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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Mathematics And The Hunger Games, Michael A. Lewis Jul 2012

Mathematics And The Hunger Games, Michael A. Lewis

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The Hunger Games plot features a dystopian future in which twelve outer districts are oppressed by a centralized capital. The story focuses on the heroism of a sixteen-year-old girl named Katniss and how she tries to rise above the oppression that she experiences. It also features a special lottery and other twists that are sources of mathematical interest. This essay focuses on some of the mathematical issues raised by The Hunger Games in an effort to show that this story can be used to teach students (as well as other interested parties) some important concepts from mathematics.


Constructing Phylogenetic Trees Using Maximum Likelihood, Anna Cho Apr 2012

Constructing Phylogenetic Trees Using Maximum Likelihood, Anna Cho

Scripps Senior Theses

Maximum likelihood methods are used to estimate the phylogenetic trees for a set of species. The probabilities of DNA base substitutions are modeled by continuous-time Markov chains. We use these probabilities to estimate which DNA bases would produce the data that we observe. The topology of the tree is also determined using base substitution probabilities and conditional likelihoods. Felsenstein [2] introduced this method of finding an estimate for the maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree. We will explore this method in detail in this paper.


Changes Across 25 Years Of Statistics In Medicine, Johanna S. Hardin Jan 2012

Changes Across 25 Years Of Statistics In Medicine, Johanna S. Hardin

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

[This piece is a series of interviews with giants in the field of medicine on their views of how statistics is changing medicine. I interviewed the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, a preeminent doctor/researcher of lung cancer, the director of the LA County Department of Public Health, and a Harvard statistician who sits on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine.]


Medicine, Statistics, And Education: The Inextricable Link, Katharine K. Brieger '11, Johanna S. Hardin Jan 2012

Medicine, Statistics, And Education: The Inextricable Link, Katharine K. Brieger '11, Johanna S. Hardin

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.