Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Disaster Resilience By Quantifying Wildland Urban Interface Community Ember Exposure, Dac Trong Nguyen

All Dissertations

Spot fire due to the ember accumulation is considered as the major cause of Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) structure ignition during wildfires. This dissertation develops techniques to investigate the regions on the roof top of a series of buildings which are likely to see the ember build up during an ember storm as well as study the accumulation rate of ember on the roofs. The results from experiments suggested that the vulnerable roof regions where embers have a significant chance of accumulated after landing are highly correlated to the aerodynamic forces on the roof. To be specific, the regions with …

Altared Bodies: Evangelical Purity Rhetorics In The Age Of Sexual Politics, Victoria G. Houser

All Dissertations

This dissertation argues that rhetorical strategies of contemporary evangelical purity movements create and perpetrate systems of sexual violence, heterosexist ideologies, and reproductive violence in the US. Purity culture is a term that references a recently public movement to declare one’s dedication to sexual abstinence before marriage. In 1994, over 210,00 young adults participated in a nationally broadcasted True Love Waits purity rally hosted on the Washington Mall, where they signed purity pledges in front of national news organizations. Altared Bodies: Evangelical Purity Rhetorics in the Age of Sexual Politics maps the shifting popularity of purity culture in public political discourse …

The Impact Of Daylight And Window Views On Health And Recovery: A Quash-Experimental Study Of Patients With Heart Disease In A Cardiac Icu, Roxana Jafarifiroozabadi

All Dissertations

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Being diagnosed with heart disease can lead to depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, and delirium symptoms, which can cause prolonged hospital stays among patients. Evidence suggests that the presence of daylight and window views can influence these symptoms positively. However, no studies to date have differentiated the impact of daylight from window views on heart disease patients or addressed how window use can impact patient recovery in cardiac intensive care units (CICUs).

This IRB-approved study employed a retrospective and prospective quasiexperimental approach to investigate CICU rooms of the same …

Exploring Longleaf Pine Restoration In The Sandhills Of South Carolina, Elizabeth Eleanor Johnson

All Theses

This thesis provides insight on best management practices for a longleaf pine restoration project occurring at the Camden Battlefield and Longleaf Pine Preserve (hereon referred to as the Camden Battlefield or battlefield). Chapter one is a literature review to summarize all the knowledge collected to design, implement, and analyze the work conducted in the subsequent chapters. Chapter two aims to identify and quantify the vegetative species currently found at the battlefield, to characterize vegetative and soil conditions before and after a prescribed fire to part of the battlefield, and to establish a monitoring protocol that could be done indefinitely in …

Shining Light On Retroreflectivity: Perceived Brightness Of Surfaces With Varying Reflective Properties, Savana King

All Theses

Typical road users appear not to understand retroreflectivity despite nightly exposure to retroreflective materials such as road signs. While retroreflective surfaces have been engineered to reflect light back in the direction of its source, retroreflectors appear to be diffuse reflectors in most viewing conditions. This may lead road users to underestimate its value in nighttime roadway applications and contribute to vulnerable road users’ under-use of retroreflective markings to enhance their own conspicuity at night. In this context, a critical benefit of retroreflective materials is a robustness to changes in entrance angle, the angle at which the light strikes the material.This …

Root System Architecture That Improves Biomass Production And Yield Of Soybean, Enoch Noh

All Theses

Soybean [Glycine max (L.)] is the most important oilseed and one of the most important and affordable protein sources worldwide. Enhancing the acquisition of belowground resources has been identified as an opportunity for improving soybean productivity worldwide. Root architecture is gaining interest as a selection criterion in breeding programs for enhancing soil resource acquisition and developing climate-resilient varieties. The objective of this research was to investigate whether root system characteristics are related with aboveground growth and yield of 11 selected soybean genotypes under rainfed conditions. Our goal was to identify beneficial root traits and genotypes that can be included in …

Raising Awareness Of Endangered Species Through The Use Of Digitally Created Characters, Justin Weeks

All Theses

Animated films have no shortage of memorable characters. They are the subjects of the film and are designed intentionally to be appealing. They are also what sell merchandise, as evidenced by high-end collectibles created and sold by toy companies such as McFarlane and Sideshow. [58] [85] Put simply, audiences love the characters in animated films. That same appeal can be used strategically to aid endangered species. [49] Persons that have a positive attitude towards a particular animal are more likely to want to protect it by assisting in its conservation. [57] This protective instinct can be especially strong in the …

The Second-Person Narrative Mode Used As A Proposed Engagement Form In Virtual Reality Storytelling, Rodney Florencio Da Costa

All Theses

Methods of storytelling in cinema, theater, and literature have well-established conventions that have been built throughout narrative history and the development of these more traditional formats. In virtual reality, though, many of the techniques that have formed part of this cinematic language or visual narrative are not easily applied. In general, when the virtual reality narrative term is used, it is associated with filmed or rendered 360º videos that use head-mounted displays for presentation and most often uses first and third-person narratives, which may compromise a director's intent for story flow.

This thesis aims to put a new light on …

Framing Ludens: Pawn Swapping And Game Mode Alteration In An Unreal Engine Game Level, Jeffrey Paul Martell

All Theses

Knight of Drones is a hybrid twin-stick top-down shooter and side-scrolling platformer that aims to bring vintage gameplay to a contemporary game engine. A single swatch of the top-down game mode and a pair of levels from the side-scrolling game mode will be presented beginning with the player characters and player pawn assets and then extending to the level design and game design assets.

The game deals with the fallout effects of climate change and serves as a cautionary tale against pollution and weaponized AI. This message will appear primarily in the game's atmosphere, literally in the background in some …

Site-Specific Nanoparticle Therapy For Treatment Of Medial Arterial Calcification, Tyler James Gibson

All Theses

Vascular calcification is a disease associated with the cardiovascular system in which minerals (i.e. Calcium Phosphate) are deposited into the walls of arteries, veins, and valves of the heart. Although low amounts are common in most individuals, abnormally high deposition of these minerals, specifically calcium salts, reduces vascular elasticity and hardens the artery. Medial arterial calcification (MAC) occurs when minerals diffuse through the artery into the medial layer of the arterial wall. MAC causes hemodynamic disturbances by reducing elasticity in the artery and therefore hardens the artery. MAC can be intensified in combination with other diseases such as diabetes or …

Development Of A Hybrid Hydrogel Drug Delivery System For Treatment Of Ischemic Injury, Andrew Demaria

All Dissertations

In the United States, ischemia resulting from cardiovascular disease and acute trauma affects nearly 50% of all adults. Therapeutic angiogenesis aims to stimulate the formation of new microvasculature that alleviates hypoxia, reduces tissue morbidity, and improves wound healing. The current primary therapeutic approach is vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injection therapy but is hindered by several challenges. Consequently, bioactive small molecules are being used to target hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), the master regulator of oxygen-sensing pathways that is responsible for activating angiogenesis in response to tissue hypoxia. However, successful clinical translation of small molecules for therapeutic angiogenesis still faces several challenges …

Affordance Judgment For Collision Or Bypass Of Objects By Rotating Panels, Balagopal Raveendranath

All Theses

We interact with rotating panels like doors in our day-to-day life. Doors afford the action of entry and exit from an enclosed space. Since a rotating door can pose a risk of collision to a person standing within the swept volume of the door, the ability to judge a safe distance from the door is imperative. The current study investigated the optical information available to judge whether a rotating panel would collide with or bypass a stationary object nearby. On a desktop computer, participants saw the top-down view of a door-like panel, which rotated about one of three different axes …

Detecting Eating Episodes From Daily Patterns Of Wrist Motion Using Recurrent Neural Networks, Adam Patyk

All Theses

This thesis considers the problem of detecting when a person is eating during everyday life by examining daily patterns of wrist motion with recurrent neural networks. Our novelty is analyzing an entire day of data to classify and segment meals with a model we call the “daily pattern classifier”. Previous research has only analyzed short windows on the order of seconds or minutes long that miss larger day-to-day patterns. The goal of this work is to utilize daily contextual indicators to improve eating episode detection and reduce false detections that occur throughout the day.

The wrist motion data used in …

Genetic And Functional Diversity Of Clade A Endosymbionts From The Bahamas And Florida, Nichole Marie Giani

All Theses

Lucinidae clams are known to harbor environmentally acquired endosymbionts within their gills. Although there has been recent work on the genomic and functional diversity of lucinid endosymbionts, there are uncertainties regarding the extent of their diversity and differences in metabolisms under various environmental conditions. In this study, the genetic and functional differences in endosymbionts was examined for six lucinid host species collected from eight total sites from Florida, USA and San Salvador, the Bahamas. There were 42 metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) generated which clustered into three species and six subspecies. MAGs were closely related to clade A endosymbionts Candidatus Thiodiazotropha …

Were The "Best Made Better" Without In-Person Programming? Content Analysis Of Extension 4-H Programming During The Covid-19 Pandemic In South Carolina, Lauren Burdine Hood

All Theses

Since 1902, 4-H Youth Development programs have been implemented by Cooperative Extension Agents or Educators for teaching, influencing, and leading youth to new life skills that can shape and influence their futures. The motto of 4-H is “learn by doing” and is practiced with a hands-on learning approach. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 4-H programs and clubs around the nation were confined to home or distance learning and no group interaction, some even still confined to virtual-only events. This study analyzes how 4-H, specifically in South Carolina, was implemented without meeting in person. 4-H participants and their parents in South Carolina …

Thermoplastic-Thermoset Bonding Via Reactive Interfaces, Eric Charles Rozelsky

All Theses

Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is widely regarded as a high-performance thermoplastic material due to its desirable properties, including a high strength to weight ratio and excellent chemical stability. However, a practical challenge to working with PEEK is that its chemical resistance and inertness make the adhesion of functional coatings to PEEK surfaces quite difficult. To this end, we have developed a method for promoting adhesion between PEEK and a thermoset epoxy coating by introducing a reactive and mechanically robust polymer layer at the interface, which bonds with both the substrate and the coating.

Our process involves pre-treatment of PEEK using …

Macroevolution Of Bold Color Patterns Across Teleostean Fishes, Katerina Zapfe

All Theses

Fishes include some of the most visually striking vertebrate radiations and have repeatedly evolved bold color patterns, including bars, stripes, and spots. Such strong color patterns are hypothesized to provide multiple functions, including avoiding predation by obscuring recognizable features and communicating with others to secure territories and mates. Despite increasing focus on the functions and proximate drivers of color pattern evolution, the relevance of such pressures across broad taxonomic and time scales remain much less resolved. Using over 5000 species within the largest vertebrate radiation, teleostean fishes, I employ phylogenetic comparative methods to explore the lability and potential coevolutionary relationships …

Systems Genetics Of Cocaine And Methamphetamine Consumption In Drosophila Melanogaster, Brandon Baker

All Dissertations

Abuse and addiction to psychostimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine present a worldwide health issue. Although the molecular mechanisms that mediate the effects of these drugs are well characterized, the underlying genetic basis of variation in differing responses to drugs of abuse are largely unknown. The Drosophila melanogaster model system can be used to identify genetic and transcriptional networks that underlie variation in effects of drug exposure that can serve as a blueprint for subsequent studies on humans. Drosophila possess a dopamine transporter to which cocaine and methamphetamine bind, and exhibit many of the effects that are observed in humans …

The In Vivo And In Vitro Characterization Of Collagen/Tannic Acid Beads As An Injectable Tissue Regenerative Scaffold For Breast Reconstruction Post-Lumpectomy, Andrew Baldwin

All Dissertations

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer diagnoses worldwide. In the United States, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer within their lifetime. Breast reconstructive surgeries are an important part of patient health and well being following tumor removal. Unfortunately, modern reconstructive techniques frequently result in surgical complications, such as infection and tissue necrosis. Breast cancer recurrence is also a serious concern for patients, occurring in 10-41% of patients after 5 years depending on the severity of the original diagnosis. Tannic acid (TA), a naturally occurring polyphenol and antioxidant, has been researched …

Biofilm Deterrence On Surfaces Exposed To Continuous Ultraviolet-C Radiation As A Tool For Mitigating Bacterial Pathogens: Developing A Biofilm-Uvc Intensity Response Model, Hamed Torkzadeh

All Dissertations

Biofilm growth on engineered surfaces poses a risk to public health and presents a challenge in several industries, such as the food industry, as biofilms harbor a wide range of microorganisms, including opportunistic respiratory pathogens. In the context of drinking water, conventional secondary disinfectants such as free chlorine and chloramines are not known to fully prevent biofilm formation at relevant concentrations necessitating the development of scalable, effective interventions. The issue of biofilms and their role as a host to a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms can be more effectively addressed at the point-of-dispensing. Unlike building-point-of-entry or point-of-use devices interventions, there …

Spatial Distributions Of Arthropods In Soybean And Implications For Pest Management, Anthony Daniel Greene

All Dissertations

Site-specific management of insect pests of field crops has the potential to decrease control costs and environmental impacts associated with traditional pest management tactics, but the success of these programs relies on the accurate characterization of arthropod distributions within a crop. Although the expense of the fine-scale spatial sampling required for management zone identification in fields may offset the overall reduction in costs achieved with site-specific pest management, the correlation of arthropod counts with ground-based and remotely sensed field attribute data could help to make site-specific pest management programs more profitable. In this study, we chose to determine how insect …

Pediatric Asthma Management: Navigating Child, Family, Healthcare, And Community Factors, Laura Rolke

All Dissertations

Pediatric asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood and disproportionately impacts Black/African American and low-income children. Pediatric asthma management involves regular clinical follow-up, medication adherence, trigger management, and asthma education. This dissertation focuses on the outpatient / primary care management of asthma among Medicaid-insured children ages seven-to-twelve in South Carolina. Chapters 1 & 2 provide an introduction and background to pediatric asthma and pediatric asthma management. The Pediatric Self-Management Model is introduced and discussed to identify modifiable and non-modifiable factors that influence the processes and behaviors of pediatric asthma management. Chapter 3 follows by introducing the methodology for …

Evaluating Pea (Pisum Sativum L.) For Nutritional Traits And Implications For Organic Agriculture And Biofortification, Sarah Powers

All Dissertations

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important cool season food legume for sustainable food production and human nutrition due to its nitrogen fixation capabilities and nutrient-dense seed. However, phosphorus (P) can be a major limiting nutrient for pea production, as their nodules require additional amounts of P to perform and maintain nitrogen fixation activity, and for adequate biomass and yield. To determine if genetic variation exists in pea’s ability to take up and remobilize P from the soil, we conducted a greenhouse experiment to collect tissues at two developmental stages from plants grown under a normal and reduce P …

Stochastic Optimization For Renewable Energy System Design And Operation, Berkay Eren Gulcan

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, we present novel stochastic optimization models and solution methods for the optimization of renewable energy systems. Specifically, the focus is on bioenergy supply chains and operations in the presence of uncertainty. Overall, our applications highlight the breadth in which stochastic programming models can be applied in the energy sector.

We first study the impact of biomass blending practice on reducing the cost of producing biofuels. In detail, we consider a biomass supply chain problem where the goal is to identify purchase quantities of different biomass feedstocks from possible suppliers in order to meet the quality requirements of …

Princesses, Divas, And Mother Runners: Gendered Institutional And Vernacular Rhetorics In Running Events, Stacy Cacciatore

All Dissertations

This project studies at the intersection of gender, rhetoric, and running, examining, in particular, the way rhetorics are gendered in institutional and vernacular spaces surrounding coed and women’s running events. It asks: In what ways are rhetorics of coed and women’s running events gendered? What are the similarities and differences between institutional and vernacular rhetorics in these events? How are rhetorics in virtual events gendered digitally? Conducting a rhetorical analysis of institutional and vernacular rhetorics offers new perspectives on women’s lived experiences and provides a deeper understanding of gendered rhetorics in women’s running events. Princesses, Divas, and Mother Runners: Gendered …

Effects Of Exogenous Glucocorticoid Infusion At Birth On Appetitic Center Brain Development During Early Postnatal Life And Its Impact On Voluntary Feed Intake In Beef Cattle, Keelee Jae Mccarty

All Dissertations

The objective of study was to determine the effects of exogenous cortisol administration on leptin concentrations relative to 1) appetitic center development of the hypothalamus by gene expression in dairy bull calves and 2) altered voluntary feed intake in beef calves. In experiment 1, Holstein bull calves (n = 27) were weighed and randomly assigned to treatments within four hours of parturition (day 0). Each calf was intravenously infused with either a low cortisol (LC; n = 9, 3.5 ug/kg of body weight (BW)), high cortisol (HC; n = 9, 7.0 ug/kg of BW), or a sham infusion control (CON; …

Modeling Households’ Evacuation-Related First Decisions, Actual Evacuation Decision, Accommodations, And Destinations During Hurricane Matthew, Emmanuel Adjei

All Dissertations

Hurricane Matthew was a category five hurricane that affected coastal communities in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina and resulted in significant damage to properties and loss of lives. This dissertation investigates households’ evacuation-related decisions during Hurricane Matthew (2016). Specifically, this study examines (a) households’ evacuation-related first decisions, (b) the effects of risk perception and perceived certainty about evacuation logistics on households’ evacuate/stay decisions, and (c) the influence of perceived certainty variables on households’ selection of destination and accommodations type. Data used for this study comes from a post-Hurricane Matthew survey data gathered from households in the Jacksonville Metropolitan Area of …

Genetic Contribution To Growth Of Cryptococcus Neoformans In The Environment Of The Human Host, Piotr Ryszard Stempinski

All Dissertations

Cryptococcus neoformans is an environmental basidiomycetous fungus and opportunistic pathogen that primarily infects the immunocompromised patients. The ability to adapt to mammalian body temperature is essential for survival and successful virulence. Cryptococcus neoformans relies on a multiple complex signaling network and virulence factors for the adaptation and survival in the environment of human host. This dissertation presents result of genetic screen assay performed on 4,031 gene knockout strains of C. neoformans. The analysis has resulted in identification of 46 genes with significant contribution to the maximum temperature at which C. neoformans can proliferate. Our research described previously uncharacterized genes that …

Getting Involved, Maggie Mason Smith, Megan Sheffield, Jessica Scott

Summer Workshop Series

No abstract provided.

Genetic Findings As The Potential Basis Of Personalized Pharmacotherapy In Phelan-Mcdermid Syndrome, Briana Dyar, Erika Meaddough, Sara M. Sarasua, Curtis Rogers, Katy Phelan, Luigi Boccuto

Open Access Publishing Fund

Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a genetic disorder often characterized by autism or autistic-like behavior. Most cases are associated with haploinsufficiency of the SHANK3 gene resulting from deletion of the gene at 22q13.3 or from a pathogenic variant in the gene. Treatment of PMS often targets SHANK3, yet deletion size varies from 9 Mb, potentially encompassing dozens of genes and disrupting regulatory elements altering gene expression, inferring the potential for multiple therapeutic targets. Repurposed drugs have been used in clinical trials investigating therapies for PMS: insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) for its effect on social and aberrant behaviors, intranasal insulin for …