Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Mental Health Literacy And Perceived Social Support On Mental Health Stigma Across Racial And Ethnic Groups In The United States: A Survey-Based Analysis, Isabel R. Jordan, Dan Cooper, Jayxa Alonzo

Senior Theses

The goals of this study were to determine a) whether minoritized groups in the United States had lower levels of mental health literacy (MHL) and higher levels of stigma, b) whether people with higher rates of MHL and social support had lower rates of stigma and c) whether MHL and perceived social support were stronger predictors of stigma levels depending on racial group membership. I hypothesized that people with both high levels of MHL and high levels of social support would have lower levels of mental health stigma, minoritized groups would have lower levels of MHL and social support and …

Legacy - Fall 2023, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

The Camden Burial Project, Part II: Triumph and Defeat

Director's Notes

New and Improved Equipment for the Maritime Research Division

The Camden Burial Project, Part II: Triumph and Defeat

Dr. Christopher R. Moore Appointed Director of the Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey (SEPAS)

Forensic Evidence Suggests Paleo-Americans Hunted Mastodons, Mammoths and other Megafauna in Eastern North America 13,000 Years Ago

Update on the Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey 2022-2023

Finding a Revolutionary War Skirmish Site: Lower Bridge

Arms and Armor from Santa Elena: A Photographic Inventory

Historic Archaeology SCIAA Staff Visit the Windy Ridge Site in 1977

Reuniting People, Place, and Associated Historic …

New And Improved Equipment For The Maritime Research Division, William Nassif, James D. Spirek

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Avian Scavenging In The Forensic Context, Austin Millwood

Senior Theses

Many cultures have recognized the importance of birds in scavenging. However, within forensic literature and research, avian scavenging is an understudied phenomenon. Despite this, researchers have shown that scavenging by birds is unique from other types of scavenging in that birds can rapidly cause complete skeletonization, leave relatively little bone damage, and can spread remains and artifacts over a large area. Here birds known to scavenge are explained in a biological context and then their effects on remains are analyzed. Birds are capable of completely scavenging human remains in as little as 5 hours, depending on many understudied factors. Avian …

The Impact Of Ability Grouping On Academic Achievement In Elementary Reading, Kristi Bissell

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT This action research study describes the impact of ability grouping on fifth-grade students’ academic achievement in reading. The theoretical framework that supported this study is embedded in cooperative learning, social learning, and social interdependence. This study used a mixed methods design to consider the following research questions: “How does ability grouping impact students’ academic achievement in reading in a fifth-grade classroom?” The study also examined the impact that reading had on students’ confidence through a second research question: “What is the impact of ability grouping as it relates to students’ reading confidence?” A third research question was examined to …

Design Of A Test Frame And Its Corresponding Test Methods For A Deployable Composite Boom, William Luther Montgomery

Theses and Dissertations

Deployable composite booms (DCB) are an advanced class of support beams growing in applications including solar collectors and solar sails. DCBs can be coiled or folded into a compact footprint and the ability to be deployed, and in some design, concepts redeployed, making them optimal components for aerospace where weight and volume are finite resources. DCBs are a cutting-edge technology that has yet to be perfected with a need for longer booms with increased stiffnesses to accommodate the latest proposed designs. Atomic-6 has proposed a 16-foot boom manufactured using an autoclave process which aims to reach the goal of producing …

The Politicization Of Criminal Prosecutions, Wadie E. Said

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gun Insurance Mandates And The Second Amendment, Adam B. Shniderman

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Application Of Computational Tools To Identify Variations Associated With Peromyscus Dominant Spot, Zhenhua Shang

Theses and Dissertations

Peromyscus are the most prevalent mammalian species in North America, and they're employed extensively in both laboratory and field studies. P. maniculatus and P. polionotus, the deer mouse and the old-field mouse, are closely related and can produce viable and fertile hybrid offspring. However, a comprehensive database of polymorphisms, particularly in those kept as living stocks and supplied to university researchers, is lacking. In chapter 2, we performed comparative genomic study on P. maniculatus and P. polionotus and used the polymorphic data to identify the range of genetic complexity that underlies physiological and behavioral differences between two species. We also …

The Intersectionality Of Rurality And Race On Covid-19 Vaccination Among Adults In The United States, Shiba Simon Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

Background Vaccination remains a cornerstone of public health, significantly contributing to the prevention and control of infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine development was critical to prevent new SARS-Cov-2 infections. However, COVID-19 vaccination uptake among racial and ethnic minority populations and rural residents in the United States (US) lags behind their urban non-Hispanic White counterparts. Underlying causes of these disparities are unclear, but vaccine hesitancy, access to care barriers, and structural racism may be to blame. Such barriers may vary by residential urbanicity, leading to different racial/ethnic disparities in rural and urban America. Understanding the variations in vaccine uptake …

Revolting Motherhood: [De]Generative Breast Stories Transmuting Medical/Moral Paradigms In Britain During The Long Nineteenth Century, Leslie Rene Pearson

Theses and Dissertations

Eric Plemons writes in *The Look of A Woman* that “biological stories do more than describe biologies” (54). This dissertation explores what breast cancer stories do and how society creates meaning around the experience of breast cancer. I argue that, in the long nineteenth century in Britain, breast cancer was part of a two-sided medical/moral paradigm where medical diagnosis became enmeshed with morality. Health, then, became a result of proper domestic behavior, disease a result of straying from societal norms. Following the introductory chapter, chapter two traces the development of this paradigm as an outgrowth of the emergence of middle-class …

Transforming Lessons And Those Who Write Them: Professional Development For Educational Content Writers To Integrate Technology Into Lessons Using The Tpack Framework, Rachael Patricia Santopietro

Theses and Dissertations

Efforts to improve technology integration for K–12 teaching and learning focus on professional development for teachers. This research study, however, implemented a professional development course in technology integration for educational content writers at a publisher in the Southeastern United States. This research is strategic because most writers surveyed do not integrate technology to align with pedagogy and content, because developing 21st century learning is important, and because educational resources should meet national standards for integrating technology. This action research involved designing and implementing a professional development course that instructed content writers (n = 6) in technology integration using the TPACK …

Motivations And Barriers In College Students For Coffee Consumption From Coffee Shops: A Podcast, Khushi Dave

Senior Theses

The book, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World, highlights the globalization of coffee; it was first discovered in the mountainsides of modern—day Ethiopia and has since swept the globe. Historically used for religious, medicinal, and recreational purposes, people flocked to coffee houses for the taste of the brew. Now, this beloved bean is ever prevalent on college campuses, especially through foodservice locations. This paper explores the role of foodservice locations, specifically coffee shops, in coffee consumption among college students. Specifically, it will survey the reasons that college students want to buy coffee from …

Neural Correlates Of Audiovisual Integration, Jonathan Conrady

Theses and Dissertations

Successfully integrating multiple streams of information is paired with a variety of behavioral enhancements. Multisensory research over the past few decades has demonstrated the criticality of spatial proximity and stimulus effectiveness. Here, we focused on the temporal aspects and underlying neural activity of frequency-varying, audiovisual stimuli using scalp recorded electroencephalography (EEG). Our set of stimuli was particularly chosen because humans are most sensitive to the auditory sound and visual spatial frequencies that make up speech. Recent work has shown that audiovisual integration effects of low-level, simple stimuli are largest when both modalities fall within, compared to outside of, their respective …

Robustness Of Convolutional Neural Networks: Analysis And Applications, Xin Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have gained increasing popularity and versatility in recent decades, finding applications in diverse domains including image recognition, natural language processing, recommendation systems, as well as safety-critical areas like autonomous driving, medical diagnostics, and military fields. However, the widespread use of CNNs in safety-critical applications has also given rise to concerns regarding their robustness. The low robustness of CNNs may lead to erroneous predictions and even significant losses of human life and property, especially when dealing with corner cases or boundary cases in real-world problem-solving. Most existing methods for evaluating CNNs still heavily rely on their accuracy …

The Impact Of Incorporating Self-Myofascial Release Into Voice Lessons: A Six-Week Study, Benjamin Patrick Stogner

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the integration of Self Myofascial Release (SMR) techniques within voice lessons over six weeks; aiming to alleviate muscular tension, enhance vocal performance, and improve singers' overall well-being. The study employed a qualitative pre-test/post-test design. The data collected indicates that while SMR offers significant benefits, it is impractical to incorporate a comprehensive routine into applied lessons. However, using SMR techniques in vocal warm-up routines, and encouraging the student to use SMR techniques on their own, yielded promising results. Consistent SMR application led to improved posture, jaw mobility, and overall well-being, with older participants …

Critical Literacy And Self Efficacy Among Secondary Students Repeatedly Engaged In Literacy Intervention, Haley Rowles

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods study investigated how critical literacy questioning impacted the self-efficacy of secondary students who had been repeatedly engaged in literacy intervention because of failed standardized assessments as well as the teacher experience in using critical literacy questioning. The study was conducted over four and a half weeks in a secondary literacy intervention classroom. Data was collected using surveys, observations, and interviews, which were analyzed through inductive coding. The results of the study indicate that critical literacy questioning, on average, increased student self-efficacy under certain conditions. It also illustrated that the use of critical literacy questioning, which sometimes leads to …

Robust Underwater State Estimation And Mapping, Bharat Joshi

Theses and Dissertations

The ocean covers two-thirds of Earth, which is relatively unexplored compared to the landmass. Mapping underwater structures is essential for both archaeological and conservation purposes. This dissertation focuses on employing a robot team to map underwater structures using vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). The overarching goal of this research is to create a team of autonomous robots to map large underwater structures in a coordinated fashion. This requires maintaining an accurate robust pose estimate of oneself and knowing the relative pose of the other robots in the team. However, the GPS-denied and communication-constrained underwater environment, along with low visibility, …

Impact Of Training And Experience On Hearing Loss Health Literacy In Speech-Language Pathologists, Ellen Claire Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore general health literacy, hearing loss health literacy, and confidence levels among SLPs with different levels of academic training and on-the-job experience related to hearing loss and to understand how SLPs felt their training and experience contributed to their hearing loss health literacy development. Across two aims, we evaluated predictors of SLPs’ hearing loss health literacy and SLP beliefs of how hearing loss health literacy is gained. The results from this study indicated that SLPs had high levels of general health literacy and but marginal to low levels of hearing loss health literacy. …

Adapting Deep Learning Techniques For Geologic Investigations Of Hydrothermal Venting At Seafloor Spreading Ridges Using Auv Surveys, Isaac Keohane

Theses and Dissertations

Locating hydrothermal chimney sites unlocks research into their correlations with geology, lithospheric cooling, and deep-sea biogeography at seafloor spreading ridges. High-resolution bathymetry and sidescan sonar collected by Automated Underwater Vehicles allows for chimneys, only a few meters wide and tall, and fissures, only a few meters wide, to be resolved across large areas (>100 km2). We developed a Chimney Identification Tool (CIT) that utilizes a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), a Machine-Learning model able to classify based on shapes and textures, to identify chimneys in 1m-gridded bathymetry. We then utilized the CIT to identify many potential off-axis chimney structures at …

Experimentally Examining Status And Initial Trust, Valerie Kristen Barron

Theses and Dissertations

Trust is a fundamental component of our social relationships. Whether we are interacting with our strong social ties, like family and friends, or complete strangers, there is a degree of trust that we must place in the other person. Because trust is essential to our continued interactions it is important that we learn how this trust forms as well as how it is influenced by various social factors. This paper utilizes an experimental approach to examining the relationship between status and initial trust. Using a two condition experiment with 182 participants, this study found that the presence of a single …

Bohuslav Martinů’S Eight Preludes For Piano H. 181: Style Analysis And Pedagogical Approaches In Piano Performance, Jinkyung Kim

Theses and Dissertations

This treatise delves into Bohuslav Martinů’s Eight Preludes for Piano H. 181, offering a comprehensive exploration of the twentieth-century Czech composer’s life; discussing his compositional significance; analyzing the style of his Eight Preludes using the framework of Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, and Growth (SHMRG); and suggesting pedagogical approaches for advanced piano learners. The study examines Martinů’s life and the socio-cultural influences that shaped his artistic language. His compositional journey, combining elements of Czech folk music with Parisian influences of impressionism, neoclassicism, and jazz, illustrates his versatility and ingenuity. Through the SHMRG framework by Jan LaRue, the style analysis of Eight …

Harnessing Surrogate Modeling And Machine Learning For Management Of Water Resources And Environmental Systems, Mahdi Erfani

Theses and Dissertations

In a world characterized by increasing and more frequent climate extreme events, population growth, and limited opportunities for infrastructural expansion, the imperative for more efficient and resilient planning, design, and operation of water resources and environmental systems has never been more apparent. Moreover, the emergence of high-dimensional data and the demand for quick and informed decision-making have created a critical challenge for the operation and management of these systems. To address these issues effectively, the ability to rapidly grasp and accelerate the analysis of this data is paramount, and this necessitates the innovative use of machine learning and surrogate modeling …

Field And Laboratory Characterization Of Subgrade Resilient Modulus For The Aashtoware Pavement Me, Kazi Moninul Islam

Theses and Dissertations

The new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) uses the subgrade resilient modulus (MR) as the key input parameter to represent the subgrade soil behavior for pavement design. This research focused on field and laboratory characterization of subgrade resilient modulus assessing the effects of predicted distresses and IRI on the flexible pavement. The results of this study are presented in the form of three chapters and peer-reviewed journal manuscripts. Firstly (Chapter 3), MR was obtained indirectly from Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) data using a back-calculation tool (i.e., SCDOT, BAKFAA, and AASHTOWare 2017) or from empirical correlations with soil index properties. MR …

Heterogeneous Catalyst Design For Biomass Conversion, Dia Sahsah

Theses and Dissertations

Catalytic upgrading of bio-based feedstocks to commodity chemicals and fuels is pivotal to a more sustainable, renewable, and environmentally benign chemical economy. However, due to the high oxygen content, high water solubility, excessive reactivity, and thermal instability, typical and well-developed catalytic material and reactor processes reliably utilized in conventional petrochemical industry are, in general, not suitable for the processing of biomass feedstocks. Therefore, the development of novel heterogeneous catalysts is necessary in order to design new high-performance catalytic reactor systems. However, rational catalyst design is a multifaceted problem, and a myriad of factors influencing the catalytic performance at the reactor …

Evaluation Of The Dynamic Response Of Gravelly Soil Under Different Drainage Conditions, Pressley Margaret Perry

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout history in the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering, there have been numerous experimental investigations on the dynamic behavior of soils. Many of these efforts have been focused on sand and silty sand material due to their susceptibility to liquefaction phenomena. However, gravelly soil material (i.e., soil in which gradation contains primarily gravel and sand) has exhibited this phenomenon in response to earthquake loading in many case histories. Therefore, it is important to extend the experimental assessment of gravelly soil material to develop a better understanding of the cyclic response and to support the development of numerical models. This study …

Where The Constitution Is Silent: Indigenous Rights Jurisprudence In The United States, Anthony Wayne Hobert Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation examines the citation of a pair of contradictory Supreme Court decisions penned by Chief Justice John Marshall—Johnson v. McIntosh (1823) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832)—to answer questions in three distinct realms. First, it answers whether and to what degree the Doctrine of Discovery, as presented by Marshall in Johnson, is fundamentally Lockean. Second, it answers the question of whether the Court acts as a majoritarian institution with regards to its indigenous jurisprudence. Third, it answers questions regarding strategic behavior in the American judicial hierarchy, focusing on the precedents’ citation in lower federal courts, state supreme courts, and tribal …

Understanding Podcast Advertising Processing And Outcomes: An Analysis Of Podcast Ad Types, Message Types, And Media Context On Consumer Responses, Colin Piacentine

Theses and Dissertations

Podcasting is a rapidly growing medium that is increasingly substantially in terms of both audiences and advertising revenue. This study examines the concepts of native advertising, persuasion knowledge, narrative transportation, and media context congruity as they pertain to this emerging media format. Specifically, it examines the effects of ad type (host-read/announcer-read), message type (informative/narrative), and genre (news/true crime), as well as the interactions between them, on consumer responses. Consumer responses are categorized into those relating to the podcast and those relating to the advertisement. A 2 x 2 x 2 full factorial between-subjects online experiment is conducted comparing eight podcast …

Progressive Neurochemical, Neuroinflammatory And Cognitive Deficits In An Experimental Model Of Gulf War Illness, Hannah Elizabeth Burzynski

Theses and Dissertations

Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a multi-symptom illness that presents with cognitive disturbances and immune dysregulation and continues to affect over 25% of Gulf War veterans. While soldiers were exposed to several hazards in the Gulf, the prophylactic use of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, pyridostigmine bromide (PB) and war-related stress have been identified as chief factors in GWI pathology. As both PB and stress alter acetylcholine (ACh), a critical mediator of cognition and inflammation, the focus of my dissertation work was investigating the lasting effects of PB and stress on peripheral and central cholinergic signaling. Specifically, I assessed hippocampal-dependent learning and …

Leveraging Inflammatory Responses Toward Advancing Alzheimer’S Disease Treatments And Biomaterial Implantation, Mihyun Lim Waugh

Theses and Dissertations

Inflammation is a body’s physiological response to pathogens, foreign materials, or tissue injury. When immune system is triggered, activated leukocytes produce cytokines and chemokines that promote migration of neutrophils and macrophages to the inflammatory regions. At early stages of injury, acute inflammation occurs immediately to fight off the pathogens and restore tissues to homeostasis. However, if the inflammation-inducing stimulus is not removed and thus cells and tissues do not return to its homeostatic state, the prolonged inflammatory responses become a chronic condition. Recent studies have indicated that the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE), a key receptor of innate immune …