Digital Commons Network^™

Diversity Across Disciplines: Student Response To Dei Content In College Curricula, Angela Pettitt

Theses and Dissertations

Discussion and inclusion of diversity-related topics in higher education are often confined to specific courses designated as fulfilling a university-mandated diversity requirement such as courses in women's studies, Black history or literature, Eastern religions, among others. Mainstream general education courses in disciplines such as psychology, chemistry, or communications typically do not address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics as part of the curriculum, even if individual textbooks, courses, or faculty work to improve such courses' pluralism. However, as the U.S. population becomes both more diverse and segregated, and as DEI initiatives come under fire from state legislators, students receive conflicting …

Systems Check: A Qualitative Case Study Of Educators And Parent-Educators Supporting Adolescent Readers From An Ecological Systems Perspective, Kristi Nicole Grooms

Theses and Dissertations

In spite of decades of research and an abundance of well-intentioned intervention efforts, supporting adolescent readers, particularly at the middle level, remains a significant area of concern for educators in the United States. The struggles are present for educators working to help underperforming readers reach grade-level and keep advanced readers motivated and engaged. At home, parents and guardians experience similar challenges. Data on adolescent comprehension performance continues to be frustrating in terms of producing consistent positive results. This qualitative action research study investigated the ongoing challenge of supporting adolescent readers, specifically within the context of 7th grade, through a systems …

More Alike Than Not: The Open Access Preferences Of Humanities Scholars, Rachel Scott, Ana Dubnjakovic

Faculty and Staff Publications

Several studies have noted that humanists have not been as quick or enthusiastic in their adoption of Open Access (OA) as their colleagues in other disciplines. This article leverages the Ithaka S+R US 2021 Faculty Survey to provide contextualized analysis of the OA and Open Education Resources (OER) preferences of humanities scholars, as well as some practices related to OA and OER, relative to their colleagues in other disciplines. Findings suggest that although humanists do stand apart in many OA preferences, the small effect sizes render these differences less important than previously suspected. The implications of these findings are considered …

Disney Was Truly “Almost There”: The Controversy Of Racial Representation In The Princess And The Frog, Anna Kate Dyson

University Libraries Award for Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Health Consequences Of Racial Disparity In Access To Abortion: A Systematic Review, Lacy M. Frye, Calvin Odhiambo

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

Prior to the 2022 Dobbs decision, Black women already experienced negative maternal health outcomes at an alarmingly disparate rate in comparison to White women. Given that the Dobbs decision emboldens state power to enforce abortion restrictions or protections, there has been significant strides made in both directions. Nonetheless, within states where reproductive rights have been significantly eroded, the heightened abortion restrictions may compound the limited access that Black women previously had before Dobbs. This, in turn will exacerbate the already disparate negative maternal outcomes that Black women experience. However, research on the relationship between the lack of access to abortion …

Note On The Spectra Of Steiner Distance Hypermatrices, Joshua Cooper, Zhibin Du

Faculty Publications

The Steiner distance of a set of vertices in a graph is the fewest number of edges in any connected subgraph containing those vertices. The order-k Steiner distance hypermatrix of a graph is the n-dimensional array indexed by vertices, whose entries are the Steiner distances of their corresponding indices. In the case of k = 2, this reduces to the classical distance matrix of a graph. Graham and Pollak showed in 1971 that the determinant of the distance matrix of a tree only depends on its number n of vertices. Here, we show that the hyperdeterminant of the Steiner distance …

International Society Of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Long-Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, Alex Leaf, Jeffrey A. Rothschild, Tim M. Sharpe, Stacy T. Sims, Chad J. Macias, Geoff G. Futch, Michael D. Roberts, Jeffrey R. Stout, Michael J. Ormsbee, Alan A. Aragon, Bill I. Campbell, Shawn M. Arent Ph.D., Cscs*D, Fissn, Facsm, Fnak, Dominic P. D’Agostino, Michelle T. Barrack, Chad M. Kerksick, Richard B. Kreider, Douglas S. Kalman, Jose Antonio

Faculty Publications

Position statement: The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) provides an objective and critical review of the use of a ketogenic diet in healthy exercising adults, with a focus on exercise performance and body composition. However, this review does not address the use of exogenous ketone supplements. The following points summarize the position of the ISSN: 1. A ketogenic diet induces a state of nutritional ketosis, which is generally defined as serum ketone levels above 0.5 mM. While many factors can impact what amount of daily carbohydrate intake will result in these levels, a broad guideline is a daily dietary …

Common Questions And Misconceptions About Protein Supplementation: What Does The Scientific Evidence Really Show?, Jose Antonio, Cassandra Evans, Arny A. Ferrando, Jeffrey R. Stout, Brandi Antonio, Harry Cinteo, Patrick Harty, Shawn M. Arent Ph.D., Cscs*D, Fissn, Facsm, Fnak, Darren G. Candow, Scott C. Forbes, Chad M. Kerksick, Flavia Pereira, Drew Gonzalez, Richard B. Kreider

Faculty Publications

Protein supplementation often refers to increasing the intake of this particular macronutrient through dietary supplements in the form of powders, ready-to-drink shakes, and bars. The primary purpose of protein supplementation is to augment dietary protein intake, aiding individuals in meeting their protein requirements, especially when it may be challenging to do so through regular food (i.e. chicken, beef, fish, pork, etc.) sources alone. A large body of evidence shows that protein has an important role in exercising and sedentary individuals. A PubMed search of “protein and exercise performance” reveals thousands of publications. Despite the considerable volume of evidence, it is …

After Smith Falls: Corporate Free Exercise Lochnerism, Daniel J. H. Greenwood, Nicholas E. Tramposch

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Neurosymbolic Ai Approach To Attribution In Large Language Models, Deepa Tilwani, Revathy Venkataramanan, Amit P. Sheth

Faculty Publications

Attribution in large language models (LLMs) remains a significant challenge, particularly in ensuring the factual accuracy and reliability of the generated outputs. Current methods for citation or attribution, such as those employed by tools like Perplexity.ai and Bing Search-integrated LLMs, attempt to ground responses by providing real-time search results and citations. However, so far, these approaches suffer from issues such as hallucinations, biases, surface-level relevance matching, and the complexity of managing vast, unfiltered knowledge sources. While tools like Perplexity.ai dynamically integrate web-based information and citations, they often rely on inconsistent sources such as blog posts or unreliable sources, which limits …

A Diminished First Amendment In Cyberspace: The Brussels Effect On Freedom Of Expression, Kurt A. Webber

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

This article introduces the reader to the European Union's attempts at moderating the internet through its Digital Security Act (DSA) and the primary voices heard in that effort, including the trusted flaggers, the member states' digital services coordinator, and the platforms themselves.

The article explores the EU's high hopes for the DSA to eliminate harmful and illegal content and ensure transparency through its collective database of moderation actions.

The article describes the transparency database and details its principal inadequacies.

Finally, the article highlights the conflict between the U.S. and EU's views on moderation.

Exploring The Experiential Journey Of Women With Pcos Across The Lifespan: A Qualitative Inquiry, Pamela J. Wright Phd, Ms, Med, Rn, Cen, Robin Dawson Phd, Rn, Cpnp-Pc, Cynthia F. Corbett Phd, Rn, Faan

Publications

Introduction: Peri-postmenopausal women with the chronic condition polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) remain at cardiometabolic risk and/or subsist with established comorbidity while continuing to manage persistent PCOS signs and symptoms, such as hirsutism. Thus, PCOS transcends the reproductive years, yet there is sparse scientific literature on the peri-postmenopausal years of women with PCOS.

Purpose: To explore how peri-postmenopausal women's perceptions about PCOS have changed over the lifespan since their PCOS diagnosis.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey with one qualitative question was conducted via Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) among women with PCOS aged ≥43 years, who were all recruited …

Multi-Omics Integrative Analysis For Incomplete Data Using Weighted P-Value Adjustment Approaches, Wenda Zhang, Zichen Ma, Yen Yi Ho, Shuyi Yang, Joshua Habiger, Hsin Hsiung Huang, Yufei Huang

Faculty Publications

The advancements in high-throughput technologies provide exciting opportunities to obtain multi-omics data from the same individuals in a biomedical study, and joint analyses of data from multiple sources offer many benefits. However, the occurrence of missing values is an inevitable issue in multi-omics data because measurements such as mRNA gene expression levels often require invasive tissue sampling from patients. Common approaches for addressing missing measurements include analyses based on observations with complete data or multiple imputation methods. In this paper, we propose a novel integrative multi-omics analytical framework based on p-value weight adjustment in order to incorporate observations with incomplete …

Good Faith As Mechanism For An Efficient Market, Victor Caminha Cavalcante

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

This article explores the role of the principle of good faith in enhancing commercial efficiency within Brazilian, Italian and U.S. legal systems. The principle, recognized under Brazilian Civil Law since the enactment of the 2002 Civil Code, is compared with its application under U.S. law, particularly through the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and Restatement (Second) of Contracts, and under Italian Civil Code. The study analyzes how good faith, as an objective legal standard, fosters contractual fairness, transparency, and predictability, thereby contributing to a more structured and efficient market. By examining case law, scholarly perspectives, and the interaction between traditional and …

Harnessing The Power Of Complementarity Between Smart Tracking Technology And Associated Health Information Technologies: Longitudinal Study, Youyou Tao, Ruilin Zhu, Dezhi Wu

Publications

Background: Smart tracking technology (STT) that was applied for clinical use has the potential to reduce 30-day all-cause readmission risk through streamlining clinical workflows with improved accuracy, mobility, and efficiency. However, previously published literature has inadequately addressed the joint effects of STT for clinical use and its complementary health ITs (HITs) in this context. Furthermore, while previous studies have discussed the symbiotic and pooled complementarity effects among different HITs, there is a lack of evidence-based research specifically examining the complementarity effects between STT for clinical use and other relevant HITs. Objective: Through a complementarity theory lens, this study aims to …

Impact Of Telehealth On Health Disparities Associated With Travel Time To Hospital For Patients With Recurrent Admissions: 4-Year Panel Data Analysis, Youyou Tao, Ace Vo, Dezhi Wu, Junyuan Lin, Kala Seal, Abhay Mishra, Arindam Brahma

Publications

Background: Geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic differences in health outcomes persist despite the global focus on these issues by health organizations. Barriers to accessing care contribute significantly to these health disparities. Among these barriers, those related to travel time—the time required for patients to travel from their residences to health facilities—remain understudied compared with others. Objective: This study aimed to explore the impact of telehealth in addressing health disparities associated with travel time to hospitals for patients with recurrent hospital admissions. It specifically examined the role of telehealth in reducing in-hospital length of stay (LOS) for patients living farther from the …

Family And Friend Caregiver Satisfaction And Utility Of Passive Remote Monitoring Technology Utilized By Frail Home Care Clients, Lori E. Weeks, Grace Warner, Yu Ting Chen, Bradley Hiebert, Emily Richard, Kathleen Ledoux, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan

Publications

Background: Passive remote monitoring technologies (RMT) utilize information gathered from sensors that is transmitted to a caregiver to alert them to a possible incident. There are gaps in our knowledge about the level of satisfaction with passive RMT from the perspective of those who have actual experience using this technology, including family and friend caregivers. This knowledge is important as caregivers are instrumental in determining whether passive RMT will be adopted and utilized over time. In addition, technologies designed for older adults and their caregivers are both helpful and user-friendly. Objective: The aim of this research was to identify the …

Medicaid Managed Care Restrictions On Medications For The Treatment Of Opioid Use Disorder, Maureen T. Stewart, Christina M. Andrews Ph.D., Sage R. Feltus, Dominic Hodgkin, Constance M. Horgan, Cindy Parks Thomas, Thuong Nong

Faculty Publications

Objective: To examine whether Medicaid managed care plan (MCP) utilization management policies for buprenorphine–naloxone and injectable naltrexone are related to key state Medicaid program policy decisions. Data Sources and Study Setting: We abstracted data on state Medicaid regulatory and policy information from publicly available sources and publicly available insurance benefit documentation from all 241 Medicaid MCPs operating in 2021. Study Design: In this cross-sectional study, we used bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine whether Medicaid MCP prior authorization and quantity limits on receipt of buprenorphine and injectable naltrexone were associated with key state Medicaid choices to leverage federal funds to …

Human Mobility And The Infectious Disease Transmission: A Systematic Review, M. Naser Lessani, Zhenlong Li, Fengrui Jing, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Recent decades have witnessed several infectious disease outbreaks, including the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which had catastrophic impacts on societies around the globe. At the same time, the twenty-first century has experienced an unprecedented era of technological development and demographic changes: exploding population growth, increased airline flights, and increased rural-to-urban migration, with an estimated 281 million international migrants worldwide in 2020, despite COVID-19 movement restrictions. In this review, we synthesized 195 research articles that examined the association between human movement and infectious disease outbreaks to understand the extent to which human mobility has increased the risk of infectious disease outbreaks. …

Petrography Study Of The Recent Sediments In Hareer’S Region At Basrah Governorate - Southern Iraq, K J. Al-Sudani, B N. Albadran, A S Y Al-Hadadi, M H. Al-Jaberi, Jennifer R. Pournelle

Faculty Publications

Two sites of Hareer’s region is located in the southern part of Iraq, specifically in the northern Basrah Governorate. The sites are at a depth of 5 meters. The results of heavy mineral analysis showed that there are fifteen types include; Opaque grain (Iron Oxide), Chlorite, Muscovite mica, Biotite, Orthopyroxene, Clinopyroxene, Amphibole (Hornblende and Actinolite), Epidote, Garnet, Kyanite, Staurolite, Zircon, and Tourmaline. On the other hand the light minerals and the results of the mineral analyses revealed that they were primarily composed of rock fragments, with a variety of quartz minerals, feldspar minerals, evaporate minerals, clay-coated grains, and trace amounts …

Empowering Causal Machine Learning For Large-Scale Manufacturing Pipelines With Knowledge Graphs, Yuxin Zi, Cory Henson, Amit P. Sheth

Faculty Publications

Understanding causal relations within manufacturing pipelines is crucial for key manufacturing tasks such as anomaly detection and root cause analysis. However, existing causal machine learning (causal ML) approaches struggle to scale effectively to the vast number of variables present in manufacturing settings. We advocate for incorporating domain knowledge within the manufacturing pipelines, represented as knowledge graphs (KGs), for designing causal ML methods for large-scale manufacturing problems. Knowledge graphs can encode rich contextual information about the interactions and dependencies between different components and stages of the manufacturing pipeline, providing a structured framework to guide the discovery of causal relationships. By incorporating …

Have You Been To Orlando?: In Relation To The Regulation Of Self-Preferencing In Antitrust Law, Eunkwang Ha

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

As a mother of two and a South Korean professional studying abroad in the United States, one of my top priorities for our family's time here was to visit Orlando. My children had endured quite a bit of disruption as I pursued my professional goals, and I felt visiting Disney World and Universal Studios would be a bit of recompense. Although I wanted to use a package deal from a Korean travel agency, it was not a good choice because I needed to stay at hotels connected to Disney World and Universal Studios.

Due to the self-preferencing of Disney World …

R.I.P. R2p - And Yet It Moves: It Is Premature To Declare The Responsibility To Protect Dead - No, It Needs Cpr In The Dark Ages Of The 2020s!, Lily Katinka Svanberg

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

This work is about R2P and the responsibility to protect. Currently, the R2P doctrine is under serious pressure. The world climate has changed rapidly since the days of the launch of the R2P principle in 2001, and its most frequent references in 2011-2014, culminating in "responsibility not to veto" (RNVT) proposals in 2015. Recent grave violations of international law in the 2020s, resulting in alleged mass atrocities, have resulted in pessimism about the feasibility of R2P, and the declaration of its death. This article evaluates the 2000s decline in UNSC-mandated military action taken under Chapter VII from the perspective of …

American Interests And Russian Arbitration: Overcoming Confusion And Concern, Blake Alderson

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

This article seeks to circumvent potential pitfalls for American investors by highlighting the key governing principles in Russian arbitration and the enforcement of associated awards, both foreign and domestic. To this end, the article will briefly orient the reader with the applicable commercial law and authorities behind the arbitral structure before engaging with the governing authorities of the Law on International Commercial Arbitration (ICA) and the New York Arbitration Convention (NY Convention) on recognizing foreign arbitral awards, with the end goal of establishing a cohesive path for prospective American businesses to pursue necessary arbitration actions on Russian soil. To aid …

Consumer Preferences For Ride-Hailing: Barriers To An Autonomous, Shared, And Electric Future, Tamara L. Sheldon, Rubal Dua

Faculty Publications

Research has shown that automation, carpooling, and electrification combined in a mobility on demand framework have the potential for theoretically large emissions reductions. However, less research has been done regarding consumer preferences and behavioral responses to this vision of transportation of the future. In this paper we use choice experiment data collected from an online ride-hailing survey to quantify consumer preferences for these technologies. Our results suggest there are major barriers to consumers’ willing to ride in such vehicles. We find that respondents require large discounts to ride in driverless vehicles or to carpool with other passengers, even holding ride …

2023 - 2024 Faculty Senate Annual Report, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

The primary file includes the 2023-2024 Bookstore Committee Report. Additional annual reports are attached.

Reflecting On Partnerships Established And Sustained Over Four Cycles Of A Federally Funded Cancer Prevention And Control Research Program: Lessons Learned For Community-Academic Networks, Swann Arp Adams, Lauren Workman Ph.D., Mayank Sakhuja, Brooks Yelton Ma, Lmsw, Karen E. Wickersham Phd, Rn, Ciaran Fairman, Jan Eberth Ph.D., Sue Heiney Scd, James Hébert Scd, Freda Allyson Hucek, Lauren Schaurer, Daniela B. Friedman Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) is a national network which aims to accelerate the adoption and implementation of evidence-based cancer prevention and control strategies and interventions in communities, enhance large-scale efforts to reach underserved populations and reduce their cancer-related health disparities, and develop the capacity of the dissemination and implementation work force specifically in cancer prevention and control. Methods: Our site has been a part of the CPCRN since its inception in 2002 with the exception of the 2004–2009 funding cycle. As community-based participatory research is a core …

“Courtesy, Respect, And Follow Through”: A Mixed Methods Evaluation Of Faculty Members’ Experiences, Needs, And Approaches To Research Collaborations, Daniela B. Friedman Ph.D., Christina Ek, Jean Neils-Strunjas Ph.D, Ccc-Slp, Andrea Tanner Ph.D., James R. Hébert Scd, Lorie Donelle, Sue E. Levkoff, Freda Allyson Hucek, Brooks Yelton Ma, Lmsw, Dwayne E. Porter

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Guided by a communications-focused framework developed by an interdisciplinary team of authors, this paper presents data from a survey of health science faculty members to better understand how research collaborations are established and maintained. Methods: An electronic survey was distributed to faculty in six colleges at a Research 1 institution. Quantitative data were downloaded into Excel and then RStudio for descriptive analysis. Open-ended, qualitative responses were coded and analyzed for themes. Results: Most respondents were in public health (44.0%) or medicine (25.3%); 40.0% were tenured. A grant deadline was the main impetus reported for initiating research collaborations (86.1%). Most …

Physical Activity, Anxiety, Depression, And Coping In Turkish Men And Women During The First Wave Of Covid-19, Bijen Filiz, Funda Coşkun Özyol, Bengü Güven, Ezel Nur Korur, Yılmaz Yüksel, Cavit Işık Yavuz, Kele Ding, Jingzhen Yang, J. Larry Durstine Phd, Facsm, Faacvpr, Fnak, Ming-Kai Chin, Gıyasettin Demirhan

Faculty Publications

A need exists to better understand the relationships between COVID-19, coping behaviors, physical activity and stress, and COVID-19’s impact on way of life. A cross-sectional study design was used to examine adult physical activity, hope, depression, anxiety, and coping status by gender during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to determine the impact of these variables on the coping process. The study also examined the effect of gender on the relation between physical activity and dependent variables. A global survey instrument was used in this study, including 1,400 Turkish adults. This study identified significant gender-based differences regarding physical activity, hope, depression, anxiety, …

Digital Usage Of Indian Teleworkers In Home Settings: A Digital Inclusion Framework, Anindita Paul, Borchuluun Yadamsuren, Kim M. Thompson

Faculty Publications

This research focuses on ICT adoption and digital use by teleworkers operating from their homes during the pandemic in India. A two-phase mixed-method approach is used: Phase 1 involved in-depth interviews with three individuals during the pandemic, findings from which were used along with the Factors Affecting Digital Inclusion (FDI) model (Thompson & Paul, 2020) to develop the survey instrument for Phase 2. This survey was distributed to professionals via listservs, and the FDI model was subsequently utilized to analyze the survey responses. The study’s findings highlighted multiple factors related to digital inclusion among teleworkers that could impact work productivity. …