Digital Commons Network^™

Batf Gun Trace Data And The Role Of Organized Gun Trafficking In Supplying Guns To Criminals, Gary Kleck

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.

School Desegregation In The New Millennium: The Racial Balance Standard Is An Inadequate Approach To Achieving Equality In Education, Melva Ware

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Architectonics Of Information: Ancient Topical Thought And Postmodern Information, Catherine L. Hobbs

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This paper examines the usefulness of thought patterns from ancient rhetoric as they have been appropriated historically and as potentially applicable concepts for the present and future in today's interlinked electronic environment.

An earlier version of this paper, first delivered as part of a panel at the Rhetoric Society of America meeting at Tucson in May 1 996, was delivered and published as "The Architectonics of Information: Ancient Topical Thought and Postmodern Cognition" in Proceedings of the Mid-America Symposium on E merging Computer Technologies, October 1 996. (The published papers are available in "Information Problems" at http://www.ou.edu/cas/english/agora/). I would like …

Five Modern Notions In Search Of An Author: The Ideology Of The Intimate Society In Constitutional Speech Law, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, drawing heavily on the work of sociologist Richard Sennett, the author argues that the Court’s jurisprudence lends credence to, and exacerbates, five damaging “common sense” notions about American public social life: that public space and time are naked or empty, and can be imagined as no more than transportation tunnels or even the binoculars of a voyeur, as illustrated by the public forum doctrine; that massed acts of public communication, or “speech crowds” are dangerous and must be controlled by force, as the public forum and “clear and present danger” doctrines suggest; that “shadow” space for deviant …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, Volume 15, Number 1, January 1999, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

An eight page newsletter created by the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science that addresses the current affairs of the college.

Information Literacy: An Issue Of Equity For New Majority Students, Lana Webb Jackman

Educational Studies Dissertations

Educating over 49% of those who attend higher education, public colleges and universities must assume a more dynamic leadership role during this societal transformation if New Majority students are to develop the intellectual skills required to compete effectively in today's marketplace. By adopting an information literacy culture, public higher education can foster the intellectual empowerment needed by New Majority students to evolve into competent life-long learners and contributors to American life and the world at large.

Balancing Interests And Maximizing Rights In Envrionmental Law, Tseming Yang

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

What Does Smart Growth Mean For Housing?, Karen A. Danielsen, Robert E. Lang, William Fulton

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Barely noticed amid the returns from the 1998 midterm elections was a quiet revolution that goes to the heart of how and where Americans live. While most news accounts focused on the high-profile candidate elections, voters across the nation-in Democratic and Republican areas alike-approved more than 160 state and local ballot measures intended to preserve open space and limit urban sprawl.

The coalition forming around the idea of limiting sprawl includes environmentalists, farmers, big-city mayors, and some developers. But perhaps most important, the so-called "smart growth" movement also includes many suburban voters who are fed up with growth. For example, …

Effect Of Asymmetrical Loading And Walking Time On Surface Emg Activity Of The Lumbar Paraspinal Muscles, Michael Aenis, Angela Bueche, Brian Trembly

Masters Theses

BACKGROUND A high incidence of back pain is associated with carrying loads asymmetrically and is believed to be influenced by the amount of weight involved and the distance carried. PURPOSE (1) To study the effects of asymmetrical loading on lumbar paraspinal muscle activity. (2) To document ratings perceived exertion (RPE) for carrying an asymmetrical load. METHODS Electromyography (EMG) readings were obtained at the L2/L3 paraspinal level of 12 males and 12 females. All subjects completed three randomized 9-minute trials consisting of walking on a treadmill while carrying an asymmetrical load of either 0, 10 or 20% of their body weight. …

Predictors Of Successful Completion In A Physical Therapist Assistant Program, Debra S. Howell, Susan M. Stout

Masters Theses

The basis of this research was to investigate the ability of age, gender, ASSET test and science GPA (Human Anatomy & Physiology I and II, Essentials of Pathophysiology, Clinical Kinesiology, Neurological Foundation of Motor Control and Clinical Pathology) to predict the successful completion of a PTA program by a student. In this causal-comparative study (ex post facto), the sample consisted of ninety graduates and five non-graduates from the PTA program at Baker College of Muskegon (1993 -1998).

This study used a logistic regression method to make an attempt to demonstrate that Clinical Kinesiology was significant as a predictor …

H∞ Tracking Control For A Class Of Nonlinear Systems, Joseph A. Ball, Pushkin Kachroo, A. J. Krener

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

Develops the theory for tracking control using the nonlinear H∞ control design methodology for a class of nonlinear input affine systems. The authors use a two-step process of first designing the feedforward part of the controller to design for perfect trajectory following and then design the feedback part of the controller using nonlinear H∞ regulator theory. Results for infinite-time and finite-time horizons are presented

Multiple Stochastic Learning Automata For Vehicle Path Control In An Automated Highway System, Cem Unsal, Pushkin Kachroo, John S. Bay

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

This paper suggests an intelligent controller for an automated vehicle planning its own trajectory based on sensor and communication data. The intelligent controller is designed using the learning stochastic automata theory. Using the data received from on-board sensors, two automata (one for lateral actions, one for longitudinal actions) can learn the best possible action to avoid collisions. The system has the advantage of being able to work in unmodeled stochastic environments, unlike adaptive control methods or expert systems. Simulations for simultaneous lateral and longitudinal control of a vehicle provide encouraging results

Unlv College Of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter, Steve Mccafferty, John Filler, Nancy P. Gallavan, Le Ann Putney, Nancy Sileo, Kyle Higgins, Porter Troutman, Paul Meacham, Cyndi Giorgis, Aimee Govett, Jean Henry, Bill Pankratius, Susan Rumann, Joyce Nelson-Leaf

College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

A newsletter discussing a variety of topics dealing with multicultural topics and diversity in education.

Caribbean: Online Bibliography Environmental History Of Latin America, Darcy C. Del Bosque

Library Faculty Research

This is an annotated bibliography of articles, conference proceedings, reports, and books.

A Survey Of Southern Nevada Employers Regarding The Importance Of Scans Workplace Basic Skills, Greg P Richens

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study utilized quantitative research methodology and incorporated a descriptive research design that described the perceptions of southern Nevada employers who responded to a survey regarding the importance of the workplace basic skills identified by the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) established by the U.S. Department of Labor. The study sought to determine whether the SCANS skills and competencies were perceived by responding employers as necessary for entry-level employment. Over 75 percent of respondents to the survey essentially considered the SCANS skills and competencies as adequately identifying competencies and skills needed for entry-level employment in their respective business. …

Educator Study Groups: An Exploration Of An Alternative Method Of Preservice Teacher Development, Leah Mary Herner

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study was conducted to investigate the effect study groups have on preservice teacher education. The participants were enrolled in ESP 444, The Special Education Student in the General Education Classroom. The study took place during a 9-week period; Forty-two students participated in this study. The study involved placing the students randomly into two groups. The lecture group received lectures from graduate students in special education. The study group worked together in groups to research and discuss inclusion of students with disabilities. All students took a knowledge-based pretest and attitude survey prior to beginning the study. All students took a …

Nationally Recognized Superintendents: Perceptions On How They Lead In Relation To The Characteristics Of Effective Schools Research, Warren Paul Mckay

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge about the qualities, attitudes, and behaviors of public school superintendents in relation to the effective schools research. It also sought to further investigate the relationship between the role of the superintendent and the creation of effective schools and effective school districts. Finally, this research described how a recognized population of public school superintendents perceived themselves to incorporate effective school methods in their leadership strategies. This ultimately provided the opportunity to validate the findings of the effective schools research through the investigation of the superintendents office; This study employed what Creswell …

The Art Of Truth: The Architecture Of 19th -Century American Allegory, Gary Brian Bennett

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The current study, in its broadest scope, explores the nature of literary art primarily as a moral experience. Specifically, it addresses ironic allegory---a genre of fiction born during the American Renaissance of the mid-nineteenth century. As an amalgam of two other oblique genres, Gothic fiction and Puritan allegory, ironic allegory was originally the product of Nathaniel Hawthorne's moral imagination and tragic sensibility; consequently, its primary themes are the properties of time, the problems of tragedy, the process of transformation, and the preeminence of truth. Focusing exclusively on the architectural metaphors in Cooper's Templeton trilogy, Hawthorne's The House of the Seven …

Finite Elements With H -Adaptation For Momentum, Heat And Mass Transport With Application To Environmental Flow, David Bradley Carrington

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Self-adaptive algorithms for 2 and 3-dimensional unstructured finite element grids are recent to the solution of partial differential equations, particularly those equations describing environmental transport. An h-adaptive grid embedding method is developed to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow and scalar transport. An application to atmospheric mass transport is presented; This h-adaptive algorithm, in combination with the finite element method, has been designed to solve 2 and 3-dimensional problems on Pentium PC's, including problems involving complex geometry on high end PC's, workstations and mainframes. The Galerkin finite element solver is a 2 point Gauss-Legendre integration scheme which employs …

Think Different: A Comparison Of The Critical Thinking Abilities Of Education Majors, Shelly Weeks Channel

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

In an increasingly complex society, the need for people to exercise critical thinking effectively is clearly evident. The institution of education recognizes that its responsibility to teach students to think critically is vital in order for them to negotiate decisions humanely and intelligently in an ever-changing world; Hundreds of reports from various committees and researchers along with such insidious incidents as the rise in murderous assaults on children inside school buildings, such as the massacre in Littleton, Colorado, attest to the fact that schools fail to teach students to evaluate social life critically. While educators advocate critical thinking, teacher education …

The Effects Of Computerized Instruction In Intermediate Algebra, Cynthia Lynn Glickman

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study was designed to measure the effects of a reform oriented computer assisted instructional environment R-CAI on community college students' procedural skill acquisition and conceptual understanDing Also examined were the effects of a computerized instructional environment on students' attitudes toward mathematics; The R-CAI involved the use of Prentice Hall's Interactive Mathematics with lessons created to provide opportunities for students to learn within "real world" contexts. Using these activities, students collected information, analyzed data and applied mathematical concepts; After controlling for initial differences, it was concluded that students taught by the R-CAI environment significantly outperformed students taught by the Traditional …

Dimension Reduction Of Image And Audio Space, Blaine Lee Hagstrom

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The reduction of data necessary for storage or transmission is a desirable goal in the digital video and audio domain. Compression schemes strive to reduce the amount of storage space or bandwidth necessary to keep or move the data. Data reduction can be accomplished so that visually or audibly unnecessary data is removed or recoded thus aiding the compression phase of the data processing. The characterization and identification of data that can be successfully removed or reduced is the purpose of this work. New philosophy, theory and methods for data processing are presented towards the goal of data reduction. The …

An Evaluation Of Unsaturated Flow Models In An Arid Climate, Jason Michael Dixon

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two unsaturated flow models in and regions. The area selected for the study was the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS) at the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada. The two models selected for this evaluation were HYDRUS-1D [Simunek et al., 1998] and the SHAW model [Flerchinger and Saxton, 1989]. Approximately 5 years of soil-water and atmospheric data collected from an instrumented weighing lysimeter site near the RWMS were used for building the models with actual initial and boundary conditions representative of the site. Physical processes affecting …

Non-Intrusive Assessment Of Radionuclides In Enclosed Pipes And Vessels, Traci Renee Glew

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The assessment and cleanup of various nuclear sites throughout the country has become an increasingly important issue. Methods for assessment of radioactive material within pipe and duct systems at these sites must be cost effective, efficient, and safe. Several tests were conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, using both steel and aluminum pipes with a Cesium 137 source placed inside. A Geiger-Muller pancake detector was used to measure gamma rays from several angular positions and at various axial distances along the outside of the pipe. A plot of the data showed excellent results despite the low efficiency of …

United States Business Travelers' Response To Price Changes And Overbooking: Its Effect On Intentional Loyalty In The Hospitality Industry, Nicholas Jee Gordon

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Companies that have highly perishable inventories have used yield management quite extensively over the past decade. The process helps to maximize revenues based on demand. The airline industry was the first to adopt the process into a business setting and has seen varying results along the way. Much of the existing research is geared towards examining the revenue producing potential of the system. There has been little research however, to examine how this process of shifting price to manipulate demand effects customer loyalty; This research attempts to evaluate what the effects actually are when price is used as the major …

On Lossless Image Compression, Huawen He

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Accompanying the growth in the size of database and the use of images has been a large increase in the number of users and duration of usage by personnel at remote locations. These factors result in tremendous amounts of data being stored and transferred between computers and remote terminals. Data compression is therefore very important to reduce the size of data files and the time needed to transfer between the remote terminals. A wide variety of compression techniques have been developed over past 20 years to reduce size of image files. Some techniques represent the application of modified lossless compression …

"Welcome, Fellow Toastmasters": The History And Membership Of A Public Speaking Phenomenon, Ellen Beth Levine Bremen

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Since 1905, Toastmasters International (TI) serves as the most recognized organization for voluntary oral communication practice in the world. Due to the dearth of scholarly communication research regarding TI, this thesis details the history, educational structure, and program dynamics of the organization. Literature review included the nature and extent of post-secondary communication education, as well as social affiliation and leisure theories. Finally, an Internet survey of 343 international TI members revealed the demographics of the "typical" TI member: a male or female college graduate between the ages of 36--50, who works in a wide range of professions. The study also …

Measuring Efficiency In The Clark County Hotel Casino Industry, Daniel Encinoza

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The analysis and comparison of productivity in the service sector have proven to be difficult. Nevertheless, the Tomqvist index of relative productivity used in this study allows me to compare the relative productivity of different hotel-casino properties, while avoiding the usual problems that arise when measuring efficiency in service industries. This empirical study illustrates the efficiency of index numbers in evaluating relative efficiency. The simplicity of the model and its ability to evaluate all aspects of the production process, including economies of scale, renders this methodology far superior to the use of direct indexes. From calculations included in the study, …

Effect Of Atmospheric Variations On Subsurface Flow And Transport, Laila Badran

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates the effect of atmospheric variations on subsurface flow and transport at the proposed high level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The conditions of subsurface transport were simulated with NUFT (Nonisothermal Unsaturated-Saturated Flow and Transport model) modeling software developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Labs (Nitao, 1995). Rock properties and surface ambient conditions specific to the mountain, including diurnal and seasonal changes in temperature, pressure and humidity were incorporated into the NUFT model. The effects of changing atmospheric conditions on the liquid and vapor phase components and fluxes were examined as well. Time swing analysis of weather …

A Study To Determine The Minimum Autocad Command Set For Computer-Aided Drafting In The Las Vegas Area, David John Brodersen

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the computer aided drafting (CAD) commands most frequently used in the industrial application of the thirteenth release of the software product AutoCAD, vended by AutoDESK. Respondents were located within the Las Vegas drafting community and nearby areas. The outcome of this study was used to identify commands needed to operate the software at a desired level of competency and to identify any relationship between the release thirteen commands used by the respondents and commands available in the previous release of the software; A questionnaire was delivered to 90 businesses engaged in drafting …