Digital Commons Network^™

Preferred Plants And Nectar Collecting Times For Honey Production, David Macfawn, Jennifer M.K. O'Keefe, Sophie Warny, Carol Wymer, June Rampy Ponder

Clemson Extension Publishing

This book addresses three important questions for South Carolina beekeepers – which plants are bees in South Carolina using for nectar forage, when bees collect nectar from those plants, and how can understanding nectar foraging habits inform beekeepers as they work to gather specific types of premium honey? In 2021, the South Carolina Beekeeper’s Association, led by David MacFawn, designed and implemented a statewide pollen study, the first in any state in over fifty years, to answer these questions. Informed by data gathered from 19 apiaries across the state, this book contains the results of that study, including large-scale melissopalynological …

Application Of Polymer Nanocomposites In The Design Of Prosthetic Sockets That Feature Auxetic Meta-Structures, Sumit Suryakant Kolte, Vinayak Vijayan, Lihua Lou

Publications

This research evaluates the response of prosthetic sockets constructed using polymer nanocomposites and incorporating auxetic meta-structures. The prosthetic sockets feature lightweight meta-structures between the inner and outer walls of the socket. Three different prosthetic designs featuring chiral, reentrant hexagon, and honeycomb meta-structures are evaluated in this study. The prosthetic sockets were designed in SolidWorks and compared using finite element analysis. The polymer nanocomposites used in this study include polypropylene and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene containing uniformly distributed inclusions of either titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, or graphene nanoplatelets. Our results show a favorable pressure profile at the interface between the prosthetic …

Capturing The Benefits Of Partnering With Undergraduate Student Researchers To Conduct Interdisciplinary Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning (Sotl) Research, Becky Tugman, Julia Sherry, Claire Dancz, Jim Strickland

Land-Grant Press — Teaching Section

This publication explores the benefits of engaging undergraduate students as full partners in an interdisciplinary Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research project. The interdisciplinary project provided valuable hands-on learning opportunities by involving students in every research phase—from design to data analysis. The collaboration enriched students' academic and professional skills and offered faculty valuable insights, underscoring the powerful impact of student-faculty partnerships in advancing research capabilities and shaping future pedagogical strategies.

Nature-Based Solutions For Urban Stormwater Management, Nima Zafarmomen, Vidya Samadi, Susan Lunt

Forestry and Natural Resources

This paper explores Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for urban stormwater management, emphasizing their role in mitigating runoff, reducing flood risks, and improving water quality. Bioretention systems (BRS), green roofs, permeable pavements, and vegetated swales utilize natural processes such as infiltration, evapotranspiration, and filtration to manage stormwater while promoting urban resilience and supporting biodiversity effectively. The performance of these solutions depends on vegetation, soil, and climatic parameters, highlighting the need for context-specific design and implementation. While NbS present sustainable alternatives to conventional infrastructure, technical, economic, social, and institutional challenges require interdisciplinary collaboration and supportive policies to unlock their full potential.

Chains Of Knowledge: Slavery, Low-Wage Labor, And The Role Of Intellectual Property In Antebellum Georgia (1789 To 1865), Kris Kallies

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

This article investigates Georgia’s engagement with intellectual property from 1789 to 1865, with an epilogue to 1920, arguing that the state’s economic reliance on unfree labor systems profoundly shaped its approach to technological innovation. Drawing from a newly constructed, state-specific patent database, the study reveals that Georgia’s low patenting rates—examining the areas of in mining and metallurgy, textiles, and the establishment of the Confederate Patent Office during the American Civil War—was not indicative of technological stagnation, but rather evidence of a region where innovation was informal, experiential, and embedded in labor hierarchies. The article advances the argument that the absence …

Empowering Precision Agriculture With The Internet Of Things, Artificial Intelligence, And Robotics, Adarsha Neupane, Vidya Samadi

Forestry and Natural Resources

As the global population grows, agriculture faces increasing demands for higher productivity and sustainability. The incorporation of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics is revolutionizing farming by improving efficiency, enhancing decision-making, and promoting sustainability through optimized resource use. This publication provides insights into the implementation of these smart farming solutions and their benefits for farmers, crop consultants, and stakeholders. It also addresses the challenges of adopting these technologies, highlighting their crucial role in meeting future food demands sustainably.

Collecting Human Subject Data For Modeling Maximum Potential Power At Specific Cadence And Fatigue Levels, Alexander John Minnich

Honors College Theses

The overarching goal of this research project was to investigate the relationship between a participant's maximum power (Watts) at a given cadence (RPM) on a specific fatigue level. Before conducting any experiments, we hypothesized that maximum power and cadence would decay linearly with fatigue. To do this, six days of testing for each of 4 human subjects were split across two phases. The first 4 days were devoted to Phase one, which focuses on determining the physical abilities of each unique participant and finding metabolic constants such as Critical Power and Anaerobic Work Capacity. Phase two then tests maximal power …

Newgarth Revisited: Using Fuller’S Framework To Examine Two Modern Theories Of Statutory Interpretation, Gwyneth Millican

Honors College Theses

Published in 1949, Lon L. Fuller’s The Case of the Speluncean Explorers is widely renowned as a “classic in jurisprudence” for its artful presentation of different legal philosophies, such as natural law and positivist law.¹ In this paper, I revisit Professor Fuller’s Newgarth in order to examine a similar relationship between two popular theories of constitutional and statutory interpretation: originalism and pragmatism.² Drawing from Professor Fuller’s framework, I use fictional opinions to highlight the ways in which originalism and pragmatism can both be used to fall on either side of the opinion. I also place these opinions within …

Clemson Commencement Program, May 2025, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Tides Of Change: Girls’ Experiences In Scouts Bsa, Alexandra Rush, Olivia Kochis, Beth Belanger, Jennifer Brown Urban, Miriam R. Linver

Journal of Youth Development

On February 1, 2019, Boy Scouts of America officially accepted girls into its signature program (ages 11–18) and changed its name to Scouts BSA. This historic shift provided a novel opportunity for researchers to investigate the experiences of some of the first 13 girls to enter this traditionally all-boy space and examine how participation influenced sense of self and purpose. A qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted to explore girls’ experiences and perceptions and meanings they constructed, using secondary data consisting of 38 transcribed interviews from all 13 girls. Girls ranged in age from 12–18 years old (M = 13.72, SD …

3d Bioprinting Of Hydrogel Scaffold Skin Equivalents For Cosmetic And Drug Testing, Allison Reno

All Dissertations

Tissue engineering scaffolds are a crucial element of generating larger 3D tissue equivalents for modeling and clinical grafting. Currently, much of scaffold technology has not been significantly updated since the introduction of manually pipetted hydrogels and electrospun fiber scaffolds. Both of these approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, but neither utilize emerging biofabrication techniques such as advanced 3D bioprinting and plotting. In addition to more precision in the outer geometries of the scaffold, the use of bioprinting also introduces the ability to shape hydrogels into very intricate porous inner patterns within the outer geometries. This allows for the design of …

Statistical Designs For Learning User Preference And Experience, William S. Fisher

All Dissertations

For any organization, designing a new product or planning the features of a new service is a complex decision-making process which depends on understanding its users' preferences and the experiences they have with prototypes of the new product or service. Design of experiments (DOE) offers a framework to aid in the modeling and collection of data to learn user preferences and experiences to facilitate this decision-making process. Questions such as ``which of our newly proposed products is preferred most by our customers" and ``which version of our new service results in the highest monthly revenue" can be readily addressed by …

Emerging Applications On Reconfigurable Computing Platforms, Zhenyu Xu

All Dissertations

Security and high-performance computing have become two of the most critical demands in modern technology. The increasing complexity of digital systems, the need for real-time processing, and the emergence of sophisticated cyber threats require computing solutions that balance computational power with adaptability and security. Reconfigurable computing platforms, particularly Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), offer a promising solution to these challenges by combining flexibility with hardware acceleration. Many new applications have emerged with the developing of reconfigurable platforms.

FPGAs can be utilized in two primary directions: as control and high-precision measurement units for security-sensitive applications, and as accelerators capable of outperforming GPUs …

Silver Nanoparticles In Ammonia Sensing And Photovoltaics, Madhuka Liyanage

All Dissertations

Nanocomposite films (NCF) containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), separated by thin layers of silica/poly-4-vinylpyridine/polyvinylpyrrolidone, were fabricated via drop casting, spin coating, dip coating on glass substrate and drop casting on nylon filter membranes. The more uniform films were produced by drop casting on nylon filter membranes due to their solvent wicking properties. The films demonstrate electrical conductivity that varies in response to moist ammonia and water vapors. The changes in conductivity are attributed to hydrogen bonding between ammonia and water molecules with the silica/polymer layers, as well as the direct adsorption of ammonia onto the silver surface. Notably, NCFs with polyvinylpyrrolidone …

Growth, Cladding, And Characterization Of Single Crystal Optical Fiber: The Next Evolution In Directed Energy Systems, Allen Benton

All Dissertations

High-power fiber lasers are steadily increasing in maximum power and rapidly approaching theoretical maximum power output from a single fiber aperture. The low thermal conductivity of silica fibers is an inherent limitation to the dissipation of heat from the fiber core, and the buildup of heat within the laser gain media is the principal driver of transverse mode instability within fiber systems. This limitation necessitates the exploration of alternate fiber host materials. Due to their high thermal conductivity, excellent transmission range, ability to host most of the optically active rare earth ions, and success as bulk laser materials, single-crystalline YAG …

Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of New Psychoactive Substances And Related Metabolites Using Liquid Chromatography-Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry (Lc-Im-Ms), Ralph Aderorho

All Dissertations

The increasing prevalence of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) in illicit drug markets has posed significant challenges for forensic and clinical toxicology, primarily due to the structural similarity and diversity among these compounds. This dissertation investigates the application of advanced liquid chromatography-ion mobility-mass spectrometry (LC-IM-MS/MS) techniques, using the high-resolution Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations (SLIM) platform and the drift tube ion mobility spectrometry (DT-IMS), for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of various types of synthetic opioids, synthetic cannabinoids, psychedelics and xylazine. By combining IMS separations with mass spectrometry and targeted chemical derivatization, this work enhances the ability to distinguish and characterize …

Development Of Rolipram Loaded Pgp Nanoparticles For Spinal Cord Injury Repair, Zhen Liao

All Dissertations

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to devastating neurological deficits due to primary mechanical damage and secondary injury mechanisms, including inflammation, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, and inhibitory scarring, which collectively impede neural regeneration. One key aspect of SCI pathology is a significant reduction in cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels, primarily due to increased phosphodiesterase (PDE 4) activity. As a ubiquitous second messenger, cAMP regulates key signaling pathways, including protein kinase A (PKA) / cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) and exchange protein activated by cAMP 2 (EPAC2). Therefore, restoring/increasing cAMP level is one of the major therapeutic strategies to reduce neurotrauma and restore …

The Evolution Of Nanoparticles In Nanoparticle Doped Optical Fibers, Mary Cahoon

All Dissertations

Optical fiber and fiber laser technologies based on silica glass are critical to many technologies today. One method to improve the optical performance of laser fibers is engineer the local environment around the active elements in the glass. To that end, this Dissertation focused on the fabrication and characterization of fibers made with nanoparticles incorporated into the glass to control the local composition. First, the nanoparticle composition and structure was analyzed as it evolved from from the initially-synthesized form to incorporation into the dense aluminum-silicate glass. The aluminum oxide in the glass was found to be important not only to …

Robust And Efficient Solvers For Physics-Based Pde’S, Elizabeth Hawkins

All Dissertations

This work was partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under award DE- SC0025292, by NSF grant DMS 2152623, and by NSF grant DMS 2011490.

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Centers (MMICCs) program, under Field Work Proposal 22-025291 (Multifaceted Math- ematics for Predictive Digital Twins (M2dt)), Field Work Proposal 23-020467, and Computing and Information Sciences (CIS) investment area in the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories. This written work is authored by an employee …

Development Of Translational Microscale Systems To Interrogate How Biophysical And Biochemical Cues Alter The Phenotype Of Hormone Positive Breast Cancer, Braulio Ortega Quesada

All Dissertations

Cancer is a complicated disease and one in every three diagnoses are women with breast cancer. Recent research shows that the progression of cancer depends strongly on interactions with other non-cancerous cells and non-cellular components. Metastasis, the spread of cancer to other parts of the body, is a key step in cancer progression and makes treatment harder, leading to poor response to treatments culminating in death in ~90% of patients. This dissertation focused on creating a series of microdevices as novel pre-clinical models of breast cancer. Two different devices were fabricated to (1) study how exposing cancer cells to the …

Understanding How To Cultivate Culturally Relevant Dispositions Among District Science Coordinators And Science Teachers, Meredith L. Schwendemann

All Dissertations

At the center of the discussions about equity in science education is the importance of defining and articulating what is meant by equity, diversity, and social justice. Despite recent efforts to improve equity in science education, inequities in science education persist. District science coordinators, science teachers, and science teacher educators are key players in the movement toward more equitable science learning and instruction. The purpose of this three manuscript dissertation was to explore the ways in which science teacher educators are working to promote culturally relevant dispositions within science teachers (Paper 1/Chapter 2), examine how district science coordinators are approaching …

The Effect Of Storyline Units On The Self-Efficacy And Science Identity Of High School Multilingual Learners, Kristin Ambrose

All Dissertations

Science can be a complex subject for multilingual learners (MLLs) because it requires investigating science concepts through modeling and analysis in addition to reading and writing skills. This complexity often leaves teachers unsure of how to support the MLLs, leading to MLLs missing out on grade-appropriate content and science experiences. Storyline instruction uses 3D instruction to teach science content necessary to explain a real-world anchoring phenomenon. Storyline instruction grounds learning in real-world contexts through anchoring phenomena and provides coherence for students throughout the lessons. This mixed methods study aimed to discover the impact of storyline units on the self-efficacy (SE) …

Decision Space Decomposition For Multiobjective Programs, Emma Soriano

All Dissertations

Being inspired by the parametric decomposition theorem for multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs) of Cuenca and Miguel (2017), and by the block- coordinate descent for single objective optimization problems, we present a decom- position theorem for computing the set of minimal elements of a partially ordered set. This set is decomposed into subsets whose minimal elements are used to retrieve the overall minimal elements. We apply this approach to strictly convex MOPs de- composing their decision space into lines. The line decomposition benefits from the fact that a multiobjective line search problem is equivalent to solving a collection of single objective …

Learning Through Online Participation: From Breakout Rooms To Discord, Makayla Moster

All Dissertations

For software development teams, teamwork is an essential part of their day-to-day lives. However, due to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, more companies have allowed employees to have more hybrid and remote work options than before. As more companies are adopting hybrid and remote workstyles, we need to ensure that we are preparing the next batch of young software developers to conduct teamwork in remote and hybrid settings. In this dissertation, I address the tools students use for teamwork and how to improve their teamwork inside and outside of the classroom. I present my research on improving student experiences …

Adaptive Delay Compensation Frameworks For Distributed Real-Time Co-Simulation In Power Systems, Elutunji Buraimoh

All Dissertations

This dissertation presents a model-free, adaptive delay prediction and compensation framework for geographically distributed real-time power system co-simulation environments. Communication delays—both constant and real-time-varying—significantly degrade the accuracy, fidelity, and stability of co-simulated systems, particularly in dynamic and transient analyses of partitioned power systems. To address this, a predictor-based framework is developed that compensates for delays without requiring system models, computationally intensive signal transformations, or manual intervention.

The proposed solution leverages a Damping Impedance Method as the interface algorithm, combined with a sliding-mode control-inspired predictor system. Both single-parameter and multi-parameter predictor configurations are implemented, with the multi-parameter design providing an additional …

Toward The Application Of Natural Language Processing In Electronic Health Record Analysis For Taxonomy Development, Latoya Mcdonald

All Dissertations

Electronic health records (EHRs) are pivotal resources for nurse practice because they increase the timeliness and reliability of patient information at the point of care and support access by multiple healthcare providers and the individual patients themselves. However, it is widely recognized that data extraction from EHRs is challenging due to the variability in the language used in clinical care notes and the lack of standardized terminology across healthcare systems. The broad objective of this dissertation is to develop taxonomy-based classification models for nursing care by applying feature engineering approaches to EHRs that include nursing care of ostomy patients following …

Ex Vivo Multiplex Knockdown Of Angptl3 And Cypor In Hepatocytes As A Novel Cell Therapy For Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Callie D. Clark

All Dissertations

Inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs) affect approximately 1 in 800 individuals. The only curative treatment for IMDs is liver transplantation. However, transplantation carries significant risks, including organ rejection and a lifelong need for immunosuppression. Therefore, gene editing has emerged as a promising alternative to liver transplantation for treating IMDs.

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is and IMD characterized by elevated LDL-C levels resulting in premature cardiovascular disease. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing to disrupt the gene encoding angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3) in the liver represents a novel therapeutic approach for FH. Nonviral delivery performed ex vivo is safer than systemic delivery because gene editing is in …

The Math Doesn't Add Up: Gender Inequity In Service Responsibilities In Research-Intensive Mathematics Departments, Sarah Otterbeck

All Dissertations

Academic service responsibilities (e.g., committee work, mentoring), in the most informal definition, are those tasks faculty perform that are neither research nor teaching. However, the simplicity of this definition undercuts not only the tremendous impact service can have on faculty efforts but also the well-documented, disproportionately high service burden carried by faculty with marginalized identities. This study, grounded in the existence of gender inequities in service responsibilities, comprises three interconnected papers that collectively address the overarching research question: How do math faculty at research-intensive institutions perceive, describe, and navigate gender inequities in service responsibilities? Utilizing the framing of Intersectional Feminism …

A System And Method For Measuring Spatially Varying Surface Appearances With A Study Of Feathers, Jessica Baron-Lis

All Dissertations

Real-world materials, particularly biological structures such as feathers exhibit complex appearances that vary spatially across their surfaces. The field of computer graphics provides a means of understanding such surfaces through material modeling which uses both analytical models and data acquired from light-surface interactions. There are many efforts within the past decade in measuring materials for graphics, but common limitations in these works include not accounting for spatially varying properties and reliance on neural networks and synthetic datasets.

Feathers from modern birds present diverse appearances due to how light interacts with their unique hierarchical microstructures. Variations in those structures lead to …

The Administrators’ Role In Teacher Retention And Their Role On Teachers’ Perceptions Of School Climate At An Exemplar Title I School: A Qualitative Study, Stephen W. Brown Iii

All Dissertations

This study looks at how principals affect teacher perception of school climate and teacher retention at Title I schools. While teacher retention and school climate have historically been issues at Title I schools, the issue has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study explored an elementary school in South Carolina through the lens of Critical Systems Theory. According to publicly available data, this school was an anomaly among Title I schools regarding the climate and teacher retention, with both measures being extremely high. To explore these phenomena, semi-structured interviews were conducted with both the teachers and administrators at …