Digital Commons Network^™

Associations Between Neurological Correlates Of Reading And Learning Disability Profiles Among Children, Jessica Luedke

Theses and Dissertations

Early reading skills are vital for child development. Children with specific reading learning disabilities (SLD-R) display persistent difficulties acquiring reading skills. They are at an increased risk for adverse life outcomes, including mental health concerns, low educational attainment, and low academic motivation. Progress in neurobiological research provides opportunities to enhance the assessment and identification of learning disabilities by revealing distinct neurological patterns of learning. However, the integration of this progress with school psychology research is rare. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate brain network connectivity as a biomarker of reading using resting-state quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) coherence. Fronto-central …

Medication Adherence Between Long-Acting Injectable And Oral Antipsychotic Medications In South Carolina Medicaid Beneficiaries With Schizophrenia, Pujing Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Schizophrenia is a chronic and serious mental disorder that affects millions of individuals worldwide. A recent study shows the prevalence of schizophrenia globally is about 1%. The primary schizophrenia treatment goal is to effectively manage symptoms and prevent relapses. Antipsychotic medications are very important for the treatment of schizophrenia. However, the prevalence of nonadherence to antipsychotic medication is high, with mean rates reaching 41.2%. In the realm of schizophrenia treatment, two primary categories of medications are utilized: long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI) and oral antipsychotic agents (OAP).LAI are administered at intervals spanning from two weeks to several months and have …

Sacred Symbols In A Secular World: Religious Imagery In The Works Of Jack London And Sylvia Plath, Kathleen Elizabeth Long

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to investigate and analyze the presence of religious symbolism in the novels of Jack London and Sylvia Plath, two authors whose atheist beliefs comingle in intriguing ways with this sacred imagery, offering rich ground for comparative analysis. Despite London’s fervent Darwinist beliefs, he injects subtle religious motif within The Call of the Wild, devoted to promoting atheist thought yet yearning for the grandiosity of myth. Similarly, Plath uses allusions to Judaism within her novel The Bell Jar, subverting classical religious tradition to associate it with themes of animal savagery. By studying these two texts, this …

Social Media Use And Interactivity: An Application Of Uses And Gratifications, Patrick Bush

Theses and Dissertations

Accessing news media and the coverage of current events has become streamlined and exponentially easier to access due to the explosive growth of internet usage and by extent the increase of social media usage. As this form of media continues to evolve and becomes not only more accessible, but accepted by a variety of audiences, some parties may seek to find or create their own public spheres of influence online to share information and develop conversations relevant to the participants therein. It is here where the concept of digital storytelling becomes a heavy influence on how the individual not only …

Optimization Of A Nanotechnology-Based System For The Treatment Of Electroplating Wastewater, Madeleine Mary Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

To protect humans and the environment, human actions that may expose living organisms to toxic metals are heavily regulated in developed countries. The use and production of toxicants in commercial applications is tightly controlled in the United States of America by federal and state laws. Due to this fact, United States manufacturing companies are required to control the amount of regulated toxicants that leave their facilities. Toxic metals in wastewater are heavily regulated by federal and state law, with manufacturing facilities permitted individually for the concentrations of metals they are allowed to discharge via their wastewater. From previous research conducted …

Preregistration And Registration As A New Method For Transparency Of External Validation In Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Applications To Address Overfitting, Underspecification, And Shortcut Learning, Marilyn Elaine Gartley

Theses and Dissertations

Statistics has been defined as the study of how information should be employed to reflect on and give guidance for action in a practical situation involving uncertainty. The essence of uncertainty is that there is more than one possible outcome, and the actual outcome is unknown in advance; it is indeterminate. The goal of statistical methods is inference: namely, statistical inference—reaching conclusions about populations or deriving scientific insights from data which are collected from a representative sample of that population through providing a mathematical understanding of inference, quantifying the degree of support that data offer for assertions of knowledge, as …

How Organizational Structure And Power Dynamics Impact Decision Making—An Empirical Investigation Of General Manager Turnover In The National Basketball Association, Xiaoan Huang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the factors affecting GM dismissals in the NBA. Although there is limited consideration of executives in sport, scholars argue that GMs play a critical role within professional sport organizations, as they are generally involved in both business and on-field operations of the team. While there is some understanding of the impact that GMs have on organizational performance in sports, there is a lack of consideration of the tenure of executives and the factors that lead to turnover in these positions. As such, there is a critical need for further examination of GMs in sport. Following power theory …

An Analysis Of Akira Yuyama's Piano Works For Children, Xiaoya (Sisi) Gao

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Akira Yuyama’s piano collections and method for children published before 2000. Akira Yuyama was born in Hiratsuka, Japan on September 9th, 1932 and spent his childhood during World War II. At the age of 23, Yuyama graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and won first prize in the 9th Japan Music Competition for his Sonatine for Violin and Piano. He also won the Grand Prize at the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival. As a prolific composer, Yuyama composed pieces that became internationally known including works for various instruments, such as piano, vocal, …

Three Essays On Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg), Zhengwei Fu

Theses and Dissertations

This abstract synthesizes findings from three studies examining the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG). In essay one, using environmental regulatory enforcement data from EPA, I find that facility-level political connections are positively related to the likelihood of experiencing environmental regulatory enforcement. The effect is mainly driven by political connections related to Democratic senators. Consequently, politically connected facilities reduce their air pollution. The effect of political connection is diminished when the authority of senators over environmental regulatory enforcement becomes weaker after the 2017 presidential election. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that the impact of political connection is stronger in states with …

Enhancing The Security In High-Speed Networks Using P4 Programmable Switches, Ali Alsabeh

Theses and Dissertations

Network security has become increasingly essential in today's networks due to the growth of various network applications, such as Machine Learning (ML) and Fifth-Generation (5G) Networks. One fundamental Internet protocol is the Domain Name System (DNS), which maps domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Despite its importance, DNS traffic is often forwarded without being analyzed, making it a center of ever-evolving attacks. Traditionally, defense strategies are implemented on fixed-function security middleboxes that are costly, proprietary, and hard to manage. Alternatively, defenses implemented in software use general-purpose servers (e.g., the control plane of a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) network) that cannot …

Improving Tcp Performance Using P4-Programmable Data Planes, Jose Antonio Gomez Gaona

Theses and Dissertations

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) forms the foundation of reliable end-to-end communication and is widely used by many applications for efficient data transfers across the Internet. TCP relies on various congestion control algorithms (CCAs) to manage its response to network congestion. These algorithms ensure fairness among competing flows and optimize the use of available bandwidth. However, since TCP is deployed within end hosts, its capacity to attain visibility of network events is constrained. This limitation arises from the closed nature of non-programmable network devices, which prevents researchers from exploring customized actions in response to network events. Recently, the emergence of …

Fan, Friend, Or Foe: An Exploratory Scale Development Of Perception Of Social Media Influencers On Instagram, Katelynn Danyell Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to start the scale-building process of perception of social media influencers. This dissertation analyzes lifestyle Instagram influencers' followers’ perceptions of the influencer, their brand, and their communication and interaction efforts with followers through Instagram. This survey will help test the independent variables and dependent variables through the public relations lens using a combination of parasocial relationship theory, source credibility theory, and uses and gratifications theory to determine the effects and behaviors that lifestyle Instagram influencers have on their followers connected to influencer brand and influencer interactivity; and how lifestyle Instagram influencer usage, influencer authenticity, and parasocial relation …

Measuring Evidence Application In Routine Mental Health Settings: Testing A Coding System And Providing A Proof Of Concept, Eleanor Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 25 years, there have been increasing calls to advance the application of evidence in routine mental health settings for youth and families. Methods in the field for characterizing evidence application have played a critical role in shaping these efforts, which, to-date, have largely focused on measuring providers’ adherence to practices from evidence-based programs in treatment sessions. While this program-centric paradigm for characterizing evidence application has supported the widespread implementation of evidence-based programs in public mental health settings, it is limited in scope and applicability for characterizing all the ways that evidence may be applied across a service …

Essays In Labor Economics, Inclusion, And Diversity, Saharnaz Babaei Balderlou

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a comprehensive analysis of various teacher staffing policies and their impact on teacher retention and turnover. It comprises three studies, each addressing a unique aspect of teacher staffing challenges in the United States and in South Carolina. Chapter 2 investigates how different salary structures (frontloading vs. backloading) affect teacher turnover in South Carolina. Using a Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach and data from FY2014 to FY2023, the study finds that frontloading salary schedules do not significantly impact overall teacher turnover, with negligible effects on novice teachers. However, the impact varies with district characteristics: specifically, frontloading may reduce turnover in …

Multi-Scale Deep Representation Learning In Synthetic Biology, Xiaoyi Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic biology advances and combines the expertise of engineers and biologists, bridging the gap between engineering and natural life. Synthetic biology has been generally categorized into two broad branches by developing new biological components, networks, and systems to reprogram organisms. The first branch involves using synthetic molecules to mimic natural biological functions. The second branch focuses on assembling natural biological components in novel ways, aiming to produce systems with unique, practical functions. Thus, the de novo engineering of biological modules and synthetic pathways is used in related practical bioengineering applications, such as drug-targeting strategies and microbial product manufacturing. Therefore, synthetic …

Faith, Trust, And Pixie Dust: Understanding The Visions And Responsibilities Of The Varsity Esports Program Director, William Alan Fisackerly

Theses and Dissertations

The budding esports scene has drawn attention from higher education institutions in North America, who are growing community, competitive, and pedagogical esports initiatives. Varsity Esports Programs (VEPs) have proliferated since Robert Morris launched the first varsity program in 2014, with over 12,800 players from 650 institutions competing in the Spring 2023 National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Starleague season alone (Butler University Set To Host NACE Starleague’s Spring 2023 Grand Finals, 2023). Despite this growth, little is known about the Varsity Esports Program (VEP), specifically from the perspective of the directors that oversee their operations. Previous work exploring the creation …

Initial Evaluation Of A Peer Supervision Program For Health Service Psychology Doctoral Students, William Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical supervision has long been utilized as the primary method of clinical training and evaluation for health service psychology doctoral students. Despite the central role that supervision has played and continues to play in the training of psychologists, little scholarly attention has been given to identifying effective methods for fostering competency in providing supervision. The lack of research in this area is concerning, given the accumulating evidence that negative supervision experiences, such as ineffective or inadequate supervision, are reported by a substantial proportion of trainees (21-92% across studies). Moreover, these experiences are associated with important proximal and distal training outcomes, …

Assessing Role Of Social Media Labels In Countering Misinformation Using Information Processing Perspective: Findings From University Of South Carolina, Ali Zain

Theses and Dissertations

In the context of online misinformation, this study integrates Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM), Elaboration-Likelihood Model (ELM), and Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability (MOA) to investigate the impact of three social media labels on information processing and verification. It adopts experimental design with single manipulation involving undergraduate students. Psychophysiological measures (i.e., dwell time, peaks per minute, and frontal alpha asymmetry) are used along with self-report methods. Findings reveal significant effects of social media label 1 which explicitly flagged misinformation on perceived message credibility, intentions to adopt counter behaviors and information verification, and actual behaviors. The findings were also endorsed by regression analyses using …

An Examination Of Self-Identity In Relation To Smoking And Vaping In South Carolina, Jaron Hoani King

Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND

This dissertation examines self-identity in the context of smoking and vaping among adults in South Carolina (SC) using data from the 2023 SC Adult Tobacco Survey (n=1370). The conceptual model created to guide this dissertation is called the “Smoker and Vaper Behavior-Identity Model” and draws constructs from theoretical frameworks in health behavior and social identity theories. Behavior was defined as lifetime and past 30 day cigarette or e-cigarette use. Self-identity was defined by asking respondents with a history of cigarette or e-cigarette use “Do you consider yourself a smoker/vaper”, respectively.

METHODS

First, this study assesses the prevalence of mismatching …

Existence Of Smooth Solutions For The Landau Equation With Hard Potentials, Shelly Ann Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the Landau equation, an integro-differential equation that models the particle density of a plasma as it evolves in phase space. The main topic is the (large-data) local existence of classical solutions to the Landau equation in the case of hard potentials (γ ∈ (0, 1]). Solutions have previously been constructed by Chaturvedi [SIAM. J. Math. Anal., 55(5), 5345–5385, 2023] for initial data in an exponentially-weighted Sobolev space of order 10, but it is not a priori clear whether these solutions have more regularity than the initial data. We improve Chaturvedi’s existence result in two ways: …

A Strategic Communication Plan For The Clemente Center At Florida Tech, Cristiano Bozzolan

Theses and Dissertations

This design project develops a strategic communication plan for the Clemente Center at the Florida Institute of Technology, aimed at enhancing campus engagement. The methodology includes interviews, focus groups, a SWOT analysis, and secondary data analysis, providing insights into the communication dynamics at the center.

Key findings reveal a reliance on outdated communication methods and insufficient use of digital platforms. The proposed communication plan introduces optimized digital signage, targeted email campaigns, community engagement initiatives, and enhanced staff training. These strategies are designed to be cost-effective and actionable, addressing the center's current limitations and leveraging opportunities for improved community interaction.

This …

The Influence Of Unhelpful Supervisor Support On Employee Burnout Across Cultures, Charles Blomstrom-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Organizations continue to become increasingly interconnected globally, yet often fail to consider the cultural context of policies. Such failures to account for cultural differences may add to workplace stressors for employees, leading to an increased risk of burnout. Supervisors may attempt to buffer against burnout by providing social support to their employees. However, if the support given by supervisors is considered by the recipient to be unhelpful, these buffering effects may be reversed. Examining samples from the United States and Japan, this study hypothesized that unhelpful supervisor support and burnout would relate significantly to one another, and that culturally based …

Temporal Dynamics Of Shared Leadership Emergence: An Adaptive Leadership Perspective, Erica Medrano

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have identified shared leadership as a valuable team phenomenon due to its link to increased team performance and suitability for the increasingly interdependent and complex work context. Yet, little effort has been invested into discovering how the process unfolds over time. Thus, the proposed study aims to clarify the temporal process of shared leadership by a) confirming that leadership decentralization precedes leadership density, b) identifying the conditions which promote the development of shared leadership, and c) exploring the conditions under which leadership decentralization leads to leadership density. Specifically, I utilize data from an online survey and a 3-hour ecologically …

Evaluating The Influence Of Evtol Pilot Interface Visual Density And Information Density On Pilot Situation Awareness, Workload, And Search Performance, Bhoomin Bhupendrabhai Chauhan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of levels of visual density (VD) and information density (ID) of an electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft pilot interface on pilot situation awareness (SA), workload, and search performance. An eVTOL aircraft is a novel aircraft design that is able to perform vertical take-off and landing similar to a rotorcraft and transition to a forward flight, similar to a fixed-wing aircraft. These aircraft are envisioned to operate in urban environments at lower altitudes, necessitating efficient, clear, and concise pilot interfaces to ensure safety and operational effectiveness. The study …

Investigating Microbe-Plant Symbioses In Space, David Handy

Theses and Dissertations

As life has evolved on Earth, gravity has been a constant around which biological processes have developed, rather than a pressure that has been adapted to. As humanity ventures into space, we remove this constant and can observe a variety of changes in biological systems, such as bone loss in humans, stunted plant growth, or increased virulence in pathogens. The growing body of data shows that life adapts to spaceflight and microgravity in unique ways that, due to our limited understanding, can be difficult to predict. A particularly under-studied area is that of host-microbe interactions. Despite efforts to limit their …

Cultural Tightness-Looseness And Optimal Distinctiveness: Examining The Influence Of Culture On The Need To Belong And The Need To Be Different, Hairong Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of cultural tightness-looseness on optimal distinctiveness motives and group identification, examining the moderating roles of self-construal, global orientation, and tightness/looseness match. Participants (N=465) from the United States and China were randomly assigned to tight or loose conditions and numerically majority or minority group conditions. Experimental manipulation of tightness-looseness did not significantly affect optimal distinctiveness needs. Cultural match, operationalized as alignment of tightness/looseness between participants' own culture and experimental condition, significantly moderated the relationship between culture conditions and need to belong. Individuals with high cultural match showed higher need to belong in tight conditions, while those …

Rising To The Top With Strategic Agency: Exploring Antecedents To Leadership In Women And Men, Britton Victoria-Hicks Peters

Theses and Dissertations

In congruence with implicit leadership theory, research shows that individuals value agentic traits in potential leaders more than communal traits. However, traits identified as “preferable” or “more valuable” in leader candidates are not always aligned with traits that are typical of an effective or competent leader. If our industry wants to put effective leadership into practice, we must also know how effective leaders are chosen and encouraged further. Here I have explored one small aspect of this research by looking at gender differences in leader potential and leader effectiveness.

This study investigated the role of self-confidence on leader identification and …

Study On Pilot Response Time To Reject Takeoff With One Engine Inoperative (Oei), Lydia Savitri Scrivens

Theses and Dissertations

The FAA regulation 14 CFR § 25.109 defines accelerate-stop testing for transport-category multiengine aircraft. It specifies that testing must include 2-second distance equivalent at engine failure speed VEF to simulate time taken for pilot to reject takeoff. However, pilot response time is widely debated. The purpose of this study is to determine pilot response time in rejecting a takeoff due to the failure of one engine during the takeoff roll.

Seven multiengine rated pilots participated in this study, which was conducted in a Baron 58 in the X-Plane 12 flight simulator. During the recruiting process, test subject candidates provided their …

Neurodivergent Employees: The Impact Of The Disclosure Decision And Subsequent Workplace Accommodations, Tamara Farquhar

Theses and Dissertations

A great deal of organizational investments have gone towards diversifying the labor force as of late. However, the same cannot be said for efforts made towards making newly acquired talent feel included. Neurodivergent individuals in particular have not been sufficiently welcomed in organizations, partially explaining their reluctance to disclose their identity along with feeling excluded. Despite researchers framing the characteristics displayed by neurodiverse talent as natural variations found at the tail ends of the bell curve, many people are incapable of viewing them as such. Discrimination and stereotyping have thus resulted, further dampening neurodivergent employees’ work experiences. These two factors …

A Mini-Review Of Strategies For Recruiting Older African Americans To Alzheimer's Disease Research., Darlingtina Esiaka, Christina C Yarborough, Bernadette A Fausto, Mark A Gluck

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

African Americans experience higher incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Yet, they continue to be underrepresented in AD research, limiting the ability to generalize findings to the increasingly diverse US population. To reduce AD disparities, targeted efforts are needed to increase the representation of African Americans in AD research. This mini review identified evidence-based strategies that increased research participation among older African Americans. Four recruitment strategies emerged from eight published peer-reviewed studies that directly evaluated the effectiveness of strategies aimed at increasing the number of African American participants in Alzheimer's research. The strategies include community outreach and education, face-to-face …