College Athletes and Suicide Prevention: A Collaborative Autoethnography

This collaborative autoethnography weaves together a personal and powerful story from a former college athlete turned student-athlete services professional with reflections from a licensed mental health counselor who works with student-athletes. Kim shared her own struggles with mental health as well as her initially unknowing impact on a teammate, who sought her support when contemplating suicide. Information about depression and suicide among college athletes is presented along with practical ways and resources for anyone who might work with student-athletes to know. Developing skills to talk to student-athletes about suicide is one method for professionals to participate in supporting the mental health of student-athletes and prevent suicide. Many barriers prevent college athletes from asking for help. Professionals must practice questions to ask student-athletes and ways to start the difficult conversation about suicide. The Mental Health Toolbox is introduced as a resource for this purpose

In the Shadows No More: Making a Case for Black College Assistant Football Coaches as Strategic Hybrid Resistors In and Through Sport

Within the discussion of sport activism, athletes often garner the most attention. However, other athletic stakeholders also engage in broader forms of resistance – one group being Black college assistant football coaches. I utilize a hermeneutical phenomenology methodological approach to examine the relationship between the experiences of Black college assistant football coaches and resistance in and through sport. Eight coaches engaged in semi-structured interviews, and their experiences were interpreted through the combined frameworks of critical race theory and African American resistance typology by Cooper (2021). My interpretation uncovered that Black college assistant football coaches are strategic hybrid resistors engaging in varied aspects of resistance, including activism. Ultimately, participants engaged in resistance to ensure their continued success, counter hegemonic norms, and increase opportunities for other Black coaches (or potential coaches). I conclude with a discussion of implications for policy and practice and future research opportunities related to the Black coaching experience and resistance

Avoiding Burnout: Resources to Help the Overworked Teacher

Everyone knows that teaching has always been a demanding job; however, in the last decade the demands on teachers have increased. Today, teachers have to answer to parents, administrators, legislators, and the general public when it comes to their classroom practice and educational beliefs. In addition, long hours, classroom management issues, lack of support, low pay, poor working conditions, and the demands of high-stakes testing have all contributed to widespread teacher stress. This collection of resources will make your teaching life so much easier. Bringing these authors into your classroom can give teachers a broader understanding of how to configure a classroom that is inclusive and welcoming and focuses on learning and growing students as readers, writers, and thinkers

Picture Yourself Here: Useful Equipment and Tools

This document provides a list of useful equipment and tools to help print, frame, mount, and display posters and other exhibits. The document accompanies the presentation, Picture Yourself Here: Using Exhibits and Programs to Attract and Interact with the Campus Community

Picture Yourself Here: A Slideshow of Exhibits and Programs

This document shows some of the programs and exhibits hosted by the University of South Carolina Upstate Library during the period 2021-2024. The document accompanies the presentation, Picture Yourself Here: Using Exhibits and Programs to Attract and Interact with the Campus Community

Dual-Phase Membrane Reactor and Calcium Oxide-Based Sorbents for High-Temperature Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage

Greenhouse gases, especially CO2 emissions, are responsible for global warming and the reduction of greenhouse gases is vitally important for the sustainability of our modern society. Currently, the most mature CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology relies on flue gas “amine washing”, a costly and energy intense process that can negatively impact on the efficiency of existing power plants and the cost of electricity produced. Therefore, developing more efficient and cost-effective CCUS technologies is highly imperative. With the increasing production of natural gas in recent years, direct natural gas conversion into valuable chemicals also becomes more attractive than simple combustion for heat and power, which adds burdens to the current CCUS effort. By converting natural gas to valuable products will make a full utilization of natural gas and delay the CO2 emission. Hence, how to convert abundant and inexpensive natural gas into value-added products has attracted significant interest from both academia and industry. Motivated by the concerns over climate change, two types of high-temperature dual- phase membranes that can capture CO2 at point sources and/or convert fossil fuels (e.g. CH4 and C3H8) into valuable chemicals with captured CO2/O2 as a mild oxidizer were proposed. Additionally, CaO-based sorbents have also been explored for permanent CO2 capture and storage purposes, offering an alternative solution for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. In the first part of this work, a new dual-phase CO2 capture membrane comprising of a porous proton conducting BaZr0.8Y0.2O,sub\u3e3-d,/sub\u3e (BZY) matrix and molten carbonate (MC) was firstly synthesized. Through the microstructure optimization, the permeated CO2 flux of BZY-MC membrane of 0.8 mm thick reaches 0.34 mL×cm-2×min-1 at 650 oC. The high flux is thought to arise from the synergistic effect of modified microstructure, MC loading and high bulk oxide-ion conductivity of porous BZY matrix. The activation energy of CO2 permeation of BZY-MC membranes is close to that of oxide-ion migration in the BZY bulk, suggesting the rate-limiting nature of oxide-ion conduction in BZY bulk for CO2 transport in the BZY-MC membrane. It is also demonstrated that introducing steam into the sweeping gas can significantly enhance CO2 permeation, which can be ascribed to the formation of new charge balance species (OH-) in both of BZY and MC phases. With 3%H2O addition into sweeping gas, the membrane exhibits 30% CO2 flux density enhancement and good stability over 250 h at 650 oC. In the second part of this work, a disk-type CO2/O2 co-transport membrane based on Sm-doped CeO2 (SDC)-NiO-MC is demonstrated using a mockup flue gas (75% N2 + 15%CO2+ 10% O2) as the feed gas and Ar as the sweep gas. At 850 oC, the membrane exhibits a high CO2 and O2 flux density of 1.16 and 0.48 mL×cm-2×min-1 , respectively. By switching the sweep gas to CH4-Ar and incorporating an OCM-specific catalyst (2%Mn–5%Na2WO4/SiO2), the same membrane reactor produces C2 products (C2H6 and C2H4). The results show that the co-captured CO2/O2 mixture converts CH4 into C2H6 in the presence of catalyst, followed by thermal cracking of C2H6 into C2H4 and H2. The presence of CO2 decreases the local partial pressure of O2, thus reducing the propensity of C2 products re-oxidation and leading to higher C2 selectivity. At 2.5% CH4, the reactor achieves \u3e20% CH4 conversion, ~57% C2 selectivity, resulting ~12% C2 yield. The long-term test of the membrane reactor shows a stable performance for ~100 h at 825 oC. In the third part of this work, a tubular plug-flow membrane reactor based on silver (Ag)-MC for CO2/O2 capture from flue gas and instant conversion of propane to propylene over CrOx/SiO2 catalyst bed was developed. The tubular plug-flow design of the membrane reactor enables a gradual, continuous, and controlled addition of CO2/O2 (in 2:1 mole ratio) into C3H8 stream along the axial length of the membrane, thus striking an excellent balance between conversion and selectivity, while avoiding overoxidation and suppressing coking. A parallel investigation into direct dehydrogenation of propane (DDHP) and catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of propane with CO2 (CODHP-CO2) reveals that coking is a major catalytic fouling mechanism for DDHP and CODHP-CO2. CO2 in the latter participates in reverse water shift reverse reaction (RWGS) to promote C3H8 conversion and regenerate active Cr6+ species in the CrOx/SiO2 catalyst. It is worth noting that the positive effect of CO2 is not as profound as CO2/O2. The plug-flow membrane reactor exhibits a C3H6 yield of ~30%, C3H8 conversion of ~35% and C3H6 selectivity of 85% at 600 oC for an impressive 173 hours of operation with minimal degradation. In the fourth part of this work, a series of CaO-SDC sorbents were synthesized via sol-gel method. The SDC additives were uniformly distributed on the surface of CaO particles and chemically compatible with CaO sorbents. Due to the high Tammann temperature (1063 oC) of SDC, SDC additives can serve as a barrier, which prevents CaO particles from sintering and agglomeration and thus improves the stability of CaO-based sorbents over the cyclic testing at high temperature. With 5wt% SDC added into CaO sorbents, a high initial COo uptake of 0.643 gCO2 / gsorbent can be achieved, which slightly decreased to 0.626 gCO2 / gsorbent after undergoing 19 carbonation-calcination cycles. In comparison, the CO2 uptake of pure CaO drastically decreased from 0.656 to 0.469 gCO2 / gsorbent highlighting the effectiveness of SDC addition in enhancing the durability and performance of the CaO-based sorbents

Learning Through Discourse: Impacting Fractional Understanding Through Virtual Discourse

There is a strong need for fifth-grade students to become proficient in mathematical problem-solving using fractional computations because it will have a lasting impact on student achievement. Traditionally, mathematics is taught inside a brick-and-mortar classroom, grounded in rote memorization of facts, rules, and formulas. In recent years, more elementary students have enrolled fully in online learning environments, which emphasize on students becoming problem-solvers, specifically in fractional computation. The NCTM strongly encourages using mathematical discourse as an instructional method but employing mathematical discourse, but its applicability to online math learning is not well understood. This study addressed students\u27 problem-solving skills, mathematical dispositions, and performance after implementing virtual discourse sessions using Pόlya’s four-step problem-solving model as a metacognitive-based learning model in an online learning environment. Three research questions guided this study: (a) to what extent does math discourse affect students\u27 problem-solving skills in solving mathematical problems involving fractions?; (b) how does math discourse affect students\u27 disposition toward mathematics?; and (3) to what extent does student discourse impact student performance when adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions? This study involved a convergent mixed methods approach with 25 fifth-grade students who engaged in mathematics discourse as an intervention. Quantitative data collected during i-Ready pre and post-test assessments and student individual problem-solving skills assessment interviews. The analysis revealed that the mean post-assessment scores M = 64.80 (SD = 19.18) were significantly higher than the mean pre-assessment scores M = 26.00 (SD = 21.41), t (24) = 10.33, p \u3c .001. Data analysis revealed that participants utilized three out of four Pόlya’s problem-solving model steps. The analysis of qualitative findings from teacher observations and individual interviews revealed three themes: (a) Confidence in Mathematics; (b) Metacognition: How I Learn; and (c) Motivation to Learn: What I am learning matters. Participants demonstrated that mathematical discourse improved confidence by accepting mistakes and adapting their problem-solving skills. Additionally, they were deeply engaged in mathematical tasks and could relate math to their lives