Digital Commons Network^™

Why Are We Reading In This Class? A Qualitative Action Research Study On Implementing Critical Historical Literacy In A Humanities Classroom, Jerry Allman Goodnight

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to investigate the barriers to the acquisition of, and examine the impact of implementing, critical historical literacy in a middle school “humanities” classroom. This classroom, the first of its kind within the school district, blended the teaching of both 8th Grade Social Studies and 8th Grade English/Language Arts. Three research questions served as the foundational points of inquiry: 1) What are students’ perceptions of critical historical literacy practices in social studies? 2) What barriers prevent middle school students from acquiring historical literacy and critical literacy skills? and 3) In what ways …

Why He Sings: An Action Research Study Using Counternarratives To Affect The Deficit Narratives Attributed To Students Of Color, Tiffany Jones Early

Theses and Dissertations

There is ample research that shows that students of color are less likely to graduate from college than their White peers. Meanwhile, the demographics of students who enroll in college continue to be more diverse than previous generations. As universities struggle to understand retention disparities, the voices of the students are often eliminated from the discussion. Many university staff members, instead, opt for a deficit narrative to blame what they believe students of color lack that inhibits them from persisting in college until graduation. The purpose of this study is to use narrative inquiry to better understand the educational experiences …

Winning And Losing At The Federal District Courts, Madison Shanks

Theses and Dissertations

The federal criminal courts are unique compared to the rest of the justice system. Cases in these courts pit a government backed prosecutor with an informational and first-moving advantage, against an often-disadvantaged defendant in an adversarial system that ultimately determines who wins and who loses. This asymmetry in criminal cases at the federal district courts presents a situation in which we can understand how courtroom actors matter for the justice process, and specifically if and how attorneys’ strategies differ and ultimately influence outcomes for their clients. This dissertation project builds on an existing data collection project that captures motion filings …

Syntactic, Semantic, And Stylistic Variation In Old English Periphrastic Passives, Anyssa Joann Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation establishes a new method for better understanding the Old English (OE) periphrastic passive (PerPass) system by bridging the gap between traditional qualitative methods and contemporary corpus-based methods in Historical Linguistic research. In doing so, this research resists the tendency in modern scholarship to extract agency and personhood from OE speakers, and instead approaches them as agentive and creative participants in their language and its grammar.

The OE PerPass is understood to be constructed with a BE-verb (beon and wesan ‘be, was’ or weorðan ‘become’) and a coordinated past participle (ex. 1-2).

1. And wearð sona gehæled þurh þæs …

Multi-Level Factors Associated With Hiv Late Presentation With Advanced Disease And Delay Time Of Diagnosis In South Carolina, 2005–2019, Fanghui Shi, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Shujie Chen, Xueying Yang Ph.D., Zhenlong Li, Sharon Weissman, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This study explored individual- and county-level risk factors of late presentation with advanced disease (LPAD) among people with HIV (PWH) and their longer delay time from infection to diagnosis in South Carolina (SC), using SC statewide Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System (eHARS). LPAD was defined as having an AIDS diagnosis within three months of initial HIV diagnosis, and delay time from HIV infection to diagnosis was estimated using CD4 depletion model. 3,733 (41.88%) out of 8,913 adult PWH diagnosed from 2005 to 2019 in SC were LPAD, and the median delay time was 13.04 years. Based on the generalized estimating equations …

Reframing And Advancing Academic Mentorship To Support New And Early Career Faculty Members, Juanita-Dawne R. Bacsu, Patricia C. Heyn, Steffi Kim, Zahra Rahemi, Monique J. Brown, Darina V. Petrovsky, Justine S. Sefcik, Jodi L. Southerland, Jeremy Holloway, Elyse Couch, Ayse Malatyali, Matthew L. Smith

Faculty Publications

Mentorship is critical to fostering professional growth and career development in academia. However, academic mentorship is often an informal activity that is overlooked and under researched. There is much ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding mentorship roles and strategies in academia. This paper provides recommendations and strategies to reframe and advance academic mentorship to support new and early career faculty.

Allura Red Ac Is A Xenobiotic. Is It Also A Carcinogen?, Lorne J. Hofseth Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Elizabeth Angela Murphy, Erica Trauner, Athul Vikas, Quinn Harris, Alexander A. Chumanevich

Faculty Publications

Merriam-Webster and Oxford define a xenobiotic as any substance foreign to living systems. Allura Red AC (a.k.a., E129; FD&C Red No. 40), a synthetic food dye extensively used in manufacturing ultra-processed foods and therefore highly prevalent in our food supply, falls under this category. The surge in synthetic food dye consumption during the 70s and 80s was followed by an epidemic of metabolic diseases and the emergence of early-onset colorectal cancer in the 1990s. This temporal association raises significant concerns, particularly given the widespread inclusion of synthetic food dyes in ultra-processed products, notably those marketed toward children. Given its interactions …

Allura Red Ac Is A Xenobiotic. Is It Also A Carcinogen?, Lorne J. Hofseth, James R. Hébert Scd, Elizabeth Angela Murphy, Erica Trauner, Athul Vikas, Quinn Harris, Alexander A. Chumanevich

Faculty Publications

Merriam-Webster and Oxford define a xenobiotic as any substance foreign to living systems. Allura Red AC (a.k.a., E129; FD&C Red No. 40), a synthetic food dye extensively used in manufacturing ultra-processed foods and therefore highly prevalent in our food supply, falls under this category. The surge in synthetic food dye consumption during the 70s and 80s was followed by an epidemic of metabolic diseases and the emergence of early-onset colorectal cancer in the 1990s. This temporal association raises significant concerns, particularly given the widespread inclusion of synthetic food dyes in ultra-processed products, notably those marketed toward children. Given its interactions …

Reaction Toward Potential Resurgent Multiple Risks: Understanding Risk Information Seeking And Behavior In The Post-Pandemic Era, Shudan Huang

Theses and Dissertations

This study applies the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model to understand how individuals seek and process information related to overlapping pandemics, including COVID-19, flu, monkeypox, and polio. These overlapping health crises have created a complex media environment, contributing to pandemic fatigue, information overload, and varied preventive behaviors. The research explores how pandemic fatigue influences informational behaviors—such as information seeking, processing, and avoidance—and how these behaviors, in turn, predict preventive behavioral intentions.

Using an online survey of 443 participants, structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses. Results indicate that information insufficiency positively predicts both information seeking and …

Comparing Likert And Slider Response Formats In Clinical Assessment, Guyin Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This study used a within-subjects experimental design to compare various response formats in fitting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models. Participants responded to the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) across four different response formats: the Likert-type scale, three types of slider response formats, and a number-entry response format. We conducted the comparison of different response formats based on item-level scores, factor structure and psychometric properties of the scale, mean comparisons across groups, and individuals’ sum scores. Similar results were observed across the different response formats with respect to factor structure, reliability, and validity of test scores. However, inconsistent …

Electroless Deposition And Galvanic Displacement For The Control Of Supported Nanoparticle Size And Composition, Haiying Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Catalyst performances can be greatly affected by properties such as particle size, composition, geometry, and cleanliness of the active surface. To achieve optimal catalytic performance, appropriate synthesis methods are required to synthesize the desired structures. Supported metal particle catalysts are usually prepared by impregnation and precipitation methods in industry. Although these two methods are simple, they exhibit poor control over surface morphology, leading to a wide particle size distribution and uncontrolled distribution of different metal components. In this dissertation, three topics on controlling surface morphology are discussed.

For structure sensitive reactions, reactivity and selectivity can be strongly affected by particle …

Measurement Of Single Differential Cross Sections, Polarization Observables, And Beam-Spin Asymmetry In Charged Two-Pion Electroproduction Off The Proton, Christopher Andrew Mclauchlin

Theses and Dissertations

Emergent phenomena are described as such due to functional differences in paradigms based on observation scale, one of the most fundamental being the emergence of hadronic structure from bare quarks and gluons, as dictated by the strong interaction. Measurement of charged two-pion electroproduction off the proton with CLAS in run group E1-6 and the extraction of single differential cross sections, polarization observables, and beam-spin asymmetries was performed as a necessary step in illuminating the length scale currently dark to Quantum Chromodynamics within the structure of the proton. Understanding the scale-dependent nature of this hadronic structure is integral to understanding nature …

In Search Of Cognitive Justice: One District’S Approach To Implementing Culturally Responsive Practices, Anne Marie Mancini

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study examined district leaders' approach to integrating culturally responsive practices into classrooms in a medium-sized urban Connecticut public school system. The framework for this study was supported by two theories: transformative learning and culturally responsive pedagogy. Following a case study model of design, the project focused on the work of the Supervisor of Professional Learning and the Department Supervisor for English Language Arts (ELA) as they provided training, support, and resources to the Grade 7 team. Two research questions guided this study: (1) What successes, if any, did district leaders experience in implementing culturally responsive teaching practices …

Accurate Crystal Structure Prediction Of New 2d Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Perovskites, Nima Karimitari, William J. Baldwin, Evan W. Muller, Zachary J.L. Bare, W. Joshua Kennedy, Gábor Csányi, Christopher Sutton

Faculty Publications

Low-dimensional hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) are promising electronically active materials for light absorption and emission. The design space of HOIPs is extremely large, as a variety of organic cations can be combined with different inorganic frameworks. This not only allows for tunable electronic and mechanical properties but also necessitates the development of new tools for in silico high throughput analysis of candidate materials. In this work, we present an accurate, efficient, and widely applicable machine learning interatomic potential (MLIP) trained on 86 diverse experimentally reported HOIP materials. This MLIP was tested on 73 experimentally reported perovskite compositions and achieves a …

Comparing The Health Information Practices Of Sapphic People By Age Group And Generation, Vanessa Lynn Kitzie

Faculty Publications

This qualitative research examines how sapphic people (i.e., umbrella term inclusive of lesbian, bisexual, and pansexual trans femmes, mascs, nonbinary people, and ciswomen) in South Carolina navigate informational barriers within healthcare systems. An information practices lens that examines how sapphic people create, seek, use, and share information to achieve desired healthcare outcomes describes such navigation. The research focuses on how intersectional identities, with a particular emphasis on age and considerations of race/ethnicity, geography, and gender, mediate these practices and their outcomes. The research uses participant data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 34 sapphic people about their health information …

Uncovering The Complexity Of Perinatal Polysubstance Use Disclosure Patterns On X: Mixed Methods Study, Dezhi Wu, Hannah Shead, Yang Ren, Phyllis Raynor Phd, Aprn, Pmhnp-Bc, Youyou Tao, Harvey Villanueva, Peiyin Hung, Xiaoming Li, Robert G. Brookshire, Kacey Eichelberger, Constance Guille, Alain H. Litwin, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D.

Publications

BACKGROUND: According to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, polysubstance use among pregnant women is prevalent, with 38.2% of those who consume alcohol also engaging in the use of one or more additional substances. However, the underlying mechanisms, contexts, and experiences of polysubstance use are unclear. Organic information is abundant on social media such as X (formerly Twitter). Traditional quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as natural language processing techniques, can be jointly used to derive insights into public opinions, sentiments, and clinical and public health policy implications. OBJECTIVE: Based on perinatal polysubstance use (PPU) data that we extracted on …

I Don't Know How To Live Real Life Sober'-Identifying Needed Supports Through The Voices Of Pregnant And Parenting People Seeking Recovery, Phyllis Raynor, Cynthia F. Corbett, Delia West, Constance Guille, Kacey Eichelberger, Alain Litwin, Ron Prinz

Publications

Pregnant and parenting people (PPP) experience complex challenges when seeking recovery from substance use disorders (SUD). Using a community-based participatory research approach, researchers partnered with PPP seeking recovery from SUD to explore supports needed in their communities. Findings are reported in adherence with the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research. Thirty PPP were recruited from a residential drug recovery facility in the Southeastern United States. Participant interviews were conducted in-person or virtually. PPP were asked to identify existing and needed parenting and recovery supports in their communities. Interviews were transcribed, verified for accuracy and coded using NVIVO software. Thematic analysis …

Exploring Barriers To Effective Covid-19 Risk Mitigation, Recovery, And Chronic Disease Self-Management: A Qualitative Multilevel Perspective, Gayenell S. Magwood Phd, Rn, Faha, Faan, Charles Ellis, Chanita Hughes Halbert, Ebony Allen Toussaint, Jewel Scott Phd, Rn, Fnp-C, Lynne S. Nemeth

Publications

INTRODUCTION: Many research activities have focused on SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent COVID-19 respiratory illness during the pandemic. However, significant racial inequities emerged months after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The similarity between racial/ ethnic disparities in COVID-19 and those for other diseases raised awareness about the context for risk exposure and healthcare access. The purpose of this study is to examine social and structural determinants of health among COVID-19 survivors, carepartners, and the perspectives of healthcare stakeholders who experienced disruption during the early pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A purposive sample of interviews (n=9) and focus groups (n=10) were used to collect …

Exploring Barriers To Effective Covid-19 Risk Mitigation, Recovery, And Chronic Disease Self-Management: A Qualitative Multilevel Perspective, Gayenell S. Magwood Phd, Rn, Faha, Faan, Charles Ellis Jr, Chanita Hughes Halbert, Ebony Allen Toussaint, Jewel Scott Phd, Rn, Fnp-C, Lynne S. Nemeth

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Many research activities have focused on SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent COVID-19 respiratory illness during the pandemic. However, significant racial inequities emerged months after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The similarity between racial/ ethnic disparities in COVID-19 and those for other diseases raised awareness about the context for risk exposure and healthcare access. The purpose of this study is to examine social and structural determinants of health among COVID-19 survivors, carepartners, and the perspectives of healthcare stakeholders who experienced disruption during the early pandemic.
Material and methods: A purposive sample of interviews (n=9) and focus groups (n=10) were used to collect …

Neuro-Symbolic Ai For Deep Analysis Of Social Media Big Data, Vedant Khandelwal, Manas Gaur, Ugur Kursuncu, Valerie Shalin, Amit P. Sheth

Faculty Publications

This tutorial introduces a neuro-symbolic AI framework to analyze big data from social media platforms. Integrating human-curated knowledge through symbolic AI with the pattern recognition capabilities of neural networks enhances the adaptability and efficiency of traditional neural network approaches. Knowledge-guided zero-shot learning techniques enable swift adaption to new linguistic contexts and emerging events [6]. Participants will explore how to design, develop, and utilize these models in specific domains, such as public health surveillance, that require dynamic adaptation to new terminologies. This session The tutorial aims to equip attendees with practical skills and a deep understanding of how to apply neuro-symbolic …

Neurosymbolic Cognitive Methods For Enhancing Foundation Model-Based Reasoning, Kaushik Roy, Siyu Wu, Alessandro Oltramari

Faculty Publications

Foundation models have emerged as powerful tools, exhibiting extraordinary performance across various tasks, such as language processing, visual recognition, code generation, and human-centered engagement. However, recent studies have highlighted their limitations when grounded, abstract, and generalized reasoning capabilities are required. Complex tasks often involve multiple hierarchical reasoning steps, which are typical features of human thinking processes. In fact, in this chapter we claim that cognitively-inspired computational models, such as the so-called Common Model of Cognition, are key to enable complex reasoning within foundation model-based artificial intelligence (AI) systems. We investigate neurosymbolic approaches for mapping AI system components to those of …

September 11, 2024 Faculty Senate Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Size Fractionation Informs Microbial Community Composition And Interactions In The Eastern Tropical North Pacific Ocean, Madeleine A. Thompson, David L. Valentine, Xuefeng Peng

Faculty Publications

Marine microorganisms are drivers of biogeochemical cycles in the world’s oceans, including oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). Using a metabarcoding survey of the 16S rRNA gene, we investigated prokaryotic communities, as well as their potential interactions with fungi, at the coastal, offshore, and peripheral OMZ of the eastern tropical North Pacific. Water samples were collected along a vertical oxygen gradient, and large volumes were filtered through three size fractions, 0.22, 2, and 22 µm. The changes in community composition along the oxygen gradient were driven by Planctomycetota, Bacteroidota, Verrucomicrobiota, and Gammaproteobacteria; most are known degraders of marine polysaccharides and usually associated …

How Comorbidity With Adhd Impacts On Neurocognitive Performance In Adolescents After Sport-Related Concussions: A Scoping Review, T Chiba, Dm Emerson

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Context: The number of sport-related concussions (SRCs) is higher in adolescents than in other age groups and accounts for 32% of concussions. Athletes with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a higher risk of previous history of concussion and future concussion risk compared with those without ADHD. People with ADHD present lower baseline scores of neurocognitive performances compared with those without ADHD. Neurocognitive deficits after SRC lead to increase risk of musculoskeletal injuries or another concussion after return to play (RTP) and affect RTP process. There is no consensus regarding the management of SRCs for those with ADHD. This scoping review …

Measuring Psychological Readiness With The Shoulder Instability-Return To Sport After Injury Scale In Athletes With Traumatic Shoulder Dislocations: A Critically Appraised Topic, Ha Arnett, K Moore, Zk Winkelmann, H Miller

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Focused Clinical Question: How can using the Shoulder Return to Sport after Injury (SI-RSI) scale to measure mental readiness in athletes after a shoulder injury improve return-to-play protocol? Data Sources: In September 2023, a computerized search of PubMed for evidence was completed. The search terms were fear of reinjury or psychological readiness, kinesiophobia, confidence, and return to play or return to sport, or RTP. The search was limited to studies published between 2018 and 2023. Study Selection: The inclusion criteria consisted of studies that used the SI-RSI to measure fear during return to play and shoulder injuries that required surgery. …

September 4, 2024 General Faculty Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Boosting Steam Tolerance And Electrochemical Performance Of An La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2,Fe0.8O3− Δ-Based Air Electrode For Protonic Ceramic Electrochemical Cells, Lei Wu, Jiqiang Sun, Huiyang Qi, Baofeng Tu, Chunyan Xiong, Fanglin Chen, Peng Qiu

Faculty Publications

La_0.6Sr_0.4Co_0.2Fe_0.8O_3−δ (LSCF) is the state-of-the-art air electrode material for solid oxide electrochemical cells using oxide-ion electrolytes, yet its application in proton ceramic electrochemical cells (PCCs) remains limited, mainly attributed to its instability under operating conditions of high temperature and high humidity. To address this issue, coating a PrCoO_3−δ (PCO) catalyst onto the LSCF scaffold has been evaluated in this study. The introduction of the PCO coating not only enhances the LSCF electrode's electrochemical performance but also significantly improves its steam tolerance by preventing direct contact between steam and …

Striatal Beat Frequency Interval Timing Model With Microgravity Stressor, Jason Michael Fitzgerald, Sorinel Oprisan

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

The Striatal Beat Frequency (SBF) model of interval timing uses frontal cortex (FC) neural oscillations to record the state of the brain at the reinforcement time Tc during fixed interval (FI) procedures in the long-term memory (LMEM). The state of the FC oscillators at any given time is stored in a short-term memory (SMEM) buffer. The SBF model uses the spiny neurons of the basal ganglia (BG) as coincidence detectors to produce beats between the content of the SMEM and LMEM. Across multiple species that can perform interval timing, there are two invariant properties: (a) the timing is precise, and …

First-Order Comprehensive Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology For Neural Ordinary Differential Equations: Mathematical Framework And Illustrative Application To The Nordheim–Fuchs Reactor Safety Model, Dan Gabriel Cacuci

Faculty Publications

This work introduces the mathematical framework of the novel “First-Order Comprehensive Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology for Neural Ordinary Differential Equations” (1st-CASAM-NODE) which yields exact expressions for the first-order sensitivities of NODE decoder responses to the NODE parameters, including encoder initial conditions, while enabling the most efficient computation of these sensitivities. The application of the 1st-CASAM-NODE is illustrated by using the Nordheim–Fuchs reactor dynamics/safety phenomenological model, which is representative of physical systems that would be modeled by NODE while admitting exact analytical solutions for all quantities of interest (hidden states, decoder outputs, sensitivities with respect to all parameters and initial conditions, …

The Dynamic Role Of Subsidies In Promoting Global Electric Vehicle Sales, Tamara L. Sheldon, Rubal Dua

Faculty Publications

We offer the most comprehensive analysis to date of global plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) subsidies, a key part of countries’ strategies to reduce transport carbon emissions and meet Paris Agreement goals. We accomplish this by estimating vehicle choice models for 23 countries using 2010–2019 sales data and using counterfactual simulations to assess the cost-effectiveness of PEV incentives. We also provide the first-ever analysis of medium-run effects, finding that subsidies increase sales not only in the year they are offered, but also in subsequent years. Incentive policies are expensive, costing between $14,857 and $62,443 per additional PEV sold ($11-$36 per additional …