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‘Explorers’ Use Uncertainty And Specific Area of Brain

By Guest PostFebruary 11, 2012Scienceambiguity, architecture, bradley doll, brain, brown university, cognitive control, computational power, data, david badre, decision making strategy, explorers, function, functional architecture, mathematical model, michael frank, mri scanner, mystery, nicole long, nonexplorers, rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, status quo, thought process, uncertainty, virtual clock

*As they try to find the best reward among options, some people explore based on how uncertain they are about the outcome of the options. Those who employ that thought process, unlike people who use other strategies, uniquely harness the computational power of the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, a new study finds.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Life shrouds most choices in mystery. Some people inch toward a comfortable enough spot and stick close to that rewarding status quo. Out to dinner, they order the usual. Others consider their options systematically or randomly. But many choose to grapple with the uncertainty head on. “Explorers” order the special because they aren’t sure they’ll like it. It’s a strategy of maximizing rewards by discovering whether as yet unexplored options might yield better returns. In a new study, Brown University researchers show that such explorers use a specific part of their brain to calculate the relative uncertainty of their choices, while non-explorers do not. (more…)

Powerful Mathematical Model Greatly Improves Predictions for Species Facing Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 4, 2011Environment, Nature, Scienceatmosphere and oceans, beetle, bridgett vonholdt, carbon dioxide emissions, coat color gene, coat color phenotype, daniel macnulty, daniel stahler, earth temperature, ecological impacts, ecological model, ecological parameters, ecosystem, Environment, environmental change, general model, genetics, global warming, gray wolf, grizzly bears, harmony, health of populations, heterozygotes, high arctic, integral projection model, ipm, mathematical model, new model, plants, polar bear, population ecology, population genetics, predictive model, quantitative genetics, robert wayne, species, sub fields of ecology, tim coulson, trophic cascade, wolf, wolf population, wolves, yellowstone, yellowstone national park

UCLA life scientists and colleagues have produced the most comprehensive mathematical model ever devised to track the health of populations exposed to environmental change.

The research, federally funded by the National Science Foundation, is published Dec. 2 in the journal Science.

The team’s groundbreaking integral projection model, or IPM, unites various sub-disciplines of population biology, including population ecology, quantitative genetics, population genetics, and life-span and offspring information, allowing researchers to link many different data sources simultaneously. Scientists can now change just a single variable, like temperature, and see how that affects many factors for a population. (more…)

How Tattoos ‘Move’ With Age

By Guest PostJune 6, 2011Culture, Sciencecadmium, dyes, fibroblast cells, fluid mechanics, ian eames, initial immune response, ink particles, iron, lead, lymphatic system, mathematical framework, mathematical model, mathematics today, mercury, nickel, skin, surface of the skin, suspension of particles, tattoos, white blood cells, zinc

The dyes which are injected into the skin to create tattoos move with time – permanently altering the look of a given design. In this month’s Mathematics Today Dr Ian Eames, a Reader in Fluid Mechanics at UCL, publishes a mathematical model enabling us to estimate the movement of these ink particles and predict how specific tattoo designs will look several years in the future.

“Tattoos are incredibly popular worldwide with more than a third of 18-25 year olds in the USA sporting at least one design,” says Dr Eames. “A great deal of work has already been done on the short term fate of ink particles in the skin, tracking them over periods of just a few months – but much less is known about how these particles move over longer periods of time. (more…)

Before the Explosion – Volcano’s Warning Tremors Explained

By Guest PostFebruary 26, 2011Environmentalaska, ash, ash column, atmosphere, central america, david bercovici, forecast deadly eruptions, frequencies, magma wagging, mark jellinek, mathematical model, model, new zealand, phenomena in nature, pyroclastic flows, strange phenomenon, the caribbean, tremors, volcanoes, volcanologists, yale university

No matter their size or shape, explosive volcanoes produce tremors at similar frequencies for minutes, days or weeks before they erupt. In the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Yale University and the University of British Columbia describe a model that explains this strange phenomenon — and may help forecast deadly eruptions.

When such volcanoes erupt they can shoot hot ash up to 40 kilometers into the atmosphere and cause devastating destruction when the ash column collapses and spreads as “pyroclastic flows”. Prior to most of these explosive eruptions the volcanoes shake slightly but measurably, and the shaking becomes more dramatic during the eruption itself. This tremor is one of the primary precursors and warnings used by volcanologists for forecasting an eruption. (more…)

Mathematical Model Could Help Predict and Prevent Future Extinctions

By Guest PostJanuary 27, 20111 commentEnvironment, Natureadilson motter, biodiversity, causes of climate change, demise of the dodo, dodo bird, dynamics of complex networks, earth, ecological food webs, ecosystem, extinction cascades, extinction due to human activity, gulf of mexico oil spill, human intervention, interaction, man made disasters, mathematical model, mitigate extinction, natural resources, raphus cucullatus, sagar sahasrabudhe, species conservation efforts, uncertainty

*Research could rescue fragile ecosystems and halt complex cascade events*

In an effort to better understand the dynamics of complex networks, scientists have developed a mathematical model to describe interactions within ecological food webs. This research, performed by Northwestern University physics professor Adilson Motter and his student, Sagar Sahasrabudhe, is published in the January 25 issue of Nature Communications. The work illustrates how human intervention may effectively aid species conservation efforts.

“Our study provides a theoretical basis for management efforts that would aim to mitigate extinction cascades in food web networks. There is evidence that a significant fraction of all extinctions are caused not by a primary perturbation but instead by the propagation of a cascade,” said Motter. (more…)

The Salp: Nature’s Near-Perfect Little Engine Just Got Better

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2010Environment, Natureair, appendicularians, atmosphere, automobiles, caltech, carbon dioxide, CO2, eclectic eaters, energy-efficient, jellyfish, kelly rakow sutherland, larry madin, laurence p madin, mathematical model, mesh, microscopic, MIT, ocean-dwelling salps, phytoplankton, protozoans, roman stocker, salp, self-propelling, tom kleindinst, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

What if trains, planes, and automobiles all were powered simply by the air through which they move? Moreover, what if their exhaust and byproducts helped the environment?

(more…)

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