Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of The Compositional Technique And Structures Of Nikolai Kapustin’S Piano Sonata No. 6, Opus 62, Hyun Jung Im

Theses and Dissertations

The subject of this study is the Russian composer and pianist Nikolai Kapustin and an analysis of his Piano Sonata No. 6, Opus 62. Kapustin’s musical output includes 161 opus numbers, and the works are mainly in a hybrid style combining jazz and traditional Western music. The composition style of Kapustin is to take a jazz approach to harmony and rhythm within traditional forms. The uniqueness and creativity of Kapustin’s music led to its growing popularity, and this has been evident in several ways, including increased performances, recordings, and publications. Based on this fusion of jazz and traditional Western music, …

Meaningful And Interactive Learning Experiences Provided Through A Learning Management System: An Action Research Study In Ninth Grade Advanced Placement Human Geography, Daniel Robert Plonski

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods action research was to determine if increased interactive Schoology-based modules could alter learner perceptions concerning the lack of meaningful learning (learner-instructor, learner-learner, learner-content) in the culture unit of instruction in an Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) classroom. A series of instructional modules were facilitated through the learning management system (LMS) Schoology to students (n = 16) in APHG at a southeastern U.S. high school. The interactions were designed to enhance interaction based upon the criteria provided by Piaget’s (1981) social constructivist theory, specifically Moore and Kearsley’s (2011) systems approach and Miyazoe and Anderson’s (2010) …

Understanding The Unseen: Invisible Disabilities In The Workplace, Ann Abney, Veronica Denison, Chris Tanguay, Michelle Ganz

Faculty and Staff Publications

Approximately 61 million (or 1 in 4) adults in the United States have a disability. Despite this prevalence, many people cannot name a coworker who is disabled, possibly due to the number of people who have invisible disabilities. This lack of understanding of both causes and prevalence can cause both the disabled and their supervisors or managers to be unaware of how to address a disabled person’s needs. In this article, the authors shed light on how to improve the professional environment for disabled archivists, staff, and patrons. People without disabilities or those with unrealized disabilities can all benefit when …

The Sultans Of Stream: How Big Streaming Services Have Used Their Oligopsony Power In The Music Industry To Leave Millions Of Musicians In Dire Straits, Benjamin Stevens

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Physical Activity And Breast Cancer Prevention Among Asian American Women, Jingxi Sheng

Theses and Dissertations

Asian Americans (AsAm) comprise about 7% of the United States population and are the only racial group for whom cancer is the leading cause of death. Breast Cancer (BrCa) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in this population, with the highest incidence in the age of 45-49 years, which is 30 years younger than for non-Hispanic Whites. The incidence of BrCa has been increasing for over three decades in AsAm.

Physical activity (PA) is a modifiable protective factor for BrCa. Unfortunately, AsAm women have a low PA prevalence of meeting PA recommendations. The increased BrCa risk, younger age at diagnosis, …

Measuring Orthographic Influences On Phonological Processing In Beginning Readers: An Eyetracking Study, Emily Grace Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose – Both orthographic and phonemic awareness are essential to reading. However, the role of orthographic knowledge in phonemic awareness has not been thoroughly investigated in beginning readers until recently. The purpose of this study was to examine if orthographic knowledge influenced phonological processing in beginning readers and to establish a proof of concept for the use of eyetracking measures to examine these skills in young children.

Method – 22 participants, aged 6-7 years, completed norm-referenced assessments of language and reading ability as well as experimental measures of orthographic and phonological awareness while their eye movements were monitored.

Results – …

Distributed Interdigital Capacitor (Idc) Sensing For Cable Insulation Aging And Degradation Detection, Md Nazmul Al Imran

Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) contain myriad power, control, instrumentation, and other types of cables. The polymer insulation and jacket materials of such cables degrade over time due to operation and environmental conditions e.g., heat, humidity, and radiation. Since the life span of NPPs may extend beyond 40-50 years regular monitoring of cable insulation and jacket polymers is critical to ensure safe and reliable operation. The agingrelated degradation of cables causes changes in the relative permittivity or dielectric constant of the insulation and jacket materials. Capacitor sensors, if properly designed and developed can measure this change and thus can provide an …

Mixed Methods Action Research: How Integrating Student Response Technology And Case Studies In A Largely Populated University Course Influences Student Engagement, Feedback, And Learning, Scott L. Matteson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if implementing student response technology (SRT) and case studies into a largely populated university undergraduate course would influence student engagement. When student engagement is influenced the potential for positive learning outcomes occurs leading to a higher likelihood of student success (Swap & Walter, 2015). Four research questions guided this study: How and to what extent does incorporating SRT and case studies in a largely populated undergraduate course at MSU influence: (1) student motivation; (2) cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement; (3) feedback; and (4) What are the effects of SRT and case studies …

A Hawaiian Heroine’S Journey: The Early Life And Career Of Dancer Jean Erdman Campbell, Diane B. Mcghee

Theses and Dissertations

This biographical study covers the early life and career of dancer, choreographer, and avant-garde theatre artist, Jean Erdman Campbell (1916-2020). Based on extensive research of historical literature and archival materials, the manuscript traces Erdman’s ancestry and follows the subject through age 32, when she became established as a star of modern dance and prepared for a world tour. The guiding question for this study was what influences shaped the life course, identity and artistry of Erdman, and how might the subject be presented as biography? The researcher examined the influences on Erdman as related to various dance traditions, especially Hawaiian …

Sex Differences And Potential Non-Invasive Treatments For Calcific Aortic Valve Disease, Henry Pascal Helms

Theses and Dissertations

Calcific Aortic Valve Disease (CAVD) is a progressive heart disease that ranges from aortic valve sclerosis to aortic valve stenosis. It is characterized by intense calcification and compromised valve function. CAVD affects 25% of people older than 65 and 50% of people older than 85. These rates are expected to increase in the United States due to higher levels of obesity and diabetes, as well as an aging population. CAVD is the leading cause of valve replacement surgery. Annual healthcare costs for these valve replacements are currently estimated to be approximately 2 billion dollars. There are currently no medications approved …

Healthy Aging Beyond Sex And Gender Binaries, Nicole M. Lampe

Theses and Dissertations

An estimated 2.7 million sexual and gender minority (SGM) adults 50+ reside in the United States (US) with this number projected to increase to more than 5 million by 2060 (Flatt et al. 2022; Fredriksen-Goldsen and Kim 2017). Medical research, education, and practice in the United States (US) often erase sex and gender variation, thus ignoring the experiences of older adults living beyond Western sex and gender binary systems (e.g., female/male and women/men), particularly transgender, non-binary, and/or intersex (TNBI) populations. Such erasure stems from TNBI older adult structural incompetency or the failure to understand how macro-level systems, institutions, and structures …

Mechanisms Of Connectivity In Neuronal Development, Janay Vacharasin

Theses and Dissertations

The development of neuronal connectivity requires the careful orchestration of multiple cellular processes including the control of neuronal arborization and synapse formation or function. Defects in these processes during neuronal development will give rise to disorders of neuronal connectivity like autism. In the present work, we examine the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that build the neuronal wiring of the developing brain. We use human stem cell-derived neurons to study neuronal arborization and function focusing on genetic and environmental risk factors of neurodevelopmental disorders that include autism and intellectual disability. Specifically, we focused on the contribution of the endomembrane, chromatin, and …

The Devil And Tom Robot: The Use Of Robotics To Impact Empathy In Secondary Students Of American Literature, Susan K. Porter-Voss

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the effect of a robotics-based intervention on empathy for students enrolled in secondary English and literature courses. Empathy, as a concept, is an integral component of reading comprehension and student motivation. A decline in reported individual levels of empathy among young adults can negatively influence longitudinal academic and career success. Robotics present a promising method in which to impact student learning in K-12 environments. Student manipulation of Wonder Workshop Cue robots in designed challenges was integrated within literature content standards for English III. The outlined study measured the impact of …

A Finding Place: Social Justice Poetry Toward Empathy In The Secondary English Language Arts Classroom, Patricia Vicino

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of a combined reader-response and close reading approach to social justice poetry on the empathy levels of secondary level English Language Arts students in my classroom. This action research study occurred over a six-week period during a Fall 2021 English elective course with six student participants in a high school within South Carolina. Research was conducted via a mixed methods approach that analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data from prestudy and poststudy Likert scales along with surveys, interviews, observation notes, and artifacts. The data revealed that student empathy levels were elevated after the study unit …

Using Multimedia Vocabulary Games To Improve Newcomer Esol Students Motivation And Vocabulary Acquisition, Elizabeth E. Brittingham

Theses and Dissertations

This study looks at the use of the multimedia learning platform, Quizlet, to help newcomer ESOL students learn English vocabulary. The use of Quizlet to learn vocabulary is supported by Mayer’s Cognitive Load Theory. With an influx of ESOL students, and a lack of teacher training, Quizlet may help to create a more equitable solution for newcomer ESOL students to learn English vocabulary. The findings of this study show that newcomers benefit from using Quizlet to learn vocabulary in the language 2 by matching it to the vocabulary in the language 1, but only if they are able to read …

Mechanisms And Impact Of Hypoxia Regulated Inhibins In Cancer, Ben Allen Horst

Theses and Dissertations

Inhibins are heterodimeric ligands within the TGFβ superfamily, comprised of an α-subunit (INHA) and a β-subunit (either INHBA or INHBB) with emergent roles in cancer. Inhibins are biomarkers of disease burden and prognosis in a subset of cancers and utilize the coreceptors betaglycan (TGFBR3) and endoglin (ENG) for physiological or pathological outcomes. Previously, we found inhibin promotes angiogenesis in ovarian cancer however no mechanism of regulation for inhibin expression in cancer has been established. Hypoxia, a driver of tumor growth and metastasis, regulates angiogenic pathways that are targets for vessel normalization and ovarian cancer management. …

Examining The Relationship Between School Policing Behaviors And The Depressive Symptoms Experienced By Black Students, Collin Perryman

Theses and Dissertations

The school policing literature has two major themes: (a) the negative safety outcomes of school safety (Gottfredson et al., 2020) and (b) the central role that school police play in placing Black students into the school-to-prison-nexus (Morris, 2016; Turner & Beneke, 2020). The study of school police roles, how school police interact with educators, and the safety effects of school police presence is important. Just as important is knowing the mental health effects of physical and nonphysical school policing behaviors on Black students. This dissertation sought to fill this gap in part by studying the relationship between school police behaviors …

Reconceptualizing Informal Learning In An Online Learning Environment, Silvia Clark

Theses and Dissertations

In 2020, many organizations moved their formal training programs to an online learning context due to COVID-19. Informal learning, which refers to activities that are self-guided and occur independently outside of formal learning contexts has gained significant interest among researchers and practitioners in the past two decades as it has been identified as the primary type of learning in today's organizations. Despite the increasing interest in informal learning, no attempt has been made to examine and understand informal learning in an online learning environment.

This dissertation provides an integrative review of prior work on formal and informal learning in online …

Using Visual Arts To Teach Beginning Literacy Skills, Stacy Phaxaysithideth

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of using visual arts to teach rhyming words and word family words. Two interventions were used, both utilizing the use of visual arts to learn both literacy skills. The interventions were then assessed with a pre- and post-test to see the if the interventions were successful. A student attitude survey was also given at the end of the study to see how the students felt about the interventions. A semi-structured interview was done at the end of the interventions as well to collect the thoughts of my co-teacher on the interventions. Lastly, my teacher observations …

A Novel Cognitive Stress Paradigm To Assess Subtle Cognitive Differences In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation, Jillian Margaret Gierman

Theses and Dissertations

Fragile X premutation (FXPM) is a genetic mutation of the FMR1 gene characterized by having between 55-200 CGG repetitions. FXPM women are at risk for a variety of reproductive, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric deficits, including fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI) and fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS). FXTAS is a late-onset neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremor, gait ataxia, cognitive decline, brain atrophy, and deficits in executive functions. With the evidence supporting premature aging, prevalence of cognitive deficits, and risk of developing FXTAS and dementia, it is imperative to find a reliable measure that identifies at-risk FXPM women and their subtle cognitive …

La Materialidad De Las Vivencias Femeninas: Cuerpos Discapacitados, Prostituidos Y Violados En Las Narrativas Mexicanas Escritas Por Las Mujeres, Hyanghee Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Esta disertación explora los temas específicamente vinculados a las vivencias de las mujeres mexicanas tales como la anormalidad, la discapacidad, la locura, la prostitución, la violencia de género y la madre mutilada que no pueden abordarse sin tener en cuenta el cuerpo femenino. En este proyecto se discuten estas temáticas aplicando el concepto de la corporeidad o la materialidad de las vivencias que experimentan las mujeres en dicho espacio geopolítico manifestadas en cuatro narrativas mexicanas producidas por las mujeres-escritoras en la época contemporánea del final del siglo XX y al comienzo del siglo XXI: Nadie me verá llorar (1999) de …

Where The Home Fires Burn: The Heart Of Geographic Mobility In Rural Southern America, Mariah Moran

Theses and Dissertations

In the context of the recent surge of interest in domestic U.S. geographic mobility, this study presents findings on the reasons people choose to move or not move that challenge the predominant explanations of geographic mobility and responds to the need for theoretical expansion. This qualitative study is set in a rural county of Georgia, further situating the findings alongside the rural-urban continuum literature. In-depth interviews were conducted with thirty participants from the rural county that represent three different mobility decisions: people who stayed, left, and returned. The findings suggest that there are multiple connected reasons for mobility including three …

Knowledge-Infused Learning, Manas Gaur

Theses and Dissertations

In DARPA’s view of the three waves of AI, the first wave of AI, symbolic AI, focused on explicit knowledge. The second and current wave of AI is termed statistical AI. Deep learning techniques have been able to exploit large amounts of data and massive computational power to improve human levels of performance in narrowly defined tasks. Separately, knowledge graphs have emerged as a powerful tool to capture and exploit a variety of explicit knowledge to make algorithms better apprehend the content and enable the next generation of data processing, such as semantic search. After initial hesitancy about the scalability …

Customer Touchpoint: Conceptualization, Index Development, And Nomological Validation, Hyunsu Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Business executives across a wide variety of sectors, including retail, education, banking, healthcare, as well as hospitality and tourism, have increasingly realized that offering a superior customer experience is vital to a firm’s long-term success. Due to the experience-based nature of hospitality and tourism offerings in terms of heterogeneity, inseparability, intangibility, and perishability, providing exceptional CXs has long been recognized as essential to gaining a competitive advantage and establishing a foundation for brand loyalty.

To better understand what CX entails, hospitality and tourism scholars have conceptualized different forms of experiences, including flow experiences and memorable dining experiences. However, little attention …

Correlates Of Zero-Dose Vaccination Status Among Children Aged 12–59 Months In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multilevel Analysis Of Individual And Contextual Factors, Chamberline E. Ozigbu, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Zhenlong Li, James W. Hardin, Nicole L. Hair

Faculty Publications

Despite ongoing efforts to improve childhood vaccination coverage, including in hard-to-reach and hard-to-vaccinate communities, many children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain unvaccinated. Considering recent goals set by the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), including reducing the number of zero-dose children by half, research that goes beyond coverage to identify populations and groups at greater risk of being unvaccinated is urgently needed. This is a pooled cross-sectional study of individual- and country-level data obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys Program and two open data repositories. The sample includes 43,131 children aged 12–59 months sampled between 2010 and 2020 in 33 SSA countries. …

Correlates Of Zero-Dose Vaccination Status Among Children Aged 12-59 Months In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multilevel Analysis Of Individual And Contextual Factors, Chamberline Ozigbu, Bankole Olatosi, Zhenlong Li, James W. Hardin, Nicole L. Hair

Faculty Publications

Despite ongoing efforts to improve childhood vaccination coverage, including in hard-to-reach and hard-to-vaccinate communities, many children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain unvaccinated. Considering recent goals set by the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), including reducing the number of zero-dose children by half, research that goes beyond coverage to identify populations and groups at greater risk of being unvaccinated is urgently needed. This is a pooled cross-sectional study of individual- and country-level data obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys Program and two open data repositories. The sample includes 43,131 children aged 12–59 months sampled between 2010 and 2020 in 33 SSA countries. …

“Where The Truth Really Lies”: Listening To Voices From African American Communities In The Southern States About Covid-19 Vaccine Information And Communication, Ran Zhang, Shan Qiao, Brooke Mckeever, Bankole Olatosi, Xiaoming Li

Faculty Publications

The high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is one of the most promising measures to control the pandemic. However, some African American (AA) communities exhibit vaccination hesitancy due to mis- or disinformation. It is important to understand the challenges in accessing reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and to develop feasible health communication interventions based on voices from AA communities. We conducted 2 focus group discussions (FGDs) among 18 community stakeholders recruited from 3 counties in South Carolina on 8 October and 29 October 2021. The FGDs were conducted online via Zoom meetings. The FGD data were managed and thematically analyzed using NVivo …

Listening To Voices From African American Communities In The Southern States About Covid-19 Vaccine Information And Communication: A Qualitative Study, Ran Zhang, Shan Qiao, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is one of the most promising measures to control the pandemic. However, some African American (AA) communities exhibit vaccination hesitancy due to mis- or disinformation. It is important to understand the challenges in accessing reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and to develop feasible health communication interventions based on voices from AA communities. We conducted 2 focus group discussions (FGDs) among 18 community stakeholders recruited from 3 counties in South Carolina on 8 October and 29 October 2021. The FGDs were conducted online via Zoom meetings. The FGD data were managed and thematically analyzed using NVivo …

My Authentic Self: Rousseau And The Ethics Of Authenticity In The Age Of Gender Ideology, Steven Kessler

Journal of Ideology

This article examines the origins of the contemporary iteration of gender ideology pervasive in the western world today. To accomplish this, the article is broken into three main components. The first component examines the source of where the current trend in picking pronouns, genders, and sexual orientations emanates from. This is attributed to an ideology called, “the ethics of authenticity.” The tenets of the ethics of authenticity are delineated in the article. Another component of the article attributes the origin of authenticity to the work and thought of Jean Rousseau. Specifically, four of his works are examined as fundamentally important …

Does Hiv-Related Stigma Depress Social Well-Being Of Youths Affected By Parental Hiv/Aids?, Yafei Zhao, Jiaojiao Wan, Lili Ji, Giagai Lui, Yixin Shi, Junfeng Zhao, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Parental illness or death due to HIV/AIDS has long-term impacts on children’s social well-being, potentially challenging the children’s basic developmental needs and future. Based on the theoretical model of social well-being, the present study tested a moderated mediation model that HIV-related stigma moderated the mediating role of social trust on the relationship between perceived social support (PSS) and social well-being. A sample of 297 youths aged 20–30 years affected by parental HIV/AIDS (57.2% male), including 129 (43.40%) AIDS orphans and 168 vulnerable youths (56.60%) completed questionnaires of perceived social support, social well-being, social trust, and HIV-related stigma. IBM SPSS 25.0 …