Mathematics posts
- March 29, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 121 views
Individual versus systemic risk in asset allocation
by Yunjun Yang in Evolutionary Games Group
Proponents of free markets often believe in an “invisible hand” that guides an economic system without external controls like government regulations. Therefore a highly efficient economic equilibrium can be created if all market participants act purely out of self-interest. In the paper titled “Individual versus systemic risk and the Regulator’s Dilemma.”, Beale et al. (2011) applied [...]... Read more »
Beale N., Rand D. G., Battey H., Croxson K., May R. M., & Nowak M. A. (2011) Individual versus systemic risk and the Regulator's Dilemma. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(31), 12647-12652. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1105882108
- March 19, 2013
- 04:30 AM
- 156 views
Mathematical models in finance and ecology
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Theoretical physicists have the reputation of an invasive species — penetrating into other fields and forcing their methods. Usually these efforts simply irritate the local researchers, building a general ambivalence towards field-hopping physicists. With my undergraduate training primarily in computer science and physics, I’ve experienced this skepticism first hand. During my time in Waterloo, I [...]... Read more »
May RM, Levin SA, & Sugihara G. (2008) Ecology for bankers. Nature, 451(7181), 893-5. PMID: 18288170
- March 14, 2013
- 06:40 AM
- 187 views
A Higgs particle but which one?
by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection
After Moriond conference last week, and while Moriond QCD and Aspen conferences are running yet, an important conclusion can be drawn and it is the one given in this CERN press release. The particle announced on 4th July last year is for certain a Higgs particle as it has spin 0, positive parity and couples [...]... Read more »
Marco Frasca. (2013) Revisiting the Higgs sector of the Standard Model. arXiv. arXiv: 1303.3158v1
Marco Frasca. (2009) Exact solutions of classical scalar field equations. J.Nonlin.Math.Phys.18:291-297,2011. arXiv: 0907.4053v2
- March 13, 2013
- 08:46 AM
- 199 views
Predicting Technological Progress: Putting Moore’s Law to the Test
by gunnardw in The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
Being able to predict the pace of technological development could be quite useful for a lot of people. No surprise then, that several models (or ‘laws’) have been posited that aim to describe how technological progress will unfurl (the most famous one probably being Moore’s law, for those interested: original article here). However, these laws [...]... Read more »
Nagy, B., Farmer, J., Bui, Q., & Trancik, J. (2013) Statistical Basis for Predicting Technological Progress. PLoS ONE, 8(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052669
- March 13, 2013
- 02:40 AM
- 302 views
Brain Lateralization - Logical Left vs Creative Right
by Vivek Misra in Beautiful Mind
Broad generalizations are often made in popular psychology about one side or the other having characteristic labels, such as "logical" for the left side or "creative" for the right. These labels need to be treated carefully; although a lateral dominance is measurable, both hemispheres contribute to both kinds of processes.In psychology and neurobiology, the theory is based on what is known as the lateralization of brain function. So does one side of the brain really control specific functions? A........ Read more »
Ross, E., & Monnot, M. (2008) Neurology of affective prosody and its functional–anatomic organization in right hemisphere. Brain and Language, 104(1), 51-74. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2007.04.007
George MS, Parekh PI, Rosinsky N, Ketter TA, Kimbrell TA, Heilman KM, Herscovitch P, & Post RM. (1996) Understanding emotional prosody activates right hemisphere regions. Archives of neurology, 53(7), 665-70. PMID: 8929174
Dehaene, S. (1999) Sources of Mathematical Thinking: Behavioral and Brain-Imaging Evidence. Science, 284(5416), 970-974. DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5416.970
Dehaene, S., Piazza, M., Pinel, P., & Cohen, L. (2003) THREE PARIETAL CIRCUITS FOR NUMBER PROCESSING. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20(3-6), 487-506. DOI: 10.1080/02643290244000239
Hecht, D. (2010) Depression and the hyperactive right-hemisphere. Neuroscience Research, 68(2), 77-87. DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2010.06.013
Devinsky, O. (2009) Delusional misidentifications and duplications: Right brain lesions, left brain delusions. Neurology, 72(1), 80-87. DOI: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000338625.47892.74
- March 11, 2013
- 04:00 PM
- 182 views
Ecological public goods game
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
As an evolutionary game theorist working on cooperation, I sometimes feel like a minimalist engineer. I spend my time thinking about ways to design the simplest mechanisms possible to promote cooperation. One such mechanism that I accidentally noticed (see bottom left graph of results from summer 2009) is the importance of free space, or — [...]... Read more »
Hauert, C., Holmes, M., & Doebeli, M. (2006) Evolutionary games and population dynamics: maintenance of cooperation in public goods games. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273(1600), 2565-2571. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3600
- March 6, 2013
- 11:20 AM
- 364 views
Hey Hey! We’re The Monkeys!
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
A tamarin rock star (photographed by Ltshears at Wikimedia)Our moods change when we hear music, but not all music affects us the same way. Slow, soft, higher-pitched, melodic songs soothe us; upbeat classical music makes us more alert and active; and fast, harsh, lower-pitched, dissonant music can rev us up and stress us out. Why would certain sounds affect us in specific emotional ways? One possibility is because of an overlap between how we perceive music and how we perceive human voic........ Read more »
Snowdon, C., & Teie, D. (2009) Affective responses in tamarins elicited by species-specific music. Biology Letters, 6(1), 30-32. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0593
- March 4, 2013
- 09:13 PM
- 164 views
How Many English Tweets are Actually Possible?
by Jon Wilkins in Lost in Transcription
So, recently (last week, maybe?), Randall Munroe, of xkcd fame, posted an answer to the question "How many unique English tweets are possible?" as part of his excellent "What If" series. He starts off by noting that there are 27 letters (including spaces), and a tweet length of 140 characters. This gives you 27140 -- or about 10200 -- possible strings.
Of course, most of these are not sensible English statements, and he goes on to estimate how many of these there are. This analysis is base........ Read more »
C. E. Shannon. (1951) Prediction and Entropy of Written English. Bell System Technical Journal, 50-64. info:/
- March 4, 2013
- 01:50 PM
- 187 views
Distributed control of uncertain systems using superpositions of linear operators - Likelihood calculus paper series review part 3
by Travis DeWolf in studywolf
The third (and final, at the moment) paper in the likelihood calculus series from Dr. Terrence Sanger is Distributed control of uncertain systems using superpositions of linear operators. Carrying the torch for the series right along, here Dr. Sanger continues investigating the development of an effective, general method of controlling systems operating under uncertainty. This is the paper that delivers on all the promises of building a controller out of a system described by the stochastic diff........ Read more »
Sanger, T. (2011) Distributed Control of Uncertain Systems Using Superpositions of Linear Operators. Neural Computation, 23(8), 1911-1934. DOI: 10.1162/NECO_a_00151
- March 3, 2013
- 12:55 PM
- 209 views
Why Are People Bad at Evaluating Risks?
by Eric Horowitz in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Using evidence or data to communicate risk to the American public can be a fool’s errand. The most publicized “la, la, la, I can’t hear you!” moments involve people ignoring dangers that threaten ideology or political beliefs. Others may choose to ignore risks because immediate short-term pleasures are too alluring. [...]... Read more »
Bilgin, B., & Brenner, L. (2013) Context affects the interpretation of low but not high numerical probabilities: A hypothesis testing account of subjective probability. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121(1), 118-128. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.01.004
Simone CB 2nd, Hampshire MK, Vachani C, & Metz JM. (2012) The utilization of oncology web-based resources in Spanish-speaking Internet users. American journal of clinical oncology, 35(6), 520-6. PMID: 21654312
Teigen, K., Juanchich, M., & Riege, A. (2013) Improbable outcomes: Infrequent or extraordinary?. Cognition, 127(1), 119-139. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.12.005
- February 28, 2013
- 04:34 AM
- 241 views
Fooling with mathematicians
by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection
I am still working with stochastic processes and, as my readers know, I have proposed a new view of quantum mechanics assuming that at the square root of a Wiener process can be attached a meaning (see here and here). I was able to generate it through a numerical code. A square root of a [...]... Read more »
Marco Frasca. (2012) Quantum mechanics is the square root of a stochastic process. arXiv. arXiv: 1201.5091v2
- February 25, 2013
- 03:00 PM
- 419 views
Whorfian economics reconsidered: Why future tense?
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Keith Chen has found a link between people's economic decisions and whether their language has a future tense. But are there other linguistic variables that are even better at predicting economic decisions?... Read more »
Chen, M. (2011) The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Evidence from Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, and Retirement Assets. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.1914379
Sean Roberts, & James Winters. (2012) Social Structure and Language Structure: the New Nomothetic Approach. Psycology of Language Learning, 16(2), 89-112. info:/10.2478/v10057-012-0008-6
- February 21, 2013
- 08:55 PM
- 199 views
Neuro-mechanical control using differential stochastic operators - Likelihood calculus paper series review part 2
by Travis DeWolf in studywolf
The second paper put out by Dr. Terence Sanger in the likelihood calculus paper series is Neuro-mechanical control using differential stochastic operators. Building on the probabalistic representation of systems through differential stochastic operators presented in the last paper (Controlling variability, which I review here) Dr. Sanger starts exploring how one could effect control over a system whose dynamics are described in terms of these operators. Here, he specifically looks at driving a p........ Read more »
Sanger TD. (2010) Neuro-mechanical control using differential stochastic operators. Conference proceedings : .. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference, 4494-7. PMID: 21095779
- February 5, 2013
- 10:35 AM
- 241 views
Aphids Always Land on Their Feet
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
Pea aphids are even better at "stop, drop and roll" than elementary-schoolers. When a threatening ladybug or grazing deer approaches the stem where an aphid is sucking sap, it lets go and plummets toward the ground. By holding its limbs in just the right way, though, the insect can tumble into an upright position before sticking the landing.
The ground is a dangerous place for a small wingless animal, so it might help a falling pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) to hit it running. Or, bet........ Read more »
Ribak, G., Gish, M., Weihs, D., & Inbar, M. (2013) Adaptive aerial righting during the escape dropping of wingless pea aphids. Current Biology, 23(3). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.12.010
- February 2, 2013
- 07:46 AM
- 180 views
Mild winters raise risk of flu epidemics
by Andy Extance in Simple Climate
Warm years limit flu transmission, but that makes us more susceptible to the virus the following season, explains Sherry Towers at Arizona State University, meaning health authorities have to watch for severe epidemics as climate changes. ... Read more »
Towers, S., Chowell, G., Hameed, R., Jastrebski, M., Khan, M., Meeks, J., Mubayi, A., & Harris, G. (2013) Climate change and influenza: the likelihood of early and severe influenza seasons following warmer than average winters. PLoS Currents. DOI: 10.1371/currents.flu.3679b56a3a5313dc7c043fb944c6f138
- January 28, 2013
- 05:37 PM
- 237 views
Everybody is talking about this. What's your opinion?
by Eugenio Maria Battaglia in Science to Grok
Science is at a turning point. Decisions has been normally emerged from traditional scientific praxis and a general consent, without a real discussion on it. This worked so far, but nowadays we are facing huge paradigm shifts.
Scientific Blogs and social networking are well spread in the Internet community, and this fact is having a huge impact on the trends of scientific research.
Big Data, ITs and "omic-like" projects are some of the aspects that are speeding our world faster tha........ Read more »
Kobro-Flatmoen, A., Langdon, G., Wright, C., Block, J., Gilarranz, L., Lever, J., Rohr, R., Fortuna, M., Kamfonik, D., Grahl, J.... (2012) NextGenVoices -- Results. Science, 335(6064), 36-38. DOI: 10.1126/science.335.6064.36
Van Noorden, R. (2013) Mathematicians aim to take publishers out of publishing. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature.2013.12243
- January 22, 2013
- 04:09 AM
- 215 views
ToxBank: the next generation toxicology
by egonw in Chem-bla-ics
Before I moved to my current position in Maastricht, I had the great pleasure to work with Prof. Roland Grafström (check his pathway bioinformatics done with his then PhD Rebecca) and Prof. Bengt Fadeel at the Karolinska Institutet. During this year I part-time worked on ToxBank and part-time on nano-QSAR, and worked on semantics, predictive toxicology, and Open Data. This blog post is about the ToxBank work.
I promised firework, and the first rockets are heading upw........ Read more »
Kohonen, P., Benfenati, E., Bower, D., Ceder, R., Crump, M., Cross, K., Grafström, R., Healy, L., Helma, C., Jeliazkova, N.... (2013) The ToxBank Data Warehouse: Supporting the Replacement of In Vivo Repeated Dose Systemic Toxicity Testing. Molecular Informatics. DOI: 10.1002/minf.201200114
- January 21, 2013
- 02:07 PM
- 229 views
In Our Partners' Heights, We Get What We Want
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
If you ask most heterosexual people what height they're looking for in a partner, they'll describe basically what a children's-book illustrator would draw: the man taller than the woman but not towering over her. But those of us who aren't pen-and-paper must settle for real human partners in human shapes and sizes. Nevertheless, new research says most people end up with a reality that matches the fantasy.
Researchers led by Gert Stulp of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands wondere........ Read more »
Stulp, G., Buunk, A., Pollet, T., Nettle, D., & Verhulst, S. (2013) Are Human Mating Preferences with Respect to Height Reflected in Actual Pairings?. PLoS ONE, 8(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054186
- January 20, 2013
- 12:34 PM
- 140 views
ThermoPoker Dot Viz: using pygame animations to understand iterated games
by csoeder in Topologic Oceans
I’m revisiting some older research of mine, so that I can talk a little bit about some data visualization I did along the way. If you frequent TriZPUG or the SplatSpace, you might have seen my original presentation, but In Case You Missed It… You might remember a while back I got interested in researching [...]... Read more »
Annila, A., & Salthe, S. (2009) Economies Evolve by Energy Dispersal. Entropy, 11(4), 606-633. DOI: 10.3390/e11040606
Anttila, J., & Annila, A. (2011) Natural games. Physics Letters A, 375(43), 3755-3761. DOI: 10.1016/j.physleta.2011.08.056
- January 9, 2013
- 04:00 PM
- 92 views
Controlling variability - Likelihood calculus paper series review part 1
by Travis DeWolf in studywolf
Dr. Terry Sanger has a series of papers that have come out in the last few years describing what he has named ‘likelihood calculus’. The goal of these papers is to develop a ‘a theory of optimal control for variable, uncertain, and noisy systems that nevertheless accomplish real-world tasks reliably.’ The idea being that successful performance can be thought of as modulating variance of movement, allocating resources to tightly control motions when required and allowing variability in ta........ Read more »
Sanger TD. (2010) Controlling variability. Journal of motor behavior, 42(6), 401-7. PMID: 21184358
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