Digital Commons Network^™

El Centro Newsletter (Jul 2024), Bryan Ramirez, Maria Francisco Montesó, Araceli Hernández-Laroche Ph.D.

Newsletters & Reports

We hope you are enjoying your summer! This summer we’re writing to you from the Upstate of South Carolina and also from Alicante, Spain, where El Centro’s assistant director, Maria Francisco-Montesó, is traveling with eleven students from a variety of disciplines including biology, chemistry, elementary education, English, exercise science, nursing, pre-engineering, political science, pre-med, Spanish, sports training and conditioning, and translation and interpreting studies! Don’t forget to follow their journey on our socials!

Therapeutic Potentials Of The Gut-Brain-Microbiota Axis For Prevention And Treatment Of Motivational Deficits In Ecohiv Infected Rats, Mason T. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

People living with HIV begin to experience gastrointestinal disturbances as early as 6 months after initial infection. Regardless of adherence to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), the gut microbiome of people living with HIV maintains a state of dysbiosis throughout the rest of their lives, providing potential for a novel target for improving the lives of those living with HIV. The present study investigated the impact EcoHIV and cocaine have on the gut microbiome of F344/N rats. Fecal samples were collected from 20 female and 20 male animals at baseline, following self-administration of cocaine, and following inoculation with EcoHIV or Saline. …

Neurocognitive Processes As Longitudinal Predictors Of Reading Fluency, Jody Samuels

Theses and Dissertations

Reading fluency involves a complex interaction of different cognitive skills and abilities that develop with instruction and practice and relies on the automaticity of many distinct reading skills (e.g., pacing, word recognition, expression, phonological awareness). Fluent reading frees cognitive resources, such as working memory, for more advanced components of reading including comprehension and synthesis (Kim & Wagner, 2015; Samuels, 2006). Though early identification of students with fluency challenges is critical for providing evidence-based intervention, most screeners assess skills that are dependent upon instruction (e.g., letter identification, sound-symbol correspondence), delaying opportunities for identification. The current study examines the utility for including …

Fan, Friend, Or Foe: An Exploratory Scale Development Of Perception Of Social Media Influencers On Instagram, Katelynn Danyell Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to start the scale-building process of perception of social media influencers. This dissertation analyzes lifestyle Instagram influencers' followers’ perceptions of the influencer, their brand, and their communication and interaction efforts with followers through Instagram. This survey will help test the independent variables and dependent variables through the public relations lens using a combination of parasocial relationship theory, source credibility theory, and uses and gratifications theory to determine the effects and behaviors that lifestyle Instagram influencers have on their followers connected to influencer brand and influencer interactivity; and how lifestyle Instagram influencer usage, influencer authenticity, and parasocial relation …

Multi-Scale Deep Representation Learning In Synthetic Biology, Xiaoyi Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic biology advances and combines the expertise of engineers and biologists, bridging the gap between engineering and natural life. Synthetic biology has been generally categorized into two broad branches by developing new biological components, networks, and systems to reprogram organisms. The first branch involves using synthetic molecules to mimic natural biological functions. The second branch focuses on assembling natural biological components in novel ways, aiming to produce systems with unique, practical functions. Thus, the de novo engineering of biological modules and synthetic pathways is used in related practical bioengineering applications, such as drug-targeting strategies and microbial product manufacturing. Therefore, synthetic …

Sacred Symbols In A Secular World: Religious Imagery In The Works Of Jack London And Sylvia Plath, Kathleen Elizabeth Long

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to investigate and analyze the presence of religious symbolism in the novels of Jack London and Sylvia Plath, two authors whose atheist beliefs comingle in intriguing ways with this sacred imagery, offering rich ground for comparative analysis. Despite London’s fervent Darwinist beliefs, he injects subtle religious motif within The Call of the Wild, devoted to promoting atheist thought yet yearning for the grandiosity of myth. Similarly, Plath uses allusions to Judaism within her novel The Bell Jar, subverting classical religious tradition to associate it with themes of animal savagery. By studying these two texts, this …

Interface Between Sensorimotor Dynamics And Trunk-Hip Movement Control: Implications For Movement Assessment In Low Back Pain, John Ryan Gilliam

Theses and Dissertations

Low back pain is the leading cause of activity limitation and work absence and results in billions of dollars in healthcare expenditures. Impaired trunk-hip movement control is associated with the development of back pain and the persistence of symptoms. Theories suggest a causal relationship between altered sensorimotor dynamics, including altered afferent somatosensory information from the periphery and neuroplastic central nervous system adaptations, and impaired trunk-hip movement patterns. We characterized trunk-hip movement patterns and their associated sensorimotor brain dynamics in people with and without chronic low back pain (cLBP). Supine, atop an instrumented system, 48 individuals with cLBP and 37 healthy …

How Passion Functions In Sport Applicant Attraction: A Biometric Approach, Jiayao Qi

Theses and Dissertations

Passion has been extensively researched from the perspective of athletes, entrepreneurs, and employees. In this dissertation, the researcher conducted an in-depth investigation of the way passion functions in sport job attraction. The two-stage experimental design combines the pioneer biometric methodology with qualitative inquiry, and 25 job seekers selected from a larger sample participated in the biometric lab. Results indicate that the interplay between cognitive and affective appraisals is critical in explaining sport job seekers’ highly individualistic and discriminative attraction toward work opportunities in sport. In particular, sports job seekers foster work passion through their multiple identifications with sport (playing history, …

Michigan's Youth Justice Reform: A Potholed But Sure Road To Change, Kimberly Thomas, Jason Smith

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Association Of Hiv Status And Other Minoritized Identities With Psychiatric Diagnoses Among Transgender And Gender Diverse Individuals In The All Of Us Research Program, Fanghui Shi

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, whose gender identities or expressions differ from the sex assigned at birth, are disproportionately affected by adverse health outcomes, including various psychiatric diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, stress, and substance use disorders. The Gender Minority Stress Model emphasizes that TGD people face both proximal stressors at a personal/individual level (e.g., internalized stigma) and distal stressors at a societal level (e.g., discrimination) due to their minority status, which largely contributes to their increased risk of psychiatric diagnoses. Despite these health disparities, there is a paucity of gender identity data collected in large population-based health …

Communicating About A Nicotine Reduction Policy Among People Who Use Little Cigars And Cigarillos, Charity Afi Ntansah

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed rulemaking to reduce the nicotine content in cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products to non-addictive levels. A very low nicotine content (VLNC) policy aimed primarily at cigarettes could drive people to other combusted products like little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs), potentially undermining its effectiveness. Expanding the policy to include LCCs requires effective messages for people who use LCCs. This dissertation explores how to communicate the reduced nicotine policy to people who use LCCs. The research recruited four populations with the highest prevalence of cigar use: African American and White males and …

Improving Tcp Performance Using P4-Programmable Data Planes, Jose Antonio Gomez Gaona

Theses and Dissertations

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) forms the foundation of reliable end-to-end communication and is widely used by many applications for efficient data transfers across the Internet. TCP relies on various congestion control algorithms (CCAs) to manage its response to network congestion. These algorithms ensure fairness among competing flows and optimize the use of available bandwidth. However, since TCP is deployed within end hosts, its capacity to attain visibility of network events is constrained. This limitation arises from the closed nature of non-programmable network devices, which prevents researchers from exploring customized actions in response to network events. Recently, the emergence of …

Social Media Use And Interactivity: An Application Of Uses And Gratifications, Patrick Bush

Theses and Dissertations

Accessing news media and the coverage of current events has become streamlined and exponentially easier to access due to the explosive growth of internet usage and by extent the increase of social media usage. As this form of media continues to evolve and becomes not only more accessible, but accepted by a variety of audiences, some parties may seek to find or create their own public spheres of influence online to share information and develop conversations relevant to the participants therein. It is here where the concept of digital storytelling becomes a heavy influence on how the individual not only …

Understanding Differential Reductions In Undernutrition Among Districts In Rwanda Through The Perspectives Of Mid-Level And Community Actors On Policy Commitment And Policy Coherence, Elyse Iruhiriye, Edward A. Frongillo Ph.D., Deanna K. Olney, Emmanuel Niyongira, Simeon Nanama, Christine E. Blake Ph.D., Rd, Eugene Rwibasira, Paul Mbonyi

Faculty Publications

Understanding the drivers of improvements in child undernutrition at only the national level can mask subnational differences. This paper aimed to understand the contributions of factors in the enabling environment to observed differences in stunting reduction between districts in Rwanda. In 2017, we conducted 58 semi-structured interviews with mid-level actors (n = 38) and frontline workers (n = 20) implementing Rwanda's multi-sectoral nutrition policy in five districts in which stunting decreased (reduced districts) and five where it increased or stagnated (non-reduced districts) based on Rwanda's 2010 and 2014/15 Demographic and Health Surveys. Mid-level actors are government officials and service providers …

An Examination Of Self-Identity In Relation To Smoking And Vaping In South Carolina, Jaron Hoani King

Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND

This dissertation examines self-identity in the context of smoking and vaping among adults in South Carolina (SC) using data from the 2023 SC Adult Tobacco Survey (n=1370). The conceptual model created to guide this dissertation is called the “Smoker and Vaper Behavior-Identity Model” and draws constructs from theoretical frameworks in health behavior and social identity theories. Behavior was defined as lifetime and past 30 day cigarette or e-cigarette use. Self-identity was defined by asking respondents with a history of cigarette or e-cigarette use “Do you consider yourself a smoker/vaper”, respectively.

METHODS

First, this study assesses the prevalence of mismatching …

Examining Risk Factors For Early-Onset Breast Cancer, Jennifer Grace Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: There have been great advancements in screening and in the identifying of risk factors associated with breast cancer, however, there is a lack of information of these factors in women with breast cancer occurring under the age of 45, known as early-onset breast cancer (EOBC). EOBC is often found at later stages, negatively impacting young women’s careers, family planning, and mental health. Additionally, because of the health disparities that exist within the U.S. health care system, women belonging to racial and ethnic groups, specifically young Black women, tend to have poorer outcomes and higher mortality rates of EOBC …

Faith, Trust, And Pixie Dust: Understanding The Visions And Responsibilities Of The Varsity Esports Program Director, William Alan Fisackerly

Theses and Dissertations

The budding esports scene has drawn attention from higher education institutions in North America, who are growing community, competitive, and pedagogical esports initiatives. Varsity Esports Programs (VEPs) have proliferated since Robert Morris launched the first varsity program in 2014, with over 12,800 players from 650 institutions competing in the Spring 2023 National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Starleague season alone (Butler University Set To Host NACE Starleague’s Spring 2023 Grand Finals, 2023). Despite this growth, little is known about the Varsity Esports Program (VEP), specifically from the perspective of the directors that oversee their operations. Previous work exploring the creation …

Centralized Finance And Decentralized Finance, Leili Pour Rostami

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores different facets of financial markets, focusing on the interplay between decentralized finance, traditional banking systems, and private market relationship lending. By examining these diverse areas, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of how emerging financial instruments and market behaviors interact with traditional financial systems. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) offers an escape from the challenges of centralized finance (CeFi). The first essay explores whether and how returns on DeFi instruments, particularly cryptocurrencies, manage to evade the traditional “rules” in response to exogenous central bank monetary policy shocks. The findings reveal that crypto abnormal returns decline significantly with shocks, …

Collegiate Student-Athlete Responses To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Alexa Jenny Chandler

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Exercise imposes a physiological stressor on the body which is amplified as training intensifies. Collegiate fall-sport student-athletes return after summer break (off-season) and have approximately two weeks of training (preseason) with coaching staff before competition begins. The 2020 fall season was preceded by a five-month period away from campus due to the timing of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This also meant all commercial gyms and training facilities were closed, and student-athletes were forced to train with the resources they had at home. Upon return to campus, significant changes were made to practice and competition structures in attempt to …

Lexical Access In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation, Nadia Sabeh Ayon

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Emergent research indicates that women carrying the FMR1 premutation (FXpm) may encounter difficulties in language skills, including increased dysfluencies, a reduction in the quantity and diversity of words produced, and increased word retrieval errors with age (Sterling et al., 2013; Bredin-Oja et al., 2021). Objectives: The present study aims to assess semantic and phonological lexical access skills in FXpm women as well as to examine the impact of cognitive load (time pressure) on lexical access.

Methods: Forty-two FXpm women and 25 control women, aged 26-65 years (M=46.22, age-matched: p=.115), participated. The Network Production Task (Oomen & Postma, 2001), featuring …

Validating An Automated Rodent Ultrasonic Vocalization Data Collator, Devin Mark Kellis

Theses and Dissertations

Rodent ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are a key dependent measure within behavioral science that have translational relevance with respect to medical, especially neuropsychiatric, illnesses. In recent years, several programs have been developed to enable the recording, labeling, and parameterization of rodent USVs via conventional, machine learning, or deep learning approaches. However, there remains a need to further automate the downstream process of data collation so that labeled and classified USV parameters can be rapidly formatted and analyzed via statistical approaches based on experimenter preferences. The aim of this thesis was therefore to validate an automated vocalization data collator (AVDC) to expedite …

Functional Multivariable Logistic Regression With An Application To Hiv Viral Suppression Prediction, Siyuan Guo, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Yichao Wu, Alexander C. Mclain Ph.D., James W. Hardin, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Motivated by improving the prediction of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) suppression status using electronic health records (EHR) data, we propose a functional multivariable logistic regression model, which accounts for the longitudinal binary process and continuous process simultaneously. Specifically, the longitudinal measurements for either binary or continuous variables are modeled by functional principal components analysis, and their corresponding functional principal component scores are used to build a logistic regression model for prediction. The longitudinal binary data are linked to underlying Gaussian processes. The estimation is done using penalized spline for the longitudinal continuous and binary data. Group-lasso is used to …

Calibration And Use Of The Transparency Tube As An Estimate Of Turbidity: An Analysis Of Factors Controlling Light Attenuation In Estuarine Waters, Makenna Leigh Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The transparency tube is low-cost, portable, and easy to use to measure the transparency or clarity of the water. Filling the tube with water creates a small-scale water column where water will be slowly drained out of the bottom until the Secchi disk at the bottom of the tube is visible from the top opening, and the depth of the remaining water in the tube is recorded in centimeters. Unlike traditional Secchi disk measurements, the advantage of this instrument is that sampling depth in highly turbid waters is possible with a centimeter scale resolution. Transparency tube measurement, through careful calibrations, …

Examining Risk Factors For Early-Onset Breast Cancer, Jennifer Grace Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: There have been great advancements in screening and in the identifying of risk factors associated with breast cancer, however, there is a lack of information of these factors in women with breast cancer occurring under the age of 45, known as early-onset breast cancer (EOBC). EOBC is often found at later stages, negatively impacting young women’s careers, family planning, and mental health. Additionally, because of the health disparities that exist within the U.S. health care system, women belonging to racial and ethnic groups, specifically young Black women, tend to have poorer outcomes and higher mortality rates of EOBC compared …

"Ain’T No Slump...I Just Ain’T Hittin’": Investigating Psychological Momentum And Loss Aversion In Major League Baseball, Josephine Matalone

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the history of America’s pastime, it has long been concluded among fans, athletes, and coaches alike that momentum is a key element necessary should one want to win when it counts. However, this issue of “hot hand” existence in the context of baseball has been largely glazed over since the canon of literature on the topic was initiated, and even more so has the concept of a “cold hand.” This study seeks to make a novel contribution by exploring streaks in professional baseball. Using 10-years’ worth of regular season MLB data between 2012 and 2021, a comparative analysis of …

Associations Between Neurological Correlates Of Reading And Learning Disability Profiles Among Children, Jessica Luedke

Theses and Dissertations

Early reading skills are vital for child development. Children with specific reading learning disabilities (SLD-R) display persistent difficulties acquiring reading skills. They are at an increased risk for adverse life outcomes, including mental health concerns, low educational attainment, and low academic motivation. Progress in neurobiological research provides opportunities to enhance the assessment and identification of learning disabilities by revealing distinct neurological patterns of learning. However, the integration of this progress with school psychology research is rare. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate brain network connectivity as a biomarker of reading using resting-state quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) coherence. Fronto-central …

Antioxidant And Anti-Inflammatory Potential Of Engineered Ceria Nanoparticles In The Management Of Alzheimer's Disease, Shanshan Shi

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions worldwide. Unfortunately, there are currently no effective therapies available to prevent or cure the disease. While current therapies aim to change AD progression, there is a growing need for novel therapeutic strategies that can effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to target the underlying pathology of the disease. The BBB is a highly selective semipermeable barrier that separates circulating blood from the brain. It plays a crucial role in amyloid-β (Aβ) homeostasis and clearance dynamics, as Aβ accumulation is a key factor in the pathogenesis of AD. Aβ aggregation …

Preregistration And Registration As A New Method For Transparency Of External Validation In Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Applications To Address Overfitting, Underspecification, And Shortcut Learning, Marilyn Elaine Gartley

Theses and Dissertations

Statistics has been defined as the study of how information should be employed to reflect on and give guidance for action in a practical situation involving uncertainty. The essence of uncertainty is that there is more than one possible outcome, and the actual outcome is unknown in advance; it is indeterminate. The goal of statistical methods is inference: namely, statistical inference—reaching conclusions about populations or deriving scientific insights from data which are collected from a representative sample of that population through providing a mathematical understanding of inference, quantifying the degree of support that data offer for assertions of knowledge, as …

An Analysis Of Akira Yuyama's Piano Works For Children, Xiaoya (Sisi) Gao

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Akira Yuyama’s piano collections and method for children published before 2000. Akira Yuyama was born in Hiratsuka, Japan on September 9th, 1932 and spent his childhood during World War II. At the age of 23, Yuyama graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and won first prize in the 9th Japan Music Competition for his Sonatine for Violin and Piano. He also won the Grand Prize at the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival. As a prolific composer, Yuyama composed pieces that became internationally known including works for various instruments, such as piano, vocal, …

Investigating The Effects Of Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide On Heart Failure And The Gut Microbiome, Talia Charlotte Kepniss

Theses and Dissertations

Heart failure affects millions of people worldwide with current available treatments that are limited in their efficacy. The financial burden for care of those with heart failure is over 20 billion dollars in the US alone. Calcitonin gene related peptide has demonstrated cardioprotective and powerful vasodilator effects. In this study our objective is to prevent the onset of heart failure and treat early stages of heart failure with injections of calcitonin gene related peptide in C57BL/6 mice. In order to model heart failure, experimental mice underwent a transverse aortic constriction surgery. Echocardiograms and fecal collections were completed to observe changes …