Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Audio/Visual Stimulation And Virtual Reality To Increase The Rate Of Retention In First Semester Freshmen Graphic Communications Students, Hanna Gibson

All Theses

In March of 2020, the world entered the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving educators to answer the question, "how do we teach in a virtual environment?". This was especially difficult for deeply rooted STEM programs such as Graphic Communications at Clemson University. This research aims to analyze multiple methods of virtual teaching for correlation between enhanced retention rates.

This thesis attempts to solve the problem facing global STEM educators when they are attempting to prepare material for students in a virtual environment. This is achieved by presenting them with how different methodologies impact the retention rate on freshmen level students enrolled in …

Visualizing Features From Deep Neural Networks Trained On Alzheimer’S Disease And Few-Shot Learning Models For Alzheimer’S Disease, John Reeder

All Theses

Alzheimer’s disease is an incurable neural disease, usually affecting the elderly. The afflicted suffer from cognitive impairments that get dramatically worse at each stage. Previous research on Alzheimer’s disease analysis in terms of classification leveraged statistical models such as support vector machines. However, statistical models such as support vector machines train the from numerical data instead of medical images. Today, convolutional neural networks (CNN) are widely considered as the one which can achieve the state-of-the- art image classification performance. However, due to their black box nature, there can be reluctance amongst medical professionals for their use. On the other hand, …

Acceleration Skinning: Kinematics-Driven Cartoon Effects For Articulated Characters, Niranjan Kalyanasundaram

All Theses

Secondary effects are key to adding fluidity and style to animation. This thesis introduces the idea of “Acceleration Skinning” following a recent well-received technique, Velocity Skinning, to automatically create secondary motion in character animation by modifying the standard pipeline for skeletal rig skinning. These effects, which animators may refer to as squash and stretch or drag, attempt to create an illusion of inertia. In this thesis, I extend the Velocity Skinning technique to include acceleration for creating a wider gamut of cartoon effects. I explore three new deformers that make use of this Acceleration Skinning framework: followthrough, centripetal stretch, and …

Analysis Of Deep Learning Methods For Wired Ethernet Physical Layer Security Of Operational Technology, Lucas Torlay

All Theses

The cybersecurity of power systems is jeopardized by the threat of spoofing and man-in-the-middle style attacks due to a lack of physical layer device authentication techniques for operational technology (OT) communication networks. OT networks cannot support the active probing cybersecurity methods that are popular in information technology (IT) networks. Furthermore, both active and passive scanning techniques are susceptible to medium access control (MAC) address spoofing when operating at Layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. This thesis aims to analyze the role of deep learning in passively authenticating Ethernet devices by their communication signals. This method operates at …

Lossy Compression And Its Application On Large Scale Scientific Datasets, Tasmia Reza

All Theses

High Performance Computing (HPC) applications are always expanding in data size and computational complexity. It is becoming necessary to consider fault tolerance and system recovery to reduce computation and resource cost in HPC systems. The computation of modern large scale HPC applications are facing bottleneck due to computation complexities, increased runtime and large data storage requirements. These issues can not be ignored in current supercomputing era. Data compression is one of the effective ways to address data storage issue. Among data compression, the lossy compression is much more feasible and efficient than the traditional lossless compression due to low I/O …

Fine Mapping Of Chilling Requirement And Bloom Date To Enable Marker-Assisted Breeding Of Climate Resilient Peach, Gizem Demirel

All Theses

Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) fruit is a delicious summer treat appreciated for its sweet, juicy, and aromatic taste all over the globe. With only 44 calories and zero fat per fruit, peach has a great popularity among consumers and producers for its nutritional and economic value. Peach production is threatened by unpredictable climate changes, rising temperatures that reduce winter chill, especially in the warmer growing areas, resulting in fruit and yield loss. Therefore, it is necessary to develop cultivars that are resilient to environmental changes. Peach breeding takes a long time, and this process can benefit from the …

Longleaf Pine Restoration In The South Carolina Sandhills Wiregrass Gap, Jacob W. Murray

All Theses

Longleaf pine restoration has been a topic of great concern and intrigue in the southeast and has taken on new fervor in recent decades as restoration methods continue to develop. Many landowners and forest managers are now pursuing ecological forestry and restoration ecology in great numbers as a new form of land management. However, niche regions can often be overlooked, as is the case with the Carolina Sandhills Wiregrass Gap, an area devoid of wiregrass and one that is on the outskirt regions of the historical longleaf pine range. Field studies were conducted pre- and post-harvest during two growing seasons …

Cooperative Perception For Social Driving In Connected Vehicle Traffic, Daniel Yoon

All Dissertations

The development of autonomous vehicle technology has moved to the center of automotive research in recent decades. In the foreseeable future, road vehicles at all levels of automation and connectivity will be required to operate safely in a hybrid traffic where human operated vehicles (HOVs) and fully and semi-autonomous vehicles (AVs) coexist. Having an accurate and reliable perception of the road is an important requirement for achieving this objective. This dissertation addresses some of the associated challenges via developing a human-like social driver model and devising a decentralized cooperative perception framework.

A human-like driver model can aid the development of …

Developing Design And Analysis Framework For Hybrid Mechanical-Digital Control Of Soft Robots: From Mechanics-Based Motion Sequencing To Physical Reservoir Computing, Priyanka B. Bhovad

All Dissertations

The recent advances in the field of soft robotics have made autonomous soft robots working in unstructured dynamic environments a close reality. These soft robots can potentially collaborate with humans without causing any harm, they can handle fragile objects safely, perform delicate surgeries inside body, etc. In our research we focus on origami based compliant mechanisms, that can be used as soft robotic skeleton. Origami mechanisms are inherently compliant, lightweight, compact, and possess unique mechanical properties such as– multi-stability, nonlinear dynamics, etc. Researchers have shown that multi-stable mechanisms have applications in motion-sequencing applications. Additionally, the nonlinear dynamic properties of origami …

Secure Data Collection And Analysis In Smart Health Monitoring, Pei Huang

All Dissertations

Smart health monitoring uses real-time monitored data to support diagnosis, treatment, and health decision-making in modern smart healthcare systems and benefit our daily life. The accurate health monitoring and prompt transmission of health data are facilitated by the ever-evolving on-body sensors, wireless communication technologies, and wireless sensing techniques. Although the users have witnessed the convenience of smart health monitoring, severe privacy and security concerns on the valuable and sensitive collected data come along with the merit. The data collection, transmission, and analysis are vulnerable to various attacks, e.g., eavesdropping, due to the open nature of wireless media, the resource constraints …

Methods And Applications Of Synthetic Data Generation, Jason Anderson

All Dissertations

The advent of data mining and machine learning has highlighted the value of large and varied sources of data, while increasing the demand for synthetic data captures the structural and statistical characteristics of the original data without revealing personal or proprietary information contained in the original dataset.

In this dissertation, we use examples from original research to show that, using appropriate models and input parameters, synthetic data that mimics the characteristics of real data can be generated with sufficient rate and quality to address the volume, structural complexity, and statistical variation requirements of research and development of digital information processing …

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, …

Investigation And Characterization Of New Optically Stimulated Luminescence (Osl) Dosimetric Materials, Linyu Pan

All Dissertations

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimeters have attracted increasing attention due to advantages over TL dosimeters, including no thermal quenching and higher sensitivity. Nevertheless, currently, there are only two commercially available OSL dosimeters, BeO and Al₂O₃:C. An OSL dosimeter requires low effective atomic number (Z_eff < 16), at least one type of recombination center and one type of trap, and UV~blue emission. In this dissertation, motivated by the search of new OSL dosimetric materials, a systematic investigation of alumina (Z_eff = 11.3) and magnesium aluminate spinel (Z_eff = 11.2) based materials was performed in terms of the engineering of the recombination centers and electronic traps. Microstructural characterization was executed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Luminescence was characterized under X-ray excitation (radioluminescence; RL) at ambient and …

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 …

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 …

Approachable Error Bounded Lossy Compression, Robert Raymond Underwood

All Dissertations

Compression is commonly used in HPC applications to move and store data. Traditional lossless compression, however, does not provide adequate compression of floating point data often found in scientific codes. Recently, researchers and scientists have turned to lossy compression techniques that approximate the original data rather than reproduce it in order to achieve desired levels of compression. Typical lossy compressors do not bound the errors introduced into the data, leading to the development of error bounded lossy compressors (EBLC). These tools provide the desired levels of compression as mathematical guarantees on the errors introduced. However, the current state of EBLC …

Coupled Thermal Mechanical Analysis Methodology For Thermal Performance Evaluation And Failure Mode Identification Of Thermal Barrier Coatings For Heavy Duty Diesel Engines, Sean Moser

All Dissertations

Consumer demand and government regulation, as well as the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck program has motivated extraordinary effort to maximize the heavy-duty diesel engine’s thermal efficiency. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) provide an avenue for increasing the thermal efficiency of the mixing controlled combustion (MCC) process through the reduction of heat transfer losses. The myriad of previous studies presents conflicting conclusions, both in the merit of TBCs for cycle improvement, and also for coating durability and potential adverse effects from coating failure. While the most recent studies with thin thermal barrier coatings (~100-250 µm) have shown a majority of positive cycle …

An Algorithm For Biobjective Mixed Integer Quadratic Programs, Pubudu Jayasekara Merenchige

All Dissertations

Multiobjective quadratic programs (MOQPs) are appealing since convex quadratic programs have elegant mathematical properties and model important applications. Adding mixed-integer variables extends their applicability while the resulting programs become global optimization problems. Thus, in this work, we develop a branch and bound (BB) algorithm for solving biobjective mixed-integer quadratic programs (BOMIQPs). An algorithm of this type does not exist in the literature.

The algorithm relies on five fundamental components of the BB scheme: calculating an initial set of efficient solutions with associated Pareto points, solving node problems, fathoming, branching, and set dominance. Considering the properties of the Pareto set of …

Capillary Driven Transport In Soft Solids, Saiful Islam Tamim

All Dissertations

Soft solids, such as polymeric gels, are elastic materials that can be significantly deformed by capillary forces which act at the interface. The coupling between elasticity and capillarity is known as elastocapillarity and is useful to wide ranging applications, from drop pinchoff of bioinks for 3-D printing tissue scaffolds, to generating droplet patterns on microfluidic devices. In this dissertation, we develop mathematical models of elastocapillary driven motions in soft solids. The focus is on understanding the relevant physics in such complex phenomena, while also recovering the limiting cases of classical fluid mechanics and solid mechanics theories.

This dissertation investigates two …

“Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language”, Nora Groce

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Sasl Journal, Volume 4, Number 2 (Full Issue)

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Room Hvac Influences On The Removal Of Airborne Particulatematter: Implications For School Reopening During Thecovid-19 Pandemic, Ali Mohammadi Nafchi, Vincent Blouin, Nigel Kaye, Andrew Metcalf, Katie Van Valkinburgh, Ehasn Mousavi

Open Access Publishing Fund

(1) Background: Many schools and higher education settings have confronted the issue of reopening their facilities after the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, several airflow strategies spanning from adding portable air purifiers to major mechanical overhauls have been suggested to equip classrooms with what is necessary to provide a safe and reliable environment. Yet, there are many unknowns about specific contributions of the building system and its design and performance on indoor air quality (IAQ) improvements. (2) Methods: this study examined the combined effect of ventilation type, airflow rates, and filtration on IAQ in five different classrooms. Experiments were conducted by …

2020 Summary Report On Institutional Effectiveness, Clemson University

Institutional Effectiveness Reports

No abstract provided.

2021 Summary Report On Institutional Effectiveness, Clemson University

Institutional Effectiveness Reports

No abstract provided.

Systematic Review And Regression Modeling Of The Effects Of Age, Body Size, And Exercise On Cardiovascular Parameters In Healthy Adults, Aseem Pradhan, John Scaringi, Patrick Gerard, Ross Arena, Jonathan Myers, Leonard A. Kaminsky, Ethan Kung

Publications

Purpose

Blood pressure, cardiac output, and ventricular volumes correlate to various subject features such as age, body size, and exercise intensity. The purpose of this study is to quantify this correlation through regression modeling.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review to compile reference data of healthy subjects for several cardiovascular parameters and subject features. Regression algorithms used these aggregate data to formulate predictive models for the outputs—systolic and diastolic blood pressure, ventricular volumes, cardiac output, and heart rate—against the features—age, height, weight, and exercise intensity. A simulation-based procedure generated data of virtual subjects to test whether these regression models built …

Framing Indigenous Identity Inclusion In Positive Youth Development: Proclaimed Ignorance, Partial Vacuum, And The Peoplehood Model, Joshua Farella, Joshua Moore, Juan Arias, Jeremy Elliott-Engel

Journal of Youth Development

Indigenous youth are systemically underserved by 4-H and other positive youth development (PYD) organizations. Many underserved First Nation communities in the United States could greatly benefit from programs that foster youth thriving; however, these programs tend to be ineffective in creating culturally reflective spaces for Indigenous participants. In this article, we argue that the Peoplehood Model should serve as a unifying model for the inclusion of Indigenous identity in programming, and that cultural humility should be firmly integrated into program design and assessment. We also propose that, to support Indigenous youth thriving, PYD practitioners must intentionally create a “partial vacuum” …

Gauging Informal Stem Youth Program Impact: A Conceptual Framework And A Measurement Instrument, Robert Tai, Ji Hoon Ryoo, Claire Mitchell, Xiaoqing Kong

Journal of Youth Development

STEM education programs are often formulated with a "hands-on activities" focus across a wide array of topics from robotics to rockets to ecology. Traditionally, the impact of these programs is based on surveys of youth on program-specific experiences or the youths’ interest and impressions of science in general. In this manuscript, we offer a new approach to analyzing science programming design and youth participant impact. The conceptual framework discussed here concentrates on the organization and analysis of common learning activities and instructional strategies. We establish instrument validity and reliability through an analysis of validity threats and pilot study results. We …

The Complexities Of Student Engagement For Historically Marginalized Youth In An After-School Program, Ashlee Sjogren, Theresa Melton

Journal of Youth Development

As researchers continue to address issues of equity within educational settings, it is important to also consider the role of equity in high-quality after-school programs. Evidence suggests that families from communities with fewer resources, along with families that identify as Black or Hispanic, report less access to quality after-school programming for their youth (Afterschool Alliance, 2020). This is especially problematic, as after-school programming has been associated with a number of positive outcomes for youth. In this study, researchers highlight youth perspectives to illuminate the challenges related to engaging historically marginalized youth in a school-based after-school program. Findings suggest that youth …

Cultivating Youth Affinity For College Within The Context Of Campus-Based Summer Camps, Barry Garst, Ryan Gagnon, Thomas Clanton, Jay Woodward

Journal of Youth Development

College and university-based (CUB) summer camps are a prominent pre-collegiate experience targeting middle and high school adolescents, which research suggests may enhance college aspirations and preparedness, develop academic knowledge and skills, and influence future career choices. This study examines factors that predict the relation between affinity for college, program engagement and support, college major selection, and social–emotional outcomes stemming from youth involvement in a CUB camp based on data collected from 641 middle and high school-aged youth who completed an online questionnaire on the last day of the CUB camp. The findings validated a 4-factor model comprised of college brand …

Agency And Empowerment For Adolescent Girls: An Intentional Approach To Policy And Programming, Prerna Banati, Lauren Rumble, Nicola Jones, Sarah Hendriks

Journal of Youth Development

As national governments roll out COVID response plans, an opportunity arises to re-cast adolescent girls’ programs to centrally anchor them on girls’ voices, leadership, ambitions, and assets in development policies and programs. Drawing together the evidence on what we know works for adolescent girls, as well as the growing literature on positive strengths-based programming which are gradually and increasingly being applied, this commentary calls for a girl-intentional approach to policy and programming. A girl-intentional approach is described through 3 case studies, which illustrate the additionality of new or improved adolescent knowledge, skills, and competencies; improved opportunities for adolescent engagement, voice, …