Archive for June, 2020

The Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences

Published June 25, 2020 Occasional Closed
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Suppose that, in the course of an investigation, you stumble upon a string of whole numbers. You are convinced that there must be a pattern, but you cannot find it. All you have to do is to type the string into a database called OEIS — or simply “Slone’s” — and, if the string is recognized, an entire infinite sequence is revealed. If the string belongs to several sequences, several choices are offered. OEIS is a great boon to both professional mathematicians and applied scientists in fields like physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology.

OEIS-Homepage

The Home page of OEIS: https://oeis.org

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The Geography of Europe is Mapped in our Genes

Published June 18, 2020 Irish Times Closed
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It may seem too much to expect that a person’s geographic origin can be determined from a DNA sample. But, thanks to a mathematical technique called principal component analysis, this can be done with remarkable accuracy. It works by reducing multi-dimensional data sets to just a few variables  [TM189; or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com ].

GenesGeography-2

Predicted locations for more than 1200 individuals, based on DNA markers in their genome (figure from Nature).

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Dimension Reduction by PCA

Published June 11, 2020 Occasional Closed
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We live in the age of “big data”. Voluminous data collections are mined for information using mathematical techniques. Problems in high dimensions are hard to solve — this is called “the curse of dimensionality”. Dimension reduction is essential in big data science. Many sophisticated techniques have been developed to reduce dimensions and reveal the information buried in mountains of data.

Correlated-Variables

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Pooling Expertise to Tackle Covid-19

Published June 4, 2020 Irish Times Closed
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Our lives have been severely restricted in recent months. We are assured that the constraints have been imposed following “the best scientific advice”, but what is the nature of this advice? Among the most important scientific tools used for guidance on the Covid-19 outbreak are mathematical models  [TM188; or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com ].

IEMAG-Nolan

Prof Philip Nolan, Chairman of IEMAG (Photograph: Tom Honan

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