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2006

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Lead Contamination Risks From Imported Candies: Developing A Protocol To Test For Lead In Candy Products Using The X-Ray Flouresence Instrument, Tracy L Donnelly Jan 2006

Lead Contamination Risks From Imported Candies: Developing A Protocol To Test For Lead In Candy Products Using The X-Ray Flouresence Instrument, Tracy L Donnelly

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The problem of lead in candies imported from Latin America and or Thailand is an important public health issue. These candies come from a number of sources, with lead often being present when tamarind or chili pepper is used as an ingredient. Currently, it is expensive and time consuming for heath protection agencies to test candy that has entered the consumer market in the United States. Hence children may potentially be exposed to lead contamination. If community health agencies had access to XRF technology, health agencies could quickly determine if specific candies contain lead. To date, there has not been …

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Racial Profiling In Las Vegas: A Reexamination Of Police Stop Data In Las Vegas, Daniel Eric Doran Jan 2006

Racial Profiling In Las Vegas: A Reexamination Of Police Stop Data In Las Vegas, Daniel Eric Doran

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Racial profiling remains the subject of controversy when discussing police and minority relationships. Recently, scholars have studied this controversial issue in an attempt to determine the characteristics and extent of the problem. Although researchers have suggested possible reasons for racial disparities in traffic stop data, more information is needed to develop a more in-depth understanding of these disparities. The study presented here analyzes traffic stop data from Las Vegas during the 2002 calendar year. The study analyzes key driver characteristics and whether these characteristics influence the officer's search or arrest of the driver. The study uses univariate, bivariate, and multivariate …

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"33", Caleb Brooks Jan 2006

"33", Caleb Brooks

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

"33" is a collection of poetry divided into three sections. The poems in the first section, Cycle, represent twelve "snapshots" of a year in a relationship. The names are Native American names for full moons within each of the twelve months. The initial poem in the series is a traditional invocation, this one to the god of Love The second section is less thematically grouped, however I feel that for the most part they do fit the tone and thematic intent of the work. That section is entitled Pompeii of Love after one of the poems contained therein. The final …

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Binaural Beats Enhance Alpha Wave Activity, Memory, And *Attention In Healthy-Aging Seniors, Janice Colleen Mcmurray Jan 2006

Binaural Beats Enhance Alpha Wave Activity, Memory, And *Attention In Healthy-Aging Seniors, Janice Colleen Mcmurray

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Human aging will be one of the biggest challenges we face during this century and optimizing health for the rapidly growing older population is imperative to avoid end of life suffering. Uncovering stimuli and methods that may enhance memory and attentional focus in the aging brain has become a priority. Current research demonstrates a connection between neurocognitive decline in seniors over 65 years and deficits in alpha frequency brainwave activity. Studies indicate that specific auditory tones have a significant effect on our brainwaves and provide a positive influence. These tones have been defined as alpha-harmonic sound patterns and they are …

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Motives For Recreational Gambling And Other Recreation Activities Among Internet Users, Laurie Platz Jan 2006

Motives For Recreational Gambling And Other Recreation Activities Among Internet Users, Laurie Platz

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This research examined whether there was a qualitative or quantitative difference between recreational gamblers' motives for participating in their one favorite gambling activity and their one favorite recreational activity. The rationale is to demonstrate that gambling is comparable to other recreational activities. The sample for this study was recruited on the Internet through newsgroups with bulletin boards. After deletion of cases that did not qualify for analysis, 133 people qualified for full analysis by scoring 0 on the NODS gambling screen (classified as recreational gamblers) and by completing the Recreation Experience Preference scales for both gambling and other recreational activities. …

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Public College Students' Academic Experiences And Performance In Utah's Religious Enclave, Joe Peterson Jan 2006

Public College Students' Academic Experiences And Performance In Utah's Religious Enclave, Joe Peterson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Many American colleges were established in "religious enclaves," regions dominated by somewhat homogeneous religious cultures that were formed when cobelievers experienced socially inhospitable conditions and removed themselves from the culturally diverse mainstream and gathered into more homogeneous cultural strongholds. Through modernization and urbanization, many former religious enclaves have evolved into pluralistic social settings; however, one large enclave remains. In Utah, students at public colleges and universities experience a cultural environment where the LDS (Mormon) religion has overwhelming demographic dominance (77 percent of Utah's population in 2000, Grammich, 2004, p. 20). This dissertation explores the influence of the enclave milieu on …

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The Development Of Children's Orthographic Knowledge: A Microgenetic Perspective, Ann C Sharp Jan 2006

The Development Of Children's Orthographic Knowledge: A Microgenetic Perspective, Ann C Sharp

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Literacy scholars traditionally described spelling development as a stage-like progression of increasing orthographic understanding measured by orthographic feature errors children used but confused (Henderson, 1980; Ehri, 1992). Overlapping Wave theorists defined spelling development as a series of adaptive choices between sophisticated and unsophisticated spelling strategies measured by the type and amount of strategies children used (Siegler, 1996). To disentangle discrepancies found between the alternative viewpoints, the current study: replicated and extended a previous investigation that described spelling development as overlapping waves (Riffle-Johnson & Sieger, 1999); investigated differential feedback conditions as a source of spelling growth; and examined correlates between orthographic …

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The Lyric Subject, Matthew Shears Jan 2006

The Lyric Subject, Matthew Shears

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The ensuing creative dissertation operates, essentially, as a book of poems. As such, it demonstrates my most up to date engagement with poetry and poetics, although many poems have been discarded during my stay at UNLV. One of the weaknesses of my outlook on poetry as I entered school here was the hodgepodge of received opinions which, when mixed with a kind of individualized vision of writing, operated in place of "theory," and under the sign of "poetics." In short, what I most needed to develop was some sort of critical/theoretical apparatus, in terms of reading and writing; But poets …

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Estimating The Impact Of Entertainment On The Gaming Volume Of Las Vegas Hotel Casinos, Eunju Suh Jan 2006

Estimating The Impact Of Entertainment On The Gaming Volume Of Las Vegas Hotel Casinos, Eunju Suh

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study addressed the indirect effect of entertainment on gaming volume (i.e., coin-in). Specifically, this study attempted (1) to gain an understanding of the relationship between show patronage and gaming volume; and (2) to estimate the magnitude of incremental revenue for each show attendee. Conceptual models to examine the indirect effect of daily show headcounts on gaming volume were proposed, including other variables previously found or theorized to influence gaming volume. Secondary data (i.e., show headcounts, daily coin-in and daily cash drop) were collected from two different Las Vegas Strip properties. This study employed multiple regression models with the appropriate …

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The Other Country: Stories And A Novella, Vu Hoang Tran Jan 2006

The Other Country: Stories And A Novella, Vu Hoang Tran

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The Other Country is a collection of seven short stories and a novella, all of which take place in Saigon and the Saigon area and portray the lives of its citizens in contemporary Vietnam. Given the country's recent history, this setting inevitably evokes the Vietnam War, a connection that casts the book---especially from the American perspective---into the shadow of contemporary American fiction that focuses on the war both as a historical experience and as a cultural idea: important novels like Graham Greene's The Quiet American, Robert Olen Butler's A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Larry Heinemann's Paco's Story, and …

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Exploring The Effects Of Online Instructional Models On The Writing Achievement Of High School Students With And Without Disabilities, Bradley Jon Kaffar Jan 2006

Exploring The Effects Of Online Instructional Models On The Writing Achievement Of High School Students With And Without Disabilities, Bradley Jon Kaffar

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of three online models for teaching a paragraph writing strategy to students with and without disabilities. A learning strategist instructor implemented The Paragraph Writing Strategy (Schumaker & Lyerla, 1993) using three treatment groups that included the following online models: (a) Power Point media, (b) streaming video, and (c) multimedia (Power Point and video). Participants were 121 high school students in grades 9 through 12 enrolled in an online charter school program; there were 27 students with disabilities and 94 students without disabilities. Data were collected to answer five research questions …

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A Comprehensive Structural Model Of Factors Affecting Online Consumer Travel Purchasing, Hsing Wen Jan 2006

A Comprehensive Structural Model Of Factors Affecting Online Consumer Travel Purchasing, Hsing Wen

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a comprehensive model to study consumers' online purchase intention of travel products. Related literature reviews suggested antecedents of consumers' online purchase intention including EC travel web site design, past purchase experience, consumer trust, consumer's attitudes toward online shopping of travel products; The model was developed by integrating one existing theoretical model (Shim's Online Pre-purchase Intentions Model) with several important factors which were guided by theories: (1) social cognitive theory, (2) self-efficacy theory, (3) theory of planned behavior (TPB), (4) attitude-behavior consistency theory, (5) theory of consumer trust, and (6) communication theory. As …

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Effects Of Selective Attention On Preschool Teacher And Child Behavior, Keri Leigh Altig Jan 2006

Effects Of Selective Attention On Preschool Teacher And Child Behavior, Keri Leigh Altig

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Teachers of preschool-aged children influence the development of preschool-aged children. As more children are enrolled in preschool centers, teachers of preschool-aged children need to be equipped with many strategies to encourage child development. One way teachers can encourage child development is to provide activities and structure so the child will engage with the environment; This study examined the effects of training teachers of preschool-aged children to use selective attention and how training effected child engagement during circle time activities. Two classrooms in each of two preschool centers were selected. Teachers were trained on how to use the selective attention approach …

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The Relationship Between Customer Service Quality And Restaurant Revenue In A Gaming -Centric Casino Environment, Karl D Brandmeir Jan 2006

The Relationship Between Customer Service Quality And Restaurant Revenue In A Gaming -Centric Casino Environment, Karl D Brandmeir

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between customer service quality and restaurant revenue in a casino. A recent search (August 2005) showed over 19,000 citations in one database on the subject of customer service quality. However, no studies specific to the casino industry were found. This study looked at three geographic locations of a gaming-centric casino company; The results showed that customers the casino environments used for this study view friendly/helpful staff and shorter wait times as significant. Surprisingly food variety, food quality, a price/value relationship, and ambiance/decor are not significant influences on restaurant revenues in a gaming-centric environment; These findings …

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Multidimensional Model Of Destination Brands: An Application Of Customer -Based Brand Equity, Soyoung Boo Jan 2006

Multidimensional Model Of Destination Brands: An Application Of Customer -Based Brand Equity, Soyoung Boo

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Branding's extension into tourism destination management is expanDing However, most studies to date have focused at the conceptual exploration level or expansion of image-level theory. This study examined empirical information on building the destination brand model through a scale purification process, ensuring its reliability and validity. The customer-based brand equity measurement model from the general marketing literature was applied in a destination context. The proposed model was tested with an online survey sample of Las Vegas and Atlantic City visitors because both destinations are in a similar destination brand category. Findings show that although the proposed model showed a good …

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An Exploration Of The Alienation Experienced By African American Parents From Their Child's Educational Environment, Regina R Brandon Jan 2006

An Exploration Of The Alienation Experienced By African American Parents From Their Child's Educational Environment, Regina R Brandon

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Current research suggests that parents are one of the key components to the school success of their children. The literature indicates that parent interest and involvement impacts education in the areas of: (a) quality of instruction received, (b) student respect for learning, and (c) student excellence in school. Involved parents simply make the educational system better. However, in today's world, parents often work long hours, have more than one job, and participate in multiple responsibilities that may limit their participation. Because of the variety of factors that impinge on parents, educators often criticize them for their non-participation or limited participation …

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Environmental Factors Affecting Retention And Graduation In Mlt /Clt Programs, Patricia R Castro Jan 2006

Environmental Factors Affecting Retention And Graduation In Mlt /Clt Programs, Patricia R Castro

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The quality of education delivered to medical laboratory technician/clinical laboratory technician (MLT/CLT) students has been an evolving concern for the clinical laboratory sciences profession. This situation prompted consideration of various factors in MLT/CLT education to determine if student/program characteristics affected student performance; Principles extracted from Alexander Astin's Input-Environment-Output (I-E-O) model were used as a foundation for considering the factors that affect MLT/CLT program student outcomes. Input, environmental, and outcome variables related to MLT/CLT programs were identified for study; A literature review was conducted to gather information relevant to the development of clinical laboratory science practice and education, curriculum development and …

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Dissimulation Of Mental Retardation And Traumatic Brain Injury On The Wais -Ii, Joshua E Caron Jan 2006

Dissimulation Of Mental Retardation And Traumatic Brain Injury On The Wais -Ii, Joshua E Caron

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Since Atkins v. Virginia (2002), there has been increased concern that inmates will feign mental retardation (MR) to avoid the death penalty. However, very little research on malingering diction for mental retardation has been conducted, forcing most clinicians to rely on methods derived for malingered traumatic brain injury (TBI). This lack of research may lead to increased false positive rates. Limited research suggests that intelligence tests may hold promise for identifying malingered MR and malingered TBI. Therefore, developing malingering scales for most popular measure of intelligence, the WAIS-III, should provide the most effective and efficient measure for identifying persons feigning …

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Student-Athlete Recruitment At The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Christi Smith Dewaele Jan 2006

Student-Athlete Recruitment At The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Christi Smith Dewaele

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

With the impact winning athletic teams have on a university it is not surprising that pressure to produce winning teams is enormous. Coaches are expected to recruit the most athletically talented players to provide the university with winning seasons (Letawsky, Palmer & Schneider, 2005). In order for institutions to bring in athletes who are able to excel academically and athletically, it is important for coaches to understand what characterizes the college selection process for student-athletes. Therefore, an important step in this regard would be to develop instrumentation to measure this process. Hence, the purpose of this study was to conduct …

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The Effects Of Performance Feedback With Goal Setting On Effective Teaching Behavior, Shannon Elizabeth Crozier Jan 2006

The Effects Of Performance Feedback With Goal Setting On Effective Teaching Behavior, Shannon Elizabeth Crozier

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Research indicates that classroom management is one of the greatest challenges and most significant concerns facing teachers today. Teachers, particularly in urban schools, are faced with high rates of student problem behavior. Teachers in urban schools are less likely to be designated highly qualified. Urban districts evidence high rates of teacher attrition that is due, in part, to classroom management. To date, little research is available on how to effectively improve the management skills of general education teachers including students with challenging behavior in their classrooms. A pivotal component of behavior management is effective teaching. Performance feedback with goal setting …

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Voices From Two Sides Of The Atlantic: A Multiple Case Study Of Women's Leadership, Eva Anneli Adams Jan 2006

Voices From Two Sides Of The Atlantic: A Multiple Case Study Of Women's Leadership, Eva Anneli Adams

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

People learn and adopt cultural values through socialization. "Voices from Two Sides of the Atlantic" is a multiple-case study about the influence of national socialization on women's leadership experiences. The main research question of the study was: Does national enculturation impact how women lead, and if so, how is it reflected in participants' responses?;This study examined leadership experiences of three Finnish and three American women. It investigated how the participants associate their values with their leadership experience and how they perceive the social context in which they grew up influences leadership. The theoretical framework of the study was based on …

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Identifying Informal Advisors Among Neuromuscular Specialists, Jane Elizabeth Karwoski Jan 2006

Identifying Informal Advisors Among Neuromuscular Specialists, Jane Elizabeth Karwoski

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Quality improvement efforts in healthcare services often center on influencing provider behavior through clinical practice guidelines and research evidence. Passive dissemination of such information has quite limited effects on medical practice. Active implementation strategies focus on translating knowledge into practice, at times recruiting local physicians as "opinion leaders" to act as change agents, champion the adoption of new practice parameters, and promote the diffusion of medical innovation; This study developed an instrument to identify neuromuscular specialists whose advice is valued by colleagues, thus extending and updating similar work among educationally influential community physicians by Hiss, Macdonald, and Davis (1978). Neuromuscular …

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Investigation Of The Relationship Between Firm-Wise Financial Factors And Firm Performance In The Hospitality Industry, Zhenxing Mao Jan 2006

Investigation Of The Relationship Between Firm-Wise Financial Factors And Firm Performance In The Hospitality Industry, Zhenxing Mao

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study empirically investigates the relationship between firm-wise financial factors and firm performance in the hospitality industry from 2000 to 2004 using panel data regression. After a literature review of firm-wise financial factors and their impact on performance in the literature, unit-effect and time-effect linear models were proposed and examined in both the restaurant and hotel sectors with different firm performance measures used as the dependent variable (i.e., Proxy Q, Sharpe ratio, and Treynor ratio). While some variables, especially liquidity and solvency, were found to have significant impacts on firm performance measured by Proxy Q and Sharpe ratio in both …

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Evaluating The Effect Of Merit Aid As A Higher Education *Policy Tool Using Time Series Analysis, Michelle Johanna Nilson Jan 2006

Evaluating The Effect Of Merit Aid As A Higher Education *Policy Tool Using Time Series Analysis, Michelle Johanna Nilson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Since 1991, seventeen states have dramatically altered the criteria they use to distribute student financial aid to include a larger proportion of merit-based awards. Across these states, the amounts and lengths of the awards vary. There are states, such as Georgia and Florida, which provide full tuition and fees for four or five years, depending on the program of study. In sharp contrast, Michigan's Merit Award Scholarship is a one time {dollar}2,500 award. States also differ in terms of the selection criteria used to award merit aid a quasi-experimental interrupted and pooled time series design derived from research on public …

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Exploring The Relationship Between Teachers' Beliefs In Mathematics And Their Instructional Practice, Michelle Vander Veldt Jan 2006

Exploring The Relationship Between Teachers' Beliefs In Mathematics And Their Instructional Practice, Michelle Vander Veldt

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between teachers' beliefs about mathematics and their instructional practices. The personal epistemology of the case study elementary mathematics teachers was documented and analyzed to provide evidence of the connection between teachers' beliefs and practice in an elementary school setting; This study was grounded in a theoretical framework of epistemological world views, particularly the comparison of belief across three epistemological world views: (1) the realist, (2) the contextualist, and (3) the relativist. Three areas of beliefs are addressed in this study: (1) beliefs about curriculum, (2) beliefs about pedagogy, and (3) beliefs about assessment. Through analysis …

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Managing The Relationship Between Intermediaries And Meta Sites, Natasa Christodoulidou Jan 2006

Managing The Relationship Between Intermediaries And Meta Sites, Natasa Christodoulidou

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Travel meta search engines have great potential to alter the travel landscape. Although their current booking impact is relatively low, these new entrants are well-funded, growing quickly, and gaining consumer visibility (Christodoulidou, Connolly, and Brewer, 2006). This research (a) explored whether travel meta sites are an opportunity or a threat to travel intermediaries, (b) examined the transactional relationship between travel meta sites, travel intermediaries, and their suppliers, and (c) compared the consumer's perceptions regarding travel meta sites and travel intermediaries; To examine the role of meta sites in the travel industry and the transactional relationships an information rich-case study approach …

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Investigating The Perceptions Of Academic Dishonesty Among Special Educators, Jane M Sileo Jan 2006

Investigating The Perceptions Of Academic Dishonesty Among Special Educators, Jane M Sileo

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purposes of this study were: (a) to investigate the perceptions of academic dishonesty among special education faculty and students particularly related to the subtleties or gray areas that surround issues of academic dishonesty, (b) to determine how to decrease incidences of academic dishonesty, and (c) to find potential solutions to the problem of academic dishonesty. The participants in this study were special education full-time and adjunct faculty and special education undergraduate and graduate students. Data were collected using the Faculty Perspectives Survey and the Student Perspectives Survey. These surveys measured opinions regarding what constitutes cheating in traditional and online …

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Remembering The Pain: Psychosocial Factors Related To Endometriotic Pain And Its Recall, Sarah E Nunnink Jan 2006

Remembering The Pain: Psychosocial Factors Related To Endometriotic Pain And Its Recall, Sarah E Nunnink

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating disease, affecting women of childbearing years in a variety of ways, including infertility, dyspareunia, dysmenorrhea, and chronic pelvic pain. Diagnosis and treatment planning are guided primarily by retrospective pain recall, regardless of the fact that (1) there is only a tenuous relationship between pain reports and physical pathology and (2) the accuracy of pain recall has never been assessed in this population. The current study investigated the accuracy of endometriotic pain recall over a 30-day period, as well as potential psychological mediators to pain recall accuracy, including general psychological wellbeing, distress specific to infertility, …

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The Effects Of Perceived Teacher Empowerment On Student Achievement, Florence Barker Aitken Jan 2006

The Effects Of Perceived Teacher Empowerment On Student Achievement, Florence Barker Aitken

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived levels of teacher empowerment in schools showing an increase of student outcomes as well as a decrease of student outcomes on standardized proficiency tests in reading/language arts and mathematics over a three-year period. The relationship between the levels of teachers' perceived empowerment to student achievement was studied as well as specific dimensions of teacher empowerment connected to student outcomes. The instrumentation used in this study was the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) that was developed by researchers Short and Rinehart (1992) and contained six theoretical dimensions of teacher empowerment: (a) …

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Quantum Mechanical Hydrogen-Hydrogen Collisional Cross Section Calculation For Astrophysics, David Michael Archer Jan 2006

Quantum Mechanical Hydrogen-Hydrogen Collisional Cross Section Calculation For Astrophysics, David Michael Archer

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this work is to perform a quantum mechanical calculation of the collisional state-to-state cross sections for H-H2 required for astrophysical modeling. Previous quantum and semi-classical cooling rates computed from cross sections have shown unexplained discrepancies. This attempts to clarify the situation and provide reliable cross sections to the astrophysical community. As a side benefit of this calculation geometric phase effects in the H-H2 collision dynamics are investigated at higher energies than previously attempted. Cooling is critical to the formation of the first objects formed in the early universe, and other diverse phenomenon of interest to astrophysics. For …

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