Designing a Remote Navigation System

This project involves the design and implementation of a global electronic tracking system intended for use by trans-oceanic vessels, using the technology of the U.S. Government's Global Positioning System (GPS) and a wireless connection to a networked computer. Traditional navigation skills are being replaced with highly accurate electronics. GPS receivers, computers, and mobile communication are becoming common among both recreational and commercial boaters. With computers and advanced communication available throughout the maritime world, information can be shared instantaneously around the globe. This ability to monitor one's whereabouts from afar can provide an increased level of safety and efficiency. Current navigation software seldom includes the capability of providing upto-the-minute navigation information for remote display. Remote access to this data will allow boat owners to track the progress of their boats, land-based organizations to monitor weather patterns and suggest course changes, and school groups to track the progress of a vessel and learn about navigation and science. The software developed in this project allows navigation information from a vessel to be remotely transmitted to a land-based server, for interpretation and deployment to remote users over the Internet. This differs from current software in that it allows the tracking of one vessel by multiple users and provides a means for two-way text messaging between users and the vesseI. Beyond the coastal coverage provided by cellular telephones, mobile communication is advancing rapidly. Current tools such as satellite telephones and single-sideband radio enable worldwide communications, including the ability to connect to the Internet. If current trends continue, portable global communication will be available at a reasonable price and Internet connections on boats will become more common.

Crisis of meanings : divergent experiences and perceptions of the marine environment in Victoria, Australia

The oceans of the world are regularly depicted as under threat from human exploitation with the problem portrayed as being of 'global' concern. In a world market characterised by the division of labour, many of those who eat fish do so without directly experiencing the ocean as a domain of productive utility. Rather, their encounters are with representations that depict the 'natural' world as an aesthetic object of contemplation, and environmentalist discourses that identify human activities as' threatening marine ecosystems. So prevalent is this experience that tangible institutions, such as state fisheries management bodies, have emerged, acting to reinforce the ontology of this 'contemplated' ocean, giving weight to the illusion that humans can, and should, appreciate it only from afar. In this representation, commercial fishers are regularly depicted as transgressing a 'natural' boundary between humans and the environment. It is when the world is simultaneously encountered as an object of consumptive utility and aesthetic utility that the human role in the environment becomes ambiguous and a sense of crisis arises. This paper investigates disjunctions in experiences and understandings that contribute to environmental anxiety, and debates over the appropriate use of the ocean.

Migratory birds reinforce local circulation of avian influenza viruses

Migratory and resident hosts have been hypothesized to fulfil distinct roles in infectious disease dynamics. However, the contribution of resident and migratory hosts to wildlife infectious disease epidemiology, including that of low pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAIV) in wild birds, has largely remained unstudied. During an autumn H3 LPAIV epizootic in free-living mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) - a partially migratory species - we identified resident and migratory host populations using stable hydrogen isotope analysis of flight feathers. We investigated the role of migratory and resident hosts separately in the introduction and maintenance of H3 LPAIV during the epizootic. To test this we analysed (i) H3 virus kinship, (ii) temporal patterns in H3 virus prevalence and shedding and (iii) H3-specific antibody prevalence in relation to host migratory strategy. We demonstrate that the H3 LPAIV strain causing the epizootic most likely originated from a single introduction, followed by local clonal expansion. The H3 LPAIV strain was genetically unrelated to H3 LPAIV detected both before and after the epizootic at the study site. During the LPAIV epizootic, migratory mallards were more often infected with H3 LPAIV than residents. Low titres of H3-specific antibodies were detected in only a few residents and migrants. Our results suggest that in this LPAIV epizootic, a single H3 virus was present in resident mallards prior to arrival of migratory mallards followed by a period of virus amplification, importantly associated with the influx of migratory mallards. Thus migrants are suggested to act as local amplifiers rather than the often suggested role as vectors importing novel strains from afar. Our study exemplifies that a multifaceted interdisciplinary approach offers promising opportunities to elucidate the role of migratory and resident hosts in infectious disease dynamics in wildlife.

From Craton to Rift: Empirically Based Ground-Truth Criteria for Local Events Recorded on Regional Networks

Region-specific empirically based ground-truth (EBGT) criteria used to estimate the epicentral-location accuracy of seismic events have been developed for the Main Ethiopian Rift and the Tibetan plateau. Explosions recorded during the Ethiopia-Afar Geoscientific Lithospheric Experiment (EAGLE), the International Deep Profiling of Tibet, and the Himalaya (INDEPTH III) experiment provided the necessary GT0 reference events. In each case, the local crustal structure is well known and handpicked arrival times were available, facilitating the establishment of the location accuracy criteria through the stochastic forward modeling of arrival times for epicentral locations. In the vicinity of the Main Ethiopian Rift, a seismic event is required to be recorded on at least 8 stations within the local Pg/Pn crossover distance and to yield a network-quality metric of less than 0.43 in order to be classified as EBGT5(95%) (GT5 with 95% confidence). These criteria were subsequently used to identify 10 new GT5 events with magnitudes greater than 2.1 recorded on the Ethiopian Broadband Seismic Experiment (EBSE) network and 24 events with magnitudes greater than 2.4 recorded on the EAGLE broadband network. The criteria for the Tibetan plateau are similar to the Ethiopia criteria, yet slightly less restrictive as the network-quality metric needs to be less than 0.45. Twenty-seven seismic events with magnitudes greater than 2.5 recorded on the INDEPTH III network were identified as GT5 based on the derived criteria. When considered in conjunction with criteria developed previously for the Kaapvaal craton in southern Africa, it is apparent that increasing restrictions on the network-quality metric mirror increases in the complexity of geologic structure from craton to plateau to rift. Accession Number: WOS:000322569200012

STEAP: A prostate-specific cell-surface antigen highly expressed in human prostate tumors

In search of novel genes expressed in metastatic prostate cancer, we subtracted cDNA isolated from benign prostatic hypertrophic tissue from cDNA isolated from a prostate cancer xenograft model that mimics advanced disease. One novel gene that is highly expressed in advanced prostate cancer encodes a 339-amino acid protein with six potential membrane-spanning regions flanked by hydrophilic amino- and carboxyl-terminal domains. This structure suggests a potential function as a channel or transporter protein. This gene, named STEAP for six-transmembrane epithelial antigen of the prostate, is expressed predominantly in human prostate tissue and is up-regulated in multiple cancer cell lines, including prostate, bladder, colon, ovarian, and Ewing sarcoma. Immunohistochemical analysis of clinical specimens demonstrates significant STEAP expression at the cell–cell junctions of the secretory epithelium of prostate and prostate cancer cells. Little to no staining was detected at the plasma membranes of normal, nonprostate human tissues, except for bladder tissue, which expressed low levels of STEAP at the cell membrane. Protein analysis located STEAP at the cell surface of prostate-cancer cell lines. Our results support STEAP as a cell-surface tumor-antigen target for prostate cancer therapy and diagnostic imaging.

Protein binding and signaling properties of RIN1 suggest a unique effector function

Human RIN1 was first characterized as a RAS binding protein based on the properties of its carboxyl-terminal domain. We now show that full-length RIN1 interacts with activated RAS in mammalian cells and defines a minimum region of 434 aa required for efficient RAS binding. RIN1 interacts with the “effector domain” of RAS and employs some RAS determinants that are common to, and others that are distinct from, those required for the binding of RAF1, a known RAS effector. The same domain of RIN1 that binds RAS also interacts with 14-3-3 proteins, extending the similarity between RIN1 and other RAS effectors. When expressed in mammalian cells, the RAS binding domain of RIN1 can act as a dominant negative signal transduction blocker. The amino-terminal domain of RIN1 contains a proline-rich sequence similar to consensus Src homology 3 (SH3) binding regions. This RIN1 sequence shows preferential binding to the ABL–SH3 domain in vitro. Moreover, the amino-terminal domain of RIN1 directly associates with, and is tyrosine phosphorylated by, c-ABL. In addition, RIN1 encodes a functional SH2 domain that has the potential to activate downstream signals. These data suggest that RIN1 is able to mediate multiple signals. A differential pattern of expression and alternate splicing indicate several levels of RIN1 regulation.

Signaling by ABL oncogenes through cyclin D1.

Oncogenic signals induce cellular proliferation by deregulating the cell division cycle. Cyclin D1, a regulator of G1-phase progression, acts synergistically with ABL oncogenes in transforming fibroblasts and hematopoietic cells in culture. Synergy with v-Abl depended on a motif in cyclin D1 that mediates its binding to the retinoblastoma protein, suggesting that ABL oncogenes in part mediate their mitogenic effects via a retinoblastoma protein-dependent pathway. Overexpression of cyclin D1, but not cyclin E, rescued a signaling-defective src-homology 2 (SH2) domain mutant of BCR-ABL for transformation of cells in culture and malignant tumor formation in vivo. These results demonstrate that cyclin D1 can provide essential signals for malignant transformation in concert with an activated tyrosine kinase.

Hādhihi taʻlīqah laṭīfah fī-mā yataʻallaq bi-qawl al-Nabīy ṣallá Allāhu ʻalayhi wa-sallam "ḥubbiba ilayya min dunyākum al-nisāʼ wa-al-ṭīb wa-juʻilat qurrat ʻaynī fī al-ṣalāt" / taʼlīf al-Shaykh al-Imām al-Ālim al-Allāmah wa-al-baḥr al-fahhāmah Shaykh al-Islām wa-al-muslimīn ʻumdat al-fuqahāʼ wa-al-muḥaddithīn Sayyidī Abū al-Suʻūd ibn Tāj al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Zakī al-Dīn al-Khazrajī al-Shāfiʻī : manuscript, 1685

Written in one column, 15 lines per page, in black rubricated in red. Title written in green and red ink.

Kitāb al-Itḥāf bi-bayān aḥkām ijārat al-awqāf / li-Khātimat al-Fuqahāʼ al-Muḥaqqiqīn Mawlānā al-ʻAllāmah Aḥmad Shihāb al-Dīn Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī : manuscript, 1876

According to the colophon, (f. 63r), copy completed on 14 Ṣafar 1293 AH [March 10, 1876 AD].

Hādhihi risālah sanīyah wa-maqāmah bahīyah al-musammāh bi-Inbāʼ al-azkiyāʼ bi-taḥbīb al-ṭīb wa-al-nisāʼ ilá Sayyid al-anbiyāʼ / lil-ʻĀlim al-Amjad al-Mawlawī Niẓām al-Dīn Aḥmad : manuscript, 1884

Written in one column, 13 lines per page, in black and red.

Panjāh bāb-i sulṭānī : manuscript, undated

According to the colophon (f. 76r), written on 5 Shawwāl 860 AH [September 5, 1456 AD]. There is a note in a later hand that says, "Hādhā al-kitāb bi-khaṭṭ al-muʼallif" (f. 75r).

Dîvân-ı Yusuf Nâbî : manuscript, 1749

Title from caption.

Sharḥ al-qism al-thālith min Miftāḥ al-ʻulūm / lil-ʻAllāmah al-Taftāzānī : manuscript, 1426

Title from f. 1v.

al- Risālah al-ūlá min rasāʼil al-Tājūrī fī ʻilm al-mīqāt wa-al-falak : manuscript, 1635

Written in one column, 25 lines per page, in black and red.

Kitāb Munyat al-muftī / taṣnīf al-Shaykh al-Imām al-ʻĀlim al-Fāḍil al-ʻAllāmah Jamāl al-Dīn Muftī al-muslimīn Yūsuf ibn Abī Asʻad ibn Aḥmad al-Sijistānī. manuscript, 1481

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبالله التوفيق والاعانة وهو حسبي ونعم الوكيل الحمد لله الواحد ... :Incipit