News Flash August

Mathematician reveals world’s oldest example of applied geometry

A UNSW mathematician has revealed the origins of applied geometry on a 3700-year-old clay tablet that has been hiding in plain sight in a museum in Istanbul for over a century. The tablet, Si.427, was discovered in the late 19th century in Central Iraq but its significance was known to people after the UNSW scientist's work was revealed. The research also reveals that Si.427 dates from the Old Babylonian period, 1900 to 1600 BCE. The lead researcher Dr. Daniel Mansfield from UNSW Science's School of Mathematics and Statistics stated, "It's the only known example of a cadastral document from the OB period, which is a plan used by surveyors to define land boundaries. In this case, it tells us legal and geometric details about a field that's split after some of it was sold off."

Researchers are using mathematical models and computer simulations as the new frontier for drug trials

Researchers are using mathematical and computer models to simulate COVID-19 infections on a cellular level - the basic structural level of the human body. The models allow for virtual trials of drugs and vaccines, opening the possibility of pre-assessment for drug and vaccine efficacy against the virus. The research team uses "in silico" experiments to replicate how the human immune system deals with the virus. The researchers were able to capture the results of different treatments that were used on COVID-19 patients in clinical trials. Their results are remarkably consistent with live data on COVID infections and treatments. The model might also work for current and future variants of concern.

The mathematics of repulsion for new graphene catalysts

Scientists at Tohoku University and colleagues in Japan have developed a mathematical model that helps predict the tiny changes in carbon-based materials that could yield interesting properties. The new mathematical model, called standard realization with repulsive interaction (SRRI), reveals the relationship between these changes and the properties that arise from them. It does this using less computational power than the typical model employed for this purpose, called density functional theory. The accuracy of the SRRI model showed a qualitative agreement with DFT calculations and is able to screen through potential materials roughly one billion times faster than DFT. The team next plans to use their model to look for links between the design of a material and its mechanical and electron transport properties.

The new mathematical model incorporates human behaviour and the fears that drive it to predict multiple waves of infections

A new mathematical model for predicting infectious disease outbreaks incorporates fear of disease and vaccines, to better understand how pandemics can occur in multiple waves of infections. The mathematical model developed by Epstein and his colleagues accounts for behavioural factors such as the proportion of the population that fears the disease or vaccine, and how adverse events from vaccinations can induce fear, in addition to factoring in the rate of disease transmission, percentage of the population that is vaccinated, and rate of vaccination. The model also illustrates that the two fears evolve and interact in ways that shape social distancing behaviour, vaccine uptake, etc. These dynamics, in turn, can amplify or suppress disease transmission.

-Sneha Kumari, H3B