Digital Commons Network^™

Creating Crescent: Using Youth Participatory Action Research (Ypar) And Public Media To Promote Epistemic Agency Among Black Girls In South Carolina, Salandra Bowman

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses womanist methodology and youth participatory action research (YPAR), centering the ways of knowing of Black girls, with a focus on epistemic agency, to engage Black girls in the production of educational media. Such a study is necessary because Black girls are underrepresented in educational media, overrepresented in cases of school discipline, and overrepresented in reports of physical violence in schools. As public media is recognized as a transformative intervention in improving learning outcomes for children, addressing the underrepresentation of Black girlhood therein creates opportunities to address these intersecting issues and create humanizing educational media for all students. …

“Before The World Gets Them”: The Impact Of Racialized Parenting On Black Mothers, Mia Brantley

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the distinct practices Black women implement to protect their children from both actualized and anticipatory experiences of racism, as well as its effects on their mothering experiences, health and well-being, as well as how they manage the emotional and mental toll of their children’s experiences. Race plays an integral role in shaping mothering practices. More specifically, motherwork examines how Black mothers ensure the physical, mental, and emotional survival of their children in the face of micro-and macro-level structures that perpetuate racism and inequality. However, much is left to explore regarding the interconnectedness between Black women’s motherwork, linked …

Middle And High School Experiences That Lead First-Generation College Students To Select A Stem Major, James A. Byrum

Theses and Dissertations

Careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are increasing but the number of qualified individuals to fill these positions are not meeting the demand. One way to increase the number of qualified STEM employees is to garner the interest of students from underrepresented groups in the STEM fields. One of these underrepresented groups are first generation college students (FGCS). Understanding what experiences led FGCS to pursue a degree in a STEM field may help attract more students to STEM and help meet the demand of filling future STEM jobs.

In this study, FGCS in the Opportunity Scholars Program …

An Action Research Mixed Methods Study For The Development Of Information And Communication Technology (Ict) Programming For First-Year Students At A Historically Black University, Krystinq Mccauley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to explore the information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills of first-year minority students at Saint Augustine’s University in order to develop a plan for an ICT professional development program. ICT skills are essential in our rapidly changing and technology-driven society. While there is a growing awareness of the importance of ICT, universities are lagging behind in their approach to provide students with the much-needed digital competencies (Murray & Perez, 2014). This study focused on three research questions to determine (a) the ICT skills of first-year minority college students at Saint Augustine’s University, …

Individualized E-Book Experiences: Personalized Reading Plans’ Impact On First-Grade Students’ Reading Motivation And Engagement, Hannah Brunson Miles

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to address the issue of first-grade students being unengaged and unmotivated to read independently for the recommended 20-minute block of time in class. Students were also not electing to read independently during any free time they had in class. This research was designed to investigate how implementing a personalized e-book reading plan (PRP) affected students’ reading motivation and engagement during independent reading. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) How and to what extent do the personalized e-book reading plans impact students’ motivation to read? (b) How and to what extent …

Development Of Acoustic Metamaterial Noise Barriers And Simultaneously Harvesting Energy Using Smart Materials, Fariha Mir

Theses and Dissertations

In our surroundings abundant energy, we either feel through component vibration or hear noises from acoustic sources. Harvesting these unused and untapped green energy in the form of ambient vibration, and acoustic sounds is an emerging field of research in recent years. Utilization of the energy within a wide band of the frequency spectrum originated from the vibrational sources alone stands as one of the most promising ways to power small electronic devices, smartphones, local structural health monitoring sensors, home, and workshop appliances. These abundant sources of green energy are available in almost all the engineering industries, workshops, manufacturing facilities, …

Investigations On The Surface Chemistry Of Colloidal Quantum Dots Towards Fluorescent Biological Probes, John Hardin Dunlap

Theses and Dissertations

Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have garnered significant interest as promising materials for biological applications due to their improved photostability and narrow, tunable photoluminescence properties compared to organic fluorophores. To facilitate their utility as fluorescent bioimaging probes, QDs must undergo post-synthetic modifications to exchange their native hydrophobic ligands from synthesis with hydrophilic ones that enable colloidal dispersions in aqueous environments. Many examples exist that demonstrate surface modifications for water-soluble QDs and their efficacy in biological systems, however, there is a need to develop a more thorough understanding of how hydrophilic ligands coordinate to QD surfaces in order to develop more …

Land, Racial Formations, And Power: Exploring The Network Of Power Relationships During Climate Change Planning In Coastal South Carolina, Teresa Norman

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change projections for the coastline of South Carolina predict that by mid-century there will be around 1.2 feet of sea level rise, and potentially up to 4 feet of rise by 2100. Additionally, climate change is linked to intensified hurricanes, a hazard for the South Carolina coastline every year. Both of these scenarios result in increases in the regularity and severity of coastal flooding, making the threat of permanent or temporary displacement (relocation) from coastal lands a reality. This is a particularly pressing matter for African American communities already made vulnerable by the long history of racial discrimination in …

Social-Motivational Influences On Physical Activity Engagement For Adolescent Girls, Mariajosé Jhamira Paton

Theses and Dissertations

Rates of youth physical activity (PA) drastically decrease during adolescence, with a steeper decline for adolescent girls (Belcher et al., 2010; CDC, 2010). Although afterschool programs (ASPs) have been identified as an ideal context for promoting youth PA, ASPs vary in quality with girls having the highest rates of inactivity (Zarrett et al., 2018). Theory and previous studies have identified social-motivational climate-based factors within ASPs that are critical for promoting adolescents’ PA (Basch, 2011; Eccles et al., 2002; Zarrett et al., 2013, 2015). The present study first examines gender differences in the social-motivational quality of middle school ASPs for promoting …

Food Choice Decision-Making Among School-Going Adolescents Amidst The Nutrition Transition In Urban Accra, Ghana, Krystal Krsna Rampalli

Theses and Dissertations

Like many countries of the world, Ghana is experiencing a nutrition transition and rising non-communicable diseases. Adolescents are susceptible to diet-related health risks as they experience significant physical and psychological changes, which are happening in tandem with food environment changes, including widespread proliferation of large portion and package sizes of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. Both local and multinational food and beverage companies have encouraged consumption of their products through various marketing tactics targeted directly to adolescents. Some of these tactics include the use of characters or celebrity endorsement, promotional discounts, and appeal to sociocultural values, including messages about body size preferences. …

Supporting The African American Prekindergarten Student Through Standard Academic English Instruction, Trent Gibson Rogerson

Theses and Dissertations

The objective for this research was to determine if prekindergarten African American students would show gains on English language assessments after receiving targeted Standard Academic English instruction. The research question asks, “How can a specialized English language intervention be utilized to identify the strengths and areas of improvement for African American preschool students?” The hypothesis was the students who received targeted instruction in Standard Academic English would perform better on the post-test than on the pre-test given before the instruction period. For this study, eight prekindergarten students were allowed to participate in the research. The students were administered an English …

Insights Into Rational Catalysts Synthesis, Abolfazl Shakouri

Theses and Dissertations

Atomically distributed metal centers with maximized atom utilization efficiency called single-atom catalysts (SACs) have attracted significant attention in catalysis. SACs with the advantages of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts have been rising as a new frontier in the field of catalysis. New catalytic technologies are ever-growing, considering 90% of all chemical processes employ catalysts, securing modern society’s sustainable future. A classical field in catalysis has been dedicated to catalysis by supported metals. Recently, a vast effort has been devoted to smaller catalyst particles where size is restricted to a single atom on a surface. Single atoms supported or embedded on …

It Takes One To Know One: Authentic Learning And Multiple Literacies In A 100 Level, Technical Writing Classroom, Matthew Sterner-Neely

Theses and Dissertations

At Ciudad Community College (pseudonym) and across the Colorado Community College System, the course competencies for Technical Writing I (ENG 131) have more than tripled to accommodate ENG 131 as a guaranteed transfer course equivalent to ENG 121: English Composition I. Unfortunately, this has had the effect of increasing the workload for students, and the increase in competencies plus the struggle that students already had in meeting course competencies demanded the need for an intervention. The purpose of this convergent, mixed methods, action research study was to examine the effects of authentic learning on the competency levels of technical writing …

Administrative Support: What Teachers Say They Need, Jennifer Harris Watson

Theses and Dissertations

For more than three decades research has shown Administrative Support as a mitigating factor for teacher attrition. It has also been associated with teacher satisfaction and positive school climate. In all of these studies authors have failed to agree on consistent definition of the phenomena and attrition rates along with satisfaction rates have been relatively unchanged. In 1981, House established four dimensions of worker support (1981) to mitigate worker burnout and attrition. His theoretical framework consisted of emotional support, appraisal support, instrumental support, and informational support in a factory work setting. Littrell et al. (1994) used House’s work to attempt …

#Blackfemaleteachersmatter: The Experiences Of Three African American Female Teachers Who Left The Classroom During Their Induction Years, Ashlye Victoria Wilkerson

Theses and Dissertations

This study captured the lived experiences of three African American, female classroom teachers who left the profession within three years of beginning their careers. The main goal that led this research was to center the perspectives of African American women in the conversation about teacher retention, turnover, and attrition percentages that plague the field of education. The primary questions that guided this study were: (1) “What can be learned from the life stories of former African American female teachers who left the teaching profession from South Carolina public classrooms during their induction years?”, (2) “What do their life stories reveal …

Optimization And Application Of Electrochemical Probes For Neurotransmitter Detection, Colby E. Witt

Theses and Dissertations

The brain is a complex matrix that is difficult to study. Signaling molecules, neurotransmitters, are constantly being released and sequestered back into neurons within milliseconds to facilitate communication and normal function, a process called neurotransmission. There are few analytical techniques available to selectively probe such a dynamic system, and even fewer can detect these discrete changes in real-time. In order to make robust measurements in the brain you need speed, sensitivity, selectivity and small probe size, which are encompassed by fast-voltammetry with microelectrodes. Traditional fast-voltammetry at carbon fiber microelectrodes (fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV)) requires background subtraction to overcome the large …

Preparation, Characterization And Evaluation Of Rationally Designed Catalysts By Electroless Deposition, Wen Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

In heterogeneous catalysis, it is a proven factor that the surface-specific activity and the catalyst selectivity strongly depends on the active sites which are determined by the composition, size, and shape of the particle. For structure-sensitive reactions favored by specific surface sites, such as corners, steps, or edges, TOF and selectivity can be greatly changed by the size of catalyst particles since the active site distribution will change with the size of the catalysts. Usually, metal particles are synthesized by two methods in industry, namely precipitation and impregnation, which often exhibit a broad size distribution. The grand challenge of colloidal …

“Hungering And Thirsting” For Education: Education, Presbyterians, And African Americans In The South, 1880-1920, Rachel Marie Young

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the relationship between the white-dominated Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) and African Americans from 1880-1920, exploring the motivations, philosophies, and strategies of the PCUSA and the ways that they used education to achieve their goals of helping forge educated and devoutly Christian African Americans. The church’s history highlights the ways in which Presbyterian paternalism developed in the years leading up to 1880, as well as contradictions in white church members’ understandings of race relations and their conflation of civic duty with religious responsibility. The church’s efforts in primary education provide a window into …

Quantifying And Elucidating The Effect Of Co2 On Aemfcs, Yiwei Zheng

Theses and Dissertations

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) have recently received significant attention as a future high efficiency, environmentally friendly energy conversion device. This attention is due to the potential advantages that AEMFCs can offer compared the much more common, and commercialized, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) – most notably lower cost. However, there are several remaining roadblocks for the AEMFC technology to be widely adopted, such as: i) the stability of the anion exchange membranes (AEMs) and anion exchange ionomer (AEIs); ii) the development of highly active catalysts with either low platinum group metal (PGM) loading or catalysts that are …

Let’S Be Friends: Examining Consumer Brand Relationships Through The Lens Of Brand Personality, Engagement, And Reciprocal Altruism, Daniel D. Haun

Theses and Dissertations

Brands have always exuded personality and status to consumers in order to promote a competent impression and induce positive perceptions and behaviors (Griskevicius, et al., 2007). In order for individuals to identify with brands, the brands must become more personable by consciously embodying a specific personality trait. Research has found that when a brand embodies a personality, there is an associated increase in consumer preference and usage (Sirgy, 1982), purchase choices for that brand (Ha & Janda, 2014; Gordon et al., 2016; Guèvremont & Grohmann, 2013; Swaminathan et al., 2009), and consumer preference and brand loyalty (Louis & Lombart, 2010; …

Hear My Voice: Qualitative Studies To Explore What Empowers Patients To Talk With Their Doctor And Participate In Making Health Care Decisions, Alicia Marie Oostdyk

Theses and Dissertations

Patients with fibromyalgia are faced with many decisions throughout the process of seeking and obtaining health care. For patients to feel empowered to take action, it is essential they feel as if they can play a role in making decisions up to their desired level of participation. However, it is unclear what constitutes empowerment in shared decision making between patients and providers. For patients with fibromyalgia, who deal with complex symptomology and individualized treatment choice, it is important to know what makes them feel empowered to participate in care. The objective of this dissertation is to create a patient-centered definition …

Facial Affect As A Component Of Emotion Regulation During Inhibitory Control In Fxs, Abigail Digby, Erin Hunt

Senior Theses

The present study investigated emotion regulation through facial affect during inhibitory control in FXS. Male participants (N=32) were asked to complete a task that induced frustration. An M&M was placed in front of the subject, and they were instructed not to eat the M&M until the trial has ended, marked by the ringing of a bell. The subject’s facial affect was observed and recorded throughout the 6 trials to investigate the differences between the emotion regulation of TD and FXS children. It was hypothesized that the TD group would be less expressive, and more negative than the TD children. It …

Relation Of Breastfeeding Duration With Blood Pressure And Arterial Stiffness, Lohita Kollipara, Abbi Lane-Cordova, Xuewen Wang

Senior Theses

Background: The purpose of this analysis was to investigate the effects of differing breastfeeding duration on vascular function.

Methods: A study was designed to explore the breastfeeding patterns of 79 participants who delivered a singleton fetus 6 months-3 years ago and were aged 18-45 years old. Participant breastfeeding and dietary habits were self-reported using surveys. Breastfeeding groups were established by following the American Association of Pediatric guidelines on breastfeeding duration: Women who did versus did not breastfeeding for 6 months continuously. Blood pressure was measured using a standard oscillometric cuff, while SphygmoCor® technology was used to measure pulse wave velocity. …

Investigating The Chemistry Of Harmful Algal Blooms And Microbial Communities In The Natural Environment, Samuel Patrick Putnam

Theses and Dissertations

Cyanobacteria has existed on the planet for over 3 billion years, and as technology, science, and industry have allowed us to shape our world, these changes have caused a proliferation of biomass. Higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, warmer temperatures, and rapid increases in the nutrient cycle have created excellent growing conditions for cyanobacteria, making them endemic in fresh waters throughout the world. The work in this dissertation was directed towards the secondary metabolites produced by cyanobacteria and other surrounding microbes and understanding their concentrations and release in natural systems. Analytical methods were developed for the extraction and quantification …

Emr: A New Metric To Assess The Resilience Of Directional Mmwave Channels To Blockages, Faith Erden, Ozgur Ozdemir, Ismail Guvenc, David W. Matolak

Faculty Publications

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication systems require narrow beams to compensate for high path loss and to increase the communication range. If an obstacle blocks the dominant communication direction, alternative paths (directions) should be quickly identified to maintain reliable connectivity. In this paper, we introduce a new metric to quantify the Effective Multipath Richness (EMR) of a directional communication channel in the angular domain. In particular, the proposed metric takes into account the strength and spatial diversity of the resolved Multipath Components (MPCs), while also considering the beamwidth of the communication link and the blockage characteristics. The metric is defined as a …

Recognition And Screening For Chagas Disease In The Usa, Rachel Marcus, Andres F. Henao-Martinez, Melissa Nolan Ph.D., Mph, Elizabeth Livingston, Stephen A. Klotz, Robert H. Gilman, Monica Miranda-Schaeubinger, Sheba Meymandi

Faculty Publications

Chagas disease (CD), caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is a public health concern, mainly among countries in South and Central America. However, despite the large number of immigrants from endemic countries living in the USA, awareness of CD is poor in the medical community, and therefore it is significantly underdiagnosed. To avoid the catastrophic cardiac complications of CD and to prevent maternal–fetal transmission, widespread educational programs highlighting the need for diagnosis are urgently needed.

Advancing Use Of Nutrition Knowledge To Improve Practice By Policy And Program Communities In India During A Political Transition, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Jessica L. Escobar-Alegria

Faculty Publications

Models are needed for how to advance use of knowledge by programs and policy officials to make evidence-based decisions about nutrition. How to advance use of nutrition knowledge in India from 2011 to 2015 during a political transition was investigated through studying a knowledge initiative led by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 37 diverse participants, and 1091 news articles, 318 Twitter and 175 Facebook posts, 12 YouTube events, 65 knowledge products, and 130 engaging events were assessed. Open-axial coding, content and themes analysis, triangulation, and process tracing were used. The knowledge initiative analyzed the …

The Future Of Zoonotic Risk Prediction, Colin J. Carlson, Maxwell J. Farrell, Zoe Grange, Barbara A. Han, Nardus Mollentze, Alexandra L. Phelan, Angela L. Rasmussen, Gregory F. Albery, Bernard Bett, David M. Brett-Major, Lily E. Cohen, Tad Dallas, Evan A. Eskew, Anna C. Fagre, Kristian M. Forbes, Rory Gibb, Sam Halabi, Charlotte C. Hammer, Rebecca Katz, Jason Kindrachuk, Renata L. Muylaert, Felicia B. Nutter, Joseph Ogola, Kevin J. Olival, Michelle Rourke, Sadie J. Ryan, Noam Ross, Stephanie N. Seifert, Tarja Sironen, Claire J. Standley, Kishana Taylor, Marietjie Venter, Paul W. Webala

Faculty Publications

In the light of the urgency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, global investment in wildlife virology is likely to increase, and new surveillance programmes will identify hundreds of novel viruses that might someday pose a threat to humans. To support the extensive task of laboratory characterization, scientists may increasingly rely on data-driven rubrics or machine learning models that learn from known zoonoses to identify which animal pathogens could someday pose a threat to global health. We synthesize the findings of an interdisciplinary workshop on zoonotic risk technologies to answer the following questions. What are the prerequisites, in terms of open …

Book Review: Sharks In The Shallows: Attacks On The Carolina Coast, Brittany Hickey

South Carolina Libraries

Brittany Hickey reviews Sharks in the Shallows: Attacks on the Carolina Coast by W. Clay Creswell.

Book Review: The South Carolina State House Grounds, Jennifer S. Gibson

South Carolina Libraries

Jennifer Gibson reviews The South Carolina State House Grounds, written by Lydia Mattice Brandt with photographs by Chandler Yonkers.