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Clemson Commencement Program, December 2021, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

A Human-Centric System For Symbolic Reasoning About Code, Megan Fowler

All Dissertations

While testing and tracing on specific input values are useful starting points for students to understand program behavior, ultimately students need to be able to reason rigorously and logically about the correctness of their code on all inputs without having to run the code. Symbolic reasoning is reasoning abstractly about code using arbitrary symbolic input values, as opposed to specific concrete inputs.

The overarching goal of this research is to help students learn symbolic reasoning, beginning with code containing simple assertions as a foundation and proceeding to code involving data abstractions and loop invariants. Toward achieving this goal, this research …

The Genetics Of Kidney Disorders In Phelan-Mcdermid Syndrome, Megan Mccoy

All Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Art Of The Author: A Discussion Of Servants In The Castle Of Otranto, Laura Caroline Dunn

All Theses

The parts of this thesis work together to understand Walpole’s Prefaces, defend the presence of servants in the novel, and critique Manfred’s dismissal of the servants as merely comedic necessity for the sake of dramatic tension. Ultimately this thesis shows that while servants are comedic, their comedy has the larger function of providing illuminating details and prophetic information to the reader thereby mediating our understanding of key events and characters. This thesis finds that Walpole does not dismiss servants, but rather values them as essential to his design of creating tension intended to boost the reader’s excitement.

Celebrating And Practicing Aspects From Eastern- And Western-Centric Animation Styles, Alissa Annette Standerwick

All Theses

Animation styles in a modern world end up influencing the animation of other regions. This project, through animation, celebrates Eastern and Western differences in their animations. Rather than analyzing story differences, aspects of the habits formed by the region’s animators are analyzed and practiced. The formation of animation in respective cultures represents the local history of these regions. So to understand the aspects & technicalities of how animators animate per region, it is useful to understand how film, TV, & comic styles of an entire community impacted that area’s animation

Noise Types Adaptation For Speech Enhancement With Recurrent Neural Network, Xiang Lan

All Theses

Speech enhancement is a critical part in automatic speech recognition systems. Recently with the development of deep learning based techniques, those speech enhancement systems trained with neural networks can significantly improve performance. While many of the latest speech enhancement systems show advantages in maximizing the perceptual quality of the noisy signals, they expose drawbacks when the test noisy signals have noise types that never exist during the system training process. The systems have relatively poor performance when handling noisy signals with unseen noise in contrast to noisy signals with seen noise. The dissimilarity between the training and testing circumstances can …

The Effect Of Vietnamese Refugees On Wages In The San Francisco Bay Area, Francisco Daniel Celis Villagrana

All Theses

The issue of whether immigration can adversely impact the earnings of domestic workers in the receiving region is a hotly contested one, even amongst economists. In this paper, I analyze the effects Vietnamese refugees had on wages in nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area in the first half of the 1980s. I exploit the existence of exogenous variation in Vietnamese refugee settlements across the San Francisco Bay Area counties and use a difference-in-difference design with continuous treatment to obtain my results. I find the arrival of Vietnamese refugees has a statistically significant positive effect on wages. Increased consumption, …

How “Interested” Criticism Fueled The Formulation Of Nineteen Eighty-Four’S Cultural Afterlife, John Cameron Bosch

All Theses

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four carries a “cultural afterlife” as a result of “interested” criticism, which has a set political/practical barometer or motive. While everyone agrees that the novel presents a frightening dystopia, many also consider it a prophetic piece that illuminates the possible corruption of executive power of a nation thanks to this cultural afterlife; the modern and popular term “Orwellian” resulted from these sorts of analyses and have only escalated in the years since its inception. As a result, within the past decade, multiple scholars, analysts, and journalists have referenced Orwell’s novel as a factual representation of this executive …

Moving Beyond Scientific Fact-Only Environmental Education In The United States, Erica Meier

All Theses

There is debate regarding whether environmental education (EE) programs should focus exclusively on teaching science or on teaching and encouraging pro-environmental behaviors through civic engagement, advocacy, and action/behavior change (CEAA) techniques. To assess which CEAA techniques EE providers feel are appropriate to utilize in EE programming for youth and the extent to which they utilize them, we designed and distributed a survey to members of several North American EE organizations. Based on the North American Association for Environmental Education’s Guidelines for Excellence (2019) and input from professionals and practitioners, the survey included a list of 32 CEAA techniques. Respondents (N …

Land Rents And Broadband Subsidies, David Michael Bond

All Theses

Is the value of broadband access capitalized in house prices, and do broadband subsidies transfer wealth to targeted subscribers? First, we sample 4995 recent rural Michigan home sales, with their attributes, to calibrate a hedonic model. Our estimation relates housing values to broadband internet access availability, while limiting endogeneity. A second model estimates federal broadband subsidy’s effect on availability of 25 Mbps (download) service. Results show a premium between 10-15% in home prices for broadband availability (a potential difference of $15,000-$22,500 with median home price of $150,000), while subsidies appear to not have any significant impact.

Real-Time Battery Energy Storage Scheduling For An Educational Building, Armien Harrell

All Theses

Special electricity rates are offered by some utilities to incentivize certain energy consumption behaviors in an attempt to garner a cost effective demand profile to service. One area of concern for a utility is the maximum demand of a building during the times of day when electricity usage is typically at its peak. Regulated utilities are required to have the capacity to meet the electrical demand of customers, though, the peak demand of customers can oftentimes be relatively brief. Therefore, it is not cost effective for a utility to have generation units online to only cover momentary peak demands. Electricity …

They Say, We Say: A Standpoint Analysis Of Stay-At-Home Mothers’ Engagement With Public Discourse, Ayesha Tanzila

All Theses

The purpose of this research was to study stay-at-home mothers’ engagement with the prevailing discourse surrounding them. Staying home and engaging in "invisible and unpaid" labor has led this group of mothers to be out of public sight and somewhat voiceless. Thus, public discourse about SAHMs without significant input by SAHMs has resulted in a monolithic and static identity. Using standpoint analysis as the theoretical framework and textual analysis as the methodology, I have analyzed opinion pieces written by SAHMs, published on popular magazine portals, and on their blogs, through which they attempt to navigate this public depiction of themselves. …

Embracing The Role Of Educator: The Experiences Of Housing And Residence Life Staff In Implementing A Curriculum Model, Eric Thomas Pernotto

All Dissertations

Since their emergence at colleges and universities, student affairs and housing and residence life (HRL) administrators have continuously evolved their role on campus. Foundational documents challenged administrators to engage in student learning to support institutions’ missions and bridge the gap with academic affairs.

The emergence of the Curriculum Model (CM) provides a framework for professionals in HRL to this work. The CM extends learning beyond the classroom and formalizes it by developing learning goals and outcomes, educational strategies, facilitation guides, and learning assessment with rubrics. To effectively implement a CM, practitioners must acknowledge their roles as educators and seek intentional …

A Critical Analysis Of The Discourse Of Culturally Responsive Curriculum Within South Carolina’S Secondary U.S. History And Constitution Standards, James L. Goude

All Dissertations

This research study explored the presence of implicit racial bias in South Carolina curriculum policy within its content standards for U.S. history and the Constitution. Curriculum policy discourse flows through the statewide public school system from the legislature, through district offices, and into classrooms. That discourse guides classroom teachers on what the state legislated as essential knowledge of U.S. history. Teachers make instructional choices based on state and district guidance documents that may affect the performance of Black students on South Carolina’s U.S. History and Constitution End-of-Course Exam (USHC-EOC). This study describes the educational policy discourse from macro-documents, meso- documents …

“I Thought I Was Going To War”: Experiences Of Health-Care Workers During The Covid-19 Pandemic – An Exploration Of Projectcope, Smith F. Heavner

All Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain health-care systems throughout the world. While early reports compared its impacts to other contemporary disease outbreaks (e.g., SARS and MERS), it quickly became apparent that COVID-19 would dwarf these contemporary crises, escalating to a scale more on par with the 1918 influenza outbreak. This disaster will have unprecedented effects on health-care workers, among whom burnout was already a serious concern. Burnout and linked phenomena moral distress, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma are associated with increased turnover and intent to leave health-care professions, decreased quality of care delivered to patients, and poor mental and physical …

Impact Of Interventions On Student Performance Among Eighth Graders In Algebra 1, Tiffany Osborne

All Dissertations

Educational leaders and practitioners face challenges in South Carolina schools, but through improvement science processes (Bryk, Gomez, Grunow, & LeMahieu, 2015), they can collectively develop solutions which directly address those issues. In this Participatory Action Research (PAR) study, I partnered with participants in ongoing Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles (Bryk, et al., 2015) to improve student outcomes. I triangulated multiple data points and corroborated findings with students’ own perceptions to provide evidence that students can achieve in eighth grade Algebra 1 when given the opportunity to enroll in the course and when afforded appropriate ongoing academic interventions that foster conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, …

Embracing The Role Of Educator: The Experiences Of Housing And Residence Life Staff In Implementing A Curriculum Model, Eric Pernotto

All Dissertations

Since their emergence at universities, student affairs and housing and residence life (HRL) administrators have continuously evolved their role on campus. Foundational documents challenged administrators to engage in student learning to support institutions’ missions and bridge the gap with academic affairs.

The Curriculum Model (CM) provides a framework do this work. The CM extends learning beyond the classroom and formalizes it by developing learning goals and outcomes, educational strategies, facilitation guides, and learning assessment with rubrics. In a CM, practitioners must acknowledge their roles as educators to guide learning.

Implementing a CM is a paradigm shift for staff as they …

Enhancing The Performance Of Text Mining, Farah Mahmoud Al Shanik

All Dissertations

The amount of text data produced in science, finance, social media, and medicine is growing at an unprecedented pace. The raw text data typically introduces major computational and analytical obstacles (e.g., extremely high dimensionality) to data mining and machine learning algorithms. Besides, the growth in the size of text data makes the search process more difficult for information retrieval systems, making retrieving relevant results to match the users’ search queries challenging. Moreover, the availability of text data in different languages creates the need to develop new methods to analyze multilingual topics to help policymakers in governmental and health systems to …

An Assessment Of The Needs Of School-Based Agricultural Educators And Other Professionals In Agricultural Service Agencies For A Professional Online Master’S Degree In Agricultural Education, Maria Mercedes Rossi

All Dissertations

Online learning is one form of distance education mediated through information and communications technology such as the Internet or other technologies. The teaching content is delivered online, and instructors develop teaching modules that enhance their learning and interactivity (student-student, teacher-student, and content-student). Using social cognitive theory (SCT) concepts, the research team developed and validated a multidimensional instrument tool to assess the needs for a professional online master’s degree in agricultural education. The study aimed to assess participants’ readiness and motivations to learn online and identify participants’ needs and experience with online learning. Participants’ perceptions of online learning were assessed and …

The Impact Of Interlocking Systems Of Oppression On The Leadership And Decision-Making Experiences Of Black Women In Executive-Level Leadership Positions At Predominantly White Public Research Institutions In The United States, Altheia Richardson

All Dissertations

Despite having the necessary credentials to assume executive-level leadership positions at institutions of higher education, Black women continue to be among the least represented in these roles, especially at predominantly White institutions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to illuminate and understand how interlocking systems of oppression impact the leadership and decision-making experiences of Black women in executive-level leadership positions at predominantly White public research institutions in the U.S. The research question was: How do Black women in executive-level leadership positions at predominantly White public research institutions in the U.S. make sense of misogynoir in relation to their leadership …

The Future Of Humankind: Comparative Cross-Cultural Study Of Youth Environmental Engagement And Environmental Outcomes, Lyudmyla Tsykalova

All Dissertations

Throughout history, the relationship of humans with nature evolved with culture. Climate change calls for a cultural shift in how we relate to nature and fellow humans, pointing to the need to rethink most human activities. Youth are frequently seen as agents of change. However, the widespread understanding that youth environmental engagement is necessary and brings more sustainable outcomes has almost no supporting empirical evidence. Research is needed to reveal whether youth environmental engagement is related to climate policies and ecological consequences and how this engagement varies across cultures.

Based on data from over 300,000 15-year-olds from 40 countries across …

Interventions To Increase Prospective Teacher Candidates' Praxis Ii Content Exam Scores, Takara Hart

All Dissertations

Teacher shortages are a pervasive issue in South Carolina’s public schools. Some prospective teacher candidates have shown obstacles in meeting the minimum required Praxis II Content exam score. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and develop specific Praxis II Content exam interventions to improve scores for six prospective teacher candidates in South Carolina. All participants were trying to meet the licensure exam requirement for various alternative certification programs. Malcolm Knowles’ Andragogy Adult Learning Theory guided the study as a theoretical framework, and Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Constructivism provided the conceptual frame. Descriptive coding and analysis, using Dedoose …

Deep Learning Based Speech Enhancement And Its Application To Speech Recognition, Ju Lin

All Dissertations

Speech enhancement is the task that aims to improve the quality and the intelligibility of a speech signal that is degraded by ambient noise and room reverberation. Speech enhancement algorithms are used extensively in many audio- and communication systems, including mobile handsets, speech recognition, speaker verification systems and hearing aids. Recently, deep learning has achieved great success in many applications, such as computer vision, nature language processing and speech recognition. Speech enhancement methods have been introduced that use deep-learning techniques, as these techniques are capable of learning complex hierarchical functions using large-scale training data. This dissertation investigates the deep learning …

Afterword: Can We Return To Martha’S Vineyard?, J. Albert Bickford

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Reverse Integration: Centering Deaf Children To Enrich Everyone, Bryan K. Eldredge

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

American Sign Language For Everyone: Considerations For Universal Design And Youth Identity, Samuel J. Supalla, Anita Small, Joanne S. Cripps

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Asl In The Academy: We Have Come A Long Way, But More Work Remains, Russell S. Rosen

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

American Sign Language And The Academy: The Little Language That Could, Brenda Jo Brueggemann

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Origins Of The American Deaf-World: Assimilating And Differentiating Societies And Their Relation To Genetic Patterning, Harlan Lane, Richard Pillard, Mary French

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Assimilating And Differentiating Societies And Their Relationship To Genetic Patterning: Does It Take A “Them” To Make An “Us”?, Judy Kegl

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.