Digital Commons Network^™

Relative Sea Level Rise In The Winyah Bay-Waccamaw River Tidal System Over The Last Thirteen Years, Thomas M. Williams, Thomas L. O'Halloran

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

Prediction of sea level rise (SLR) in response to climate change has been the focus of worldwide research, most focusing on the impact by human development. The research has been limited to estuaries and tidal rivers near harbors dealing with the hydrodynamics of reversing tidal flows. This article focuses on the Waccamaw River National Wildlife Refuge in coastal South Carolina where freshwater unidirectional flow is common. We examined the record of water levels in the Waccamaw and Pee Dee Rivers over the period 2007–2019 and the length of record of the United States Geographical Survey (USGS) gauge at Pawleys Island …

Evaluating The Ability Of Constructed Intertidal Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Reefs To Address Shoreline Erosion In South Carolina, Peter R. Kingsley-Smith, Andrew W. Tweel, Sharleen P. Johnson, Gary W. Sundin, Michael S. Hodges, Benjamin W. Stone, Gregory D. Sorg, Denise M. Sanger

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

The application of nature-based solutions to address shoreline erosion and the loss of salt marsh in coastal South Carolina has centered around the creation of intertidal oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs that act as natural breakwaters. The installation of such living shoreline materials often results in a rapid accumulation of fine sediments, followed by wild oyster recruitment to suitable materials, and then more gradually the growth of salt marshes (primarily Spartina alterniflora). Leveraging more than two decades of oyster reef restoration and living shorelines research at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, this study quantitatively assessed performance rates for both …

Clemson Commencement Program, May 2023, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Effect Of Nanointerfaces On Nanostructure And Mechanical Properties Of Semicrystalline Polymers Using Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamic Simulations, Nayoung Kim

Honors College Theses

Polymer crystallization is a classical problem of polymer research. Many synthetic and natural polymers take the semi-crystalline form. Crystallization of polymers is a complex process associated with the partial alignment of their molecular chains. The final physical properties of semicrystalline polymers are determined by the degree of crystallinity and the size and orientation of the crystallites (nano- to micro-sized crystalline regions). Although it has been studied for many years, we still lack a fundamental understanding of the types of factors that influence the semicrystalline structure and how the structure affects the final properties. It is difficult because crystalline polymers are …

Enhancing Station Level Direct-Demand Models With Multi-Scalar Accessibility Indicators, Luis Enrique Ramos-Santiago

Open Access Publishing Fund

Direct-demand models (DDM) are increasingly being used for a diversity of transit research and practice purposes. Yet few station-level DDM studies have explored the use of composite indicators of metropolitan accessibility in predicting demand. After all, provision of access to metropolitan destinations is one of the main goals of rapid-transit systems. Furthermore, to this author’s knowledge no study has explored potential interactions with local-level accessibility indicators that are typically included in station level transit DDMs. This study explores these possibilities and uses Los Angeles multimodal rapid-transit network as a representative case study of a system that operates in a dispersed …

Clemson University Women Trailblazers, A. M. Alexander, J. W. Harris

Clemson University Women Trailblazers

No abstract provided.

Enabling High Throughput And Reliable Low Latency Communication Over Vehicular Mobility In Next-Generation Cellular Networks, Snigdhaswin Kar

All Dissertations

The fifth-generation (5G) networks and beyond need paradigm shifts to realize the exponentially increasing demands of next-generation services for high throughputs, low latencies, and reliable communication under various mobility scenarios. However, these promising features have critical gaps that need to be filled before they can be fully implemented for mobile applications in complex environments like smart cities. Although the sub-6 GHz bands can provide reliable and larger coverage, they cannot provide high data rates with low latencies due to a scarcity of spectrum available in these bands. Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is a key enabler for a significant increase in …

Assesment Of Structure, Function, And Microevolutionary Dynamics Of Extrachromosomal Circular Dna In Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells, Dylan Chitwood

All Dissertations

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines are among the most popular expression hosts used in biopharmaceutical manufacturing due to relative ease of culture, capacity to perform human-like post-translational modifications, and non-susceptibility to viruses. However, the intrinsic plasticity of the CHO genome can lead to undesired genetic rearrangements, phenotypic shifts, reduced product quality, and early culture termination that prevents continuous biomanufacturing. A characteristic of plastic and unstable genomes that is poorly understood in CHO cells is extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA). EccDNAs are focal amplifications of the genome that reside in the extranuclear space. These plasmid-like entities are structurally complex and are …

Long-Time Stability For An Imex Discretization Of The 1d Fujita Equation, Victoria Luongo

Honors College Theses

We study an efficient time-stepping scheme for the 1D Fujita equation that is implicit for the linear terms but explicit for the nonlinear terms. We analyze the long-time stability of the scheme for varying parameter values, which reveal parameter value regimes in which the method is stable. We provide numerical results that illustrate the theory and show the analytically derived stability conditions are sufficient to achieve long-time stability results.

Optical Sensing Of Capillary Waves, Matthew Franklin Reid

Honors College Theses

I relay various topics I learned about this semester and summarize the specialties of Clemson’s Micro-Photonics Laboratory. I report pertinent information for characterizing capillary waves with lasers and one recent method of characterizing them. Lastly, I outline a potential plan for mathematically modeling a laser’s reflection off of capillary waves, and potential plans moving forward.

Characterizing The Influence Of The Moc Support For The Pt Single Atom Catalyst For The Water Gas Shift Reaction, Kathryn Mcgee

Honors College Theses

In this report, we looked at characterizing the effect of the support (MoC) for the water gas shift (WGS) environment. The single-atom catalyst analyzed was platinum supported in molybdenum carbide. The primary focus of this report was CO* because of the strong interest in using the WGS reaction to convert CO* contamination. All calculations were performed using the density functional theory (DFT) method. We analyzed the binding energies for the different adsorbates, with a special emphasis on CO and charges of the support. We compared our results to Pt/Al₂O₃ support. We observed that the support, specifically MoC …

Exploration Of Collaborative Design Spaces: Engineering Interactions And Workflows In Product Development, Frederick Rowell

Honors College Theses

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) initiatives can improve an enterprise’s efficiency by increasing collaborative design opportunities within its business structure. PLM solutions provide digital mediums to collaborate on all aspects of a company’s workflow, including engineering, testing, manufacturing, marketing, business, and field support services. This paper examines the major PLM tools and software used to establish a collaborative engineering design space; computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and product data management (PDM). The interactions between these PLM tools and a design team’s organizational structure are analyzed to determine some of the most effective PLM integration strategies to improve …

Fabrication And Characterization Of A Nanofiber Composite Biosensor For Chronic Wound Inflammation Diagnosis, Shreya Thammana

Honors College Theses

Chronic wounds (wounds that fail to proceed through the normal phases of wound healing and cannot restore to full function in three months) can pose physical and financial burdens on patients. The most common chronic wound is diabetic foot ulcers, which affect 6.3% of the global population [1]. Current diagnostic and tracking methods to monitor wound healing are subjective and involve visual inspection and observation of the wound as it heals. However, when dealing with chronic wounds, the wound healing process is more difficult to observe due to the delayed nature of healing. There is also a need to closely …

Development Of 3d Ovarian Cancer Spheroids In Vitro And Investigation Of Their Physiological Relevance As Models Of Inherent Chemoresistance, Amanda Murray

Honors College Theses

Ovarian cancer is the sixth leading cause of death among women worldwide, with an average 5-year survival rate of less than 48%. Current clinical treatment methods for this disease are often deemed ineffective because of the innate chemoresistance of tumors due to their microenvironment and architecture. Accurately mimicking chemoresistance with traditional 2D cultures is difficult; therefore, recent years have seen an increase in 3D culturing methods that create cellular spheroids. These spheroids can serve as models of in vivo tumor characteristics due to their hypoxic core, acidic microenvironment, and increased cell-to-cell interactions. This research aims to (1) refine a 3D …

Green Hpc: Optimizing Software Stack Energy Efficiency Of Large Data Systems, Grant Wilkins

Honors College Theses

High-performance computing (HPC) is indispensable in modern scientific research and industry applications, but its energy consumption is a growing concern. This thesis presents two novel approaches to optimize energy consumption in large data systems. The first chapter of the thesis will discuss the use of Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) to optimize the energy efficiency of two popular lossy compression algorithms: SZ and ZFP. By adjusting the voltage and frequency levels of computing resources, DVFS can reduce energy consumption while maintaining the desired level of performance and accuracy. The second chapter of the thesis will focus on a detailed …

Microwave Characterization Of Polymeric Microparticle Morphology, Gabriel D. Cutter

Honors College Theses

Biological cell function and overall health are highly defined by the cell’s morphology. Sorting cells based on their shape is recently a major interest to the biomedical field for the future of medical treatments and health diagnostics. This work presents a new shape-based particle sorting technique using a novel microwave sensing system as a step toward biological cell sorting. The new sensing system consists of a grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) transmission line that simultaneously serves as a single-particle microfluidic channel and a microwave sensor, which is paired with a microwave interferometer to boost signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Polystyrene microspheres, a common …

The Idea Book Club And Tigers Advance: Bringing Faculty And Staff Together To Discuss Equity In Higher Education, Renna Redd

Presentations

The IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Awareness) Book Club was established during the Fall 2019 semester by former Director of Diversity Education Moryah Jackson and Interlibrary Loan Librarian Renna Redd as a continuing education initiative for employees to create a shared syntax and expand collective awareness of the complexities within higher education in South Carolina and the United States through reading and discussing a common text. One of the goals of the initiative was to provide free copies of the selected book to participants so that they could participate without financial commitment, not increase screen time unnecessarily, and share the …

A Multi-Agent Modeling Social Network Analysis Of Cooperative Learning Groups Within A Simulated Adult Education Classroom Learning Environment, Leverett Bruner

All Dissertations

Illiteracy and a lack of a high school diploma are impediments to a fulfilled and meaningful life. Low or reduced literacy and non-attainment of a high school diploma are significant problems in the United States. Adult education can be a vehicle to address these ever-present issues. A disproportionate number of students in adult education are minorities, members of lower socioeconomic statuses and traditionally marginalized groups who lack effective literacy skills and/or a high school diploma. Adult education and its related entities can serve as a vehicle to address these pervasive issues, but adult education as a program type is a …

Iii-Nitride Triangular Microcantilevers For Multimodal Sensing Applications, Balaadithya Uppalapati

All Dissertations

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)-based sensors have gained significant attention due to their ability to sense, measure, and process various physical, chemical, and biological parameters. The small size of MEMS sensors provides numerous advantages, including low power consumption, high sensitivity, and rapid response time, making them suitable for various applications in healthcare, automotive, aerospace, and consumer electronics.

In the past few years, AlGaN/GaN MEMS devices have been found to offer several advantages over silicon-based MEMS devices. One of the main advantages of AlGaN/GaN MEMS is their high sensitivity to surface stresses and forces due to their high piezoelectric coefficients. This sensitivity allows …

Mesoscale Modeling And Machine Learning Studies Of Grain Boundary Segregation In Metallic Alloys, Malek Alkayyali

All Dissertations

Nearly all structural and functional materials are polycrystalline alloys; they are composed of differently oriented crystalline grains that are joined at internal interfaces termed grain boundaries (GBs). It is well accepted that GB dynamics play a critical role in many phenomena during materials processing or under operating environments. Of particular interest are GB migration and grain growth processes, as they influence many crystal-size dependent properties, such as mechanical strength and electrical conductivity.

In metallic alloys, GBs offer a plethora of preferential atomic sites for alloying elements to occupy. Indeed, recent experimental studies employing in-situ microscopy revealed strong GB solute segregation …

Partitioning And Microdosimetry Of Plutonium-239 And 55-Iron In Environmental Bacteria Grown In Liquid Cultures, Lisa Manglass

All Dissertations

The work presented herein provides quantitative data related to bacteria exposed in situ to two radionuclides relevant to nuclear sensing: plutonium-239 (²³⁹Pu) and iron-55 (⁵⁵Fe). Originally motivated by the fundamental science underlying biosensing, liquid cultures of Pseudomonas putida and Escherichia coli were exposed to radionuclides over the course of 15-day experimental periods with the intent of gaining insight into the response of these bacteria. An essential component of characterizing or utilizing this response in a meaningful way is an understanding of the dose leading to that response. This dissertation narrows the knowledge gap associated with dose-response …

To Give Or Not To Give: A Qualitative Descriptive Study On Alumni Giving Behavior At A Historically Black College And University, Shanaee Bodrick

All Dissertations

This qualitative descriptive study explores alumni giving behavior at a private North Carolina Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Specifically, this research examined HBCU alumni experiences, perceptions, and motivations and how these factors influence their decision-making process when contributing financially to their alma mater. This research provides the historical background of HBCUs and how these institutions have been critical in shaping their education and communities. The findings of this study provide the basis for future research on HBCU alumni donors and non-donors. It exposes commonalities and differences between donors and non-donors. In all, this study may act as a reference …

Adversarial Deep Learning And Security With A Hardware Perspective, Joseph Clements

All Dissertations

Adversarial deep learning is the field of study which analyzes deep learning in the presence of adversarial entities. This entails understanding the capabilities, objectives, and attack scenarios available to the adversary to develop defensive mechanisms and avenues of robustness available to the benign parties. Understanding this facet of deep learning helps us improve the safety of the deep learning systems against external threats from adversaries. However, of equal importance, this perspective also helps the industry understand and respond to critical failures in the technology. The expectation of future success has driven significant interest in developing this technology broadly. Adversarial deep …

The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader

All Dissertations

This dissertation rhetorically analyzes discrimination in Western institutional discourses and documentation procedures, such as architectural texts and procedures, through a historiographic lens. An analytical methodology will be offered to show how discrimination of intersectional bodies is historically informed and reaffirmed by the manipulation of Western myths and mythos. Specifically, by mapping navigational mathematics and cartographic methods over rhetorical, architectural, and historiographic theory, it will be shown how the manipulation of Western myths establishes and reifies patriarchal discrimination that eventually fissions into eugenicist logics in nineteenth and twentieth century France, England, and the United States. In modernity, the practice of manipulating …

Assessing What We Value: Interactions Between Student Perceptions Of Assessments In The Calculus Classroom And Their Future-Oriented Motivation, Catherine Kenyon

All Dissertations

This work investigates interactions between first-year engineering (FYE) student perceptions of Calculus exams, their perceptions of the future, and their levels of math test anxiety. All phases of this study were conducted at a very high research (R1) institution with a common FYE program and coordinated Calculus courses. An initial pilot study explored how FYE students perceive the purpose of taking Calculus exams and how math test anxiety may play a role in these students’ perceptions of exams and their future in engineering. A second pilot study expanded on these results concerning student perceptions of Calculus exams and math test …

Modeling Antihypertensive Therapeutic Inertia And Intensification To Support Clinical Action Toward Hypertension Control, Benjamin Martin

All Dissertations

Background

Hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and consequent mortality worldwide. In the U.S., more than half of hypertension cases remain uncontrolled, despite availability of effective pharmaceutical treatment options. Evidence suggests that therapeutic inertia, defined as clinician failure to initiate or increase therapy when treatment goals are unmet, is the most influential barrier to improving hypertension control. Substantial rates of therapeutic inertia have been reported in ambulatory primary care settings where hypertension is typically treated and managed. Understanding and overcoming the forces driving therapeutic inertia in hypertension management is a critical strategy to reach population health …

Influence Of Cover Cropping And Nitrogen Fertilization On Soil Properties And Cotton Productivity, Christianah Oladoye

All Dissertations

Conservation practices with cover crops have proven to be effective in nutrient enrichment, increased yield, and environmental stability. Field studies were conducted from 2019 to 2022 to evaluate the short-term effect of No cover crop [NC], RYE, a mix of rye + vetch [R+V], and mix of five species (radish, rye, vetch, clover, and lupin) [5W] on short term soil physical, chemical properties, cotton growth, and lint yield. Cover crops were planted in November and terminated in May of each year. Soil dry and wet aggregate fractions (0-0.05 m) and soil compaction (0-0.4 m depth) were measured at termination. The …

Hydrothermal Synthesis Of Frustrated Lanthanide Pyrochlores And Transition Metal Double Perovskites And Germanates, Matthew S. Powell

All Dissertations

Magnetically frustrated materials hold promise of unique behavior allowing for the novel study of quantum phenomena. Such materials are poised to become an integral foundation for technological advancement in the post-Silicon Age. Crystalline materials are given special focus where the rigid lattice allows more detailed study of these quantized effects and frustration behavior. As opposed to polycrystalline powders, large single crystals can be preferentially aligned enabling the study of anisotropic behavior. Two cubic structure types have garnered significant interest due to their 3-D tetrahedral arrangement of symmetry-related metal centers with the potential for magnetic frustration: pyrochlores and perovskites.

The supercritical …

Accelerating The Derivation Of Optimal Powertrain Control Strategies Using Reinforcement Learning And Virtual Prototypes, Daniel Egan

All Dissertations

The push for improvements in fuel economy while reducing tailpipe emissions has resulted in significant increases in automotive powertrain complexity, subsequently increasing the resources, both time and money, needed to develop them. Powertrain performance is heavily influenced by the quality of their controller/calibration with modern powertrains reaching levels of complexity where using traditional design of experiment-based methodologies to develop them can take years. Recently, reinforcement learning (RL), a machine learning technique, has emerged as a method to rapidly create optimal controllers for systems of unlimited complexity directly which creates an opportunity to use RL to reduce the overall time and …

Communication In Phelan-Mcdermid Syndrome: Assessment And Genotype-Phenotype Correlation, Sarah Quadri

All Dissertations

Phelan McDermid Syndrome (PMS) is a rare genetic disorder caused by deletions or mutations of the SHANK3 gene on chromosome 22q13.3. Language and communication impairment are hallmark features of PMS, and this dissertation aims to address the lack of consensus on appropriate methods for assessing these abilities and genotype-phenotype correlations of language and communication impairments in PMS.

The first chapter introduces PMS and associated language and communication impairment, identifies gaps in the literature, and shows how this research fills those gaps to advance our understanding of this rare genetic disease. The second chapter identifies and analyzes practices for assessing speech, …