329 views
The Logistics of Scientific Growth in the 21st Century
by caseybergman in I wish you'd made me angry earlier
Over the last few months, I’ve noticed an growing number of reports about declining opportunities and increasing pressure for early stage academic researchers (Ph.D. students, post-docs and junior faculty). For example, the Washington Post published an article in early July about trends in the U.S. scientific job market entitled “U.S. pushes for more scientists, but [...]... Read more »
Kealey T. (2000) More is less. Economists and governments lag decades behind Derek Price's thinking. Nature, 405(6784), 279. PMID: 10830939
Sauermann H, & Roach M. (2012) Science PhD career preferences: levels, changes, and advisor encouragement. PloS one, 7(5). PMID: 22567149
- August 23, 2012
- 01:28 PM
- 346 views
‘t Hooft and quantum computation
by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection
Gerard ‘t Hooft is one of greatest living physicists, one of the main contributors to the Standard Model. He has been awarded the Nobel prize in physics on 1999. I have had the opportunity to meet him in Piombino (Italy) at a conference on 2006 where he was there to talk about his view on [...]... Read more »
M. Hartmann, G. Mahler, & O. Hess. (2003) Gaussian quantum fluctuations in interacting many particle systems. Lett. Math. Phys. 68, 103-112 (2004). arXiv: math-ph/0312045v2
Elliott H. Lieb,, & Barry Simon. (1973) Thomas-Fermi Theory Revisited. Phys. Rev. Lett. 31, 681–683 (1973) . DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.31.681
- August 17, 2012
- 06:20 AM
- 430 views
What is the collective noun for a group of Systems Biologists?
by Duncan Hull in O'Really?
What happened was, I was looking for a Creatively Commons licensed picture of Pedro Mendes to upload to commons.wikimedia.org. That’s not the footballing Pedro Mendes who played for Rangers, Spurs, Pompey and Porto but the systems biologist Pedro Mendes who plays for Virginia Tech and Manchester. Thankfully, another systems biologist, Michael Hucka kindly pointed to his impressive collection of pictures, taken at various events over the years which include some shots of Pedro. Looking at t........ Read more »
Lander Arthur D. (2010) The edges of understanding. BMC Biology, 8(1). DOI: 10.1186/1741-7007-8-40
Kitano Hiroaki. (2002) Systems Biology: A Brief Overview. Science, 295(5560), 1664. DOI: 10.1126/science.1069492
Ideker Trey, Galitski Timothy, & Hood Leroy. (2001) Systems Biology: A new approach to decoding life . Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 2(1), 372. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.genom.2.1.343
- August 17, 2012
- 04:22 AM
- 317 views
Is Poker A Game of Skill or Luck?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Success in poker is all about luck, according to researchers at the University of Bremen, Germany: Is Poker a Game of Skill or Chance? A Quasi-Experimental Study.I'm not a gambling man, but I'll bet this is going to be a controversial study.The authors recruited 300 poker players - half were defined as 'experts' and the rest were 'average'. Players sat at tables of 6, with 3 experts and 3 average per table, and played 60 hands of Texas Hold 'em. On some tables, there was a fixed limit, on ........ Read more »
Meyer G, von Meduna M, Brosowski T, & Hayer T. (2012) Is Poker a Game of Skill or Chance? A Quasi-Experimental Study. J Gambling Studies. DOI: 10.1007/s10899-012-9327-8
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