EurekAlert! - Mathematics and Statistics

Margaret Cheney to deliver the AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) The Association for Women in Mathematics and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics are pleased to announce Margaret Cheney of Colorado State University and Naval Postgraduate School as the 2013 AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer.

Tyrone Duncan to be awarded SIAM's W. T. and Idalia Reid Prize

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) The W. T. and Idalia Reid Prize in Mathematics, first awarded in 1994, recognizes outstanding work in, or other contributions to, the broadly defined areas of differential equations and control theory. The 2013 Reid Prize goes to Tyrone Duncan, a professor of mathematics at the University of Kansas, for his fundamental contributions to nonlinear filtering, stochastic control, and the relation between probability and geometry.

Stanley Osher delivers the John von Neumann Lecture

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Stanley Osher of University of California, Los Angeles, is awarded the 2013 John von Neumann Lecture in recognition of his extraordinarily influential and wide-ranging contributions to the computational sciences and engineering.

Biological fitness trumps other traits in mating game

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)) When a new species emerges following adaptive changes to its local environment, the process of choosing a mate can help protect the new species' genetic identity and increase the likelihood of its survival. But of the many observable traits in a potential mate, which particular traits does a female tend to prefer?

New research backs theory that genetic 'switches' play big role in human evolution

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Cornell University) A Cornell University study offers further proof that the divergence of humans from chimpanzees some 4 million to 6 million years ago was profoundly influenced by mutations to DNA sequences that play roles in turning genes on and off.

Making memories: Practical quantum computing moves closer to reality

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Dartmouth College) Researchers at the University of Sydney and Dartmouth College have developed a new way to design quantum memory, bringing quantum computers a step closer to reality.

Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Rice University) Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, Rice University researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals. The method allows chemists to work backward by first considering the type of zeolite they wish to make and then creating the organic template needed to produce it. The research appears this week in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

Mapping a room in a snap

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) An algorithm developed in EPFL's School of Computer and Communications Sciences makes it possible to measure the dimensions of a room using just a few microphones and a snap of your fingers. Many promising applications are on the horizon.

Does including parasites upset food web theory? Yes and no, says new paper

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Santa Fe Institute) A new paper in PLOS Biology this week shows that taking the unusual step of including parasites in ecological datasets does alter the structure of resulting food webs, but that's mostly due to an increase in diversity and complexity rather than the particular characteristics of parasites. The work answers some longstanding questions about the unique role parasites play in ecological networks.

Intense: Navy, civilian planners get big assist in storm predictions

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Office of Naval Research) With the arrival of the Atlantic hurricane and Pacific typhoon season -- and the often dangerous storms that can accompany it -- new technology sponsored by the Office of Naval Research will help Navy and civilian officials alike plan for stormy weather. The Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System-Tropical Cyclone is a groundbreaking weather prediction model that offers forecasters a detailed look at tropical storms and accurate predictions of a storm's intensity from one to five days out.

NASA-led study explains decades of black hole observations

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Rochester Institute of Technology) A new study by astronomers at NASA, Johns Hopkins University and Rochester Institute of Technology confirms long-held suspicions about how stellar-mass black holes produce their highest-energy light.

A perfect match -- new UK-India research partnerships unveiled

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) The growing strength of joint UK-India research was highlighted today by the announcement of 12 new collaborations in the areas of Advanced Manufacturing and Smart Energy Grids and Energy Storage. The new projects will be supported by £8.3 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the Manufacturing and RCUK Energy Programme themes, with matched resources from India's Department of Science and Technology.

Prefab houses that are glued, not nailed, together

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) With prefabricated houses, the dream of having one's own home can quickly become a reality. Until now, nails have been used to hold the individual components together. Now an adhesive tape has been developed to perform this task.

World population could be nearly 11 billion by 2100, UW research shows

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Washington) A new United Nations analysis, using statistical methods developed at the University of Washington, shows the world population could reach nearly 11 billion by the end of the century, about 800 million more people than the previous projection issued in 2011.

A new approach for managing investment funds

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Luxembourg) A new book by a University of Luxembourg Professor provides new insights, ideas and empirical evidence that will improve tools and methods at our disposal for fund performance analysis. Associate-Professor Virginie Terraza, from the Centre for Research in Economics and Management, in the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance together with Associate-Professor Hery Razafitombo from the University of Lorraine, have written «Understanding Investment Funds : Insights from performance and risk analysis» which is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Male preference for younger female mates identified as likely cause of menopause

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Public Library of Science) A study published in this week's PLOS Computational Biology reports that menopause is an unintended outcome of natural selection caused by the preference of males for younger female mates. While conventional thinking has held that menopause prevents older women from continuing to reproduce, the researchers, from McMaster's University, concluded that it is the lack of reproduction that has given rise to menopause.

NIH awards UCI $10 million to study early-life origins of adolescent mental disorders

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of California - Irvine) With $10 million in new federal funding, UC Irvine researchers will study how maternal signals and care before and after birth may increase an infant's vulnerability to adolescent cognitive and emotional problems, such as risky behaviors, addiction and depression.

NREL teams with Navy, private industry to make jet fuel from switchgrass

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory) The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is partnering with Cobalt Technologies, U.S. Navy, and Show Me Energy Cooperative to demonstrate that jet fuel can be made economically and in large quantities from a renewable biomass feedstock such as switch grass.

NREL adds eyes, brains to occupancy detection

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory) It's a gnawing frustration of modern office life. You're sitting quietly -- too quietly -- in an office or carrel, and suddenly the lights go off.

NTU designs social media and web system that can predict dengue hotspots

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Nanyang Technological University) Researchers at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have developed a social media-based system called Mo-Buzz that can predict where and when dengue might occur. It combines a web system that taps into historical data on weather and dengue incidents and swift reports by the public on mosquito bites and breeding sites via smart phones and tablets.

Hairpin turn: Micro-RNA plays role in wood formation

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(North Carolina State University) Scientists at North Carolina State University have found the first example of how micro-RNA controls wood formation in plant cells and have mapped out key relationships that control the process.

Pendulum swings back on 350-year-old mathematical mystery

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Pittsburgh) A 350-year-old mathematical mystery could lead toward a better understanding of medical conditions like epilepsy or even the behavior of predator-prey systems in the wild, University of Pittsburgh researchers report.

When will my computer understand me?

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Texas at Austin, Texas Advanced Computing Center) For more than 50 years, linguists and computer scientists have tried to get computers to understand human language by programming semantics as software, with mixed results. Enabled by supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Texas researchers are using new methods to more accurately represent language so computers can interpret it. Recently, they were awarded a grant from DARPA to combine distributional, high dimensional space representation of word meanings with Markov logic networks to better capture human understanding of language.

Study reveals leakage of carbon from land to rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal regions

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Exeter) When carbon is emitted by human activities into the atmosphere it is generally thought that about half remains in the atmosphere and the remainder is stored in the oceans and on land. New research suggests that human activity could be increasing the movement of carbon from land to rivers, estuaries and the coastal zone indicating that large quantities of anthropogenic carbon may be hidden in regions not previously considered.

Teacher collaboration, professional communities improve many elementary school students' math scores

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of North Carolina at Charlotte) Many elementary students' math performance improves when their teachers collaborate, work in professional learning communities or do both, yet most students don't spend all of their elementary school years in these settings, a new study shows. The researchers used a sub-sample of 4,490 students, who attended public elementary schools between 1998 and 2003, from the US Department of Education's nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.