Can Gratitude Lists Mitigate Burnout In First-Year College Students?, Catherine Jones

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In recent years there has been a significant uptick in people expressing feelings of being burnt out. Many studies have looked at burnout in other students, such as college athletes, but none have looked at the true freshman first-year student. This study applied this intervention to a group of first-year college students to examine the impact of making gratitude lists on feelings of burnout. When comparing a control group that did not engage in gratitude list making, there was no statistically significant difference in feelings of burnout. However, correlation analyses revealed connections between gratitude and burnout variables that may lay …

Factors Associated With Patient Portal Utilization, Preventive Services Utilization, And Health Promoting Behaviors Among Adults In The United States, Elizabeth Ayangunna

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Background: Nearly 60% of adults in the United States are estimated to have one or more chronic conditions, necessitating strategies to improve the health status of persons with chronic disease. Given that health information technology (HIT) is considered highly valuable for superior disease management, it is imperative to examine how HIT use can improve health behaviors, which can in turn improve health status. This study aimed to examine if there was an association between patient portal utilization and the use of preventive services & health-promoting behaviors. Also, this study examined the influence of self-efficacy on preventive health behaviors among adults …

Ruptures In Indentures In Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter Of Maladies And Unaccustomed Earth, Prabal D. Gupta

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Jhumpa Lahiri (1967) is one of the prominent American writers of Bengali descent, contributing mainly to diaspora literature to depict the nuanced aspects of Bengalis in their immigrant lives. Lahiri’s stories in Interpreter of Maladies (1999) and Unaccustomed Earth (2008) illustrate the challenges of the Bengali diaspora due to their indentured identity, which I have used to refer to the Bengali people’s culturally-rooted identity. This study investigates how the diaspora’s native cultural identity fluctuates in connection with the host culture. The research renders a reconfigured image of “home” because the concept of home changes for these people after migration in …

Aging Under Erasure, Pamela H. Reynolds

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Aging is a multifaceted journey that is different for everyone. It is a fluid process; there is no one predictable moment or age when a particular experience takes place. For that reason, the series “Aging Under Erasure” encompasses a myriad of subjects to emphasize and illustrate the diversity and complexity of the process. My work visualizes the feelings, observations, and realities of aging in an attempt to create understanding, alter perceptions, and contemplate the universality of change. The works are inspired by personal experience, dialogical practice, and academic research. Using paper and/or traditional and unusual mosaic materials and techniques, the …

Understanding And Enacting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Through Multicultural Children's Literature: A Case Study Of Preservice Teachers In Georgia, Heather M. Huling

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study explored how preservice teachers understand culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) and used multicultural children’s literature (MCL) as a way of enacting CSP in their field placement experiences. This qualitative study utilized the theoretical framework of culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017) and a single case study design (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2018) to explore five preservice teachers’ understanding and perceptions of CSP and its enactment in the classroom through MCL during their final student teaching semester in their hometowns. Data collected through lesson plans, literature lists, video recordings, and semi-structured interviews and then inductively coded through holistic coding and …

"Why Do You Keep Alone?:" Isolated Women In The Plays Of Shakespeare, Alexus Litchfield

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The works of William Shakespeare have been well explored, but there is a lack of criticism that examines how the depiction of women is shaped by the genre of the play. Linda Bamber is one of the few critics who have explored this connection between gender and genre. However, while she focuses on the plays’ psychological dynamics, I examine the social dynamics between characters in my study of gender and genre. I suggest that, in both tragedy and comedy, isolation is a strong marker of unhappiness for Shakespeare’s female characters. Examining three tragedies, I find that Lady Macbeth, Goneril, Regan, …

Sana Sana: Unlearning Generational Expectation Through Performance, Jalen R. Ash

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

My work is an exploration of identity as a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) body traversing through the generational histories of my family and the struggle of cultural loss to our assimilation of Whiteness. Through the multi-faceted medium of performance, my work uses physical and mental spaces of self and technology to understand how the body functions as a screen. Our bodies house projections of generational expectations that have trickled down from the past into the present. These projections shape our own unique identities along with the personal experiences we gather as we move through the various spaces of …

Developing Best Practices For The Propagation Of Spartina Alterniflora For Use In Salt Marsh Restortaion, Justin Hinson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Coastal salt marshes are valuable ecosystems under threat from climate change and sea level rise. Living shorelines offer a promising solution, often incorporating the foundational salt marsh species Spartina alterniflora due to its ability to tolerate natural stressors and maintain sediment stability. However, research suggests that seed-based propagation protocols should be developed on a local scale due to the genetic heterogeneity within and between S. alterniflora populations. Here, we attempt to contribute to the development of one such protocol for coastal Georgia S. alterniflora.

In Fall 2021, seeds were collected bi-monthly from four marshes of varying ocean proximity and …

Effect Of Training Modality On Intention To Exercise Among Law Enforcement Cadets Post Academy, Nicholas Hunt

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Police academies are typically the first formalized job-task-oriented exercise training for law enforcement officers (LEOs). Research has demonstrated that cadets are at higher risk of injury during the academy. Physical training (PT) is a critical component of LEO academy efforts to build occupational skills to meet job demands. Although research is beginning to investigate the efficacy of different training modalities, more research is needed to understand the impact of academy training load and modality on occupational readiness and interest in maintaining exercise behaviors post-academy. PURPOSE: to investigate the relationships between different physical training modalities and intention to continue physical training …

A Camera-Only Based Approach To Traffic Parameter Estimation Using Mobile Observer Methods, Temitope D. Jegede

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

As vehicles become more modern, a large majority of vehicles on the road will have the required sensors to smoothly interact with other vehicles and infrastructure on the road. There will be many benefits of this new connectivity between vehicles on the road but one of the most profound improvements will be in the area of road accident prevention. Vehicles will be able to share information vital to road safety to oncoming vehicles and vehicles that are occluded so they do not have a direct line of sight to see a pedestrian or another vehicle on the road.

Another advantage …

A Paradox Of Fact And Fiction: Cultivating The 'Literary Imagination' Through Quiet Rebellion, Eden A. Evans

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The dissertation explores the problems that patterned and processed teaching and learning poses for implementing principles of critical pedagogy in English Literature courses. I apply multiple theoretical frameworks including literary theory, critical theory and post-humanism to place my own experiences amidst the on-going conversations about standardization and democracy. I draw upon the work of educational theorists such as Maxine Greene, Martha Nussbaum, Louise Rosenblatt, and Mary Aswell Doll to explore the ways that literature can enrich students’ lives and society, and Geneva Gay and Lisa Delpit to explore how cultural bias regarding linguistics can function when teaching literature and language …

Art As Ritual: The Realm Between Identities, Haley Scarboro

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Ritualism is everywhere in the world and something that everyone takes part in, whether we acknowledge it or not. Rituals can be as simple as a morning routine or as monumental as memorializing a loved one. The works in this thesis are within the covenant of southern witchcraft and how it comes together in Ritual Art. Through documentation, memory-fueled found objects, and time-based installation I consider how growing up in Georgia and being a practicing witch played a role in my identity formation. Rituals are vital to the identities themselves and the history they hold. Symbolism plays a major role …

Predicting Jamming Systems Frequency Hopping Sequences Using Artificial Neural Networks, Charles Strickland

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This work proposes a neural network architecture that was designed to predict and reverse engineer frequency hopping jamming systems. The neural network was initially optimized for use with a 12th order linear shift feedback register maximum length sequence utilizing a minimal polynomial as the characteristic polynomial. This neural network was then scaled to accommodate 7 different sequences, of orders 6 through 12. The neural network was trained for these sequences using training data that is 10 times the length of the sequence. This information is then used to generate a hopping sequence that reduces the jamming interference to 0 with …

Evaluating Blood Pressure And Hypertension Awareness In Municipal Workers In The Southeast Us, Kayden R. Mcalvin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to describe municipal workers’ blood pressure (BP) status and awareness; the secondary purpose was to examine the association between BP misconception and department. Municipal employees in a southeastern rural community (n=75) were asked to participate in a 15-minute survey, including the BASIS Hypertension Awareness survey, and blood pressure measurements to determine hypertension risk. Results show a significant difference in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) between police with a higher DBP of 87.64 ± 10.9 mm Hg and fire departments 78.98 ± 11.1 mm Hg (p=0.005), a significant difference in DBP between city hall/public works …

Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviors Of First-Year University Students, Kylie A. Roberts

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The early college years represent a specific period in a student’s life that is crucial for their development. Approximately one in three college students meet the criteria for a mental health problem (Eisenberg et al., 2013). Universities have unique opportunities for identifying risk and delivering prevention or intervention strategies to students in need. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors associated with First-Year University students’ help-seeking behaviors for university-based mental health services. H₁: There will be group differences between gender and race/ethnicity on help-seeking behaviors, knowledge barriers of services or providers and perceived stigma. H_{2 …}

The Portrayal Of Disability In 19th And 20th Century American Novels, Taylor Whittington

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the treatment of disabled characters by their family and communities in 19^th and 20^th - century American literature. The three works being evaluated are, The Monster (1898) by Stephen Crane, The Sound and The Fury (1928) by William Faulkner, and Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck. Although The Sound and The Fury and Of Mice and Men contain a white disabled character, The Monster details the disfiguration of an African American man. In The Monster, race exacerbates the community’s response to the disfigured Henry Johnson, compared to Lennie in Of Mice and Men, …

Evaluation Of The Loving Support Peer Counseling Program On Breastfeeding Duration Rates Among African American Women Enrolled In The Program (2017-2018), Nancy S. Jeffery

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Mothers and babies form an inseparable biological and social unit; the health and nutrition of one group cannot be divorced from the health and nutrition of the other.”-World Health Organization. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Loving Support Peer Counseling (LSPC) program, under the WIC program in the state of Georgia, on breastfeeding duration rates among African American postpartum primiparas women. This observational study analyzed state-level data from January 2017 through December 2018. A cross-sectional design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Loving Support Peer Counseling Program (LSPC) in six of the …

Conceal Reveal, Jacquelyn A. Bolton

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

My work is rooted in the human condition expressed through the materiality of textile and fiber arts and its connection to spirituality. The human condition, as I understand it, is the state of being a person complete with a mind, body, and spirit. This includes all the experiences a person encounters in life—birth, growth, aging, conflict, love, loss, grief, injury, relationships, trauma, rejection, joy, acceptance, and so on. The human condition answers the question: What does it mean to be a person? We are in flux. This ever-changing aspect of “being” is captured in the inherent qualities that are found …

Effects Of Imagined Financial Difficulties On State Adult Attachment Systems, Loren Jones

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

According to Bowlby’s definition of attachment theory, insecure attachment systems negatively regulate individuals' behaviors, thoughts, and feelings (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). As individuals age, negative views of others and the self can grow, inevitably hindering relationships with others and self-esteem. Empirical research suggests a strong positive relationship between low socioeconomic status (SES) and developing an insecure attachment style among children (Sherry et al., 2013; van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2010). With many similarities between child and adult attachment models, there is a gap in the literature examining the impact of lower SES on adult attachments. Although socioeconomic status's effects on general …

The Precontact Utilization Of A Depressional Wetland At The Gresston Spring Site (9dg152) In Dodge County, Georgia, Jonathan L. Brown

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The natural formation processes of depressional wetlands and the resultant resources they provided along the South Atlantic slope were important to a variety of plant and animal species during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. The utilization of these areas by precontact indigenous populations has provided important data for archaeological interpretations of site formation processes and settlement patterns seen predominately during the Paleoindian and Archaic periods. Prominent archaeological research conducted within the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina looks at indigenous utilization of depressional wetlands and Carolina bays, however, minimal research on this subject has been pursued in Georgia. This …

Owasp Zap Vs Snort For Sqli Vulnerability Scanning, Christopher Kalaani

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Web applications are important to protect from threats that will compromise sensitive information. Web vulnerability scanners are a prominent tool for this purpose, as they can be utilized to find vulnerabilities in a web application to be rectified. Two popular open-source tools were compared head-to-head, OWASP ZAP and Snort. The performance metrics evaluated were SQLi attacks detected, false positives, false negatives, processing time, and memory usage. OWASP ZAP yielded fewer false positives and had less processing time. Snort used significantly fewer memory resources. The internal workings of ZAP’s Active Scan feature and Snort’s implementation of the Boyer-Moore and Aho-Corasick algorithms …

Desistance As A Signal Of Rehabilitation: Understanding Public Perception And The Moderating Role Of Redeemability, Jasmyn Stevens

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The criminal offender label is enduring and comes with significant real-world consequences. While there is a wealth of literature on offender rehabilitation, less emphasis has been placed on the varying ways that individuals define this concept. The goal of this study is to understand how variations in both punitiveness and rehabilitative definitions affect general beliefs about desistance from crime. Additionally, belief in redeemability is examined as a moderator of this relationship. Using data from an anonymous, national-level, opt-in survey collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform, I test three hypotheses using logistic regression. Results indicate that while increased punitiveness is …

Demographic And Clinical Characteristics Predicting Missed Clinic Visits Among Patients Living With Hiv On Antiretroviral Treatment., Osaremhen Ikhile

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Background: Patients living with HIV (PLHIV) often face challenges that contribute to missed clinical care which can impact their health outcomes.

Purpose: The primary objective of this study was to examine associations of clinical and sociodemographic factors such as age at the entrance into antiretroviral treatment (ART), rurality-urbanicity, biological sex, province of residence, and viral load with PLHIV’s tendency to miss scheduled visits for ART among persons living with HIV (PLHIV) in the Kinshasa and Haut-Katanga provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 2018 and 2019.

Methods: The study participants for this quantitative study were 5338 adults …

Endogenous Antioxidant Response And Lipid Peroxidation Levels In Muscle Tissue Of The Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera Bonasus), Bailey Berry

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Oxidative stress is the result of an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant response within cells. ROS generation is a natural consequence of ETC activity within the mitochondria and is associated with aerobic metabolism. Oxidative stress data on elasmobranch muscle is limited, with previous studies primarily focusing on mammalian and teleost muscle. Elasmobranch skeletal muscle is generally composed of large proportions of white muscle fibers (anaerobic), low proportions of red muscle fibers (aerobic), and low proportions of pink muscle fibers (anaerobic). The cownose ray, a benthopelagic batoid species, presents an interesting model of study because it contains relatively …

The Relationship Between Isolation And Social Emotional Experiences In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jana Arslan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Children with ASD often face socioemotional challenges compared to their typical developing classmates (Chamberlain et al., 2006; Deckers et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2021; Locke et al, 2010; Zeedyk et al., 2015). The objective of the current study was to assess the relationship between classroom isolation and social emotional experiences (i.e., social isolation, loneliness, self-efficacy with peers, and friendship quality) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through self-report surveys in order to foster the best possible academic environment for children with ASD to succeed and create outlets for further research to be developed in regards to this subject. …

Comparison Marker-Based And Markerless Motion Capture Systems In Gait Biomechanics During Running, Hui Tang

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Background: Markerless (ML) motion capture systems have recently become available for biomechanics applications. Evidence has indicated the potential feasibility of using an ML system to analyze lower extremity kinematics. However, no research examined ML systems’ estimation of the lower extremity joint moments and powers. Objectives: This study primarily aimed to compare lower extremity joint moments and powers estimated by marker-based (MB) and ML motion capture systems during treadmill running. The secondary purpose was to investigate if movement’s speed would affect the ML’s performance. Methods: Sixteen volunteers ran on a treadmill for 120 s for each trial at the speed of …

Strengthening The Academic Progress Of Students Within Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support, Leslie Dial

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Leadership in education is thinking, communicating, and modeling to maximize student growth and achievement. This quantitative research study explored how leadership can strengthen the academic progress of students within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). When implementation of MTSS is guided by adaptive school leadership, educators will be prepared, communication will occur, interventions will be established, and data will be evaluated. Adaptive leaders who build efficacy will ensure fidelity and continuous improvement of student achievement.

Survey research was conducted to analyze the operational level of MTSS regarding the domains of Leadership, Building Capacity for Instruction, Communication and Collaboration, Data-Based Problem-Solving, Tiered …

The Impact Of Controlling Language And Source Similarity On Psychological Reactance, Caroline Yarbrough

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Persuasive health messages are frequently advertised throughout the pandemic to decrease the spread of COVID-19 while increasing the likelihood of immunity. However, research demonstrates that persuasive health messages may be ineffective because they have the potential to elicit psychological reactance. Reactance is characterized by a state of unpleasant motivational arousal and often occurs when individuals experience or perceive threats to their freedom, and it can be evoked through controlling language (Frey et al., 2021; Grandpre et al., 2003). Additionally, research has shown that similarity is associated with liking (Cialdini & Trost 1998) and people are often more inclined to comply …

Assessment Of The Utilization Of Healthcare Services Specific To Pregnancy-Related Complications In Rural And Medically Underserved Georgia, Diana L. Aguirre

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Maternal mortality is a continuing issue, with rates for the state of Georgia (3.7 per 100,000 live births) are higher than that of the US rates (2.9 per 100,000 per live births) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, n.d., 2023). However, maternal mortality may not account for health disparity factors, apart from access to quality care and physiological issues, which is a factor in pregnancy-related deaths, Pregnancy-related death, as defined by the US Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), is a death of a woman that occurs during or within one year of pregnancy that …

Campus Safety Data Gathering, Classification, And Ranking Based On Clery-Act Reports, Walaa F. Abo Elenin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Most existing campus safety rankings are based on criminal incident history with minimal or no consideration of campus security conditions and standard safety measures. Campus safety information published by universities/colleges is usually conceptual/qualitative and not quantitative and are based-on criminal records of these campuses. Thus, no explicit and trusted ranking method for these campuses considers the level of compliance with the standard safety measures. A quantitative safety measure is important to compare different campuses easily and to learn about specific campus safety conditions.

In this thesis, we utilize Clery-Act reports of campuses to automatically analyze their safety conditions and generate …