SBML Level 3 package: Groups, Version 1 Release 1

Biological models often contain components that have relationships with each other, or that modelers want to treat as belonging to groups with common characteristics or shared metadata. The SBML Level 3 Version 1 Core specification does not provide an explicit mechanism for expressing such relationships, but it does provide a mechanism for SBML packages to extend the Core specification and add additional syntactical constructs. The SBML Groups package for SBML Level 3 adds the necessary features to SBML to allow grouping of model components to be expressed. Such groups do not affect the mathematical interpretation of a model, but they do provide a way to add information that can be useful for modelers and software tools. The SBML Groups package enables a modeler to include definitions of groups and nested groups, each of which may be annotated to convey why that group was created, and what it represents

Selection of Statistical Software for Solving Big Data Problems: A Guide for Businesses, Students, and Universities

The need for analysts with expertise in big data software is becoming more apparent in today’s society. Unfortunately, the demand for these analysts far exceeds the number available. A potential way to combat this shortage is to identify the software taught in colleges or universities. This article will examine four data analysis software—Excel add-ins, SPSS, SAS, and R—and we will outline the cost, training, and statistical methods/tests/uses for each of these software. It will further explain implications for universities and future students

Estimating Working Life Expectancy: A Comparison of Multistate Models

Increases in retirement ages make it particularly pressing to better understand how long people will work. Working life expectancy (WLE) is a useful measure for this and the current paper assesses the tools, that is, software packages, available to assess it. We do this using data from the English Longitudinal Survey on Ageing (ELSA, 2003–2018) and multistate models to estimate WLE stratified by sex and socioeconomic status. Men’s versus women’s WLEs were slightly higher at all ages. Estimates were similar in ELECT and SPACE by both sex and socioeconomic status. WLEs were comparatively higher from IMaCh, ranging from approximately 0.28 to 1.49 years. Life expectancy estimates from IMaCh were also higher compared to SPACE and ELECT. Using multistate models to estimate WLE provides a useful indication of the actual expected length of working life. More research is needed to better understand why estimates from IMaCh differed from ELECT and SPACE

Solving package dependencies: from EDOS to Mancoosi

Mancoosi (Managing the Complexity of the Open Source Infrastructure) is an ongoing research project funded by the European Union for addressing some of the challenges related to the "upgrade problem" of interdependent software components of which Debian packages are prototypical examples. Mancoosi is the natural continuation of the EDOS project which has already contributed tools for distribution-wide quality assurance in Debian and other GNU/Linux distributions. The consortium behind the project consists of several European public and private research institutions as well as some commercial GNU/Linux distributions from Europe and South America. Debian is represented by a small group of Debian Developers who are working in the ranks of the involved universities to drive and integrate back achievements into Debian. This paper presents relevant results from EDOS in dependency management and gives an overview of the Mancoosi project and its objectives, with a particular focus on the prospective benefits for Debian

Learning theory and its application to female learner support in engineering

School of Engineering at Murdoch University is now in its fifth year: a new School sited on the new regional Campus. This environment enabled the staff to take an innovative approach to the School's development. One key issue addressed from the outset was that of women in a nontraditional area. Positive action was taken to attract high calibre female staff and as a consequence over 50% of the School's staff, academic and non-academic, are female. From the student perspective, issues confronting females studying in Engineering, which are reflected in international low recruitment and retention, continue to be addressed. Individuals are different and these differences affect how a student performs. In particular, gender differences in learning styles have been noted. This has directed us to administer, as part of a first year foundational unit, learning style inventories to all first year students, who then identify their self-reported learning styles. In this positive atmosphere many varied and successful initiatives, based on our learning style research, are being trialled to encourage female students into our programs and then support and retain them throughout their four years of study. This research discusses the initial learning style results and their application to our initiatives

Young people and ICT- findings from a survey conducted autumn 2001: ICT in Schools research and evaluation series No. 5

The report provides an analysis of the data gathered in a 2001 survey of the attitudes and experience of young people aged 5-18 years, and their parents, with regard to the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at home and at school