Digital Commons Network^™

Enterococcus Abundance, Distribution, And Environmental Controls At A Sandy Shoreline, South Carolina, Usa, Helen Kehoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Water quality monitoring crucially protects the health of beachgoers around the world. However, water-adjacent sediments, such as sandy beaches, are known to harbor harmful bacteria, yet are not monitored despite their intensive recreational use. This project monitored the abundance of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), specifically Enterococci, in sandy beach sediments at beaches routinely monitored for water quality in Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Surface sediment core sampling (0-5 cm) in the swash zone was conducted once per month for 4 months at 24 beaches in tandem with state-accredited surf-water FIB monitoring using IDEXX’s Enterolert test (Standard Method …

Long-Term Trends And Drivers Of Commercial Shrimp Fisheries Across The Southeastern U.S. Atlantic Coast, Trinity Assels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Long-term dynamics of southeastern U.S. Atlantic commercial shrimp fisheries reflect interacting environmental and socioeconomic processes rather than uniform regional decline. However, integrated, multi-state assessments linking these drivers to fishery-dependent indicators remain limited for the region. This study analyzed over four decades (1980–2023) of confidential fishery-dependent data from coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and northeastern Florida, focusing on the region where white and brown shrimp dominate commercial landings. Segmented regression analysis was used to identify structural shifts in long-term trends of landings, participation, and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE), while multiple linear regression models identified seasonal temperature variables associated with interannual variation in shrimp CPUE. …

Mystical Revelation And Knowledge Of God: Reclaiming Spirituality In Theology Through The Mystics, Elizabeth A. Merski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the scholastic era, the pursuit of God has occurred preeminently through reason, leading to an imbalanced theology of God that persists to the present day in the form of intellect-centered theology. As a resolution, this work proposes that the mobilization of private, mystical revelation as a source of legitimized theological knowledge of God has the potential to close the existent epistemological gap between reason/belief and theology/spirituality, demonstrating the integral unity between authentic knowledge of God and the receiver’s personal acceptance of God in faith. After examining the required methodological components for the discipline of theology and identifying criteria for …

"Help Me Live It The Way You Do": Grounding Singaporean Responses To The Rorschach Situation, Casey Y. Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary research on the Rorschach and culture is striking for the latter’s disappearance as a variable of significance (Meyer et al., 2015; Meyer et al., 2007; Mihura et al., 2013; Viglione & Hilsenroth, 2001). This erasure is chronicled and reproduced in the narratives of universal objectivity, of extensive international meta-analyses, of replications, of standardized norms (Ritzler, 2004; Smith et al., 2018; Smith et al., 2020; Weiner, 2004). A different story emerges, however, when we ask, how has culture disappeared? The proposed study is a multimethod qualitative analysis of Singaporean responses to the Rorschach, aimed at generating sensitive yet critical discourses …

The Person As Foundation Of Responsibility: The Insufficiency Of Rights-Based Human Development Approaches, Jaclyn Berg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Building on the plethora of research that demonstrates the way rights language has been more useful for those with wealth and power to further expand capitalist markets, this text extends that criticism to human development programs and institutions. While they claim to be directed towards addressing global issues of poverty and hunger as well as climate crises, they continue to treat the symptoms without accurately diagnosing the disease. Approaches to development that rely on rights without questioning the way rights have been influenced by neoliberal capitalists or without questioning the capitalist global economic system will never be able to achieve …

The Decline Of Confidence In The U.S. Supreme Court: Evidence From The General Social Survey, 2004-2024, Lola Dragosavac

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines public confidence in the United States Supreme Court and whether confidence has declined between 2004 and 2024. It also investigates whether demographic characteristics, political ideology, and confidence in other political institutions help explain the variation in confidence levels. Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) for 2004, 2014, and 2024, this study employs a binary logistic regression approach to examine the predictors of confidence in the Court. The findings indicate that confidence in the Supreme Court declined significantly over the twenty-year period. Political ideology emerged as a strong predictor of confidence, with conservatives over three times …

Dialogic Communication Ethics As A Hopeful Response To Artificial Intelligence, Kristen Haldeman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the past five years, a new technology has dominated modern culture: artificial intelligence. With a multiplicity of ways to respond to this new environment, this dissertation situates a response to artificial intelligence by combining the media ecology and communication ethics perspectives. Media ecology explores historical roots and biases of technology to learn about their influence of humanity. A dialogic communication ethics seeks to find an opening for hope to emerge. Hope, grounded in the works of Jacques Ellul and the Christian tradition, offers a new rhetorical perspective by shifting focus away from technology and to our neighbor.

A Philosophy Of Communication Response To Bullying In Corporate America, Chris A. Phillips Dr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This philosophy of communication response to bullying in corporate America follows the structure of posing research questions, synthesizing relevant literature, and offering advice to practitioners. It invites the reader to have hope in continuing the conversation through a constructive hermeneutic approach to the problem. By building on literature in oppression, silencing, bullying, incivility, and communication ethics, this dissertation reveals how (rhetoric) and why (philosophy) the problem occurs in corporate America today. This dissertation offers a new angle to an old problem, or, a rhetoric and philosophy of bullying. It responds to the following questions:

RQ 1: As a destructive communication …

Between Care And Despair: An Existential Phenomenological Study Of Eco-Anxiety As Lived Experience, Conor H. Sukhdeo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the lived experience of eco-anxiety among young adults aware of the ongoing ecological crisis but not directly exposed to climate-related disasters. Grounded in the human science tradition, ecopsychology, and existential phenomenology, this study employed Scott Churchill’s (2022) approach to Existential Phenomenological Research (EPR) to deepen our understanding of the phenomenon of eco-anxiety. Four participants, residing in Pittsburgh and aged 18-25, produced written experiential descriptions and participated in open-ended phenomenological interviews. As outlined by EPR, this data was analyzed through meaning unit delineation, imaginative variation, phenomenological reduction, and structural synthesis to produce individual situated structures of eco-anxiety for …

The Narrative In The Algorithm: Storytelling, World Literature, And The Smartphone, Chad Szalkowski-Ference

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I interrogate the role algorithms, artificial intelligence, and smartphone technology play in contemporary world literature. My analysis begins with the post-truth condition, which speaks to the contemporary era’s embrace of alternative facts, authoritarianism, and conspiratorial thinking. I draw on narrative theory and paradigms of world literature to show how “algorithmic reasoning” has led to a state of paranoid persecution. This reasoning has forged new collectivities across traditional borders. Additionally, I show that these new collectivities and new technologies have produced new narrative points of view: the algorithmic first- and third-person, allowing narratives to retain the intimacy and …

Educator Experiences Of Schoolwide Pbis Discipline Implementation: Exploring School Culture In Private Pk–12 Schools, Jessica L. Guarneri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore educators’ lived experiences implementing schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) discipline systems and to understand how those experiences influenced school culture in private PK–12 schools. Historically, PBIS focused on specific outcomes, such as reductions in discipline referrals, suspensions, and behavioral incidents. Though these indicators are critical, they do not consider in what way educators experience disciplinary systems, nor how their lived experiences affect routine interactions with students. Educators play a key role in implementing PBIS; their experiences foster consistency, trust, and sustainability. The participants included certified educators and administrators employed …

A Qualitative Examination Of Tennessee Secondary Stem Teachers’ Perceptions On Professional Development Needs, Amber W. Ogle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to research secondary STEM educators’ perceptions of PD needs. This study focused on the lived experiences of educators actively teaching in STEM subject disciplines in grades nine through 12. The essential question for this research study was: How do Tennessee secondary STEM teachers perceive the relevance, applicability, and impact of PD opportunities? The research was rooted in Knowles’ (1984) theory of adult learning, Andragogy, and Learning Forward’s (2022) Standards for Professional Learning.

Data were collected through 15 semi-structured, one-on-one online interviews. The transcripts of these interviews were analyzed, and frequently used language …

Making Sense Of Generative Ai: A Qualitative Single Case Study Examining How College Students Describe Its Use In Academic Coursework, Hollie L. Reese

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Generative artificial intelligence has become increasingly present in higher education, creating opportunities and challenges related to teaching, learning, academic integrity, and student preparation for future professional settings. The problem addressed in this study was the growing misalignment between students’ use of generative artificial intelligence tools and the guidance, expectations, and policies provided within college courses. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how college students described their use of these tools in academic courses and to identify the benefits and challenges associated with integrating them into learning experiences. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with undergraduate students …

Distributed Leadership Applied: The Role Of Professional Learning Communities In The Emergence And Development Of Teacher Leadership, Grace M. Bellamy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to examine the processes through which teacher leadership is fostered and sustained among elementary and middle school educators who participate regularly in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), with a focus upon schools implementing the DuFour and Eaker PLC model with fidelity during the winter and spring of 2026. This study looked for evidence of the presence of teacher leadership in a middle school and an elementary school. The theoretical frameworks of Distributed Leadership and the Teacher Leadership Standards created by the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium were employed in this study, and observations of …

Race, Sex, And Age Disparities In Homicide Clearance Rates In Tennessee: An Intersectional Approach, Teliyah Cobb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Demographic factors can influence homicide solvability. This study examines the relationship between victim characteristics and homicide clearance rates in Tennessee from 2001 to 2023. Using an intersectional approach, it assesses whether victim characteristics both individually and in combination are related to case solvability. Variables of interest include: (1) victim race, age range, and sex; (2) year the case was reported; (3) crime type; (4) whether the case was cleared; and (5) the circumstances leading to clearance. A total of 11,534 homicide cases from the Tennessee Incident-Based Reporting System were analyzed.

Findings indicate that individual victim characteristics do not significantly predict …

The Kings Are Dead. Long Live The Kings: The Legacy Of Roman Kingship In The Republican And Imperial Periods, Dylan Hillebrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From Romulus through Tarquinius Superbus, Rome’s kings occupied a major place within the collective cultural imagination of the ancient polity long after the office was abolished. For generations, no accusation was as odious as “king” and the entire period was seen as a cautionary tale. While the legacy of the kings remained an essential part of Roman identity, how the people related to that legacy changed eventually resulting in a restoration of kingship. A complete picture of the establishment-rejection-restoration cycle becomes clear through examination of the works of Roman (and Greek) historians. Central questions which guide this study: Why were …

Modeling Mean And Variability Of Anxiety In Ecological Momentary Assessment Data Using Mixed-Effects Location–Scale Models, Trenzy Odero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological Momentary Assessment is a method of collecting repeated measures of people in real time within natural environments. This results in hierarchical data that has a significant amount of variation at the person level. The traditional linear mixedeffects models assume that the residual variance is constant, which might not be true when the residual variance varies among individuals as well as in time. This thesis uses mixed-effects location-scale (MELS) models to model the mean and variance of an EMA outcome together. By introducing the possibility of variability in residual variance within and across individuals and with covariates, the MELS framework …

Testing P300-Based Biometric Authentication Paradigms, Jordan Razzak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bench research suggests that P300 amplitude is greater in response to self-relevant stimuli compared to familiar stimuli. This effect could enable a novel method of biometric authentication based on the self-relevant P300. This dissertation aims to: (1) determine the optimal presentation paradigm for leveraging self-relevance in P300-based biometric authentication, and (2) investigate P300 responses from self-relevant stimuli versus stimuli learned over the course of a week.

Two presentation paradigms were compared – rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and matrix presentation (MP). Participant-specific RSVP and MP classifiers were trained by applying stepwise linear discriminant analysis to data collected during presentations of …

Reapplication And Credential Completion Among Non-Selected Community College Health Science Applicants: A Social Stratification Perspective, Donna G. Whitehouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reapplication and Credential Completion Among Non-Selected Community College Health Science Applicants: A Social Stratification Perspective by Donna Whitehouse Community colleges serve as primary access points for healthcare workforce preparation, yet thousands of qualified applicants are not selected for competitive admission health science programs each year. Research on what happens to these students following non-selection is limited, and existing studies focus almost exclusively on nursing, leaving allied health programs largely absent from the literature. This study addressed that gap by examining the reapplication behavior and credential completion outcomes among 2,604 applicants to three competitive admission health science programs, Nursing, Occupational Therapy …

Voices Of The Homeless: Phenomenological Portraits Of Parental Engagement Among Parents Experiencing Homelessness, Geneva Marie Winterbottom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Family homelessness is a widespread crisis that disrupts the educational experiences of thousands of children, including South Carolina where rates of family homelessness continue to grow. Although research has explored families and homelessness, limited research has focused on the parental engagement of homeless parents. This study explored the parental engagement among homeless parents in South Carolina.

Guided by van Manen’s (1990) interpretive phenomenology, four parents residing in a South Carolina homeless shelter participated in semi-structured interviews and created self portraits, which were analyzed using the hermeneutic circle to derive phenomenological insight.

Findings revealed that parental engagement while homeless was like …

Perspectives Of Power: A Qualitative Study On Teacher Empowerment In Elementary Settings, Caitlin Mattie Shuppy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insight and understanding of elementary school teachers’ perspectives of teacher empowerment in relation to six key principles: self-efficacy, professional development, collaboration, communication, shared vision, and support. The teacher perspective remains underrepresented in empowerment research; this study was designed to center the voices of those most directly experiencing empowerment in their daily work. Two research questions guided the study: How do elementary school teachers perceive teacher empowerment in relation to six key teacher empowerment principles and what principle(s) do teachers identify as most influential in fostering their sense of empowerment?

A basic …

Professional Dispositions In Coaching Education: Icf-Credentialed Coaches’ Perspectives On Development And Assessment, Michelle Renee Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study examined how professional dispositions were defined, experienced, and assessed in coaching education within the rapidly expanding field of professional coaching. The problem addressed was the lack of a clear understanding of professional dispositions in coaching and the absence of a systematic dispositional assessment comparable to that in counselor education. The researcher’s purpose was to explore how credentialed professional-level coaches defined and identified professional dispositions for effective coaching engagements and how these dispositions aligned with constructs in other helping professions. The researcher collected data through semistructured videoconference interviews. Purposeful and snowball sampling yielded 16 U.S.-based coaches who …

From Hashtags To Regime Change: How Ai-Driven Social Media Algorithms Fueled Youth Protests Against Authoritarianism In Bangladesh But Stalled In Pakistan (2020-2025), Rafia Nishan Abbasi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this research, it has been investigated that how and why youth protests were amplified by AI based social media algorithms in Bangladesh; however, their impacts resulted in occasional and isolated resistance in Pakistan during 2022-25, taking in account the differences in state regulations, platform governance, and civil society networks. While utilizing Mixed-methods approach, this study employs comparative discourse analysis, a structured survey (N=466), semi-structured interviews, legal and policy tracing, and platform data. This research has proposed a novel theoretical framework of Algorithm Regime Mediation (ARM). ARM considers platform algorithms as politically intermingled intermediaries which can determine socio-political outcomes by …

The Republican Party And The Creation Of The Bipartisan Foreign Policy, 1945-1953, Alexander Gellos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a historical and structural reexamination of the Republican Party’s role in shaping American foreign policy from 1945 to 1953. Defying the historiography of a frictionless postwar consensus and an executive branch-centered narrative, this historical chronological study demonstrates that the Republican Party’s role in formulating the bipartisan foreign policy was a contingent and debated legislative construction. Far from representing passive submission or a surrender of partisan identity, the GOP’s role was an indispensable exercise in creating it, and due to politics being what it is, straining it. Through historical chronology spanning from 1945 to 1953, the party's center …

The Palm Farm Next-Door: Land Concessions, Livelihoods, And Nutrition In Plantation-Adjacent Communities, Julia Entwistle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale land concessions have reshaped agrarian landscapes globally, yet their implications for community land tenure, livelihoods, and nutrition remain unevenly understood. This dissertation examines how plantation agriculture and foreign investment have transformed land access, labor relations, and food systems in Liberia, a country with one of the highest proportions of land under concession globally. Guided by a political ecology framework, the study employs a mixed-methods design integrating policy analysis, in-depth interviews, and household surveys across two palm oil concession sites. The findings show that ambiguous land policies historically facilitated dispossession, while recent legal reforms have enabled communities to strategically mobilize …

Congestion Pricing: A Comprehensive Look At International Congestion Pricing Models And Applying Them To The United States, Ian Ertel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urban traffic congestion imposes large costs through wasted time, excess fuel consumption, air pollution, and lost productivity. Although congestion pricing has been recognized as the economically efficient remedy since Pigou and Vickrey, implementation has been rare. This thesis examines the conditions under which congestion pricing succeeds by analyzing three pioneering cases: London, Singapore, and New York City. Across all three, charges reduced traffic volumes and improved speeds within the priced zones. Benefits extended beyond cordon boundaries, with measurable improvements on untolled suburban roads. The distributional effects depended on how revenues were recycled rather than on the charge itself. Political viability, …

Driving Development: Coalitions, Policies, And Upgrading Brazilian Automotive Technology (1988–2025), Henrique Estides Delgado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among industrial activities in Brazil, the automotive sector generates some of the most significant and multifaceted multiplier effects on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The sector integrates activities ranging from raw materials to high-tech services, incorporating advanced technologies that influence innovation and positioning in global value chains (GVCs). Remarkably, this industry has been structured over time by public policies that have decisively shaped incentives for its participants. The world’s largest automotive multinationals have been attracted to operate in the country through varied institutional arrangements involving domestic capital and incentives across federative units. This dissertation analyzes how variations in institutional …

Data Governance Maturity, Ai Integration, And Equity In Colorado K-12 Public Schools, John R. Curtin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Colorado's 179 K-12 public school districts operate as autonomous governance units, each responsible for securing and managing student data assets that span health, financial, residential, and academic records. The accelerating integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools into administrative workflows, productivity software, and instructional platforms has fundamentally altered the risk landscape for student data, yet governance frameworks at the state, district, and school levels have not kept pace. This dissertation investigates whether Colorado's decentralized educational governance structure is institutionally capable of producing equitable, secure, and sustainable data governance outcomes in the AI era.

Drawing on Institutional Theory …

Induction Programming For Novice Special Education Directors: The Significance Of Informal Supports In The Absence Of Formal Structures, Julie E. Rottier-Lukens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role and responsibilities of a special education director are unique and highly complex when compared to other district-level leadership roles. Since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) passed in 1975, states gradually increased requirements for certification of these administrative roles, more clearly defining the criteria and standards to incorporate within preparation programs. Despite improvements in preparation programs for special education directors, there continues to be variation in preparation and certification requirements across states and persistent challenges with shortages of special education directors. After completing a preparation program, what support exists for novice special education directors to help them …

Ka Here Tāngata:1 Mātauranga And Te Ao Māori In Biocultural Kākāpō (Strigops Habroptilus) Conservation Approaches, Sophie Perfetto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This master's thesis examines conservation as a form of living cultural heritage practice through the co-management of kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus), a critically endangered parrot and taonga species in Aotearoa New Zealand. Situated within ongoing histories of colonial dispossession and Western frameworks of land and species management, contemporary kākāpō conservation is shaped through the partnership between the Department of Conservation’s Kākāpō Recovery Programme and Ngāi Tahu. Drawing on semi-structured interviews collected during fieldwork from July to August 2025, this study examines how institutional partnerships structure decision-making, authority, and responsibility in contemporary conservation governance. Findings demonstrate that Māori knowledge systems …