Digital Commons Network^™

Wise Blood Through The Lens Of Reader Response Theory, Hannah Rose Horton Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flannery O’Connor’s 1952 novel, Wise Blood, is a frequently misunderstood classic. While O’Connor is very rarely associated with reader response theory, its framework offers a way to more fully appreciate O’Connor as an author and Wise Blood as a novel while addressing aspects of critics’ confusion. The objective of this study is to consider a previously under-researched area of O’Connor scholarship while offering greater clarity to Wise Blood. By considering O’Connor’s personal nonfiction writing and the text of her first novel through the lens of reader response scholars such as Wolfgang Iser, this study offers a call towards viewing …

Parameter Identifiability Analysis And Calibration For Power System Dynamic Models, Lei Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate dynamic models are crucial for stable and reliable power system operation, making their validation essential. The accuracy of parameter estimation is influenced by several factors, including available observables, model structure, and estimation methods. However, in dynamic models, estimating parameters can be difficult when some of them are unidentifiable, meaning their values cannot be uniquely determined from the available data. This challenge may stem from limited impact of parameters on the measured outputs, parameter interactions, or poor data quality. Therefore, an identifiability analysis should be conducted prior to parameter estimation or model calibration. This preliminary step helps to determine which …

Establishing Recharge Rates In The High Plains Aquifer: Mapping, Precipitation Modeling, And An Evaluation Of The Chloride Mass-Balance Method, Arindam Mukherjee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, three studies related to understanding and predicting recharge are presented. First, geospatial techniques were used to identify potential groundwater recharge areas in the High Plains Aquifer. Second, a precipitation generator was developed to produce site specific synthetic precipitation series that depend on daily precipitation occurrences, particularly on the distribution of wet spells for sites to be used in numerical modeling. Third, the unsaturated flow code VS2DI was modified to allow the simulation of chloride accumulation from recharge, and this model was used to evaluate errors in the Chloride-Mass-Balance (CMB) method for estimating recharge due to heterogeneity.

In …

Modified Loss Functions For Algorithmic Bias Mitigation, Christina Joy Trotter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming more present in everyday life. Training data distributions, amongst other variables, can cause these systems to be unfair. Users, as well as other individuals, may be negatively impacted. This work studies using modified loss functions to mitigate race and sex bias caused by data and models.

In the first experiment, the trade-off between fairness and accuracy when data is biased and unbiased is explored. A group risk function is introduced and used to create two versions of a modified loss function: Max Group Equity and Max Group Equality Binary Cross-Entropy (BCE). Both functions …

Acculturation And Seeking Campus Counseling Services Among Saudi International Students In The United States: An Intrepretative Phenomenological Analysis, Abdullah Almutairi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study adopts a phenomenological qualitative approach to explore and examine the acculturation process of Saudi students living in the United States, particularly in relation to their access to campus counseling services. The findings of this study identify five themes: 1) premigration expectations and realities, 2) journey of cultural adaptation, 3) navigating academic adaptations, 4) coping with acculturation and academic pressures, and 5) expectations of services provided by campus counseling experiences. This study highlights that the acculturation journey is a complex experience that affects Saudi students’ psychological well-being, which hinders their access to campus counseling services. The purpose of this …

The Relationship Between Nutrient Intake And Performance Recovery In Ncaa Softball Athletes, Derionne Brooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collegiate athletes are faced with the challenge of maintaining optimal performance outcomes in spite of their demanding training schedules. As a result, athletes rely on recovery strategies such as nutrition and adequate sleep to optimize their recovery in these shortened windows. This study aimed to explore the relationship between dietary intake, sleep, and athletic performance in female collegiate athletes (N=27) using dietary recalls analyzed using the Nutrition Data System for Research, self-reported sleep data, and data collected using PERCH devices. Twenty-seven current members of a collegiate softball team participated in the data collection throughout their fall season (August – December). …

The Bishop And The Jesuit: Catholic Influence On Succession Polemic In The Long Seventeenth Century, Troy Dallas Bone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates printed polemics discussing succession crises during the long seventeenth century, and it traces how continuity and change defined religio-political debates from the Elizabethan period to the Stuart era. To do so, it focuses on the impact of two Catholic clergymen—John Lesley, the Scottish Bishop of Ross, and Robert Parsons, English exile and Jesuit priest. Lesley was the author of A Defence of…Marie Quene of Scotlande—originally—printed in 1569 and republished twice more in English in 1571 and 1584—which combatted Protestant efforts to exclude Mary Queen of Scots from the English throne by promoting her hereditary right to succeed …

Design Of Topical Ocular Drug Delivery Systems For Management Of Eye Keratitis, Chuntian Cai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to the complexity of the anatomical and physiological barriers in the eye, ocular drug delivery presents significant challenges. The poor solubility of many drugs and short retention times on the ocular surface results in low bioavailability from traditional topical dosage forms. Various types of eye infections, such as bacterial keratitis (BK) and fungal keratitis (FK), can become critical and lead to serious visual disabilities. Therefore, this research study aims to enhance the solubility and corneal permeation of two drugs, Ciprofloxacin (CIP) for BK and the antifungal agent Natamycin (NT) for FK, using nanoemulsion (NE) and cyclodextrin (CD) based technologies.

"A Transient Veil": Appropriation Of Exclusionary Form In Eighteenth-Century Women's Writing, Andrea Ferniany

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“’A Transient Veil’ : Appropriation of Exclusionary Form in Eighteenth-Century Women’s Writing” is an exploration of how women writers of the eighteenth century strategically and subversively appropriated patriarchal, often misogynistic, literary idioms to expand literary discourse and craft flexible, alternative, and feminine literary forms. It emerges from the desire to underscore what rhetorical features of women’s writing can tell us about the creative agency of women writers. By exclusionary form, I mean to reference both rhetorical conventions and aesthetic traditions that excluded women writers by assuming a male subject position or by the explicit objectification of feminine figures. This dissertation …

Community Engagement/Involvement In School Life: Connecting The Missing Pieces Between School And Community, Shanika Hardy-Hickmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Long Creek Elementary School is a small, rural school with approximately 292 students in Sallis, Mississippi. Long Creek Elementary School has historically struggled with stronger parent involvement in their children’s school life. To address this concern, the administration, faculty, and staff at Long Creek Elementary School targeted barriers to parental involvement/engagement to increase community engagement/involvement in school life and connect the missing pieces between school and community. This has led to discussions of the creation of a parent center to provide parents with daily support and needed resources to contribute to their child/children’s academic success.

The purpose of this study …

Crosscultural Backchannelling Responses Among Second Language Learners, Chien-Hui Hsu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Backchannel responses (Yngve, 1970) have always been an essential component of conversational interactions that facilitate speaker-listener engagement and mutual shaping of narratives (Bavelas et al., 2000). This study aims to investigate the cross-linguistic difference in backchannelling responses between Taiwan Mandarin and English (General American) second language (L2) learners, and how those differences might impact communication in a cross-cultural classroom. The current study examines 20 participants, ten each from Taiwan Mandarin speakers and American English speakers. Each speaker was observed in an online conversation to eliminate the influence of non-verbal cues such as gestures and facial expressions. The backchannelling responses they …

The Metaphysics Of Creaturely Love In The Philosophy Of Anne Conway, Jeremiah Joseph Langer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A common belief during the early modern period held that humans bear ethical relations only to creatures with whom we share the right kinds of similarity. A tradition attributed to René Descartes holds speciesist and anthropocentric views according to which nonhuman animals are mere automata who lack rational minds. Even Baruch Spinoza, who was much more radical in his Ethics, suggests creaturely similarity is restricted to beings with rationality. As such, Descartes and Spinoza conclude that lower beings cannot be morally evaluated for their actions and humans cannot be morally evaluated for their treatment of lower creatures. In her sole …

Examining Institutional Effectiveness Planning As A Tool To Advance Student Success Outcomes For Underrepresented Males, Jazmine Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Higher education should operate as a tool by which democratic equality is enhanced for the betterment of society and its occupants; however, there are systemic inequities as it pertains to educational attainment for different groups when considering race, ethnicity, and sex (Anthony et al., 2021a). More often than not, male collegiates that hold racial and ethnic identities outside of the cultural majority have less than satisfactory student success outcomes when compared to their female as well as White counterparts. As scholars have noted, the burden of improvement and advancement of these outcomes should be placed on the institutions rather than …

Bigger Than Bees: Victorian England’S Relationship To The Bee – Considering Symbolism And Understanding, Grace Jacqueline Kaim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The complex and beautiful relationship the people in Victorian England had to the bee is one that goes beyond ideas of politics and religion. This thesis will explore this relationship by utilizing print, ephemera, jewelry, and household items, to demonstrate how the representation and symbolism of the bee was recognized and cherished by Victorians. While bees did certainly have an intimate relationship to the areas of politics and religion, one that is acknowledged throughout this work, their connection to grander themes of introspection, industrialism, folklore, morality, and status helps us understand the Victorians on a deeper level.

Examining The Impact Of Mississippi's Early Learning Collaboratives In Supporting Children From Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds With Autism, Lisa Suzanne Ryals

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mississippi established the Early Learning Collaborative Act, MS Code § 37-21-51 (2023), in 2013 to expand pre-k opportunities statewide. This study examined the processes within Mississippi’s Early Learning Collaboratives that support school readiness for children from low socioeconomic backgrounds with autism. Improving access, participation, and supports for children from low socioeconomic backgrounds with autism by increasing the components of high-quality inclusive settings allows children to gain the necessary readiness skills for kindergarten. A policy analysis of the Mississippi Early Learning Act (2023) established the first phase of the research, followed by focus groups from the Mississippi Department of Education Office …

A Qualitative Examination Of The Interplay Of Attachment Styles, The Supervisory Relationship & Counseling Self-Efficacy, Kamiron Ball Tran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological qualitative study explores the intricate dynamics between attachment styles, the supervisory relationship, and counseling self-efficacy among supervisory dyads in counseling. The findings reveal five themes: supervision is relational, supervision is a therapeutic space, security within supervision bolsters self-efficacy, supervision is a mirror for clinical practice, and the nuanced "both/and" nature of attachment and self-efficacy dynamics. This study addresses a gap in the literature by offering qualitative insights into the interplay of attachment styles, supervisory relationship, and counselor self-efficacy, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the complexities within supervisory practices in counseling.

The Microbial Communities Of Freshwater Invertebrates And Their Influence On Biogeochemical Cycling, Stephanie Nicole Vaughn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient cycling in freshwater systems is primarily performed by microorganisms, however the interactions between microorganisms and other aquatic organisms such as macroinvertebrates is poorly understood. Interactions between macroinvertebrates and their associated microbial community, their microbiome, are important to understanding ecosystem functioning and guiding conservation efforts for imperiled macroinvertebrate species. In this study, I characterized the microbiomes of various freshwater macroinvertebrates and investigated the influence of sample storage methods and environmental parameters on these microbial communities. I first evaluated the impact of different sample preservation methods on the gut microbiome of two crayfish species, Procambarus vioscai paynei collected in the field …

The Value Of Empathy For Teachers In Nontraditional Classrooms, Mindy Clair Waldrop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Little is known about the experience of teachers in nontraditional classrooms, particularly those in Juvenile Detention Centers (JDCs). Using the tenets of hermeneutic phenomenology this study interpreted the lived experience of teachers in nontraditional classrooms. Hermeneutic principles involve using texts, including interview transcripts, to develop understanding and interpret meaning. Following interviews with teachers currently practicing in the JDC nontraditional classroom setting, the researcher engaged in the hermeneutic circle of understanding, which requires an ongoing commitment to the attitude of hermeneutic phenomenology and reflection (Alsaigh & Coyne, 2021). Four themes emerged as significant to the experience of teachers and their use …

Essays On Monetary Policy And Financial Frictions, David Agyeman-Duodu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the implications of monetary policy in two interconnected frameworks. The first chapter investigates the impact of paying interest on reserves on the effectiveness of open market operations via the portfolio balance channel. Using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model, I find that responses of output and price levels are muted and uncertain in the post-interest-on-reserves regime, suggesting that open market operations have become less effective in transmitting monetary policy. A corollary to this is that the portfolio balance channel may have been sufficiently weakened after the introduction of interest on reserves policy. The second chapter revisits Alchian …

Dixieland Do Sul: Brazilian Racial Democracy And The Recontextualization Of Transnational Confederate Symbols (Vol. 1), Maximilian Xavier Conrad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following their defeat in the American Civil War, tens of thousands of American Southerners, many of them former Confederates, fled the United States to seek out new homelands in Latin America. Thousands would set their sights on Brazil, encouraged by the promise of arable land and the prospect of a new society in one of the hemisphere’s last slaveholding societies. Though many of these Confederados returned to the United States after Reconstruction, their influential presence in Brazil has remained a persistent factor. What has been the resulting impact of this nineteenth century Confederate immigration? This thesis volume will argue that …

Dixieland Do Sul: Brazilian Racial Democracy And The Recontextualization Of Transnational Confederate Symbols (Vol. 2), Maximilian Xavier Conrad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following their defeat in the American Civil War, tens of thousands of American Southerners, many of them former Confederates, fled the United States to seek out new homelands in Latin America. Thousands would set their sights on Brazil, encouraged by the promise of arable land and the prospect of a new society in one of the hemisphere’s last slaveholding societies. Though many of these Confederados returned to the United States after Reconstruction, their influential presence in Brazil has remained a persistent factor. This thesis volume will focus on a semiotic struggle over the role of transnational Confederate symbols in the …

Topics In Quantitative Symplectic Topology And Rigidity In Circle Dynamics, Joseph Paul Lopez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation has two parts.

Impact Of Solar Radiation On Perchlorate Formation In The Atmosphere: Evidence From Ice Core Measurements, Bishnu Kunwar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perchlorate, which derives from both anthropogenic and natural sources in the current environment, poses a substantial health hazard to humans as it competes with iodine uptake in the thyroid gland. Consequently, there has been considerable concern about minimizing human exposure to environmental perchlorate by restricting its release from man-made sources. However, the absence of a clear understanding regarding the respective contributions of man-made and natural sources has hindered widespread regulation efforts. A 300-year (1700–2007) Summit, Greenland ice core record from a previous study showed relatively stable perchlorate concentrations in Greenland snow prior to 1980, with some elevated perchlorate levels associated …

Nitrogen Application Timing And Cereal Rye (Secale Cereale L.) Cover Crop Influence Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Graig Reicks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dryland contributions to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are increased by N fertilizer applications and high soil water contents. Fertilizer timing and spring growth of cover crops prior to cash crop planting were investigated in separate studies to examine impacts on overall GHG emissions using a near continuous measurement system. There was a significant interaction between N fertilizer rate (0 vs. 224 kg N ha-1 surface-applied as urea) and application date (p= 0.01) for CO2 emissions. This interaction occurred because N fertilizer increased CO2 emissions by 35% for the 21 d interval following early spring application. When application was delayed until …

Primary Cilia And Intraflagellar Transport Are Essential Regulators Of Lymphangiogenesis And Modulate Cellular Trafficking Of Ve-Cadherin, Delayna Paulson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Physicochemical And Functional Properties Of Different Varieties Of Spring And Winter Peas Of South Dakota, Prakriti Dhakal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Peas are a good source of nutrients for both humans and animals, and they are the world's second most significant and sustainable legume. There have been studies on different kinds of pea grown in other parts of the world, but there is no information on the compositional and functional characteristics of pea varieties grown specifically in South Dakota. The objective of the study was to evaluate the proximate composition and functional properties of various pea varieties and determine if the pea variety impacted cookie properties. The proximate composition (moisture, protein, starch, and amylose), functional capacities (water holding, oil holding capacity, …

Developing Machine Learning Models For Selection Of Management Zones, Sravanthi Bachina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soil sampling and analyses play a crucial role in optimizing nutrient management and enhancing crop productivity. However, collecting representative samples across diverse landscapes is challenging due to knowledge gaps about spatial variability of soil properties, large fields, multiple samples, and analysis costs. Collecting soil samples based on the management zones can help farmers gather precise information about soil properties with fewer samples. Recent developments in precision agriculture and machine learning. This study aimed to develop machine learning models that can learn, analyze, and refine landscape and soil properties data for automated selection of soil sampling zones and generating prediction maps. …

Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry For Sensing Salinity And Sodicity In Glacial Northern Great Plains Soils With Machine Learning Models, Adam Devlin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Saline and sodic soils are an increasing concern across the Northern Great Plains (NGP) due to factors of climate change and land management that are drawing geologically derived salts to the land surface. Traditional laboratory assessments, such as electrical conductivity (EC) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), are time and resource consumptive. Portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) may be a viable proximal sensing alternative, as it is able to provide elemental data in minutes, in situ or ex situ, and can directly quantify salinity-associated elements like Ca, Mg, and S. PXRF paired with predictive models has proven useful for a range of …

The Effects Of Degradation On Pla When Combined With Additives In A Single Screw Extruder, Jack Koester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Species Distribution Modeling Of Aquilegia Brevistyla (Ranunculaceae): A Critically Imperiled Black Hills Disjunct Species, Eric Daniel Puetz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unchecked human activity is contributing to rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions, changes in land use, altered disturbance/fire regimes, spread of invasive species, and loss of biological diversity and related breakdown of ecosystem services. Additionally, climatic shifts may lead to phenological mismatches between species and their environments if these changes outpace a species’ ability to adapt or migrate to a more suitable habitat. Isolated mountain populations are particularly threatened by unpredictable climatic conditions, as they may have limited migration corridors and often lower levels of genetic diversity to move or adapt, respectively. As these negative feedbacks compound on the landscape, …