Facepalm: A mathematical model for the determination of total area under glucose tolerance and other metabolic curves

By on Dec 3, 2010 in Blog, In The News, Science

I don’t think I should say any more about this than the abstract:

OBJECTIVE–To develop a mathematical model for the determination of total areas under curves from various metabolic studies.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS–In Tai’s Model, the total area under a curve is computed by dividing the area under the curve between two designated values on the X-axis (abscissas) into small segments (rectangles and triangles) whose areas can be accurately calculated from their respective geometrical formulas. The total sum of these individual areas thus represents the total area under the curve. Validity of the model is established by comparing total areas obtained from this model to these same areas obtained from graphic method (less than +/- 0.4%). Other formulas widely applied by researchers under- or overestimated total area under a metabolic curve by a great margin.

RESULTS–Tai’s model proves to be able to 1) determine total area under a curve with precision; 2) calculate area with varied shapes that may or may not intercept on one or both X/Y axes; 3) estimate total area under a curve plotted against varied time intervals (abscissas), whereas other formulas only allow the same time interval; and 4) compare total areas of metabolic curves produced by different studies.

CONCLUSIONS–The Tai model allows flexibility in experimental conditions, which means, in the case of the glucose-response curve, samples can be taken with differing time intervals and total area under the curve can still be determined with precision.

Fun-Facts

# of Citations to date: 137.

Best one liner: “Thanks Dr. Tai, your contributions to mathematics knows no _bounds_.”

More to come…

comment below.

Abstract source: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/17/2/152.abstract

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8 Comment(s)

  1. Awesome…. Just awesome…

    Guest | Dec 6, 2010 | Reply

  2. How come he got 137 Citations????
    Thank God Jesus heals me, because I have just stop trusting in doctors…

    Leonardo | Dec 7, 2010 | Reply

  3. Do you think that all of the 137 citations, the reviewers, the editor of the paper, friends & family were all in on the joke? :)

    Samuel Oduneye | Dec 8, 2010 | Reply

  4. I don't get it. Are you saying that it's odd that there is a paper describing something that is obvious and should be known by others? I've looked at some of the citations, and they're real papers.

    Greg | Dec 8, 2010 | Reply

  5. I suppose I should have explained a little bit….

    "To develop a mathematical model for the determination of total areas under curves…"

    - This is integration that is taught in first year calculus

    - Tai (an M.D.) decided it would be a good idea to split up the curve into little rectangles and add up all pieces to get area under the curve (Riemann sum)

    - He obviously didn't retain anything from his university education (neither did the reviewers nor the editors of the journal) and took something that was invented in 1800, and called it "Tai's model…"

    - The worst part is, he was cited 137 times by other real papers so it means that there are at least 137 groups/people out there that are unaware of the existence of elementary calculus.

    Firas | Dec 8, 2010 | Reply

  6. Dammit Firas! Why did you have to ruin the humour by explaining the joke? You should have said something like "This model is 'Integral' to developing our understanding of metabolism," or "Gives this guy credit. It took no less than Newton, and Leibniz to figure this out the first time."

    I really wonder about the older models that these researches were using, and should diabetics be worried?

    Oliver Gatalo | Dec 8, 2010 | Reply

  7. LMAO…. sorry Firas' explanation made me laugh even harder…it didn't ruin it for me…

    Samuel Oduneye | Dec 11, 2010 | Reply

  8. They've discovered the cumtrapz()… http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/cumtrap…

    Anonymous | Dec 13, 2010 | Reply

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