Digital Commons Network^™

Introduction: The Leading Indicators Project, Dmitri N. Shalin

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Policy makers of all ages have sought to ground their decisions in sound knowledge. As early as 1790, President George Washington told Congress that “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impressions so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours it is proportionably essential.” In our time, generating and disseminating reliable information has become a passion. This modern attitude is captured in buzzwords like “knowledge-based interference,” “data-informed decision making,” “information-driven needs assessment,” and it finds a powerful expression in the Leading Indicators (LI) …

Suicide Trends And Prevention In Nevada, Matt Wray

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Suicide has been around for as long as human society and it continues to challenge our collective wisdom. Consider this data provided by the National Institute of Medicine:

• Each year about one million people commit suicide worldwide.
• Every year some 30,000 Americans end their lives by suicide, and approximately 650,000 people receive emergency treatment after attempting suicide.
• Every 41 seconds someone in the U.S. attempts suicide; every 16.7 minutes, someone completes suicide; and every day over 85 people die by suicide.
• Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the third leading cause of death among …

Problem Gambling And Treatment In Nevada, Bo Bernhard

Social Health of Nevada Reports

For many years, it was moral experts, rather than medical and academic ones, who told us who gambled “too much.” Speaking from pulpits rather than podiums, church leaders informed us that gambling was uniquely subversive of the American way of life, for its something-for-nothing promise threatened to undermine the popular ethic of honest toil and gradual accumulation of goods. Samuel Hopkins, in an 1835 sermon on “The Evils of Gambling,” captured this sensibility: “Let the gambler know that he is watched, and marked; and that . . . he is loathed. Let the man who dares to furnish a resort …

Prenatal Care And Infant Mortality In Nevada, Cynthia C. Huth, Phil Nowak, Chuck Duarte

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Prenatal care, also known as antepartum care, refers to the health services that a pregnant woman receives before a baby’s birth. Health care providers know from numerous studies that prenatal care is important because potential problems that may endanger the mother or her baby may be discovered and treated prior to birth. In many cases, potential problems can be prevented altogether. Because of this, it is important that the pregnant woman not only begins prenatal care early, but also receives continuous care throughout her pregnancy. The preconception (before pregnancy) care is also an important factor affecting the future mother’s and …

Mental Health Problems And Needs In Nevada, Kathryn Landreth, Simon Gottschalk, Carlos Brandenburg

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Attitudes toward people with mental health problems have varied throughout historical periods and cultures. At times, they were believed to possess divine powers, and at others were cast as possessed by evil forces. In ancient Greece, Iraq, and India, for example, people with mental disorders were treated humanely, while in other cultures they were executed, tortured, shunned, and pushed to the margins of society. Today, most societies strive to treat the mentally ill in a humane manner and integrate them in society’s mainstream.

Health Care Access And Insurance Availability In Nevada, Charles B. Moseley, Michelle Sotero

Social Health of Nevada Reports

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM),

• Approximately 18,000 Americans die prematurely every year, solely because they lack health insurance coverage (Institute of Medicine, 2004).
• The IOM estimates that the aggregate cost of increased morbidity and mortality due to un-insurance in the U.S. is between $65 billion and $130 billion per year.
• Costs to the health care system can be measured conservatively in terms of the value of uncompensated care provided to the uninsured, estimated at almost $35 billion in 2001, of which $24 billion was provided by hospitals.

Access to medical care is not a constitutional right in the …

Environment And The Quality Of Life In Nevada, Robert Futrell

Social Health of Nevada Reports

When the first environmental decade was launched in the U.S. more than thirty years ago with the inaugural Earth Day, protecting our air, water, land and other natural resources seemed a relatively simple task. Environmental polluters and exploiters would be brought to heel by tough laws. The U.S. and other industrialized nations responded to quality of life concerns associated with the degradation of the natural environment by adopting dozens of major environmental and resource policies and creating new institutions such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage environmental programs. With a sense of urgency Congress passed the Clean Air …

The Academic Gap Between The "Real-World" And Theatre And Film, Thomas V Grasso

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis will determine the validity of universities' present-day approach, curriculum, standards and techniques in preparing young students with a vision of entering the labyrinth and often time ambiguous vocation titled entertainment. The focus concentrates on theatre and film studies; There are various issues and concerns by professionals and scholars alike. There is disputation in the debate, as well as, numerous issues and varied possibilities for a conclusion; This thesis will ask the question are students of theatre and film really prepared to enter the "real-world" of entertainment. Are university studies up-to-date in order to prepare students for this complexed …

On Evaluating Density Driven Groundwater Flow In The Closed Basin, Aron M Habte

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The hydrogeochemical cycle in the Pilot Valley, a closed basin, is subject to climate variability over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales over long period of time. Saturated and Unsaturated Transport Model (SUTRA) is employed in the Pilot Valley to simulate subsurface and density driven groundwater flow under various climatic and geologic conditions. A Maxey-Eakin method with coupled catchment model, aridity index and incomplete beta function for groundwater recharge distribution is integrated into the SUTRA model for various simulations. A Rayleigh number is used to analyze these circulation patterns of flow under variable climate and geologic conditions. The …

Creating Higher Education In Southern Nevada: A Framing Study Of Local Newspaper Coverage, Christine Janssen

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to analyze and understand how Southern Nevada's two local newspapers framed the creation of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nevada State College. A brief history of the editorial and political philosophies of the Las Vegas Review Journal and the Las Vegas Sun is presented, followed by a review of the literature on framing theory, and the theory that communities are formed by communication. Dominant frames are identified through text analysis of 486 newspaper articles. Frames are categorized by a central theme, metaphors suggested by the frame, and images, catch phrases and vocabulary used in the …

Reliving The '80s: Nostalgic Implementation Of The '80s Pop Music In The Media, Ji Hoon Lee

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The major focus of this thesis is the examination of the ways in which the American television, radio, and the music industry in particular are attempting to cater to the interests and demands of the resurgence of the 1980s popular music in the current decade; The current popularity of the 1980s pop music not only reflects the demographics of the audience but also the producers and executives in the media, including television, radio stations, and record companies. The phenomenon is one in which the media professionals and audience engage and re-emerge themselves in the nostalgia of their generation; To examine …

Inner Experience In Bulimia, Sharon Jones-Forrester

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Inner experience is of crucial importance in bulimia---clearly something experiential leads individuals to binge or purge. We used Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) to examine the inner experience of bulimia in 5 participants, replicating Doucette (1992). Our participants' inner experiences were largely consistent with Doucette's but were substantially different from what is assumed by the non-DES literature: our bulimic participants had a consistent fragmentation of attention, hypersensitivity to the sensory aspects of experience, affect that is poorly differentiated and often confused with cognition, and a striking lack of cognition overall. These results suggest that DES can be a powerful tool to …

Stereotypes Of Law Enforcement In Television, Phillip Michael Kopp

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study looks at the stereotypes of law enforcement in prime-time network television. This is done through a content analysis of a sample of television characters (N=40) from crime drama programs. To accomplish this, characters were scored on demographic, personality, and typological variables by a group of coders. The study found that there is not a single "superprofile" of officers but multiple stereotypes of law enforcement officers present in prime-time network television programming. This may be in part due to the corporate nature of mass media in general. Additionally, it concluded that these stereotypes have changed over time as officer, …

Determining Factors For The Success Of Trade Show Websites, Jumyong Lee

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate appropriate quality factors of trade show websites as a marketing communication tool. These factors will be compared by measuring the impact on user satisfaction in the specific view of trade show attendees. This study also investigates what content items are effective in trade show websites; An online survey was designed and distributed via email in March 2006. In total, 369 responses were collected from the attendees of the World Tea Expo. The data was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The findings indicated that the four proposed website quality factors were significantly …

Female Gender Themes In Women's Magazines: A Content Analysis Testing And Extending Themes Uncovered By Erving Goffman, Sarah Elizabeth Morton

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study is based on the ideas and studies of Erving Goffman (1922-1982), an influential sociologist and communications scholar (Manning, 1992). Most prior scholars, such as McLaughlin (1999) and Reichert (2003), have chosen to simply repeat and reaffirm Goffman's themes, while largely ignoring that both times and society have changed. Thus, this study proposes not only to repeat Goffman's methods, but also to extend and retest his findings in the modern day. A quantitative content analysis will be employed, using the following women's magazines: Cosmopolitan, In Style, Allure, Glamour, and Marie Claire. The replication of this study is imperative in …

In-Law Conflicts On Television: A Content Analysis Of "Everybody Loves Raymond", Dawn Elise Nicol

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Conflict is a relevant theme within in-law relationships and amongst family members; however, only a small amount of research deals with conflict between in-laws. In addition, television reflects social norms families can use television to understand the way they interact within interpersonal relationships. Viewing behaviors on television enable people to increase their understanding of others and how they might behave in similar situations. Research should be conducted to expand our knowledge about in-law relationships and conflict on television; The purpose of this study was to examine in-law relationships and conflict on television. This study performed a quantitative content analysis of …

Vigilante Justice And Civic Development In 1850s San Francisco, Nancy S Papin

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The years between the American Revolution and the Civil War witnessed the prevalence of public disorder and social violence, especially in the expanding American West. In many instances, crowds took the law into their own hands and dealt summary vengeance on suspected criminals. This study delves into the political and legal climate of San Francisco in the 1850s to examine perhaps the most famous episodes of vigilantism in antebellum America; the San Francisco Vigilante Committees of 1851 and 1856. Through a careful contextualization and comparison of these committees, the thesis argues that the leaders of the respective committees believed that …

The Body As Drama: Narrative Strategies In The One-Woman Show, Sandy Peterson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the one-woman show in the United States focusing on the female body as the arbiter of truth. Beginning with a study of feminist performance artists from the late 1970s--1980s and exploring the subject matter of women such as Rachel Rosenthal and Holly Hughes, the particular narrative thread of "truth and the body" continues to the recent works of playwright Eve Ensler. Her one-woman play, The Vagina Monologues, explores the discourse of the female body. Playwright Lisa Kron further explores this issue, and her one-woman play 2.5 Minute Ride is dissected as an example of successful theatrical narrative. …

Missing And Abducted Children: A Critical Analysis Of The Amber Alert System, Michael John Smoll

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Originally created from the reaction of a child abducted and murdered by a stranger, the AMBER alert system has since been utilized for a wide variety of child abduction episodes. The AMBER alert system has the potential to provide millions of citizens with descriptive information about a missing or abducted child in the hopes that the child can be successfully recovered by utilizing a wide array of communication mediums. This current study examined a sample of AMBER alerts issued in twelve states during the year 2005. Among the key findings include the fact that the vast majority of AMBER alerts …

Shock Isolation Using Magnetorheologically Responsive Technology, Vijayasarathy Subramanian

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a shock isolation system using magnetorheologically (MR) responsive technology to isolate shock input to various components in the light weight military vehicles susceptible to ballistic shock effects; Two methods are chosen for isolation of the shock. One is the friction damper based on MR fluid and the other is an elastomer based on magnetically responsive elastomer (MRE). Both approaches can be utilized for semi-active control schemes that have been widely used because of its unique feature of using variable damping and stiffness characteristics of the isolator; In this thesis, both computer simulation …

"The Most Powerful Woman In The World": The Rhetorical Image Construction Of Condoleezza Rice, Karin Dawn Tidgewell

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Condoleezza Rice is recognized as one of President George W. Bush's closest advisors and one of America's most influential officials. During her tenure as Bush's National Security Advisor and then as America's first African American female Secretary of State, Rice faced situations in which her image was challenged, undermined, or questioned by other individuals. This project explores how she addressed her image through examination of her rhetorical strategies in her opening statement before the 9/11 Commission in April of 2004, her first address as Secretary of State to State Department staff in January of 2005, and her first public speech …

Self-Stabilizing Sorting On Linear Networks, Lakshmi Visvanathan

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A self-stabilizing system has the ability to recover from an arbitrary (possibly faulty) state to a normal state without any manual intervention. A self-stabilizing algorithm does not require any initialization. Starting from an arbitrary state, it is guaranteed to satisfy its specification in finite number of steps; We propose a self-stabilizing distributed sorting algorithm on an oriented linear network with n nodes. Each node holds some initial value(s) drawn from an arbitrary set. We assume that we start with at most k items in the network. Each node has a local memory whose space is restricted to O(k * L …

Self-Stabilizing Cluster Routing In Manet Using Link-Cluster Architecture, Chakradhar R Jagganagari

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

We design a self-stabilizing cluster routing algorithm based on the link-cluster architecture of wireless ad hoc networks. The network is divided into clusters. Each cluster has a single special node, called a clusterhead that contains the routing information about inter and intra-cluster communication. A cluster is comprised of all nodes that choose the corresponding clusterhead as their leader. The algorithm consists of two main tasks. First, the set of special nodes (clusterheads) is elected such that it models the link-cluster architecture: any node belongs to a single cluster, it is within two hops of the clusterhead, it knows the direct …

Material Characterization And Parametric Studies Of Explosion-Proof Vessel, Jagadeep Thota

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Light-weight explosion-proof vessels can be an important tool for the temporary storage and transportation of explosive materials. Design, analysis and testing of these types of vessels present many technical challenges. Several composite vessel designs have been developed by the Russian Nuclear Federal Center (RFNC-VNIIEF). This thesis characterizes the materials used in the manufacture of the explosion-proof vessel. The objective of the research also involves the determination of an efficient analysis procedure for the explosion-proof vessel that provides a combination of accuracy, computational speed and modeling simplicity in carrying out a parametric analysis. The explosion-proof vessel is finally optimized to reduce …

Lead Contamination In Candies Imported From Latin America, Heather R Fels

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The problem of lead in candies imported from Latin America is an important health disparities issue as it particularly affects the health of children living in Latino Diasporas in the United States. Our research team at the University of Nevada Las Vegas was the first to employ the X-ray florescence (XRF) machine in the screening of candies for lead. The XRF is a novel instrument that can quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively test for lead contamination. Once contaminated candies were identified, an exhaustive review of applicable laws and polices that can be utilized in the regulation of imported toxic candies was …

Paleoepidemiology Of Bacterial Infections Among Prehistoric Human Populations In Northern Chile: An Ancient Dna Approach, Luz-Andrea Pfister

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Bacterial pathogens not primarily affecting the skeleton but causing sepsis and death, have not been systematically studied in prehistoric human populations, although increasing evidence support our species long co-evolution with many of them. With molecular methods we can identify bacteria at the species level and distinguish pathogenic from environmental and soil bacteria. Bone marrow of ancient people may provide valuable information about ancient pathogens causing sepsis and death. To test the hypothesis that PCR amplification using universal bacterial primers will identify prehistoric bacterial pathogens in bone marrow, 30 samples were aseptically obtained from partially mummified remains of three archaeological sites …

Photodynamic Therapy Induces Oxidation In Breast And Brain Cancer Cell Lines, Sarah Ann Ziegler

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment modality that utilizes both a photosensitizing drug and light irradiation. To better understand how PDT induces cell death, four human breast cancer (DC4, DB46, MCF7 and MDA-MB-435) and two rat glioma (BT4C and F98) cell lines were treated with 635 nm light from a diode laser following incubation with either PhotofrinRTM or aminoleuvilinic acid (ALA). Cellular responses were evaluated by: clonogenic survival, cell cycle distribution, fluorescent microscopy, protein oxidation and lipid oxidation assays. PDT was able to induce both apoptosis and necrosis as well as protein and lipid oxidation. Even though breast cancer …

Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Analysis Of Decomposition Reaction Inside The Solar Fluid Wall Reactor, Vijaykaartik Kumar

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A solar thermo-chemical reactor has been designed and modeled to study the flow of decomposition reactions. The reaction considered in this case is the thermal reduction of metal oxide, as part of a two-step water splitting cycle for hydrogen generation and methane decomposition, which directly generates hydrogen in a single step reaction. The reaction takes place at 2000 K to 2500 K using concentrated solar energy as the source. In this model, the reactor is comprised of two concentric cylinders, which are made of graphite. The input zinc oxide is assumed to be uniform in particle size during the simulation. …

Analysis Of Determinant Factors Of A Convention And Visitors Bureau Website Service Quality: Perspectives Of Meeting Planners, Min Sook Kim

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Website service quality is widely accepted as one of the key determinants of online business success. Several studies identified key factors that determine the website service quality factors appropriate for online business environments (Kaynama & Black, 2000; Van Riel, Liljander, & Jurriens, 2001). A convention and visitors bureau (CVB) website is a service portal that delivers information online about a destination so users can develop an overall image of the location; CVBs struggle to deliver positive destination images because the competition among destinations to host conventions is intense. In spite of the important role of CVBs and the beneficial spillover …

Maximize Our Missions Mui Tsai, Missionaries And Material Representation, Michelle A Lettieri

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study sheds light on the contributions of American Protestant missionaries in parlaying their experiences gleaned from overseas Chinese assignments in establishing domestic mission programs in America aimed at "saving" Chinese girls. In doing so, female missionaries built institutions and launched social programs that used the mui tsai (Chinese domestic servants), their experiences, and their transformation from "heathen to Christian" as a material representation of the success and necessity of domestic and overseas Chinese missionary ventures. In doing so, missionary women constructed national and transnational networks armed with the goal of maximizing their missions and Christianizing China. Although this study …