UA Institutional Repository (Univ. of Alabama)
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Development of Functionalized Adsorbents and Adsorptive Membranes for Mechanistically Tuned Removal of PFAS
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationThe widespread presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water sources poses significant environmental and health risks due to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and resistance to conventional treatment methods. Despite tremendous efforts, the efficient and selective removal of long-chain PFAS (C > 6), such as perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), and short-chain PFAS (C 90% of PFOS and PFBS removal, in the range of commercial TFC NF with permeability 20 times greater than TFC NF membranes. This work provides a comprehensive approach to PFAS removal by advancing adsorption and membrane technologies, offering scalable and sustainable solutions for safer water treatment
The Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Stimulant Use Disorders in the United States
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationUsing a three-article format, this dissertation examines the influence of social determinants of health on stimulant use within the United States. The first article investigates the background of stimulant use while simultaneously exploring various environmental factors and interventions related to stimulant use in the United States. This represents the first comprehensive literature review to examine the relationship between social determinants of health (SDOH) and stimulant use disorders (StUD). The second article presents a concept analysis of ADHD stimulants, guided by Walker and Avant’s eight-step method, to offer a comprehensive structural approach to analyzing ADHD stimulants. Consequently, this concept analysis facilitated the development of a conceptual framework to guide treatment and interventions specifically tailored for stimulant use. The third article is a comprehensive investigation of the influence of SDOH on stimulant use in the United States, utilizing secondary data provided by the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program. The findings underscore the necessity for comprehensive screening tools and interventions that address both individual and community-level factors to mitigate the risk of stimulant use in vulnerable populations
Gay News, Straight Facts: the Alabama Forum as a Voice for Queer Activism in 1980s Alabama.
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationThe Alabama Forum was the state’s longest running gay and lesbian special-interest newspaper. It printed monthly from 1981 until 2002 and was distributed for free at bars, bookstores, and businesses across the state. The paper was operated by Lambda, Inc., the state’s first public gay and lesbian civil rights organization. It acted as a platform for the gay and lesbian voice in Alabama. In the early 1980s activists used The Forum to reach gays and lesbians across the state, raise political consciousness, and eventually build a grassroots coalition of sexual minorities who wielded considerable political power. When the AIDS crisis struck, it was a one-of-a-kind source of early information on AIDS, transmissibility, and sexual health, subverting mainstream reporting on AIDS by providing critical perspectives from sexual minorities who were disproportionately affected by AIDS but underrepresented in mainstream media. Finally, The Forum helped forge social connections between isolated gays and lesbians across the Southeast and supported Alabama’s gay and lesbian economy by providing a platform where gay and lesbian-owned businesses could advertise to a niche audience. It supported gay and lesbian organizations through publicity. Thanks to enthusiastic publicity in The Forum, the Magic City Athletic Association (MCAA) grew gay athletics into a considerable financial venture for the gay community and became a positive point of contact between the gay and lesbian community and straight society. The Forum has been the subject of little academic study but serves as an interesting thread in the tapestry of media strategies in the Southern gay and lesbian rights movement. This historical analysis investigates and contextualizes three fronts of 1980s gay and lesbian activism as covered in The Alabama Forum
Investigating an Institution's Stem Retention Program Participants' Sense of Belonging in Mathematics
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationThis study explores the sense of belonging, identity, and confidence in mathematics among underrepresented students participating in the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). Using a mixed- methods approach, the research examines how academic and social support systems, peer interactions, and experiences with microaggressions shape students’ mathematical sense of belonging and persistence over an academic year. Findings reveal that students’ sense of belonging, identity, and confidence fluctuate over time, they are influenced by peer interactions, perceptions of their competency in mathematics, and participation in LSAMP-relatedactivities. These data highlight the complex interplay between academic success and the ability to overcome societal stereotypes with affirmations, particularly for these underrepresented students experiencing feelings of "onlyness" and microaggressions in mathematics spaces. Asian students' experiences with the "model minority" stereotype further illustrate the challenges of navigating both internal and external pressures in STEM fields. The study explores the importance of fostering inclusive learning environments where students’ efforts and identities are validated, advocating for institutional support that extends beyond structured programs like LSAMP. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature on persistence in STEM for underrepresented students and how mathematics is a large contributor. Furthermore, this study offers insights for improving academic and social integration in mathematics education
It Takes Two: a Study of Meaning Negotiation and Multimodal Communication in Collaborative Gaming
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationThis study examines how multimodal interaction resources such as speech, movement, and gesture mediate negotiation for meaning during collaborative gaming among second language learners. It also investigates the production of language-related episodes by second-language learners. This qualitative study examines participant interactions during collaborative gaming. It draws on applied linguistics (Smith, 2003; Varoni & Gass, 1985) and gesture studies (Norris, 2004). Data collection includes screen recordings, audio recordings, and video recordings of participants engaged in cooperative gameplay. The findings reveal that negotiation episodes occur spontaneously during collaborative gaming, and second-language learners employ interactional strategies like clarification requests, confirmation checks, elaboration, and comprehension checks to repair communication breakdown. The results also highlight the use of gestures during negotiation episodes and describe how second language learners dynamically co-construct meaning using multimodal resources like gestures, gaze, and head movement
Some Applications of Machine Learning with Tensors
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationComplex problems in scientific computing often rely on computationally expensive methodologies, both in terms of execution time and storage requirements. Many real-world applications involve data represented as high-dimensional tensors, which are costly to generate or collect, and present significant challenges for machine learning or numerical methods due to their sheer volume and dimensional complexity. Research in data compression has demonstrated that large datasets can be effectively compressed, significantly reducing computational demands while maintaining reliable levels of accuracy. However, many existing approaches involve flattening tensorial data, which often compromises the intrinsic structure and meaning. This issue, combined with the pervasive curse of dimensionality and the loss of structural information when vectorizing or matricizing data, highlights the need for specialized low-rank tensor machine learning methods that preserve the data's inherent high dimensional structure and meaning.This work applies advanced computational techniques to tackle real-world challenges in data-driven modeling and prediction across diverse domains, including spatial wildfire modeling, wildfire remote-sensing data analysis, biochemical systems, and astrophysical simulations. By leveraging machine learning, tensor-based methods, stochastic modeling and a combination of machine learning and tensor-based methods, the study provides valuable insights into the behaviors of complex systems. These approaches not only enhance our understanding of intricate phenomena and underlying dynamics of complex systems but also enhance the accuracy and efficiency of predictive models, aid in decision-making processes, offering scalable and efficient solutions to problems in wildfire management, biochemical system simulation, and computational astrophysics
Cervical Cancer Elimination: Finding the Right Megaphone
No full textDSW Capstone Reports"Introduction: Cervical cancer is preventable! The world can eliminate this devastating disease through increased vaccination and screening. Still, almost 14,000 people in the United States will receive a diagnosis of cervical cancer this year and over 4,000 will die from this preventable disease, disproportionately from underserved communities.
Even with the need established and the elimination tools available, the healthcare community cannot find the right megaphone to effectively spread the word that we can abolish cervical cancer. Discovering the most successful approach to share this incredible message is the basis for the research question: How can healthcare educators most effectively communicate the message of cervical cancer elimination? The best way to share information with diverse populations is to have the culturally competent and relevant messages come from people who are most respected within their community. The unique voice of cervical cancer survivors can help healthcare educators build and deliver a trustworthy message. Methods: Designed through a Community Based Participatory Research lens, the researcher conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with ten cervical cancer survivors in north Alabama. The Institutional Review Board-approved interviews were consented, audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed. The interview data will inform outreach education proposals. Results: The survivors shared their thoughts on screening, HPV and vaccination, gave outreach suggestions, and recounted their lived cancer journey. The findings led to three
outreach strategies. First, ensure outreach is trauma-informed. Second, design sensitive, clear, detailed and congruent outreach. Lastly, use varied routes for education to include social media, influencers and survivors to reach all generations.
Discussion: Communities can implement this study’s strategies for robust and effective outreach. Even with the small sample size, this new knowledge builds on previous survivor and outreach literature and puts the right megaphone within reach. We can end cervical cancer. Let’s do this!
2024 CEO Pay Ratios for all U.S. public companies.
No full textStarting with Fiscal Year 2017, all public companies must submit a ratio of the compensation payable to their Principal Executive Officer (PEO) to their median employee. This is a list list of pay ratio's for S&P 500 companies for fiscal year 2023
Exposure to Theocratic Threat and Attitudes Towards Civil Liberties
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationDespite its secular founding, religion permeates American politics. This study examines the effect that different types of encroaching theocratic threat have on American partisans’ support for civil liberties, tolerance, and separation of church and state. Specifically, I prime partisans with news stories involving either Islamic or Christian theocratic threats to test whether partisans are consistent in how they respond to religious nationalism. Given partisan-religious sorting, I show that exposure to Islamic nationalism decreases Republicans’ support for civil liberties; in contrast, priming Christian nationalism has no effect on such attitudes. Meanwhile, among Democrats, I find that priming theocratic threat has no effect on such support. Curiously, these treatment effects do not extend to other attitudes about tolerance and separation and church and state. I conclude that partisans can have asymmetrical responses to theocratic threat in areas, like civil liberties, that are eminently tied a perception of security. However, theocratic threat has less explanatory power when discussing broader, less immediately salient, principles including tolerance and separation of church and state
“But I Feel Frustrated in My Own Abilities:” the Challenges, Strategies and Emotions of a Monolingual Educator Teaching in a Multilingual Classroom
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationWith the growing trends in migration and globalization, adult ESL classes are becoming increasingly diverse. While this diversity enriches the classroom and learning experience, educators face challenges in fostering inclusive and effective learning environments. Grounded in the framework of “translingual practice” (Canagarajah, 2013), this qualitative single-case study explores the instructional challenges encountered by a monolingual educator, the strategies adopted to navigate them, and the emotions that emerge from these processes. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and reflective journal. The findings reveal that, despite linguistic constraints, the educator strategically employs scaffolding, multimodal instruction, and culturally responsive teaching to foster engagement and support learning. Additionally, her emotional labor—manifested through care, empathy, and perseverance—plays a crucial role in shaping her pedagogical decisions, which ultimately fosters a more inclusive classroom environment. This study reinforces the need to move beyond the native/non-native English-speaking teacher dichotomy and concludes that effective ESL instruction is not an inherent trait but a consciously developed skill. While these findings contribute to the growing discourse on the nexus of emotional labor and pedagogical practices by underscoring the transformative role of emotional labor and adaptability in effective ESL instruction, the study makes suggestions for future research. The findings present implications for classroom practice, such as integrating culturally responsive pedagogies, professional development activities to support educators in diverse classrooms, and policy recommendations to increase support for adult ESL programs and enhance frameworks for inclusive education