Digital Commons Network^™

Capturing Visuals In Hospitality: A Multi-Dimensional Exploration Of Photographs In Interdisciplinary Research, Ningqiao Li

Theses and Dissertations

The widespread practice of photo-taking and sharing behavior fosters research on photographs to probe into consumer behavior and business strategies. Consequently, the critical role of photographic research has been acknowledged in the fields of marketing as well as tourism and hospitality. To delve deeper into understanding photographs, this dissertation carried out three independent but interconnected studies to examine photographs from both macro and micro perspectives.

The first study systematically reviews photographic research across sociology, marketing, computer science, and tourism and hospitality. It explores key topics, methodologies, and theories, and compares the merits and drawbacks of various research methods employed in …

Reading Strategies: Impact On Fifth Grade African American Males’ Reading Comprehension And Motivation To Read, Patrice Antoinette Barrett

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to implement four close reading strategies (Aha moment, Hmm moment, B.U.R.N. strategy, and R.A.P.) and evaluate its impact on fifth grade African American male students’ reading comprehension skills and their experiences with reading at Wisteria Lane Elementary. This intervention study focused on two research questions: how does the implementation of close reading strategies impact the reading comprehension skills of fifth grade male students, and in what ways does the implementation of close reading strategies influence fifth grade male students’ motivation to read in other classes? Nationally, African American boys suffer with weak reading …

Instructional Coaching: A Support For Increasing Engagement In Middle School Mathematics, Christi Ritchie Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

This observational case study employed a qualitative design to investigate the impact of student-centered instructional coaching and self-determined professional development on student engagement in middle school mathematics. Research demonstrates that engaging students in the learning process increases their attention and motivates them to engage in higher-level critical thinking. Teachers who adopt a student-centered approach to instruction increase opportunities for student engagement. Instructional coaches are used as a professional development tool to support teachers with student-centered instructional practices to engage students in their learning. This four-week study involved two sixth-grade mathematics teachers conducting Number Talks in one of their classes of …

Yield Extraction For The Γd → Λ X Reaction, K H P Nishadi Hasarangi Silva

Theses and Dissertations

Improving and adding new experimental measurements of hyperon-nucleon (YN) and hyperon-deuteron (Yd) cross sections is an active area in nuclear physics research. Scientists use such cross-section data to understand the composition of neutron stars and develop a comprehensive picture of the baryon-baryon interaction. Using high luminosity photon beam incident on a long liquid deuterium target and the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), a sample of hyperon-deuteron elastic scattering events was previously identified. The E06-103 (g13) experiment was originally designed to address the scarcity of experimental data on hyperon photoproduction off the neutron …

The Role Of Environmental Context In Supporting Children’S 24- Hour Movement Behaviors; A Positive Deviance Perspective, Roddrick Dugger

Theses and Dissertations

Background: During summer, children display less favorable movement behaviors than the school year. To investigate the role of environmental context in supporting children’s ability to meet the 24-hour Movement Guidelines (i.e., Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity: ≥ 60 minutes, Sleep duration: 9-11 hours, Screen Time: ≤ 2 hours), this dissertation had three primary aims: 1) Utilize the Positive Deviance Framework to identify unique practices and resources that enabled children to meet guidelines, 2) Examine potential associations between the neighborhood built and social environment with movement behaviors by household poverty experience, and 3) Identify specific features of the family and home environment that …

Diversity, Function, And Phenotypic Plasticity Of Cryptophyte Phycobiliproteins, Kristiaän Merritt

Theses and Dissertations

Cryptophytes are a group of unicellular eukaryotic algae that can be found in a wide range of underwater habitats. Part of their ecological success can be attributed to their diverse array of cryptophyte phycobiliproteins (Cr-PBPs), a pigment class that captures wavelengths of light that are poorly absorbed by chlorophylls. Cryptophytes gained photosynthesis via secondary endosymbiosis in which their ancestor engulfed a red algal endosymbiont. Following endosymbiosis, they deconstructed the red algal photosynthetic machinery to form the Cr-PBP. Since then, the Cr-PBPs have diversified into at least 9 spectrally distinct forms. I investigated the diversity of Cr-PBP light absorption across 76 …

The Influence And Impacts Of Critical Literacy Intervention In Preservice Teachers Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy: A Mixed Methods Study, Heather Lynn Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Critical Literacy (CL) is a teaching strategy that is designed to promote critical consciousness and enact social justice change as learning occurs. Critical literacy can promote and included in teacher education programs as a tool to increase Pre-Service Teachers (PST) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy (CRTSE). The researcher examined the impact of implementing CL instruction as an invention in teacher education programs to study their self-efficacy in culturally responsive teaching in this mixed methods study. The participants (n=90) reported a statistically significant in CRTSE, along with an increased understanding of terms and frameworks of CRT and CL as well as increased …

Phoneme Stability In Speech Production Of Cognate And Non-Cognate Nouns In A Bilingual With Aphasia, Katherine Vlach

Theses and Dissertations

With the growing bilingual population in the world comes a greater incidence of bilingual aphasia, a communication disorder characterized by expressive or receptive language impairment in one or both of a bilingual speaker’s languages. The cognate facilitation effect, which has greatly been explored in healthy bilingual studies, has shown that cognates are named faster and more accurately than non-cognates; as the cognate facilitation effect is also retained in bilingual speakers with aphasia, it is thought that cognates could potentially be used as a treatment tool to facilitate lexical access, particularly when a bilingual speaker with aphasia presents with one of …

Bayesian Spatial And Spatio-Temporal Models For Complex Data Sets, Rongjie Huang

Theses and Dissertations

The cost of testing for infectious diseases can be high, and analyzing large amounts of historical data to forecast disease prevalence can be a time-consuming process. Group testing techniques offer a way to decrease the expenses associated with testing, but this comes at the cost of increased complexity of the data structure due to grouping and imperfect testing when compared to individual-level testing. In this dissertation research, we propose two Bayesian mixed effects spatial group testing regression models: one for areal data and the other for point process data. The former model utilizes a conditional autoregressive (CAR) prior for areal …

Digital Health Design For Improving Treatment Decisions, Akanksha Singh

Theses and Dissertations

In the age of artificial intelligence and large datasets, information retrieval by querying large databases is an impossible task for the common user due to the information overload. Recommender Systems (RS) for commercial applications like YouTube, Amazon and Netflix were designed to support users by finding items of interest based on their user profiles and various filtering techniques. Health Recommender Systems (HRS) is a category of RSs that provides immense opportunities for application across several healthcare domains and contexts including treatment decision support. Unlike RS applications that focus on analyzing consumer choices, a key differentiator for HRS applications is the …

Machine-Learning Classification To Predict The Dimensionality Of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Halide Perovskites, Yatiwelle Koralalage Samuditha Sandaru Yatiwella

Theses and Dissertations

Low dimensional hybrid perovskites have demonstrated remarkable performance in photovoltaic applications, primarily due to their exceptional optical and electronic properties. As the search for potential candidates for novel materials continues, understanding the structure of these materials is crucial for investigating their stability. In this study, we implement a framework to find novel material based on a machine-learning model. The machine learning model was trained to predict the dimensionality of the polyhedral network based on the connectivity of the polyhedral network in different directions. The polyhedral connectivity of low-dimensional structures can be classified into three dimensions: 0D, 1D, and 2D. This …

Mechanisms Of Social Stress Susceptibility And Resilience In Female Rats, Brittany Sara Pate

Theses and Dissertations

Social stress is the most common form of stress humans experience and often precipitates the onset of several comorbidities, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and cardiovascular diseases. While many individuals experience social stress and can respond, cope, and recover, some individuals are more likely to develop subsequent health conditions. Importantly, women are particularly susceptible to stress-related disorders, and the prevalence rates for these comorbid conditions are 2-3-fold higher among females compared to males. Epidemiological data suggest that cycling ovarian hormones may play a role in promoting stress susceptibility in females. Therefore, the current studies aimed to examine the effects …

Prevalence, Disparities, And Health Outcomes In Patients With Alzheimer’S Disease, Dementia, And Mild Cognitive Impairment, Xiaomo Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), an umbrella term to describe progressive neurodegenerative disorders linked to cognitive impairment and dementia, impose significant disease and economic burdens on the patients. Therefore, understanding the prevalence of these disorders is crucial, particularly for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an intermediate phase between normal aging and dementia that may be reversible through early detection and intervention. Moreover, it is essential to identify the predictors of MCI to facilitate early detection. Additionally, addressing the existing health disparities in the prevalence and treatment of ADRD and MCI is imperative to help improve patients’ health outcomes. Meanwhile, …

Disco Murder City, Caleb Bethea

Theses and Dissertations

Disco Murder City is a slasher detective story haunted by sleep paralysis demons. The plot, characters, genre conventions, and prose blur, bend, rotate, and break as an animation artist named Netti sets out to pin down the killer knifing kids down at the disco—by catering to his addiction of stealing masks from demons. The trauma of a sleep paralysis demon outbreak across the city has sent the youth to revive dead clubs. Through Netti’s meandering through the mystery, he grapples with addiction recovery, past trauma, and arbitrary guilt. He ends the novel by trading in his eccentric fur coat for …

Better Days: A Minority Student’S Pathway Toward Upward Social Mobility, Brandi Nichole Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, many minority group members have lower social status and fewer economic resources than whites. In order to advance their social status, these individuals set goals that provide them access to more economic capital, many of which include obtaining a college degree. It must also be noted, however, that minority individuals, particularly those of African American and Hispanic descent, possess many alternative types of social and cultural capital that assist them in achieving their goals (Strayhorn, 2010). This qualitative study, designed to explore the types of cultural capital minority students use to achieve their career goals, analyzes …

Dissolved Oxygen Dynamics And Nutrient Cycling In Marine And Lacustrine Benthic Communities, Corrianna R. Boucher

Theses and Dissertations

The delivery of biodetritus to the sediment water interface supports a complex series of biogeochemical reactions collectively referred to as early diagenesis. From the abyssal ocean to littoral freshwater ecosystems, this work explores the dynamics of these reactions in deep ocean detrital aggregates and lacustrine benthic algal mats. In the ocean, periods of increased export flux to abyssal depths increase the organic carbon export as aggregates to the seafloor while in littoral freshwater, proliferations of benthic algae such as Microseira wollei have grown to fill much of the shallow water column they inhabit.

Data collected at Station M (Sta. M) …

One Training Is Not Enough: The Effects Of A Cultural Humility Training On Mentors’ Verbal Behavior, Anna Flitner

Theses and Dissertations

Youth mentoring has been used as a method of prevention and intervention related to social, psychological, and academic outcomes for youth and adolescents, many of whom come from minoritized or low SES backgrounds. Although more diverse than other helping professions, mentors in formal programs are often white which can lead to potential cultural incongruence. To help mentors understand their own identities and work with youth of diverse backgrounds, mentoring programs have begun implementing cultural humility trainings. The current study examines the effects of a cultural humility training in mentoring. Mentors were randomly assigned to the control or training condition in …

Contextualizing Search: An Analysis Of The Impacts Of Construal Level Theory, Mood, And Product Type On Search Engine Activity, Jackson Everitt Carter

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the world of search from the human perspective. While search engine research, both corporate and academic, has seen a growth in relevance in recent years, the relative novelty of the area in the advertising world means that many important questions remain unanswered. This work aims to expand the current state of search engine research by examining the combined impact of mood, construal level theory applications, and product type on search behavior. Additionally, this research seeks to examine psychophysiological responses from these interreacting frameworks using webcam eye-tracking technology, which was developed recently and has not been previously used …

Examining The Associations Of The Kidney Allocation System With Patient Sensitivity, Wait Time To Transplant, And Donor Distance, Shamika Danielle Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Background

The Kidney Allocation System (KAS) was created in 2014 to address long wait times for a kidney transplant, inappropriately matched kidneys, and high re-transplantation rates. This research examines the associations of the KAS with the percentage of sensitized patients receiving a kidney transplant, wait time to transplant and the distance between donor and recipient hospitals.

Methods

Data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) was used for this research. The study population included adults over 18 in the United States who received a kidney transplant between December 4, 2009, and December 4, 2018. Patients simultaneously waitlisted for other …

Leveraging Church Environments To Promote Rural Physical Activity And Healthy Eating, Kelsey Rothera Day

Theses and Dissertations

Rural residents experience a greater burden of chronic disease related to physical inactivity and poor diet than their urban counterparts. A promising strategy to improve these health behaviors in rural areas is to leverage existing structures that may support physical activity and healthy eating, such as churches, in public health interventions. Three studies were conducted as part of this dissertation. They were designed to: 1) examine whether the walkability and healthy food density of neighborhoods surrounding rural and urban churches are associated with race, socioeconomic status, and rural/urban status; 2) examine rural church leaders’ views on the role of faith-based …

Teaching About Transfer: Making The Invisible Visible Through Explicit Instruction, Brittany Morgan Capps

Theses and Dissertations

Transfer of learning—or the act of adapting previously learned knowledge to new contexts—is an inherently complex process made even more mystifying by its often unconscious and therefore “invisible” occurrence. Writing, too, is a complicated activity that depends on and responds to a number of internal and external factors. Transferring writing knowledge, then, is a challenging task for writers of all experience levels. Researchers in writing studies have designed curricula intended to help college students transfer writing skills, knowledge, and practices from the writing classroom to other disciplinary and workplace contexts. Those teaching for transfer (TFT) and writing about writing (WAW) …

The Mechanism Of Pda-Peg/Copper Selectively Killing Cancer Cells And Its Application In Treating Triple-Negative Breast Cancer And Advanced Ovarian Cancer, Xiangxiang Hu

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is one of the leading modality diseases. The number of cancer patients has increased in the last decades due to radiation, aging, stress condition, and other reasons. There are three traditional cancer therapies (radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery). Even though these treatments improve the life span of cancer patients, many cancer patients still lost their lives due to the development of tolerance. Thus, it is urgent to develop new kinds of treatments to extend the life span of patients. In recent decades, nanomedicine, which utilizes nanotechnology to deliver chemotherapy agents into tumor sites and improve the anticancer effect and …

Breaking Down The Human: Disintegration In Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Benjamin Mark Driscol

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation brings together nineteenth-century texts written by Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Flaubert, Benito Pérez Galdós, Rachilde, and Oscar Wilde in order to trace a common thread weaving in and out of literature produced during this period: the theme of corporeal disintegration and its psychic and social ramifications. Each of the analyzed works considers the human condition from diverse perspectives and portrays the breakdown in interpersonal relationships as characters become estranged from society and each other. Of course, the examples considered here are canonical ones widely discussed in criticism—some of them as forebears of literary Modernism, for which …

The Impact Of Progerin On Genome Maintenance In Mammalian Cells, Liza Alexandra Joudeh

Theses and Dissertations

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is a rare genetic condition characterized by accelerated aging. The cause of HGPS is a point mutation in the LMNA gene, which encodes lamins A and the splice variant lamin C. Lamins are components of the nuclear lamina, a complex that plays structural and catalytic roles in the nucleus that are essential to chromatin organization, DNA replication, and DNA repair. The mutation associated with HGPS activates a cryptic splice donor site which alters the lamin A protein in a way that does not allow prelamin A to be fully processed, and ultimately results in the accumulation …

Cost-Effective Strengthening And Automated Inspection Of One-Way Precast Reinforced Concrete Flat Slab Bridges In South Carolina, Laxman Kc

Theses and Dissertations

In South Carolina, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) manages 90% of the state's inventory of 9,400 bridges built in the 1950s. With more than 30% of its bridges having been under-designed and experiencing decades of service deterioration, the implications for public safety, the economy, and the transportation system are significant. To prioritize safety and address these concerns, SCDOT is in the process of conducting thorough inspections of bridges, load ratings, and exploring cost-effective and practical methods to strengthen the bridges and reduce load postings. This study is a part of the multi-year research investigation supported by the SCDOT. …

Assessment And Development Of Collaboration Framework For Less-Than-Truckload Carriers, Bhavya Padmanabhan

Theses and Dissertations

The growth of e-commerce is changing consumer expectations for delivery services. Competition is making “faster and cheaper” a nonnegotiable part of success; hence, retailers are seeking carriers that can deliver with ever-shorter lead times and at the lowest possible cost. In this environment, large carriers have a competitive advantage due to their market power. For small-to-medium-sized less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers to stay in business, they must improve their efficiency and lower cost. A potential strategy to achieve these goals is to collaborate with other carriers. In collaborating, carriers would exchange and perform certain jobs for each other to lower their transportation …

Sleep, Physical Activity, And Sedentary Time In The First Year Postpartum, Erin Elizabeth Kishman

Theses and Dissertations

The postpartum period is a unique time for women, where many women experience changes in sleep and activity patterns. Sleep, physical activity, and sedentary time have all been associated with health outcomes, but there is limited research on how these behaviors change throughout the postpartum period. The purpose of the first aim (Study 1) of this dissertation was to examine trajectories of sleep characteristics in Black and White women during the first year postpartum and to examine if there were any racial differences. The purpose of the second aim (Study 2) was to examine trajectories of the percentage of time …

Biobehavioral Synchrony In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Carly Glenn Moser

Theses and Dissertations

Social communication difficulties are a core feature of autism and are associated with a range of long-term consequences, including persistent deficits in pragmatic language and fewer and poorer quality friendships. High-quality synchronous interactions between parents and their children play a crucial role in children’s social functioning. The theory of biobehavioral synchrony suggests that the dyadic coordination of behavioral and physiological processes is essential to maximally benefit from a communicative exchange. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) serves as an indicator of physiological regulation and is reduced in those with autism; thus, dyadic coordination of RSA may also be impacted and could play …

Prenatal Depression And Breastfeeding Practices Healthy Start Participants, 2019-2022, Peyton Ashleigh Mosher

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Breastfeeding has health benefits for both mother and child, but breastfeeding practices among Black and lower-income women are the poorest in the United States. Few studies have examined the associations between maternal prenatal depression and breastfeeding duration, even fewer among a predominantly low-income Black population. Objective: To explore the association between prenatal depression and breastfeeding practices among low-income Black women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Prospective cohort data from Midlands Healthy Start (MHS) was analyzed to examine women’s depression symptoms during pregnancy and their breastfeeding initiation and duration through two and six months. Perinatal depressive symptoms were identified using …

Pd-L1 Nano-Eraser: A Novel Intracellular Pd-L1 Degradation Approach And Its Application In Cancer And Alzheimer’S Disease Therapy, Mingming Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Nanoparticle-based targeted therapeutics have revolutionized the field of pharmaceutics by providing precise and efficient drug delivery systems. These therapeutics utilize nanoparticles as carriers to transport drugs selectively to the target site, reducing side effects and enhancing therapeutic efficacy. Although significant advancements have been made in nano-targeted therapies, there are many challenges that need to be addressed to fully realize their potential.

In this study, we proposed a novel approach to extend the potential application of anti-Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody (aPDL1) in cancer treatment and Alzheimer’s disease therapy by leveraging the Trim-Away pathway. aPDL1-based Trim-Away involves tagging target PD-L1 …