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Racial Orientations: A Phenomenological Approach, Nicholas Mazur Oct 2023

Racial Orientations: A Phenomenological Approach, Nicholas Mazur

Theses and Dissertations

Given the orienting complexities of how race is developed, experienced, performed, and understood, the author argues that a phenomenological approach to uncovering what makes a racial orientation might provide a better understanding of the role of consciousness, the body, and history in race relations. Incorporating knowledges of critical race theory (CRT) and critical whiteness studies (CWS), the author aims to pivot sociological discussions about race into the phenomenological field where racial orientations can be understood from another dimension. Specifically, the author offers as an additional theoretical framework in the form of a phenomenological methodology for pedagogies addressing race and issues …


The Association Between Symptoms Of Adhd And Alcohol Use And Related Consequences In College Students: Social And Environmental Protective And Risk Factors As Moderators Of This Relation, Cameron Shepard Massey Oct 2023

The Association Between Symptoms Of Adhd And Alcohol Use And Related Consequences In College Students: Social And Environmental Protective And Risk Factors As Moderators Of This Relation, Cameron Shepard Massey

Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use, while common in college student populations, can bring about significant mental health and educational problems that have negative consequences (Harris et al., 2017; White & Hingson, 2013). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can also result in significant impairment in academic settings (Kuriyan et al., 2012; Blase et al., 2009, Barbaresi et al., 2007), and those with ADHD often show increased rates of alcohol consumption and related problems, which can greatly increase the risk for students to struggle in college (Barbaresi et al., 2013; Baker et al., 2012). Examining the impact that specific risk and protective factors play in this relation …


Examination And Application Of Body Condition Methods In Cetaceans, Kira Anne Telford Oct 2023

Examination And Application Of Body Condition Methods In Cetaceans, Kira Anne Telford

Theses and Dissertations

Body condition assessments are a valuable tool for evaluating the relative health of a population through various metrics, indexes, or proxies. Long-term data collection can be used to examine the relationship between fluctuations in body condition and natural or anthropogenic drivers. Application of this information is vital for monitoring the success of the conservation management decisions for a species or population. Cetaceans have a variety of methods available to assess body condition, including invasive methods like biopsies and necropsies or observational methods such as photogrammetry. Exploration of the application of these methods in the literature revealed an emphasis on necropsies …


Sustained Attention And Object Manipulation In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alexis Federico Oct 2023

Sustained Attention And Object Manipulation In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alexis Federico

Theses and Dissertations

Infants interact with their environment from the moment they are born. These interactions can assist in shaping a child’s development, including the skills they gain. Object manipulation has been specifically associated with numerous important outcomes in childhood, such as cognitive skills, motor skills, and language skills. This study aims to characterize object manipulation behaviors at 9 months of age between infants who are at an elevated genetic likelihood for ASD and infants who have no family history of ASD. This study also investigates associations between object manipulation behaviors and a biological measure of attention in both participant groups. While differences …


Experimentally Examining Status And Initial Trust, Valerie Kristen Barron Oct 2023

Experimentally Examining Status And Initial Trust, Valerie Kristen Barron

Theses and Dissertations

Trust is a fundamental component of our social relationships. Whether we are interacting with our strong social ties, like family and friends, or complete strangers, there is a degree of trust that we must place in the other person. Because trust is essential to our continued interactions it is important that we learn how this trust forms as well as how it is influenced by various social factors. This paper utilizes an experimental approach to examining the relationship between status and initial trust. Using a two condition experiment with 182 participants, this study found that the presence of a single …


Iowa Gothic, Caroline Bailey Lewis Oct 2023

Iowa Gothic, Caroline Bailey Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Iowa Gothic deals with the stories that we tell ourselves, for better or worse, and is an interconnected short story collection set in the fictional town of Madison, Iowa. The stories are grounded in realism, but are also slightly off from the way we typically experience the world: a hoarder who tries to win a cooking contest by boiling a rabbit, a woman who recreates her neighbors' living rooms out of their yard sale items, a hypnotic rooster that starts a feud, residents who believe in ghosts, or at least the communal value of ghost stories. By asking the reader …


Bohuslav Martinů’S Eight Preludes For Piano H. 181: Style Analysis And Pedagogical Approaches In Piano Performance, Jinkyung Kim Oct 2023

Bohuslav Martinů’S Eight Preludes For Piano H. 181: Style Analysis And Pedagogical Approaches In Piano Performance, Jinkyung Kim

Theses and Dissertations

This treatise delves into Bohuslav Martinů’s Eight Preludes for Piano H. 181, offering a comprehensive exploration of the twentieth-century Czech composer’s life; discussing his compositional significance; analyzing the style of his Eight Preludes using the framework of Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, and Growth (SHMRG); and suggesting pedagogical approaches for advanced piano learners. The study examines Martinů’s life and the socio-cultural influences that shaped his artistic language. His compositional journey, combining elements of Czech folk music with Parisian influences of impressionism, neoclassicism, and jazz, illustrates his versatility and ingenuity. Through the SHMRG framework by Jan LaRue, the style analysis of Eight …


Measuring School Bullying Experiences Among Chinese Middle School Students: The Structural And Predictive Validity Of Bullyharm-China, Jingyi Yang Oct 2023

Measuring School Bullying Experiences Among Chinese Middle School Students: The Structural And Predictive Validity Of Bullyharm-China, Jingyi Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Bullying is a growing concern in China, yet few measures have been validated to assess different types of bullying among Chinese children. Despite a wealth of evidence on the negative effects of bullying victimization, how gender influences the experience of specific bullying behavior is under-examined. The present study thus aims to adapt and validate the initial BullyHARM scale, as well as explore the predictive validity of six types of bullying for male and female Chinese youth. BullyHARM has previously been shown to be a reliable scale for measuring six bullying domains (i.e., physical, verbal, social/relational, cyber, property, sexual) among children …


Meditations On Modern America: The Ambiguous Worldview Of Transcendental Meditation, 1967-1979, Grant William Wong Oct 2023

Meditations On Modern America: The Ambiguous Worldview Of Transcendental Meditation, 1967-1979, Grant William Wong

Theses and Dissertations

Transcendental Meditation [TM], a form of silent mantra meditation pioneered by the Indian holy man Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1957, took the United States by storm as over two million Americans learned its meditative technique between 1968 and 1978. At once a spiritual movement and a lifestyle, TM was a countercultural movement that went mainstream. I argue that TM was appealing because of its ambiguity and consequent malleability, as its teachings and practice came to reflect the aspirations and anxieties of its followers. By tracing their varying interpretations of the practice across periodicals, movement literature, memoirs, and contemporary scholarship, I …


Deep Learning For Studying Materials Stability And Solving Thermodynamically Consistent Pdes With Dynamic Boundary Conditions In Arbitrary Domains, Chunyan Li Oct 2023

Deep Learning For Studying Materials Stability And Solving Thermodynamically Consistent Pdes With Dynamic Boundary Conditions In Arbitrary Domains, Chunyan Li

Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning has achieved remarkable success in various fields, including image processing, natural language processing, and signal processing, ushering in a transformative era in research and real-life applications. This rise underscores the transformative capabilities of deep learning, with its innovative approach to function approximation. Traditionally, approximation theory relied on additive constructions, but deep neural networks have introduced a compositional approach, reshaping the landscape of function approximation. This thesis explores the efficacy of this compositional construction within the realm of material science and the solution of thermodynamically consistent partial differential equations with thermodynamically consistent dynamic boundary conditions in arbitrary domains. As …


Harnessing Surrogate Modeling And Machine Learning For Management Of Water Resources And Environmental Systems, Mahdi Erfani Oct 2023

Harnessing Surrogate Modeling And Machine Learning For Management Of Water Resources And Environmental Systems, Mahdi Erfani

Theses and Dissertations

In a world characterized by increasing and more frequent climate extreme events, population growth, and limited opportunities for infrastructural expansion, the imperative for more efficient and resilient planning, design, and operation of water resources and environmental systems has never been more apparent. Moreover, the emergence of high-dimensional data and the demand for quick and informed decision-making have created a critical challenge for the operation and management of these systems. To address these issues effectively, the ability to rapidly grasp and accelerate the analysis of this data is paramount, and this necessitates the innovative use of machine learning and surrogate modeling …


Field And Laboratory Characterization Of Subgrade Resilient Modulus For The Aashtoware Pavement Me, Kazi Moninul Islam Oct 2023

Field And Laboratory Characterization Of Subgrade Resilient Modulus For The Aashtoware Pavement Me, Kazi Moninul Islam

Theses and Dissertations

The new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) uses the subgrade resilient modulus (MR) as the key input parameter to represent the subgrade soil behavior for pavement design. This research focused on field and laboratory characterization of subgrade resilient modulus assessing the effects of predicted distresses and IRI on the flexible pavement. The results of this study are presented in the form of three chapters and peer-reviewed journal manuscripts. Firstly (Chapter 3), MR was obtained indirectly from Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) data using a back-calculation tool (i.e., SCDOT, BAKFAA, and AASHTOWare 2017) or from empirical correlations with soil index properties. MR …


Antimicrobial Polymers And Small Molecules From Multicyclic Compounds And Engineering Of Sustainable Polymers, Leman Buzoglu Kurnaz Oct 2023

Antimicrobial Polymers And Small Molecules From Multicyclic Compounds And Engineering Of Sustainable Polymers, Leman Buzoglu Kurnaz

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the synthesis of polymers and small molecules from multicyclic compounds and the development of sustainable polymers from renewable feedstock were investigated. The antimicrobial biomaterials and sustainable polymers were characterized and their properties were discussed. In Chapter 1, the overall background and recent developments of antimicrobial biomaterials and their application were discussed. Later, sustainable polymers from renewable biomass and their synthesis methods were given. Afterward, the main research objectives of this doctoral research study were described. In Chapter 2, the synthesis of multiple charged small molecules from multicyclic compounds was discussed. These compounds were obtained by using various …


How Do The Students Feel? Long-Term English Learners And Their Experience Under The Esl Label, Molly M. Staeheli Oct 2023

How Do The Students Feel? Long-Term English Learners And Their Experience Under The Esl Label, Molly M. Staeheli

Theses and Dissertations

Far too many English learners in my district enter elementary school as non-native speakers, gradually developing skills only to plateau at early intermediate levels as determined by the annual proficiency exam. As these students become long-term English learners (LTELs) in junior high, the pattern of failing and retaking the test wears on them, likely exacerbated by the district-mandated curriculum for English language development (ELD) classes. Unit topics such as money matters and U.S. national monuments at advanced levels fail to tap into students’ lived experiences. I responded to this problem of practice through mixed-methods action research, beginning with a quantitative …


Heterogeneous Catalyst Design For Biomass Conversion, Dia Sahsah Oct 2023

Heterogeneous Catalyst Design For Biomass Conversion, Dia Sahsah

Theses and Dissertations

Catalytic upgrading of bio-based feedstocks to commodity chemicals and fuels is pivotal to a more sustainable, renewable, and environmentally benign chemical economy. However, due to the high oxygen content, high water solubility, excessive reactivity, and thermal instability, typical and well-developed catalytic material and reactor processes reliably utilized in conventional petrochemical industry are, in general, not suitable for the processing of biomass feedstocks. Therefore, the development of novel heterogeneous catalysts is necessary in order to design new high-performance catalytic reactor systems. However, rational catalyst design is a multifaceted problem, and a myriad of factors influencing the catalytic performance at the reactor …


Evaluation Of The Dynamic Response Of Gravelly Soil Under Different Drainage Conditions, Pressley Margaret Perry Oct 2023

Evaluation Of The Dynamic Response Of Gravelly Soil Under Different Drainage Conditions, Pressley Margaret Perry

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout history in the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering, there have been numerous experimental investigations on the dynamic behavior of soils. Many of these efforts have been focused on sand and silty sand material due to their susceptibility to liquefaction phenomena. However, gravelly soil material (i.e., soil in which gradation contains primarily gravel and sand) has exhibited this phenomenon in response to earthquake loading in many case histories. Therefore, it is important to extend the experimental assessment of gravelly soil material to develop a better understanding of the cyclic response and to support the development of numerical models. This study …


Structure Property Performance Of Ti3c2 Mxene/Polyelectrolyte Hybrids For Electronic And Electromagnetic Applications, Farivash Gholamirad Oct 2023

Structure Property Performance Of Ti3c2 Mxene/Polyelectrolyte Hybrids For Electronic And Electromagnetic Applications, Farivash Gholamirad

Theses and Dissertations

Hybrid materials based on transition metal carbide MXene (Ti3C2Tx) nanosheets have great potential for electronic, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, and environmental applications due to the unique combination of considerable electrical conductivity of 4000 to 15000 S.cm-1, abundant surface functional groups (OH, O, F, Cl), and suitable mechanical properties. However, the performance of final products depends not only on the properties of constituent components but also on the morphology of the assembly. The strong repulsive electrical double layer forces among MXene nanosheets make control over their assembly morphology and final properties challenging. To address this challenge, this dissertation focuses on applying …


Where The Constitution Is Silent: Indigenous Rights Jurisprudence In The United States, Anthony Wayne Hobert Jr. Oct 2023

Where The Constitution Is Silent: Indigenous Rights Jurisprudence In The United States, Anthony Wayne Hobert Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation examines the citation of a pair of contradictory Supreme Court decisions penned by Chief Justice John Marshall—Johnson v. McIntosh (1823) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832)—to answer questions in three distinct realms. First, it answers whether and to what degree the Doctrine of Discovery, as presented by Marshall in Johnson, is fundamentally Lockean. Second, it answers the question of whether the Court acts as a majoritarian institution with regards to its indigenous jurisprudence. Third, it answers questions regarding strategic behavior in the American judicial hierarchy, focusing on the precedents’ citation in lower federal courts, state supreme courts, and tribal …


Understanding The Role Of The Jet Streams And Gulf Stream Eddies On The Northwest Atlantic Marine Heatwaves, Lydia Rose Duncan Sims Oct 2023

Understanding The Role Of The Jet Streams And Gulf Stream Eddies On The Northwest Atlantic Marine Heatwaves, Lydia Rose Duncan Sims

Theses and Dissertations

The Northwest (NW) Atlantic is one of the fastest warming regions in the global ocean and in the recent decade has experienced several extreme temperature events. These extreme anomalous temperature events are known as Marine Heatwaves (MHWs), which are forced by a variety of physical processes that affect the heat source and sink of the water column. These MHWs have been increasing globally in duration and frequency due to anthropogenic warming, and have increased ecological damage seen in mass mortality events of economically viable species. Within the NW Atlantic, several key processes encourage the formation of MHWs, such as the …


Understanding Podcast Advertising Processing And Outcomes: An Analysis Of Podcast Ad Types, Message Types, And Media Context On Consumer Responses, Colin Piacentine Oct 2023

Understanding Podcast Advertising Processing And Outcomes: An Analysis Of Podcast Ad Types, Message Types, And Media Context On Consumer Responses, Colin Piacentine

Theses and Dissertations

Podcasting is a rapidly growing medium that is increasingly substantially in terms of both audiences and advertising revenue. This study examines the concepts of native advertising, persuasion knowledge, narrative transportation, and media context congruity as they pertain to this emerging media format. Specifically, it examines the effects of ad type (host-read/announcer-read), message type (informative/narrative), and genre (news/true crime), as well as the interactions between them, on consumer responses. Consumer responses are categorized into those relating to the podcast and those relating to the advertisement. A 2 x 2 x 2 full factorial between-subjects online experiment is conducted comparing eight podcast …


Instructional Hub: Bridging The Gap In Teacher Preparation For Online Instruction, Charity Beth Simmons Oct 2023

Instructional Hub: Bridging The Gap In Teacher Preparation For Online Instruction, Charity Beth Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

In the spring of 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) reached pandemic status in the United States, leading to extended educational disruption and posing significant obstacles for teachers who were unprepared to teach in a virtual environment. Educators adjusted curricular materials, delivery, and assessment methods to accommodate and engage students while maintaining academic objectives and minimizing stress. Few teachers in District 8705, South Carolina, had experience with distance instruction; thus, they had little to no adaptive knowledge on which to depend. The purpose of this dissertation was to find a solution that could significantly enhance teacher preparation for virtual teaching through …


The Use Of Project-Based Learning To Scaffold Student Social And Emotional Learning Skill Development, Science Identity, And Science Self-Efficacy, Michelle Sutton Spigner Oct 2023

The Use Of Project-Based Learning To Scaffold Student Social And Emotional Learning Skill Development, Science Identity, And Science Self-Efficacy, Michelle Sutton Spigner

Theses and Dissertations

Project-based learning (PBL) offers an ideal approach for cultivating a robust STEM workforce, empowering students to actively construct their knowledge. This process has the potential to enhance science identity and self-efficacy. Furthermore, because PBL is inherently collaborative, it fosters the development of 21st-century skills, many of which align with social and emotional learning (SEL). While past studies have explored the relationship between PBL, SEL, science identity, and self-efficacy, there is a research gap in examining all three variables collectively within a high school context. Thus, this mixed-methods action research study aimed to determine if the implementation of a PBL unit, …


Progressive Neurochemical, Neuroinflammatory And Cognitive Deficits In An Experimental Model Of Gulf War Illness, Hannah Elizabeth Burzynski Oct 2023

Progressive Neurochemical, Neuroinflammatory And Cognitive Deficits In An Experimental Model Of Gulf War Illness, Hannah Elizabeth Burzynski

Theses and Dissertations

Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a multi-symptom illness that presents with cognitive disturbances and immune dysregulation and continues to affect over 25% of Gulf War veterans. While soldiers were exposed to several hazards in the Gulf, the prophylactic use of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, pyridostigmine bromide (PB) and war-related stress have been identified as chief factors in GWI pathology. As both PB and stress alter acetylcholine (ACh), a critical mediator of cognition and inflammation, the focus of my dissertation work was investigating the lasting effects of PB and stress on peripheral and central cholinergic signaling. Specifically, I assessed hippocampal-dependent learning and …


Decentering The White Gaze: The Effects Of Involving African-American Students In Curricular Decision-Making In An Independent School Library, Michelle Efird Rosen Oct 2023

Decentering The White Gaze: The Effects Of Involving African-American Students In Curricular Decision-Making In An Independent School Library, Michelle Efird Rosen

Theses and Dissertations

Many Black students at independent schools across the nation spend most of their educational lives with few classmates or teachers who look like them. This isolation is exacerbated by a curriculum that historically has taught to a White standard of excellence. Long the bastion of wealthy, White families, independent schools have generally failed to make headway in their efforts to recruit Black families to their campuses. This has left Black students with the burden of finding their own methods of adapting to a predominantly White school environment. This study sought to determine how involving four African-American fourth-grade students in a …


From Oceans To Public Health: Impact Of Climate Change And Socioecological Factors On Non-Cholera Vibrio Spp., Karlen Enid Correa Vélez Oct 2023

From Oceans To Public Health: Impact Of Climate Change And Socioecological Factors On Non-Cholera Vibrio Spp., Karlen Enid Correa Vélez

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change-induced stressors, such as temperature, salinity, pH, and wildfire, are contributing factors to the increase in frequency of Vibrio infections, altering Vibrio geographical constraints. At the same time, the expansion of the coastal population is resulting in increased input of treated municipal wastewater into areas that are also experiencing Vibrio proliferation. Given that increases in ocean temperature and sea level coupled with increases in human activity in coastal waters support greater Vibrio-human interactions, it is important to examine factors and mechanisms within this socio-ecological coupled system that may further strengthen this interaction. This study aimed to better understand the …


Leveraging Inflammatory Responses Toward Advancing Alzheimer’S Disease Treatments And Biomaterial Implantation, Mihyun Lim Waugh Oct 2023

Leveraging Inflammatory Responses Toward Advancing Alzheimer’S Disease Treatments And Biomaterial Implantation, Mihyun Lim Waugh

Theses and Dissertations

Inflammation is a body’s physiological response to pathogens, foreign materials, or tissue injury. When immune system is triggered, activated leukocytes produce cytokines and chemokines that promote migration of neutrophils and macrophages to the inflammatory regions. At early stages of injury, acute inflammation occurs immediately to fight off the pathogens and restore tissues to homeostasis. However, if the inflammation-inducing stimulus is not removed and thus cells and tissues do not return to its homeostatic state, the prolonged inflammatory responses become a chronic condition. Recent studies have indicated that the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE), a key receptor of innate immune …


The Effects Of Learner-Centered Professional Development And Supporting Effective Teaching Practices In Elementary-Level Professional Learning Communities, Lisa Suther Johnson Oct 2023

The Effects Of Learner-Centered Professional Development And Supporting Effective Teaching Practices In Elementary-Level Professional Learning Communities, Lisa Suther Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study identified the effects of learner-centered professional development (PD) and continuous support of effective teaching practices during professional learning communities (PLCs). This study focused on four specific areas – 1) building the teacher’s content knowledge through PD, 2) providing support for the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy during PLCs, 3) providing support for the creation of equitable learning environments with learner-centered instruction, and 4) reducing the math anxiety experienced by the teachers. This mixed-methods research design used pre- and post-survey data of third-grade teachers and students, instructional coach interview responses, and students’ post-assessment data to examine how …


Structural, Functional And Biochemical Studies To Elucidate The Molecular Basis Of Xenobiotic Metabolism Of Tetranychus Uritcae, A Major Agricultural Pest, Ricardo Hernandez Arriaza Oct 2023

Structural, Functional And Biochemical Studies To Elucidate The Molecular Basis Of Xenobiotic Metabolism Of Tetranychus Uritcae, A Major Agricultural Pest, Ricardo Hernandez Arriaza

Theses and Dissertations

The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, is a major cosmopolitan pest that feeds on more than 1,100 plant species, including 150 crops. Such a wide host range indicates this mite’s unparalleled xenobiotic responsiveness that is also coincident with their ability to rapidly develop resistance to pesticides. An unprecedently large detoxifying machinery is one of the main biological traits responsible for their extraordinary adaptation potential and devastating effect on crops. Availability of the whole genome sequence revealed expansions in all major detoxifying families and demonstrated that this genome has been enriched by horizontally transferred genes from bacteria and fungi. Motivated by …


Contemporary Vocal Pedagogy In The Choral Ensemble Rehearsal: A Guide For Secondary Educators, Luke Lee Browder Oct 2023

Contemporary Vocal Pedagogy In The Choral Ensemble Rehearsal: A Guide For Secondary Educators, Luke Lee Browder

Theses and Dissertations

The field of contemporary commercial vocal pedagogy is relatively new, with serious academic study primarily taking place over the last twenty-five years. In that time, however, a growing body of research has shown that the function of the vocal mechanism operates in essentially the same manner across classical and contemporary commercial music (CCM) genres, but the application of vocal function is what differentiates classical and CCM singing. Since secondary music educators often represent the only vocal training their students will ever receive, it is helpful for them to know the differences in vocal techniques and how to effectively train singers …


A User Needs Assessment For Snowvision/World Engraved, Sam Toren Mcdorman Oct 2023

A User Needs Assessment For Snowvision/World Engraved, Sam Toren Mcdorman

Theses and Dissertations

Paddle stamped pottery has a long history in what we now call the southeastern United States. From 100-800 CE, intricate curvilinear designs were carved into paddles and impressed in ceramic vessels in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Called Swift Creek Complicated Stamped, this type has been long recognized by archaeologists for its uniqueness. Artists Bettye J. Broyles and Frankie Snow reconstructed hundreds of paddle designs from sherds and modern archaeologists use these designs to study the movements and connections of the people who made the pottery. The Snowvision team has developed a machine learning computer vision algorithm to …