Digital Commons Network^™

The American Church/State Quagmire: A Major Cause And A Proposed Solution, Mary Fleming Morton

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The primary purpose of this thesis is to clarify possible legitimate interactions between churches and government bodies in America. Finding that the present interpretation of the First Amendment has actually precipitated much of the current controversy, evidence is presented of its lack of validity. Instead an alternative interpretation is offered that clearly shows that the American colonists had come to recognize an entirely new manner in which to organize a society. This new manner of organization gave sovereignty to the individual in two major societal systems: the political and the religious. The consequence of this was the recognition that churches …

Comparison Of Models To Mitigate Flood Hazard To Transportation Alignments On Alluvial Fans, Julianne Joy Miller

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Many investigators have suggested that available one- and two-dimensional, deterministic models may provide better discharge estimates for alluvial fan flood mitigation studies than the one-dimensional, stochastic Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) model; A modified version of the one-dimensional, stochastic FEMA model (French, 1992), and the one- and two-dimensional, deterministic models, DAMBRK (Fread, 1984) and FLO-2D (O'Brien, 1995), respectively, are used to estimate peak discharges at railroad alignments crossing three alluvial fans in southern Nevada. Risk analyses calculate exceedance probabilities. Results are compared with railroad maintenance records documenting damage to these alignments; All three models generally predict peak discharges that are …

A Path To Nowhere: Violence, Sex, And Humor In Cormac Mccarthy's "Child Of God" And "Suttree", Justin Cord Hayes

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A Path to Nowhere: Violence, Sex, and Humor in Cormac McCarthy's Child of God and Suttree discusses some of the uses of three prevalent elements in two of McCarthy's works. Chapter One introduces violence and its importance to his fiction, demonstrating that it is often linked with sex and humor, and it discusses the two novels' lack of closure. Chapter Two describes McCarthy's use of the three elements in Child of God. Chapter Three illustrates his use of the elements in Suttree. Chapter Four concludes the essay by offering some reasons why Child of God and Suttree lack closure.

"Red Alert In Cyberspace": A Battle Over First Amendment Privileges On The Internet, Derek Michael Belt

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This paper covers Internet communication and the ability of consenting adults to freely and openly express ideas regardless of content, especially when dealing with obscene and indecent materials. The first chapter focuses on the inability of the American courts to specifically define what obscenity is and exactly where it falls within the realm of First Amendment protection. In that chapter, I discuss the theoretical backdrop for the entire obscenity issue. The second chapter focuses on the governmental attempt to regulate Internet communications, focusing on the Communications Decency Act of 1996. The final chapter covers the July 1997 Supreme Court's deliberation …

Synthetic Organic Compounds: Las Vegas Wash And Lake Mead, National Water Quality Assessment Program (Nawqa): Nevada Basin And Range

Publications (WR)

The Nevada Basin and Range (NVBR) study unit of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program is investigating the status of, trends in, and factors affecting water quality in the Las Vegas area. A principal objective of the investigation is to assess the effects of urbanization on the quality of area water resources. Las Vegas Wash is the surface-water outlet for the Las Vegas area. The wash transports stormwater runoff, shallow ground-water discharge, and tertiary-treated sewage effluent from the Las Vegas area to Las Vegas Bay of Lake Mead on the Colorado River. Most of the flow—about 96 …

Measuring The Accuracy Of Page-Reading Systems, Stephen Vincent Rice

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Given a bitmapped image of a page from any document, a page-reading system identifies the characters on the page and stores them in a text file. This "OCR-generated" text is represented by a string and compared with the correct string to determine the accuracy of this process. The string editing problem is applied to find an optimal correspondence of these strings using an appropriate cost function. The ISRI annual test of page-reading systems utilizes the following performance measures, which are defined in terms of this correspondence and the string edit distance: character accuracy, throughput, accuracy by character class, marked character …

An Object-Oriented Modeling Approach To Build Data Communication Model, Wuqing Xu

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The problem of data communications between process units within a telecommunication network based on OSI's standard seven layer Reference Model is addressed. In this thesis, we expose the generic aspect of protocol implementation as an object-oriented conceptual model emphasizing on the dynamic aspects of the objects involved while we explore both aspects, namely, static and dynamic aspects. A data communication model is proposed; Through the development of the conceptual model, we can capture the crucial aspects of network system and omit others. In developing the conceptual model for data communication, we apply object-oriented modeling principles to explore the potential elements …

Developing A Traffic Control Device Maintenance Management System Interfacing With Gis, Diane I Morse

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Roadway systems contain a wide variety of spatially distributed physical features which require installation, maintenance and replacement. These features include traffic control devices such as signs, signals, pavement markings and streetlights. Several technologies exist that can be utilized by the transportation sector to improve program management of a number of these features. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology provides a powerful environment for the capture, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of spatial (locationally defined) data. A need exists to provide an inventory of the transportation physical plant to interface with a work management system. Information pertaining to the number and condition …

The Role Of Interference In Metacognitive Monitoring, Katherine M Jacobi

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Recent advancements in neuropsychology have initiated theoretical advancements in cognitive psychology, particularly concerning the constructs of interference and metacognition. These constructs share similar cognitive functioning and this study investigated the relationship between them. It was expected that students with higher monitoring ability would demonstrate lower susceptibility to interference. Students from undergraduate Educational Psychology classes were administered three tests: two measures of interference, and one measure of metacognitive monitoring ability. Variables from the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST) and the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) measured susceptibility to interference. A monitoring task applied to a math aptitude test was used …

Algorithms For Document Image Skew Estimation, Andrew David Bagdanov

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A new projection profile based skew estimation algorithm was developed. This algorithm extracts fiducial points representing character elements by decoding a JBIG compressed image without reconstructing the original image. These points are projected along parallel lines into an accumulator array to determine the maximum alignment and the corresponding skew angle. Methods for characterizing the performance of skew estimation techniques were also investigated. In addition to the new skew estimator, three projection based algorithms were implemented and tested using 1,246 single column text zones extracted from a sample of 460 page images. Linear regression analyses of the experimental results indicate that …

Evaluation Of An Alternative Statistical Decision Rule For Site Remediation, Bradley Donald Schultz

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A method proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to optimize site remediation, called the CRG approach states that soil cleanup levels are typically misapplied on a point by point basis rather than on average. The effectiveness of the CRG approach will be evaluated for lognormal, exponential, uniform, and normally distributed data by first simulating data sets for each distribution. Next the CRG approach will be applied to the simulated data sets. Finally, the results of the CRG approach will be analyzed.

Location Of The Target Pitch Within A Vibrato Wave, David Frank Clark

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The current study investigated the relationship between the vibrato wave and the target pitch while eliminating some of the methodological problems that have plagued such research in the past. Three commercially-recorded selections were chosen for each of seven artists (for a total of 21 selections), and modern computer equipment was used to extract pitch information for each of six to fourteen notes from each selection. The chosen selections were all accompanied so that the target pitch could be determined from the accompaniment, and target pitch location within the vibrato wave was quantified absolutely and relatively. In general, the target pitch …

Consent And Coercion: How The Ideology Of Progressivism Preserved Capitalist Relations In Nevada, 1900-1919, Daniel Mark Barber

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

During the so-called "Progressive Era," the State of Nevada influenced the consciousness of workers by rewarding proper thinking with access to state power and punishing improper thinking with criminal sanctions. Nevada Governor Emmet D. Boyle fostered a relationship with the state's prominent trade unionists that promoted Progressive notions of industrial cooperation. Legislation that created the Office of Labor Commissioner in 1915 secured this Progressive consensus between the State and trade unions in Nevada. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) threatened this relationship however by introducing throughout Nevada's mining districts a radical, "class conscious" critique of capitalist relations. In response …

A Rhetorical Situation: Contemporary Arguments On The Legalization Of Gambling In America, Jan Lewellyn Davidson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Lloyd Bitzer's (1992) definition of a rhetorical situation is applied to a historical review of the rhetoric surrounding the legalization of gambling in America. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 invites rhetoric from tribes, the gaming industry, elected government officials, anti-gambling coalitions, and states. Consistent rhetorical participation by these parties gives significance to gambling in America. A review of the rhetoric on legalized gaming illustrates the vacillating public opinion of legalized gambling in America. This study delineates Indians' poor living condition on reservations as the existing situation initiating rhetorical discourse. While all parties continue to debate their respective positions, …

Civic Virtue And Public Policy: Discerning The Particulars Of Reforming The General Mining Law Of 1872, Scott Fitzgerald Murray

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

How ought we, both as a society and as individuals, to reason about public policy matters? This question is examined for the purposes of analyzing the General Mining Law of 1872 and advocating reforms to this public lands law anachronism. Drawing from Aristotle and David Hume, individuals of good character, acting as citizens in pursuit of the public good through historically informed self-government deliberate best about public policy matters. It is through the exercise of civic virtue, which civic republican government encourages, that incremental and acceptable solutions to public policy problems are most likely to be found. When examined using …

Maka'ainana (People Of The Land), The Issue Of Hawaiian Sovereignty: The Life Cycle Of Ka Lahui, Sonia Feldberg

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The Hawaiian people have been fighting to regain their sovereignty since the overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation in 1893. Throughout history many movements formed in response to this injustice. In 1987 Ka Lahui was formed as an initiative for self government to return Hawaii to the Kanaka MaoLi This study examines Ka Lahui by analyzing its rhetoric and placing it in the proper life cycle of a social movement. Also the strength of Ka Lahui's leader, Mililani Trask, will be analyzed. Social movements are pressured by many outside institutions. Ka Lahui's efforts are constantly being monitored by the Office of …

A Study Of The American Association Of Retired Persons, Lenora Gay Ingram

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents a discussion of the role of a public interest group and the potential impact of its participation in the public policy arena. The particular interest group being assessed is the American Association of Retired Persons, AARP. An assessment shall be conducted through multiple factors. The first factor is the evolution of group theory in the discipline of political science. A second factor presents a historical path of the acknowledgement and development of interest groups in the United States. The remaining factors assess the interest group, AARP, as it relates to interest group theory and as it has …

Many Body Effects In The Photoelectron Spectroscopy Of Strongly Correlated Electron Systems, Jianzhong Zheng

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This work is a theoretical study of the photoelectron spectroscopy of strongly correlated electron systems. Using exact diagonalization techniques, one-particle excitation spectra of an extended Hubbard model are calculated. Three important issues are investigated systematically. The first is the effects of nonlocal interactions on the spectral redistribution; the second is the coverage dependence of the spectra under various conditions; and the third is the influence of temperature on the spectral evolution. The calculated results and their implications for a wide variety of materials systems are discussed in a many-body picture to gain physical insights.

Colloidal Interactions Of Thorium, Frezewd Haile-Meskel

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Some organic and inorganic colloids have a strong affinity to bind radionuclides, and therefore, enhance their mobility. This study attempted to determine the interactions of thorium with colloidal humic acid and colloidal silica under various aqueous conditions and organic carbon from Blue point, Muddy, and Rogers Springs. A colloidal distribution study was done in spiked Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake samples. Plutonium was studied as an example for other radionuclides. Based on these studies, both thorium and plutonium were associated mostly with particles smaller than 0.45{dollar}\mu{dollar}m. Humic acid and organic carbon were found to have little influence on thorium speciation …

A Self-Consistent Numerical Method For Simulation Of Quantum Transport In High Electron Mobility Transistor; Part Ii: The Full Quantum Transport, Rahim Khoie

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

In Part I of this paper we reported a self-consistent Boltzmann-Schrodinger-Poisson simulator for HEMT in which only electrons in the first subband were assumed to be quantized with their motion restricted to 2 dimensions. In that model, the electrons in the second and higher subbands were treated as bulk system behaving as a 3 dimensional electron gas. In Part II of this paper, we extend our simulator to a self-consistent full-quantum model in which the electrons in the second subband are also treated as quantized 2 dimensional gas. In this model, we consider the electrons in the lowest two subbands …

Mafic Volcanism In The Colorado Plateau: Basin And Range Transition Zone, Hurricane, Utah, Alexander Sanchez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Hurricane volcanic field (HVF) is a small-volume (0.48 km³) mafic volcanic field in the Colorado Plateau/Basin & Range Transition Zone located in the eastern part of the St. George basin in southwestern Utah. Strombolian-Hawaiian style eruptions produced thin (10 m) a'a lava flows and cinder (scoria) cones composed of vesicular basalt, bombs and agglutinate. Radiometric dating and geologic relationships demonstrate that the HVF formed over a period of at least 100,000 years. In the upper crust, magma probably rose along joints in sedimentary rocks because chains of volcanic vents follow joint orientation maxima in sedimentary rocks.

Three …

Tectonic Denudation Of Mesozoic Contractile Structures By A Low-Angle Normal Fault And Associated Faults, Southern White Pine Range, Nevada, Holly Langrock

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Blackrock Canyon area in the southern White Pine Range, Nevada mostly consists of the highly extended upper plate of a low-angle normal fault, the Blackrock fault. The post-31.3 Ma Blackrock fault places upper Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and overlying Tertiary volcanic rocks of the Garret Ranch Group in its hangingwall against a 50 degrees E-dipping homocline of Cambrian through Mississippian rocks in its footwall. The 15 to 30 degrees W-dipping Blackrock fault is non-planar and consists of two fault segments and a pronounced corrugation, the Bull Spring corrugation. These geometric irregularities suggest the slip direction on the fault was east-southeast …

Geology And Geochemistry Of Tertiary Volcanic Rocks In The Northern Reveille And Southern Pancake Ranges, Nye County, Nevada, Kelly Brian Rash

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The northern Reveille and southern Pancake Ranges, located in the south-central Great Basin, experienced a prolonged history of Tertiary volcanism. Volcanic activity in this area began with the eruption of large-volumes of ash-flow tuffs from calderas of the central Nevada caldera complex. The Reveille Range and the southernmost portion of the Pancake Range are the site of two calderas that are the sources for the tuff of Goblin Knobs and tuff of northern Reveille Range. The tuff of Goblin Knobs (70.4-75.3 wt.% SiO₂) erupted from the caldera of Goblin Knobs (25.6 Ma) and is the thickest (~1700 m) …

Geochemical Evolution Of A Mid-Miocene Synextensional Volcanic Complex: The Dolan Springs Volcanic Field, Northwestern Arizona, Scott Michael Mcdaniel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Dolan Springs volcanic field (DSV), of northwestern Arizona, is dominated by andesite and basaltic-andesite flows and breccias, with minor amounts of basalt, rhyolite, and ash-flow tuff. Geochemistry is used here as a tool to evaluate the roles and contributions of the lithospheric and asthenospheric mantles to magmatism related to Miocene extension in the Colorado River extension corridor (CREC). The majority of synextensional volcanic rocks in the DSV are geochemically similar to regional trends, but rare tholeiitic basalts erupted near the end of extension. The tholeiites have trace element signatures similar to ocean island basalt (OIB), but have isotopic values …

Intelligent Control Of Vehicles: Preliminary Results On The Application Of Learning Automata Techniques To Automated Highway System, Cem Unsal, John S. Bay, Pushkin Kachroo

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

We suggest an intelligent controller for an automated vehicle to plan its own trajectory based on sensor and communication data received. Our intelligent controller is based on an artificial intelligence technique called learning stochastic automata. The automaton can learn the best possible action to avoid collisions using the data received from on-board sensors. The system has the advantage of being able to work in unmodeled stochastic environments. Simulations for the lateral control of a vehicle using this AI method provides encouraging results.

Flexible Low-Cost Automated Scaled Highway (Flash) Laboratory For Studies On Automated Highway Systems, Pushkin Kachroo, Kaan Ozbay, Robert G. Leonard, Cem Unsal

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

This paper addresses the development of a flexible low-cost automated scale highway (FLASH) laboratory which is intended to serve as a catalyst for accelerating the development of many intelligent vehicle highway system (IVHS) concepts. It also highlights the significance of the laboratory for the research, evaluation, and testing of automated highway system (AHS) configurations, architectures, designs and technologies. This laboratory, using small scale standardized vehicles will serve as a test bed for the economical development and evaluation of various hardware, software, and management systems before full scale testing and deployment. The laboratory will provide the capability to test day and …

Unlv Magazine, Donna Mcaleer, Francisco Menendez

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Housing Conditions & Demographical Survey: Housing Rehabilitation For The City Of North Las Vegas, Lisa M. Morris

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The basis of this research, is to evaluate the North Las Vegas area in order to develop knowledge of what areas are in critical need of rehabilitation. Improperly maintained affordable housing is one of the largest sources of wasted resources. The research was obtained through a windshield survey process, which included approximately 12,000 homes in the North Las Vegas area to determine their conditions. The findings of the windshield survey was used to correlate the results of the housing conditions, with demographics such as: Population, Age Distribution, Racial Distribution, Median Income, Poverty Levels, Age of Homes and Female Head of …

Management Of Pesticide Related Soil Contamination In Tulare County, California: Remediation And Prevention Options, Nickolas Keoni Akana

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The case study chosen for research is the Remedial Action Plan (RAP) summary report of Remedial Investigations of the Harmon Field contaminated site located near the town of Pixley, in Tulare County, California. "These reports were prepared in accordance with a directive from the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal-EPA), formerly the California Department of Health Services (DHS). (Canonie, 1996).

Harmon Field is a hundred acre field located at 1494 South Airport Road. The airfield has been in full operation since 1952. The uses of the airport are all agriculturally related. The primary use is for crop duster operations. (Canonie 1996). …

Nutrient Limitation In A Southwestern Desert Reservoir: Eutrophication Of Las Vegas Bay, Lake Mead, Nevada, Davine M. Lieberman

Publications (WR)

Algal bioassay tests were conducted with Selenastrum capricornutum and natural algae on inner Las Vegas Bay, Lake Mead, Nevada, from December 1992 through September 1993, to identify any nutrient limitation in an area of the reservoir that has experienced problems associated with severe nutrient enrichment. Three areas were sampled based on a gradient of water quality conditions that existed in Las Vegas Bay (LVB). Disodium ethylenedinitrilotetraacetate (EDTA) significantly stimulated algal growth compared to non-EDTA treatment. Algal bioassays indicated that phosphorus (P) was the primary limiting nutrient at all stations for most of the test dates. Chl a response with EDTA …