Convocation madness

QTL: Quantitative Trait Locus

What's a QTL?
asks KW, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

People are different. But not all differences are the same! Some traits, such as gender is binary. Outside of certain fetish circles, you're one or the other. It's also determined, on the most part, by a single gene. Some traits, are much more complex.

A QTL is a locus contributing to a quantitative trait. So for an example, height is a quantitative trait. It's continuously variable in humans, not like gender, which is one or the other. Many genes contribute to height, like ones controlling growth hormones, their receptors, genes involved in metabolism of nutrients and bone/muscle, etc. You can map where genes are that contribute to this quantitative trait, by studying lots of people of varying heights, and collecting information about their genetic variation, and try to correlate which variations are associated with difference in height. Those variations may not be the actual determining factor for height, but they're close, in terms of distance on DNA sequence. So a collection of these differences will narrow down a region of the genome (refered to as a locus) that may contain a gene or genes contributing to height. This region is called a quantitative trait locus; a locus that contributes to a quantitative trait.

The interest is in terms of disease. There are lots of cases where a gene for a disease has been identified. Unfortunately, they're usually caused by a single gene (such as Huntington), which is way easier to map since the genetics are so simple. But way more people are afflicted with complex diseases (heart disease, cancer, obesity, drug reactions) which are due to many genes, and are continuously variable like height. So there is a great interest in methods to identify QTLs, such as high throughput genotyping and statistical methods to use that data.

Grilled Mudskipper and Miso Soup with Mudskipper

from: http://www.fuchu.pd.saga-u.ac.jp/subject_page/student_page/1997/SIMIZUHP.html

Because the mudskipper is a small fish, you should grill it as is, without slicing it. White it is still alive, skewer the mudskipper from head to tail, and grill both sides over a charcoal fire. For the sauce, heat in a pot some soy sauce, suger, and a little water, Dip the mudskipper in this sauce and grill it again, Repeat this two or three times. Although the mudskipper does not seem like an appealing fish at first, if it is properly grilled, it is extremely grilled, it is extremely delicious. It is not greasy, like eel, and its taste will refresh you from the hot summer and delight your family. To prepare miso soup with mudskipper and slice it into three pieces. Boil them in water, and finally stir in miso
. by HIROAKI JINNOUCHI

----------

My dad also told me they're prized for their healing properties in soups because they're survivers. Y'know, not needing water and all...

Fish out of water

Yay! My mudskippers have arrived! As planned I got two of them. I chose to get slightly smaller ones of the bunch since I didn't want them to get too big too fast. And the runts will now get free reign away from the dominant big boys at the pet store. One is lighter colour than the other. I don't know if that's gender related or dominance related...

They're absolutely fascinating! They move around quite a bit. Like to wet themselves occasionally and are really a fish out of water... in the water. They really behave as if they're scared to drown! If they find themselves in deep water, they'll flail and jump around till they find something to grab on to! They also like to act tough to the other one by raising their deep blue fin. Their eyes are also a shimmery blue green. The brown body is also decroated with little white and blue sparkles. They look like fish with frog heads but they're quire beautiful!

There are even articles about them on PubMed! On the cutting edge of Nigerian science!

The minnows are probably still around. They hide well so I can't be sure. I like to check everyday since the mudskippers keep trying to eat them. Not too successfully though since they're not so comfortable in water. But we'll see. So far, I don't know where Stumpy is...

Now... the names...

They're African Mudskippers, BTW. (let it load, it's automagically being translated by Babelfish.

Most wicked hat hair

Finally, it's convocation day!

If you've gone to one, you know how boring they are. It starts with a procession of old academics of unknown affiliation to sit on stage and watch. I knew a few of them too! Then came the speech from the new President. Nothing to write home about. I tune out when any speech hits "the oxford dictionary defines..." I was very dissappointed by that. I was hoping the new President would not have to resort to the lame definition thing, then follow with three solid quote from famous people. To cap it off, apparently this is the largest graduating class this year of over 7500, ie; you're a dime a dozen. ;o) It really wasn't that bad. Just your run of the mill.

Then came our turn to go up, get in line and shake hands! I was extremely impressed with the announcers who had to pronounce everyone's names. Mine was a cinch compared to some from Africa. I think most of the applause was for them for doing such a good job with the names, really.

It's a fuzzy picture I know. More to come as they are on other people's cameras.

Charles Swindoll

My year-end perfromance review came up. Although I've only been there for two months of course. My boss is big into quotes:

Attitude

by Charles Swindoll

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes."

I was commended on my good attitude. Yay!

Receipt

Oh what an exciting week this will be! I'll start with getting my gown and cap for my convocation! Us PhDs get the special robe with blue stripes on the arms. Fancier than the undergrad ones, but smells just as funny and has similar mystery stains I bet. Unfortuneately, I only get to keep the cap, which was extremely plain. Not even the tassle had color!

I wasn't expecting it, but I also got my actual parchment at the same time! And it was even more dissappointing than the cap. Small, no colors, not even olden days fonts. C'mon!

So I had to compensate by getting the expensive shiney frame.

All that only took an hour in line!

Then came the doctoral reception at night. It was okay. Neat finger foods though. Too bad I didn't know anyone, so I ducked out early.

Minnow be gone

Oh nuts. One of the minnows has already died. Its lifeless corpse was found stuck against the filter intake. Run of the mill filter accident? Fowl play? I'll have my night shift CSIs have a look. I will leave no pebble unturned.

Movie review: Weather Man

It's hard to say exactly why I liked this movie. The characters weren't particularly loveable. The situations weren't particularly close to home. And it has some good jokes, but wasn't particularly funny throughout. And the ending wasn't particularly happy.

Maybe that's why. It wasn't particularly like most movies, depicting that feeling we've all had, when nothing goes our way and we don't get why. But that's no immediately obvious. It's one of those movies you have to go home and sleep on.

One has to be content and happy with what we have and let go of the things we can't change.

The best part was about the camel toe.

Weather Man

8/11

The hits keep on coming

Someone pushy has provided three names for my two fish:

I looked up your silly fish for some ideas
Mudskippers, Subfamily Oxudercinae, Family Gobiida
so, based on the subfamily name, you could call one "Darcy" (from 'derci') and based on the "family" you could call one "Gobi"
So, we have Skippy, Darcy and Gobi
how is it so far?

Maybe I can name my sacrificial minnows. They're kinda cool. One's a mutant though. He has no tail, but a stump where a tail would be. Of course, being a geneticist, I must correct myself in that the most likely case is a sporadic developmental defect rather than a genetic one.

He still swims quite well by flipping the tail at high speed. Even handicapped fish can adapt.

Oh heroic sentinels

I woke up today and thought: today's the day.

The tank's been running like a mini mangrove for a couple days. A piece of driftwood added to the beach scene authenticity. The chamber felt like a humid tropical rain forest. It was ready.

"Well, you could try it today, but I'd prefer not to give you the warantee"

I hate it when one guy says one thing, and some other guy, something completely different. The first guy said I wouldn't have to cycle the water with something biological because mudskippers are basically land dwelling and just needed to wet themselves occasionally. This guy on the other hand, said it must be cycled with some cheapie minnows first.

For weeks.

So I am now the proud owner of some sacrificial minnows. Their poop will hopefully establish a rich ecosystem of de-nitrifying bacteria for the mudskippers. They'll also probably be gobbled up by said mudskippers when they come in.

Oh well, I guess it'll be fun to have these minnows for a while. Maybe I'll just keep a minnow tank.

And this will give me time to survey the public on what to name my anticipated mudskippers. Here are the choices:


Anchovy and Wasabi

Blubber and Blotto

Itchy and Scratchy

Garfield and Odie

Skippy and Peanut butter

Sushi and Sashimi

Chicken and stuffing sammiches

Bring the flavour of an Irish commuter train home!

Make stove top stuffing according to manufacturer protocol.

Cook chicken breast and cut into cubes.

Apply mayo to bread.

Add stuffing and chicken.

Consume, digest, repeat.

Like water

Wow, it's been a while since it was less than $50 to fill my *gas* tank...

Brackish paradise

Tank & cover: $80

Filter & heater: $40

Gravel: $30

Chemicals: $35

Happy hoppity mudskippers: priceless.

Flat meat lasagna

SOP for flat meats lasagna:

Use noodle and sauce of your choice. But instead of ground beef, use flat deli meats such as bologna and pepperoni. I would avoid meats such as ham and turkey that has muscle striations. They may be hard to cut through cleanly. Be sure to also purchase the correct number of slices to best fill the square area of the noodle-space. Plan ahead! Measure the pan, noodle and diameter of the prospective deli meat! If done correctly, you too can achieve a more uniform meat per unit bite ratio in your lasagna! Who wants a high bite-to-bite variation in your lasagna? Anarchy!

Egg salad

Jason's overly complicated egg salad methodology:

Hardboil several eggs. Run under cold water for a few minutes and peel. Cut egg white and release cooked yolk. Mix yolks with mayonnaise into a paste. Cut egg whites into large chunks and mix.

Premixing egg yolk with mayo prevents the big chunks of egg yolk that break in your mouth and sop up saliva. Mixing it separately ensures you can have a well mixed yolk portion but large egg white chunk texture.

Complicate things even more if you feel saucy: Hardboil half the eggs and softboil the other half. Add a bit less mayo. This way, you'll get yummy liquid egg yolk flavour in your egg salad! Best served warm.