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A Critical Evaluation Of The Dolby Digital Compression Algorithm, David Andrew Ingbretsen Jan 1996

A Critical Evaluation Of The Dolby Digital Compression Algorithm, David Andrew Ingbretsen

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Dolby Digital, or AC-3, provides for the compression of high-quality audio signals at a bit rate of 384 kbps. for 5.1 audio channels. The purpose of this thesis is to conduct an analysis and evaluation of the AC-3 compression algorithm. The main conclusion is that AC-3 allocates too few bits to the upper frequency ranges. This conclusion is supported by two lines of argument. First, a comparison of the AC-3 perceptual coding model with known facts concerning the masking properties of sound reveals omissions in the AC-3 perceptual model that lead to loss of high frequency resolution. Second, a test …

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Unwrapping The Neolithic Package: Wadi Shu'eib And Kholetria-Ortos In Perspective, Jason Brandon Cooper Jan 1996

Unwrapping The Neolithic Package: Wadi Shu'eib And Kholetria-Ortos In Perspective, Jason Brandon Cooper

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Archaeological research of the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia depicts socio-cultural developments and proto-urban villages, resulting from an intensifying agro-economy, emerging simultaneously during the first 5,000 years of the Holocene (11,000 to 6,000 bp). Kholetria-Ortos, Cyprus, and Wadi Shu'eib, Jordan, are highlighted in this thesis to illustrate variability found in a proposed "Neolithic package." The "Neolithic package" is a time capsule of items and ideas centered on sedentary villages participating in a domesticated plant/animal driven economy that provided subsistence and surplus to a growing population. Analysis of the recovered artifacts from both sites finds evidence of cultural variability across time …

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Capitalist "Communes" In The United States: The Commodification Of Urban Space And The Rise Of Master-Planned Communities, David Lee Derossett Jan 1996

Capitalist "Communes" In The United States: The Commodification Of Urban Space And The Rise Of Master-Planned Communities, David Lee Derossett

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The U.S. has experienced a dramatic proliferation of corporate master-planned communities, along with a related equally sharp increase in the numbers of people governed by private residential community associations (RCAs). Increasing by approximately 9,500 annually, RCA's are expected to grow from 130,000 in 1990 to approximately 225,000 by the year 2000. This trend is a manifestation of both the historical commodification of urban and community space and the gradual imposition of the corporate bureaucratic structure into community maintenance and governance. Intended to stimulate commodity need fulfillment and ensure the continued dominance of patriarchal bourgeois ideology, this new community form has …

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Atomic Age Training Camp: The Historical Archaeology Of Camp Desert Rock, Susan Edwards Jan 1996

Atomic Age Training Camp: The Historical Archaeology Of Camp Desert Rock, Susan Edwards

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Located in the southeast corner of the Nevada Test Site, Camp Desert Rock was established in 1951 when U.S. military leaders decided American ground troops needed physical and psychological training in the tactics of atomic warfare. For the next six years, Camp Desert Rock was home for the nearly 60,000 soldiers that participated in military exercises during atmospheric weapons testing. With the end of atmospheric testing the camp was partially dismantled and abandoned; The focus of this thesis was to identify and describe the material remains of Camp Desert Rock and to test the utility of Robert Schuyler's historic ethnographic …

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Ethics And The Moral Limits Of Policy, Marlene Beverly Khosropur Jan 1996

Ethics And The Moral Limits Of Policy, Marlene Beverly Khosropur

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Implementation is often the orphan of the policy creation process, causing problems that raise ethical warning flags. When drafting policy, flexibility is often absent from programs. Discretionary powers are denied to implementors, resulting in a condition of abstracted judgment that can cripple or derail the original intent. For example, government policies toward the aging often create and form perceptions that radiate outwardly, becoming assimilated by corporations and institutions, and hardened into programs that are often implemented unsoundly. The moral composition of a community is affected. Society absorbs fragments of thought generated by these policies and forms biases and prejudices that …

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Estimating Pareto's Constant And Gini Coefficient Of The Pareto Distribution, Brian Christopher Hodge Jan 1996

Estimating Pareto's Constant And Gini Coefficient Of The Pareto Distribution, Brian Christopher Hodge

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The Pareto distribution is widely used to describe the distribution of incomes. The distribution can be defined by a location parameter c and a shape parameters a. The maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) and the uniform minimum variance unbiased estimators (UMVUE) for parameters a and c are available in current literature. An improved estimator for parameter a will then be found using a frequentist decision theoretic technique. It is then shown that this improved estimator is the generalized bayes estimator for a certain choice of priors; The Lorenz curve is a tool used to evaluate the share of income of sub-populations …

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Apple Pie, Baseball And Drag Queens: The Persuasive Elements In Current Gay-Themed Films, Michael Jordan Higdon Jan 1996

Apple Pie, Baseball And Drag Queens: The Persuasive Elements In Current Gay-Themed Films, Michael Jordan Higdon

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study examines two recent gay-themed films (Philadelphia and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar) using Fisher's Narrative Theory. The researcher wants to discover how the films gained success given their controversial themes. The films are analyzed based on the presence of Reich's cultural myths and Reike and Sillars' value systems. The purpose is to show how the presence of elements in the films, that Americans already accept as true, makes the newer, controversial elements more engaging. The study finds an overwhelming presence of cultural myths and value systems that qualifies both films as persuasive devices. Background on …

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Health-Promoting Behaviors: Predictors Of Early Vs Late Initiation To Prenatal Care, Frances Mary Mckeon Jan 1996

Health-Promoting Behaviors: Predictors Of Early Vs Late Initiation To Prenatal Care, Frances Mary Mckeon

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive, quantitative study was to examine factors that could predict a woman's timing of prenatal care initiation. Participation in early prenatal care, a type of health-promoting behavior, has been associated with improved maternal/child health. Many women however, delay prenatal care initiation until late in their pregnancy; Pender's Health Promotion Model and self-reported data were used to examine the relationship between: (a) preconception participation in health-promoting behaviors, (b) demographic variables, (c) situational factors, (d) interpersonal social support, and (e) perceived barriers to/benefits of prenatal care and the timing of initiation to prenatal care. Self-administered questionnaires were completed …

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The Bharatiya Janata Party Of India: A Social Movement Striving For Political Dominance, Joel Aaron Lauer Jan 1996

The Bharatiya Janata Party Of India: A Social Movement Striving For Political Dominance, Joel Aaron Lauer

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

There has been a rise in religious nationalism over the past two decades throughout the world. This study will focus on one political party that has gained much of its popularity through the appeal to Hindu nationalism: The Bharatiya Janata Party of India (The BJP). This study will use James Darsey's catalytic event model to study the events that have shaped the BJP, the rhetorical periods that these events spurred, and the values of the BJP during these periods. This study has also incorporated "The Evil" from Robert Frykenberg's model to attempt to show what group the BJP criticizes during …

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Cost Calculation Of Ancillary Services Including System Security, Automatic Generation Control And Reactive Power, Mohammad Shahzad Lateef Jan 1996

Cost Calculation Of Ancillary Services Including System Security, Automatic Generation Control And Reactive Power, Mohammad Shahzad Lateef

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The recent changes in the electric utility industry due to the deregulation of the industry have created an immense need for the evaluation of all the services provided. The electric utility companies all across the United States have been providing these services for a long period of time. However, under the light of current deregulation, each one of these services have to be identified and evaluated separately. This thesis discusses three of these services, including security of the power system operation (Spinning and operating reserves), Automatic Generation Control (Load Following) and reactive power support. These three services are vital in …

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Identifying And Illustrating Urban Traffic Congestion, Mobility, And Accessibility Using A Gis, Jeffrey James Jensen Jan 1996

Identifying And Illustrating Urban Traffic Congestion, Mobility, And Accessibility Using A Gis, Jeffrey James Jensen

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Urban congestion, accessibility, and mobility are important concerns affecting the quality of life in metropolitan areas. It is important that accessibility and mobility should not be compromised while developing strategies to alleviate congestion. The effects of traffic congestion include not only increase travel delays, which result in the increase of travel times, but also impacts energy consumption and air quality. All of these have detrimental effects on the quality of life. In order to develop strategies to alleviate urban congestion, it is necessary to first identify where and when congestion occurs--i.e., the spatial and temporal distribution of congestion. The objective …

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A Case Study In Political Rhetoric: Political And Religious Cohesion In The South, Shauna S Harrington-Donnell Jan 1996

A Case Study In Political Rhetoric: Political And Religious Cohesion In The South, Shauna S Harrington-Donnell

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study of political and religious rhetoric questions the means by which a staunch religious individual becomes successful in the political arena. The overt religious and political rhetoric of Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR), who is also an ordained Baptist minister, is analyzed by method of textual analysis. Three speeches from different contexts are examined with the assistance of the Q.S.R. NUD.IST program for qualitative data analysis. The findings indicate that Huckabee's success in both ideological realms has occurred while using primarily three rhetorical tools to build ethos with the secular populace: self-disclosure, logic via example, and secular humor. Although, not …

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The Effects Of Deregulation On The Structure Of The Texas Natural Gas Production Industry, Scott Lemuel Martin Jan 1996

The Effects Of Deregulation On The Structure Of The Texas Natural Gas Production Industry, Scott Lemuel Martin

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Buying, selling, and transporting natural gas through underground pipelines has historically been regulated. However, in 1978 the Natural Gas Policy Act was passed, reducing the control that regulators had over the price of natural gas. In addition, the 1989 Natural Gas Wellhead Decontrol Act and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order #636 in 1992, continued deregulation of both natural gas prices and transportation from the point of sale to the customer's burner tip; Analysts have argued these regulatory changes have increased competition in the natural gas industry. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the Texas natural gas production industry …

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Message Routing Between The As/400 Token Ring Network And The Internet, Amuthan Kannan Jan 1996

Message Routing Between The As/400 Token Ring Network And The Internet, Amuthan Kannan

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A working model of the message exchange system is designed and developed for the AS/400 systems, a type of mid-range computer developed by IBM, thus enabling the Message Routing between the AS/400 Token Ring Network and the Internet. The routing system accommodates the in-built messaging function in the midrange computer, hence providing a common familiar interface to the user. The message system typically includes a router and an intermediate host system connected to a computer which provides the access to the Internet (technically referred as Internet Gateway). The router becomes the bridging unit between the Internet and the midrange host. …

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Women's Educational Pursuits: Effects On Marital And Relationship Happiness, Michele Minetti Jan 1996

Women's Educational Pursuits: Effects On Marital And Relationship Happiness, Michele Minetti

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study uses a descriptive design to investigate how attending college may change a woman's perception of her happiness with her marriage or primary relationship. Also assessed is the presence of value change since entering college, and how such changes may affect the woman's perception of her marriage or relationship. Marital happiness was assessed in nine relationship domains by using a likert scale. The domains that showed a statistically significant decrease in marital/relationship happiness were: household responsibilities, social activities, money, and sex. The independence domain was the only one that showed a statistically significant increase in marital happiness. Ninety percent …

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A Variational Principle And Its Connection With Fixed Point Theory, Ryo Ohashi Jan 1996

A Variational Principle And Its Connection With Fixed Point Theory, Ryo Ohashi

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, the following topics will be discussed; In chapter 2, a variational principle due to I. Ekeland (EVP) will be considered which deals with minimization of functions on a complete metric space; In chapter 3, the notion of completeness of a metric space will be characterized by means of various approaches. Several different statements will be given and shown to be all equivalent. One of these will be considered separately in chapter 4; In chapter 4, a direct approach to finding a fixed point of a self-mapping T on a complete metric space will be discussed. A transfinite …

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The Use Of Portfolios To Inform Classroom Practice, Dora Jean Olson Jan 1996

The Use Of Portfolios To Inform Classroom Practice, Dora Jean Olson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The Use of Portfolios to Inform Classroom Practice is a case study examining the effects of a portfolio assessment system introduced into a second grade classroom. The research was based on the philosophical analysis of Duschl and Gitomer (1991) who describe the concept of a "portfolio culture": as a result of using literacy portfolios in the classroom, what changes, if any, occur in students' metacognition, attitudes, behaviors, empowerment and engagement? The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey as well as two teacher-constructed semantic differential instruments were used to collect quantitative measures on the effects of portfolio use. These measures were supplemented with …

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Sound Effects: Measuring The Impact Of Aircraft Noise On Residential Property Values Around Mccarran International Airport, Curtis L. Myles Jan 1996

Sound Effects: Measuring The Impact Of Aircraft Noise On Residential Property Values Around Mccarran International Airport, Curtis L. Myles

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The airline industry is investing billions of dollars to adhere to the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990. The Act requires airlines to reconfigure 100% of their fleets with quieter aircraft. This regulation is based in part on studies conducted around airport facilities which indicated a negative impact from noise on residential property values; The purpose of this paper is to review the issue of aircraft noise and its impact on residential property, specifically single-family homes. It discusses the use of hedonic functional forms in measuring the effect of aircraft noise around a major airport facility. The empirical analysis …

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The Effect Of Caffeine On High-Intensity, Intermittent Exercise To Exhaustion, James Andrew Herman Jan 1996

The Effect Of Caffeine On High-Intensity, Intermittent Exercise To Exhaustion, James Andrew Herman

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Caffeine has been proported to increase endurance exercise time to exhaustion. However, the effects of caffeine on high-intensity, intermittent exercise to exhaustion have not been widely studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of caffeine on intermittent, high intensity exercise to exhaustion in individuals with minimal daily dietary caffeine consumption. Seven male participants, age 26 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 2 years, body mass 77 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 11 kg, and VO2{dollar}\rm\sb{max}{dollar} 47 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 7 ml/kg/min, performed a high-intensity exercise bout under both caffeine and placebo conditions administered in a counterbalanced, double blind fashion. Participants cycled at 120% of peak power …

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Teacher Perceptions Of Principal Behavior Related To Student Achievement, Sylvia J Springer Jan 1996

Teacher Perceptions Of Principal Behavior Related To Student Achievement, Sylvia J Springer

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Research has shown that principal behavior is a factor in school effectiveness. A set of ten variables describing principal behavior within three constructs, school management, school environment, and instructional leadership were presented. The variables of principal behavior included: resource management, personnel management, decision-making, communication interpersonal behavior, professional integrity, supervision and evaluation, educational expertise, staff development, and curriculum. The variables were drawn from traditional and contemporary effective schools literature; The purpose of the study was to determine if there was a difference in principals' behavior as measured by teachers perceptions in schools characterized as more effective and schools characterized as less …

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Development Of An Educational Overburden Index For New Mexico Schools, Karen Marie Stansfield-Paquette Jan 1996

Development Of An Educational Overburden Index For New Mexico Schools, Karen Marie Stansfield-Paquette

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop an educational overburden index (EOI) as a component in the New Mexico Public School Funding Formula. This is part of an ongoing research effort to develop a methodology for the distribution of funds based on the unique characteristics and needs of individual school districts. Research indicated that measuring and predicting populations containing at-risk students can be accomplished through application of multiple variables which reflect home, school, and community concerns. The study initially began with a selection of indicators from data provided by the New Mexico State Department of Education and the U.S. …

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A Numerical Investigation Of Performance And Optimization Trends Of Direct Contact Heat Exchangers, Richard Arlen Brickman Jan 1996

A Numerical Investigation Of Performance And Optimization Trends Of Direct Contact Heat Exchangers, Richard Arlen Brickman

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A numerical model has been developed that can be used for industrial design of a wide range of direct contact heat exchangers (DCHXs). This model is built from some earlier work where a one-dimensional model was used to describe some very specific and limited DCHX spray-column configurations. Changes to the initial model are proposed to reflect more accurately the physics of the flows found in both two- and three-phase DCHXs. In addition, generalizations are incorporated into the model to be able to analyze a wide variety of fluid combinations and roles (either as the dispersed flow or as the continuous …

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The Attitudes Of Principals Of Catholic Secondary Schools Toward Teacher Empowerment: A Study Of Principals In The Western Region Of The National Catholic Education Association, David M Erbach Jan 1996

The Attitudes Of Principals Of Catholic Secondary Schools Toward Teacher Empowerment: A Study Of Principals In The Western Region Of The National Catholic Education Association, David M Erbach

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of principals of selected Catholic secondary schools toward aspects of teacher empowerment. The Attitudes Toward Teacher Empowerment Survey was developed to measure attitudes toward empowering teachers in certain decision areas and to examine attitudes about the effects of teacher empowerment; The instrument was reviewed by two separate expert panels and sent, in final form, to 201 secondary school principals in the western region of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). The selected principals returned 161 (80.1%) usable surveys; The first part of the survey, items 1 through 29, measured principal …

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Intradistrict Equity: A Proposed Methodology For Resource Allocation, Susan J Miller-Defrancesco Jan 1996

Intradistrict Equity: A Proposed Methodology For Resource Allocation, Susan J Miller-Defrancesco

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop an intradistrict allocation funding model. An extension of research methodology using an index-of-need as a proxy for the magnitude of educational need, this study identified indicators-of-need from the research literature and as present in 31 middle schools in Clark County School District, Las Vegas, Nevada. A neural net analysis categorized schools based on their indicator-of-need variables. Six variables were the basis for the index development: student poverty level, transiency rate, limited English proficiency (LEP) student enrollment, special education student enrollment, percentage of minority enrollment, and percentage of students eligible for Title I …

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Morphological And Molecular Variation In Four Species Of Migratory Raptors From North America, Elise Vernon Schmidt Jan 1996

Morphological And Molecular Variation In Four Species Of Migratory Raptors From North America, Elise Vernon Schmidt

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Population structure and ecological morphology of four species of raptors were studied in three migratory populations. Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus), Cooper's Hawks (A. cooperi), Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), and American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) all migrate through three major flyways in North America: the Goshute Mountains of Nevada, the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico, and Cape May Point in New Jersey. Restriction fragment analysis of mitochondrial DNA was used to elucidate population structure, and analyses of morphological characteristics provided information on ecomorphology of raptors. Geographic population structure was found only in Red-tailed Hawks with Cape May individuals having a different haplotype …

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The Ontogeny Of Cardiorespiratory Support Of Metabolism, Paul Richard Territo Jan 1996

The Ontogeny Of Cardiorespiratory Support Of Metabolism, Paul Richard Territo

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The formation of the cardiovascular system and its role in gas exchange has long been speculated to occur concomitantly. Although this premise has been suggested and quoted for more than a century, there are few studies to date which have attempted to validate these claims. Furthermore, the few which do exist have been primarily concerned with two things: first, how environment may affect the functional morphology; and second, how these changes may affect hemodynamics directly. As a result, our understanding of how gas exchange is coupled with to cardiovascular function is seriously lacking; The goal of this dissertation was to …

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The Influence Of Prior Experiences On Teaching Schemata Of Traditional And Nontraditional Elementary Preservice Teachers, James Richard Birrell Jan 1996

The Influence Of Prior Experiences On Teaching Schemata Of Traditional And Nontraditional Elementary Preservice Teachers, James Richard Birrell

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the influence of prior experiences on teaching schemata of traditional and nontraditional elementary preservice teachers. Data collection was conducted at Western State University (WSU) in the desert southwest, U.S.A. The influence of prior experiences on two dimensions of teaching schemata were explored in this study. Stimulated recall interviews of peer lessons illuminated the influence of prior experiences on thirty-eight traditional and twenty-two nontraditional elementary preservice teachers' classroom interactive dimensions (CID). Concept mapping illuminated the influence of prior experiences on participants' reflective/introspective dimensions; Participant responses from stimulated recall and concept map interviews were transcribed and compared to categories …

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An Investigation And Analysis Of The Baccalaureate Degree Completion Rates Of Community College Transfer Students, Christian Ifeanyi Egemba Jan 1996

An Investigation And Analysis Of The Baccalaureate Degree Completion Rates Of Community College Transfer Students, Christian Ifeanyi Egemba

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The United States faces increasing competition in the global marketplace. One viable way to strengthen America's competitive position in the global economy is to develop its human capital through a genuine commitment to and aggressive investment in its higher education system, which culminates in baccalaureate-level education. There are several benefits of a baccalaureate-level education, for both individuals and for the country. For individuals, there are self-development and economic benefits. For the country, there are economic development benefits and a more enlightened citizenry; The transferability of the community college credits to four-year institutions extends the following benefits to the economically disadvantaged …

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The Development Of An At-Risk Index And Its Implications For The State Of Texas, Craig A Kadlub Jan 1996

The Development Of An At-Risk Index And Its Implications For The State Of Texas, Craig A Kadlub

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to devise a model for funding Texas school districts in proportion to their varying at-risk student needs. The method employed was the development of a composite indicator--an index of need--based upon commonly accepted at-risk indicators. Advantages of an index include its objectivity and the fact that it can be constructed using commonly available statistics. Additionally, because it produces a recommended level of resource allocation predicated upon cumulative needs rather than student-or program-specific spending dictates, it fosters district-level control and authority over resources provided by the state and inhibits the student labeling and rigid program …

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Nontraditional Teachers: Personal Learning Styles And Teaching Styles, Teresa Delgadillo Harrison Jan 1996

Nontraditional Teachers: Personal Learning Styles And Teaching Styles, Teresa Delgadillo Harrison

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Growing numbers of career change adults are entering alternative certification programs to become teachers. These adults bring to the classroom many of the same characteristics of traditionally-prepared teachers. They also come with some unique characteristics, among them age, reasons for entering teaching, prior career experience and well-developed personalities that include learning preferences; This study conceptualized non-traditional teachers as mature adults, persons whose personality types and learning styles preferences had been well developed and also reinforced by their previous career choices. The study explored the effect of non-traditional teachers' personal learning styles on their teaching styles. Four participants for this multiple-case …

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