Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling Image Databases Using Xml Schema, Min Xu

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents a model for still images in order to support content-based querying and browsing by hierarchical tree structures and object relational graphs. We use the extensible markup language (XML) schema to illustrate and exemplify the proposed model because of its interoperability and flexibility advantages. Of primary interest is the notion of complex types and referential integrity to fully describe the physical and semantic properties of images. XQuery is used to support query processing. We further show how these complex types of XML schema can be used to overcome the shortcomings of reported image database descriptions in the literature.

Two Non-Specific Indicators Of Stress: Enamel Hypoplasia And Harris Lines, Marta Pilar Alfonso Durruty

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Harris lines (HL) and enamel hypoplasia (EH) are two non-specific indicators of stress, commonly used in the reconstruction of the health status in past and present populations. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a correlation between these two markers. To achieve this aim, a sample of 136 individuals from two archaeological sites (Az-71 and Az-l40) from northern Chile was analyzed. HL and EH showed no correlation in terms of presence absence at the individual level. In addition, HL and EH, by age of the individual at the time of the defect formation, showed a completely …

Large-Scale Database Modeling: Extended Er Diagrams And Uml, Tong Feng

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is concerned with the team efforts to develop a large database to track medical information. An Extended Entity Relationship diagram is developed using UML notation to describe the design of the database. Special attention was given for features of EER diagram which can not easily be represented by ER diagram.

Representation Of Special Polynomials By The Cycle Indicator, Jack Lund Schofield

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Certain classes of special functions have been shown to have Cycle Indicator representations as well as recurrence relations. Most remarkably, it is shown how the Cycle Indicator can be used to unify or generalize special functions. Methods of unifying special functions are elaborated on. It follows that classical special functions with simple logarithms of their generating functions can be classified in this way. Also, there are counter-examples where the Cycle Indicator doesn't represent the special functions given; This thesis represents a study of a journal article called "Cycle Indicators and Special Functions" by Leetsch C. Hsu and Peter Jau-Shyong Shiue …

Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Of Off-Ramp Structures Of The Las Vegas Downtown Viaduct, Mohammad Ohidul Hasan

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents the results of analytical studies conducted on the off ramp structures of the Las Vegas downtown viaduct. In the first stage, the moment, shear and deformation capacities of the columns were determined by moment-curvature analysis. Then, the existing design of the bridge columns was compared to the requirements of the current bridge design codes. In the second stage, the moment, shear and deformation demands on the columns due to a strong earthquake were determined using the seismic provisions of the current bridge design codes. In the third stage, non-linear three dimensional finite element models of the off …

Confidence Intervals For Exposure Risk Assessment, Mark S Kirkham

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The problem of estimating exposure to a pollutant involves estimation of chemical intake Q. Typically, Q has the form Q = q11q12&cdots;q 1r1/q211q22 &cdots;q2r2t where all thetaij's are unknown means of certain random variables. In assessing the risk to human health from exposure to the pollutant of concern, a confidence interval estimate of Q is needed. In the case of independent normal random variables, point estimates and certain types of interval estimates of a product of several parameters exist in the literature, but not for a ratio of products. In many situations, lot of prior knowledge is available regarding the …

Cerium And Rhodium Substitution In The Antiferromagnetic Superconductor Cerium Rhodium Indium(5), Brian Edward Light

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Among heavy fermion materials, a relationship between unconventional superconductivity and magnetism has been observed. The dependence of the magnetic transitions of CexLa1-xRhyIr1-y In5 with respect to temperature and magnetic field applied along the tetragonal c and a crystal axes is examined using heat capacity measurements. The magnetic phase diagram of CeRh yIrl-yIn5 for the applied transitions in the a direction shows the magnetic structure of CeRhIn5 is unchanged by Ir doping. Doping of Ir in small concentrations is shown to increase the antiferromagnetic transition temperature TN. La doping or higher concentration of Ir is shown to lower TN. This shows …

Framework For A System To Model Casino Development, Benjamin Harold Mammina

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to develop a system to model casino development without the user's need for information from architects, contractors or consultants. The target user would be a casino executive who had business experience, but minimal real estate development experience. Successful modeling would be based upon a favorable ratio of developmental costs to income projections known as Return on Investment (ROI). In this study factors used to calculate ROI for casino development projects were analyzed by examination of actual ROI calculations that were previously performed by experienced casino executives who had support from architect, contractors and consultants. …

Alternate Path Routing Algorithm For Traffic Engineering In The Internet, Shyam Subramanian

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Data flowing through the internet continues to grow every year. Increase in traffic demands increase in bandwidth. But bandwidth1 does not grow as fast as the traffic. This leads to congestion in the network and performance degradation. One way to avoid this problem is to use efficient routing algorithm that efficiently maps the flow of data onto the network; The most often used routing algorithm in the internet is the shortest path algorithm (Dijkstra's algorithm). This algorithm is simple and easy to implement. But this algorithm leads to over-utilization of part of the network, while the other part remains under-utilized. …

A Comparison Of Upper Confidence Limits For Skewed Distributions, Michael Gary Theemling

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Remediation decisions at contaminated sites are determined by comparing the Upper Confidence Limit (UCL) of the mean contaminant to a site-specific action level. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established methods for computing this UCL, also called the Exposure Point Concentration (EPC) term; The UCL formula depends upon the distribution of the contaminant concentrations, which are often positively skewed. The EPA frequently recommends the Lognormal distribution to model such data. However, that assumption often causes the UCL to be unreliable. What is the role of skewness in computing UCL statistics over different distributions? Computer simulation is used to test a …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Alcohol Availability And Alcohol-Related Hospital Admissions In The City Of Chicago, 1990--1997, Dorothy Ruth Wilson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Current research suggested a relationship between alcohol availability and problems, including suicide, and car accidents. However, the relationship between alcohol availability and alcohol related hospital admissions, such as acute intoxication and liver damage, has not been widely explored. Measuring alcohol availability by alcohol outlet density and using data for alcohol related hospital admissions in the city of Chicago, a Poisson regression analysis determined that neighborhoods with a higher percentage of African-Americans, higher poverty level, and a greater density of alcohol outlets had a greater number of alcohol related hospital admissions than other neighborhoods. To control for individual level characteristics, a …

Partitioning A Given Circuit Targeting Multiple Fpgas, Girish Narayanan Cherussery

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Our approach to the problem of partitioning the design (represented as a hypergraph) into Multi-FPGAs uses a bi-level approach by initially clustering the design and then applying the bipartitioning technique iteratively. Each partition generated by the iterative bipartitioning technique should meet the constraints given by the FPGAs input-output and number of CLBs. The traditional FM partitioning can be applied to partition the circuit into multiple FPGAs. FM partitioning aims to minimize the number of interconnections but fails to group the nodes with maximum interconnections into one partition. Thus FM algorithm looks at the partitioning problem with a global viewpoint, abandoning …

Approximation Algorithms For Multi-Facility Location, Prashanth Kodela

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis deals with the development and implementation of efficient algorithms to obtain acceptable solutions for the location of several facilities to serve customer sites. The general version of facility location problem is known to be NP-hard; For locating multiple facilities we use Voronoi diagram of initial facility locations to partition the customer sites into k clusters. On each Voronoi region, solutions for single facility problem is obtained by using both Weizfield's algorithm and Center of Gravity. The customer space is again partitioned by using the newly computed locations. This iteration is continued to obtain a better solution for multi-facility …

Gender Differences In Cognitive Interference With Sexual Arousal, Sarah Elizabeth Nunnink

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

It is well documented that cognitive interference detrimentally influences sexuality, but little is known about the content of that interference. This study compared the self-reports of 220 college men and 337 college women on two types of cognitive interference during sex, performance-oriented and appearance-oriented. Also assessed via use of the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory and the Sexual History Form were: sexual satisfaction, psychological distress, sexual knowledge, sexual experiences, sexual attitudes, sexual fantasy, body image, affect, and sexual functioning, all areas thought to be related to sexual functioning. As predicted, findings indicated that women were more concerned with their own appearance …

Paradigms Of Reality In Poe's Mad Narrative, Tamy Lynn Burnett

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on an examination of madness in four short stories by American author Edgar Allan Poe: "Ligeia," "Eleonora," "The Black Cat," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Using Walter Fischer's theoretical communication framework, the Narrative Paradigm, the four stories are examined for narrative fidelity and narrative probability in an effort to more fully understand Poe's treatment of madness in first person narrators; "Ligeia" and "Eleonora" are compared as stories of a lost lover and the subsequent possibilities for madness due to guilt over marrying someone else. Next, "The Black Cat" is examined with a focus on …

A Dynamic Simulation Model Of Beach Sand Replenishment: A Case Study Of Santa Barbara, California, David Turbow, Steve Norwick, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Sediment deprivation from dam installments contributes to beach erosion yet the underlying physical and economic factors linking them together have traditionally been isolated during regional planning. In order to gain a better understanding of the behavior of a managed beach system, a dynamic simulation model was developed incorporating physical and monetary factors influencing the amount of available beach sand. The Santa Barbara littoral cell was chosen as a case study to evaluate the feasibility of beach preservation goals under scenarios in which annual sand replenishment funding, sand prices, or sediment recovery from behind dams were limiting factors to available beach …

The Oxford Guide To Style, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Research

Oxford's style manual will be essential to users previously dependent on Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers (39th ed., 1986)--those preparing manuscripts for Oxford University Press and other British publishers--which Ritter revises and enlarges. Chapters cover general publication topics such as front matter and preparation of copy and proofs; editorial issues like punctuation, numbers, and capitalization; special conventions regarding science and mathematics; and "specialist subjects" including British and EU law, music, poetry, drama, and sacred works.

Design And Analysis Of A Process For Melt Casting Metallic Fuel Pins Incorporating Volatile Actinides, Yitung Chen, Darrell Pepper, Randy Clarksean

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The Transmutation Research Program requires the incorporation of non-fertile actinides into the fuel matrix for the transmuter blanket. One of three currently proposed candidate matrices for the transmuter blanket is a metallic alloy fuel matrix. Metallic fuels are an outstanding candidate for a transmutation fuel due to excellent irradiation performance and ease of fabrication. However, including a volatile constituent during fabrication of these fuel pins presents a challenge. High vapor pressure actinides, particularly americium, are susceptible to rapid vaporization and transport using traditional metal fuel casting processes. As a result, only a fraction of the desired charge is incorporated into …

Mosquito Population Dynamics During The Establishment Phase Of A Constructed Desert Wetland, April Newman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Nature Preserve at the Clark County Wetlands Park is a constructed wetland that has the potential to produce new mosquito habitat. This thesis evaluates the potential for the development of a mosquito problem at the newly constructed wetland system by assessing the population dynamics of mosquitoes within the Nature Preserve. Based on data collected from May 2001 through January 2002, I describe fluctuations in mosquito genus and relative abundance during the first summer through winter period of wetland development.

University Of Nevada, Las Vegas Advanced Accelerator Applications University Participation Program: Quarterly Report, Third Quarter (September To November 2001), Anthony Hechanova

Transmutation Research Program Reports (TRP)

This Quarterly Report is a primary deliverable from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) University Participation Program (UPP) Director to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as described in the UNLV AAA proposal and Statement of Work for the Third Quarter.

The UNLV AAA UPP Director implements the program’s administration using staff from the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies (HRC) to ensure that work conducted under the UNLV AAA UPP meets program objectives. The UNLV AAA UPP consists of three components: Program Support, Research Infrastructure Augmentation, and Student Research.

Radiation Transport Modeling Of Beam-Target Experiments For The Aaa Project: Quaterly Report, William Culbreth

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

The national development of technology to transmute nuclear waste depends upon the generation of high energy neutrons produced by proton spallation. Proton accelerators, such as LANSCE at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, are capable of producing 800 MeV protons. By bombarding a lead/bismuth target, each proton may generate 500 or more neutrons that can activate fission products or induce the fission of transuranic isotopes.

The Monte Carlo radiation transport code MCNPX developed at LANL is an important tool in the design of transmuter technology. It must be validated, however, for the neutron energy that will be employed. Experiments are being …

Nuclear Criticality Analyses Of Separations Processes For The Transmutation Fuel Cycle: Quaterly Report, William Culbreth, Pang Tao

Separations Campaign (TRP)

During the first quarter of the work, the tasks included training students in the use of Monte Carlo codes used in radiation transport studies and the assessment of neutron multiplication factors for specific problems outlined by ANL-East through Drs. Laidler and Vandegrift.

The proposal also included objectives for the first year of work on this project, as listed below. The work conducted in the first quarter of the project was in partial completion of these objectives.

• Train UNLV students in the use of SCALE and/or MCNP for the assessment of nuclear criticality.

• Assess neutron multiplication factor, k_{eff …}

Challenges For The New West: Economic Impacts Of Wilderness In Nevada's Rural Counties, Lesley Regina Argo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Public lands designated as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System are removed from multiple-use management for protection of their natural condition. Opponents argue that "locking up" the natural resources on these lands through designation will undermine the rural economies in the west that are dependent upon extractive industries such as mining and logging. Proponents argue that the "Old West" reliance on extractive industries is declining and, in the "New West", wilderness promotes economic development in rural communities by preserving the amenity values that draw population and employment to the region. Characteristics of Nevada's economy, population and land challenge the …

Large Nondipole Effects In The Angular Distributions Of K-Shell Photoelectrons From Molecular Nitrogen, Oliver Hemmers, H. Wang, P. Focke, I. A. Sellin, Dennis W. Lindle, J. C. Arce, J. A. Sheehy, P. W. Langhoff

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Measurements of angular distributions of K-shell electrons photoejected from molecular nitrogen are reported which reveal large deviations at relatively low photon energies ( ħω≤500eV) from emission patterns anticipated from the dipole approximation to interactions between radiation and matter. A concomitant theoretical analysis incorporating the effects of electromagnetic retardation attributes the observed large nondipole behaviors in N₂ to bond-length-dependent terms in the E1⊗(E2,M1) photoelectron emission amplitudes which are indicative of a potentially universal nondipole behavior in molecular photoionization.

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Jennifer Vaughan, Richard Jensen, Mae Worthey-Flennoy

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

The Suitability Of Reclaimed Agricultural Lands Along The Lower Colorado River For Native Riparian Habitat Restoration, Patti Aaron

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to determine the suitability of agricultural lands for use in native riparian restoration efforts under development for the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program. Assuming these fields are productive for crops, would they be productive for cottonwood-willow restoration? There are two aspects to consider: (1) the edaphic conditions required for three major LCR agricultural crops; alfalfa, cotton, and wheat, and (2) whether those conditions are consistent with the conditions required for the restoration of native LCR riparian habitat, primarily Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and Goodding willow (Salix gooddingii). Using the case study research approach …

Design And Evaluation Of Processes For Fuel Fabrication: Quarterly Progress Report #1, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The first three months of the project covered the following:

• Literature review: A comprehensive study of the pertinent publications pertaining to transmuter fuels composition and manufacturing processes was conducted.

• Visit at ANL West in Idaho Falls, ID: Dr. Mauer visited the ANL West facility and met with his National Laboratory Collaborator, Dr. Mitchell K. Meyer, Group Leader, Fabrication Development on October 14 and 15, 2001.

• Student Paper Presentation at the ANS Annual Meeting by Ph.D. student Mr. Jae-Kyu Lee. Title: Transmuter Fuel Fabrication Processes.

Environment-Induced Degradation And Crack-Growth Studies Of Candidate Target Materials: Aaa Task-4 Quarterly (September 1 – November 30, 2001) Report, Ajit K. Roy, Brendan O'Toole

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

The primary objective of this task is to evaluate the effect of hydrogen on environment-assisted cracking of candidate materials for applications in spallation-neutron-target (SNT) systems such as accelerator production of tritium (APT) and accelerator transmutation of waste (ATW). The materials selected for evaluation and characterization are martensitic stainless steels including HT- 9, EP 823 and 422. The susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and hydrogen embrittlement (HE) of these alloys will be evaluated in environments of interest using tensile specimens under constant load and slow-strain-rate (SSR) conditions. The extent and morphology of cracking of these alloys will further be evaluated …

Development Of A Mechanistic Understanding Of High-Temperature Deformation Of Alloy Ep-823: Task 10, First Quarter Report, Ajit K. Roy, Brendan O'Toole

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

The objective of this task is to evaluate the elevated temperature tensile properties of Alloy EP-823, a leading target material for accelerator-driven waste transmutation applications. The test material will be thermally treated prior to evaluation of its tensile properties at temperatures relevant to the transmutation applications. The deformation characteristics of tensile specimens, upon completion of testing, will be evaluated by surface analytical techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The overall results are expected to provide a mechanistic understanding of high-temperature deformation behavior of Alloy EP-823 as a function of heat treatment.

Highlights of Accomplishment

• …

Analysis Of Corrosion Of Steel By Lead Bismuth Eutectic, John Farley, Dale L. Perry

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

We examined stainless samples that were exposed to LBE in experiments conducted by the Russians, under contract to Los Alamos. We examined both corroded and uncorroded samples using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), the Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDAX) Spectroscopy, and the X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS). We found that the surface of the corroded sample is covered by oxygen-containing compounds, presumably mostly iron oxide. In samples exposed for shorter times or lower temperatures, we found that some areas were covered by an oxide layer, and some areas was uncovered. We found that the level of Cr in the uncovered area is …