A microprocessor- controlled coulometric system for measuring total inorganic carbon in seawater samples was refined. A precision of 0.5 micromoles/kg (one standard error) from a single sample was routinely achieved in the laboratory. This was reduced to 1.0 micromoles/kg at sea due to an increase in the instrument blank. The system has proved to be a robust and reliable method, well suited for routine plankton productivity measurements and oceanic mapping. The coulometric technique was used in conjunction with an automated Winkler oxygen method to make in vitro and in situ observations of planktonic photosynthetic ana respiratory quotients. In common wi th earlier published observations, a wide range of quotients were obtained. A detailed consideration of analytical and sampling errors led to the conclusion that the quotients could mostly be explained by the stoichiometry of conventional biochemical products and reactants. In situ observations were carried out within mesoCosms:-Tn one field study, particular attention was paid to the correction of data for physical mixing within the mesocosm and exchange with the atmosphere. A dye diffusion study coupled wi th continuous temperature profiles led to the the conclusion tha t the circulation wi thin these bags is complex and cannot be described by use of a one-dimensional vertical diffusion model. The total inorganic carbon measurements determined from vertical CTD profiles during the 1987 RV Challenger cruise were compared to similar stations sampled during the Transient Tracers in the Ocean Programme (1981). Although the TTO measurements were calculated from a potentiometric titra tion there was no evidence for major errors of accuracy.

Aeromonas salmonicida is a Gram negative pathogenic fish bacterium. To facilitate the construction of the chromosomal map of A.salmonicida A449, several previously uncharacterized genes, including recA and four fla genes were identified. While the location of all the genes identified as a result of this study were mapped on the chromosome, the recA and fla genes were further characterized at the molecular level. The A.salmonicida A449 recA was cloned, sequenced and expressed in vitro. The 1059 bp recA open reading frame encoded a 353 amino acid protein with predicted molecular weight (Mᵣ) of 37,900. Southern blot analysis was performed to demonstrate the high degree of conservation between the A449 recA and those of the other typical and atypical strains of A.salmonicida examined. The predicted amino acid sequence of A.salmonicida A449 RecA was found to possess a number of domains identical to those characterized in Escherichia coli RecA.These included domains for adenosine triphosphate binding, DNA binding and protein-protein interactions. The A.salmonicida A449 recA was mobilized into an E.coli recA strain and was shown to allow increased survival in the presence of the chemical mutagen methyl methane sulfonate and ultra violet (uv) irradiation. The rate of the A.salmonicida A449 recA-mediated recombination in E. coli was increased by exposure to uv light, which suggested that SOS induction in A.salmonicida paralleled that of E.coli. The A.salmonicida A449 recA also possessed a potential regulatory SOS-box in the DNA 5' of the gene. A novel flagellin operon was identified in A.salmonicida A449, characterization of which revealed the presence of two tandemly linked flagellin structural genes flaA and flaB. The flaA and flaB genes were in turn tandemly linked to flaG encoding a protein of unknown function, and flaH encoding a protein homologous to the Hook Associated Protein II of other bacteria. The flaA and flaB genes with 79% nucleotide sequence identity, were conserved in typical and atypical strains of A.salmonicida, and displayed significant divergence at the nucleotide level from the fla genes of the motile species Aeromonas hydrophila and Aeromonas veronii biotype sobria. flaA, flaB and flaG encode unprocessed proteins with predicted Ms of 32,351, 32,056 and 15,965 respectively. When cloned under the control of the Ptac promoter, flaB was highly expressed when induced in E. coli DH5α, and FlaB protein was detectable even in the uninduced state. In flaA clones containing intact upstream sequence, FlaA was barely detectable when uninduced and poorly expressed on induction. The A.salmonicida flagellins are antigenically cross-reactive with A. hydrophila TF7 flagellin(s), and evolutionally closely related to the flagellins of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Vibrio anguillarum.Electron microscopy showed that A. salmonicida A449 expresses unsheathed polar flagella at extremely low frequency. Finally, the physical and genetic map of the chromosome of A. salmonicida A449 was constructed using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and Southern blot analysis. The three restriction enzymes used in the map construction were CeuI, Pmel and PacI. The chromosome of A. salmonicida A449, with an estimated size of 4,658 ± 29.75 kb, was determined to be circular in structure. Several genes of A. salmonicida, including those which encoded proteins implicated in virulence, were localized on the chromosome map. The chromosomal locations of the recA and fla genes were also identified. The global genomic relationship between the typical and atypical strains of A. salmonicida was investigated by comparing the CeuI cleavage fingerprint of the respective genomes.The results showed that the typical strains were indeed very homogenous as had been previously reported. The atypical strains expressed extensive variation both in the number of DNA fragments obtained with CeuI and also in the digestion fingerprint. The comparison of the CeuI digestion fingerprint of atypical strains revealed a clustering of some strains which suggested that this could be a powerful taxonomic tool for better classification of the atypical group. The two A. sobria strains analyzed with CeuI were also homogenous and showed significant similarities to the A. salmonicida typical strains CeuI genomic fingerprints. In contrast, four A. hydrophila strains yielded CeuI-derived fragments which like the atypical strain varied both in number and patterns. There was also minimal observed similarities between the genome of A. hydrophila strains and the A. salmonicida strains. / Graduate

As a specific reading disability with a neurobiological origin, developmental dyslexia is distinct from reading difficulties due to sensory impairments in vision or hearing. The disability is commonly attributed to a core deficit in phonological processing, the understanding of how phonemes, syllables and words are used in a language. Dyslexia is a complex genetic disorder with a strong genetic component; nine susceptibility loci (DYX1-9) have been identified with eight other dyslexia linkages lacking gene symbols also reported. The statistical methods of linkage and association were employed to investigate the genetic susceptibility for phonological coding dyslexia (PCD), a common form of dyslexia characterized by difficulties in single word decoding and resulting from deficits in phonological processing. A genome-wide non-parametric linkage (NPL) study and four targeted fine-mapping family-based association studies were performed to locate the genes predisposing to PCD in 101 Canadian families with multiple affected members. The NPL scan identified suggestive evidence for linkage with PCD at the two novel regions 16p12 and 4q12-q13, and provided independent confirmation of linkage to the well-replicated DYX3 locus (at 2p21). Some support for linkage was noted at a further five regions previously linked to dyslexia, while no linkage was detected at five other reportedly-linked regions, in particular, no linkage to DYX2 (6p22.2). Four regions (16p12, 2p21, 4q12-q13 and 6p22.2) were tested for association with PCD in 83 trios, a subset of the 101 families, using the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) and the affected family-based controls (AFBAC) test. Association was detected in each of the three PCD-linked regions in the NPL scan; none of the tested marker alleles was associated with PCD in the 6p22.2 region. Four candidate genes were identified, two of which belong to the same gene family, with a possible role in the neurodevelopmental mechanisms underlying reading. / Medicine, Faculty of / Medical Genetics, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

This study was undertaken to investigate detailed land classification in forested mountainous terrain. Two small watersheds in south-eastern British Columbia, each of approximately 3500 ha in area, were selected for classification and mapping of terrain and soil features (a simultaneous study completed vegetation classification and mapping). The results of the study include maps of terrain and soil features presented on photo-maps at scales of approximately 1:8,000 and planimetric maps at scales of 1:15,840; written descriptions of the terrain and soil features; cross-sectional diagrams depicting the relationships between various landscape features; and soil interpretations for erosion and forest capability. The terrain features are classified primarily on the basis of genesis and secondary characteristics of surface expression, texture, slope, and modifying processes. The soils were classified as phases of soil families according to the Canadian System of Soil Classification. The Templeton River study area, located in the Purcell Mountains and the adjacent Rocky Mountain Trench, has a complex array of terrain features derived from sedimentary rocks. These include a variety of morainal materials ranging from rubbly materials associated with presently active ice to compact fine textured non-calcareous and moderately textured calcareous materials. Steep slopes have created abundant colluvial features including aprons and fans which grade to shallow colluvial veneers over bedrock or morainal materials. The valley mouth has abundant glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine features, with minor areas of fluvial materials adjacent to Templeton River. The soils of the area are highly variable, reflecting complex variation in parent materials, climate, and vegetation. At the lower elevations the soils are dominantly Luvisols, which grade to Brunisols and Podzols in the cooler and moister environments. The Grassy Creek study area, located in the Selkirk Mountains, is dominated by morainal materials of relatively uniform composition. These materials are moderately coarse textured and derived from granitic bedrock. There are fluvial and glaciofluvial materials in the valley bottom and limited colluvial materials at the upper elevations, primarily on southern aspects. The soils are acidic Podzols, with Ferro-Humic Podzols in the poorly drained areas, Humo-Ferric Podzols in better drained areas, and some Brunisols on rapidly drained sites. A systematic sampling study in the Templeton River study area demonstrated that mapping reliability for the terrain units was about 80%, and for the soil units about 65%. Morainal mapping units were more homogeneous and had higher mapping reliability than glaciofluvial mapping units. A comparison between the more detailed mapping completed in this study and reconnaissance terrain and soil mapping completed previously in the study areas identified a number of problems inherent in inventories which rely on interpretation of aerial photographs with limited ground checking. The complex interactions between terrain types, relief, and vegetation patterns of Templeton River limited the utility of reconnaissance aerial photographic interpretation. In contrast, Grassy Creek, with subdued and more uniform terrain features showed good agreement between detailed and reconnaissance mapping. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

Massive amounts of biological data are being accumulated in science. Searching for significant meaningful information and patterns from different types of data is necessary towards gaining knowledge from these large amounts of data available to users. However, data mining techniques do not normally deal with significance. Integrating data mining techniques with standard statistical procedures provides a way for mining statistically signi- ficant, interesting information from both structured and unstructured data. In this dissertation, different algorithms for mining significant biological information from both unstructured and structured data are proposed. A weighted-density-based approach is presented for mining item data from unstructured textual representations. Different algorithms in the area of radiation hybrid mapping are developed for mining significant information from structured binary data. The proposed algorithms have different applications in the ordering problem in radiation hybrid mapping including: identifying unreliable markers, and building solid framework maps. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithms towards improving map stability is demonstrated. Map stability is determined based on resampling analysis. The proposed algorithms deal effectively and efficiently with multidimensional data and also reduce computational cost dramatically. Evaluation shows that the proposed algorithms outperform comparative methods in terms of both accuracy and computation cost.

The purpose of this thesis is to design and implement four-wheel mobile robot control which will be used in future in the field of mapping and localization. Concretely, it will be a design of drive control with microcontrollers Xmega, which will also process the signals of the sensors. Communication with the PC will ensure the BlueTooth module. In view of the future use of the robot, there will be designed and carried out modifications of the mechanical part. Correctness and functionality of all parts of the robot will be verified by carrying out basic movements.

Informationen haben oft verschiedene Quellen und Formate, ungeachtet ihres Inhaltes. Eine Vereinheitlichung der Strukturen dieser Daten zur Überführung in Datenbanken zum Zwecke der Speicherung und Auswertung ist dann nicht ohne Weiteres möglich. Auch digitalisierte Textinformationen können in unterschiedlichen Formaten vorliegen. Für eine Datenintegration, insbesondere die Überführung von XML-Inhalten in ein bestehendes Datenbankschema, soll ein Schema-Mapping durchgeführt werden. Verschiedene Verfahren werden implementiert und ihre Funktionsweise auf Brauchbarkeit bei unterschiedlichen Input-Formaten und -Kombinationen untersucht.

The development of a fleet of flexible and ruggedized unmanned ground vehicles for use in autonomy and distributed sensing research has resulted in a mature platform with proven capabilities. Each Mapping Autonomous Ground Vehicle (MAGV) is capable of travel on- and off-road, speeds up to 10 mph, and its sturdy construction with a rugged suspension cushions onboard instruments from vibrations. The large battery capacity can sustain at least eight hours of hard use, including powering all onboard electronics. The MAGV is fitted with a high accuracy GPS/INS system for centimeter-accuracy localization and a powerful but compact onboard computer. The integrated wireless communications allow high-bandwidth data communication between the MAGV fleet and a base station. The platform can additionally be fitted with a wide array of sensors, including LIDAR and stereovision cameras, and is designed with ample space to allow the mounting of any future data gathering devices. The platform has already taken a central role in the development of new algorithms for map creation with modern sensing technology, and was deployed to collect data for the demonstration of the map estimation algorithms outlined in this thesis. A wavelet basis combined with a state estimator is demonstrated to be effective for approximating a global map of a given area with complex features. The recursive least squares state estimator is highly effective at rejecting transient features, such as pedestrians frequently passing through the field of view, while retaining the shape of the walls and terrain features. The ability to vary the map resolution allows the mapping station to trade detail for a faster map update processing time. In its current implementation, the global map estimator supports the acquisition and integration of data from multiple simultaneous mobile sources. Because each scan is registered using the position of the vehicle when it is recorded, there is no difference between receiving all data from a single agent, or multiple agents working cooperatively gathering data in the same area. The wavelet basis also offers several opportunities for reducing communications overhead through data compression. In particular, we have demonstrated that simple thresholding of the least significant wavelet coefficients results in a significant reduction in data size with no noticeable reduction in fidelity of the reconstructed map estimate. / Master of Science

No description available.