Digital Commons Network^™

Using Reflective Practice To Facilitate Conversations And Transform Instructional Practice For Middle School Science Teachers, Robbie L. Higdon

All Dissertations

The process of teaching, especially inquiry, is complex and requires extended time for developing one's instructional practice (Loucks-Horsley, Stiles, Mundry, Love, & Hewson, 2010). The implementation of a continued cycle of self-reflection can engage teachers in analyzing their prior experiences and understandings about their instructional practice to promote the accommodation of new concepts and transform their practice. However, many teachers have difficulty engaging in the cognitive dissonance needed to identify those problems and promote their own growth without support. As one's professional practice becomes more repetitive and routine, it is difficult for the practitioner to recognize opportunities in which to …

Adhd Medication On Child Welfare, Leah Kitashima

All Dissertations

This dissertation examines the causal effects of ADHD medication on child welfare, and investigates the effects of a supplemental income program on the diagnoses of learning disabilities. In 2011, 6.4 million children were diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with nearly 70% of them taking ADHD medication. However, little causal evidence exists on the effectiveness of ADHD medication. The first two chapters of this dissertation utilize an instrumental variable strategy to identify the effects of ADHD pharmaceutical treatment on South Carolina Medicaid children's academic, behavioral, and health outcomes. The first chapter estimates the causal effects of ADHD medication on South Carolina …

Chaos To Permanence-Through Control Theory, Sherli Koshy Chenthittayil

All Dissertations

Work by Cushing et al. \cite{Cushing} and Kot et al. \cite{Kot} demonstrate that chaotic behavior does occur in biological systems. We demonstrate that chaotic behavior can enable the survival/thriving of the species involved in a system. We adopt the concepts of persistence/permanence as measures of survival/thriving of the species \cite{EVG}. We utilize present chaotic behavior and a control algorithm based on \cite{Vincent97,Vincent2001} to push a non-permanent system into permanence. The algorithm uses the chaotic orbits present in the system to obtain the desired state. We apply the algorithm to a Lotka-Volterra type two-prey, one-predator model from \cite{Harvesting}, a ratio-dependent one-prey, …

Rich State, Poor State: Essays On Economic Disparities Within India, Abir Mandal

All Dissertations

In the first chapter of this dissertation, we create original annual average years of education across the major, present-day states of India from 1951 to 2011 in line with work done by Turner et al.(2007). Drawing from multiple volumes of the decennial censuses, Planning Commission reports, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation databases and historical atlases to account for territorial changes since independence, our data show that the average Indian worker had less than a primary education even as late as 2011. However, this is still significantly more than the years of education of the average Indian, with the disparity …

Development Of The D-Optimality-Based Coordinate-Exchange Algorithm For An Irregular Design Space And The Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Robust Parameter Design Optimization, Akin Ozdemir

All Dissertations

Robust parameter design (RPD), originally conceptualized by Taguchi, is an effective statistical design method for continuous quality improvement by incorporating product quality into the design of processes. The primary goal of RPD is to identify optimal input variable level settings with minimum process bias and variation. Because of its practicality in reducing inherent uncertainties associated with system performance across key product and process dimensions, the widespread application of RPD techniques to many engineering and science fields has resulted in significant improvements in product quality and process enhancement. There is little disagreement among researchers about Taguchi's basic philosophy. In response to …

Metaoptics For Spectral And Spatial Beam Manipulation, Indumathi Raghu Srimathi

All Dissertations

Laser beam combining and beam shaping are two important areas with applications in optical communications, high power lasers, and atmospheric propagation studies. In this dissertation, metaoptical elements have been developed for spectral and spatial beam shaping, and multiplexing. Beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), referred to as optical vortices, have unique propagation properties. Optical vortex beams carrying different topological charges are orthogonal to each other and have low inter-modal crosstalk which allows for them to be (de)multiplexed. Efficient spatial (de)multiplexing of these beams have been carried out by using diffractive optical geometrical coordinate transformation elements. The spatial beam combining technique …

Towards Real-Time Remote Processing Of Laparoscopic Video, Zahra Ronaghi

All Dissertations

Laparoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive technique where surgeons insert a small video camera into the patient's body to visualize internal organs and use small tools to perform these procedures. However, the benefit of small incisions has a disadvantage of limited visualization of subsurface tissues. Image-guided surgery (IGS) uses pre-operative and intra-operative images to map subsurface structures and can reduce the limitations of laparoscopic surgery. One particular laparoscopic system is the daVinci-si robotic surgical vision system. The video streams generate approximately 360 megabytes of data per second, demonstrating a trend toward increased data sizes in medicine, primarily due to higher-resolution …

Landscape Manipulatives: A Study Of Math Gardens And Learning Outcomes In Middle School Mathematics Education Research, Yang Song

All Dissertations

Human beings, especially children, need natural environments and outdoor play for their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being (Louv, 2008). Even though parents and teachers recognize the value of outdoor play, schoolchildren spend a diminishing amount of time engaging in outdoor activities (Clements, 2004). Furthermore, addressing strict state learning standards is the first priority for schools. Outdoor activities are often seen as extracurricular to those subjects typically emphasized and tested. As a result, outdoor landscapes such as science gardens, playgrounds, and experiential classrooms are often underutilized, discouraged since they can take away from more important, standard forms of pedagogy. Thus, traditional …

Characterizing Light Output Variations From Solid State Lighting Due To High Frequency Electromagnetic Interference, Gaurav Singh

All Dissertations

Consumer electronic devices employing active power electronic switching have been increasingly used in the last decade. With the rise in number of these devices, the emission of harmonic currents by these devices has changed both in magnitude and character. The effects of harmonic frequencies up to 2000 Hz on various electrical and electronic devices has been the subject of considerable scrutiny over the past decade. However, newer consumer devices employ switched mode power electronic circuits that switch in the multiple kilohertz range. The emission from these devices, along with power line communication, are sources of high frequency currents in the …

Landscape Manipulatives: A Study Of Math Gardens And Learning Outcomes In Middle School Mathematics Education Research, Yang Song

All Dissertations

Human beings, especially children, need natural environments and outdoor play for their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being (Louv, 2008). Even though parents and teachers recognize the value of outdoor play, schoolchildren spend a diminishing amount of time engaging in outdoor activities (Clements, 2004). Furthermore, addressing strict state learning standards is the first priority for schools. Outdoor activities are often seen as extracurricular to those subjects typically emphasized and tested. As a result, outdoor landscapes such as science gardens, playgrounds, and experiential classrooms are often underutilized, discouraged since they can take away from more important, standard forms of pedagogy. Thus, traditional …

Young Adults And The Labor Market, Timothy Jay Bacon

All Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of two essays examining labor market outcomes of young adults within the last two decades. The first is motivated by critics of the U.S. education system's current emphasis on 4-year college education who suggest the returns to a 2-year college degree, especially within a career and technology education (CTE) field, could exceed those to a 4-year degree. Evidence on this question has been lacking, in no small part due to the problem of accounting for selection of youth into different schooling choices, which depends on their verbal, math, and mechanical abilities (among other factors). I help …

Investigations Of Shallow Flows And Laboratory Raindrop Morphodynamics, Md Nasimul Hoque Chowdhury

All Dissertations

Shallow flows are one of the most intrigued and complicated to understand in the field of hydraulics. In this research, three separate researches (turbulent jets in shallow flows, rain drop laboratory simulations, and characterization of shallow flows) concentrating on shallow turbulent flows were investigated. Knowledge of turbulent jets in shallow water depths is of utmost importance to adequately characterize the municipal and industrial discharges. Propagation and dilution of such discharges are influenced by the presence of channel bed and water surface at close proximity. In this study, the bed/water surface confinement effects on circular turbulent jets were numerically investigated by …

Ecological Consequences Of Water Loss Under Climate Change In Small Ectotherms, Eric Alexander Riddell

All Dissertations

Warming climates threaten to reduce biodiversity across the planet, yet the capacity of organisms to minimize the effects of climate change are rarely considered in current ecological predictions of climate change. Organisms can minimize the effect of warming through behavioral, physiological, and morphological processes that limit exposure to lethal conditions or improve performance. Therefore, integrating these mechanisms into ecological models might improve predictions on the loss of biodiversity under climate change. For my dissertation, I focus on the physiological processes that influence habitat suitability in a group of terrestrial, lungless salamanders (Plethodon spp.) found in the core of the global …

The Tiger Vol. 111 Issue 14 2017-04-24, Clemson University

Tiger Newspapers 2017

No abstract provided.

The Tiger Vol. 111 Issue 12 2017-04-10, Clemson University

Tiger Newspapers 2017

No abstract provided.

Vizspace: Interaction In The Positive Parallax Screen Plane, Oyewole Oyekoya, Emily Sassard, Tiana Johnson

Publications

The VizSpace is a physically situated interactive system that combines touch and hand interactions behind the screen to create the effect that users are reaching inside and interacting in a 3D virtual workspace. It extends the conventional touch table interface with hand tracking and 3D visualization to enable interaction in the positive parallax plane, where the binocular focus falls behind the screen so as not to occlude projected images. This paper covers the system design, human factors and ergonomics considerations for an interactive and immersive gesture-based visualization system. Results are presented from a preliminary user study that validates the usability …

Correlated Mutation In The Evolution Of Catalysis In Uracil Dna Glycosylase Superfamily, Bo Xia, Yinling Liu, Jose Guevara, Jing Li, Celeste Jilich, Ye Yang, Liangjiang Wang, Brian N. Dominy, Weiguo Cao

Publications

Enzymes in Uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) superfamily are essential for the removal of uracil. Family 4 UDGa is a robust uracil DNA glycosylase that only acts on double-stranded and single-stranded uracil-containing DNA. Based on mutational, kinetic and modeling analyses, a catalytic mechanism involving leaving group stabilization by H155 in motif 2 and water coordination by N89 in motif 3 is proposed. Mutual Information analysis identifies a complexed correlated mutation network including a strong correlation in the EG doublet in motif 1 of family 4 UDGa and in the QD doublet in motif 1 of family 1 UNG. Conversion of EG …

Integrating Multimodal Arguments Into High School Writing Instruction, Emily Howell, Tracy Butler, David Reinking

Publications

We conducted a formative experiment investigating how an intervention that engaged students in constructing multimodal arguments could be integrated into high school English instruction to improve students’ argumentative writing. The intervention entailed three essential components: (a) construction of arguments defined as claims, evidence, and warrants; (b) digital tools that enabled the construction of multimodal arguments; and (c) a process approach to writing. The intervention was implemented for 11 weeks in high school English classrooms. Data included classroom observations; interviews with the teacher, students, and administrators; student reflections; and the products students created. These data, analyzed using grounded-theory coding and constant-comparison …

Contribution Of Engineered Nanomaterials Physicochemical Properties To Mast Cell Degranulation, Monica M. Johnson, Ryan Mendoza, Achyut J. Raghavendra, Ramakrishna Podila, Jared M. Brown

Publications

The rapid development of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) has grown dramatically in the last decade, with increased use in consumer products, industrial materials, and nanomedicines. However, due to increased manufacturing, there is concern that human and environmental exposures may lead to adverse immune outcomes. Mast cells, central to the innate immune response, are one of the earliest sensors of environmental insult and have been shown to play a role in ENM-mediated immune responses. Our laboratory previously determined that mast cells are activated via a non-FcεRI mediated response following silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) exposure, which was dependent upon key physicochemical properties. Using …

Charge-Transfer Interactions Induce Surface Dependent Conformational Changes In Apolipoprotein Biocorona, Achyut J. Raghavendra, Nasser Alsaleh, Jared M. Brown, Ramakrishna Podila

Publications

Upon introduction into a biological system, engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) rapidly associate with a variety of biomolecules such as proteins and lipids to form a biocorona. The presence of “biocorona” influences nano–bio interactions considerably, and could ultimately result in altered biological responses. Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I), the major constituent of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), is one of the most prevalent proteins found in ENM-biocorona irrespective of ENM nature, size, and shape. Given the importance of ApoA-I in HDL and cholesterol transport, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms of ApoA-I adsorption and the associated structural changes for assessing consequences of ENM exposure. Here, …

Using Percent Complete Metric To Highlight The Root Causes Of Delays In Home Building Industry, Somik Ghosh

The Professional Constructor

Based on the prediction of US Housing and Urban Development (US HUD), the demand for new homes will increase in the coming months to accompany the steady sales of existing homes. To meet the future demand, the home building industry has to continuously improve and get rid of inherent problems such as frequent delays. While delays have been a common occurrence in the residential and commercial construction alike, investigations of delays in the residential sector has not received much attention. With the goal of exploring the causes of delays in the home building industry, a multiple case study approach was …

Math Skills That Don’T Add Up; A Comparison Between Eighth Grade And College Students, Nathan Barry, Angela Hollman, Dale Porter

The Professional Constructor

Among 34 participating countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States performed below average in mathematics earning a rank of 27. The World Economic Forum (2014) ranks the United States 51 out of 144 countries scoring a 4.4 out of 7 (7 = excellent) in the quality of mathematics and science education. Although the United States’ competitive advantage and economic growth is directly connected to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, only 28 percent of those students choose to major with these fields in college. In addition, 48 percent of students that choose to …

High Order Algebraic Splitting For Magnetohydrodynamics Simulation, Mine Akbas, Muhammad Mohebujjaman, Leo G. Rebholz, Mengying Xiao

Publications

This paper proposes, analyzes and tests high order algebraic splitting methods for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows. The main idea is to apply, at each time step, Yosida-type algebraic splitting to a block saddle point problem that arises from a particular incremental formulation of MHD. By doing so, we dramatically reduce the complexity of the nonsymmetric block Schur complement by decoupling it into two Stokes-type Schur complements, each of which is symmetric positive definite and also is the same at each time step. We prove the splitting is O(Δt³) accurate, and if used together with (block-)pressure correction, is fourth order. …

Clemson Trustees Minutes, 2017 February 3, Clemson University Board Of Trustees

Minutes

No abstract provided.

Superior Performance Of Continuous Over Pulsatile Flow Ventricular Assist Devices In The Single Ventricle Circulation: A Computational Study, Tyler Schmidt, David Rosenthal, Olaf Reinhartz, Kirk Riemer, Fei He, Tain-Yen Hsia, Alison Marsden, Ethan Kung

Publications

This study compares the physiological responses of systemic-to-pulmonary shunted single ventricle patients to pulsatile and continuous flow ventricular assist devices (VADs). Performance differences between pulsatile and continuous flow VADs have been clinically observed, but the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Six systemic-to-pulmonary shunted single ventricle patients (mean BSA=0.30 m2) were computationally simulated using a lumped-parameter network tuned to match patient specific clinical data. A first set of simulations compared current clinical implementation of VADs in single ventricle patients. A second set modified pulsatile flow VAD settings with the goal to optimize cardiac output (CO). For all patients, the best-case continuous …

Climate And Water Resources In The Carolinas: Approaches To Applying Global Climate Change Information To Local Decisions, Kirsten Lackstrom, Gregory J. Carbone, Daniel L. Tufford, Aashka Patel

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

A wide range of resource managers, community planners, and other stakeholders are increasingly asking for information regarding how climate change will affect South Carolina’s freshwater and coastal resources. They are interested in using this information for decisions related to infrastructure design, water system planning, vulnerability assessments, and ecosystem management. While climate change data, projections, and related information are also becoming increasingly available, many uncertainties around future climate change and its potential impacts often hinder its application. Furthermore it is often not available in a format or at a scale that is easily translated to local- and regional resource management decisions. …

Adjusting Nrcs Curve Number For Rainfall Durations Less Than 24 Hours, Michael Meadows

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

The primary use of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) curve number (CN) is to compute total storm runoff based on total rainfall. The method was originally created to determine the mean daily depth of runoff during flood producing events on small agricultural watersheds. CN values were determined using daily rainfall and runoff data. Practically, it did not rain for 24 hours during many, perhaps most, of the events, but since the data were recorded as daily rainfall, 24 hours became the implicit duration for values input to the curve number runoff model. NRCS references do not specifically state the …

A Policy Lens Of South Carolina Coastal Stormwater Management, Lori A. Dickes, Jeffrey Allen, Monika Jalowiecka, Katie Buckley

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

Similar to many environmental issues today, stormwater management lies within a network of regulatory and policy oversight. As South Carolina coastal communities continue to experience economic and population growth, understanding the broader policy context of stormwater pond management is important. This study was aimed at compiling the state-of-the-knowledge of stormwater pond management policy for the eight coastal counties of South Carolina. In order to enhance researchers and policymakers understanding of the stormwater policy and regulatory environment, this research utilizes a mixed methods approach. A mixed methods approach allows researchers to explore different components of a particular research question by deploying …

Hydro-Meteorologic Assessment Of October 2015 Extreme Precipitation Event On Santee Experimental Forest Watersheds, South Carolina, Devendra M. Amatya, Charles A. Harrison, Carl C. Trettin

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

The extreme precipitation event on October 3-4, 2015, likely resulting from the convergence of a persistent deep easterly flow, the continuous supply of moisture, the terrain, and the circulation associated with Hurricane Joaquin off the eastern Atlantic Coast (http://cms.met.psu. edu/sref/severe/2015/04Oct2015.pdf) resulted in extreme and prolonged flooding in many parts of South Carolina. We present the precipitation amounts and intensities observed at four gauges on the USDA Forest Service Santee Experimental Forest (SEF) watersheds during this extreme event in conjunction with the antecedent conditions for 5 days prior to the event. All four rain gauges recorded 24-hr maximum rainfall of 340 …

Development Of Extended Unimpaired Streamflow Records In The Saluda Basin, South Carolina, C. Alex Pellett, John Boyer, Nina Caraway, Tim Cox, Joseph A. Gellici, Scott Harder, Andy Wachob, Kirk Westphal

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

This paper presents the steps involved and the methodologies employed in the first phase of the South Carolina Surface Water Assessment - development of extended and unimpaired streamflow estimates based on USGS gage data in the Saluda basin. Streamflow data are first adjusted to remove effects of anthropogenic impairments. Adjustments are made for reservoirs, withdrawals, and discharges based on available documentation. Where documentation is insufficient, hindcasting methods are used. The resulting datasets are called unimpaired flows (UIFs).

The UIFs are then extended in time from 1925, the starting date of the first continuous stream discharge data available in the basin, …