Every year, hundreds of babies in Arizona are found to have a serious condition identified through newborn screening (NBS), and with current law requiring Arizona to include new conditions to be added to the recommended uniform screening panel (RUSP) within two years of addition to the RUSP, the number of identified babies can be expected to increase. It is essential that physicians are prepared to handle the results of NBS and discuss the implications, in a timely manner, with their patients in order to facilitate treatment. Purpose: To (1) evaluate the current practices and processes of communicating newborn screening results to parents; (2) assess the effectiveness and timeliness of the communication methods used for conveying NBS results; (3) identify potential barriers and challenges associated with the communication of NBS results. Methods: Approval for this study was obtained from the Arizona State University Institutional Review Board. A survey was generated through Qualtrics and Arizona physicians were contacted via email (n = 462). The email contained a link to the survey, or a scannable QR code was provided if the survey was to be accessed via handheld device. Results: Seventy physicians responded (15% response rate). More than half of the participants often discuss NBS with families prior to conducting the initial screen. 40% of physicians do not feel confident in explaining the purpose and significance of the two newborn screens required by Arizona law. 54% of respondents are not satisfied with the training and resources provided to support them in counseling patients on newborn screening results. 51% of respondents involve a geneticist, other specialist(s), or other experts in the management of an abnormal result. Of the roughly half that do not involve a geneticist or other specialist when an abnormal result requires follow-up, 50% of those physicians order further genetic testing in office. Conclusions: Most physicians agree that their greatest barrier to delivering abnormal screening results is using patient friendly language and would prefer language friendly ACT sheets to improve their communication of abnormal screening results. Incorporating personnel skilled in communicating uncertain news, such as a genetic counselor (GC), into Arizona's NBS program could enhance physician communication skills and improve patient satisfaction, while also providing psychosocial support and facilitating follow-up care for patients.

The field of technical communication studies informational documents, such as instruction manuals or research articles and so on. Games have instructions, or rules, which must be documented. Technical communication scholars have studied documents for video games, but similar research on tabletop rulebook documents appears to be mostly absent, an absence that creates a gap within technical communication research. Filling this gap, my work studies tabletop game rulebooks, which lie within the genre of instruction manuals. Technical communication has produced a theory of effective manual design, and I present much of that theory as, what I call, standards of effective manual design. I observed 30 tabletop game rulebooks to see how well they follow those standards, and I interviewed or surveyed people who played 15 of those games to see how effective the games’ rulebooks are for those people. This allowed me to see how well a rulebook’s adherence to the standards of effective manual design aligned with its effectiveness. This alignment did not always hold; consequently, though an effective rulebook follows the standards of effective manual design, a rulebook can follow said standards yet be ineffective. I conclude that following the standards is only a necessary, not sufficient, condition for making an effective rulebook. The standards must also be used in the correct way and amount.

Territoriality is seen across different species of animals anywhere, from birds, fish, and mammals to reptiles. Although many animals use several types of signals to defend their territories, signals in different sensory modalities have varying properties that may influence their effectiveness in different contexts. This study investigates whether male plateau fence lizards (Sceloporus tristichus) use chemical or visual behavior during territory defense. Both visual and chemical communication modalities inform the audience about the producer’s physiological condition. The results show no obvious tradeoff between visual and chemical modalities in the behavior recorded in the presence of another male lizard compared to when undisturbed, suggesting that these signals are not used in territory defense. An increased visual head bob display is the most common spiny lizard territory defense response to conspecific intruders. However, this is not always the case, as environmental and evolutionary constraints influence communication. This species does not perform typical territorial behavior. However, there was a significant increase in aggressive visual displays, called full shows, in the presence of the intruding live stimulus. An increase in full shows could be a less conspicuous way to defend their territory instead of performing an entire broadcasting head bob display while perched in an open/exposed habitat notably filled with predatory birds. This shows modification within one communication modality to result in more effective communication.

The study aims to explore how startup leaders communicate their vision and use strategic ambiguity in uncertain and dynamic environments, as well as how employees understand the vision. Transitioning from being an entrepreneur to being a leader is challenging. Effective leadership communication in startups is crucial due to its impact on survival rates of businesses and the more direct interaction with employees, compared to established organizations. Previous studies found that effective vision communication motivates followers, thus contributes to the startup’s growth. However, how startup leaders communicate and how members perceive vision in constant changes remain underexplored. The study addresses this gap by investigating how startup leaders use vision communication and its impact on employees' perception and organizational performance as well as how startup leaders use ambiguity as a strategy in uncertain situations. The data was collected through multiple qualitative methods, including observations, case studies, and semi-structured interviews, and analyzed by constant comparison method. The study found that early startup entrepreneurs often communicate a flexible vision that evolves as they bring on new clients and the organization develops. Employees interpret the vision by executing their tasks that are aligned with the vision. Strategic ambiguity is rare in smaller startups due to frequent interactions and task-oriented communication pattern. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

When students move abroad, they imagine what their life abroad would be like. These expectations can differ from reality and could lead to positive or negative expectancy violations. Based on Burgoon’s Expectancy Violation Theory, this research seeks to understand how expectancy violations regarding university support, inclusion with U.S. Americans, and friendships with international students are associated with acculturation, loneliness, and well-being. In addition, this study sought to understand how social capital is associated with acculturation, loneliness, and well-being. 136 international students from 25 different colleges and universities in the United States participated in the online survey. Multiple regressions were performed to understand the relationships between the expectancies and social capital as they relate to acculturation, loneliness, and well-being. Findings showed that when international students perceived that their expectations about university support were positively violated, they reported more acculturation, less loneliness, and more well-being. When they perceived that their expectations about inclusion with U.S. American students were positively violated, they reported more acculturation and well-being, and when they reported that their expectations about international students were positively violated, they reported less loneliness and more well-being. No significant relationships emerged between international students’ social capital and acculturation, loneliness, or well-being, suggesting that the amount of social capital is not as important as the degree and valence of expectancy violations. Considering the findings showed that the expectancy violations about university support were significantly related to the acculturation, loneliness, and well-being of students, universities should not only set students expectations in line with reality, but also support students through their acculturation, loneliness, and well-being. Universities should provide support for students to establish a few meaningful relationships. This could be done through, for example, volunteering opportunities or small-scale events focused on building strong relationships.

Online dating continues to be one of the most common ways people meet one another. Only in the last couple of years has information begun to show how these online sites and applications negatively affect their users. This study examines how the User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) design of the dating app Tinder influences its users and its impact on their mental health and overall well-being. An online survey of 74 Tinder users between the ages of 18 and 35 was conducted, coded, and analyzed. The results of this study corroborate with previous research and claims that different User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) elements within Tinder do impact and influence their users. The results also substantiate the research and claims that online dating and dating apps do impact their users in a predominantly negative manner. Overall, this study found that while dating apps can lend themselves to helping people find someone, they have the power to influence and negatively impact their users’ beliefs, mental health, and overall well-being.

College graduates are expected to acquire certain skill sets that are necessary andsought after by potential employers, as many industries in the United States continue to grow a global footprint. Employers also value good communication skills, and communication classes are a staple of most general education curricula, including those taught on community college campuses. The diversity of the student populations on community college campuses in the United States is vast, as is the cultural wealth accompanying this diversity. Diverse and internationalized student populations at community colleges include local students living in communities surrounding community colleges and international students studying abroad in the United States. This action research study infused intercultural intelligence activities into a third culture Communication 100 classroom using the prescribed course objectives to prepare both local and international students to enter a global, or a glocal-local (glocal) workforce. This was done by having local and international students communicate, share, and teach each other and their instructor via their cultural capital in a third culture classroom. Mixed methods were employed by collecting student reflection journals after completing four class activities that introduced them to the principles of cultural intelligence. Students in an experimental class and two control classes completed the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) as a pre- and post-assessment. The experimental students’ GPI scores indicated they perceived themselves to have grown more on all seven variables in the study and felt more prepared to enter a global workforce. In the experimental class, results from both qualitative and quantitative data indicated that the international and local Latine students had comparable cultural intelligence skills upon entering the class and that they felt they learned more about the world by working with each other. Their perceptions changed in a positive direction regarding their intercultural intelligence growth, and they felt more prepared to enter a global and glocal workforce due to their participation in the Communication 100 third culture classroom.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how humans experience relationships with machines such as love and sex dolls and robots. This study places a particular emphasis on in-depth, rich, and holistic understanding of people’s lived experiences in the context of human-machine relationships and draws on human-machine communication scholarship by examining media evocation perspectives, the role of illusions, and the topic of care. Therefore, this study uses a funneled serial interview design employing three waves of semi-structured interviews (N = 47) with 29 love and sex doll owners and users. Utilizing a phronetic iterative qualitative data analysis approach coupled with metaphor analysis, the findings of this study reveal how participants experience dolls as evocative objects and quasi-others. Moreover, the findings illustrate how participants actively construct and (re)negotiate authenticity in their human-machine relationships, driven by a cyclical process between doll characteristics (agency and presence) and doll owner characteristics (imagination and identity extension) that results in an illusion of being cared for. This study extends previous scholarship by: 1) showcasing a new type of mute machines, namely humanoid mute relational machines; 2) adding empirical evidence to the largely theoretical work on dolls and doll owners; 3) adding empirical evidence to and extending media evocation perspectives by illustrating the suitability of participant metaphors for understanding machines’ evocative nature; and 4) proposing an integrative model of care and illusions that lays the foundation for a new relational interaction illusion model to be examined in future research. This study also discusses practical implications for doll owners, the public, and doll developers.

This research examines supply chain performance and antecedents to better supply chain performance in manufacturing organizations, with a focus on manufacturing organizations following engineer-to-order and assemble-to-order production models. The variables of supply chain integration, internal communication, employee satisfaction, leader support, and the alignment of information and communication technology are empirically supported in affecting supply chain performance, and thus carry managerial and organizational implications in how they can be influenced, ideally for the benefit of manufacturing organizations. The data gathered for this study was obtained through interviews with sourcing professionals, as well as surveys distributed to corporate manufacturing employees. The findings on these variables fall in line with previous research explored in the report, adding credibility to previous studies, as well as their associated recommendations and implications. Organizational management and leadership, to improve supply chain performance, must strategically integrate information and communication technology, be clear and consistent in their messaging to employees, engage in effective conflict resolution, and provide support for necessary transparency and communication-enhancing initiatives.