Mathematics Commons^™

Phytoforensics: Trees As Bioindicators Of Potential Indoor Exposure Via Vapor Intrusion, Jordan L. Wilson, V. A. Samaranayake, Matt A. Limmer, Joel Gerard Burken

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via vapor intrusion (VI) is an emerging public health concern with notable detrimental impacts on public health. Phytoforensics, plant sampling to semi-quantitatively delineate subsurface contamination, provides a potential non-invasive screening approach to detect VI potential, and plant sampling is effective and also time- and cost-efficient. Existing VI assessment methods are time- and resource-intensive, invasive, and require access into residential and commercial buildings to drill holes through basement slabs to install sampling ports or require substantial equipment to install groundwater or soil vapor sampling outside the home. Tree-core samples collected in 2 days at …

Statistical Analysis Of Network Change, Teresa D. Schmidt, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Networks are rarely subjected to hypothesis tests for difference, but when they are inferred from datasets of independent observations statistical testing is feasible. To demonstrate, a healthcare provider network is tested for significant change after an intervention using Medicaid claims data. First, the network is inferred for each time period with (1) partial least squares (PLS) regression and (2) reconstructability analysis (RA). Second, network distance (i.e., change between time periods) is measured as the mean absolute difference in (1) coefficient matrices for PLS and (2) calculated probability distributions for RA. Third, the network distance is compared against a reference distribution …

Cmsc 2018: 4th Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication Conference, Frances Rosamond

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Join scientists, researchers, teachers, and artists in developing new ways of communicating mathematical and computational thinking. Welcome are contributions in art forms such as dance, graphic art, theatre, and the myriad of ways to communicate science to the public. The conference will feature keynote talks by leading researchers and communicators in the mathematical sciences, sharing their experience, new initiatives, and ideas. The conference will be held in Wellington, New Zealand, at The Learning Connexion (TLC) on 21--23 July 2018. The conference website is http://www.cmsc.nz.

Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal Special Issue Call For Papers: Numbers, Shep Steiner

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Mosaic, an interdisciplinary critical journal, is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue on Numbers. Please submit your essay to the Editor using Mosaic’s online submission portal (http://umanitoba.ca/mosaic/submit) by March 9, 2018. The issue is currently scheduled to appear in September 2019.

Jesus And The Walnuts, Hugh C. Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In “Jesus & the Walnuts,” a hapless English professor invokes fragments of mathematical thought to integrate his hunger for a knowable world with his affection for the logician with whom he shares an office. While “not even wrong” and horribly clumsy, his aspirations are iterations of the drive for order and meaning that are shared across disciplinary knowledge . . . and the hungers of the heart.

Paperback Vs. Cryptanalysis, Terry Trowbridge

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This poem is a defiant challenge against online and app based surveillance of readers. It also questions the guesses that are used to make claims about readers using text analyses.

Gradual Homicide, Jack Ritter

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A mathematical poem about asymptotic treachery.

Theremin, David Pritchard

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Math In Seventeen Syllables: A Folder Of Mathematical Haiku

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In our July 2017 issue, we issued an open call for mathematical haiku, which we defined to be a three-line poem in the “5-7-5” syllabic form that expressed a mathematical idea or experience, and hopefully connected it to the human condition. In deference to traditional Japanese haiku, we encouraged poets to consider using allusions to nature or the seasons in their work, or what is known as a caesura or kire represented by punctuations, space, line-break, or other grammatical break that is intended to compare two images implicitly.

We received haiku on an amazing variety of themes and subjects, from …

Book Review: Algebra In Context: Introductory Algebra From Origins To Applications By Amy Shell-Gellasch And J. B. Thoo, Cindia D. Stewart

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This is a review of Algebra in Context: Introductory Algebra from Origins to Applications, a textbook authored by Amy Shell-Gellasch and J.B. Thoo. The text presents traditional mathematics through the lens of history, allowing students to gain a rich understanding of how mathematics works and where it comes from. In addition to providing the reader with a summary of the book contents, the reviewer suggests why and how the text may be incorporated into college-level mathematics courses.

Mathematicians Versus Philosophers In Recent Work On Mathematical Beauty, Viktor Blåsjö

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Recent attempts at defining mathematical beauty fall roughly into two schools of thought. One takes its starting point in the subjective experience of the mathematician and characterises mathematical beauty in cognitive terms. The other seeks to reduce beauty to objective notions such as truth, symmetry, or simplicity. This second approach is popular among analytic philosophers, who are committed to seeing mathematics and science as prototypically rational enterprises. I criticise this stance on the grounds that this commitment makes its supporters approach beauty in mathematics not with a genuine desire to sympathetically understand it, but with the preconceived goal of explaining …

The Origin Of The Group In Logic And The Methodology Of Science, Paolo Mancosu

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science at UC Berkeley was founded in 1957. It has been a key institutional element in carrying out Tarski’s vision for making UC Berkeley one of the most important centers of logical research in the world. In this brief history, I look at the emergence of the Group in Logic with an eye towards understanding the circumstances that made it possible.

My Sets And Sexuality, Andres Sanchez

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

It was only with the application of set theory to my own personal life that I discovered my true identity and sexuality. In this exploratory, personal essay, I detail my own discovery of my sexuality through mathematics and how this math has become a lens through which I view the world. And, with new knowledge of literary criticism in hand, I can now retroactively describe the thoughts I had in this discovery process.

Fun, Not Competition: The Story Of My Math Club, Johanna Hardin

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

For almost three years, I have spent most of my Sunday afternoons doing math with my daughters and a group of their school friends. Below I detail why and how the math club is run. Unlike my day job, which is full of (statistical) learning objectives for my college students, my math club has only the objective that the kids I work with learn to associate mathematics with having fun. My math club has its challenges, but the motivation comes from love of mathematics, which makes it fun, and worth every minute.

In Memory Of Professor Andrei Nikolaievitch Tikhonov (1906-1993) On The 25th Anniversary Of His Death, Hayat Rezgui

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Thursday, November 8, 2018, is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the celebrated Professor A. N. Tikhonov, one of my most favorite mathematicians. The idea of writing this paper to honor his life and scientific activities came to me as I was reading many of his works; I was impressed by his knowledge, amazing research, profound scholarship, perspicuity and eloquence of expression, painstaking accuracy, and big ideas. My aim is to be clear and evocative, for in this way I feel more in touch with my subject that is very interesting.

Cello Tangents Of Quartic Polynomials, Robert Haas Ph.D.

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This note uses easy calculus and linear algebra to analyze the situation of a line being tangent to two points of a fourth-degree polynomial curve.

Seen With Other Eyes: A Service Learning Project For High School Mathematicians Working With Visually Impaired Learners, Özgür Akas

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Seen With Other Eyes (SWOE) is a community involvement project that focuses on mathematics education for the visually impaired. In this essay I describe this project, which I developed together with my students at Robert College, a private high school in Turkey, and share some of our story. In the past few years, our work was welcomed by the global mathematics education community, as a testimony to the power of social media to connect like-minded educators with one another.

Balancing Entertainment And Learning In The Popularization Of Mathematics: The Seven Light Bulbs Problem, Man Keung Siu

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Popularization of mathematics plays a significant role in drawing more “friends of mathematics” from the public, which is important for the healthy and prosperous development of the discipline. The issue of a suitable balance between entertainment and learning is constantly on the minds of those who put effort into this task. This article discusses this issue in the context of mathematical museums and describes a simple problem involving seven light bulbs to illustrate its main points.

To Fall In Love With Math, Do This, Susan D'Agostino

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In the viral New York Times essay, “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This,” Mandy Len Catron details an experience she and an acquaintance had as they shared responses to psychologist Arthur Aron’s thirty-six questions intended to make participants fall in love. She notes that, “we all have a narrative of ourselves that we offer up to strangers and acquaintances, but Dr. Aron’s questions make it impossible to rely on that narrative.” In this paper, we claim that we also have narratives of our relationship to mathematics that we offer up to ourselves and others. Following, we offer a …

The Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal: A Bibliographic Report, Nurullah E. Goren, Tiffany Zhu

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The content of the Humanistic Mathematics Network Newsletter was reviewed by Claire Skrivanos and Qingcheng Zhang in [1]. This report reviews the content of the Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal (1992-2004).