Digital Commons Network^™

Optimizing The Project Team's Contribution To Business Objectives, Chad Rowland

All Theses

The traditional expectations of the project team are for the processes of engineering, procurement, construction, and start-up to be expertly administered. However, these performance criteria can be satisfied yet still not meet the ultimate business needs of the owner. The purpose of this thesis was to determine ways to improve the likelihood of achieving owner's business objectives. Fifty-one questionnaire survey forms were analyzed to obtain data for thirty-three pre-project planning activities. A data analysis concluded with a degree of statistical significance that for thirteen of the thirty-three activities, the more successful projects, as defined by the satisfaction of the business …

Type 2 Diabetes And The Risk Of Osteoporotic Hip Fracture In Utah Men And Women, Megan Bunch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Prior studies have unequivocally established a consistent association between osteoporotic hip fracture risk and type 2 diabetes mellitus. One reason this association still remains unclear is primarily due to the limited amount of research conducted in this area. The Utah Study of Nutrition and Bone Health (USNBH) is a case-control study conducted in Utah during the period of 1997-2001 to determine risk factors for osteoporotic hip fracture. All study participants (n = 2590) were determined from Utah residents 50-90 years of age. Cases were determined from 18 Utah hospitals during 1997-2001. Age and gender-matched controls were randomly selected from the …

Milk Intake In Early And Late Adulthood And Risk Of Osteoporotic Hip Fractures In Utah, Melanie Jean Slavens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The relationship between milk intake and risk of osteoporotic fractures is uncertain. Associations between milk intake and milk avoidance in relation to osteoporotic hip fracture were examined in the Utah Study of Nutrition and Bone Health (USNBH), a statewide case-control study. Cases were ascertained at Utah hospitals treating 98 percent of hip fractures during 1997-2001 and included 1188 men and women aged 50-89 years. Age- and gender-matched controls were randomly selected from Utah driver's license and Medicare databases (N= 1324). In-person interviews were conducted and participants reported frequency of milk intake per week at age 18 and during pregnancy among …

Smoking, Anemia, And Risk Of Oral Clefts In Utah, Melinda Michelle Moss

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cigarette smoke contains sufficient carbon monoxide to induce maternal and fetal hypoxia. Hypoxia is a known teratogen, and consequently maternal smoking has been the focus of many studies on adverse birth outcomes, including cleft lip and palate. Current literature of epidemiological studies on smoking and clefts suggests a modest but statistically significant increase in risk of clefting associated with maternal smoking. A biological condition that may also contribute to hypoxia is anemia. Data from the Utah Child and Family Health Study was used to assess the effects of hypoxia-inducing conditions, maternal smoking, anemia, and their interaction, on the risk of …

Turning Points And Protective Processes: A Qualitative Study On Resilient Youth Through Their Perspective As Resilient Adults, Michael E. Monson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigates the processes of resiliency and the turning points of decision-making in youth from at-risk environments. The study utilizes a constructivist, qualitative approach, to examine indicators of resiliency from both an individual and contextual perspective. The narrative descriptions of eleven adults from at-risk childhoods are analyzed through biographical interviews.

Analyses were completed to determine common factors that contribute to the process of resiliency in successful adults. Results indicate that the influences of risk on healthy functioning are modified by shifting environmental protective factors, resources, and developed attributes of self-efficacy. Risk and adversity had a strengthening effect that contributed …

Risk As A Compensating Differential In A Hedonic Wage Equation, Cathryn J Santoro

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Risk could be considered both a disagreeable characteristic of employment (i.e. the risk of death, injury) or, as noted previously, a factor in the probability, or more importantly, the improbability of success (i.e. the greater the risk in success, the less stable future earnings and employment). Accordingly, the inclusion of future wage risk in a study of compensating wage differentials is a logical step and, thus, the focus of this study; Drawing a corollary between the theoretical framework of compensating wage differentials and the theory of risk aversion, this paper seeks to measure whether or not wage risk has an …

Examining The Influence And Developmental Impact Of After-School/Out-Of-School Programs On Youths From High Risk Environments, Ranna Jane Daud

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Currently, thousands of youth-based programs exist to promote education, enhance development and instill a sense of belonging and competence in inner-city/urban youth. After-school programs have been found to develop resilience in adolescents (Morrison, Storino, Robertson, Weissgass, & Dondero, 2000) by providing opportunities for growth, increasing academic achievement (Mahoney, Lord, & Carryl, 2005), providing a safe environment (Kahne, Nagoaka, Brown, O'Brien, Quinn, & Thiede, 2001), creating supportive and significant relationships (Hall, Yohalem, Tolman, & Wilson, 2003), and keeping youth out of harms way. Furthermore, after-school programs have been found to increase academic potential, increase attendance rates in school, and promote academic …

Identification And Comparison Of Crash Risk For Older Drivers, Vamsi K Surapaneni

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The focus of this research is to identify risk factors for older drivers (drivers of age greater than 65 years) involved in motor vehicle crashes and compare the risk factors with those for other age groups. Developing such risk factors helps in better understanding the causes of crashes involving older drivers. The risk factors are developed based on analyses of network characteristics and other related factors which have an impact on rate of crashes involving older drivers. The factors evaluated include crash severity, collision type, contributing factors, functional class and road class. Other information included in the analyses includes demographic …

Youth At Risk For Anxiety: Evaluation Of A Brief Panic Prevention Program, Kelly Lynn Drake

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This was the first pilot study to examine the effectiveness of a single-session panic prevention workshop for youth. Participants were recruited using various forms of mass media, advertisements, flyer distribution, and personal contacts. Following a brief screening, participants were assigned to a single-session panic prevention workshop (n = 9) or a waitlist control condition (n = 10). Youth in the workshop group completed pre-workshop assessments including self-report measures of anxiety sensitivity, general anxiety, panic attack symptomatology, and depression. In addition, a semi-structured diagnostic interview was used to assess panic attacks, panic disorder, and agoraphobia Also, during pre-workshop assessment, parents completed …

Delineating Hurricane Vulnerable Populations In Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Stephanie Pedro

LSU Master's Theses

Since settlement first began, equality issues between different social classes have been evident in the location of where residents settled in New Orleans. This research seeks to answer the question: What socioeconomic indicators are prevalent in the areas most-at-risk to flooding which could inhabit populations least able to evacuate? I will use Census 2000 block group data from the socioeconomic sample data (SF3) collected in 2000, along with other economic and GIS data from the New Orleans region to statistically represent the distribution of risk by selecting indicators predicted to be in flood zones from a classification tree analysis. Then, …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of Corporate Governance On Decision To Expense Employee Stock Options, Ling Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

Corporations have the choice of expensing (using the fair value method), or non-expensing (using the intrinsic value method and provide pro forma disclosure in financial statement footnotes) of employee stock options. The current study examines how corporate governance factors affect such choices. Prior studies (Xie et al. 2003; Klein 2002; Peasnell et al. 2000) have indicated that certain corporate governance factors have an impact on corporate accounting behavior, including earnings management. Based on the assumption that expensing employee stock options is a good practice of accounting that improves earnings quality, it is hypothesized that these corporate governance factors would affect …