Institutional Betrayal And Military Vaccine Mandates: An Inquiry Into Loss Of Health Autonomy Concerning Unlimited Liability Contractual Employment In The Covid-19 Era, Aaron G. Dehaven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The balance between government control and personal liberty is a growing concern in the modern world. Nowhere is this more evident than in discussions surrounding government policy in public health and individual health autonomy. The Covid-19 pandemic forced many institutions to change their standard operating procedures by adapting to rapidly changing health guidance instituted to protect public health. These changes highlighted the role of health autonomy and individuals’ rights to refuse medical treatments. The Department of Defense changed many aspects of how it operated during the pandemic, including the mandate of the Covid-19 vaccine for all service members. For various …

Drug Delivery, Disulfide Crosslinked Hydrogel Coating For Polydimethylsiloxane (Pdms) Implant Materials, Paul A. Contos, Paul Anthony Contos

Master's Theses

Though polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is often used in medical devices due to its desirable mechanical properties and biocompatibility, its surface is often prone to bacterial adhesion. This is especially a problem for catheters, where bacteria can adhere and form biofilms that can in turn result in Urinary Tract Infections (UTI). In order to deter the presence of UTI causing bacteria on PDMS catheters, methods were developed to formulate a disulfide crosslinked hydrogel coating and create a methodology to allow adhesion to a PDMS substrate. The hydrogel coating discussed in this paper will be synthesized by chemically crosslinking stimuli-responsive vesicles, that carry …

Replacement Optimization For Offshore Wind Turbine Farms, Morteza Soltani

All Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with devising optimal replacement policies for offshore wind turbines with a focus on minimizing the costs associated with major component replacements and production losses due to downtime. Like their onshore counterparts, offshore wind turbines are subject to progressive degradation due to normal operations, as well as the influence of dynamic environmental conditions that influence their rate of degradation. Due to their proximity, wind farm turbines share common environmental conditions, as well as specialized maintenance resources. Their common exposure to the environment and need to share resources introduce both stochastic and economic dependence between the wind turbines. …

Bifunctional Fusion Protein Pdl1sfv/Micae For Cancer Immunothearpy, Junyi Li

All Dissertations

Cancer immunotherapy has highlighted the importance of immune checkpoint blockade and innate immune cell engagement in battling tumor-mediated immune suppression in the past few decades. However, with cancer development, advanced tumors are often found to develop resistance towards single-target immunotherapy due to the complexity of the immunosuppressive mechanisms within the tumor microenvironment (TME). To address this, we developed a novel bifunctional fusion protein, PDL1sFv/MICAe, which combines the tumor-targeting capability of an anti-PDL1 single-chain variable fragment (sFv) with the NK cells immunostimulatory properties of the MICA extracellular domain.

In vitro functional assays revealed that PDL1sFv/MICAe significantly enhanced cytotoxicity towards natural killer …

Designing Multilingual (Maker) Spaces: Exploring The Intersections Of Play, Posthumanism, And Pre-Kindergarten, Victoria G. Pennington

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore the posthuman play literacies of multilingual makerspaces with four-year-olds, emphasizing the need for such a study while situating my arguments within the existing literature and outlining my methodological approach. Chapter One critiques the public 4-year-old kindergarten systems, arguing institutionalized cultural and linguistic ideologies restrict multilingual learners’ (MLs) opportunities for meaning-making. I draw on the raciolinguistic perspective (Flores & Rosa, 2015) and its intersection with a posthumanist paradigm (Braidotti, 2013), framing my research questions as lines of inquiry to guide the study. Key posthumanist literacies concepts are defined, highlighting the entanglement of literacies, discourses, materials, and …

Studying The Impact Of Co-Teaching On Students With Disabilities Self-Efficacy In An Algebra 1 Course., Shannon E. Sharkey

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Students with disabilities (SWD) at Large High School in Rural School District have consistently underperformed in Algebra 1 as compared to their non-disabled peers and SWD across South Carolina. This performance gap contributes to the school’s designation as an Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) site, putting it at risk for state intervention. This dissertation investigates whether implementing a co-teaching model in Algebra 1 can positively impact SWD students’ self-efficacy in mathematics, with a secondary focus on potential gains in academic performance in Algebra 1 on the state End of Course (EOC).

Grounded in improvement science methodology, the study …

More Than Numbers: Interrogating The Instructional Capacity Of Middle School Mathematics Teachers, Yashica R. Latimer

All Dissertations

This study examines how middle school mathematics teachers conceptualize and enact culturally responsive mathematics teaching (CRMT) within a district-supported professional learning initiative. Guided by the CRMT framework developed by Aguirre and Zavala (2013), the research explores how instructional decision-making intersects with equity-focused pedagogy.

Two central questions inform the study: (1) How do middle school mathematics teachers interpret and apply CRMT principles in their classroom practice? (2) What specific instructional strategies do teachers use to integrate cultural responsiveness into their instruction?

Using a qualitative multiple-case study design, data were collected from three teachers participating in a professional learning group called MORE …

Organizational Metamorphosis: When Artificial Intelligence Transforms Companies Into New Economic Life Forms, Allan M. Glass

All Dissertations

Traditional theories of organizational change fall short in explaining how artificial intelligence (AI) transforms organizations. This grounded theory study, based on interviews with 34 organizational leaders, identifies a novel phenomenon: organizational metamorphosis - the irreversible transformation of organizations into fundamentally new entities through deep integration with AI as a cognitive partner.

The metamorphosis process unfolds in three phases. Individual Awakening occurs when leaders experience powerful interactions with AI, prompting a rapid shift from skepticism to advocacy. Once a critical mass of leaders undergo this shift, it initiates Organizational Restructuring, characterized by reimagined work design, boundary dissolution, and altered temporal rhythms. …

Toward A Unified Theory Of Fire-Induced Spalling Of Concrete: Transcending Domain Knowledge Limitations Through Explainable Artificial Intelligence, Causal Discovery And Inference, Mohammad Al Bashiti

All Dissertations

When concrete is exposed to fire, it can suddenly break apart in a dangerous process called spalling. This can severely weaken buildings and even trigger a collapse. While researchers have studied this problem for years, we still don’t fully understand what causes it. My research uses a combination of data, and advanced AI techniques to identify and quantify the key factors that increase the risk of spalling. I collected data from over 1,000 fire tests and used AI models to predict when spalling might happen. I also applied explainable AI tools to understand why it happens.

The results showed that …

Exploring Teacher Decision-Making Based On 4k Children’S Emotional Observations And Narratives: A Multiple Case Study, Keith Johnston

All Dissertations

The benefits of quality social-emotional instruction in early childhood programs are well established. The crux of delivering these benefits lies in teacher social-emotional decision-making in early childhood classrooms. While there is scant research on the topic, there is evidence that decentralizing social-emotional decision-making can help teachers achieve better outcomes by including families and other early childhood professionals, using data to inform decisions, and reviewing research. The current study is a multi-case qualitative analysis of two 4K teachers from a child development center in the South Carolina Upstate. It describes how the two subjects use social-emotional decision-making to support their students’ …

Emotional Safety In Pediatrics: The Impact Of Child Life Services On Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions Of Their Own, Patients’, And Families’ Outpatient Experiences, Jenni Davis

All Dissertations

Medical visits, regardless of setting, are stressful for children and their families. Care that focuses on the emotional safety of children and families can help reduce this stress. However, not all staff feel prepared to provide emotionally safe care. Child life specialists (CLSs) are specifically trained to support emotional needs during healthcare encounters. Their presence may help staff stress as well, not just stress for children and families.

This study used three surveys to understand stress among healthcare staff working in pediatric outpatient clinics and surgery settings, and how support from a CLS affects staff, children, and families. All staff …

Exploring The Socio-Cultural Dynamics Of Nocturnal Urban Landscapes: A Case Study, Jie Kong

All Dissertations

This dissertation explores nighttime social leisure activities in public parks within urban working- and middle-class communities. As cities confront climate change, shifting work schedules, and post-pandemic lifestyles, neighborhood parks have gained renewed importance after dark, especially in areas where households have limited private space. These non-commercial nighttime uses are often overlooked in planning, design, and built environment studies, yet they play a vital role in fostering cultural identity, social connection, and community well-being.

Focusing on Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, New York, this research investigates how public parks are used at night, by whom, and for what purposes. New York …

Tiered Structured Intervention Program To Prevent Student Pushout In High School, Toshawnka T. Mahone

All Dissertations

High school dropouts remain a challenge in the United States Educational System, particularly among students impacted by chronic attendance issues, academic struggles and persistent behavioral issues. This Dissertation in Practice (DIP) examines the implementation of ELEVATE3, an intervention program designed to prevent student pushout by addressing distinct at-risk factors: attendance, behavior and academic retention. Framed by pushout theory and grounded in goal-setting and self-efficacy literature, this study investigates how targeted structured supports influence students' motivation, academic achievement, and self-regulation. This mixed-methods research used student academic records and staff interviews to determine the impact on a rural Title 1 high school. …

Communicators In Crisis: Lessons Learned From Communications Professionals During The Great Resignation, Julia K. Longaker

All Dissertations

This study investigated the experiences of communication professionals who participated in the Great Resignation phenomenon between 2020-2022. The research questions focused on the role participants’ working relationship with leadership as it related to their decision to leave their role or pursue a new job. Ten communication professionals participated in a qualitative study comprising of an online interview discussing their experiences during the Great Resignation. Using the interview transcripts, the researcher employed grounded theory to extract recurring codes and draw conclusions based on the participants’ answers. The results of this study inform recommendations for improved working relationships between communication professionals and …

Nature Playscape: Investigating Children’S Play Behavior And Environmental Affordances In A School Playground, Sara E. Billie

All Dissertations

Existing research demonstrates that the physical environment can either hinder or enhance children’s play behavior. Diverse outdoor settings are especially effective in fostering motivation to play, contributing to children’s physical, social, and cognitive development. In response to the growing belief that outdoor play is both a necessity and a right for young children, particularly amidst concerns about nature deficit disorder and the rise of urban living among children, this study investigates the concept of nature playscapes, or naturalized playgrounds, as a vehicle for reconnecting children with the natural world. While contemporary playground design often struggles to balance structure with creativity, …

Submissive Daughters, Empowered Daughters: Conduct Rhetoric And Evangelical Women’S Authority, Carrie Hill

All Dissertations

Submissive Daughters, Empowered Daughters: Conduct Rhetoric and Evangelical Women’s Authority explores how evangelical women rhetors navigate and rework patriarchal religious expectations through what I term conduct rhetoric. Building on the tradition of conduct literature, this project broadens the genre to include multimodal platforms—literature, radio/podcasts, television, and social media—used to instruct women in evangelical norms. Rather than passively accepting patriarchal constraints, evangelical women rhetors strategically adopt and reframe these constraints to construct rhetorical authority. Central to this study are two terms: affected piety and performative dissonance. Affected piety describes how women rhetorically present submission as the grounds for their …

Distribution, Roles And Environmental Drivers Of Bacterial Communities In The Chesapeake And Delaware Bays, Mir Alvee Ahmed

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, water samples from the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay estuaries were analyzed to see how estuarine environmental gradients drive distributions, functional potential, growth estimates and gene expressions of bacteria. To answer this, the abundant and versatile taxa– Rhodobacterales and Actinobacteriota, along with broader particle-attached (PA) vs. free-living (FL) bacterial assemblages of these Bays were analyzed using a multifaceted ‘omics approach.

The PA fraction, differing from the FL in taxonomy, distribution, functional potential and estimated growth rates across salinities, and bays harbored genes degrading complex aggregates, and surface attachment. The FL counterpart presented genes involved in nutrient uptake …

Improving Rural Students’ Career Readiness Through Implementation Of A Work-Based Learning Career Mentoring Program, Celeste D. Bearden

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This Improvement Science research study examined the implementation of a Work-Based Learning (WBL) Career Mentoring Program designed to improve career readiness and career decision self-efficacy among high school seniors in a rural South Carolina school. Rural students often face barriers such as limited exposure to career pathways and fewer employment and training opportunities (Klar & Huggins, 2020). These challenges can negatively impact students’ career decision self-efficacy and preparation for post-secondary life.

Guided by Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory, this intervention used the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model to design and assess a program that included individual, small group, and whole group mentoring and …

Flipping The Script?: The Development And Validation Of A Qualitative Framework For Identifying Key Cognitive And Attitudinal Components Of Conflict-Based Problem Representations, Kyle Christenson

All Dissertations

When people work together, disagreements are inevitable. How someone understands a given conflict, specifically whether they see it as a shared problem or not, can shape how they respond and whether they look to resolve it collaboratively. Researchers have studied many aspects of conflict, like what causes it and the strategies people use to manage it. But we know much less about how people think about conflict in the first place and how those thoughts affect efforts to manage conflict. This research developed a tool to study how people describe conflicts in writing. It identifies key ideas and attitudes that …

Ecomorphological Diversification Of Tooth Complexity In The Oral Jaws Of Marine Teleostean Fishes, Keiffer L. Williams

All Dissertations

Teeth are essential biological tools that function as a direct interface between predator and prey, thus providing essential insights into the evolutionary history and ecological diversity of vertebrates. Historically, studies on vertebrate dentitions have been qualitative and focused on mammals. More recently, quantitative methods have been developed that can reliably measure tooth surface complexity. These methods have been applied across both mammals and saurian reptiles to test for correlations with diet, leading to the conclusion that herbivorous species generally possess higher overall tooth complexity than any other dietary group. Surprisingly, the relationship between tooth complexity and diet in the most …

Interactions Of Biorational And Synthetic Dmi Fungicides For Control Of Fruit Diseases, Johanna Wesche

All Dissertations

Biological fungicides are increasingly investigated as sustainable alternatives to synthetic fungicides in fruit crop protection. This dissertation examines the interactions between two commercial biological fungicides, Bacillus subtilis AFS032321 (Theia) and metabolites of Pseudomonas chlororaphis AFS009 (Howler EVO); and demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicides, with a focus on compatibility, synergistic potential, and resistance implications. In vitro assays revealed that commonly used DMI fungicides difenoconazole, metconazole, tebuconazole, and propiconazole inhibited vegetative growth of B. subtilis at concentrations above 50 µg/ml, whereas mefentrifluconazole promoted colony expansion. Under controlled conditions, lesion development on detached fruit was inhibited synergistically when Theia was combined with the growth-promoting …

Backpack Funding: What Happens When Dollars Follow The Student?, Alison Heape Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A growing movement in the United States in recent years, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought a wave of school choice policies, which allow students to opt into an educational arrangement outside of their zoned traditional public schools (TPS) using public funds. Critics frequently express concern that these policies place an undue financial burden on both taxpayers and school districts. States adopting such policies may take on the additional financial responsibility of educating students who would otherwise privately finance their education, posing an additional cost to the state. When students do leave TPS to participate in private school choice …

The Upcoming Moral Crisis In Primitive Artificial Intelligence, Justin E. Edens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As we continue to develop artificially intelligent systems, there is an increasingly high chance that we will develop a system that is both conscious and capable of suffering. Furthermore, it is likely that the development of this conscious machine will be entirely unintentional. While this machine will have moral status, identifying it will be extremely difficult, leading to it being treated the same as its inert predecessors. For these reasons I believe that a crisis in ethics is looming. This paper aims to argue that it is possible for a machine to have moral status, that the first such machine …

Measuring The Impact Of Ged Preparation On Ged Testing Outcomes, Matthew Utz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study investigates the relationship between participation in GED preparation programs and GED test outcomes among adult learners at a single Adult Basic Education (ABE) center located in an urban area of a south-central U.S. state. Recognizing the significance of the GED as an alternative credential to a traditional high school diploma, the research examines how instructional hours and structured preparation correlate with students’ final scores in mathematics, English language arts, social studies, and science. The study also describes the demographic characteristics of the learners, including gender, race, and age groups, and analyzes their performance on the Test of …

The Case Against Finean Essentialism, Miles Thibodeaux

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I survey, critique, and add to recent arguments against Finean Essentialism: the view that all de re modal facts are metaphysically explained by essences. Arguments against Finean Essentialism generally fall into two categories: (a) Finean Essentialism risks contradicting commonly held views or suppositions, or (b) Finean Essentialism involves an explanatory gap, vicious circularity, or a vicious regress. While the details of the arguments within each category differ significantly, it is useful to group them in this way given the relevant implications they have for one another. I will argue that the proposed critiques from category (a) are …

Between Compliance And Commitment: Community College Administrators And The Politics Of Dei Policy Implementation, Carol Birth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explores how community college administrators navigate the complex and politically charged landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy implementation in the face of evolving state legislation. Grounded in Michael Lipsky’s theory of Street-Level Bureaucracy, the research examines how mid- to senior-level administrators perceive their interpretations, mediations, and actions on DEI mandates in contexts where such policies are contested or pressured. Using semi-structured interviews with administrators across multiple community colleges, the study investigates the tension between institutional commitment to DEI values and the necessity to comply with external political and legal directives. The study contributes to …

Alevi-Bektashi Ballads: Malady, Melody And Remedy, Mustafa Cingoz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This research focuses on how ballads play a central role in the cultural and spiritual life of the Alevi-Bektashi community in Türkiye. These ballads, performed by folk poets known as aşık (minstrel) with the stringed instrument bağlama are the inseparable elements of their daily life and sacred rituals. As rooted in the path of Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam, and the teachings of 13th-century Sufi saint Haji Bektash Veli, Alevi-Bektashi ballads express shared emotions, struggles, and hopes. Therefore, my point of view argues that these ballads do more than preserve the Anatolian ballad tradition. They create a sense of …

Linking Variation In Mule Deer Nutritional Condition And Age To Population Performance In A Temperate Environment, Kent R. Hersey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The amount of body fat animals have as they enter and exit winter can have major impacts on how well they survive and reproduce. Mule deer are widely distributed herbivores whose survival and reproduction are strongly tied to weather patterns and the quality of vegetation they consume, which in turn impacts nutritional condition. The objective of this study was to identify and quantify the factors (animal specific, climatic, or habitat) influencing mule deer body fat during both summer and winter in Utah and examine how nutritional condition influences survival. We found December body fat was most affected by December lactation …

Using Disposition-Based Tools To Identify Highly Effective Teachers For School Hiring, Matthew W. Dias

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

A principal can impact student learning by hiring great teachers, but identifying great teachers is difficult. The goal of this study was to determine whether using a survey of teacher dispositions would be a useful tool to find effective teachers, in other words, teachers who help students grow academically at high rates. The study included a survey of teachers and a review of their students' academic performance on a reading assessment to see whether there was a correlation between self-reported surveys and student results.

Migration As Adaptation: Place-Based Vulnerability Near The Drying Great Salt Lake, Dallin Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The drying of the Great Salt Lake presents a complex and evolving threat to Utah residents, with wide-ranging environmental, economic, and health implications. This study explores the individual and structural factors impacting Utahns' ability to utilize migration as a form of adaptive capacity in response to these threats, using mobility justice and cumulative advantage and disadvantage theory as guiding frameworks. Drawing on survey data, a multilevel logistic regression model identifies key structural factors, including age, income, and gender, that influence perceived migration ability. Additionally, a 2x2 typology categorizes distinct profiles of vulnerability to the Great Salt Lake based on different …