1-70. (canceled)
71. A system for maintaining a hierarchical conceptual framework, comprising:
a first storage for storing environment information, where the environment information includes information regarding a number of environment levels and information regarding hierarchical relationships between the environment levels;
a second storage for storing item information, where the item information includes information regarding a number of items for placement in the environment levels and information regarding hierarchical relationships between the number of items; and
a third storage for storing information regarding the placement of one or more items from the number of items within the number of environment levels.
72. The system of claim 71, wherein the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage together comprise a relational database.
73. The system of claim 71, wherein the information regarding hierarchical relationships between the number of items further includes item configuration information regarding groupings of items.
74. The system of claim 71, wherein the environment information includes spatial information regarding the environment levels and non-spatial information regarding the environment levels.
75. The system of claim 71, wherein the item information includes physical information regarding the number of items and non-physical information regarding the number of items.
76. The system of claim 71, further comprising a first tool for receiving user placement selections for placing items within the environment levels, where the first tool determines if a received user placement selection is valid based on environment level and item information contained within the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage.
77. The system of claim 76, further comprising a second tool for displaying graphical depictions of selected environment levels and items placed therein based on information stored in the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage.
78. The system of claim 77, wherein the first tool is further configured to receive user manipulations of the graphically depicted environment levels and items placed therein and to modify the information stored in the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage based on the manipulations.
79. The system of claim 71, wherein the information regarding the placement of one or more items from the number of items within the number of environment levels define footprints relating to the placement of items or groupings of items within the environment levels.
80. A method for generating a populated virtual environment, the method comprising:
receiving at least one environment element definition including spatial information regarding at least one environment element and non-spatial information regarding the at least one environment element;
receiving at least one item element definition including spatial information regarding at least one item element and non-spatial information regarding the at least one item element;
receiving configuration selections including groupings of item elements, where the configuration selections include information regarding relationships between item elements in the groupings of item elements; and
receiving environment population selections including information regarding placement of at least one configuration selection within the at least one environment element, where the environment population selections include spatial information regarding the placement of the at least one configuration selection within the at least one environment element and non-spatial information regarding the placement of the at least one configuration selection within the at least one environment element.
81. The method of claim 80, wherein environment elements are arranged hierarchically, such that some environmental elements are logically contained within other environmental elements and share corresponding attributes in common.
82. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving at least one environment element definition further comprises:
providing a listing of potential environmental element attributes to a user; and
receiving one or more of the potential environmental element attributes from the user for association with the at least one environment element.
83. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving at least one environment element definition further comprises:
receiving a graphical depiction of the at least one environment element;
translating the graphical depiction of the at least one environment definition into spatial information regarding the at least one environment element; and
receiving additional non-spatial information regarding the at least one environment element to be associated with the graphical depiction of the at least one environment definition.
84. The method of claim 80, wherein the groupings of item elements are arranged hierarchically, such that some item elements are logically contained within other item elements and share corresponding attributes in common.
85. The method of claim 80, wherein the configuration selections include both spatial and non-spatial information regarding the groupings of item elements.
86. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving environment population selections further comprises:
graphically displaying an environment element;
receiving a graphical depiction of the placement of an item grouping within the displayed environment element; and
translating the graphical depiction of placement into spatial relationship information regarding the item grouping and the displayed environment element.
87. The method of claim 86, further comprising:
determining whether the placement is valid based on the spatial relationship information regarding the item grouping and the displayed environment element and the non-spatial information regarding the environment element and the items contained within the item grouping.
88. The method of claim 87, wherein determining whether the placement is valid, further includes determining whether the item grouping would physically conform to requirements of the proposed placement within the environment element.
89. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving environment population selections further comprises:
receiving multiple environment population selections for distinct positions in time, such that item or item grouping placement within an environmental element may be mapped in time.
90. An environment modeling system, comprising:
means for receiving information regarding a plurality of environment levels, the information including information regarding relationships between the plurality of environment levels;
means for receiving information regarding a plurality of items to be placed within the plurality of environment levels, the information including information regarding relationships between the plurality of items;
means for receiving configuration information relating to groupings of one or more items from the plurality of items; and
means for receiving environment population information indicative of virtual placement of items or groupings of items within the plurality of environment levels.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
We claim:
1. An isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a human MEKK protein.
2. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1, which comprises the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:3, or SEQ ID NO:5.
3. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1, which has at least 98% nucleotide identity with the nucleotide sequence SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:3, or SEQ ID NO:5.
4. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1, which has at least 99% nucleotide identity with the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:3, or SEQ ID NO:5.
5. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1, which has at least 99.5% nucleotide identity with the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:3, or SEQ ID NO:5.
6. A vector comprising the nucleic acid molecule of claim 1.
7. The vector of claim 6, which is an expression vector.
8. A host cell containing the vector of claim 7.
9. A method for producing a human MEKK protein comprising culturing the host cell of claim 8 in a suitable medium until a human MEKK protein is produced.
10. The method of claim 9, further comprising isolating the human MEKK protein from the medium or the host cell.
11. An isolated human MEKK protein.
12. The protein of claim 11, which comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, or SEQ ID NO:6.
13. The protein of claim 11, which has at least 98% amino acid identity with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, or SEQ ID NO:6.
14. The protein of claim 11, which has at least 99% amino acid identity with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, or SEQ ID NO:6.
15. The protein of claim 11 which has at least 99.5% amino acid identity with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6.
16. A fusion protein comprising a human MEKK protein operatively linked to a polypeptide other than human MEKK.
17. Antibodies that specifically bind human MEKK protein.
18. The antibodies of claim 17, which are polyclonal antibodies.
19. The antibodies of claim 17, which are monoclonal antibodies.
20. The antibodies of claim 17 which are coupled to a detectable substance.
21. A nonhuman transgenic animal that contains cells carrying a transgene encoding a human MEKK protein.
22. A method for detecting the presence of human MEKK in a biological sample comprising contacting the biological sample with an agent capable of detecting an indicator of human MEKK activity such that the presence of human MEKK is detected in the biological sample.
23. A method for modulating human MEKK activity in a cell comprising contacting the cell with an agent that modulates human MEKK activity such that human MEKK activity in the cell is modulated.
24. A method for identifying a compound that modulates the activity of a human MEKK protein comprising
providing an indicator composition that comprises a human MEKK protein;
contacting the indicator composition with a test compound; and
determining the effect of the test compound on the activity of the human MEKK protein in the indicator composition to thereby identify a compound that modulates the activity of a human MEKK protein.
25. A cell in which expression of a signal transduction polypeptide is lacking due to targeted disruption of a gene encoding the signal transduction polypeptide.
26. A cell in which mitogen-activated protein kinaseextracellular response kinase (MAPKERK) kinase kinasel (MEKK1) is lacking due to at least one mutation having been introduced into each allele of the gene encoding MEKK1.
27. A method for regulating a human MEKK-dependent process in a human cell comprising contacting the cell with an agent that modulates human MEKK activity such that human MEKK activity in the cell is modulated.