News Flash October

A new model for group decision-making shows how 'followers' can influence the outcome

From small committees to national elections, group decision-making can be complicated and it may not always settle on the best choice. That's partly because some members of the group do research on their own, and others take their cues from the people around them. A new mathematical framework predicts that decision-making groups have a critical threshold of people who get their information from others. Below that threshold, the group chooses the high-quality outcome. Above it, the group can end up choosing the better or worse option.

For more details tap on the link. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210826170240.htm

Calculating the path of cancer

Scientists are using a new mathematical tool to predict how combinations of genetic mutations cause different types of tumors. The methods they have developed can be used to interpret data from experiments that measure how hundreds of thousands of different combinations of mutations impact the function of a protein.

For more details tap on the link

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211004140305.htm

New ways to improve the science of ‘trade-offs’

Researchers working on complicated problems in agriculture, ecology, and medicine have developed a mathematical model to enable faster solutions. Mr. Sharp doing a PhD. said, "If you give someone too much chemotherapy, you may kill leukemia and the patient. In that case, the 'cost' is way too high".

He said it is important to find the right balance between the benefits of chemotherapy and the detrimental side effects. "You make a guess, run that scenario, use mathematical techniques to improve your guess, again and again, to get closer and closer to the optimal solution," he said. "What we're doing is improving the numerical techniques, so you only need to solve that problem fewer times."

The method can also be applied to farming practices, for example in determining how to fertilize crops.

For more details tap on the link

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210909124009.htm

How apples get their shapes

How do apples grow that distinctive shape?

Now, a team of mathematicians and physicists have used observations, lab experiments, theory, and computation to understand the growth and form of the cusp of an apple. "Biological shapes are often organized by the presence of structures that serve as focal points," said L Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and n Physics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and senior author of the study. "These focal points can sometimes take the form of singularities where deformations are localized. A ubiquitous example is seen in the cusp of an apple, the inward dimple where the stalk meets the fruit."

For more details tap on the link ttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211004115131.htm