Digital Commons Network^™

Community Corrections Officer Decision-Making: An Intersectional Analysis, Amber Leigh Williams Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Although corrections populations have been gradually declining for several years, an estimated 4.1 million adults are currently supervised in the community (Maruschak & Minton, 2020). While some states have depended on the use of community corrections as a means to reduce overcrowded correctional facilities, other states’ approaches have resulted in probation and parole policies that only contribute to the incarcerated population, primarily through probation and parole revocations. In response to these trends, researchers have begun to focus on supervision outcomes, finding evidence to suggest that individual probation and parole officers may have an impact on offender outcomes. While some of …

The Implementation Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy And Socratic Seminar: The Effect On African American Students’ Reading And Their Critical Thinking, Amy Christina Waddell

Theses and Dissertations

Achievement gaps have been an ongoing issue among African American students for years. The continuation of low achievement scores has been the downfall of African American student success throughout their educational history (Royle & Brown, 2014). So much time has been spent helping students achieve grade-level mastery, while little was being done to ensure continuous academic growth for students that were already reading on-grade level. Over time, these on-grade level students remained stagnant or tended to regress. This research study presented two instructional intervention strategies that demonstrated how critical thinking could improve the growth in reading, among rising sixth-grade on-grade …

School Wide Digital Devices And The Impact On The Role Of School Librarians, Laura Jeanne Haverkamp

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study examines what happens to the role of the school librarian when schools move to a 1:1 model where every student has a digital device. Using the literature to understand expectations for librarians, the researcher surveyed experienced South Carolina school librarians to determine how 1:1 computing was implemented and supported in schools and if the role of the school librarians has changed as schools transition to a digital environment. The researcher found that there was little uniformity in deployment and support of devices in 1:1 schools, but that librarians felt their roles had changed and their overall …

The Governor’S Guards: Militia, Politics, Social Networking, And Manhood In Columbia, South Carolina, 1843-1874, Justin Harwell

Theses and Dissertations

This paper reconstructs the history of the Governor’s Guards in Columbia, South Carolina from 1843 to 1874. In addition to examining the conditions that influenced the formation of the company, this paper analyzes the ages, wealth, class, and occupations of the men that served in the company before, during, and after the Civil War. Specifically for white men of Columbia’s fledgling middle and upper classes, the Governor’s Guards facilitated opportunities to network, climb the social ladder, seek political advancement, and influence the social, political, and economic landscape of Columbia.

This work also illuminates the company’s involvement in numerous local, state, …

Applying Health Stigma Framework To Examine The Mechanisms Of Hiv-Related Stigma On Clinical Outcomes, Chengbo Zeng

Theses and Dissertations

Background: HIV clinical outcomes including CD4 count, viral suppression, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), are important indicators reflecting immunologic functioning, treatment efficacy, and overall health quality. However, due, in part, to HIV-related stigma, many people living with HIV (PLWH) experience suboptimal clinical outcomes. The Health Stigma Framework introduced the potentially distinct mechanisms underlying internalized, anticipated, enacted stigma and health outcomes through psycho-behavioral pathways. Based on this framework, this dissertation investigated the impacts and mechanisms of HIV-related stigma on clinical outcomes among PLWH in Guangxi, China from a longitudinal perspective. Methods: Data at baseline, 6-, 12-, 18- month follow-ups …

Biobehavioral Measurement Of Heterogeneity In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Carla Anne Wall

Theses and Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by the presence of social-communication deficits and restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013b; Baio et al., 2018). It is characterized by high genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity, which complicates both diagnosis and treatment efforts (Jeste & Geschwind, 2014; Kim, Macari, Koller, & Chawarska, 2016). Well-studied sources of heterogeneity in ASD include age, sex, intellectual ability, temperament, physiological arousal, social attention, and the presence of genetic syndromes that are highly penetrant with ASD (Campbell, Shic, Macari, & Chawarska, 2014; Harris et al., 2008; Klusek, Roberts, & Losh, …

The Development And Validation Of An Automated Screener Of Attention, Rachel Bridges

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated a strong relationship between symptoms of ADHD and academic underachievement. Interventions specific to academic deficits in children with ADHD are available, which are most effective if implemented before secondary concerns arise. Performance based screening is one method for determining the need for early intervention, yet extant measures of attention have limitations for the purposes of large-scale screening. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties and guiding conceptual model of a novel instrument of executive functioning—the GNG Screen— which measures response inhibition via a go/no-go paradigm. Results from Rasch modeling and exploratory factor analysis provide preliminary psychometric …

Trans-Axonal Signaling And Activity-Dependent Mechanisms Of Topographic Mapping And Refinement In Vivo, Olivia Marie Spead

Theses and Dissertations

Brain connectivity and function depend on the precise formation of neuronal connections during development. In the central nervous system, most axonal projections are organized into topographic maps according to the spatial organization of the neurons they originate from or the type of stimulus they respond to. Topographic mapping is in large part established by interactions between axons and their target as well as by activity-dependent pruning of mistargeted or excessive arbors. Another important mechanism contributing to topographic map formation is pre-target axon sorting, where axons become pre-ordered en route to their destination. Both topographic mapping and pre-target sorting involve the …

Π+Π- Electroproduction Off Protons In Deuterium: Measurements Of Quasi-Free Cross Sections And Kinematic Probing Of Final State Interactions, Iuliia Skorodumina

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, the process of π⁺π^- electroproduction off protons bound in deuterium nuclei is explored. The exploration is performed through the analysis of experimental data on electron scattering off the deuteron target, collected in Hall B at Jefferson Lab with the CLAS detector. As a main result, the set of integrated and single-differential cross sections of the reaction $\gamma_{v}p(n) \rightarrow p' (n')\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ is obtained. The cross sections are extracted in the quasi-free regime, which implies that only events not affected by final state interactions are subject to selection. The measurements are performed in the kinematic region …

Comparing Dietary Score Associations With Lipoprotein Particle Subclass Profiles: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of A Middle-To Older-Aged Population, Seán R. Millar, Pilar Navarro, Janas M. Harrington, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Ivan J. Perry, Catherine M. Phillips

Faculty Publications

Background and objectives: Lipoprotein particle concentrations and size are associated with increased risk for atherosclerosis and premature cardiovascular disease. Studies also suggest that certain dietary behaviours may be cardioprotective. Limited comparative data regarding any dietary score/index-lipoprotein particle subclass associations exist. Thus, our objective was to assess relationships between the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), Health Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), Mediterranean Diet (MD) and Energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII™) scores and plasma lipids and lipoprotein profiles to test the hypothesis that healthier diet (better quality and more anti-inflammatory) would be associated with a more favourable lipoprotein profile.

Materials and methods: This …

Investigating Developmental Changes In Scalp-To-Cortex Correspondence Using Diffuse Optical Tomography Sensitivity In Infancy, Xiaoxue Fu, John E. Richards

Faculty Publications

Significance: Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) uses near-infrared light spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure changes in cerebral hemoglobin concentration. Anatomical interpretations of NIRS data require accurate descriptions of the cranio-cerebral relations and DOT sensitivity to the underlying cortical structures. Such information is limited for pediatric populations because they undergo rapid head and brain development.

Aim: We aim to investigate age-related differences in scalp-to-cortex distance and mapping between scalp locations and cortical regions of interest (ROIs) among infants (2 weeks to 24 months with narrow age bins), children (4 and 12 years), and adults (20 to 24 years).

Approach: We …

Inoculating The Public Against Misinformation: Testing The Effectiveness Of “Pre-Bunking” Techniques In The Context Of Mental Illness And Violence, Nanlan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The publics might be misinformed about mental illness due to frequently mentioned violence and inaccurate notions in news coverage that underlie people who have a history of mental illness are prone to be dangerous or violent. Drawing from the theories of inoculation and the psychological reactance, the author seeks to investigate the effects of using preemptive corrective message techniques (labeling, appeal to consensus, and provision of an alternative explanation) as on the method of promoting resistance to misinformation linking mental illness and violence, which is a harmful and unsubstantiated stereotype. To accomplish this research aim, the author conducted two experiments …

Lexical Properties Of Perceptual Errors Made By Younger And Older Adults Listening To Speech In Multitalker Babble, Hannah Blythe Vickery

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this error analysis was to analyze the lexical properties of misperceptions made when listening to speech in multitalker babble.

Methods: Twenty young adults with normal hearing (YNH), 20 older adults with normal hearing (ONH), and 22 older adults with hearing impairment (OHI) completed a speech-in-babble task. Participants were asked to repeat the final word in 25 high and 25 low context sentences. On each trial, participants either responded with the correct target word, a misperception error, or skipped the trial response. Misperceptions were compiled and analyzed according to their lexical properties.

Results: Results of this study …

Groundwater Flow And Transport At The Forest-Marsh Boundary: A Modeling Study, Sophia Chason Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

The forest-marsh boundary, where tidally influenced salt marshes meet a forested upland, is hydrologically complex due to its multiple water inputs. Groundwater flow and salinity transport at this boundary are not well understood. In order to make predictions about salinity at this boundary as it responds to climatic factors, a two-dimensional model was built to simulate groundwater flow and solute transport at a salt marsh on Sapelo Island, Georgia. After calibration based on observed data from wells at the study site, the model can be used to identify patterns in groundwater movement and solute transport that may influence the vegetation …

Towards Intelligent Structural Health Monitoring Of Infrastructure Systems: An Interdisciplinary Study Of Acoustic Emission Monitoring, Numerical Simulation, And Artificial Intelligence, Li Ai

Theses and Dissertations

Some complex infrastructure systems, such as nuclear facilities and bridges, are subject to structural damage due to environmental erosion, material deterioration, and other factors after long periods of use. Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and alkali-silica reaction (ASR) have been identified as the primary degradation mechanisms for steel and concrete structures in nuclear facilities and bridges. Ensuring the integrity and operational safety of structures during their lifetime is an important task. Nondestructive methods and structural health monitoring can be used to detect damage caused by SCC and ASR instead of conventional visual inspection. Among the nondestructive methods, acoustic emission (AE) is …

Regression Methods For Group Testing Data, Michael Stutz

Theses and Dissertations

Group testing is an efficient method of disease screening, whereby individual specimens (e.g., blood, urine, etc.) are pooled together and tested as a whole for the presence of disease. A common goal is to use data arising from these testing protocols to better understand the relationship between disease status and potential risk factors (e.g., age, symptom status, etc.). Numerous statistical methodologies have been developed for this purpose, most of which are built within the framework of a generalized linear model. Recent authors have suggested the inadequacy of such regression methods to capture the true functional relationships when nonlinear effects are …

On Using The Bmcsl Equation Of State To Renormalize The Onsager Theory Approach To Modeling Hard Prolate Spheroidal Liquid Crystal Mixtures, Donya Ohadi, David S. Corti, Mark J. Uline

Faculty Publications

Modifications to the traditional Onsager theory for modeling isotropic–nematic phase transitions in hard prolate spheroidal systems are presented. Pure component systems are used to identify the need to update the Lee–Parsons resummation term. The Lee–Parsons resummation term uses the Carnahan–Starling equation of state to approximate higher-order virial coefficients beyond the second virial coefficient employed in Onsager’s original theoretical approach. As more exact ways of calculating the excluded volume of two hard prolate spheroids of a given orientation are used, the division of the excluded volume by eight, which is an empirical correction used in the original Lee–Parsons resummation term, must …

An Evidence-Based Review Of The Pathophysiology, Treatment, And Prevention Of Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramps, Kevin C. Miller, Brendon P. Mcdermott, Susan W. Yeargin, Aidan Fiol, Martin P. Schwellnus

Faculty Publications

Exercise-associated muscle cramps (EAMCs) are common and frustrating for athletes and the physically active. We critically appraised the EAMC literature to provide evidence based treatment and prevention recommendations. Although the pathophysiology of EAMCs appears controversial, recent evidence suggests that EAMCs are due to a confluence of unique intrinsic and extrinsic factors rather than a singular cause. The treatment of acute EAMCs continues to include self-applied or clinician-guided gentle static stretching until symptoms abate. Once the painful EAMCs are alleviated, the clinician can continue treatment on the sidelines by focusing on patient-specific risk factors that may have contributed to the onset …

Concentrations, Ratios, And Sinking Fluxes Of Major Bioelements At Ocean Station Papa, Montserrat Roca-Martí

Faculty Publications

Fluxes of major bioelements associated with sinking particles were quantified in late summer 2018 as part of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) field campaign near Ocean Station Papa in the subarctic northeast Pacific. The thorium-234 method was used in conjunction with size-fractionated (1–5, 5–51, and >51 μm) concentrations of particulate nitrogen (PN), total particulate phosphorus (TPP), biogenic silica (bSi), and particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) collected using large volume filtration via in situ pumps. We build upon recent work quantifying POC fluxes during EXPORTS. Similar remineralization length scales were observed for both POC and PN across …

Clinical Correlations Of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 In Different Tumor Types, Maksim Erokhin, Olga Chetverina, Balázs Győrffy, Victor V. Tatarskiy, Vladic Mogila, Alexander A. Shtil, Igor Roninson, Jerome Moreaux, Pavel Georgiev, Giacomo Cavalli, Darya Chetverina

Faculty Publications

PRC2 (Polycomb repressive complex 2) is an evolutionarily conserved protein complex required to maintain transcriptional repression. The core PRC2 complex includes EZH2, SUZ12, and EED proteins and methylates histone H3K27. PRC2 is known to contribute to carcinogenesis and several small molecule inhibitors targeting PRC2 have been developed. The present study aimed to identify the cancer types in which PRC2 targeting drugs could be beneficial. We queried genomic and transcriptomic (cBioPortal, KMplot) database portals of clinical tumor samples to evaluate clinical correlations of PRC2 subunit genes. EZH2, SUZ12, and EED gene amplification was most frequently found in prostate cancer, whereas lymphoid …

Review Of The Analysis Of 234Th In Small Volume (2–4 L) Seawater Samples: Improvements And Recommendations, Samantha J. Clevenger, Claudia Benitez-Nelson, Jessica Drysdale, Steven Pike, Viena Puigcorbé, Ken O. Buesseler

Faculty Publications

Schools may be one important context where adolescents learn and shape the behaviors necessary for promoting global inclusivity in adulthood. Given the importance of bystanders in halting bullying and peer aggression, the focus of this study is on both moral judgments regarding one type of bullying, social exclusion, and factors that are associated with bystander intervention. The study includes 896 adolescents, who were 6th (N = 450, M_age = 11.73), and 9th (N = 446, M_age = 14.82) graders, approximately evenly divided by gender. Participants were primarily European–American (63.3%). Results revealed that girls and participants who …

An Exhaustive Survey On P4 Programmable Data Plane Switches: Taxonomy, Applications, Challenges, And Future Trends, Elie Kfoury, Jorge Crichigno, Elias Bou-Harb

Faculty Publications

High-throughput proteomic profiling using antibody or aptamer-based affinity reagents is used increasingly in human studies. However, direct analyses to address the relative strengths and weaknesses of these platforms are lacking. We assessed findings from the SomaScan1.3K (N = 1301 reagents), the SomaScan5K platform (N= 4979 reagents), and the Olink Explore (N = 1472 reagents) profiling techniques in 568 adults from the Jackson Heart Study and 219 participants in the HERITAGE Family Study across four performance domains: precision, accuracy, analytic breadth, and phenotypic associations leveraging detailed clinical phenotyping and genetic data. Across these studies, we show evidence supporting more reliable protein …

Towards Semantic Integration Of Machine Vision Systems To Aid Manufacturing Event Understanding, Kaishu Xia, Clint Saidy, Max Kirkpatrick, Noble Anumbe, Amit Sheth, Ramy Harik

Publications

A manufacturing paradigm shift from conventional control pyramids to decentralized, service-oriented, and cyber-physical systems (CPSs) is taking place in today’s 4th industrial revolution. Generally accepted roles and implementation recipes of cyber systems are expected to be standardized in the future of manufacturing industry. The authors intend to develop a novel CPS-enabled control architecture that accommodates: (1) intelligent information systems involving domain knowledge, empirical model, and simulation; (2) fast and secured industrial communication networks; (3) cognitive automation by rapid signal analytics and machine learning (ML) based feature extraction; (4) interoperability between machine and human. Semantic integration of process indicators is fundamental …

Biogenic Sinking Particle Fluxes And Sediment Trap Collection Efficiency At Ocean Station Papa, Margaret Estapa, Ken Buesseler, Collen A. Durkin, Melissa Omand, Claudia Benitez-Nelson, Montserrat Rocca-Martí, Elly Breves, R. P. Kelly, Steve Pike

Faculty Publications

Comprehensive field observations characterizing the biological carbon pump (BCP) provide the foundation needed to constrain mechanistic models of downward particulate organic carbon (POC) flux in the ocean. Sediment traps were deployed three times during the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing campaign at Ocean Station Papa in August–September 2018. We propose a new method to correct sediment trap sample contamination by zooplankton “swimmers.” We consider the advantages of polyacrylamide gel collectors to constrain swimmer influence and estimate the magnitude of possible trap biases. Measured sediment trap fluxes of thorium-234 are compared to water column measurements to assess trap …

June 16, 2021 Faculty Senate Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Measurement Of Branching Fractions And Cp Asymmetries For D + S K+ (Η,Π) And D D + S → Π+(Η,Π) Decays At Belle Decays At Belle, Y. Guan, A.J. Schwartz, K. Kinoshita, I. Adachi, H. Aihara, S. Al Said, D. M. Asner, H. Atmacan, V. Aulchenko, T. Aushev, R. Ayad, V. Babu, P. Behera, J. Bennett, M. Bessner, V. Bhardwaj, B. Bhuyan, T. Bilka, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

We report measurements of the branching fractions and CP asymmetries for D ⁺ _S → K⁺η, D ⁺ _S → K⁺π⁰, and D ⁺ _S → π+η decays, and the branching fraction for D ⁺ _S → π⁺π⁰. Our results are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 921 fb⁻¹ collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB e⁺e⁻ asymmetric-energy collider. Our measurements of CP asymmetries in these decays are the most precise to date; no evidence for CP …

Quality Assessment Of Published Systematic Reviews In High Impact Cardiology Journals: Revisiting The Evidence Pyramid, Abdelrahman Abushouk, Ismaeel Yunusa Ph.D., Abdelmagid M. Elmatboly, Shady Fayek, Omar M. Abdelfattah, Anas Saad, Isogai Toshiaki, Shashank Shekhar, Ankur Kalra, Grant W. Reed, Rishi Puri, Samir Kapadia

Faculty Publications

Objective: Systematic reviews are increasingly used as sources of evidence in clinical cardiology guidelines. In the present study, we aimed to assess the quality of published systematic reviews in high impact cardiology journals.

Methods: We searched PubMed for systematic reviews published between 2010 and 2019 in five general cardiology journals with the highest impact factor (according to Clarivate Analytics 2019). We extracted data on eligibility criteria, methodological characteristics, bias assessments, and sources of funding. Further, we assessed the quality of retrieved reviews using the AMSTAR tool.

Results: A total of 352 systematic reviews were assessed. The AMSTAR quality score was …

Measurement Of Branching Fractions And Cp Asymmetries For D+S → D + S → K+ (Η,Π;0) And D + S →Π + (Η;Π0) Decays At Belle, Y. Guan, A.J. Schwartz, K. Kinoshita, I. Adachi, H. Aihara, S. Al Said, D. M. Asner, H. Atmacan, V. Aulchenko, T. Aushev, R. Ayad, V. Babu, P. Behera, J. Bennett, M. Bessner, V. Bhardwaj, B. Bhuyan, T. Bilka, J. Biswal, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

We report measurements of the branching fractions and CP asymmetries for D⁺ _s → Kþη, Dþ s → K⁺π⁰, and D⁺ _s → πþη decays, and the branching fraction for Dþ s → π⁺π⁰. Our results are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 921 fb⁻¹ collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB e⁺e⁻ asymmetric-energy collider. Our measurements of CP asymmetries in these decays are the most precise to date; no evidence for CP violation is found.

Age-Related Changes In Diffuse Optical Tomography Sensitivity Profiles In Infancy, Xiaoxue Fu, John E. Richards

Faculty Publications

Diffuse optical tomography uses near-infrared light spectroscopy to measure changes in cerebral hemoglobin concentration. Anatomical interpretations of the location that generates the hemodynamic signal requires accurate descriptions of diffuse optical tomography sensitivity to the underlying cortical structures. Such information is limited for pediatric populations because they undergo rapid head and brain development. The present study used photon propagation simulation methods to examine diffuse optical tomography sensitivity profiles in realistic head models among infants ranging from 2 weeks to 24 months with narrow age bins, children (4 and 12 years) and adults (20 to 24 years). The sensitivity profiles changed systematically …

Moderating Effects Of Parental Feeding Practices And Emotional Eating On Dietary Intake Among Overweight African American Adolescents, Mary Quattlebaum, Dawn K. Wilson-King, Allison M. Sweeney, Nicole Zarrett

Faculty Publications

This study examined the effects of parental feeding practices and adolescent emotional eating (EE) on dietary outcomes among overweight African American adolescents. Based on Family Systems Theory, it was hypothesized that parental feeding practices, such as parental monitoring and responsibility, would buffer the effects of EE on poor dietary quality, whereas practices such as concern about a child’s weight, restriction, and pressure-to-eat would exacerbate this relationship. Adolescents (N = 127; Mage = 12.83 ± 1.74; MBMI% = 96.61 ± 4.14) provided baseline data from the Families Improving Together (FIT) for Weight Loss trial and an ancillary study. Dietary outcomes (fruit …