Digital Commons Network^™

Helmholtz Cage: Software Development And Implementation For Cubesat Testing, Gustavo A. Cotom Lopez

University Honors Theses

This paper details the successful development and deployment of a Helmholtz cage system, designed to produce precisely controlled magnetic fields for testing and calibration purposes. The core focus was on creating a robust, modular software architecture enabling independent current modulation on each axis, comprehensive serial communication between multiple microcontrollers, and real-time data acquisition from the MR3 magnetometer. All software components, including the serial communication drivers, control algorithms, command line interface, and calibration routines, were developed from the ground up. The system was fully operational upon completion: all hardware components functioned as intended, serial communication with each subsystem was reliable, and …

Blockchain-Enabled Master Data Management, Shakhawat Hossain

Theses and Dissertations

Master Data Management (MDM) is essential for maintaining data quality, accuracy, consistency, and governance within organizations. However, traditional centralized MDM systems continue to face challenges related to data integrity, security, and scalability. This research presents a blockchain-enabled MDM framework designed to overcome these limitations by leveraging blockchain’s decentralized, immutable, and secure architecture. The study aims to identify and address the shortcomings of conventional MDM practices, examine the applicability of blockchain technology in enhancing these systems, and develop a functional prototype to validate the proposed model. The framework incorporates decentralized review mechanisms that improve auditability and ensure trusted data verification by …

Protein Stability Retention Under Harsh Conditions, Kaylen Su

Student Theses and Dissertations

Plastic waste is a growing environmental concern due to its resistance to natural degradation, leading to long-term accumulation in landfills and oceans. One potential solution is enzymatic degradation, where specific enzymes break down plastic into smaller, biodegradable components. However, enzymes often lose their effectiveness under the extreme conditions plastics experience during manufacturing, such as high temperatures, mechanical stress, and dehydration. This study explores whether small molecules, known as ligands, can help stabilize enzymes and improve their ability to break down plastics.

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we tested four ligands—poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), 6-hydroxyhexanoic acid (HHA), benzalkonium chloride (BC), and 6-aminohexanoic acid …

Histone Methyltransferase Ash1l Primes Metastases And Metabolic Reprogramming Of Macrophages In The Bone Niche, Xinhai Wan, Anna Debruine, Yin Wang, Xin Liang, Javier Leo, Feiyu Chen, Qianlin Gu, Jie Zhang, Vivien Van, Kiersten L Maldonado, Boyi Gan, Li Ma, Yue Lu, Di Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Bone metastasis is a major cause of cancer death; however, the epigenetic determinants driving this process remain elusive. Here, we report that histone methyltransferase ASH1L is genetically amplified and is required for bone metastasis in men with prostate cancer. ASH1L rewires histone methylations and cooperates with HIF-1α to induce pro-metastatic transcriptome in invading cancer cells, resulting in monocyte differentiation into lipid-associated macrophage (LA-TAM) and enhancing their pro-tumoral phenotype in the metastatic bone niche. We identified IGF-2 as a direct target of ASH1L/HIF-1α and mediates LA-TAMs' differentiation and phenotypic changes by reprogramming oxidative phosphorylation. Pharmacologic inhibition of the ASH1L-HIF-1α-macrophages axis elicits …

Investigating Potential Sugar-Related Uncertainties In A Proxy For Ancient Co2, Liam Cooper

Student Theses and Dissertations

The ε_p proxy for ancient pCO₂ can potentially estimate ancient pCO₂ as from the evolution of rubisco-based photosynthesis, using the difference in stable carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C) between fixed and inorganic carbon, assuming this difference is proportional to pCO₂. This study aims to address uncertainty with the use of photosynthetic microbes in proxies for ancient pCO₂. While previous studies address uncertainties related to the δ¹³C of initial fixed photosynthate (e.g., growth rate), we aim to address the effects of downstream carbon allocation. Specifically, if a significant fraction of fixed …

Setting Up Students For Success: Analysis Of Effectiveness Of Mathematics Placement, Jeff Carvell, Jason Ho, David Klanderman, Sarah Klanderman

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

How do we e!ectively and equitably place students into math classes in a way that provides them the best chance of success? As many higher education institutions veer away from placement based on standardized testing, many departments are seeking placement alternatives that will properly support students. Additionally, math placement determines not only a student’s mathematics courses but also influences their progress in related fields, including physics, chemistry, engineering, and more. This paper will describe three di!erent existing placement systems at each of our liberal arts institutions as well as the a!ordances and constraints of each approach. Further, we analyze data …

Asymmetric, Carboxy And Ester Functionalized Fluorophthalocyanines: Synthesis, Adsorption, And Reactivity, Sean J. Scally

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Strong electron-deficient compounds, fluorinated metal phthalocyanines (F_xPcM), exhibit enhanced photosensitizing properties, making them optimal candidates for photocatalytic studies. Perfluoroalkyl-substituted phthalocyanines are notably thermally robust materials that are chemically inert and resistant to electrophilic, nucleophilic, and radical, including reactive oxygen species (ROS) attacks. These properties can be attributed to their ‘Teflon-like’ inert organic shield that surrounds a reactive metal center, as well as their complete (x = 16, 40, 64), or almost complete (x = 48) lack of C-H bonds. Third-generation, functionalized, asymmetric phthalocyanines are of interest due to their ability to bind to oxidic supports via a carboxyl …

A Computational Method For Detecting Compound Promiscuity In Early-Stage Pharmaceutical Discovery, John Allen Ringer

Computer Science ETDs

Modern drug discovery and chemical biology research relies heavily on analyzing bioassay data. One of the many challenges in bioassay data analysis is identifying false trails, i.e., chemical compounds which initially appear to have desirable activity but are found to be problematic upon further investigation. Badapple (the BioAssay-Data Associative Promiscuity Pattern Learning Engine) was created over ten years ago to help researchers identify promiscuous compounds and thus avoid a common source of these false trails. Through an effort involving software engineering, cheminformatics, and biomedical data science we have developed Badapple 2.0, which incorporates updated assay records and expanded data semantics. …

Challenging $\Lambda$Cdm: Unraveling Cosmic Distances, Dark Sector Phenomenology, And Alternative Primordial B-Mode Sources, Kylar L. Greene

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The dominant Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) cosmological model, while remarkably successful, increasingly shows signs that it may not fully describe our Universe, as persistent tensions in expansion rates and structure formation remain unresolved. In this thesis, I challenge the LCDM paradigm using novel theoretical frameworks combined with rigorous numerical analyses. I demonstrate that the expansion-rate tension fundamentally reflects underlying distance disagreements, and that the Thomson scattering rate strongly restricts higher pre-recombination expansion rates without additional physics. Further, I present a novel cosmological model using a mirror dark sector and varying fundamental constants, revealing an observational degeneracy allowing significantly higher …

Aerial Robotic Studies Of Volcanic Co2 Emissions, John Ericksen

Computer Science ETDs

Volcanic systems are inherently complex, involving dynamic interactions among magma flow, gas emissions, and atmospheric dispersion. This dissertation focuses on developing and analyzing autonomous UAS algorithms for efficiently surveying volcanic CO2 plumes, introducing several novel methods: the LoCUS algorithm, a swarm coordination and self-healing algorithm that supports gradient-based plume tracking, a transect-based technique that employs a 2D Gaussian fit to calculate CO2 plume flux, and the Sketch algorithm for rapid plume boundary tracing. By treating multiple UAS as a single scientific instrument, these methods leverage swarm algorithms to use in-situ data in ways impossible with individual drones. Validated through simulations …

Enhancing Water Supply Resilience & Sustainability: Potential Solutions To Address Water Scarcity In Bogotá, Colombia, Sophia Alvarez Wong

Master's Projects and Capstones

Municipal water utilities are in urgent need of adapting to the intensifying impacts of climate change and population growth—key drivers of urban water scarcity worldwide. In rapidly expanding cities like Bogota, Colombia, these pressures have contributed to a severe water crisis driven by prolonged droughts, ecosystem degradation, increasing water demands, and overdependence on limited water sources. This study explores potential adaptation and management strategies that utilities can implement to sustainably strengthen supply system resilience and enhance water security, in the context of low- to middle-income regions. A series of comparative and case study analyses were conducted to assess the feasibility …

Planting Seeds, Changing Minds: A Narrative Analysis Of Environmental Children’S Books, Julianna Jovillar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Children’s books are some of the earliest forms of entertainment and education a person will interact with in their lifetime. Simultaneously weaving a tale and teaching a lesson, children’s books, therefore, have the great potential to communicate important lessons and mindsets at young ages. Utilizing narrative theory (Fisher, 1984) and ecocriticism (Glotfelty, 1996), while also considering environmental ideologies and narrative components (Bloomfield, 2024), this study explores the functions of environmental children’s books and how they might communicate environmental messaging and encourage ecological thinking. Following a narrative analysis of 46 environmental children’s books, the results of this study indicate that there …

Cross-Correlation Studies Of The Cosmological 21 Cm Signal And High-Redshift Galaxy Distributions, Simon Matin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Epoch of Reionization (EoR) marks a critical phase in cosmic history, during which time the first stars and galaxies ionized the surrounding neutral hydrogen gas. A powerful way to probe this period is by cross-correlating the 21 cm signal from neutral hydrogen with high-redshift galaxy distributions. In this study, we analyze the 21 cm-galaxy cross-power spectrum using simulated sky maps and explore its redshift evolution, revealing a transition from positive correlation at early times (high redshift) to anti-correlation at later stages of reionization (low redshift). Our results highlight the sensitivity of the cross-power spectrum to the evolving ionized structure …

Towards The Signed Decomposition Of Young Quasisymmetric Schur Functions Into Dual Immaculate Quasisymmetric Functions, Gavin Butts, Joshua Hallam

Honors Thesis

We introduce a family of descent-preserving, sign-reversing involutions on encodings of standard immaculate tableaux which, in the two-row case, identifies pairs standard immaculate tableaux, leaving exactly those satisfying the conditions of standard Young composition tableaux fixed. Using this result, we derive the first explicit signed decomposition of the Young quasisymmetric Schur functions into dual immaculate quasisymmetric functions, confirming the conjectured decomposition, by Allen-Hallam-Mason, in the two-row setting. Along the way, considering the number of descent elements, we obtain counted refinements of standard immaculate tableaux and standard Young composition tableaux with shapes (n,n+1) and (n+1, …

Specters Of Change: A Rhetorical And Qualitative Analysis Of Environmental Ghost Stories From Las Vegas Locals, Rachel J. Wuester

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis explores “environmental ghost stories,” a term created to represent narratives that blend emotions and memories of ecological loss to make sense of environmental change. This project utilizes a mixed-methods approach that blends narrative theory, environmental rhetoric, and qualitative interviews to examine the narratives of chronic and acute changes experienced by long-term residents of Las Vegas, Nevada. Participants (N = 15) were required to have resided in the Las Vegas valley for a minimum of twenty years in order to have had the opportunity to witness both chronic and acute changes to their environment. Using a phronetic iterative approach …

Anonymous Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing On Blockchain, Chol Hyun Park

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In cybersecurity, sharing of cyber threat intelligence (CTI) plays a pivotal role in our collective defense against emerging threats. However, the current paradigm of CTI sharing is one that participants are reluctant to share due to serious concerns about privacy and the potential exposure of sensitive information.We provide a comprehensive look at the potential of blockchain technology in cybersecurity, highlighting its advantages in creating an immutable, transparent, and decentralized ledger for CTI sharing. We also explore the mechanism of decentralized identity (DID) and explain how ZKP can be used to verify the authenticity of shared data without compromising the anonymity …

Assessment Of The 3-30-300 Standard In New London, Connecticut: Gis Analysis And Systematic Literature Review On Urban Tree Cover, Natalie Michele Reilly

Honors Scholar Theses

Cecil Konijnendijk’s 3-30-300 standard allows cities to monitor their current urban forestry conditions and progress toward improvement. The standard is met if individuals can see three trees from their home, have 30% canopy cover in their neighborhood, and are within 300 meters of a green space. I conducted a systematic review of relevant literature and an assessment of whether New London, Connecticut meets the standard. My goal was to evaluate the benefits of urban forestry standards, the feasibility of implementation, and whether cities tested adhered. The 30-component of the standard was the most difficult part to meet due to a …

Dry And Wet Deposition Of Atmospheric Microplastics In Las Vegas, Nevada, Laine Adame

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Plastics have been one of the most widely used man-made materials since their inception, and production is expected to grow by five percent every year. Plastic waste has become a growing global environmental issue. Primary MPs are plastics that are created to be intentionally tiny for their specific functional purpose. Secondary microplastics (MPs) are byproducts of plastic waste occurring due to the breakdown of larger plastics resulting in the presence and accumulation of MPs in the environment. MPs are defined as tiny particles of plastic between 5 mm and 1 μm in size. MPs have been found in the deep …

On Efficient Position Dependent Computation Of Radiation Near Accretion Disks, Kara Jeanette Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Accretion onto super massive black holes (SMBH) plays a vital role in explaining our observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN). One key aspect of observations of AGN is the prevalence of massive outflows which transport matter and energy away from the galactic core. These outflows are characterized by highly blueshifted absorption lines as radiation from the accretion disk is absorbed by gas which is moving toward us. Radiation pressure on spectral lines is expected to play a vital role in launching and accelerating these winds. At the other end of the spectrum of black hole masses, accretion disks in X-ray …

Climate Change And Hydropower Development Impacts In The Lower Mekong Basin, Nudthawud Homtong

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Mekong River Basin is vital to East and Southeast Asia, supporting over 60 million people and sustaining critical ecological systems. However, the basin faces dual threats from climate change and hydropower development, jeopardizing its ecological balance, hydrological patterns, and resource reliability. This research focuses on the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB), where aggressive hydropower expansion and climate variability have intensified concerns about sustainable water management. The study is divided into three interconnected parts. Part I examines spatial and temporal precipitation patterns in the Chi-Mun Basin (CMB) and Lower Mekong River (LMR) from 1950 to 2008, using linear regression and Mann-Kendall …

“Do You Even Lift, Bro?”: Correlates Of Muscle Dysmorphia Symptomatology In Filipino Male University Students, Pamela Paula C. Pioquinto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) is a subtype of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) and is marked by the desire to increase muscularity and reduce body fat. MD is typically more prevalent among younger male populations, and it often drives comorbid disorders, including substance abuse, eating disorders, and social anxiety. Despite the growing literature on MD, it remains understudied in certain racial/ethnic populations, such as Filipinos. Acculturation, defined as the process in which an individual adopts, acquires, and adapts to a new cultural environment as a result of immigration, influences body image by reshaping an individual’s perceptions of beauty and muscularity standards. Guided …

Detection And Quantification Of Total Airborne Fungi And Coccidioides Species In Environmental Samples, Theresa T. Roehr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Fungal exposure can cause acute and chronic illnesses or exacerbate existing illnesses. Some fungi are opportunistic pathogens and can lead to serious systemic fungal infections. In 2020, more than 150 million cases of severe fungal infections were reported globally resulting in an estimated 1.7 million deaths. Coccidioidomycosis, or Valley fever, is classified as a serious fungal infection caused by the fungi Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii. These particular fungi are prevalent in the soil of the Southwestern United States, including Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2024, there were a total of 269 cases of Valley fever reported in Nevada, and …

On The Special Cases Of Carmichael’S Totient Conjecture, Christopher Saito

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Euler’s totient function, φ(n), is the arithmetic function defined as the number of positive integers less than or equal to n that are relatively prime to n. In his 1922 paper [3], Professor R. D. Carmichael conjectured that for each positive integer n, there exists at least one positive integer m̸ = n such that φ(m) = φ(n).In this thesis, we consider some relevant literature and explore Carmichael’s totient conjecture for particular values of φ(n) = k. Our main consideration will be the set X_k = {n ∈ N : φ(n) = k}. In identifying X_k for k = 2^t, …

Elevating Education: Leveling Up Individual Learning Plans, Maximum Mgrdich-Ararat Sirabian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This three-article dissertation investigated the effectiveness, implementation quality, and automation of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) in promoting college and career readiness. Article 1 analyzed High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 data and found that ILPs did not significantly guide course alignment. Article 2 examined ILP implementation across Nevada high schools, revealing inconsistent quality, limited standardization, and few culturally responsive practices. These findings informed the creation of a new high-quality ILP framework. Article 3 employed a convergent parallel mixed methods design to assess an automated ILP prototype based on this framework. Participants in the automated group reported significantly higher scores in …

Associations Of The Medicaid Expansion Policy With Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Breast Cancer Screening And Treatment, James Howard Smith Ii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background and Aim. This dissertation examines Medicaid expansion’s effect on breast cancer (BC) screening and treatment disparities in two Medicaid-expanding states (MES) that passed Medicaid expansion (New Jersey and Vermont) relative to two non-expansion states (NES) (Georgia and Wisconsin). It then compares the association of Medicaid expansion to other states that did not undertake this policy on various subgroups, such as minorities by race and ethnicity, income, and age groups. Black women still bear significant BC disparities due to untimely screenings, treatments, and deaths. Therefore, it is critical to investigate how socioeconomic status influences racial/ethnic disparity gaps, given that BC …

An Edge Computing Device Optimized And Transfer Learning Enhanced Deep Learning Model For Detecting Wildfire Flame And Smoke, Giovanny Vazquez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The integration of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with edge computing technology and deep learning (DL)-based object detection offers a groundbreaking solution for real-time wildfire detection, enabling rapid data processing directly on devices and minimizing response delays in critical scenarios. However, although showing early promise, performance is often constrained by limited training data and edge computing devices that lack graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration. This thesis seeks to address these limitations in two stages.First, this work explores the transformative potential of Transfer Learning (TL) to enhance wildfire object detection model accuracy while also investigating TL’s impact, for DL-based object detection …

Developments On Abbreviations Towards Machine Reading Comprehension, Sing Choi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Machine reading comprehension is a critical step in development of applications that require the semantic understanding of human speech-to-text driven work. Many devices such as smart home appliances like the Amazon Echo Dot, Google Home, or smart assistants like Apple Siri or Microsoft Cortana are examples of these applications. The comprehension task involves a deeper understanding and recognition of named entities such as person names, locations, medicals codes, quantities, abbreviations, and acronyms in speech or text data. In this dissertation, we explore and extend the different approaches and techniques in modern research that tackles the problem of recognition and definition …

Advancements In Solar Energy Life Cycle Assessment And Implications For Power Plants In The Western Us, Santiago Cisneros Castillo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

New solar energy technologies, such as second-generation photovoltaic panels, are increasingly being installed at utility scale. Our accounting of the life cycle climate change impacts or carbon footprint of solar power technologies needs to be revised as technologies change and as prior omissions of related impacts are identified. This thesis aims to update the life cycle climate change impacts of two solar energy technologies. First, the direct land use change (DLUC) and albedo change impacts from removing native vegetation and installing CSP troughs were incorporated into life cycle assessment (LCA) scenarios for the four currently operational CSP trough power plants …

High Dynamic Range Actively Quenched Silicon-Germanium Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes, Abraham Castaneda

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are solid-state devices capable of providing large current pulses in the milliampere range in response to incident photons. The large gain inherent to SPADs makes them a popular technology for photon-counting applications, but their operation can be hindered by long recharge times, which necessitates the use of active quenching to reduce dead times and increase detection rates. For the prompt gamma/neutron radiation experiments conducted at the Nevada National Security Site, photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have been the primary photodetector of choice, but their continued use is expected to dwindle as it becomes increasingly difficult to source quality …

Insights Into Fluid-Rock Interactions On The Cv3 Chondrite Parent Body Through The Use Of Secondary Garnets In The Allende Cv3 Chondrite And Terrestrial Skarns, Jessica Marie Johnson

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Garnets are valuable for studying geologic processes, particularly fluid-rock interactions in terrestrial skarns. This dissertation examines secondary garnets and associated Ca-Fe silicates in Allende-like CV3 chondrites and terrestrial skarns to assess garnets as recorders of fluid-rock interactions. Chapter 2 investigates garnets from the Willsboro-Lewis skarn, revealing that mineral separate techniques misrepresent rare earth element (REE) signatures. Chapter 3 examines garnets and clinopyroxenes from the Victorio Mining District skarn, showing that REE incorporation was controlled by fluid composition rather than crystal chemistry. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on extraterrestrial samples. Chapter 4 finds that garnets and pyroxenes in Allende CV3 matrix …