Digital Commons Network^™

Validating A Human Trafficking Screening Tool For Women Returning To Uganda From The Middle East, Jason Pope

All Dissertations

Human trafficking is a global issue. Denying its existence creates an atmosphere where it can thrive. Therefore, visibility is a key step in prevention. Human trafficking screening tools bring visibility to this hidden issue. Identifying individuals who have experienced human trafficking is essential for preventing it from happening in the future. Identifying survivors of trafficking allows them to be provided aftercare and opens the doors for prosecuting those who perpetrate harm against others.

This study validated a human trafficking screening tool and developed a standard for interpreting the results. This study aimed to develop a tool that could identify human …

Influences On Pregnancy: An Exploration Of Maternal Discrimination, An Alternative Model Of Prenatal Care And Health Information Online, Emily Doherty

All Dissertations

In the United States metrics of perinatal health lag far behind peer countries and is characterized by stark disparities. The studies that make up this dissertation seek to elucidate factors influencing perinatal health.

The first and second chapters provide an introduction and extensive review of the literature of factors contributing to perinatal health with specific focus on discrimination and perinatal health; group prenatal care and digital pregnancy health information. The third chapter introduces the methodology to be used by each of the following studies. Subsequent chapters are formatted as individual manuscripts, each presenting background, methodology, results, and discussion.

The fourth …

The Erasure Of Rural West Texas Voices In Higher Education Institutions An Autoethnographic Study Of Minoritized Students Of West Texas In Their Journey To Obtain Success In Higher Education Institutions, David Whaley-Weems Sr

All Dissertations

I was once told there is a person in the world who has locked within his or her mind the framework for the cure for cancer or even the ability to create an energy model that will revolutionize how society consumes natural resources. Now imagine if I told you I have seen that person alive and well working as an oil well driller on a rig in Mentone, Texas. The first question most people would ask is, “Why is the person drilling in the middle of nowhere Texas instead of impacting the world by way of displaying his or her …

Our Voices Matter: Engaging Middle Grades Hispanic Students In A Summer Literacy Program, Macy Christine James

All Dissertations

This study explored the literacy engagement of Hispanic rising seventh grade adolescents during a summer literacy program. Using a participatory social justice mixed methods design (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2018), students’ voices were used to design and refine an instructional model proposed to increase their level of engagement in literacy tasks. Through a literacy motivation survey and focus group interviews, students’ perception of motivating and demotivating literacy experiences affecting their levels of engagement were gathered and analyzed. Following this exploration, a design-based approach was employed to create an initial model that would be refined by identifying the enhancing and inhibiting factors …

Essays On The Economics Of Sports Wagering Markets, Jacob Lamb

All Dissertations

Economists have long been enamored with using wagering markets and sports data to answer various economic questions. Wagering market data are readily available to answer any number of questions relating to sports and economics. However, most studies surrounding wagering markets have focused on searching for inefficiencies and, consequently, profitable betting strategies against the house. This dissertation takes a different approach, focusing on the information that can be extracted from efficient wagering markets and using that information to answer economic questions. Rather than hunting for inefficiencies, this dissertation confirms the efficiency of wagering markets and uses wagering markets to answer questions …

Circumventing Ableism: A Grounded Theory Study Exploring Caregiver Strategies To Promote A Positive Identity, June Furr

All Dissertations

This qualitative research study explores how caregivers and persons with disabilities navigate the rhetoric of disability and caregiving through the interviews of fifteen caregivers and fifteen persons with disabilities using the lens of grounded theory and Burke’s (1952) dramatistic pentad. Significant findings describe how focused disability description can circumvent ableism when rhetorical resources that assist caregivers and persons with disabilities to navigate the rhetoric in disability descriptions are provided. Disability description theory includes the three stages that define, collaborate and revise, and practice and apply a disability description. This qualitative research offers an introduction into the phenomenon of …

Understanding The Factors Affecing Expatriate Teacher Retention In A Cross-Cultural Setting: A Case Study Of An American International Sschool In Panama, Roberto Flores

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that affect expatriate teacher retention. The research aimed to identify the factors that contribute to expatriate teacher adaptation and retention in cross-cultural settings. As the demand for expatriate teachers has increased with the growth of international schools, retaining them has become a persistent challenge. The scarcity of literature on expatriate teacher retention, combined with high turnover rates and an expanding demand for such teachers, highlights the need for further research in this area. Therefore, this study aimed to fill this gap by exploring the factors that impact expatriate teacher retention …

Explainable Physics-Informed Deep Learning For Rainfall-Runoff Modeling And Uncertainty Assessment Across The Continental United States, Sadegh Sadeghi Tabas

All Dissertations

Hydrologic models provide a comprehensive tool to calibrate streamflow response to environmental variables. Various hydrologic modeling approaches, ranging from physically based to conceptual to entirely data-driven models, have been widely used for hydrologic simulation. During the recent years, however, Deep Learning (DL), a new generation of Machine Learning (ML), has transformed hydrologic simulation research to a new direction. DL methods have recently proposed for rainfall-runoff modeling that complement both distributed and conceptual hydrologic models, particularly in a catchment where data to support a process-based model is scared and limited.

This dissertation investigated the applicability of two advanced probabilistic physics-informed DL …

Annotations Of Awareness: A Framework For Externalizing Thinking To Promote Metacognitive Discourse In High School English And Social Studies Classrooms, Todd Howard

All Dissertations

Teachers find it challenging to integrate metacognition into the classroom to promote critical thinking, but such rigorous instruction is one way to improve access to quality education for all students, no matter their access to outside-of-school resources. To help teachers find more comfort and confidence in designing for increased critical thinking and metacognitive discourse and to help close the theory-practice gap in metacognition research, I conducted a mixed-methods case study focusing on assessment-design interventions. Using the Metacognitive Framework for Assessment Design and Annotations of Awareness, both designed in response to my literature review, my 90-day action research included three Plan-Do-Study-Act …

Essays On Labor Market Size And Job Match Quality, Lan Lan

All Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of two essays that delve into the construction of a major-related labor market and its correlation with college graduates’ job match quality. Investigating the job match quality of college graduates for different majors in large cities is crucial, as it provides evidence on which majors tend to yield better job matches. This contributes to the study of the return on major while also shedding light on how city size impacts individuals’ ability to find jobs that align with their educational level and major, thereby enriching the study of the benefits of agglomeration.

The first chapter examines …

Youth Science Learning As/For Community Participation: Examples From Youth Participatory Action Research, Steven M. Worker, Sally Neas, Dorina Espinoza, Car Mun Kok, Martin Smith

Journal of Youth Development

Youth development programs often provide young people with science learning experiences. We argue for reframing youth science learning from a focus on individual scientific literacy to an emphasis on collective scientific literacy—community science—to support young people in using science to address issues in their lives and communities. We provide examples from youth participatory action research (YPAR), one community science pedagogical approach. The YPAR model supports youth in deciding upon an environmental, economic, or social issue; designing and implementing research; and using their research findings to improve their community. We implemented YPAR with eight cohorts of youth over three years at …

The Lasting Benefits Of Multiyear Camp Programming For Youth From Low-Income Backgrounds, Victoria Povilaitis, Robert Warner, Katie Mcgregor Wheatley

Journal of Youth Development

Summer camps are a common youth development setting in North America; however, youth from lowincome backgrounds often cannot attend because of financial barriers. Subsequently, although a robust camp literature exists, little is known about the lasting benefits for youth from low-income backgrounds. Even less is known about how these outcomes may differ based on the number of years youth attend a multi-year camp. The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term outcomes camp alumni reported as attributable to camp and that remain important in their life today. Eighteen outcomes examined via a cross-sectional retrospective survey completed by 449 …

Clemson University Board Of Trustees, Finance And Facilities Committee, 2023 April 20, Clemson University Board Of Trustees

Minutes

No abstract provided.

Are There Really Deaf People Who Are Languageless?, Kristin Snoddon

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Gaining Insights Into Signed Music Through Performers, Pamela E. Witcher, Jody Cripps, Hodan Youssouf

Society for American Sign Language Journal

Signed music is best described as an inter-performative art form that combines lyrical and non-lyrical musical performances and is deeply rooted in the culture of deaf people who communicate through signed language (J. H. Cripps & Lyonblum, 2017; J. H. Cripps et al., in press [a]). The key investigative component for this article includes outlining the experiences that three Canadian performers had about their signed music creativity during a plenary at the Partition/Ensemble 2020 Conference held by the Canadian Association for Theatre Research in Montreal, Quebec. The panelists responded to two questions that they developed for themselves: What inspired us …

Volume 5, Issue 2, Full Issue

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Clemson Chronicle, Spring 2023, Clemson University

Clemson Chronicle

Clemson University's twice-yearly literary magazine, featuring creative prose, poetry, features, art and photography.

Building Bibliographically, Susanna Ashton

Publications

No abstract provided.

The 5-Year Spam: Tracking A Persistent Chinese Influence Operation, Patrick Warren, Darren Linvill, Leland Fecher, Jayson Warren, Steven Sheffield, Jack Taylor, Alexa Gubanich, Parker Hundley, Josiah Lamont, Sarah Meadows, Josephine Rohrer, Molly Sutton, Shay Easler

Media Forensics Hub Creative Inquiry Reports

This report analyzes the behavior of a single, coordinated inauthentic information operator working within China and in the interests of the Chinese government. This operator has been called by different names by different analysts, including “Spamouflage Dragon“ (by the network analysis firm Graphika) and “Dragonbridge” (by the Google owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant) and has been operating continuously since, at least, April 2017. In this report we will refer to this actor as Dragonbridge. Section II of this report gives an update on several campaign this actor has engaged in recent months. Section III presents a synthetic overview of some of …

Common Data Set 2022-2023, Clemson University

Common Data Sets

No abstract provided.

Abundance And Territory Location Data Of Forest Songbirds To Determine Effects Of Pipeline Collocation As A Mitigation Strategy, Lillie Langlois

All Data Sets

These data were collected for the purpose of determining potential ecological costs associated with a mitigation strategy used in shale gas development in the Appalachian basin. Collocation is the practice of siting new shale gas pipelines adjacent to existing surface disturbance such as forest roads to reduce habitat fragmentation and loss of core forest. These data result from spot mapping for species of songbird at paired forest road and shale gas corridors (expanded access roads collocated with pipelines) between May and July 2013 in north-central Pennsylvania, USA. The data file contains nine sheets that report data from different pieces of …

Clemson Commencement Program, December 2022, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Triumph In The Suburbs: Richard Ford And The Spaces Of New Capitalism, John Gorton

All Theses

In his 1986 book America, Baudrillard noted that “the most banal suburb…is more at the centre of the world than any of the cultural manifestations of old Europe.” My thesis argues that this monumental shift from the suburbs as enclaves at the outer edges of cultural urban centers to “the centre of the world” is at the heart of Richard Ford’s realist project in his Pulitzer Prize winning Bascombe series starting with The Sportswriter in 1986. Emergent twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature scholars have been interested in the schism between the fictionalized representation and the lived experience of suburbia — while …

Learning To Reason About Code With Assertions: An Exploration With Two Student Populations, Sarah Blankenship

All Theses

Code tracing is fundamental to students’ understanding of a program, and symbolic reasoning that entails learning to use assertions with abstract input and output values, as opposed to concrete values, enhances that understanding. Symbolic reasoning teaches students valuable abstraction and logic skills that will serve them well in all aspects of programming and their software
development careers.
We use lessons integrated into an online educational tool to supplement classroom instruction to help students learn symbolic reasoning. We explore two ways for students to learn about assertions: Writing assertions to capture the behavior of given code and solving Parsons-style problems in …

Effect Of Chlorine Dioxide Gas On The Properties Of Packaging Materials And Effect Of Chlorine Dioxide Gas To Maintain The Quality Of Fresh Strawberries, Duleeka Kuruwita, Duleeka Prasadani Kuruwita Arachchige

All Dissertations

ClO₂ as an antimicrobial gas in the headspace of produce package is a relatively novel approach. Gaseous ClO₂ is more effective than aqueous ClO₂ and can be used in the headspace of fresh food packages. ClO₂ gas can diffuse into product surfaces and films. As an oxidizer, it can react with and change polymeric package components, possibly affecting the product’s shelflife.

This research studied effects of ClO₂ gas treatments on produce packaging materials (APET, two PE types, Nylon). The treatment group (with ClO₂) and the control group (without ClO₂) of packaging …

Barriers And Facilitators In Implementing Multiplatform Remote Patient Monitoring Of Heart Failure Patients In Clinical Settings, Zachary Andrew Reilly

All Theses

Remote patient monitoring (RPM), which provides continuous monitoring of vital signs, has become increasingly utilized in patients with heart failure (HF). As this condition impacts more than 26 million Americans each year, it is important to determine the barriers and facilitators of RPM to both improve patient care and help medical professionals make more informed medical decisions. To determine these barriers and facilitators, our research team partnered with Prisma Health-Upstate to interview healthcare professionals working at Carolina Cardiology Consultants--Greenville, which uses multiple RPM systems to monitor heart failure patients.

The twelve interviews conducted support that healthcare professionals would benefit from …

Pedagogical Data Literacy With A Multi-Tiered System Of Supports: A Mixed Methods Study Of Teachers Using Data-Driven Reading Instruction In A Title I School, Paula Alexander

All Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to examine how teachers use pedagogical data literacy methods using the South Carolina Multi-Tiered System of Supports (SCMTSS) framework, and its influence on positive student outcomes in reading achievement for all students and students receiving reading intervention supports in Kindergarten through third grade.

Teachers' pedagogical data literacy, or the intersection of educators' knowledge and skills to transform the data into instructional strategies to meet students' needs, provides a lens to fulfill the SCMTSS framework approach of using data-based problem solving to maximize growth of all students. This research study identified SCMTSS Tier I …

The Experience Of Severe Food Allergy At Residential Camp, Alexsandra Dubin

All Dissertations

Severe food allergy is an emerging issue in public, educational, and recreational spaces, as the condition rises in prevalence and severity (Capucilli et al., 2019). Nearly all camps serve children with food allergies (Schellpfeffer et al., 2020). Research focusing on documenting rates of food allergy, anaphylaxis management, and food allergy management in summer camps has been foundational to ensuring a safe experience for youth attending camp (Gonzalez-Mancebo et al., 2019; Schellpfeffer et al., 2020). However, less research has focused on the socio-emotional impacts of attending camp with a food allergy or exploring how children with food allergy experience summer camp …

Addressing Meloidogyne Enterolobii Spread In The Sweetpotato Industry: Development Of A High Throughput Survey Detection Method For Root-Knot Nematodes And Quantification Of M. Enterolobii Damage On Storage Roots In Long-Term Assays, Julianna Culbreath

All Theses

Meloidogyne enterolobii is an aggressive root-knot nematode (RKN) species that has emerged as a significant pathogen of sweetpotato in the Southeastern US. Meloidogyne enterolobii is spread through the movement of infected ‘seed’ sweetpotatoes used for propagation, and the RKN resistance in commercial sweetpotato cultivars has proven ineffective against this nematode. This has prompted regulatory agencies to impose quarantines on regions infected with M. enterolobii. Sweetpotato storage roots can be rendered unmarketable due to M. enterolobii infection, resulting in potential overall yield loss. Visual detection of RKN in sweetpotato can be unreliable, and further distinguishing M. enterolobii from other RKN species …

Strangers Switching Their Identities: Cultural Identity Management And Performance On Social Media A Qualitative Analysis Of International Students’ Intercultural (Ex)Change Processes And Perceptions Regarding Their Stay In The United States And Countries Of Origin, Vivian Kretzschmar

All Theses

In this globalized world, cross-country travel for education has been a prevalent (5.6 million students identified as international students in 2020) and ever-increasing (with a predicted increase of 250% by 2030) trend through the past decades. The sojourn impacts the students’ experience of the new culture and the ensuing shocks and adaptations. The understanding of something as complicated as culture, trying to be integrated into a new culture, and its perception to individuals, of course, have their ways of distinct communication trends through social media.

The struggle of maintaining and changing one’s cultural identity and adaptation across cultures has been …