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The Chanticleer, 2025-02-13
Full text linkThe editorially independent student produced weekly newspaper of Coastal Carolina University.https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/chanticleer/1733/thumbnail.jp
Comparison of Nutrient Concentrations and Primary Production Indicators Across Plume Fronts
No full textCoastal buoyant plumes carry low-salinity waters containing particulate and dissolved terrestrial materials with an abundance of nutrients into the coastal ocean, including inorganic nitrogen and phosphorous. Plume fronts act as transport barriers created from the convergence of a fresher plume with an older, saltier plume or with ambient waters, leading to potential accumulation of phytoplankton and nutrients. This accumulation creates an optimal environment for primary production. The primary goals of this study were: to investigate the distribution of and potential relationships between nutrient concentrations and chlorophyll a across plume fronts of the Winyah Bay River Plume, and examine potential relationships of nutrient concentrations with temperature and salinity. Water samples were collected during May and June of 2024 onboard the R/V Coastal Explorer and Savannah. These samples were then filtered for chlorophyll and analyzed for nutrient and chlorophyll a concentrations. Supplemental data, including temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen were also collected to provide additional context. The nutrient and chlorophyll a concentrations across the fronts were assessed using Wilcoxon Rank Sum (Mann-Whitney U) tests, Vargha and Delaney A and Hodges-Lehmann estimators, and no significant difference was detected. Spearman’s rank correlations were used to determine the relationships between temperature and salinity; salinity was the only significant relationship, and was inversely correlated with both DIN and phosphate. Advancing the current knowledge of nutrient inputs to the coastal ocean could improve global model predictions of these parameters
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going?
No full textThe 2025 HTC Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Lecturer Award winner was William Jones, Ph.D., professor of computing science in the University’s Gupta College of Science. As the winner of this award, Jones presented a public lecture titled “The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going?” Jones\u27 lecture deals with his collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory, the LANL-CCU Collaboration initiative created to solve specific national security challenges, and his focus on undergraduate research and mentorship.
The HTC Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Lecturer Award is presented to a Coastal Carolina University faculty member who demonstrates outstanding teaching and brings about student learning through scholarship and mentoring. The award is made possible through a generous donation from the Horry Telephone Cooperative.https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/dtsls/1028/thumbnail.jp
Breadfruit: Three Global Journeys of a Bountiful Tree
No full textBreadfruit trees are staples of the tropics, bearing cantaloupe-sized green-skinned fruits whose taste and texture resemble potatoes. More than three thousand years ago, breadfruit fueled the Pacific voyages of discovery that settled islands throughout Oceania. In the late eighteenth century, the British expedition that ended with the mutiny on the Bounty aimed, but failed, to introduce breadfruit to the West Indies as food for enslaved African laborers on sugar plantations. A later voyage resulted in the fruit’s widespread distribution and complicated role within modern Caribbean food cultures. In recent years, breadfruit has been touted as a tool for sustainable development and as a “superfood” with both health benefits and culinary versatility.
Russell Fielding tells these stories and many others, exploring breadfruit’s fascinating global history and varied present-day uses. Bringing together extensive research and vivid travelogues, including learning directly from local agriculturists, chefs, scientists, and holders of traditional knowledge, he provides an immersive narrative of breadfruit’s contributions. Fielding argues that breadfruit’s history comprises two journeys: first, from its origins in Southeast Asia across the Pacific; and second, its transplantation to the Caribbean. Today, a third journey is taking place, one that is spreading breadfruit throughout the world.
Engagingly written and compellingly argued, this book draws timely lessons from breadfruit’s past to forecast its future potential.https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/faculty-books/1114/thumbnail.jp
Delinquency and Inadvertent Neglect as Byproducts of Work-Addicted Parents
Full text linkOver the past decade, discussions of work addiction throughout academic literature have increased substantially. However, the relationship between childhood outcomes and parental work addiction has yet to be explored. In this study, I set out to identify functions of parent-child relationships and comparisons of situational outcomes stemming from work addiction in relation to social determinants such as income, ethnicity, and gender, along with resulting stratification. The degree to which children benefit from features of lifestyles typically associated with high household incomes, such as financial security, health care benefits, access to educational resources, and neighborhood socioeconomic advantage, wherein parental work-addiction might be present was also explored. Moreover, I examined the severity of work-addiction among parents in relation to social status and occupation type. I also evaluated whether households with more than one parental work-addict lack structure and organization, thus proving more detrimental to residing offspring. Additionally, I assessed the ratio of childhood exposure to work addiction via parents and heightened childhood stress. Ultimately, I found positive correlations between work addiction and child neglect, as well as work addiction and juvenile delinquency due to lack of parental supervision and guidance
A Case Study for Enabling Autistic Students to Enter Best-of-Class Career Programs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Full text linkOver 5.4 million adults in the United States are identified as having autism as measured by the autism spectrum. Given the diagnostic diversity among autistic students, a high number of post-secondary institutions fail to meet the personal and specific needs of these students. This research advances an advocacy model for best-of-class post-secondary programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in order to better serve autistic students. Application of the model allows autistic students, their families, and organizations advocating for them to better evaluate the features of post-secondary education programs in STEM. Ultimately, the model can be a guide to help autistic students fruitfully enter into professions in industry and for colleges and universities to facilitate their progression
Short-Term Financing Usage: A Comparison of the Carolinas to the Broader United States
Full text linkThis study uses data from the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) to examine the short-term financing usage of North Carolina and South Carolina (NCSC) residents compared to those in other states. The following short-term financing services are analyzed: Auto title loans, payday loans, tax refund advances, pawn shops, and rent-to-own stores. The key findings reveal that NCSC residents, compared to residents of other states, tend to more frequently utilize pawn shops and rent-to-own stores, and less frequently utilize payday loans. No statistically significant differences were observed between NCSC residents and residents of other states for the usage of auto title loans and tax refund advances. Implications for regional financial literacy education and policy are discussed, including the varying prohibitions and limitations on different forms of predatory loans
Furthering Ascidian Taxonomy Using Molecular Biology
Full text linkAscidians are our closest invertebrate relatives and comprise nearly 3,000 species separated into three orders: Aplousobranchia (most speciose), Stolidobranchia, and Phlebobranchia (least speciose). Ascidians can be classified as either solitary or colonial organisms. Species delimitation using morphological characters alone has had varied results. Well known, widely distributed, morphological species have turned out to be catch all species comprised of several cryptic species. Molecular markers can help mitigate some of the issues presented by strictly using morphological observations, including resolving the status of cryptic species, and accessing the expert knowledge required to identify a species. By incorporating molecular markers and pairing them with morphological observations, more species may be correctly identified by the scientific community. This project focuses on comparing the utility of the molecular markers mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 (mtCO1) and 18S rRNA, both commonly used to barcode marine invertebrates, in terms of successfully delimitated species within families. Members of the ascidian families Ascidiidae, Pyuridae, and Styelidae were collected from Belize in July 2022 and July 2023 and were sequenced for CO1 and 18S and identified using morphological techniques. Additional sequences were obtained from GenBank. Species delimitation methods used for this project include Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP) and Bayesian Poisson Tree Process (bPTP). Morphological identifications tended to line up well when using CO1 with ASAP while 18S and ASAP lumped species together. bPTP tended to split species relative to morphological identifications for both genes. Future work includes implementation of the Bayesian input of bPTP into this analysis to see how it compares alongside ASAP. In addition to this, morphological identification of the Belizean samples down to the species level will also be completed
Local Governance and Partisan Realignment: The Cobb County Cityhood Cluster
No full textThis article assesses the causes of four cityhood efforts in Cobb County, Georgia, during the time period of 2019-22. Previous studies on the causes of cityhood efforts across the U.S. found that dissatisfaction with county government, worries about demographic changes, and annexation fears primarily spurred efforts. However, in Cobb County, a different factor, that being a general fear of Democrats assuming power at the local and state levels, led to the mobilization of efforts for new cities. This paper argues that John Kingdon’s (1984; 1995) “policy window” concept best explains the rise of the Cobb County cityhood attempts. Democratic Party gains at the local county and state levels in recent elections potentially means that the policy window for new cities in Cobb County to be approved by state government could be closing in the near future