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Swimming In Uncertainty: Filling Data Gaps And Providing An Educational Platform For Beach Water Quality At Tybee Island, Georgia, Lukas Roberson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

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Swimming in beaches water contaminated with high levels of bacteria can make you sick. Current monitoring at the public beaches on Tybee Island consists of weekly monitoring and enumeration of fecal indicator bacteria that takes 24 hours for results. If the number of bacteria exceed regulatory limits, a public health advisory is issued, and affected waters are retested until …

Untalented: What Is The Role Of “Talent” In Art Class?, Sean Bianchi

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The concept of talent in art education is widely accepted yet rarely challenged or questioned. This essay critically examines the construction of artistic talent perceptions, the sociohistorical roots of the term itself, and the implications of what talent does for art education. This speculative essay problematizes talent as a persuasive force over art students and art teachers alike, criticizes the accessibility of art to the naïve and art enthusiast alike, as well as the consequences of talent constructs over the future of artistic instruction within public education. Utilizing an aesthetic framework, I explore what the role of talent in art …

Emotion Regulation: The Effectiveness Of Reappraisal And Potential Benefit Of Music, Ezra J. Greidinger

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Literature has supported potential benefits to cognitive reappraisal as a method of emotion regulation, as well as intentional music usage as an enhancer of these effects. It has been suggested that instruction be provided to individuals to use these methods, especially in highly stressed populations (Sakka et al., 2018). However, there has not been an experimental study to follow up on these claims. When instruction is provided, is cognitive reappraisal more effective than naturally developed habits in regulating anxiety, and would music enhance these effects? College students (N = 170) were randomly assigned to three treatment conditions: control, cognitive reappraisal, …

Professional Learning Community Implementation And Perceptions Of Influence On School Culture, Herbert L. Chambers Jr.

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

As school leaders strive to achieve educational success at all levels in schools, this research provided educational professionals with feedback on how the implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) is perceived as influencing school culture. The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative survey design was to examine how educators perceived that school culture is influenced by the practice of PLCs. Descriptive statistics were calculated for 57 survey items. This research design provided the perceptions of school leaders, teachers, and support staff at the elementary, middle, and high school levels based on five identified dimensions of the Professional Learning Community Assessment – …

Early Icu Physiological Subtyping From Time-Series Data: A Comparative Study Of Feature Complexity, Predictive Performance, And Model Interpretability, Rojeena Khadka

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients do not follow a single uniform physiological pattern. Patients admitted with the same diagnosis show different clinical trajectories over time making standardized classification and treatment approaches insufficient. The increasing availability of large-scale electronic health records in MIMIC-IV makes it possible to investigate such heterogeneity through data-driven approach that captures how physiology evolves during the early phase of ICU admission. This thesis compares two analytical pipelines designed to identify physiological subtypes from the first 48 hours of ICU time series data. This study then assesses how well these subtypes predict in-hospital mortality. The first approach, referred …

Exploring The Relationship Between Principal Instructional Leadership Practices And Student Achievement In Rural Schools, Moneak Mccrary

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the distribution of College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) content mastery scores and investigate the relationship between principal instructional leadership practices and student achievement in rural Georgia middle schools. To this end, we analyzed differences in CCRPI content mastery scores based on school rurality and geographic region and compared principal instructional leadership practices in higher- and lower-performing schools. Hallinger’s (1983) Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) was used to assess three dimensions of instructional leadership: Defining the School Mission, Managing the Instructional Program, and Developing the School Learning Climate. The …

Modeling Accreditation Standards And Evaluation Methods To Inform Strategic Planning In Public Health Education, Debra Rich

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Public health has long benefited from the relationship between postsecondary education, accreditation, and government employment. Assessment and accreditation are important tools in postsecondary education to ensure fiscal responsibility, professional competencies, and quality assurance. The competency standards implemented in post-secondary education are not under the direct control of the federal government; however, policy amendments aimed at specific accreditation criteria could result in changes to public health curriculum and create eligibility barriers for students who rely on federal financial support. The Central Washington University Public Health program has provided educational support in professional public health for decades, and there is an increased …

When The Gorenstein Projective Modules Are Precovering: A Survey On The Existence Of The Gorenstein Projective Precovers, Alexis L. Mcburney

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis surveys known results on the existence of Gorenstein projective precovers and studies conditions under which the class of Gorenstein projective modules is precovering. In classical homological algebra, projective resolutions are used to study modules, while relative homological algebra replaces projective modules with a different class that must be precovering for resolutions to exist. Gorenstein homological algebra extends these ideas using Gorenstein projective modules. We review key developments by Jorgensen, Murfet and Salarian, Estrada, Iacob, and Yeomans, and Cortés and Saroch. We discuss the strongest known existence result, showing that Gorenstein projective precovers exist under suitable conditions; in particular, …

Another Day's Journey: Birthing Brilliance Through Culturally Relevant/Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogies, Letitice Johnson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the implementation of culturally relevant/responsive/sustaining mathematics using hip-hop pedagogy with special education students. The theoretical frameworks for this include with Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), Culturally Responsive Teaching (Gay, 2018), and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2014). Utilizing an autobiographical case study methodology, I examined the use of culturally relevant math tasks and hip-hop pedagogy with 3^rd grade students with disabilities. From this study, the following findings emerged: (1). Learning environments characterized by hope, empathy, and critical agency can be cultivated through the use of community resources and structured classroom norms that promote support, collaboration, …

Effects Of Composition, Nodularity, Pouring Temperature, Inoculation, And Mold Strength On Wall-Movement In Sgi Castings During Solidification And Cooling, Noah Brack

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The iron-carbon casting alloy known as spheroidal graphite iron (SGI), nodular graphite iron, or ductile iron (DI) experiences complex volume changes during its solidification and cooling as graphite nodules and austenite form. These volume changes result in forces on the mold cavity walls and can deform the mold walls in cases when mold walls lack the strength to resist the deformation. This wall movement can cause the formation of casting defects such as swell, warped part geometry, and shrinkage porosity. Though this phenomenon has been studied in the past, it remains difficult to predict casting wall movement with existing data. …

Formalizing Asymmetric Control-Telemetry Separation In Distributed Industrial Control Systems, Andrew Manison

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Distributed industrial control systems often place control and telemetry traffic on the same communication substrate even though the two workloads impose different requirements. Control paths need bounded request-response latency and predictable acknowledgement semantics, whereas telemetry paths benefit from scalable publish-subscribe fanout and tolerance for consumer-side delay. This thesis argues that, for the tested class of mixed workloads on shared commodity infrastructure, these communication roles should be separated architecturally rather than forced through a single protocol. To evaluate that claim, the thesis formalizes an asymmetric control- telemetry pattern and instantiates it in the Asymtra framework using gRPC for synchronous control and …

Sexual Dimorphism In The Immune Defense Mechanisms Against A Systemic Bacterial Infection In The Cat Flea (Ctenocephalides Felis), Ashley Lynch

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Fleas defend against infection through the activation of both humoral and cellular innate immune responses. Previous research in female cat fleas demonstrated increased immune activity following a systemic bacterial infection. However, comparable data for males and sex-based comparisons are limited. In this study, we investigated differences in innate cellular immune responses between male and female cat fleas following systemic infection with Gram-negative Escherichia coli. Bacterial load was quantified using colony-forming units 24 h post-infection. Immune function was assessed via phagocytic index and capacity. Survival and total circulating hemocyte counts were evaluated across infected, sterile-injected, and untreated groups. Male fleas …

The Effect Of Chamber Geometry On The Performance Of Oscillating Water Column, Timilehin O. Osunade

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates the effect of internal chamber geometry on the performance of a piezoelectric oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy harvester. Four acrylic chamber configurations with internal top-surface angles of 0°, 30°, 45°, and 60° were tested under 32 controlled conditions combining synchronous (SYN) and asynchronous (ASC) forcing at input voltages of 4, 6, 8, and 10 V. A 35 mm piezoelectric disc mounted at the chamber roof served as the power take-off element and, subject to the RC-limit caveat disclosed in Section 3.2.1, as a first-order dynamic analogue of the chamber pressure for phase-based compressibility analysis. All test …

I Am Because We Are: A Narrative Inquiry Of Waiver Teachers’ Sense Of Belonging In Title I High Schools, Bernard Young

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative narrative inquiry examined how former waiver teachers in low-performing Title I high schools in Georgia experienced a sense of belonging within their school communities and how that sense of belonging influenced their engagement in professional learning and their perceived effectiveness in supporting student achievement. Grounded in the Belongingness Hypothesis and guided by narrative inquiry methodology, the study framed participants’ experiences through the Bildungsroman structure to explore their journeys of professional becoming. Data were collected using a life-story interview protocol that combined open-ended narrative invitations with responsive follow-up questioning and were analyzed through a multi-phase narrative inquiry process informed …

The Monster Consuming American Education: An Ethnodramatic Exploration Of Standardized Testing And Student Stress, Jennifer Bagley

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study looks at how elementary students experience Standardized Testing, focusing on the emotional and physical effects of the Georgia Milestones Assessment System (GMAS). Most research on high-stakes testing focuses on scores, accountability, and policy, but fewer studies look at how students actually describe these experiences. Grounded in Cultural Studies and informed by Critical Pedagogy, this study examines how students interpret and make meaning of their testing experiences within the broader culture of accountability and standardized assessment. This study focuses on student voices to better understand what testing feels like for them and how they make sense of it in …

Cytonuclear Incompatibilities In Hybrid Systems: Oxidative Phosphorylation Capacity And Nuclear Marker Transmission Ratio Distortion In Hybrids Of An Introgressed Strain Of Parasitoid Wasp, Julie Kessler

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Speciation is an evolutionary process resulting in the divergence of populations into reproductively isolated species, a key concept that supplies our planet with an abundance of biodiversity. Mechanisms for speciation center on obstacles to fertilization and include post-zygotic barriers, such as intrinsic deleterious interactions, that arise in hybrid systems where genetic variants are combined. Genes from separate parent lineages are often incompatible due to the co-evolution of paired genes within a singular species not matching their complement genes in another species, and the result is a reduction in fitness of the hybrid when these genes come together. The mitochondrial OXPHOS …

Factorial Design: A New Look Through Overlap Measures, Sarah W. Liebenow

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Traditional factorial analysis often relies on ANOVA, which assumes normality and equal variances. This thesis presents a nonparametric approach for assessing main and interaction effects in a 2 × 2 factorial design using the overlap coefficient, estimated through kernel density methods. A bootstrap procedure is used to approximate its sampling distribution for hypothesis testing. Simulation studies compare the overlap-based test with the ANOVA F-test, permutation F-test, and the Kruskal–Wallis test under heteroskedasticity and non-normal conditions. Results show that the overlap measure is highly sensitive to differences in spread and shape, detecting effects that traditional methods frequently miss.

Vibrio In Oysters: Exploring The Impact Of Harvesting Practices, Samin Yasar

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The rapid growth of oyster aquaculture in the Southeastern United States necessitates the validation of post-harvest processing strategies to mitigate the risk of Vibrio spp. infection. This study investigated the efficiency of three cooling methods - Direct Ice Burial, Indirect Ice Cooling, and Ambient Control, on the prevalence and abundance of V. cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulnificus in cultured oysters (Crassostrea virginica) harvested in Georgia. Additionally, the study examined the safety of two different re-submersion periods for oyster safety.

Internal temperature profiles confirmed that while Direct Ice Burial achieved the most rapid cooling (< 10° C in 7.3 ± 1.2 min), the Indirect Ice Cooling protocol successfully reached the safety threshold in 73.7 ± 17.2 min, well within the 2-hour regulatory window. Microbiological analysis (N = 270) revealed that V. …