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Welcome
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This is my own little world.
Welcome to my chronically out-of-date, but new, home-page. I admit that it doesn't contain anything of real interest, and it probably never will. I apologise now for everything that's broken or incomplete.
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Outdoor Outreach Climbathon 2004
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Southern California Charity Event
On the 13th March, I shall take part in the 2nd annual Outdoor Outreach Climbathon. This event chiefly consists of a bunch of us climbing at the Vertical Hold climbing gym in San Diego, California until our arms fall off, or our fingers are worn down to the second knuckle, whichever happens first.
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Outdoor Outreach seeks to help underprivileged and at-risk children gain confidence and self-esteem through participation in outdoor activities.
In order to offer activities and support to local kids, Outdoor Outreach hope to raise $10 000 through this year's event. Any contributions are greatly appreciated. What would be even better, though, is if you signed up to participate in the event itself!
At last year's event I climbed approximately 2060 ft at the technical grade of 5.9 and above. This time around, I'll aim for 2500 ft at grade 5.10 and above.
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Wooha! How did I get here?
Luckily, at this scale, you can't see the hideous T-shirt that I was wearing!
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An update for anyone who might be interested
The day was a great success! Just over $11 000 was raised, three times more than the previous year, and everyone had a lot of fun. In terms of the climbing, my climbing partner, Mike, and I jointly won the distance climbing after an absymal show in the difficulty climbing competition. Actually, we won by quite a long way -- only one person (another insane Brit) climbed more than half of the distance that we managed. After 48 hours, I could even type again...
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Employers?
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Are you here because you want to employ me?
You are welcome to browse my website, but keep in mind that I'm not really all that weird. I am sure that with a little effort I could even be integrated into society.
Please note that I am not actively seeking gainful employment at the present time.
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What I look like
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Me, Me, Me
| If you are interested, which I'm happy to accept isn't very likely, here is a picture-thing of me. It's actually several months old now, but I do still look vaguely like this (except, of course, I'm not black-and-white in real life). |
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Sarah
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And, here is Sarah. I was told that although I should have wanted to, I couldn't put a photograph of Sarah on my Web-page. I don't think this can be classed as a photo by any stretch of the imagination. I bet that I get in trouble for this...
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Cure Cancer
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You can help to cure cancer!
This is the most important piece of work to come out of my research lab in the past few years. I haven't been directly involved in this, but colleagues are. It makes use of unused processing power on millions of home PCs through a screen saver which performs calculations. Just download the screen saver and you will be helping in the fight against cancer. Every single extra processor will make a difference, and unlike SETI@HOME, it is likely to have a successful outcome. (And, the screen saver is quite pretty too!)
More information may be found at Oxford University or the BBC News service. You can get the screensaver software from either United devices or Intel. Go on, you know that you want to.
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And Then Cure Anthrax
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You can help to find an anti-Anthrax drug too!
Based on the above Cancer Screensaver technology, an effort to discover an anti-anthrax drug is also underway.
By running a simple screensaver, individuals are donating their computer's spare resources to build a virtual supercomputer capable of analyzing many billions of molecules much faster than a traditonal supercomputer, and in a tiny fraction of the time it would take in a laboratory.
More information may be found at Oxford University or the BBC News service. You can get the screensaver software from here. Professor Graham Richards says,
"The screensaver doesn't cost you anything, and at least you're taking part in something, adding your bit."
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What I do
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At home
Mostly just sleep.
At work
Methodology development for prediction of transmembrane protein structure, or, playing on computers.
Transmembrane* proteins (TM-proteins) are a large and important subset of all
proteins. Around 80 of the top 100 pharmaceuticals act on TM-proteins. Unfortunately there are serious technical issues which
prevent the determination of TM-protein structures. Of the 13 000 known
protein structures only about 60 are TM-proteins. (And, I would say that only 6 are both non-redundant and good quality). This is a slight problem when it comes to structure-based drug design.
My research into structural prediction and simulation of transmembrane
helix-bundle proteins, the major class of TM-proteins, has culminated in a software package to facilitate the modelling of these proteins.
This software package has been successfully used to build a variety of
TM-protein model via a number of methods. Standard comparative protein
modelling techniques (homology modelling and threading) may be performed
in a highly automated fashion using scoring functions adapted for the
membrane environment. Alternatively, a novel hybrid Lamarckian Genetic
Algorithm* / Monte Carlo* procedure was found to effectively pack flexible
helices using statistically determined empirical scoring functions,
experimentally derived constraints and/or atomic level molecular
mechanics energy evaluations. The software package is able to utilise
the research group's beowulf-style Linux* cluster.
I have also completed (or at least started) several other "things", but I won't describe them until they've been published...
At the pub
My favourite drink is Woodforde's Baldrick Ale. Please buy me a pint. By the way, I do not have a bushy beard, a beer-gut, or a large set of keys jangling from my over-stretched jeans.
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Genetic Algorithm Utility Library
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 GAUL: Genetic Algorithm Utility Library
GAUL is a flexible, open-source, programming library designed to aid in the development of applications that require evolutionary algorithms. It provides data structures and functions for handling and manipulation of the data required for genetic algorithms. Additional stochastic algorithms are provided for comparison to the genetic algorithms. Much of the functionality is also available through a simple S-Lang interface. Several example programs are provided, including training a Neural Network using a hybrid GA-Backpropagation approach.
This project is now, gratefully, hosted at SourceForge. The public CVS repository may be found at cvs.gaul.sourceforge.net. Note that if you don't know anything about CVS archives, then GAUL will probably be of no use to you anyway.
The latest and greatest version will always be available at the GAUL home-page.
Downloads for version 0.1844:
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Furry on the outside, crunchy on the inside.
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Aardvarks!
Once upon a time there were three aardvarks; Mummy aardvark, Daddy aardvark, baby aardvark and Andy aardvark. That's four - never mind. Now there are hundreds of the little blighters.
Go here for more aardvark orientated diversions.
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Email proof-reading service
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Send your spam emails here.
It has come to my attention that nearly all the spam emails that I receive are written by semi-literate persons. Consequently, I now offer a proof-reading service. I charge $1.00 (USD) (or £0.70 (GBP)) per word, with a 20% surcharge for HTML email. As a special introductory offer, the subject line will be checked for FREE! To take advantage of this service, send email to email-proof-reading-service@sabot.co.uk or proof_reading_by_email@linux-domain.com.
If you are a real person, then I wouldn't send anything here, if I were you!
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LEGAL DISCLAIMER
No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior permission. The prior permission required is hereby granted. Aardvarks with pace-makers or metal bits in their legs should never be placed in microwave ovens. While every care is taken during the compilation of this website, the author can accept no responsibility whatsoever for any loss and/or damage to property and/or persons occurring during its use. You are strongly advised to seek medical attention if you accidentally swallow an aardvark whole. No aardvarks were harmed in the creation of this website; Armadillos make good alternatives to aardvarks when dipped in hot tar followed by dry grass cuttings.
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Contact
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Any questions, comments, suggestions, complaints or personal requests for assisting in the transfer of funds from deposed dictators, may be emailed to me at: saa@bigfoot.com
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"I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable."
-- Max Beerbohm.
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My Other Pages
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Random articles
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Not my pages
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My current research group - I am currently PostDoc'ing in Prof. J. A. McCammon's group at the University of California, San Diego.
My former research group - I was a member of Prof. W. G. Richards' research group. We claimed to be computational chemists* interested in biomolecular structure, enzymatic reactions and molecular design stuff.
Sarah's former research group - Sarah was a member of Prof. P. Strange's research group. They appeared to be mainly interested in the dopamine receptor and other GPCR stuff.*
This is a schematic of my dopamine D2(short) receptor. You probably have one of these too.
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Blank Header
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Blank Sub-header
Blank piece of text. What a waste of space.
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By the way, this site is:
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