Swimming behavior in temperate forest ants.

Most terrestrial arthropods are helpless in water, and falling from a tree into a flooded forest understory should be especially problematic for small, cursorial organisms like ants. Whereas many species of tropical arboreal ants can tread across the water surface (i.e., swim), less is known of this behavior in temperate forest ants. I tested for swimming ability in various ant species collected from tree trunks in Kentucky. Results show that Camponotus pennsylvanicus, and C. nearcticus, are strong swimmers (operationally defined as directed motion at speeds \u3e 3 body lengths per sec.), while Crematogaster ashmeadi, and Monomorium minimum tend to struggle and become trapped at the water surface. Laboratory studies suggest that the ants direct their swimming toward dark objects (i.e., skototaxis), presumably to locate tree trunks or other emergent structures. Collectively, these results suggest that living and foraging well above the ground poses special challenges for cursorial animals

Our Famous Blue Raincoat: The Phenomenon of Leonard Cohen and the Changing Discourses of Celebrity in Canada

The history of Leonard Cohen’s career over the last sixty years is also a reflection of the development of contemporary celebrity culture in Canada. One of the main conditions that allowed this culture to emerge is the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (1949-51). As a result, the Canadian government strengthened cultural policy and developed the Canada Council for the Arts to support cultural production. In 1958, Cohen was a recipient of the new Canada Council Junior Arts Fellowships. Using the celebrity phenomenon of Cohen as my object of research, this dissertation asks: How is the discourse of celebrity constructed in Canada from the mid-twentieth century to the early decades of the twenty-first century? Developing a discursive analysis, I illuminate how we talk about celebrity in Canada at certain socio-historical moments and portray Canada as a nation ambivalent about celebrity. Within the early industrial production of Cohen’s poetic celebrity, discourses of literary celebrity, Canadian celebrity, and cultural nationalism discursively manage his biographical production as a popular and accessible poet. In turn, discourses of intimacy connect Cohen with his fans, as fans seek to discover the “real” Cohen through his poetry and music. However, these feelings of intimacy are disparaged through a discourse of the obsessive and emotional fan perpetuated in the media coverage of Montreal 2000: The Leonard Cohen Event. After Cohen’s death, I discover a shift away from this discourse. The media coverage of Cohen’s death circulates an affective atmosphere of grief and mourning, presents the emotionality of fans as appropriate, and offers socially normative ways of coping with this loss. I explore my own complex emotional reaction to Cohen’s death as a fan and academic through an autoethnographic approach, seeking to depathologize the emotional experiences of academia and fandom. One of the most significant changes in discourses of Canadian celebrity that I identify is a potentially seismic shift from willful avoidance to zero tolerance regarding problematic celebrity behaviour. In conclusion, I build on this discourse by exploring the things we do not talk about when we talk about Leonard Cohen

Outlaw, outcast, and Obergefell: an analysis of the United States Supreme Court’s ideology in cases that impact the LGBT community

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)This study employs an ideological rhetorical analysis to investigate three United States Supreme Court decisions concerning the liberties of the LGBT community. An analysis of the rhetoric from these cases for both the majority and dissenting opinions is conducted. These artifacts include Lawrence v. Texas (2003), United States v. Windsor (2013), and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). The purpose of this study is to analyze the rhetoric of these cases to understand the themes undergirding decisions about cases concerning the LGBT community. Themes of liberty, fundamental rights, equal protection, power, and polarization emerge in this study. Ultimately, it is determined that two groups are impacted by these decisions, these groups include the LGBT community and religious members who deem homosexuality as immoral

Digital Citizenry and Personal Branding: An IoT Data Function

Personal Branding is a way to elevate oneself in new marketing concept. For many, building and managing a personal brand is about value, mission, image, and vision. However, with the shift in the marketspace and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), Personal Branding has become a data function and a summation of all one’s digital footprints, and how we are seen by Databots and not just from one’s own spectacles or as perceived by others. We are witnessing an upsurge in the use of deep machine learning and predictive analytics to profile and select talents using their personal brand as a data function of their web presence and digital citizenry. We conducted a survey and we observed how many students are not fully aware of their web presence/digital citizenry and how all their digital footprints from their social and professional networks can and will be used to profile them. After identifying this problem, we examined the idea of building and managing a personal brand- with high value by exploring the depths of “Digital Citizenship” concept. To solve this problem, we developed a Personal Branding tool that allows students to develop and promote their own Personal Brand using a Digital Passport. This Digital Citizenry application will also allow students to become fully aware of their Web Presence and manage, facilitate and monitor their Social and Professional Networks with a built-in Digital Footprint Analyzer and their very own Social Media Manager

My Personal Brand and My Web Presence: Mining Digital Footprints and Analyzing Personas in the World of IOT and Digital Citizenry

Personal Branding is a way to elevate oneself in a new marketing concept. For many, building and managing a Personal Brand is about value, mission, image, and vision. However, with the shift in the marketplace and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), Personal Branding has become a data function and summation of one’s Digital Footprint, which can impact how people are seen by Databots and how others observe them. Subsequently, there has been an upsurge in the utilization of deep machine learning and predictive analytics to profile as well as select talents using their Personal Brand as a data function of their Web Presence/Digital Citizenry. To find a solution, a survey was conducted to examine the number of students who are not fully aware of their Web Presence/Digital Citizenry and how their social and professional networks can and will be used to profile them. After identifying this problem, the idea of building and managing a Personal Brand was explored. To solve this problem, a Personal Branding tool that allows students to develop and promote their Personal Brand using a Digital Passport to express, share, and manage a multi-dimensional presentation of all their academic and non-academic achievements

Insights into the Mechanism of Bovine CD38/NAD+Glycohydrolase from the X-Ray Structures of Its Michaelis Complex and Covalently-Trapped Intermediates

Bovine CD38/NAD+glycohydrolase (bCD38) catalyses the hydrolysis of NAD+ into nicotinamide and ADP-ribose and the formation of cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR). We solved the crystal structures of the mono N-glycosylated forms of the ecto-domain of bCD38 or the catalytic residue mutant Glu218Gln in their apo state or bound to aFNAD or rFNAD, two 2′-fluorinated analogs of NAD+. Both compounds behave as mechanism-based inhibitors, allowing the trapping of a reaction intermediate covalently linked to Glu218. Compared to the non-covalent (Michaelis) complex, the ligands adopt a more folded conformation in the covalent complexes. Altogether these crystallographic snapshots along the reaction pathway reveal the drastic conformational rearrangements undergone by the ligand during catalysis with the repositioning of its adenine ring from a solvent-exposed position stacked against Trp168 to a more buried position stacked against Trp181. This adenine flipping between conserved tryptophans is a prerequisite for the proper positioning of the N1 of the adenine ring to perform the nucleophilic attack on the C1′ of the ribofuranoside ring ultimately yielding cADPR. In all structures, however, the adenine ring adopts the most thermodynamically favorable anti conformation, explaining why cyclization, which requires a syn conformation, remains a rare alternate event in the reactions catalyzed by bCD38 (cADPR represents only 1% of the reaction products). In the Michaelis complex, the substrate is bound in a constrained conformation; the enzyme uses this ground-state destabilization, in addition to a hydrophobic environment and desolvation of the nicotinamide-ribosyl bond, to destabilize the scissile bond leading to the formation of a ribooxocarbenium ion intermediate. The Glu218 side chain stabilizes this reaction intermediate and plays another important role during catalysis by polarizing the 2′-OH of the substrate NAD+. Based on our structural analysis and data on active site mutants, we propose a detailed analysis of the catalytic mechanism