Category: Nevin Manimala

A new statistical analysis of data from a long-term study on the teaching of mathematics and science has found that smaller class sizes are not always associated with better pupil performance and achievement.

The examination of Haplotypes makes it possible to understand the heritability of certain complex traits. However, genome analysis of family members is usually necessary, a tedious and expensive process. Researchers have developed SHAPEIT4, a powerful computer algorithm that allows the haplotypes of hundreds of thousands of unrelated individuals to be identified very quickly. Results are as detailed as when family analysis is performed. Their tool is available online under an open source license.

Mathematicians have developed a new model to explore what the impact of changes to Luftwaffe tactics would actually have been. Their approach uses statistical modelling to calculate how the Battle might have played out if history had followed one of several alternative courses.

What rules shaped humanity’s original social networks? The earliest social networks were tightly knit cultural groups made of multiple biologically related families. That single group would then develop relationships with other cultural groups in their local area. Researchers used statistical physics and computer models common in evolutionary biology to explain the origin of common community structures documented by cultural anthropologists around the world.

Theoretical physicists have found a deep link between one of the most striking features of quantum mechanics — quantum entanglement — and thermalization, which is the process in which something comes into thermal equilibrium with its surroundings.

With some reports predicting the precision agriculture market will reach $12.9 billion by 2027, there is an increasing need to develop sophisticated data-analysis solutions that can guide management decisions in real time. A new study offers a promising approach to efficiently and accurately process precision agricultural data.

Psychiatrists have used a computer-based approach to assign psychotic patients diagnosed as bipolar or schizophrenic to five different subgroups. The method could lead to better therapies for psychoses.

Despite the near-universal assumption of individuality in biology, there is little agreement about what individuals are and few rigorous quantitative methods for their identification. A new approach may solve the problem by defining individuals in terms of informational processes.

Getting to the doctor’s office for a check-up can be challenging for someone with a neurological disorder that impairs their movement, such as a stroke. But what if the patient could just take a video clip of their movements with a smart phone and forward the results to their doctor?