Digital Commons Network^™

Southeastern Conference (Sec) International Student-Athlete (Isa) Career Transitions - A Cultural Intelligence (Cq) Perspective, Tsu-Lin Yeh

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated international student-athletes’ (ISAs’) transition experiences of being recruited for, matriculating in, and then leaving high-performance and commercialized Southeastern Conference (SEC) institutions. Adopting the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) theory, this dissertation specifically examined how the four CQ elements (metacognition CQ, cognition CQ, motivation CQ, and behavior CQ) existed in an ISA’s transition process. CQ explains a person’s capability for performing well in culturally diverse environments (Fang et al., 2018). Traditional CQ studies have been utilized to manage international organizations’ diversity and inclusion (Triandis, 2006), particularly regarding employee retention, career transition and development (Mangla, 2021). However, although sports management is …

Prosecutorial Discretion: District Attorneys, Public Opinion,And The Localized Rule Of Law, Yu-Hsien Sung

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses three fundamental questions regarding the politics of prosecutorial behavior. Specifically, it examines how the selectors of prosecutors influence prosecutorial decision-making under different selection methods, including electionbased systems and appointment-based systems. By using a political responsiveness framework and utilizing empirical strategies, including an experiment and the construction of prosecutor policy position data, this study offers novel insights into the subject. First, I find that voters care about prosecutors’ issue positions and rely on various cues to identify candidates whose policy positions align with their preferences, even in low-information elections. Second, elections show promise as a mechanism for holding …

Injury Prevention Exercise Guidelines For Flutists, Ziqing Guan

Theses and Dissertations

Playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs) have long been a common topic among performing musicians. There are studies of PRMDs specific to flutists, but not much detailed guidance of playing-related injury prevention has been provided. As increasing numbers of students have taken up the flute in recent years, PRMDs in flutists have become more of a concern. However, large numbers of flutists are still lacking education on prevention of PRMDs. The purpose of this document is to help flutists better understand the major muscle groups that we use in playing the flute, how these muscles are affected by flute-playing, and to introduce …

Leveraging Programmable Switches To Enhance The Performance Of Networks: Active And Passive Deployments, Elie Kfoury

Theses and Dissertations

The performance of networks today is drastically affected by: 1) switches equipped with large buffers, referred to as “bloated buffers”: due to the lack of programmability and traffic visibility in legacy switches, operators nowadays configure large buffers statically without considering the characteristics or dynamics of flows. Such buffers increase the delays on packets, causing the Quality of Service (QoS) of networked applications (e.g., voice over IP, web browsing) to degrade; 2) switches forwarding packets on a best-effort basis: traffic crossing a switch is heterogeneous in many ways. Mixing such traffic in a single queue without any QoS measures can drastically …

Archetypes Revisited: Investigating The Power Of Universals In Soviet And Hollywood Cinema, Iana Guselnikova

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the concept of archetypes in Soviet and Hollywood films, drawing perspectives from ancient philosophy and the thought of Carl Jung and post-Jungians. While psychoanalysis provides a valuable framework for understanding the human psyche and the idea of archetypes, it has its limitations and gaps that require further exploration. To address these issues, this paper proposes the adoption of a structuralist approach, with reference to the work of Vladimir Propp on the morphology of the fairy tale. Incorporating Propp's ideas can complement psychoanalytic theory and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying patterns and structures that shape …

The Role Of Geographic Context In Tornado Risk, Risk Perception, And Protective Action Behavior, Sarah L. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Our current understanding of tornado risk, risk perception, and protective action behavior lacks proper spatial consideration of local physical and social geographic contexts. This investigation asks how the conceptual drivers of tornado risk (geographic context, risk perception, and response) interact to create the spatiality of tornado risk. The study proposes that the inclusion of geographic context and its influence on perception and behavior produces differential tornado risk and seeks to determine which factors contribute to such variability. A novel, researcher-designed Tornado Risk of Place (TROP) conceptual model guides the methodological framework, incorporating statistical and geospatial analytics in an Illinois State …

Capturing Visuals In Hospitality: A Multi-Dimensional Exploration Of Photographs In Interdisciplinary Research, Ningqiao Li

Theses and Dissertations

The widespread practice of photo-taking and sharing behavior fosters research on photographs to probe into consumer behavior and business strategies. Consequently, the critical role of photographic research has been acknowledged in the fields of marketing as well as tourism and hospitality. To delve deeper into understanding photographs, this dissertation carried out three independent but interconnected studies to examine photographs from both macro and micro perspectives.

The first study systematically reviews photographic research across sociology, marketing, computer science, and tourism and hospitality. It explores key topics, methodologies, and theories, and compares the merits and drawbacks of various research methods employed in …

The Influence And Impacts Of Critical Literacy Intervention In Preservice Teachers Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy: A Mixed Methods Study, Heather Lynn Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Critical Literacy (CL) is a teaching strategy that is designed to promote critical consciousness and enact social justice change as learning occurs. Critical literacy can promote and included in teacher education programs as a tool to increase Pre-Service Teachers (PST) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy (CRTSE). The researcher examined the impact of implementing CL instruction as an invention in teacher education programs to study their self-efficacy in culturally responsive teaching in this mixed methods study. The participants (n=90) reported a statistically significant in CRTSE, along with an increased understanding of terms and frameworks of CRT and CL as well as increased …

Digital Health Design For Improving Treatment Decisions, Akanksha Singh

Theses and Dissertations

In the age of artificial intelligence and large datasets, information retrieval by querying large databases is an impossible task for the common user due to the information overload. Recommender Systems (RS) for commercial applications like YouTube, Amazon and Netflix were designed to support users by finding items of interest based on their user profiles and various filtering techniques. Health Recommender Systems (HRS) is a category of RSs that provides immense opportunities for application across several healthcare domains and contexts including treatment decision support. Unlike RS applications that focus on analyzing consumer choices, a key differentiator for HRS applications is the …

One Training Is Not Enough: The Effects Of A Cultural Humility Training On Mentors’ Verbal Behavior, Anna Flitner

Theses and Dissertations

Youth mentoring has been used as a method of prevention and intervention related to social, psychological, and academic outcomes for youth and adolescents, many of whom come from minoritized or low SES backgrounds. Although more diverse than other helping professions, mentors in formal programs are often white which can lead to potential cultural incongruence. To help mentors understand their own identities and work with youth of diverse backgrounds, mentoring programs have begun implementing cultural humility trainings. The current study examines the effects of a cultural humility training in mentoring. Mentors were randomly assigned to the control or training condition in …

Contextualizing Search: An Analysis Of The Impacts Of Construal Level Theory, Mood, And Product Type On Search Engine Activity, Jackson Everitt Carter

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the world of search from the human perspective. While search engine research, both corporate and academic, has seen a growth in relevance in recent years, the relative novelty of the area in the advertising world means that many important questions remain unanswered. This work aims to expand the current state of search engine research by examining the combined impact of mood, construal level theory applications, and product type on search behavior. Additionally, this research seeks to examine psychophysiological responses from these interreacting frameworks using webcam eye-tracking technology, which was developed recently and has not been previously used …

The Mechanism Of Pda-Peg/Copper Selectively Killing Cancer Cells And Its Application In Treating Triple-Negative Breast Cancer And Advanced Ovarian Cancer, Xiangxiang Hu

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is one of the leading modality diseases. The number of cancer patients has increased in the last decades due to radiation, aging, stress condition, and other reasons. There are three traditional cancer therapies (radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery). Even though these treatments improve the life span of cancer patients, many cancer patients still lost their lives due to the development of tolerance. Thus, it is urgent to develop new kinds of treatments to extend the life span of patients. In recent decades, nanomedicine, which utilizes nanotechnology to deliver chemotherapy agents into tumor sites and improve the anticancer effect and …

The Impact Of Progerin On Genome Maintenance In Mammalian Cells, Liza Alexandra Joudeh

Theses and Dissertations

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is a rare genetic condition characterized by accelerated aging. The cause of HGPS is a point mutation in the LMNA gene, which encodes lamins A and the splice variant lamin C. Lamins are components of the nuclear lamina, a complex that plays structural and catalytic roles in the nucleus that are essential to chromatin organization, DNA replication, and DNA repair. The mutation associated with HGPS activates a cryptic splice donor site which alters the lamin A protein in a way that does not allow prelamin A to be fully processed, and ultimately results in the accumulation …

Prenatal Depression And Breastfeeding Practices Healthy Start Participants, 2019-2022, Peyton Ashleigh Mosher

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Breastfeeding has health benefits for both mother and child, but breastfeeding practices among Black and lower-income women are the poorest in the United States. Few studies have examined the associations between maternal prenatal depression and breastfeeding duration, even fewer among a predominantly low-income Black population. Objective: To explore the association between prenatal depression and breastfeeding practices among low-income Black women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Prospective cohort data from Midlands Healthy Start (MHS) was analyzed to examine women’s depression symptoms during pregnancy and their breastfeeding initiation and duration through two and six months. Perinatal depressive symptoms were identified using …

Patient Experiences And Disparities In Telehealth Hiv Care During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Study Results From The Southern United States, Valerie Yelverton

Theses and Dissertations

Background: To maintain HIV care continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic, most HIV care facilities in the United States adopted telehealth. However, not everyone was participating in telehealth equally. This dissertation seeks to understand experiences with and the use of telehealth in HIV care, and decision processes guiding the selection of visit type during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Qualitative interviews explored people living with HIV’s (PWH) and HIV care provider’s experiences with telehealth HIV care and visit type decision processes. Quantitative analyses of electronic health record (EHR) data characterized patterns of and disparities in telehealth HIV care during the COVID-19 pandemic. …

The Emergence And Predictive Utility Of Early Markers Of Social Anxiety In Young Children With Fragile X Syndrome, Conner James Black

Theses and Dissertations

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a monogenic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by elevated rates of intellectual disability, autism, and anxiety. Social anxiety affects approximately 60 percent of individuals with FXS and is cited as one of the most impairing comorbid disorders in FXS; however, little is understood about the developmental patterns of social anxiety markers in young children with FXS. The current study investigates cardiac and behavioral markers of social anxiety across the first five years of life and tests the predictive utility of these variables on social anxiety symptomatology. Participants included 80 children with FXS and 50 neurotypical controls. Participants …

Mitigating Student Anxiety In The Secondary Classroom: A Culturally Sustaining Approach, Erin Hawley Cronin

Theses and Dissertations

This study emerged in response to broader trends of increasing anxiety among schoolchildren and my own observations as a teacher. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death for youth (Curtin et al., 2022), and anxiety is a known factor in most deaths by suicide (Nepon et al., 2010). Teachers are often the first point of contact for anxious students, but a shortage of counselors in U.S. schools and other systemic barriers prevent widespread access to counseling services (Cratty, 2019). Moreover, identity-based anxieties are often misattributed to aggression or attention-seeking, and punished in school settings, instead of recognized and supported …

The Effects Of Variations In Light And Nutrient Availability On Phytoplankton And Zooplankton, Jake Anthony Swanson

Theses and Dissertations

Aquatic ecosystems experience a wide range of variation in resource availability; two of the resources that are most essential to phytoplankton and zooplankton are light and nutrients. Light can vary in both its color and intensity; these variations can directly impact phytoplankton by altering the amount and color of light available for photosynthesis. Nutrient variability, particularly increases in nutrient levels, also alter phytoplankton communities by favoring the growth of certain taxa such as cyanobacteria.

To understand whether phytoplankton respond differently to changes in light availability I investigated whether the diversification of cryptophytes, phytoplankton with diverse light-capturing pigments, showed evidence of …

Where Race Has No Place: English Teachers’ Efforts To Maintain Space For Diversity In The Ela Classroom, Muzical D. Waite

Theses and Dissertations

The anti-critical race theory movement began in 2020, propelled by the fear of topics on race and racism overtaking lesson objectives, course content, and class discussion, and, in turn, making some students feel uncomfortable (Duhaney, 2022). Opposition to critical race theory (CRT) and any initiative considered adjacent to the concept, such as the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, set in motion legislative proposals in nearly every state and enactment in many (Greene, 2022). Anti- CRT regulation of the content and activities teachers can use comes at a time when American student enrollment has never been more diverse (Carrillo, 2022). …

Comprehensive Method For Clarinet Latin American Music Heritage Case Study – Venezuela, Carmen Teresa Borregales

Theses and Dissertations

Latin American music and music-making have much to offer in their performance traditions and richness of genres, which demand technical proficiency and musicianship. In particular, some contemporary new music for clarinet carries traditional elements, including rhythmic patterns, accentuation, articulation, harmonic progressions, and instrumentation, among others. This study proposes an innovative approach to technical practice and skill development for clarinet, based on twelve etudes for clarinet, commissioned from twelve outstanding Venezuelan composers who explore Venezuelan traditional music genres. The results represent a comprehensive method for clarinet, appropriate for advanced-level players, and its application to pedagogical and performance practices.

Exploring The Agenda-Setting Dynamics Between Traditional Newspapers And Twitter During Mass Shooting Event, Yujin Heo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the intermedia agenda-setting interplay between traditional news media and Twitter in the wake of mass shooting incidents. Applying Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling to data sourced from Twitter, national, and local news, the study investigated the distinct coverage patterns and the extent of their reciprocal influence over time. The findings of this study demonstrated that, in the immediate aftermath of a shooting incident, national news outlets exerted a significant agenda-setting influence on both local media and Twitter discourse. However, as time unfolds, a mutually influential dynamic emerged across all media platforms. …

Developing A Vision-Based Framework For Measuring And Monitoring Water Resource Systems Using Computer Vision And Deep Learning Techniques, Seyed Mohammad Hassan Erfani

Theses and Dissertations

Increased vulnerability of water systems to extreme events and climate change is among the profound challenges facing the management of water resource systems around the world. Extreme events, including droughts, floods, and natural hazards have become more frequent and intensive, particularly in coastal regions. Floods, for instance, caused tens of billions of US dollars losses and put the lives of thousands in danger, globally. To cope with the adverse consequences of floods, a wide range of structural, non-structural, and emergency measures are studied and deployed by flood management sectors. Various flood simulation, mapping, and forecast systems have been developed to …

Framing Police Brutality: An Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage Of Walter Scott’S Murder, Shamira S. Mccray

Theses and Dissertations

This research analyzes news articles about the killing of Walter Scott in 2015 to determine how frames changed over time and across platforms. Previous studies have found that news coverage of police violence against Black men has not always been fair. Instead, the narrative of official sources, like law enforcement, prove dominant. These same research articles typically focus on the way national news outlets frame incidents like Scott’s.

But this thesis takes a deeper look at how state newspapers framed Scott’s murder. I analyzed the frames and sources found in nearly 200 articles published by The Post and Courier and …

Platform Of Growth: An Analysis Of Earnings And Social Media Engagement Among Esports Athletes, Colleen Marie Dibble

Theses and Dissertations

Esports consists of online gaming, cyber sport, and virtual sport in a highly competitive environment. The industry has grown tremendously over the last 30 years (Leroux-Parra, 2020). Professional esports competitions are often now contested with a large scale, global audience, and millions of dollars potentially at stake in some competitions. Hundreds of esports athletes earn a living from the multi-billion-dollar esports industry. In addition to players earning salaries and prize pool money in a professional setting, many colleges have offered scholarships to enrolled students and have begun to offer esports-related curriculums (Dominguez, 2022). Networks such as ABC, ESPN, and TBS …

Sentiment Analysis Of Swedish And Finnish Twitter Users’ Views Toward Nato Pre- And Post- 2022 2nd Russian Invasion Of Ukraine, Alexander Scott Fulham

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to analyze the changes in Swedes’ and Finns’ opinions toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in light of the 2022 2nd Russian Invasion of Ukraine. To do so, a large dataset of geotagged tweets containing keywords related to NATO is analyzed using lexicon-based sentiment analysis to study spatiotemporal trends. The study shows that overall discussion remains very neutral, with less than a quarter of all tweets having a non-zero sentiment score, and differs markedly from public opinion polling in both countries while spatiotemporally, the discussions is concentrated in the major population centers and exhibits little month …

Feasibility Of A Parent-Focused, Stress Management Intervention To Decrease Adolescent Bmi, Reduce Stress, And Increase Well-Being Among African American Families, Colby J. Kipp

Theses and Dissertations

African American adolescents in the United States experience a higher prevalence of obesity as compared to their White counterparts. This health inequity presents a public health concern as consequences of weight-related chronic diseases often persist into adulthood and are increasingly problematic. As chronic stress has been found to be higher among African American youth compared to White adolescents, it presents as a potential barrier to participation for African American families in health promotion interventions. Additionally, it may be beneficial to target stress in health promotion programs as a modifiable factor in conjunction with health behaviors that may improve outcomes related …

Faculty Perceptions Of Readiness And Confidence For Teaching Online: An Evaluation Of Online Professional Development, Kevin Brent Forman

Theses and Dissertations

Regardless of how prepared faculty were to teach online classes, the COVID-19 pandemic forced leaders of universities and colleges and faculty nationwide to pivot to emergency remote teaching and forced students to take online classes. To prepare faculty for the shift to online instruction, administrators in colleges and universities provided resources, such as online trainings, to orient less experienced instructors to principles of online education. The Online Pedagogy Program (OPP) at Midwest Community College was developed quickly in response to the need for urgent training in effective online instruction. After 300 faculty completed the training, an evaluation of the Online …

Development Of Atomistic Machine Learning Approaches For Thermal Properties Of Multi-Component Solids And Liquids, Alejandro David Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, heat transfer in many industries is the limiting factor for innovation, especially in the energy sector. For example, maximizing thermal conductivity of ceramic coatings in power plant devices improves the overall electrical to thermal energy ratio, whereas minimizing thermal conductivity is required for desirable heat-to-electricity conversion in thermoelectric devices. As such, rapid discovery of new materials with extreme thermal conductivity values is quintessential for the near-future deployment of current and developing energy applications.

The vibrational properties of crystalline materials are essential for their ability to conduct heat. Fundamentally, the restorative atomic forces of displaced atoms are sufficient to represent …

The Effect Of Computer-Based Learning Modules On Pre-Algebra Student Proficiency And Self-Efficacy In Manipulating Math Expressions Involving Negative Signs, Brian Charles Grimm

Theses and Dissertations

Middle school students who need help understanding how to manipulate math expressions involving the negative sign have demonstrated difficulty learning pre-algebra content that prepares them for higher-level math courses. This study involved a multi-media intervention to improve student negative sign proficiency and math self-efficacy. The following research questions were explored: (1) How and to what extent did the computer-based intervention influence students’ math proficiency in manipulating math expressions involving negative signs? (2) How and to what extent did the computer-based intervention influence students’ math self-efficacy in manipulating math expressions involving negative signs? and (3) What were students’ perceptions about the …

Inequalities In Wellbeing In Lebanese Children And Different Refugee Subpopulations: A Multidimensional Child Deprivation Analysis, Zeina Jamaluddine, Gloria Safadi, Alexandra Irani, Nisreen Salti, Jad Chaaban, Sawsan Abdulrahim, Alban Thomas, Hala Ghattas Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives:

This study constitutes the first attempt to describe the overlapping deprivations faced by Lebanese children (Lebanese) and that of the three sub-populations of refugees living in Lebanon: Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees from Syria and Syrian refugees.

Methods:

Using data from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Household Survey 2016 (n = 10,555 Lebanese; 7,106 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon; 2,768 Palestinian refugees from Syria and 5,891 Syrian refugee children aged 2 to 17 years old), we report on single and overlapping deprivations (at least two concurrent deprivations) using indicators related to survival …