MathSBML: a package for manipulating SBML-based biological models

Summary: MathSBML is a Mathematica package designed for manipulating Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) models. It converts SBML models into Mathematica data structures and provides a platform for manipulating and evaluating these models. Once a model is read by MathSBML, it is fully compatible with standard Mathematica functions such as NDSolve (a differential-algebraic equations solver). Math-SBML also provides an application programming interface for viewing, manipulating, running numerical simulations; exporting SBML models; and converting SBML models in to other formats, such as XPP, HTML and FORTRAN. By accessing the full breadth of Mathematica functionality, MathSBML is fully extensible to SBML models of any size or complexity. Availability: Open Source (LGPL) at http://www.sbml.org and http://www.sf.net/projects/sbml. Supplementary information: Extensive online documentation is available at http://www.sbml.org/mathsbml.html. Additional examples are provided at http://www.sbml.org/software/mathsbml/bioinformatics-application-not

Inflation and financial market performance

An exploration of the cross-sectional relationship between inflation and an array of indicators of financial market conditions, using time-averaged data covering several decades and a large number of countries.Financial markets ; Inflation (Finance)

Arbitral Decisions: A Social Science Analog

This paper develops the idea that arbitral decision making has an analog in social science research.1 It asserts that the hypothesis testing procedure in social sciences is directly analogous to the arbitral process. The research format of an economist, sociologist, or psychologist might be as follows: 1. Generate the null (H.) and alternate (H) hypotheses to be tested. 2. Collect reliable and valid data relative to the hypothesis. 3. Evaluate and analyze this data by subjecting it to statistical tests. 4. Arrive at conclusions by accepting or rejecting the null hypothesis after statistical testing. 5. Explain and discuss finding

A Comparison of Party Identification in the United States and Great Britain

Political scientists for some time have questioned the value of party identification in the British context. The most popular objection has been that party identification appears to be less stable and less independent from the vote in Great Britain than in the United States. We attempt to demonstrate that the first objection is based on strong assumptions about how to deal with minor party identifiers and independents while the second can be disputed by showing that short-term forces, and not just measurement error, cause party identification and the vote to covary imperfectly. The analysis is carried out with the original Butler and Stokes data

Distribution, Abundance, and Feeding Habits of Juvenile Kingfish (Menticirrhus) Species Found in the North-Central Gulf of Mexico

Southern Kingfish (Menticirrhus americanus), Gulf Kingfish (Menticirrhus littoralis), and Northern Kingfish (Menticirrhus saxatilis) were collected by beam plankton trawl and seine along shoreline habitats in 2005 and 2006. Specific habitats included barrier island (surf zones and grass beds) and mainland (marsh edge and sandy shorelines) areas. Five hundred sixty-seven kingfish were collected during this study, with over 85% of the specimens collected in 2006. Densities of both M. americanus and M. littoralis peaked during summer, whereas densities of M. saxatilis peaked in spring. All three kingfish species co-occurred within surf zone and sandy shoreline habitats, but M. americanus was the dominant kingfish along protected sandy shorelines, and M. littoralis was the dominant kingfish along open surf zones. Several M. littoralis, which are known to be surf zone species, were also collected from mainland sandy shoreline. Only M. americanus was collected from marsh edges, and all three species were absent from grass beds. Stomachs of all three kingfish species at sizes \u3c 15 mm standard length (SL) most often contained calanoid copepods. Larger M. americanus (16–60 mm SL) fed most frequently on mysids, larger M. littoralis (31–60 mm SL) fed most frequently on bivalves, and larger M. saxatilis (31–60 mm SL) fed most frequently on both mysids and amphipods. The diversity of prey items increased with size for all three Menticirrhus species. This research provides a useful descriptive report on the distribution, abundance, and feeding habits of juvenile Menticirrhus species found in the north-central Gulf of Mexico