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Binary Solid/Liquid Equilibrium of Mixtures of Thermally Robust Salts and Molecular Compounds for use as Heat Transfer Fluids
Full text linkFossil fuels, contributors to climate change that may bear catastrophic consequences, power the entire world. The human species is almost entirely dependent on fossil fuels for energy, but other sources of renewable and environmentally friendly energy must be developed. Concentrated solar power (CSP) is a promising source of renewable energy with hampered potential—better heat transfer fluids (HTFs) are needed for it to be economically feasible. Currently, the HTFs in industrial use are predominantly either synthetic oils or nitrate-based molten salts. Synthetic oils are only stable up to 400 °C, and molten salts often have high melting temperatures, making them prone to freezing. Therefore, ionic liquids are being investigated as an alternative heat transfer fluid. Ionic liquids often have high thermal stability, high heat capacity, and low melting points. An ionic liquid like tetraphenylphosphonium bistriflimide (TPP), combined with aromatic compounds, such as diphenyl ether, shows potential as an HTF. In this report, digital scanning calorimetry (DSC) data of binary mixtures of TPP and diphenyl ether was analyzed using binary a binary T-x plot, which was compared to an ideal eutectic model, and Tammann’s triangle, which provided a more accurate prediction of the eutectic composition, in order to make a comprehensive graph of the solid-liquid equilibrium (SLE) behavior. This data provided valuable insights into the thermodynamic properties of this mixture, including evidence about the eutectic composition and melting temperature. The eutectic composition is of special interest for its unique thermodynamic properties, including a very low melting temperature, which offers potential for use in CSP technology, significantly reducing the risk of catastrophic HTF freezing that leads to plant shutdowns and unreliability
Surveying the Effects of In-Person and Word of Mouth Appeals to Gen-Z on Fundraising Outcomes
Full text linkFluctuations in consumer behavior and perceived disposable income are a concern for nonprofit budgeting. Even with recurring donor subscriptions, donations can be an unreliable source of income. As Gen Zers become more prevalent in the workforce, it is a matter of time until they form the majority of the donor pool. This study explored the efficacy of repetition as a fundraising tool in appealing to Gen Zers. The sample was Gen Z students at the University of South Alabama, and a voluntary exploratory quantitative survey was administered. 113 responses were gathered. Through analysis with Spearman’s correlations and descriptive statistics, it was determined that repetitive online, in-person, and word-of-mouth appeals can help to yield more successful fundraising campaigns. In addition, value alignment between the donor and the fundraising organization and including statistics of the organization’s impact are key components of a successful appeal to Gen Z. Due to limitations, this project offers prospective research only
Joan Browning Pre-presentation Welcome Photo 1
No full textPhoto of Joan Browning and Lorene Flanders, USA Libraries Director, before presentation.https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/freedom-rider-browning_photos/1000/thumbnail.jp
Episode 2 - Childhood
No full textThis second episode in the series explores the ways that oral history narrators described their childhood experiences growing up Down the Bay. Ayana, Kiara, and Erik reflect on similarities and differences between their own childhoods in their hometowns and the stories that they learned about through the interviews.
What Happened Down the Bay? is a podcast created by University of South Alabama students in summer 2025, through the Jean O’Connor-Snyder Internship Program (JOIP) funded by the David Mathews Center for Public Life. Down the Bay is a historic Black neighborhood south of downtown Mobile, Alabama, and this podcast explores the history of Down the Bay as community members have related it through oral history interviews. In preparation for the internship, students participated in an oral history seminar with Drs. Ryan Morini and David Messenger, working with interviews from the Down the Bay Oral History Project collection at the McCall Library before meeting with elders from the community and recording new interviews for the collection. The podcast combines clips from the archived interviews with students’ reflections on how their own home communities and experiences relate to those that people describe from Down the Bay
Social Media Influencer Marketing: Exploring the Impact of a Body-positive Influencer on a Brand
No full textThe rise of social media has transformed how consumers form attitudes toward brands, shifting influence from traditional advertising to social media influencers (SMIs). Among these, body-positive influencers (BPIs) have emerged as value-driven communicators who advocate for inclusivity while also endorsing products. This research investigates the impact of attitudes toward body positivity on consumer perceptions of BPIs and the brands they endorse. Drawing on social comparison theory (SCT), this research explores how similarity alignment and congruence shape persuasion outcomes. Using an experimental between-subjects design, two scenarios with a body-positive influencer and manipulated brand positioning (inclusive vs. non-inclusive) to test the relationships among attitudes toward body positivity, attitudes toward the influencer, attitudes toward the brand, and congruence. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and multigroup analysis (MGA) revealed that attitudes toward body positivity significantly predicted attitudes toward the influencer. Incongruent pairings weakened the effects of influencer benefit transfer to the brand, emphasizing that congruence drives persuasive impact
Investigating the Impact of Instructor Presence in Lecture Videos on Learning Experiences: A Comparative Study
Full text linkAs online learning continues to grow, understanding how instructional design features influence student experience becomes increasingly important. One critical feature in video-based instruction in instructor presence - the degree to which the instructor is visually or vocally present in the lesson. The purpose of this study was to investigate how varying levels of instructor presence in asynchronous lector videos affect students\u27 perceived relatedness, satisfaction, engagement, content retention, and cognitive effort.
A mixed methods experimental design was employed, with 93 undergraduate and graduate students from a public university randomly assigned to one of three video lesson conditions: Full Presence (instructor visible and audible), Voice Only (audible instructor but no visible presence), and No Presence (text-based with no instructor cues). Each participant completed a short-term asynchronous mini-course delivered through Canvas, followed by retention quizzes and a post-lesson questionnaire.
Qualitive results (ANOVA) showed that instructor presence significantly influenced students\u27 sense of relatedness and satisfaction, particularly when both visual and vocal cues were present. The Full Presence group consistently reported higher levels of relatedness and satisfaction than the No Presence group. Vocal presence alone, as in the Voice Only condition, also showed benefits, particularly when compared to the absence of instructor cues, though not all differences between Full and Voice Only conditions reached statistical significance. For engagement, the Full Presence group reported significantly lower perceived mental effort than the No Presence group, suggesting that instructor presence did not increase cognitive load and may have alleviated some extraneous processing demands associated with text-only formats. However, attention-related results were less conclusive, and comparisons between Full and Voice Only groups did not yield consistent significant differences. Content retention, measured through short quizzes, showed no consistent significant differences across conditions. These results indicate that while instructor presence meaningfully shaped students\u27 affective and perceptual experiences, its direct influence on immediate recall may be limited or dependent on task complexity and duration. Qualitative responses supported the quantitative patterns in that participants in the Full Presence condition more frequently commented about feeling connected to the instructor. These findings reinforce the importance of instructor cues in enhancing the social and emotional tone of online learning environments.
Theoretically, the study affirms the relevance of Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), the Community of Inquiry (Garrison et al., 2000) framework, Transactional Distance Theory (Moore, 1993), and the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 2005). Implication for designing videos for online instruction and ideas for future research are discussed. The findings suggest that instructor presence, when deliberately designed and aligned with multimedia learning principles, can play a meaningful role in building engaging and human-centered online learning environments
Funded to Win? Super PACs and Electoral Advantage in the Southeast
Full text link2010 saw the introduction of a new player on the field of electoral finance, the super PAC. This introduction came with much controversy due to the widespread fear that super PACs could undermine the election system by giving wealthy individuals or organizations an undue influence. The literature on super PACs influence on the electoral system is inconclusive, with different studies having mixed results, meaning more information needs to be gathered. In this paper, I attempt to learn more about super PACs influence, particularly on congressional elections, by examining the results of congressional elections across three states: Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. I ran several regressions examining the relationship between the percentage of votes a candidate received and whether or not a candidate was supported by a super PAC. I also controlled for other potentially influential variables such as incumbency, partisanship, gender, campaign funds, and election type (house or senate). The results indicated that super PAC support does increase vote percentage, but only by a relatively small amount when compared to incumbency and partisanship. The results of further robustness testing also indicated that super PACs have more influence if a candidate is a challenger
An MSBE–Driven Advanced Air Mobility Post–Disaster Response System
Full text linkIn this work, an overarching conceptual design model towards the realization of a proposed Advanced Air Mobility Post–Disaster Response System (AAMPDR system) was explored through the focal lenses of systems thinking (ST), socio–technical systems (STS) and model–based systems engineering (MBSE) paradigms. Initially aimed at providing intervention for casualties and aerial support to emergency rescue workers on the ground in the event of a hurricane disaster around the Gulf shore of the Mobile bay area, Mobile city, AL., the scope of this research subsequently expanded to include a global outlook. Thereafter, culminating in the development of a generalized AAMPDR system model and architecture that is adoptable, implementable and adaptable by humanitarian providers around the world regardless of the type of disaster event or location where the said event may occur. In the opening Chapter I, the general knowledge, key concepts, distinctions, and definitions with regard to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) were introduced. Likewise, preliminary systems engineering efforts were enumerated, including the needs identification and requirement elicitation. Moreover, in Chapter I and later in Chapter II, the STS viewpoints were briefly considered as well as the different physical and digital interfaces that relate to the AAMPDR system. Suffice to mention that Chapter II also documents a comprehensive account of the existing body of literature and knowledge gaps that this research work sought to fill as it pertained to the AAMPDR system. Chapter III represents an exhaustive review of the state of play regarding the history, classification, and general application of AAM platforms from a systems engineering context. The following Chapter IV covered the ST aspects as they relate to the system of interest, AAMPDR system. These discussions also examined the applications of two ST tools namely mind map and TRIZ to problems associated with the emergence of AAMs including the Title 14 CFR Part 107 ‘Above Ground Rule’ (AGL) rule and the effects of 5G C–band infrastructure roll–out on future operations of the AAM concept vehicles. Chapter V focused on the application of the MBSE methodology in developing work products associated with the left–hand side of the ubiquitous ‘V’ systems engineering lifecycle. Thus, resulting in at least one (1) artifact from each of the nine (9) types of systems modeling language (SysML) and five (5) types of unified architecture framework modeling language (UAFML) artifacts. These included more than one hundred (100) systems requirements organized into requirement diagrams and tables, stakeholder requirements, use case, activity, state machine, and parametric diagrams, as well as operational and resource views, respectively, to mention but a few. Chapter VI treated the subject of measures of effectiveness (MOE) with regard to the AAMPDR system. This was accomplished by considering several candidate systems or alternatives and analyzing their suitability through a scale preference using firstly, a Pugh matrix and weighted–sum approach and secondly, a hybrid combination of the Monte Carlo Method (MCM) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The penultimate Chapter VII is an overarching summary of this present work followed by Chapter VIII highlighting the future works and finally the Appendices documenting supplementary work products accomplished in this research