Digital Commons Network^™

The Tamads2-Tatbl21 Module Enhances Wheat Resistance To Stripe Rust By Activating Tagkl-Mediated Immunity, Shijia Zhao, Hao Chu, Yanan Lu, Jiaqi Chen, Xu Wang, Guangxiang Tian, Mingjing Zhang, Pengyu Song, Yanhui Zhang, Guihua Bai, Gangming Zhan, Zhensheng Kang, Wenming Zheng, Zhengqing Fu, Na Liu

Faculty Publications

Wheat stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, Pst) poses a catastrophic threat to global food security. While MADS-box transcription factors regulate development and abiotic stress, their roles in plant-pathogen immunity remain enigmatic. In this study, we identified TaMADS2, a Pst-induced MADS-box gene, as a positive regulator of wheat resistance. Functional analyses demonstrated that TaMADS2 overexpression significantly enhanced Pst resistance, whereas its knockdown rendered wheat more susceptible. Further investigation revealed that TaMADS2 interacts with trichome birefringence-like protein 21 (TaTBL21) to activate glycerol kinase-like (TaGKL) expression. Silencing TaGKL in wild-type or TaMADS2-overexpressing lines …

Constraints On Inner Core Composition From Seismicanisotropy: The Importance Of Light Elements And Nickel, Jada Bollmeyer, Daniel A. Frost, Prajna Paramita Das

Faculty Publications

The inner core is seismically anisotropic, with PKIKP waves traversing the inner core parallel to the rotation axis faster than those in the equatorial plane. This anisotropy increases with depth into the inner core and may result from alignment of iron crystals deformed during inner core growth. Using previously calculated elastic properties of iron, we seek to determine the most likely iron-light element alloy (FeC, FeO, FeS, or FeSi). For each FeX alloy, we interpolate elastic tensors across the pressure and temperature range of the inner core and model the anisotropy resulting from flow during core growth. Lastly, we compare …

Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg) Research: A Systematic Review Of Recent Trends (2020–2024), Jiyeon Kim Ph.D., Wooyoung Yang

Faculty Publications

The 2020–2024 period marks a pivotal era in sustainable development, characterized by significant regulatory developments, including the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the International Sustainability Standards Board standards, and the introduction of mandatory ESG reporting requirements worldwide. This review examines how recent policy changes have reshaped the linkages between ESG and sustainability. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we conducted a systematic review examining empirical studies of ESG–sustainability performance relationships published between 2020 and 2024. Studies examined the quantitative relationships between ESG sustainability performance and publicly traded corporations. Quality assessment employed the adapted Newcastle–Ottawa Scale with sustainability-specific criteria. From 2847 …

A Fragility Framework For Surface Erosion With Application To Earthen Dam Breaching, Ege C. Kurter, Ayman Mokhtar Nemnem, M. Hanif Chaudhry, Jasim Imran

Faculty Publications

Overtopping failures of earthen dams are a growing concern under intensifying extreme rainfall. This study introduces a probabilistic fragility framework that combines hydrologic modeling, hydraulic analysis, and soil erodibility to assess erosion risk under uncertain load and resistance. Fragility curves derived from Monte Carlo simulations quantify erosion initiation and severity as functions of rainfall depth and excess shear stress. Application to multiple dams affected during the 2015 South Carolina floods reproduces observed outcomes ranging from complete breach to no damage. The framework also captures cascading effects, where failure of an upstream structure increases downstream loading and erosion potential. Compared with …

Supporting The College Athlete Amidst The Onset Of Name, Image, And Likeness, Brennan K. Berg, Michael Hutchinson, Janelle E. Wells, David W. Walsh, Andre Simmond

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Athletic administrators often assume a distinct stakeholder role that has the most immediate and frequent impact on college athletes’ well-being and retention. The implementation of name, image, and likeness (NIL) represents a historic transformation in college athletics. Utilizing a sport development framework, particularly the retention stage, to examine elite athlete development, how athletic administrators socially support college athletes in the new context of NIL and its impact on administrators’ work experiences were empirically assessed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 athletic administrators at nine universities. The themes of Implementation Challenges, Lack of Uniformity, Holistic Benefits to Athlete Well-Being, and Mostly …

Variation In Cycling Exercise Mechanical Efficiency In The Heritage Family Study, Angelo Tremblay, Claude Bouchard, Mark A. Sarzynski Facsm, James S. Skinner, Élisa Marin-Couture, Patrick Schrauwen, Guy Thibault, Marie-Eve Mathieu, Louis Pérusse

Faculty Publications

The objectives of the study were to assess the effects of cycling endurance exercise training and sex on cycling exercise mechanical efficiency (ME) and to explore its associations with body composition, glycemic profile, and skeletal muscle characteristics. Subjects were males (n = 371) and females (n = 465) of European (ED) and African descent (AD) of the HERITAGE Family Study. The measurements were repeated after a 20-week controlled endurance exercise program. A substudy involving 78 participants from 19 ED families was used to evaluate associations between skeletal muscle traits and variations in ME. An increase in ME of …

A Fragility Framework For Surface Erosion With Application To Earthen Dam Breaching, Ege C. Kurter, Ayman Mokhtar Nemnem, M. Hanif Chaudhry, Jasim Imran

Faculty Publications

Overtopping failures of earthen dams are a growing concern under intensifying extreme rainfall. This study introduces a probabilistic fragility framework that combines hydrologic modeling, hydraulic analysis, and soil erodibility to assess erosion risk under uncertain load and resistance. Fragility curves derived from Monte Carlo simulations quantify erosion initiation and severity as functions of rainfall depth and excess shear stress. Application to multiple dams affected during the 2015 South Carolina floods reproduces observed outcomes ranging from complete breach to no damage. The framework also captures cascading effects, where failure of an upstream structure increases downstream loading and erosion potential. Compared with …

Toward A Feminist Geo-Legal Reading: Us Country-Of-Origin Information In Asylum Adjudication, Malene H. Jacobsen, Austin Crane, Elise Dosch

Faculty Publications

In this article, we offer what we call ‘a feminist geo-legal reading’ of documents used in spaces and practices of law. Legal cases and decisions are often based on different legal and non-legal documents, including laws, explanatory memorandums, testimonies, medical reports, and so forth. In contemporary asylum adjudication, country-of-origin information reports (COIs) have become a crucial source of authoritative evidence as asylum officers and immigration judges use these reports in their determination of a person's need for and right to protection. However, there is no straight line from COIs' substance to the prevailing authority that they command within asylum adjudication. …

Online Cyber-Physical Neural Network Model For Real-Time Hybrid Simulation, Faisal Nissar Malik, Liang Cao, James Ricles, Austin Downey

Faculty Publications

Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) is an experimental testing methodology that divides a structural system into an analyticaland an experimental substructure. The analytical substructure is modeled numerically, and the experimental substructure ismodeled physically in the laboratory. The two substructures are kinematically linked together at their interface degrees of freedom,and the coupled equations of motion are solved in real-time to obtain the response of the complete system. A key challenge inapplying RTHS to large or complex structures is the limited availability of physical devices, which makes it difficult to representall required experimental components simultaneously. The present study addresses this challenge by introducing …

A Comprehensive Assessment And Benchmark Studyof Large Atomistic Foundation Models For Phonons, Md Zaibul Anam, Ogheneyoma Aghoghovbia, Mohammed Al-Fahdi, Lingyu Kong, Victor Fung, Ming Hu

Faculty Publications

The rapid development of universal machine learning potentials (uMLPs) has enabled efficient, accurate predictions of diverse material properties across broad chemical spaces. While their capability for modeling phonon properties is emerging, systematic benchmarking across chemically diverse systems remains limited. We evaluate six recent uMLPs—EquiformerV2, MatterSim, MACE, and CHGNet—on 2429 crystalline materials from the Open Quantum Materials Database. Models were used to compute atomic forces in displaced supercells, derive interatomic force constants (IFCs), and predict phonon properties including lattice thermal conductivity (LTC), compared with density functional theory and experimental data. The EquiformerV2 pretrained model trained on the OMat24 dataset exhibits strong …

2025 Sc Teacher Exit Survey: Summary Of Results, Brian Cartiff, Angela Starrett, Svetlana Dmitrieva

Reports

Each year, SC TEACHER administers the SC Teacher Exit Survey to public PK–12 classroom teachers who are leaving their current classroom or district. The survey is designed to offer insights into how working conditions and other factors relate to teachers’ decisions to leave their positions and their plans moving forward. This report highlights the SC Teacher Exit Survey results for the 2024–25 academic year.

Cultural Diagnosis And The Monsters Of Victorian England, Victoria Elizabeth Kuykendall

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the representation of invisible disability and neurodivergence in nineteenth-century British literature, arguing that literary texts both reflect and shape cultural understandings of disability. While much scholarship has focused on visible or physical impairments in Victorian fiction, comparatively little attention has been given to characters whose behaviors, emotions, or identities align with what today might be described as neurodivergence.

Drawing on Disability Studies, Mad Studies, and cultural theory, I propose the concept of cultural Diagnosis as a framework for analyzing how fictional characters become “Diagnosable” within both their historical and contemporary cultural contexts. Through close readings of Arthur …

Labour And (Class) Struggle In James Barke’S Compositionist Imaginaries: Dreaming With Rob Roy, Marx & Burns, Arianna Introna

Studies in Scottish Literature

James Barke’s literary imagination of working lives is primarily concerned with how different modes of labour generate a tension between refusal of work and the material constraints on fully engaging in it. Putting into conversation the Marxist autonomist method of ‘compositionism’ with Barke’s own theories of art and class struggle, this article traces how Barke’s fiction represents toil on the one hand, and the yearning for a life beyond the tyranny of capital on the other, as defining the horizons of working-class life.

Proletarian Nights In Archie Hind’S The Dear Green Place, Corey Gibson

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article argues for a reappraisal of Archie Hind's landmark Glasgow novel The Dear Green Place (1966), which represents the conflation and combination of long histories of class formation with the grind of everyday labours, and a provocation about the possibilities, limitations, and contradictions of working-class artistry in twentieth-century Scotland.

Agnes Owens And The Parliament Of Insignificant Lives, Marie-Odile Pittin-Hedon

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article focuses on Agnes Owens whose work is examined in the light of Michel Foucault’s essay “Lives of Insignificant Men”, and Pierre Rosanvallon’s Parliament of the Invisible. It tackles the idea that Owens portrays what Foucault calls “insignificant lives”, with a particular emphasis on working or working-class women and on what Owens sees as poverty “in [the] minds”, to show that her fiction is political in a way that is not openly militant.

James Kelman And The Impossibility Of Managerial Souls, Joseph H. Jackson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses James Kelman's portrayal of middle managers and their interactions with those they manage in "The Bevel' (1983), A Disaffection (1989), How Late It Was, How Late, (1994), and You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free (2004), exploring their interactions with those they manage in terms of managerialism, management theories, and the U.K. government's New Public Management reforms.

‘Just Get It On The Table’: Gendered Food Labour In Janice Galloway’S Fiction, Gina Lyle

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article explores how food labour is used to articulate concerns around gendered power dynamics in Janice Galloway’s short stories and novels. By examining instances of food management and preparation, this article argues that food makes struggles for identity, autonomy, and power more clearly visible. Writing by Sarah Sceats and Mary McGlynn is used to discuss issues around women’s identity formation, while Carole Jones’s work on gender disorientation in late twentieth-century Scotland and Nick Fiddes’s materials on the prestige of meat both aid in arguments around men’s relationships with food labour.

​​​Creating A Resident And Fellow Scholarly Activity Tracking Tool In A Large Academic Health System: A Dissertation In Practice​, Elyse Anne Wieszczecinski

Theses and Dissertations

Documenting and reviewing resident and fellow scholarly activity within a sponsoring institution can be a laborious task. With multiple lines of information coming from a wide variety of sources, this problem of practice implemented the Information Systems Success Model to help develop a database by which this information can be collected in a way that is efficient while maintaining the need for a user-friendly product. While other healthcare entities have also incorporated this model into their scholarly activity collection, these are still individual needs of the sponsoring institution and its constituents to consider when adapting the strategy. Using an improvement …

Coefficients Of The Characteristic Polynomial Of A Hypergraph And Their Combinatorial Properties, Utku Okur

Theses and Dissertations

We investigate the combinatorial properties of the characteristic polynomial $\phi_\mathcal{H}\ev{t}$ of a hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$, in particular, its coefficients. Due to a classical result of Jacobi, the generating function of closed walks at a vertex $u$ in a graph $G$ is determined by the rational function $\phi_{G-u}(t) / \phi_G(t)$. The connection between closed walks of $G$ and its characteristic polynomial has a known elegant proof via an application of Viennot's Heaps of Pieces framework, where cycles are taken as pieces and the concurrence relation is sharing a vertex. Here, we prove a bijection between heaps with a unique maximal piece containing …

Ai-Driven Autonomous Manufacturing: A Novel Taxonomy, Vision-Guided Planning, And Diversity-Aware Active Learning Frameworks, Ibrahim Yousif

Theses and Dissertations

Manufacturers face two opposing challenges: the escalating demand for customized products and the pressure to reduce lead times. Current manufacturing equipment, although reliable, operates at the limits of its technology and lacks adaptability to dynamic environments. This trade-off has been described as the optimal degree of automation, a threshold beyond which further automation incurs more cost than benefit. Smart manufacturing has introduced adaptive, data-driven systems, but many deployments still lack the contextual adaptability and autonomous decision-making required to handle unplanned disruptions. This underscores the need for intelligent, autonomous systems capable of real-time adaptation without costly reconfiguration, minimizing human intervention during …

Hearing The Difference: Just Intonation Techniques Utilizing Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions In Viola Performance, Calj Green Umezono

Theses and Dissertations

Difference tones, also known as distortion product otoacoustic emissions, are the result of active phenomena in the human cochlea during the conversion of sound waves into bioelectrical signals. Difference tones make it possible to explore alternative musical tuning systems beyond the twelve-tone, equally tempered regime. Musicians have investigated difference tones since the 18th Century in Euro-American musical contexts, but their application has so far been limited in scope. Advances in science, technology, and music theory from the late 19th Century through the early 21st Century have given present-day violists the opportunity to more fully understand the virtues of difference tones …

Machine-Learning-Assisted Discovery Of Lattice Dynamics Signatures Of Sodium Superionic Conductors, Ogheneyoma Maxwell Aghoghovbia

Theses and Dissertations

Sodium superionic conductors are key to the development of all-solid-state sodium batteries. Discovery of new superionic conductors has traditionally relied on insights from material defect chemistry and the transition/hopping theory, while the role of lattice vibrations, i.e., phonons, remains underexplored. We identify key lattice dynamics signatures that govern ionic conductivity by analyzing the phonon mean squared displacement (MSD) of Na⁺ ions. By high-throughput screening of a dataset of 3903 Na-containing structures, we establish a strong positive correlation between phonon MSD and diffusion coefficients, providing a quantitative correlation between lattice dynamics and ion transport. To accelerate this discovery, we incorporate …

Multiscale Geometric Analysis In Endovascular Therapies: Ex Vivo, In Silico Approaches, Dima Hussein Ali Bani Hani

Theses and Dissertations

In this work, we address a persistent global challenge of vascular disease, specifically peripheral artery disease (PAD), and arteriovenous fistula (AVF) complications in patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). The important role of vascular geometry in disease intervention plans and the development of endovascular therapeutic strategies (e.g., Drug-coated balloon (DCBs)) is critical in addressing these challenges.

This study evaluates the feasibility of co-delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) and valsartan (VAL) using urea-based coatings in DCB, analyzes the coating morphology and microstructural changes to improve therapeutic results. A computational finite element model was developed to complement experimental work, simulate tissue-coating interactions, compute …

The Church As An Ecological And Cultural Anchor: Examining Its Role In Gifted Education, Advanced Academic Access, And Educational Equity, Matrissa Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study examines the role of the Black church as an ecological and cultural anchor in addressing the inequities of gifted education and expanding access to advanced academic opportunities for Black students. The study is grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, critical race theory, and racial and ethnical socialization, and it explores how the Black church can support student development, empower parental advocacy, and partner with schools to promote educational equity. Conducted at Mountain Valley Baptist Church in South Carolina, the interventions included student mentoring, goal setting sessions, academic enrichment, emotional support initiatives, a parent workshop, and a …

A Qualitative Study Exploring Teachers’ Beliefs And Practices Supporting African American Male Readers, Rhonda Douglas Sumter

Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of educational reform, African American male students continue to experience persistent disparities in reading achievement. This qualitative case study explores the beliefs and pedagogical practices of three elementary educators identified as effective in supporting the reading development of African American males. Drawing on the frameworks of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995) and Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012), the study seeks to illuminate how educators affirm students’ identities, maintain rigorous expectations, and create responsive learning environments that foster academic success.

Data sources included in-depth teacher interviews and classroom observations. Thematic analysis revealed three interconnected practices across cases: …

Investigating Connections Among Cognitive Coaching, Student Agency And Achievement In Ninth Grade Algebra 1, Terri Renee Rathburn

Theses and Dissertations

This convergent parallel mixed-methods action research study explored the application of Cognitive Coaching as a student-centered intervention to promote agency and academic achievement in a ninth-grade Algebra 1 classroom. Grounded in Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and informed by self-regulated learning and agentic engagement frameworks, the study investigated how structured coaching conversations supported students’ intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness.

Findings indicate that students who engaged in coaching demonstrated measurable growth in self-reported agency and thematic analysis of coaching transcripts revealed shifts from passive compliance to proactive engagement. While achievement results on the Algebra 1 end of course assessment did not reveal …

The Role Of Language Ideologies In Saudi Elementary English Education: Efl Teacher’S Perspectives And Experiences, Ghanem Saad S Alghuwainem

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how Saudi elementary English teachers understand and enact language ideologies in a period of rapid educational change and national reform. Using a comparative case study of five teachers in Al-Ahsa, the study triangulates semi-structured interviews, classroom audio recordings, and teaching materials to compare stated beliefs with observable practice. The analysis is guided by the theories of English hegemony and language and gender ideology, which together illuminate how global linguistic hierarchies are localized through teachers’ beliefs and practices. Findings reveal that teachers occupy an ideologically complex position as they balance the national push for English proficiency under Vision …

The Evolution Of The Second Amendment And The American Gun Violence Epidemic: A Historical Analysis Of Political Self-Sabotage, Amanda Tureaud

Senior Theses

From the conception of the Bill of Rights until the 21st century, the Second Amendment was read and understood by the American population, both ordinary citizens and government officials, branches, and agencies inclusively, to allow the nation to have an armed military but not for private citizens to own and/or carry firearms. Since 2008, however, the Second Amendment has been interpreted as an absolute freedom for private citizens to own and carry semiautomatic assault weapons in the name of personal protection. This thesis holds that the evolution of society’s attitude on guns and gun control is specifically denoted by the …

Reclaiming Sound: Copyright Restoration As Cultural And Economic Justice For Black Musicians, James Roberts Jr.

Senior Theses

This paper examines copyright restoration as both a legal mechanism and a form of cultural reparations for Black musicians historically excluded from ownership and profit in the American music industry. It traces the evolution of U.S. copyright law from its earliest forms to the Music Modernization Act of 2018, highlighting how shifting statutory frameworks have gradually extended protection and restoration rights to artists who were once denied them. The analysis situates this legal trajectory within a broader history of racialized exploitation in the recording industry, where inequitable contracts and systemic power imbalances functioned as modern forms of artistic sharecropping. Through …

Populism And Its Effect On International Business Strategy, Julio Cesar Martinez Suarez

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the complex relationship between populism and international business strategy, with a particular focus on how populist mobilizations influence firms' location decisions and strategic planning. As populism continues to shape political dynamics globally, it presents significant challenges for businesses operating in or considering entry into markets governed by populist regimes. Utilizing institutional theory, this study examines the distinct political risks associated with populism, including anti-establishment ideology, the weakening of democratic institutions, and a tendency toward short-term, reactive policymaking. The research explores the consequences of these risks for firms, particularly in emerging markets, where populism often exacerbates uncertainty and …