Digital Commons Network^™

Stewarding College Music Training In America: The Emergence Of Music Entrepreneurship Education And The National Association Of Schools Of Music, Kathryn Louise Brown

Theses and Dissertations

As the only nationally recognized accreditor for American postsecondary music units, the National Association of Music (NASM) determines quality standards for American music training. In an effort to improve professional outcomes for music school graduates, NASM added an entrepreneurial component to both graduate and undergraduate accreditation standards as early as 1999. References to entrepreneurship within NASM conference proceedings increased between the mid-1960s and 1995, as NASM stewarded American college music training through numerous sustainability challenges resulting from intense technological, economic, political, and cultural change. Music entrepreneurship education emerged from the development of curricular innovations in response to these challenges: music …

Study Of Transition State Stabilization Using Molecular Rotors, Erik Carl Vik

Theses and Dissertations

Molecular devices that function as rotors and measurement devices are the main topic of this dissertation. Each study contains a device based on an N-phenylimide framework, which has restricted rotation about the N-C (imide-phenyl) single bond due to a steric clash from the imide carbonyl and the phenyl rings ortho substituent. In general, two ground states are observed by 1H NMR, which are separated by a single transition state (TS). Incorporation of non-covalent interactions into the TS led to measurable changes in the rate for rotation. While the molecules in this dissertation revealed details that could not have been predicted, …

Analysis Of Hpv16 Variants In The Carolina Women’S Care Study And A Comparison Of Gene Expression Profiles Of Exfoliated Cervical Cells From Women Who Either Clear Or Do Not Clear An Hpv16 Infection, Erica Shirlene Green

Theses and Dissertations

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the etiologic agent for cervical cancer with HPV type 16 (HPV16) being found in about 50% of cervical cancers worldwide. HPVs vary in genomic (DNA) sequence not only between types, but also within types, known as variants. Variants of a particular HPV type may differ by up to 2% in nucleotide sequence in the coding region and up to 5% in the noncoding region. Variants within HPV16 have been identified and grouped into six distinct phylogenetic branches, which segregate geographically: European (E), Asian-American (As.A), African-1 (Af-1), African-2 (Af- 2), Asian (As), and North American (NA). However, …

Did Medicaid Expansion Under The Affordable Care Act Reduce The Likelihood That People Report Employment Status Changes Due To Health, U.S., 2009-2017, Songyuan Deng

Theses and Dissertations

Medicaid expansion of Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended coverage to low-income working adults. While Medicaid expansion led to increased healthcare use and national healthcare expenditures, current studies do not examine the effects of Medicaid expansion on health status from the perspective of social roles, for example, changes in employment status. This study use data from the Current Population Survey to examine the association between Medicaid expansion and the probability to attribute part-time work or not-in-labor- force to health issues among people with family annual income no more than 138 of Federal Poverty Level, with a difference-in-differences study design. We found …

Properties, Learning Algorithms, And Applications Of Chain Graphs And Bayesian Hypergraphs, Mohammad Ali Javidian

Theses and Dissertations

Probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) use graphs, either undirected, directed, or mixed, to represent possible dependencies among the variables of a multivariate probability distri- bution. PGMs, such as Bayesian networks and Markov networks, are now widely accepted as a powerful and mature framework for reasoning and decision making under uncertainty in knowledge-based systems. With the increase of their popularity, the range of graphical models being investigated and used has also expanded. Several types of graphs with dif- ferent conditional independence interpretations - also known as Markov properties - have been proposed and used in graphical models.

The graphical structure of a …

Person Identification With Convolutional Neural Networks, Kang Zheng

Theses and Dissertations

Person identification aims at matching persons across images or videos captured by different cameras, without requiring the presence of persons’ faces. It is an important problem in computer vision community and has many important real-world applica- tions, such as person search, security surveillance, and no-checkout stores. However, this problem is very challenging due to various factors, such as illumination varia- tion, view changes, human pose deformation, and occlusion. Traditional approaches generally focus on hand-crafting features and/or learning distance metrics for match- ing to tackle these challenges. With Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), feature extraction and metric learning can be combined in …

An Investigation Into The Use Of Escape Games In High School Social Studies Classes: A Mixed Methods Action Research Study, John Heider

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study explored the potential approaches to and benefits of educational escape games in secondary school social studies classes. The problem of practice that guided this study is the lack of data on whether or how teachers should use escape games. This study was based on a constructivist theoretical framework and explored the following research questions:

1. To what extent can playing and designing educational escape games advance students' affective development, including engagement, resilience, and intrinsic motivation?

2. To what extent can escape games advance students' cognitive development, including content mastery and critical thinking skills?

3. To what …

Bison Simulation-Based Identification Of Important Design Criteria For U3si2 Fuels With Composite-Monolithic Duplex Sic Cladding, Jacob A. Yingling

Theses and Dissertations

Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF) require a combination of fuel and cladding which have comparable longevity characteristics to UO2 while improving resistance to radiological release during and after accidents. U3Si2 has been proposed for use in ATF concepts for its high uranium density and high thermal conductivity which provide improved fuel performance. However, some of U3Si2’s material properties are not well understood. One such property, thermal creep of U3Si2, is an important contributing factor to U3Si2’s viability as an ATF. No experimentally derived thermal creep model is published for U3Si2, and previous analyses of compressive thermal creep experimental data lack statistical …

The Relations Between Adherence To Behavioral Treatments And Parent Stress In Families Of Children With Asd, Aimee Rovane

Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies suggest that parent involvement with behavior treatment for associated challenging behaviors (ACBs) may reduce parent stress in families with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it is not known whether high treatment adherence to protocols is associated with reduced parent stress, or which factors that may moderate this relation. The current study examined the relation between parents’ adherence to behavioral treatments and parent stress, and whether parents’ perceptions toward treatment moderate this association. Participants were 190 mothers, fathers, or caregivers of a child with ASD. A bivariate correlation matrix examined associations between each variable, and 3 separate linear regression …

Numerical Methods For A Class Of Reaction-Diffusion Equations With Free Boundaries, Shuang Liu

Theses and Dissertations

The spreading behavior of new or invasive species is a central topic in ecology. The modelings of free boundary problems are widely studied to better understand the nature of spreading behavior of new species. From mathematical modeling point of view, it is a challenge to perform numerical simulations of free boundary problems, due to the moving boundary, the stiffness of the system and topological changes.

In this work, we design numerical methods to investigate the spreading behavior of new species for a diffusive logistic model with a free boundary and a diffusive competition system with free boundaries. We develop a …

Assessing The Impact Of South Carolina’S Medicaid Adult Dental Policy On Dental Emergency Department Visits, Victor Kirksey

Theses and Dissertations

Since the implementation of the South Carolina Medicaid adult dental benefit, there has been limited public knowledge on how effective the policy has been in increasing access to dental services for Medicaid adults.The South Carolina Medicaid eligibility dataset, all payer emergency department dataset and, Medicaid dental claims dataset were examined from the period of December 2011- December 2017. Approximately 16% of enrollees had a dental visit since policy initiation. In the adjusted analysis, ED visits made by Medicaid enrollees during the second and first period before policy initiation were more likely to have a non-traumatic dental diagnosis, with respective adjusted …

Machine Learning Based Ultra High Carbon Steel Image Segmentation, Sumith Kuttiyil Suresh

Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical and structural properties of ultra-high carbon steel are determined by their microstructures composed of constituents such as pearlite and spheroidites. Locating micro constituents and quantitatively measuring its presence is key for material researchers to study the physical properties of the carbon steel materials. This micrograph analysis is currently done manually and subjectively by material scientists, which is tedious and time-consuming. Here we propose to apply the image segmentation algorithm called U-Net to achieve automated labeling of steel microstructures on a subset of ultra- high carbon steel image dataset containing pearlite and spheroidite as the primary micro constituents. Our work …

Planning For Healthcare Quality Using Procurement As A Strategy: A Case Study Exploring An Outcomes-Oriented Approach To Healthcare Procurement, Kassandra A. Alia

Theses and Dissertations

The United States has one of the most costly healthcare systems in the world, yet also ranks lower in patient outcomes in comparison with many other developed countries. A focus on quality implementation may help accelerate ongoing efforts to improve healthcare quality. The overall purpose of this study was to explore outcomes-oriented contracting as a mechanism for embedding quality implementation planning proactively into the process for procuring healthcare services. A single case study methodology was utilized to examine changes in procurements over time following implementation of an outcomes-oriented contracting approach within an organization that provides funding for behavioral health and …

Examining The Experiences Of Retained Non-Rural Teachers Serving In High-Turnover Rural School Districts, Whitney Leigh Prowell

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe factors and conditions necessary to retain non-rural public school teachers in high-turnover rural districts in South Carolina. Research on retaining non-rural teachers in rural districts is scarce. This phenomenological interview study describes rural teaching experiences from the perspective of non-rural teachers and provides insight into factors that influence the decision-making of non-rural teachers regarding continued employment in their district.

Data was gathered from interviews with 11 participants. South Carolina was selected because it is a highly rural state with a severe teacher shortage. A phenomenological design helped to answer the study‘s overarching …

Effects Of Radioactive Contamination And Human Disturbance On The Mammals Of Fukushima, Japan, Melissa Frances Groleau

Theses and Dissertations

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident is one of two disasters ranked as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the highest possible rank. The Fukushima Prefecture and surrounding region, including the people and wildlife, were contaminated with large amounts of radioactive material. It is well known that ionizing radiation causes many negative effects on the health of animals. This study used motion activated cameras throughout the Fukushima Daiichi Exclusion Zone and surrounding area to investigate the effect of chronic exposure to low-dose radiation on medium- to large-sized mammal abundance and distribution. Only mild effects of ambient …

Improving Person-Independent Facial Expression Recognition Using Deep Learning, Jie Cai

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few years, deep learning, e.g., Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), have shown promise on facial expression recog- nition. However, the performance degrades dramatically especially in close-to-real-world settings due to high intra-class variations and high inter-class similarities introduced by subtle facial appearance changes, head pose variations, illumination changes, occlusions, and identity-related attributes, e.g., age, race, and gender. In this work, we developed two novel CNN frameworks and one novel GAN approach to learn discriminative features for facial expression recognition.

First, a novel island loss is proposed to enhance the discriminative power of learned deep …

The Intergenerational Effects Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On Children’S Emergency Department Utilization And Depression And Anxiety In South Carolina, Eboni E. Haynes

Theses and Dissertations

Adult exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is common in the U.S., with over half of adults reporting exposure to at least one ACE. Childhood trauma is associated with risk factors for premature death, disability, poor physical and mental health, and lower quality of life in adults. Traumatic experiences also influence parenting behaviors later in life, placing offspring at an increased risk of ACE exposure. Few studies have explored the intergenerational effects of ACEs on the health and well-being of offspring. This study sought to identify whether associations existed between caregiver ACE exposures and emergency department (ED) utilization for sick …

The Conversational Dynamic In American Public Life, Hannah Goff Spicher

Theses and Dissertations

A confluence of factors has sparked a sustained, public preoccupation with conversation. Brewing since the fifteenth century and overtly public since the middle of the nineteenth century, the explosion of public models of conversation that emerged in the European and American rhetorical traditions is significant—without precedent—in the history of rhetoric. This interest in conversation is so pronounced as to penetrate not just public speaking practices, but subtler interpretations of law, philosophy, commerce, and government. I identify this as the conversational turn. The extent to which this saturation was truly conversational is the subject of much debate. However, the contours …

Early Behavioral And Physiological Markers Of Social Anxiety In Fragile X Syndrome, Conner J. Black

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Social Anxiety is diagnosed in approximately 10% of neurotypical children. If left untreated, negative outcomes are highly prevalent later in life. Thus, understanding the earliest features of social anxiety can help to mitigate detrimental outcomes. Fragile X Syndrome, which has a high prevalence of social anxiety, is a genetic syndrome which creates a unique opportunity to study the earliest predictors of social anxiety before formal diagnosis. Fragile X Syndrome presents with intellectual disability and an increased prevalence of maladaptive behaviors. The current study utilized a bio-behavioral approach to study the earliest marker of social anxiety in 12- month-old infants …

Insider’S Misuse Detection: From Hidden Markov Model To Deep Learning, Ahmed Saaudi

Theses and Dissertations

Malicious insiders increasingly affect organizations by leaking classified data to unautho- rized entities. Detecting insiders’ misuses in computer systems is a challenging problem. In this dissertation, we propose two approaches to detect such threats: a probabilistic graph- ical model-based approach and a deep learning-based approach. We investigate the logs of computer-based activities to discover patterns of misuse. We model user’s behaviors as sequences of computer-based events.

For our probabilistic graphical model-based approach, we propose an unsupervised model for insider’s misuse detection. That is, we develop Stochastic Gradient Descent method to learn Hidden Markov Models (SGD-HMM) with the goal of analyzing …

Study Of The Inflammatory And Fibrotic Pathology In The Gut Following Microcystin Exposure Under Conditions Of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease., Sutapa Sarkar

Theses and Dissertations

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a global pandemic with increased risks of chronic inflammation in obese and elderly population. It has become a major public health concern due to the unavailability of proper therapeutic approaches. NAFLD is a condition of the liver involving wide spectrum of events including accumulation of fat in the liver and inflammation, which can progress to a fibrotic and cirrhotic phenotype, often termed as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In this backdrop, exposure to environmental toxins from harmful algal blooms could prove detrimental to the overweight, obese or elderly population. NAFLD not only affects the liver …

Approaches To Teaching Music Reading To Piano Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rachel Elizabeth Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to collect information about teaching music reading to piano students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and to determine best teaching practices that may be implemented into existing curricula. The study involved interviewing six professionals who are nationally recognized for successfully teaching piano to students with ASD and analyzing the interviews to learn their procedures for teaching music reading to this population.

The interviews contain information concerning the backgrounds of the individuals being interviewed, the demographic backgrounds of students being taught, and the pedagogical process, instructional materials and technology used for teaching music reading in lessons. …

Emerging Populations: An Analysis Of Twenty-First Century Caribbean Short Stories, Jeremy Patterson

Theses and Dissertations

The Caribbean has always been a contested space, a space difficult to define, and the literary genre of the short story has always been difficult to define as well. As a region and as a genre, what they share is less prestige, and less development, than other regions and genres. This dissertation brings both of these elements together in a comparative literature study of three twenty-first century Caribbean short story anthologies from the three major linguistic traditions of the Caribbean (English, French, and Spanish). The distinguishing characteristic of these short stories, and the overarching framework for this study, is that …

Stacked Modelling Framework, Kareem Abdelfatah

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis develops a predictive modeling framework based on stacked Gaussian processes and applies it to two main applications in environmental and chemical en- gineering. First, a network of independently trained Gaussian processes (StackedGP) is introduced to obtain analytical predictions of quantities of interest (model out- puts) with quantified uncertainties. StackedGP framework supports component- based modeling in different fields such as environmental and chemical science, en- hances predictions of quantities of interest through a cascade of intermediate predic- tions usually addressed by cokriging, and propagates uncertainties through emulated dynamical systems driven by uncertain forcing variables. By using analytical first and …

Dietary Advanced Glycation End-Products (Ages) And Breast Cancer Risk And Survival, Omonefe Opeyemi Omofuma

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases including cancer. AGEs are produced endogenously and are also consumed from foods. High amounts of AGEs are found in animal products and processed foods, and AGE formation is accelerated during cooking at high temperatures. Using data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO), we assigned and quantified NƐ-carboxymethyl-lysine (CML)-AGE content in food and investigated the association between dietary AGE intake and breast cancer (BrCa) risk. We assessed whether the risk was modified by race/ethnicity, obesity status, fruit and vegetable intake, BrCa invasiveness …

A Foundation For Understanding The Neurocognitive Processes That Underlie Mathematics Performance In Children, Christopher Anzalone

Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated the prognostic utility of resting state EEG coherence in the prediction of standardized mathematics scores. Quantitative EEG analyses were performed for 60 school-aged children (ages 7 to 12 years) with and without math learning disabilities (MLD). Analyses assessing intrahemispheric coherence at rest were performed across the entire sample and several coherence networks were extracted.

Specifically, networks that included Brodmann area 40 (BA 40) -- a region of the brain heavily involved in the cognitive processes responsible for mathematics performance (Anderson, Betts, Ferris, & Fincham, 2011; Cohen, Dehaene, Chochon, Lehericy, & Naccache, 2000; Kroger, Nystrom, Cohen, & …

A Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer For Raman Imaging And Remote Spectroscopy, Ashley Nicole Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Raman and Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) are optical techniques that provide information about the chemical makeup of a sample without any preparation or physical contact with it. For this reason, Raman and LIBS spectrometers are among the instruments selected for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission and are being considered for future missions to the Jovian moons, asteroids and comets. Such future missions will require smaller, more ruggedized Raman and LIBS spectrometers, and the new type of spectrometers discussed here, the spatial heterodyne Raman and LIBS spectrometers are being developed for this purpose. The SHS is a wide-field, Fourier transform, stationary …

Motivational And Physiological Dysregulation Due To Development And Onset Of Obesity Via Melanocortin 4 Receptor +/- Haploinsufficiency, Alex Steiner

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is one of the leading most health risks around the world, being especially problematic in the United States. A combination of high-fat diets and genetic abnormalities are to blame for the ever-growing number of obese individuals.

Melanocortin 4 receptors are vital for regulating energy expenditure and feeding behaviors; mutations of the receptors have been found to be the leading monogenetic cause of obesity. Using MC4R +/- haploinsufficient rats being fed a range of dietary fat, we investigated the physiological and motivational differences using a locomotor task, an operant task with fixed and progressive ratios, as well as a distraction …

Cationic Cobaltocene Derivatives And Polyelectrolyte Membranes For Energy Storage Applications, Tianyu Zhu

Theses and Dissertations

Metal-containing polyelectrolytes (or metallo-polyelectrolytes) represent a new class of polymeric materials with distinct properties compared to traditional organo- polyelectrolytes or neutral metallopolymers. This emerging class of synthetic materials is ubiquitous for a myriad of utilities ranging from traditional electrolyte chemistry to biomedicals to sustainable applications, to name just a few. This dissertation work is focused on the design, synthesis, characterization and application of advanced metallo- cations and metallo-polyelectrolytes for energy storage applications. First, a template method to prepare metallo-polyelectrolytes based on cationic cobaltocene and polyethylene backbone was described. The resulting membranes are mechanically tough, ionically conductive and chemically inert. Second, …

Implications Of Social Networks On Medication Information- Seeking Among Middle Eastern International Students: An Exploratory Study, Esra Abdoh

Theses and Dissertations

The study examined how international students use their social networks to seek medication information, how their social networks provide social support, and how perceived social support is related to seeking medication information online. While there has been a paucity of research on the way international students seek information in their day-to-day lives (Sin and Kim, 2013), there is still a gap in the literature regarding how social networks employed by international students have a positive impact on building bridges toward home. In particular, no studies on the use of social support in social networks to retrieve medication information exist.

This …