The Present Giver And Other Stories on Human Connections

The Present Giver and Other Stories on Human Connections is a collection of seven short stories dealing with individuals that struggle to connect to another person. However, the stories also explore that these characters still feel the need to connect, stories very indicative of my own struggles with apathy and relationships. The critical analysis takes on a creative non-fiction approach as a way to show my development as a writer and how these stories relate to what I\u27ve learned through the years from my love of reading

The Televised Social Daydreamer: Mediated Imagined Interaction Hypothesis and Identity Disclosure

Media messages have the power to influence how people imagine their conversations with others, yet there is no research or theoretical construct that examines this more closely. During this multiphase dissertation, a new expansion of imagined interaction theory and a hybridization of imagined interactions theory, social cognitive theory, and the parasocial contact hypothesis is presented: the mediated imagined interaction hypothesis. The mediated imagined interaction hypothesis posits that media influences the way that people imagine their conversations with other people in their lives, so that this new theoretical construct finds itself at the intersection between media and interpersonal communication studies. This dissertation sought to establish a valid and reliable scale for which to measure this construct and then to examine the newly established mediated imagined interaction scale within the concept of disclosures within close friendships. Results across phase one revealed a valid and reliable study with five functions and attributes associated with the mediated imagined interaction hypothesis (rehearsal, reflection, verisimilitude, character, and dialogue). Results of phase two revealed that rehearsal mediated imagined interactions have a moderate, positive effect on the direct disclosure strategy. Additionally, verisimilitude mediated imagined interactions revealed a negative effect on direct disclosure, while risk mediated this process such that the more people felt the media situation was similar to their own, the more risk they associated with the disclosure, which in turn negatively impacted their directness. Limitations, future directions, and theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Television and Fanfiction Online: Finding Identity, Meaning, and Community

This study focuses on fanfiction culture online, particularly how the stories relate to television fandoms and a need to participate or reinterpret a text on an individual and a global level to find meaning in the encoded messages. The study follows theoretical groundwork from Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding and Walter R. Fisher's narrative paradigm. Philosophical considerations are given to communitarian ethics and how humans innately need community to successfully fulfill the need to communicate with others. Through ethnographic research, the study discovers how and why fanfiction is being used to uncover and discover identity, meaning, and community by exploring a community on fanfiction.net

Consensus statement: chromosomal microarray is a first-tier clinical diagnostic test for individuals with developmental disabilities or congenital anomalies

Chromosomal microarray (CMA) is increasingly utilized for genetic testing of individuals with unexplained developmental delay/intellectual disability (DD/ID), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), or multiple congenital anomalies (MCA). Performing CMA and G-banded karyotyping on every patient substantially increases the total cost of genetic testing. The International Standard Cytogenomic Array (ISCA) Consortium held two international workshops and conducted a literature review of 33 studies, including 21,698 patients tested by CMA. We provide an evidence-based summary of clinical cytogenetic testing comparing CMA to G-banded karyotyping with respect to technical advantages and limitations, diagnostic yield for various types of chromosomal aberrations, and issues that affect test interpretation. CMA offers a much higher diagnostic yield (15%–20%) for genetic testing of individuals with unexplained DD/ID, ASD, or MCA than a G-banded karyotype (∼3%, excluding Down syndrome and other recognizable chromosomal syndromes), primarily because of its higher sensitivity for submicroscopic deletions and duplications. Truly balanced rearrangements and low-level mosaicism are generally not detectable by arrays, but these are relatively infrequent causes of abnormal phenotypes in this population (<1%). Available evidence strongly supports the use of CMA in place of G-banded karyotyping as the first-tier cytogenetic diagnostic test for patients with DD/ID, ASD, or MCA. G-banded karyotype analysis should be reserved for patients with obvious chromosomal syndromes (e.g., Down syndrome), a family history of chromosomal rearrangement, or a history of multiple miscarriages

\u3ci\u3eDrosophila\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Elements Maintain a Distinct Set of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years of Evolution

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25–50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3–11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11–27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4–3.6 vs. 8.4–8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu