Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
> >Whether I'm right or wrong, I think we should come to a clear statement
> >about which of these coefficients should be defined with the differential
> >operator, and which with the partial differential operator (bearing in mind
> >that the notation of a partial differential can include an explicit
> >statement of the dependent variables that are constant).
>> I think this is very important ("we should come to a clear statement") and
> I agree with the details of David's position. However, this is something
> where we need to have the explicit guidance of some of the more
> mathematically trained members of the community. I'm not sure if any of us
> are "real" mathematicians (apart from Christine, who is probably not
> following this), but some of us must know some real mathematicians.
If you excuse my ignorance on the subject of MCA proper, I do believe
that deciding on partial versus total differential should be relatively
straightforward. Could someone restate the partial/total dilemma in a
concise form?
With regard to mathematical training, i'd like to offer for everyone's
amusement the following excerpt from a recent personal email exchange.
I edited the names of people and places because they are not important.
My editing in in square brackets.
------------ 8< ---------- 8< ------------
Fortunately [scientist X, actively working in MCA] (who's my current
boss)
has an impressive personal library and I managed to find in there all
the books [on nonlinear regression] you've cited today. I will look at
Bates and Watts ["Nonlinear Regression Analysis and its Applications"]
and see what I can do.
> it should be understandable to any European trained scientist (we
> usually get a lot more math training compared to [biochemists
> trained in a certain 'superpower' country]).
He he... I could say the same about [scientists trained in a certain
insular country off the European mainland]. Biochemistry students here
learn no calculus or algebra and just a tiny bit of stats taught by
biochemists, not statistitians. I made my degree in [the capital of a
certain country located on the Iberian peninsula], and
there I had two semesters of calculus, one of linear algebra, one of
statistics and two of data analysis. People in my department think I am
either a mathematician or a computer scientist... which I find quite
sad.
------------ 8< ---------- 8< ------------
So, Pedro, what's your take on the partial/total differential notation?
;)
-- Petr
_____________________________________________________________
Petr Kuzmic Ph.D. * BioKin Ltd. * Madison, WI 53708-8336, USA
pkuzmic at biokin.com * http://www.biokin.com * 608.256.1269 fax
