News Flash July

Research rebuttal uncovers flaw in statistical method

Recently, a pair of researchers developed a statistical method to analyze datasets and used it to refute the number of Holocaust victims from a concentration camp in Croatia. Ornik, a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois, used the method to re-analyze the same data and wrote a rebuttal paper debunking the researchers' findings. The original research presents a new method to identify anomalies across a set of histograms. Ornik became suspicious of the paper's conclusions because the researchers implied in one case that a smaller list naturally has a smaller outlier score but they compared scores across victim list sizes to claim that the one related to Jasenovac, one of the biggest ones, was problematic. Another reason that their statistical argument doesn't work is that the lists that these researchers worked with came from a multitude of sources and cannot have come from the same distribution and that some duplicate lists were treated as two separate lists.

Spatial Reasoning ability linked to Mathematical Skills

Researchers have recently concluded that spatial reasoning ability in small children reflects how well they will perform in mathematics later. The researchers also ruled out the possibility that this correlation is due to other factors, such as socioeconomic status or language ability but exactly how spatial ability affects mathematical skills in children is still unclear. The researchers also closely examined whether the pace of development can predict future mathematical ability. The researchers found that boys and girls are practically indistinguishable in terms of their spatial reasoning ability at the age of three, but in subsequent years this develops more slowly in girls, it may be because toys typically designed for boys often promote spatial reasoning, whereas toys for girls focus mainly on social skills.

Turbulence in interstellar gas clouds reveals multi-fractal structures

In interstellar dust clouds, turbulence must first dissipate before a star can form through gravity. A research team has arrived at new results in the mathematical method: Previously, the turbulent structure of the interstellar medium was described as self-similar or fractal but it’s not enough to describe the structure mathematically as a single fractal as known from the Mandelbrot set; instead, they added several different fractals. The new methods can thus be used to resolve and represent structural changes in astronomical images in detail. The research team presents the new mathematical methods to characterize turbulence using the example of the Musca molecular cloud in the constellation of Musca.

Universal equation for explosive phenomena

Climate change, a pandemic, or the coordinated activity of neurons in the brain - in all of these examples, a transition takes place at a certain point from the base state to a new state. Researchers have discovered a universal mathematical structure at these so-called tipping points which creates the basis for a better understanding of the behavior of networked systems. In some cases -- such as climate change -- a sharp tipping point would have extremely negative effects, while in others it would be desirable. Consequently, researchers have used mathematical models to investigate how the type of transition is influenced by the introduction of new parameters or conditions. The scientists have thus described a new core mechanism that makes it possible to calculate whether a networked system will have a continuous or discontinuous transition.