Dis-ing the Main Drag and Walking toward the Public Good in Here Be Dragons : Mapping Queer, Asian-Canadian Identity in Kitchener, Ontario

A young man, who self-identifies as Asian-Canadian and queer, decides to leave the small, socially conservative southwestern Ontario city where he has grown up. He decides to perform the story of this departure, its origins, its process, and its possible outcomes. The performance takes the form of a map, and before long he maps a terrain vastly different from what most who live in the city would recognize as home. As a performative process, mapping is explored as an attempt to apprehend where we are, who we are, and with whom we share the process. Mapping and walking together become an embodied experience carried out from a particular point of view that makes possible both an awareness of multiple perceptions of, and orientations toward, place. Walking and mapping are not just the combined acts of creative-research; they also serve as methodology. José Estaban Muñoz argues that “identities-in-difference” emerge out of a failed interpellation within the public sphere. Disidentifying with the dominant sphere allows for the emergence of a counter-public sphere; the landscape is the same, but the way it is mapped, used, and understood is different. Refuting both identification and counter-identification— or assimilation and anti-assimilation— disidentification allows for a third mode of dealing with dominant, embedded ideology that uses the idea of “working both on and against” as a strategy that tries to transform a cultural logic from within. In this article, Andrew Houston articulates how disidentification was mapped and experienced as a form of dis-orientation in Here Be Dragons, a multi-media, site specific performance staged as part of IMPACT ’11, wherein the audience were invited on a journey of displacement; a mytho-geographical mapping of queer, Asian-Canadian identity in downtown Kitchener, Ontario. In Here Be Dragons, identities-in-difference are experienced as the audience—the tourists to this domain—walk within the testimonial terrain of a young man, navigating a landscape of edges and antagonism in their hometown.Un jeune homme qui se dit lui-même homosexuel et Canadien d’origine asiatique choisit de quitter sa petite ville conservatrice natale, dans le sud-ouest de l’Ontario. Il décide de jouer le récit de ce départ, de montrer ses origines, son déroulement et ses possibles conséquences. Ce jeu prend la forme d’une cartographie et, bientôt, le jeune homme trace une carte très différente de celle que sauraient reconnaître la plupart des habitants de sa ville. La cartographie devient ici un processus performatif, par lequel on tente d’appréhender où nous sommes, qui nous sommes et avec qui nous partageons cette démarche. Ensemble, l’action de cartographier et celle de marcher deviennent une expérience incarnée, réalisée à partir d’un point de vue donné qui permet d’être à la fois à l’écoute de diverses perceptions de l’espace et conscient de multiples orientations possibles. Marcher et cartographier n’est pas qu’un acte de recherche-création; c’est aussi une méthodologie. José Estaban Muñoz fait valoir que les « identités dans la différence » surgissent d’une interpellation dans la sphère publique marquée par l’échec. Se désidentifier de la sphère dominante permet l’émergence d’un espace qui s’oppose à la sphère publique; le paysage est le même, mais les façons dont on l’appréhende, l’utilise et le comprend sont différentes. En réfutant à la fois l’identification et la contre-identification—l’assimilation et l’anti-assimilation — la désidentification représente une troisième façon de négocier l’idéologie dominante, fondée sur l’idée de « travailler à la fois avec et contre » comme stratégie visant à transformer de l’intérieur une logique culturelle. Dans cet article, Andrew Houston explique comment la désidentification a été tracée et vécue comme forme de dés-orientation dans Here Be Dragons, un spectacle multimédia en site spécifique, présenté dans le cadre de IMPACT ’11, qui invitait le public à vivre une expérience de déplacement : tracer la carte mytho-géographique de l’identité homosexuelle et canado-asiatique au centre-ville de Kitchener, en Ontario. Dans Here Be Dragons, le public—les touristes dans ce domaine —fait l’expérience d’ « identités dans la différence » en se promenant dans le terrain qui sert de témoignage à un jeune homme, naviguant un paysage de limites et d’antagonismes dans leur ville natale

The Q rule in Bacteriodetes and the identification and characterization of Porphyromonas gingivalis Glutaminyl Cyclase.

Background: Porphyromonas gingivalis, a major pathogen associated with chronic periodontitis, secretes variety of proteins, majority of which begins with glutamine. Several of these proteins were found with pyroglutamate (pGlu) at N-terminus suggesting the presence of this posttranslational modification pathway in P.gingivalis. The observation that N-terminal glutamine is over-represented as the first amino acid after signal peptide cleavage, and subsequent confirmation of pGlu formation on the nascent protein via mass spectrometry, led us to conclude that an enzyme must be present as the executor of this reaction. Hypothesis: PG2157 is a glutaminyl cyclase and is responsible for the cyclization of N-terminal glutamine residues. Methods: A homology search was used to identify a gene (PG2157) encoding a protein homologous to human glutaminyl cyclase (QC) in the P. gingivalis genome. The gene was cloned, expressed in E. coli and recombinant PgQC purified. The protein was crystalized, and structure determined by molecular replacement. The rPgQC activity was characterized with respect to pH, ionic strength, optimum substrate specificity, and sensitivity to inhibition by an array of non-specific and specific inhibitors. Finally, subcellular localization of PgQC in P. gingivalis was determined. Results: PgQC specificity is restricted for N-terminal glutamine. The enzyme converts this residue to pGlu with kcat/Km at 1.34 s-1. The reaction was fastest at low ionic strength and at pH around 8.0. The activity was inhibited by o-phenanthroline (≥100µM) and EDTA (≥100mM EDTA). Cu2+ and Zn2+ at ≥100nM exerted ≥90% inhibition. The activity was also significantly affected by cysteamine, imidazole, and reduced glutathione. In bacterial cells PgQC was found associated with the inner membrane as a lipoprotein facing the periplasm. The crystalline structure of PgQC showed strong similarity to human QC on the atomic level. Nevertheless, an inhibitor specific for human QC had a limited effect on the PgQC activity. Conclusions: PgQC is an enzyme resembling mammalian QC and it is responsible for pyroglutamination of proteins secreted by the T9SS of P. gingivalis. This activity is likely essential for bacterium viability since all attempts to produce a viable PgQC knockout failed. Taking into account that also T. forsythia and P. intermedia possess similar enzymes and the frequency of the Q value of Bacteriodetes it is likely that similar post-translatonal modification plays a pivotal role in protein secretion by these periodontal pathogens. Therefore, inhibition of bacterial QC may represent a novel approach to treat periodontal diseases

A novel, resistance-linked ovine PrP variant and its equivalent mouse variant modulate the in vitro cell-free conversion of rPrP to PrPres

Prion diseases are associated with the conversion of the normal cellular prion protein, PrPc, to the abnormal, disease-associated form, PrPSc. This conversion can be mimicked in vitro by using a cell-free conversion assay. It has recently been shown that this assay can be modified to use bacterial recombinant PrP as substrate and mimic the in vivo transmission characteristics of rodent scrapie. Here, it is demonstrated that the assay replicates the ovine polymorphism barriers of scrapie transmission. In addition, the recently identified ovine PrP variant ARL168Q, which is associated with resistance of sheep to experimental BSE, modulates the cell-free conversion of ovine recombinant PrP to PrPres by three different types of PrPSc, reducing conversion efficiencies to levels similar to those of the ovine resistance-associated ARR variant. Also, the equivalent variant in mice (L164) is resistant to conversion by 87V scrapie. Together, these results suggest a significant role for this position and/or amino acid in conversion

Adaptive discontinuous Galerkin methods for eigenvalue problems arising in incompressible fluid flows

In this article we consider the a posteriori error estimation and adaptive mesh refinement of discontinuous Galerkin finite element approximations of the hydrodynamic stability problem associated with the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Particular attention is given to the reliable error estimation of the eigenvalue problem in channel and pipe geometries. Here, computable a posteriori error bounds are derived based on employing the generalization of the standard Dual-Weighted-Residual approach, originally developed for the estimation of target functionals of the solution, to eigenvalue/stability problems. The underlying analysis consists of constructing both a dual eigenvalue problem and a dual problem for the original base solution. In this way, errors stemming from both the numerical approximation of the original nonlinear flow problem, as well as the underlying linear eigenvalue problem are correctly controlled. Numerical experiments highlighting the practical performance of the proposed a posteriori error indicator on adaptively refined computational meshes are presented

Motor System Markers of Depression Severity

Physiological health has been linked to increased complexity in the output of physiological systems. For example, as the severity of cardiac disease increases, EKG time series show reduced complexity. The present study investigated the relation between mental health and complexity in motor output. In particular, we tested the hypothesis that depression severity—as measured by the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R)—should be negatively correlated with motor output complexity. Measurements of motor output were obtained when participants generated long sequences of movements in a cyclical aiming task. The resultant movement amplitude time series were submitted to spectral analysis, from which an index of motor output complexity was derived. According to the results, low levels of depression severity were associated with power spectra tending toward white noise (high complexity) and high levels of depression severity were associated with power spectra tending towards pink noise (low complexity). The results appear to support the hypothesis that depression severity and motor output complexity are negatively correlated.https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/u_poster_2013/1020/thumbnail.jp

LABOR PRODUCTIVITY WITHIN THE AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL HOUSEHOLD: THE HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION MODEL REVISITED

The benchmark concept is used to understand changes in farm household response to development dynamics. 1996-97 cropping seasons data from Cameroon is used to develop and test a "separate spheres" household model. Labor productivity for men and women is discussed, along with their implications for research and resource management policies.agriculture, labor productivity, gender, production, consumption, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital,

Evolution of a flexible rule for foraging that copes with environmental variation

PublishedThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Oxford University Press via http://www.currentzoology.org/paperdetail.asp?id=12437Models of adaptive behaviour typically assume that animals behave as though they have highly complex, detailed strategies for making decisions. In reality, selection favours the optimal balance between the costs and benefits of complexity. Here we investigate this trade-off for an animal that has to decide whether or not to forage for food - and so how much energy reserves to store - depending on the food availability in its environment. We evolve a decision rule that controls the target reserve level for different ranges of food availability, but where increasing complexity is costly in that metabolic rate increases with the sensitivity of the rule. The evolved rule tends to be much less complex than the optimal strategy but performs almost as well, while being less costly to implement. It achieves this by being highly sensitive to changing food availability at low food abun-dance - where it provides a close fit to the optimal strategy - but insensitive when food is plentiful. When food availability is high, the target reserve level that evolves is much higher than under the optimal strategy, which has implications for our under-standing of obesity. Our work highlights the important principle of generalisability of simple decision-making mechanisms, which enables animals to respond reasonably well to conditions not directly experienced by themselves or their ancestors.This work was supported by the European Research Council (Advanced Grant 250209 to A.I.H.) and a College for Life Sciences Fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin awarded to A.D.H

Adaptivity and a posteriori error control for bifurcation problems II: Incompressible fluid flow in open systems with Z_2 symmetry

In this article we consider the a posteriori error estimation and adaptive mesh refinement of discontinuous Galerkin finite element approximations of the bifurcation problem associated with the steady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Particular attention is given to the reliable error estimation of the critical Reynolds number at which a steady pitchfork or Hopf bifurcation occurs when the underlying physical system possesses reflectional or Z_2 symmetry. Here, computable a posteriori error bounds are derived based on employing the generalization of the standard Dual-Weighted-Residual approach, originally developed for the estimation of target functionals of the solution, to bifurcation problems. Numerical experiments highlighting the practical performance of the proposed a posteriori error indicator on adaptively refined computational meshes are presented