Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of A Plant-Based Vs Omnivorous Soul Food Diet On Weight And Lipid Levels Among African American Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Gabrielle M. Turner-Mcgrievy Ph.D., Rd, Sara Wilcox Phd, Edward A. Frongillo Jr. Ph.D., E. Angela Murphy, Brent Hutto Msph, Mary Wilson Phd, Mph, Marty Davey, John A. Bernhart Ph.D., Mph, Ches, Nkechi Okpara, Shiba Bailey, Emily Hu

Faculty Publications

Importance: More African American individuals die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than any other chronic disease condition. Despite this disparity, African American individuals are underrepresented in nutrition and CVD interventions. Objective: To compare the effects of an entirely plant-based (vegan) or low-fat omnivorous (omni) diet on change in body weight and lipids during a 2-year intervention. Design, Setting, and Participants: The Nutritious Eating With Soul (NEW Soul) study was a 2-year, randomized clinical trial conducted in 2 cohorts (2018-2020 and 2019-2021) that took place in a university teaching kitchen in Columbia, South Carolina (before March 2020), and via online videoconference sessions …

Microplastics And Tire Wear Particles In South Carolina Coastal Waters: Sources, Pathways, And Toxicity, John E. Weinstein

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

The Boozi Device’S Effect On Aroma Compounds In Distilled Spirits, Drew Budner, Lindsey Bell, Katherine Thompson-Witrick

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

The BooZi is a commercially available flavor-modifying device that claims to remove the negative flavor agents (congeners) from a number of different types of distilled spirits and wines. SPME was utilized for the extraction of the volatile and semi-volatile compounds within each sample. The analysis of the compounds found in the samples following exposure to the BooZi device were analyzed using a GC-MS. The most significant changes regarding the aroma profile of the distilled spirits were noticeable following 96 hours of exposure. The BooZi device was shown to be effective in reducing the concentration of a number of compounds, including …

Federal Bureaucratic Studies, Jesse M. Cross

Faculty Publications

A vast literature has developed in legal scholarship on the topic of bureaucratic governance. To date, this literature has focused squarely on the executive branch. Yet a second bureaucracy also exists in the federal government: the congressional bureaucracy. Recent legislation scholarship has brought this bureaucracy into focus—documenting its traits, practices, and culture. In so doing, it has created a rich new opportunity for cross-disciplinary dialogue—one where executive-branch studies and legislative studies collaborate toward a larger understanding of how bureaucracy operates, and can operate, in a presidentialist system.

To begin that cross-disciplinary conversation, this Article turns to five themes in the …

Time To Escape! Using Escape Rooms In The Middle Grades Classroom, Rebecca Harper

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

Motivation and student engagement are at the forefront of quality instructional design and implementation. While traditional teaching methods may have been effective in the past, today’s diverse student body, with their rich literacy experiences in both print and digital worlds, demand unique classroom engagements. Because problem solving and critical thinking skills are ones that are required for student success both in and out of school, instructional opportunities should be designed with this in mind. One way to address the diverse skills and needs of today’s students, along with the instruction of academic skills needed for success, is through the implementation …

A Guide To South Carolina Zoning Law, F. Patrick Hubbard

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

To Privilege Or Not To Privilege: A Rational Solution To Claiming The Deliberations Privilege Under Military Rules Of Evidence 509 And 606(B), Jared Hall

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Perspective On Predictive Modeling: Current Status, New High-Order Methodology And Outlook For Energy Systems, Dan Gabriel Cacuci

Faculty Publications

This work presents a perspective on deterministic predictive modeling methodologies, which aim at extracting best-estimate values for model responses and parameters along with reduced predicted uncertainties for these best-estimate values. The two oldest such methodologies are the data-adjustment method, which stems from the nuclear energy field, and the data-assimilation method, which is implemented in the geophysical sciences. Both of these methodologies attempt to minimize, in the least-square sense, a user-defined functional that represents the discrepancies between computed and measured model responses. These two methodologies were briefly reviewed and shown to be inconsistent even to first-order in the sensitivities of the …

An Investigation Of Mhealth And Digital Health Literacy Among New Parents During Covid-19, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Brad Hiebert, Jodi Hall

Publications

INTRODUCTION: Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, parents were expected to understand increasingly sophisticated information about health issues and healthcare systems and access online resources as a part of their caregiving role. Yet little is known about parents' online digital technology use and digital health literacy skill. This study aimed to investigate parents' digital technology use, their self-reported digital health literacy skill, and demographic information as potential factors influencing their use of digital technologies. METHODS: An online survey utilizing convenience sampling was administered to new parents during the COVID-19 pandemic that inquired about their demographic information, digital technology use, and digital …

Ideology In The Attention Economy: A Portal To The Post-Truth Era, Mark Neil Wexler, Judy Oberlander

Journal of Ideology

In 2016, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Time Magazine arrived at "post-truth" as the word of the year. This work looks at post-truth through political, cultural, and commercial lenses, each reflecting an understanding of how competition operates in the ongoing shift from the information society to the attention economy. In the information society, the economy is mediated by dialogue, credible gatekeepers, and an overriding belief in the coherence of a societal centre—a collusion ideology prevails. On the other hand, attention markets reward attention-getters for fragmenting publics, selecting and curating different audiences, and cultivating loyalty and influence within a particular audience or …

The Two Title Ixs, Emily Suski

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lidar-Change-Based Mapping Of Sediment Movement From An Extreme Rainfall Event, Silvia E. Piovan, Michael E. Hodgson, Paolo Mozzi, Dwayne E. Porter, Bryan Hall

Faculty Publications

Mapping landscape change at fine scales (e.g. < 1.0 m resolution) using airborne LiDAR data from manned aircraft is a significant challenge. This challenge is magnified in disaster response contexts. A combination of collection and processing factors contributes to horizontal and vertical errors (and resulting uncertainty) in each pre- and post-LiDAR derived digital elevation model (DEM). Subsequently, the errors in the change surface from the two (or more) DEMs are an accumulation of the errors in the individual DEMs. Thus, reliable mapping erosion/deposition changes at sub-meter precision in change detection studies using LiDAR data is largely the domain of terrestrial LiDAR or sUAS with LiDAR scanners rather than manned aircraft. Unfortunately, terrestrial and sUAS LiDAR scanners are not well suited for mapping large areas and sUAS collections are subject to additional airspace constraints compared to manned aircraft. In this study, we probed one of the significant issues in airborne LiDAR change projects–vertical height errors from sequential flight lines. A simplified solution for determining flight line vertical biases in areas of low topographic relief with natural cover types was developed and tested for normalizing point clouds. The approach was tested in a fine-scale erosion/deposition study from an extreme rainfall event that eroded and deposited sand at depths of about 1.0 m. Airborne LiDAR had been collected prior to the rainfall event, and another airborne LiDAR collection was made 1 month after the event. Eleven field campaigns to collect reference data and visit anomalies in the change surface were conducted in a 15-month period after the event, beginning 25 February 2016 and ending 8 May 2017. The validation results indicate accuracies for the pre-event and post-event LiDAR derived DEMs were 7.8 cm and 13.0 cm RMSE, respectively. After modeling vertical errors and corrections applied to the post-event point clouds, the RMSE for the post-event DEM was 8.3 cm. In the depositional use case, 27 locations were sampled with auger boreholes/sand pits and compared with LiDAR-based change. The LiDAR-based change detection analysis resulted in predicted sand depth accuracies of 94% with a mean error of 4.7 cm.

Issues Concerning Section 2056(D) Of The Tax Code, M. Chalmers Middleton

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Single Religion Clause: Non-Established, Free, And Independent Exercise, Gregory Velloze

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Connectedness In The Classroom: Classroom Management In The Middle School, Patricia S. Fears

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

As documented by research and assertions from middle school instructors, teaching adolescent students can be a challenging experience for many. Specific challenges include mediocre student engagement, lack of motivation, substandard academic performance, and disengaged teacher- pupil relationships. This article addresses these challenges by offering research-based options for teachers to consider when designing a classroom management system that will improve the aforementioned challenges. The techniques and strategies presented focus on developing relationships and building upon them to make teaching and learning experiences positive, engaging, relevant, and impactful.

Shaking Up Assessment: Integrating Low And High Technology Tools, Lenessa Clark, Erin Besser

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

Assessment is an important component of education because it communicates whether the academic goals are met within a class. Generally, assessments offer opportunities for educators to target their teaching goals and to measure the extent to which the expected goals are attained (Madani, 2016). Incorporating the right technology provides opportunities to enhance teaching and learning. This article presents several low- and high-tech tools that middle grades educators can integrate into their instructional practice as a developmentally responsive way to facilitate the assessment process.

Supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered And Queer (Lgbtq) Youth In Southern Middle Schools, Xiomarra A. Beverly

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

During my experience teaching in a conservative, southern middle school, I have found that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ) youth are not afforded the same support systems as other minority groups within the classroom. I have noticed that students who self- identified as a member of the LGBTQ community were less engaged, had lower overall grades, and were frequently victimized by both students and faculty at times. I believed that I could increase the overall mental and physical health in the classroom by instilling supportive means that would translate inside and outside of the classroom. From both personal …

Convergence & Divergence In Digital Trade Regulation: A Comparative Analysis Of Cp-Tpp, Rcep, And Ejsi, Andrew D. Mitchell, Vandana Gyanchandani

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

The article provides an in-depth comparative legal analysis of the fundamental digital trade provisions in three modern trade agreements: the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CP-TPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), and Joint Statement Initiative on electronic commerce (eJSI) draft text. It features new, diverse regulatory priorities and approaches to govern digital trade. The comparative analysis will enable policymakers and civil society to appreciate the underlying regulatory concerns in negotiating digital trade agreements. The analysis aims to support an advancement of such digital trade provisions and make these deliberations more inclusive in future.

Community Organization Perspectives On Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy And How They Increased Covid-19 Vaccine Confidence: A Canadian Immunization Research Network, Social Sciences And Humanities Network Study, Sarah Ashfield, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Gina Uppal, Michael A. Bauer

Publications

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 vaccines play a critical role in reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and despite vaccine availability, disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Canadian subgroups exist. Community organizations are uniquely situated to relay important vaccine messaging around all vaccines, understand components of vaccine hesitancy, and facilitate vaccine uptake within the communities they serve. The objective of this research was to solicit community organizations perspectives specific to COVID-19 vaccines and explore strategies of increasing vaccine uptake within their communities. METHODS: A qualitative focus group study was held in the spring of 2021 with 40 community organizations from …

Key Informant Perceptions Of Challenges And Facilitators To Implementing Passive Remote Monitoring Technology For Home Care Clients, Grace Warner, Lori E. Weeks, Yu Ting Chen, Bradley Hiebert, Kathleen Ledoux, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan

Publications

Background: Passive remote monitoring technologies (RMT) are an option that could keep frail older adults home longer while reducing care burdens on family/friend caregivers. In contrast to active RMT which requires an individual to engage with the technology (i.e., push a button), passive RMT does not require any action to function (i.e., sensors or cameras). Objective: This qualitative study explored the challenges and facilitators of implementing passive RMT in home care settings by applying an implementation science lens. Method: Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informant stakeholders. Data were coded using a Framework Analysis approach that inductively and deductively …

Successes And Barriers Of Health Information Exchange Participation Across Hospitals In South Carolina From 2014 To 2020: Longitudinal Observational Study, Kausik Lakkaraju, Aniket Gupta, Biplav Srivastava, Marco Valtorta, Dezhi Wu

Publications

Sentiment Analysis Systems (SASs) are data-driven Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that output polarity and emotional intensity when given a piece of text as input. Like other AIs, SASs are also known to have unstable behavior when subjected to changes in data which can make them problematic to trust out of concerns like bias when AI works with humans and data has protected attributes like gender, race, and age. Recently, an approach was introduced to assess SASs in a blackbox setting without training data or code, and rating them for bias using synthetic English data. We augment it by introducing two …

Dealing With Incivility On Social Media: Faculty Support & Guidance, University Of South Carolina Office Of The Provost

Reports

This guide is designed to assist the campus community in responding to situations in which faculty members are targeted by individuals or groups outside of the university based on the content of the faculty member’s scholarship, teaching, and/or service. It addresses potential concerns in such situations and informs the campus about resources available to assist individual faculty members, departments chairs, and other administrators. The foundation for this guide is the University of South Carolina’s unwavering support for academic freedom and freedom of expression. The faculty’s right to academic freedom in teaching and research and service is protected as essential to …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Polymer Grafted Nanoparticles, Eric Gerald Ruzicka

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of well controlled interfaces on nanoparticle surfaces. Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was used to synthesize block copolymers and polymer grafted silica nanoparticles (PGNs) with precise control over molecular weight, graft density, and architectures.

In the first chapter, polymer molecular weights were determined through diffusion ordered spectroscopy NMR (DOSY NMR) as an alternative to size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Polymer standards of known molecular weight were analyzed through DOSY to obtain their respective diffusion coefficients. A calibration curve was generated correlating diffusion coefficients with polymer molecular weights. The reliability of the …

Using Geospatial Social Media Data For Infectious Disease Studies: A Systematic Review, Fengrui Jing, Zhenlong Li, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Geospatial social media (GSM) data has been increasingly used in public health due to its rich, timely, and accessible spatial information, particularly in infectious disease research. This review synthesized 86 research articles that use GSM data in infectious diseases published between December 2013 and March 2022. These articles cover 12 infectious disease types ranging from respiratory infectious diseases to sexually transmitted diseases with spatial levels varying from the neighborhood, county, state, and country. We categorized these studies into three major infectious disease research domains: surveillance, explanation, and prediction. With the assistance of advanced computing, statistical and spatial methods, GSM data …

Knowledge Graph Guided Semantic Evaluation Of Language Models For User Trust, Kaushik Roy, Tarun Garg, Vedant Palit, Yuxin Zi, Vignesh Narayanan, Amit Sheth

Publications

A fundamental question in natural language processing is - what kind of language structure and semantics is the language model capturing? Graph formats such as knowledge graphs are easy to evaluate as they explicitly express language semantics and structure. This study evaluates the semantics encoded in the self-attention transformers by leveraging explicit knowledge graph structures. We propose novel metrics to measure the reconstruction error when providing graph path sequences from a knowledge graph and trying to reproduce/reconstruct the same from the outputs of the self-attention transformer models. The opacity of language models has an immense bearing on societal issues of …

Intrinsic Foot Muscle Training For Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome, Katherine Newsham, Michelle Boyd, Christine Lauber

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS), a common condition in physically active individuals, is widely studied, yet effective and efficient intervention is elusive. We compared the effects of a 2-week neuromuscular-based intervention to the “usual treatment” in a non-randomized trial involving intercollegiate athletes with complaints of MTSS involving soft tissue. The neuromuscular-based intervention focused on relieving trigger points in the deep compartment and improving intrinsic foot muscle (IFM) function. The control group received “usual treatment” that did not include the study exercises, but did include rest, modalities, stretching, and/or strengthening exercises. Pre- and post-intervention measures included pain at rest, during activities …

Risk Factors Of Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome In Active Adolescents: A Validation Case Series, Daniel Delgado, Matthew J. Drescher, Justin P. Young, Zachary K. Winkelmann, Matthew J. Rivera

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Current literature reports that an increase in body mass index (BMI), navicular drop, ankle plantarflexion range of motion (ROM), and hip external rotation ROM are key modifiable risk factors in the development of medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) in physically active adults. The purpose of this validation case series was to investigate these four measures as risk factors of MTSS in adolescent athletes. In total, 100 cross country, volleyball, and/or basketball athletes (age = 15.89±1.31 years, 54 assigned female at birth) were included. The competitive sports season was the intervention in this case series and all athletes experienced 6 athlete-exposures …

Marine And Human Environmental Factors Influence Vibrio Parahaemolyticus And Vibrio Vulnificus In Vitro Biofilm Processes On Plastics, Ryan Eric Leighton

Theses and Dissertations

Marine bacteria often exist in biofilms as communities attached to surfaces, like plastic. Growing concerns exist regarding marine plastics acting as potential vectors of pathogenic Vibrio, especially in a changing climate. It has been generalized that Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus often attach to plastic surfaces. Different strains of these Vibrios exist having different growth and biofilm forming properties. This work evaluated how temperature and strain variability affect V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus biofilm formation and characteristics on glass (GL), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS). This work also evaluated how human body related factors like temperature, …

Proknow: Process Knowledge For Safety Constrained And Explainable Question Generation For Mental Health Diagnostic Assistance, Kaushik Roy, Manas Gaur, Misagh Soltani, Vipula Rawte, Ashwin Kalyan, Amit Sheth

Publications

Current Virtual Mental Health Assistants (VMHAs) provide counseling and suggestive care. They refrain from patient diagnostic assistance because of a lack of training on safety-constrained and specialized clinical process knowledge (Pro-Know). In this work, we define ProKnow as an ordered set of information that maps to evidence-based guidelines or categories of conceptual understanding to experts in a domain. We also introduce a new dataset of diagnostic conversations guided by safety constraints and ProKnow that healthcare professionals use (ProKnow-data). We develop a method for natural language question generation (NLG) that collects diagnostic information from the patient interactively (ProKnow-algo). We demonstrate the …

Tutorial - Shodhguru Labs: Knowledge-Infused Artificial Intelligence For Mental Healthcare, Kaushik Roy

Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for mental healthcare (MHCare) have been ever-growing after realizing the importance of early interventions for patients with chronic mental health (MH) conditions. Social media (SocMedia) emerged as the go-to platform for supporting patients seeking MHCare. The creation of peer-support groups without social stigma has resulted in patients transitioning from clinical settings to SocMedia supported interactions for quick help. Researchers started exploring SocMedia content in search of cues that showcase correlation or causation between different MH conditions to design better interventional strategies. User-level Classification-based AI systems were designed to leverage diverse SocMedia data from various MH conditions, …