A General Definition and Nomenclature for Alternative Splicing Events

Understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for the regulation of the transcriptome present in eukaryotic cells is one of the most challenging tasks in the postgenomic era. In this regard, alternative splicing (AS) is a key phenomenon contributing to the production of different mature transcripts from the same primary RNA sequence. As a plethora of different transcript forms is available in databases, a first step to uncover the biology that drives AS is to identify the different types of reflected splicing variation. In this work, we present a general definition of the AS event along with a notation system that involves the relative positions of the splice sites. This nomenclature univocally and dynamically assigns a specific “AS code” to every possible pattern of splicing variation. On the basis of this definition and the corresponding codes, we have developed a computational tool (AStalavista) that automatically characterizes the complete landscape of AS events in a given transcript annotation of a genome, thus providing a platform to investigate the transcriptome diversity across genes, chromosomes, and species. Our analysis reveals that a substantial part—in human more than a quarter—of the observed splicing variations are ignored in common classification pipelines. We have used AStalavista to investigate and to compare the AS landscape of different reference annotation sets in human and in other metazoan species and found that proportions of AS events change substantially depending on the annotation protocol, species-specific attributes, and coding constraints acting on the transcripts. The AStalavista system therefore provides a general framework to conduct specific studies investigating the occurrence, impact, and regulation of AS

The Rainbow Flag and the Green Carnation: Grindr in The Gay Village

This paper uses autoethnography to examine locative media — specifically, the location–based social network app Grindr — in the context of spatial practices. Because of the way it integrates the physical location of a user in the construction of a digital space, its curious political and logistical challenge to previously defined spatial arrangements such as gay villages, and the negotiation over interpersonal relations its use entails, Grindr poses a unique case to examine questions around space and locative media. I argue that Grindr harkens back to Pre–Stonewall modes of cruising and socializing through the manipulation of cues, codes, and symbols and disturbs the link between spatial arrangements based on co–presence and gay identity politics

The Coded Schoolhouse: One-to-One Tablet Computer Programs and Urban Education

Using a South Los Angeles charter school of approximately 650 students operated by a non-profit charter management organization (CMO) as the primary field site, this two-year, ethnographic research project examines the implementation of a one-to-one tablet computer program in a public high school. This dissertation examines the variety of ways that information and media technology function in everyday life within the institution — including classroom instruction, school discipline, and evaluation — through qualitative methods, primarily class observations, photographs, and interviews with teachers, students, and administrators as the program evolved over two consecutive school years. This project contributes needed empirical context to questions of technological innovation in public education, providing the first-ever multi-year study of a one-to-one tablet computer program in a California public school. I argue that a number of factors contribute to an overall resistance among teachers and students toward the use of tablet computers for instructional purposes, including the mandates of administrators, publishers, and hardware manufacturers; the resource requirements of network infrastructure; a number of professional demands placed on teachers; and a lack of autonomy among student users. By contrast, school administrators experience few barriers to using tablet computers for surveillance, discipline, and recordkeeping. I explore issues of labor and surveillance related to this program to dispute persistent narratives about the so-called digital divide and to complicate the virtue of access espoused by the library and information professions

The Rainbow Flag and the Green Carnation: Grindr in The Gay Village

This paper uses autoethnography to examine locative media — specifically, the location–based social network app Grindr — in the context of spatial practices. Because of the way it integrates the physical location of a user in the construction of a digital space, its curious political and logistical challenge to previously defined spatial arrangements such as gay villages, and the negotiation over interpersonal relations its use entails, Grindr poses a unique case to examine questions around space and locative media. I argue that Grindr harkens back to Pre–Stonewall modes of cruising and socializing through the manipulation of cues, codes, and symbols and disturbs the link between spatial arrangements based on co–presence and gay identity politics