Digital Commons Network^™

The Influence Of Sex Education On Sexual Behaviors From Adolescence To Young Adulthood In South Carolina, Megan Elizabeth Austin

Theses and Dissertations

Sex education in South Carolina (SC) is known to be limited, which may influence adolescent sexual behaviors, leading to a higher likelihood of lower ages of sexual initiation, more sexual partners, and more experiences of sexual violence. These behaviors are associated with many negative health outcomes.

A political content analysis of bills, laws, and educational standards provides insight to changes in political discourse around sex education from when the Comprehensive Health Education Act (CHEA) was passed in 1988 until 2024. A variable created through this analysis is used along with SC Youth Risk Behavior Survey data to assess changes in …

The Impact Of A Case-Based Learning (Cbl) Intervention In A Medical Spanish Course, Deonna Lavette Reliford

Theses and Dissertations

I implemented a different instructional approach for my medical Spanish course in Spring 2025. This case-based learning intervention utilized two main learning theories of socio-constructivism and situated learning theory in translation and interpreting studies (SLTIS) grounded in the learning design framework of case-based learning (CBL) to answer three research questions. Cases in both Spanish and English were provided for study participants to analyze and discuss. This research study used an embedded mixed-methods action research design (Efron & Ravid, 2020), with qualitative data embedded as the secondary source of data within a study that prioritized the primary quantitative data collected from …

Saw Biosensor For The Detection Of Cyanobacteria And Cyanotoxin, Tally Bovender

Theses and Dissertations

The growing prevalence of cyanobacterial blooms and associated cyanotoxins, such as microcystin-LR (MC-LR), presents a significant threat to water quality and public health. Conventional detection methods, including ELISA and PCR, are often time-consuming, expensive, and require trained personnel, limiting their application in field settings. Hence, a miniaturized, quick testing sensor is proposed to circumvent the current sensing challenges for real time, in-situ diagnostics of MC-LR. The proposed high-frequency ultrasonic sensor employs surface acoustic waves (SAW). The sensor was designed using a multi-physics simulation tool to understand wave propagation in the piezoelectric substrate (lithium tantalate) and optimize the design of the …

Design Of Supercritical Reactors To Understand Supercritical Water Oxidation Process And Hydrothermal Flames, Victor Dubceac

Theses and Dissertations

Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) has been a topic of immense interest as an effective technique/tool for hazardous aqueous waste disposal. SCWO can be achieved by introducing an oxidizer (e.g., H2O2), or a hydrothermal flame as an internal source of both heat and oxidizer species in an aqueous environment at conditions above the critical point of water (P > 218 atm and T > 647 K). SCWO poses important environmental advantages for the treatment of harmful organic materials contained in waste streams. An SCWO reactor has the potential to be compact in design and therefore can be an ideal alternative to existing technology …

Modeling The Interaction Between Pain And Movement: Insights From Brain Activation Patterns And Context-Dependent Emotion In Chronic Low Back Pain, Pradeep Kumar Sahu

Theses and Dissertations

In persons with chronic pain, fear or anxiety related to movement is a well-established model under the biopsychosocial framework that explains in part, the chronicity of symptoms commonly reported by individuals with chronic low back pain (cLBP). This dissertation aimed to further understand the link between the context-dependent emotion network in the brain and movement in two separate studies using brain functional MRI and autonomic nervous system indices. Aim 1sought to investigate the brain functional connectivity linking brain regions involved in context-dependent emotion and movement while cLBP participants moved their back inside the scanner by performing a modified trunk bridging …

Artificial Intelligence In Sport Management: A Systematic Review, Scale Development And Validation, And Implications, Kemardo Tyrell

Theses and Dissertations

The democratization of intelligent systems and their ubiquitous presence across the sport industry have created an urgent need to understand the current environment and how stakeholders perceive artificial intelligence (AI) as it reshapes decision-making, engagement, and organizational design. This three-manuscript dissertation conceptualizes artificial intelligence as a contested domain shaped by stakeholder meaning-making, consumer perception, and shifts in organizational practice. The first manuscript provides a systematic review of AI in sport management using the PRISMA framework, mapping how AI has been conceptualized as a methodological tool or contextual innovation across the sport industry segmentation (performance, production, and promotion). The second manuscript …

Stimulation Of The Rostromedial Tegmental Nucleus Induces Long-Lasting Avoidance Behavior, Jacob Ryan Watson

Theses and Dissertations

The role of midbrain dopamine (DA) activity in reward seeking and reinforcement learning is well-documented, contrasting the lesser-understood impact of inhibitory signaling on DAergic activity, especially in the context of aversive learning and avoidance. The rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) is a GABAergic midbrain structure activated by aversive stimuli and exerts inhibitory influence over ventral tegmental area (VTA) DAergic activity in response to aversive consequences. Stimulation of the RMTg decreases the firing rate of VTA DA neurons and direct inhibition of the RMTg – VTA circuit enhances persistent reward seeking despite aversive consequences, a major criterion of substance use disorder (SUD). …

Clinical Correlates: Using Case-Based Learning In The Physician Assistant Classroom, Pamela Schindler Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Physician Assistant (PA) education is rigorous and comprehensive. In only 27 months, the students must learn medical knowledge and skills for effective patient care. Instruction must be efficient and effective to teach these students how to be safe and functional PAs. Of primary concern is teaching students how to perform like clinicians, which requires critical thinking, self-directed learning, and teamwork.

This convergent, mixed-methods action research explored the impacts of case-based learning (CBL) in the PA classroom. The findings support using CBL to develop clinical reasoning skills, improve comprehension of the material, and develop self-directed learning skills. CBL requires the students …

Explainable Process Recommendation Through Multi-Contextual Grounding Of Dynamic Multimodal Process Knowledge Graphs, Revathy Venkataramanan

Theses and Dissertations

Can I eat this food or not? Is this food suitable for diabetes and why? Which AI pipeline is best suited for a given task and dataset? How should an end-to-end pipeline be constructed? These questions differ from factual question-answering tasks. Recipes and AI pipelines are processes consisting of several entities interacting with each other. A recipe consists of ingredients, cooking methods, and their interactions, while an AI pipeline includes datasets, preprocessing techniques, models, hyperparameters, tasks, and results. Each entity must be analyzed individually, and collective inferencing is performed to derive the final decision. This decision-making process, known as compositional …

Conjuring Realities: Southern Supernaturalism And Race From The Antebellum Era To The Early Twentieth Century, Dylan T. Kobus

Theses and Dissertations

Conjure practices in the nineteenth-century American South, such as “Hoodoo” or “Voodoo,” are commonly portrayed as primarily “black” beliefs or entrenched in “Africanistic” cultures. For the enslaved, their black spiritual systems, including conjure, were a powerful tool of resistance against the white enslaver. Black conjure practitioners established themselves as an affordable and pervasive medical alternative to often ineffective or harmful professional medicines for black and white Southerners, regardless of class. In this way, conjure challenged the authority of racial capitalism and destabilized the perceived moral and intellectual superiority of whiteness. Moreover, by examining legal documents, newspapers, fictional literature, and oral …

Reassessing Readiness: Physical Performance Trajectories And Future Physical Military Readiness, Giovanna Leone

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three studies integrating frequentist and machine learning techniques to examine physical fitness trajectories and future physical military readiness. Study 1 consists of a cross-sectional examination of Physical Fitness Test (PFT) scores from four cohorts of first-year Cadets at a Senior Military College from 2019 to 2022. Study 2 consists of a longitudinal examination of PFT performance from one cohort of Cadets across a baseline test and three years of training at a Senior Military College. Study 3 examines predictive machine learning and growth curve modeling methods to project future physical military readiness based on motor competence …

The Tur Nout Effect: Challenging The Median Voter Theorem, George Thomas Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

The classical Median Voter Theorem (MVT) predicts that, in a two-party system with majority rule, candidates will converge toward the ideological center to capture the median voter. This logic, grounded in spatial models of political competition, assumes full voter participation and fails to account for the growing ideological polarization in modern democracies. This thesis reevaluates the MVT by incorporating probabilistic turnout into a utility-based model of voter behavior. It theorizes that turnout is shaped not only by ideological proximity but also by expressive motivations, including both strong affinity and strong aversion to candidates. A novel measure of turnout utility is …

A Spatial Scan Statistic For Group Testing Data, Vincent Onyame

Theses and Dissertations

Group testing involves pooling specimens from multiple individuals and offers an efficient means to surveil low-prevalence pathogens, but poses challenges for spatial cluster detection when only pooled results are observed. In this thesis, we develop a spatial scan statistic tailored to group-testing data with variable pool sizes. The statistic compares a null hypothesis of a homogeneous infection rate across all clusters to an alternative hypothesis that infection probabilities differ inside and outside a candidate cluster, with both models fitted by maximum likelihood estimation. We approximate the null distribution of the maximum likelihood ratio test via Monte Carlo simulation.

Through a …

Assessing Health And Academic Disparities In The Deep South: The Enduring Impact Of Segregation And Redlining In Georgia, Bridget Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Within the American South, marginalized Black populations continue to suffer from health disparities. A key resource that could aid in the prevention of health disparities such as teen pregnancy is the school nurse. School nurses are well positioned to assist in the development of independent health maintenance among student populations. However, school nurses remain understaffed and underfunded throughout most of the United States, which limits their effectiveness. It is possible that within southern states there are inequities in how school resources are allocated that have ties to segregation and redlining practices that systemically marginalized Black populations throughout the 1900s. …

I Belong Here And Am Thriving: Understanding Full-Time Graduate Student Well-Being And Belonging In An Msw Program, Lana Hart Elkins

Theses and Dissertations

Graduate-level social work students face high levels of stress that can impact their academic success and well-being. According to a national college health assessment, fulltime Master of Social Work (MSW) students at a southeastern university report significantly more academic, career-related, and financial stress than peers in other graduate programs. This study addressed the need to better understand full-time MSW student experiences and identify ways the program can mitigate stress, promote wellbeing, and foster a sense of belonging. Using a two-phase qualitative action research design, the study first analyzed responses to 12 open-ended questions from four student feedback surveys. These findings …

Awareness And Practice Methods For Musicians With Invisible Disabilities: Insights Gained From Playing The Flute With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Jessica Pelltier

Theses and Dissertations

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a connective tissue disorder that presents significant physical and mental challenges for musicians, particularly in instrumental performance. These challenges may include chronic pain, joint instability, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. While such symptoms are associated with EDS, they are not exclusive to it and are also common among individuals with other invisible disabilities, such as fibromyalgia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), celiac disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This study explores the experiences of flutists with EDS and other invisible disabilities, focusing on the coping strategies and adaptations they use …

Aggressive, Adaptive, And Underestimated: From Allergy To Arboviruses, The Rise Of The Lone Star Tick, Emily Ellen Owens Pickle

Theses and Dissertations

Once considered a nuisance with little medical importance, the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum, Acari:Ixodidae) has emerged as a formidable vector driving a new era of public health threats across the United States of America. This dissertation traces the rise of the lone star tick from obscurity to infamy, exploring its expanding geographic range, unique immunologic impacts on humans, and role in the transmission of emerging tickborne viruses. Through a series of integrated studies, this work characterizes the epidemiology, immunology, and ecological context of tick-borne diseases in the southeastern U.S., with a particular focus on α-Gal syndrome (AGS), …

Multi-Task Deep Learning Approach For Segmenting And Classifying Competitive Swimming Activities Using A Single Imu, Mark Shperkin

Theses and Dissertations

Competitive swimming performance analysis has traditionally relied on manual video review and multi-sensor systems, both of which are resource-intensive and impractical for everyday training use. This study investigates whether a single wrist-worn inertial measurement unit (IMU) can be used to automatically segment and classify swimming activities with high accuracy. We propose a multi-task deep learning pipeline based on the MTHARS (Multi-Task Human Activity Recognition and Segmentation) architecture introduced by Duan et al. to perform stroke classification, lap segmentation, stroke count estimation, and underwater kick count estimation. Data were collected from eleven collegiate-level swimmers wearing left-wrist-mounted IMUs, each performing five 100-yard …

Academic Wellness In Health Professional Students: The Intersection Between Dietary Attitudes And Behaviors, Sleep Quality, And Mental Health, Kenya Shereece Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Academic success is strongly influenced by student well-being, with nutrition, sleep, and mental health emerging as critical and interconnected components. Health profession students often face significant mental and physical demands, as they navigate their educational training, which can challenge their ability to maintain healthy behaviors and access necessary support. Although these students are often trained to recognize, treat, and promote wellness in others, they may struggle to prioritize or seek care for themselves. This work aims to explore the health behaviors and care-seeking patterns of health profession students, with a focus on dietary habits, sleep, and barriers to mental health …

Process-Grounded Knowledge-Infused Learning And Decision Making, Kaushik Roy

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation introduces process-grounded knowledge-infused learning and reasoning, a novel framework for integrating domain-expertise-based process knowledge into the learning and reasoning mechanisms of artificial intelligence systems. This approach is designed to produce controlled, transparent, and reliable predictions in critical tasks such as medical diagnosis and recommendation. By focusing on the case study of mental illness diagnosis and recommendation—where decision-making must be grounded in processes such as disorder-specific diagnostic criteria—this work demonstrates methods to embed structured decision-making directly into the system architecture during both training and inference. This integration facilitates end-to-end training and reasoning while ensuring that outputs strictly adhere to …

The Impact Of Adverse Childhood Experiences And Living With Hiv On Cardiovascular Health And Cardiometabolic Disorders In An African Population: An Analysis Of The Indepth Community In Rural South Africa, Samuel Gavi

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been shown to be associated with cardiometabolic disorders (CMDs) and poor CVH; however, in Africa, this has not been well studied. Cardiovascular health (CVH) is an important measure of risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) developed by the American Heart Association (AHA). With the increasing prevalence of CVD in Africa, CVH is a potential upstream prevention approach. Africa also has the highest prevalence of HIV, and an increasing prevalence of comorbidities associated with it. Various mechanisms have been investigated to explain the relationship between CVD and chronic HIV infection. This study explores the potential relationship …

Examining Coping, Individual Resilience, And Family Resilience As Strengths-Based Factors For Lgbtq+ Individuals, Elizabeth Moriarty Combs

Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, and More (LGBTQ+) individuals are part of a diverse and complex community that has unique considerations regarding physical and mental health. While there is ongoing health equity research regarding LGBTQ+ individuals, the focus is often on health disparities. A strengths-based approach to helping LGBTQ+ individuals through research and other avenues may be beneficial. This multi-manuscript dissertation includes two studies that explored the current literature on strengths-based factors such as coping, individual resilience, and family resilience within LGBTQ+ individuals, as well as determined the feasibility of utilizing these factors to assist LGBTQ+ individuals with health and …

Circannual And Kinship Cues Shape Reproduction And Epigenetic Aging In Peromyscus, Kim Tuyen Huynh Dam

Theses and Dissertations

Evolutionary success is defined by the ability of a species to adapt and survive across many generations. This success is not determined by any single attribute but rather includes the entrenched, complex system that could be associated with biological rhythms, reproductive strategies, and regulations of epigenetic and genetic components. By using closed Peromyscus colonies as a model and by coupling mathematical modeling, analyses of breeding records, epigenetic studies, and in vitro and in vivo experiments, this dissertation aims to discover how Peromyscus adjusts to the internal and external pressures to ensure their survival and preserve evolutionary fitness in controlled environments. …

Action Research To Explore The Use Of Augmented Reality To Support High School Students In Understanding And Creating Art Work In A Drawing Course, Alicia Joanne Cobler

Theses and Dissertations

High school students in Drawing 1 at a high school in South Carolina struggle to understand meaning or make personal connections to their own artwork. The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the implementation of immersive reality technology, specifically augmented reality (AR), in art for high school Drawing 1 students to help them understand meaning in art and create their own meaningful artwork. Creating personally meaningful symbolic works of art is one of the first Visual Art National Core Standards (National Core Visual Art Standards, 2014). Creating meaning in artwork allows students to understand society, provide an opportunity …

Contemporary Anaylsis Of Black Male Experience Through Photovoice: A Second-Year Exploration, Ashley Dillahunt Dantzler

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the second-year experiences of successful Black males at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), focusing on the University of South Carolina. While the second-year experience has gained attention in higher education research, specific insights into the challenges and successes faced by African American male students remain limited. This study highlights the critical issues surrounding sophomore retention, emphasizing that while universities often concentrate on first and final-year experiences, the second year is pivotal for academic success and continuation. Through qualitative methods, the research captures the narratives of ten participants, revealing common themes related to belonging, cultural understanding, and the impact …

Unveiling Injustices In Theodore Dreiser's “An American Tragedy” And Susan Glaspell's “A Jury Of Her Peers”, Athena Maria Dotsikas

Theses and Dissertations

Crime and its representation in new age media is seeping into every avenue of discussion nowadays. The influence of crime is most notably evident in literature, where real cases inspired fictional novels and short stories that explore social issues and injustices. Since the 16th century, true crime has captivated human curiosity while also shedding light on the United States legal and justice system. Ultimately, true crime narratives provide a deeper understanding of human psychology and the reasons behind a number of gruesome and horrific incidents. This thesis investigates how Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy and Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of …

Reduced Order Model-Based Framework For Microsecond Model Updating Of Two-Dimensional Structural Systems Using The Local Eigenvalue Modification Procedure, Emmanuel Abiodun Ogunniyi

Theses and Dissertations

Real-time model updating is crucial for active structures and electronic assemblies subjected to high-rate dynamic events. High-rate dynamic events refer to events that occur at high speeds and with rapid changes in the forces and energy involved. These events can include explosions, impacts, and crashes. These systems are characterized by a high dynamic response with a high rate (< 100 ms), high amplitude (> 100 gn), highly nonlinear, meaning that the response is not proportional to the applied force, and involve complex interactions between multiple objects or materials. A system exposed to high-rate dynamic environments is frequently prone to rapid plastic deformation, involving violent and …

Sensing Others, Alissa Reed

Theses and Dissertations

In this project, I notice how we listen and respond to animals, both through marine bioacoustics studies and rhetorical theory, and consider how we might develop new ways of noticing and interacting with animals. I hold together rhetorical theory, marine bioacoustics studies, and my observations nest sitting sea turtles to see what kind of multispecies ethic emerges from messy encounters with nonhuman others – specifically, with sea turtles nesting on the beaches of the Outer Banks in the Summer of 2020. By confronting the unavoidable moments of indecision, and even possible violence, inherent to encounters with nonhumans others, even and …

Exploring The Ancestry And Mutational Signatures Of Free-Breeding Dogs From Chernobyl And The Galápagos Islands, Gabriella Jean Spatola

Theses and Dissertations

Two free-breeding dog populations, one in Chernobyl, Ukraine, and the other on the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, exist on opposite sides of the globe, yet both hold unique scientific potential to further our understanding of free-breeding dog population dynamics and evolutionary processes related to their environments. In the following studies, blood samples from more than 400 individual Chernobyl dogs were collected and their genomes were analyzed alongside over 1500 purebred and 200 global free-breeding dogs, describing genetic relationships and the extent of admixture with purebred migrants. Importantly, the sampled Chernobyl dogs had long-term exposures to ionizing radiation because of the 1986 …

Quantifying Biomass Burning Impacts On Soil Nox Emissions And Reactive Nitrogen Cycling, Olivia Rae Steinbeck

Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO₂) are trace gases that play a critical role in the atmosphere by influencing air quality, oxidation chemistry, and the deposition of fixed nitrogen. Historically, NOx emissions have been primarily linked to anthropogenic sources such as fossil fuel combustion, industrial activities, and agriculture. However, as successful legislation has significantly reduced these emissions, the relative importance of natural NOx sources has become an increasing concern. Soil NOx emissions are of particular interest due to their strong temperature dependence and their connection to global climate change. Rising global temperatures are expected to accelerate soil NOx emissions …