Digital Commons Network^™

Depression And Quality Of Life Among Adults With Asthma Presence In Nevada, Elizabeth D. Kahane

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Asthma is a lung disease that causes coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, and breathlessness. It is often controlled by medication use and avoidance of environmental triggers. It is a leading chronic, non-communicable disease affecting over 19 million adults in the United States (CDC, 2020a). Asthma and severe asthma have been shown to negatively affect mental health and quality of life among adults including limiting physical activity, lowering sleep quality, exacerbating economic challenges, missing work, and increasing healthcare use (Stanescu, et al., 2019). Approximately 8% of adult Nevadans reported current asthma symptoms and 12.6% reported having a diagnosis during their lifetime (CDC, …

Finding Ways To Increase Physical Activity In Students With Disabilities In A Social Distanced World, Paula Kerchenski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Obesity in the United States is becoming a problem that negatively affects the life expectancy of young children, which for the first time in history is moving in the wrong direction (Ogden et al., 2014). According to obesity trend data, obesity has tripled in children from 5% in 1978 to 18.5% in 2016 (Anderson et al., 2019). For our students with disabilities, obesity rates are two times higher than students without disabilities (Neter et al., 2011). Although physical activity is considered an essential component of a young child’s health and development, the lack of physical activity attributes to the obesity …

Measuring Quality Of Virtual Event: Scale Development And Validation, Sung-Eun Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The unprecedented global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has led to a critical reconsideration of the way humans work and live. In turn, true paradigm shifts are arising across diverse industries based on remote and online communication. Undoubtedly, traditional in-person events are transforming into virtual events through more innovative platforms and safer experiences. The market for virtual events is considerably expanding and promising; thereby, the demand for research on the nature and dynamics of virtual events is increasingly growing. However, research on virtual events and virtual event quality (VEQual) is still in its infancy and has lagged behind, resulting in a …

Social Emotional Learning As A Universal Upstream Approach To Youth Suicide Prevention: A Secondary Data Analysis Of A Prevention Program Evaluation, Maria Amaris Knight

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Nevada has had consistently high rates of youth suicide in the past decade with 21.2 deaths by suicide per 100,000 population (ages 15-24), over the national rate of 14.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2019. National strategies, state agendas, and best practices in the field prioritize research on upstream strategies to prevent suicide. One such strategy is the use of social emotional learning (SEL) programs for youth to help increase and enhance protective factors against suicide, helping them to cope with negative life events. Research has identified leading outcomes of SEL programs as the improvement of attitudes, behaviors, and academic …

Factors Influencing The Self-Reported Palliative Care Practices Of Acute Care Nurses, Keshia Ryan Kotula

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Introduction Approximately 40 million people are currently in need of palliative care (PC), and this number is predicted to increase due to the aging population and increasing longevity. Providing PC in the acute care setting leads to better quality and clinical outcomes, reduced inpatient hospital costs, and improved efficiency. Despite evidence indicating the benefits of PC, timely referrals and provision of PC in the acute care setting are lacking in part due to the complex interplay of factors that nurses must navigate, such as limited preparation, knowledge, and self-efficacy; nurse/provider attitudes; and patient/family and institutional barriers. A paucity of research …

Factors Influencing Golfers' Intention To Use A Direct Booking Website, Junghoon Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To find out golfers’ perceived value of a direct booking website, an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT 2) model is adapted to test out golfers’ behavioral intention when they book a tee time via a golf course’s website. The influential factors are Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating conditions, Hedonic Motivation, and Price Saving Orientation that predicts golfers’ behavioral intention to use. A sample has chosen through the screening questions that the target sample, who are an adult at age 18 or older, have played golf at a public golf course over the last …

Climate And Soil Moisture Dynamics Inform Potential Climate Change Impacts On Available Moisture And Juvenile Tree Survival In Semiarid Forests, Carolyn R. Koehn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Trees in semiarid forests and woodlands of the western United States need soil moisture to transpire and function. Juvenile trees are especially vulnerable during periods of low soil moisture as their rooting zones are smaller and shallower than those of adult trees. This thesis focuses on two soil moisture-driven aspects of semiarid forests that may be modified by climate change: seasonal soil moisture patterns and juvenile tree survival.

In chapter 1, I investigated the influence of precipitation on soil moisture across seasons, elevations, soil layers, and periods of low and high precipitation. I developed time-varying definitions of winter (snow accumulation), …

We Gon' Be Alright: A Narrative Inquiry With Black Male Doctoral Students, Lashaun D. Limbrick

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation study aspired to examine the stories of what internal and external supports lead Black men to pursue, and persist through, doctoral degree programs at predominately white institutions (PWIs). Arguably, advancing one’s education towards a doctoral degree, involves several years of rigorous coursework, a comprehensive examination, degree benchmarks, and a formal dissertation study, which could provide guaranteed economic and social stability. There is a disproportionately that exists among the number of Black men being awarded doctoral degrees yearly as compared to white men. This study will examine Black males’ stories of support along the doctoral trajectory.

The study utilizes …

"Till This Moment, I Never Knew Myself": Letters In Pride And Prejudice And Mansfield Park, Renee Maalouf

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Though published a year apart, Jane Austen first wrote Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Mansfield Park (1814) at different points in her literary career, the former more closely tied to her juvenilia, the latter considered one of her “mature” works. Despite the time between drafts, both novels contain the most and second most number of letters, respectively, in all her published novels, along with a similar distribution of letters throughout the narratives. Some scholars regard letters in Austen’s published novels as merely a remnant of her epistolary juvenilia, but Austen’s inclusion of letters in her “mature” work, Mansfield Park, demonstrates …

Development Of A Novel Cognitive-Motor Dual Task Assessment Battery In Neurodegenerative Disease, Jason Longhurst

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Automaticity --- the ability to perform a task with directing attentional resources to its completion --- is commonly reduced among individuals with neurodegenerative diseases. These automaticity deficits result in impaired functional and daily activities and are sensitive to subtle, subclinical impairments. However, current measurement of automaticity by dual task paradigms is methodologically limited. In order to gain insight into the current state of the literature regarding cognitive-motor interference in symptomatic and prodromal neurodegenerative disease, the author of this dissertation conducted a scoping review (Chapter 1). To address the methodological limitations of current measurement of automaticity, a new measurement tool was …

Exploring The Choiceless Cardinal Hierarchy, David Linkletter

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 1971, Kunen proved that the Axiom of Choice imposes a ceiling on the large cardinal hierarchy [7]. Much like the assumption V ≠ L unlocks measurable cardinals and beyond, dropping the Axiom of Choice enables Reinhardt cardinals and stronger cardinals to be explored. Some major notions of large cardinals beyond choice have recently been standardized by Woodin et. al. [2], with questions raised regarding their interconnectedness. Part 1 of this dissertation partially answers two of those questions, while conjecturing, with a partial solution, a much stronger answer which would simplify the existing cardinal charts - that Regular Berkeley Cardinals …

A World Of Infinite Possibilities: Recoding Popular Culture In Modern U.S. Ethnic Fiction, Todd Martinez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project examines how the U.S. ethnic authors Ralph Ellison, Maxine Hong Kingston and Junot Díaz reflect the dynamic, reciprocal process of transculturation by decoding popular cultural forms. Using strategies made available by cultural studies, hemispheric theory and neoMarxism, critical attention will be directed to each author’s major literary work: Ellison’s Invisible Man, Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey, and Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This dissertation further analyzes a hitherto overlooked area of U.S. multiethnic literary studies: the ethnic subject’s relationship to encoded popular culture forms and how they impact dentity formation. Recent scholarship has focused on the ethnic …

Behavior Of Aged Reinforced Concrete Columns Under High Sustained Concentric And Eccentric Loads, Wenchen Ma

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Columns are critical components resisting the collapse of a reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure subjected to high sustained loads. Research on columns under sustained high stresses is very limited. At material level, past creep tests were focused either on concrete with ages less than 90 days or under a sustained stress less than 70% of short-time strength. At structural component scale, virtually no experimental data can be found for the response of axially loaded RC columns subjected to high sustained loads exceeding 75% of column short-time strength with loading age greater than 200 days. Even if a few experiments were …

Improving Therapeutic Communication In Mental Health Nursing: A Quality Improvement Project, Patricia A. Nill

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over 46 million adults in the United States (U.S.) live with a mental illness. Locally in Nevada, the psychiatrist to patient ratio is approximately 700:1, and patients are seen primarily in the inpatient setting, if seen at all, due to the wait average of 85 hours in the hospital emergency rooms for access into mental health hospitals or specialty units of a general hospital. Moreover, costs for mental health mood disorders alone are estimated at over seven million dollars annually. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) opined the need for change in healthcare to redesign practice and clinical communication with patients …

A Process For Adm-300 Radiation Detector Modernization For Military Applications, Caesar R. Pereira

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An investigation to re-evaluate the current use in military applications of the ADM-300 Multi-Functional Survey Instrument and its requirements are provided. This paper outlines a method to upgrade the ADM-300 due to its eventual obsolescence using newly developed requirements that meet the original justification for use in the USAF in 1992. The capabilities and features of various detectors are analyzed and compared to the ADM-300. Response curves are generated using Monte Carlo simulations. The detectors are prioritized based on their performance to create metrics. A metanalysis of the metrics is conducted to limit bias within the process and justify their …

Controlled Evaluation Of A Family-Based Optimization Intervention Implemented Through Video-Conferencing To Address Adhd And Oppositional Defiant Disorder In An Adolescent Athlete, Dereck Davy Phrathep

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Adolescent athletes with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) experience unique challenges that impact their sport performance, such as making errors due to poor concentration and adverse relationships with referees due to poor anger management. Pharmacological treatments have shown to be successful in treating ADHD comorbid with ODD. However, there are negative consequences for pharmacological treatments for adolescent athletes (e.g., banned by sports organizations). Well-established behavioral interventions for ADHD and ODD in non-athlete populations have included family-based, cognitive-behavioral approaches. However, none of these interventions have been evaluated in competitive adolescent athletes. The current case trial involved …

Chronicling Magma Transit Beneath Hawaiian Volcanoes: Every Isotope A Word, Every Crystal A Story, Jonathan Pinko

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

At many oceanic volcanoes, such as Hawaii, mantle-derived magmas migrate to crustal level magma chambers, where they accumulate before eruption. Understanding the magma chamber residence times, or the time gaps between the arrivals of new magmas and eruptions, is important in volcanic hazard mitigation. Here I apply iron and magnesium isotope effects in olivines to constrain these times at Hawaiian volcanoes. Combined with published data, I present bulk ?56Fe (-1.706 to 0.489) and ?26Mg (-0.400 to 0.356) in 108 Hawaiian olivines erupted from the pre-shield, shield, and post-shield stages. The Hawaiian olivine ?56Fe and ?26Mg represent the largest Fe-Mg isotope …

A Hyperelastic Porous Media Framework For Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites And Characterization Of Transduction Phenomena Via Dimensional Analysis And Nonlinear Regression, Zakai J. Olsen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMC) are smart materials that exhibit large deformation in response to small applied voltages, and conversely generate detectable electrical signals in response to mechanical deformations. The study of IPMC materials is a rich field of research, and an interesting intersection of material science, electrochemistry, continuum mechanics, and thermodynamics. Due to their electromechanical and mechanoelectrical transduction capabilities, IPMCs find many applications in robotics, soft robotics, artificial muscles, and biomimetics. This study aims to investigate the dominating physical phenomena that underly the actuation and sensing behavior of IPMC materials. This analysis is made possible by developing a new, hyperelastic …

Relationship Between Jump Performance And Asymmetry, Cordero Roche

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between jump performance and asymmetry. This investigation was divided into three separate studies. The first aim investigated which asymmetry variables for eccentric and concentric phases best predicted jump height (JH) during different jump types. The aim of the second study was to determine if asymmetry variables differed between jump type and genders.

Fourteen participants performed countermovement jumps (CMJ) and drop vertical jumps (DVJ). The DVJ were administered from a 30.5 cm platform leading with dominant leg striking separate force platforms with each foot. Vertical ground reaction forces were used to …

Nos/Otrxs Que Fuimos Separados: Recovering Testimonios Of Separation And Resistance, Marcela Rodriguez-Campo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the U.S. xenophobia has been on the rise and current immigration policies have increased the occurrence of family separation. Experiences with family separation profoundly impact children and have a detrimental effect on their development and educational outcomes. However, limited research has been conducted exploring the long-term impacts of family separation on education, particularly as it relates to Latinx tender-age children (below the age of twelve). In the current political climate, Latinx children are precariously positioned to live under the constant threat of family separation due to anti-immigrant policies and xenophobic school climates. This hostile environment can have devastating effects …

Popular Culture As A Tool For Critical Pedagogy: A Case Study, Kyle Rogers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation sought to understand how a video essayist can incorporate popular culture to engage in critical pedagogy about queer issues into their video essays. Currently, educational institutions fail queer youth socially and academically. One potential method for engaging about and with queer folx may be popular culture. This study showed that popular culture may be a particularly useful tool for engaging in critical pedagogy in public space.

This study sought to answer the research question, how can, if at all, a video essayist incorporate popular culture to engage in critical pedagogy about queer issues into their video essays? Critical …

The Effects Of Green Exercise On Perception And Connectedness To Nature, Robert W. Salatto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is three-fold: 1. Investigate the effects of acute beta alanine ingestion during green exercise on connectedness to nature, and perception of pain. 2. Investigate the test-retest reliability of the Love and care of Nature Scale during the task of mountain biking. 3. Investigate the effects of green exercise on connectedness to nature and perception. Methods: Three individual studies were conducted: The first was a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study design which examined the effect of induced painful sensation (via acute Beta Alanine (B-ALA) ingestion) on Love and Care of Nature (LCN), heart rate (HR), rating …

Linking Extreme High Air Temperature Events To Wildfire And Environmental Variation To Water Balance Partitioning In The Western Us, Neil Savage

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Chapter 1

Wildfire activity has increased across the western United States in recent decades, causing significant damage to ecosystem services and human communities. The Sierra Nevada region, in particular, has experienced substantial increases in the ignition frequency, severity, and extent of large wildfires. To partly disentangle the complex processes underlying wildfire risk, I developed a simple approach to link natural wildfire ignition patterns to changing seasonal temperatures and extreme high and low air temperature events across the Sierra Nevada region from 1992—2015. Extreme event analyses focused on the association between the magnitude and frequency of occurrence of extreme temperature events …

Developing Strategic Partnerships To Impact Population Health: A Professional Development Module, Andra S. Scano

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Massive organizational changes occurring in our health care delivery system have provided opportunities for nurse leaders who think in terms of population health, to develop new skills needed to impact the populations they serve. Aspects of these changes include a focus on the delivery of primary and community-based care and the development of partnerships, alliances, and other linkages across settings to build integrated systems (Williams, 2020, p. 17). Turner (2020) asserts that population-focused nurse leaders are charged with creating a new future for healthier communities which often involves strategic partnership development. However, strategic partnership development is a complex task that …

Disrupting Gender Normativity Through A Social Learning Framework, Ashley Shank

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Through a social learning theoretical framework, this thesis seeks to understand the mechanisms by which gender normativity is perpetuated, as well as how it may result in the marginalization of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth. Additionally, ways in which TGNC youth navigate oppression and how discrimination against TGNC youth may be reduced through disruption of gender normativity are explored. Using qualitative methods that include the analyzation of community meeting transcripts as well as townhall meetings with TGNC/queer community members, the present study will attempt to answer the following research questions through a social learning theoretical framework: 1. How can …

Differential Gene Expression In Starvation Selected Drosophila Melanogaster, Katherine Schultz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Fruit flies that have been selected for starvation resistance can be used in experimental studies to study physiological processes. Both their genomes and their phenotypes, especially metabolism, change significantly as a result of artificial selection. Starvation selected flies develop slower and are larger due to higher lipid content as adults. We used RNAseq to study gene expression in third instar larval fat body tissue from selected and control lines at the same chronological time point, when the fed control (“FC”) lines were wandering, and the starvation selected (“SS”) lines were in the third larval instar but not yet wandering due …

Investigation Of Bench-Scale Packed Bioreactor For Perchlorate Reduction In The Presence Of Co-Contaminants And High Salinity, Julia Ribeiro Rabello

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Perchlorate (ClO4-), commonly found as a salt, is naturally occurring in nature and is found in natural nitrate deposits (such as the Chilean nitrate). Perchlorate anion is considered an inhibitor of iodine by the thyroid gland, reducing the production of thyroid hormones. The latest action by the USEPA was to not determine a national drinking water standard for perchlorate. However, the states still have their own regulations on perchlorate concentration in drinking water. Contaminated sites with high concentrations of perchlorate (ppm levels) are associated with historic perchlorate manufacture and use, while those with low concentrations (ppb levels) are found in …

Patient-Specific Finite Element Analysis For Mandibular Fracture Fixation, Ethan Snyder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis proposes an approach for Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of mandibular fracture fixation. Using a Computerized Tomography (CT) scan of mandible obtained from a specific person, the material characteristics, density and modulus of elasticity, were determined from a set of discrete points within the mandible that are 1mm spaced based on the Hounsfield Units of these points. The mandible geometry was sectioned to simulate a fracture. Muscle and mastication forces were added to replicate post-surgery loading. Using a standard linear miniplate, this material model was compared with two commonly used mandibular cortical shell bone models: isotropic and orthotropic. A …

Implications Of The Evolutionary Past On The Activities Of Virb: A Key Transcriptional Regulator Of Virulence Genes In Shigella Flexneri, Jillian Nicole Socea

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Shigella species are bacterial agents that are the leading cause of diarrheal diseases, the second leading cause of child mortality worldwide. One key protein in Shigella is VirB, a transcriptional regulator of virulence genes that is essential for pathogenicity. VirB functions to antagonize H-NS, a histone-like nucleoid structuring protein that silences many genes found on the large virulence plasmid (pINV). The interplay between H-NS, the silencer, and VirB, the anti-silencer, is fundamental for Shigella virulence. Furthermore, this mechanism of gene regulation appears widespread in many bacteria including other enteric pathogens.

The goal of my dissertation was to explore the activities …

Accretion And Debris Disc Dynamics Around Single And Higher-Order Star Systems, Jeremy L. Smallwood

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My research deals with highly topical areas of astrophysics, such as planet habitability, stellar evolution, the origin of fast radio bursts, the evolution of debris discs, and the dynamics of accretion discs in binary and higher-order star systems. Accretion discs around binary star systems are ubiquitous in the galaxy and planet formation is thought to occur within these discs. Circumbinary discs are commonly observed to be misaligned with respect to the binary orbital plane. A misaligned circumbinary disc eventually evolve to a stable orientation, either coplanar or polar with the binary orbital plane. The process of disc alignment has important …