Don\u27t go unless you mean it : a novel with critical afterword : heteronormative masculine performance in contemporary fictions of the rural American south.

This dissertation consists of a full-length novel for an adult audience as well as a substantial critical afterword to elucidate and complicate germane thematic concerns of the creative artifact. The novel, leaning on the rich traditions and many genre conventions of fictions of the American south, tells the story of an unlikely underground coal miner in Blue Banks, a fictional southern town set in the caverns and rolling hills of the western Kentucky coal fields. The narrative follows its fish-out-of-water protagonist, Cody Culver, a fledgling academic who thought he had escaped his fate as a third-generation coal miner when he left Kentucky for graduate school in Chicago, as he finds himself back in the small mining town of his youth, poverty stricken and desperate for work to support his new wife and baby on-the-way. When Cody meets a fellow outsider—the enigmatic Hunter McCready, who has just been released from prison for the attempted murder of Cody’s older brother, Luke—they form a quick, unsettling bond that could turn Cody against his family and the close-knit mining community at large. When the friendship eventually becomes sexual, the affair threatens Cody’s reputation, his marriage, and even his life. Along the way, Cody’s identity is complicated, especially as he learns that Hunter McCready has Klinefelter Syndrome, a condition in which a phenotypic male has an XXY chromosome in place of the much more common XY (male) or XX (female); in other words, Hunter McCready is simultaneously male, female, and neither. If Cody Culver is attracted to, and in love with, someone who is “invisibly” intersex, what does this mean for Cody himself—a cisgender man—concerning his sexuality? Is Cody gay, straight, bisexual, or something else altogether? In what ways does it matter? Who gets to make that decision? These rhetorical questions lead directly into the critical afterword, which is divided into three subtitled sections. The first section synthesizes work by Foucault, Butler, and Blank to consider constructed binaries of sexual orientation, gender, and biological sex. The second section suggests how those constructs interact with the rural American South, giving particular focus to conservative Christian influence. The third section uses examples from selected contemporary literature, including my own creative artifact, to argue the importance of challenging character archetypes in new fictions of the rural American South

Caseous Mitral Annular Calcification Presenting as Retinal Artery Occlusion

Background:The mitral annulus is a key component of the mitral valve, ensuring appropriate function by facilitating complete closure of the leaflets during systole. With age, MAC can occur, potentially resulting in mitral valve dysfunction, infective endocarditis, and arrhythmias. CMAC is a rare variant of MAC, typically involving the posterior annulus. Whilst benign, the risk of complications, such as systemic embolisation, may indicate a surgical approach to management, even in patients who are asymptomatic. Case Presentation: A 60-year-old female, presenting with sudden loss of vision in the lower part of her left eye due to a branch retinal artery embolus, was admitted from ophthalmology services. An outpatient transthoracic echocardiogram showed an abnormal mass on the posterior annulus of the mitral valve. Transoesophageal echocardiography identified a calcified posterior aspect of the mitral annulus with normal leaflet mobility and trivial regurgitation, and an echogenic mass attached to the ventricular aspect of the mitral annulus (at the level of posteromedial commissure), 9×4 mm in size. A cardiac CT showed a caseous mitral valve with evidence of rupture of the calcified shell. Discussion with the surgical multidisciplinary team resulted in a conservative approach, with follow-up echo for monitoring. Conclusion: Whilst a benign and rare variant of MAC, CMAC is associated with a range of pathologies, including mitral valve disease, arrhythmias, and systemic embolisation. Currently, there is no standardised management approach for CMAC. Surgery is currently recommended in the context of already known surgically indicated pathologies, such as severe mitral valve disease or systemic embolisation. However, this conservatively-managed patient has had no further complications with stable echocardiographic appearance on repeat echo 3 months following initial exam

Visual pigments, ocular filters and the evolution of snake vision

Much of what is known about the molecular evolution of vertebrate vision comes from studies of mammals, birds and fish. Reptiles (especially snakes) have barely been sampled in previous studies despite their exceptional diversity of retinal photoreceptor complements. Here we analyse opsin gene sequences and ocular media transmission for up to 69 species to investigate snake visual evolution. Most snakes express three visual opsin genes (rh1, sws1, lws). These opsin genes (especially rh1 and sws1) have undergone much evolutionary change, including modifications of amino acid residues at sites of known importance for spectral tuning, with several tuning site combinations unknown elsewhere among vertebrates. These changes are particularly common among dipsadine and colubrine ‘higher’ snakes. All three opsin genes are inferred to be under purifying selection, though dN/dS varies with respect to some lineages, ecologies, and retinal anatomy. Positive selection was inferred at multiple sites in all three opsins, these being concentrated in transmembrane domains and thus likely to have a substantial effect on spectral tuning and other aspects of opsin function. Snake lenses vary substantially in their spectral transmission. Snakes active at night and some of those active by day have very transmissive lenses, while some primarily diurnal species cut out shorter wavelengths (including UVA). In terms of retinal anatomy, lens transmission, visual pigment spectral tuning and opsin gene evolution the visual system of snakes is exceptionally diverse compared to all other extant tetrapod orders

Recent Asian origin of chytrid fungi causing global amphibian declines

Globalized infectious diseases are causing species declines worldwide, but their source often remains elusive. We used whole-genome sequencing to solve the spatiotemporal origins of the most devastating panzootic to date, caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a proximate driver of global amphibian declines. We traced the source of B. dendrobatidis to the Korean peninsula, where one lineage, BdASIA-1, exhibits the genetic hallmarks of an ancestral population that seeded the panzootic. We date the emergence of this pathogen to the early 20th century, coinciding with the global expansion of commercial trade in amphibians, and we show that intercontinental transmission is ongoing. Our findings point to East Asia as a geographic hotspot for B. dendrobatidis biodiversity and the original source of these lineages that now parasitize amphibians worldwide

Multiple rod - Cone and cone - Rod Photoreceptor transmutations in snakes:Evidence from visual opsin gene expression

In 1934, Gordon Walls forwarded his radical theory of retinal photoreceptor ‘transmutation’. This proposed that rods and cones used for scotopic and photopic vision, respectively, were not fixed but could evolve into each other via a series of morphologically distinguishable intermediates.Walls’ prime evidence came from series of diurnal and nocturnal geckos and snakes that appeared to have pure-cone or pure-rod retinas (in forms that Walls believed evolved from ancestorswith the reverse complement) orwhich possessed intermediate photoreceptor cells.Wallswas limited in testing his theory because the precise identity of visual pigments present in photoreceptors was then unknown. Subsequent molecular research has hitherto neglected this topic but presents new opportunities. We identify three visual opsin genes, rh1, sws1 and lws, in retinalmRNA of an ecologically and taxonomically diverse sample of snakes central toWalls’ theory. We conclude that photoreceptors with superficially rod- or cone-like morphology are not limited to containing scotopic or photopic opsins, respectively. Walls’ theory is essentially correct, and more research is needed to identify the patterns, processes and functional implications of transmutation. Future research will help to clarify the fundamental properties and physiology of photoreceptors adapted to function in different light levels.8 page(s