Digital Commons Network^™

A C To Register Transfer Level Algorithm Using Structured Circuit Templates: A Case Study With Simulated Annealing, Jonathan D. Phillips

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A tool flow is presented for deriving simulated annealing accelerator circuits on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) from C source code by exploring architecture solutions that conform to a preset template through scheduling and mapping algorithms. A case study carried out on simulated annealing-based Autonomous Mission Planning and Scheduling (AMPS) software used for autonomous spacecraft systems is explained. The goal of the research is an automated method for the derivation of a hardware design that maximizes performance while minimizing the FPGA footprint. Results obtained are compared with a peer C to register transfer level (RTL) logic tool, a state-of-the-art …

Centering Pregnancy And Traditional Prenatal Care: A Comparison Of Health Practices, Kaylynn Shakespear

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Centering Pregnancy is an alternative method of providing prenatal care with increased education and social support with health assessment in a group setting. This study, a cross-sectional, correlational, convenience-sample design, sought to determine the difference between women who receive prenatal care in Centering Pregnancy prenatal care and those in traditional prenatal care in regards to health behaviors. Adult pregnant women (n = 125) were surveyed from at least 28 weeks gestation. The sample comprised primarily White low-income women. Using multiple linear regression, it was determined that women in Centering Pregnancy had significantly lower index health behavior scores compared with …

Increasing The Recycling Rate In Clark County, Nevada, Emerald Laija

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate policies that could increase the amount of municipal solid waste recycled in Clark County, Nevada. Clark County has not met the Nevada State goal of a 25% recycling rate since it was established by the Nevada Legislature in 1991. Using the system dynamics problem solving approach, a model for Clark County was adapted from a model developed by Stave (2008) to test policy options. There was no feedback in the model due to the long lifespan of the landfill servicing Clark County and the relatively shorter time horizon of the …

The Environmental And Economic Benefits Of Highway Access Management: A Multivariate Analysis Using System Dynamics, Dan Andersen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Better management of highway operations can be achieved, in part, by controlling vehicular access to adjacent properties and cross streets. This tactic, referred to as access management, has proven safety and operational benefits. However, doubts remain regarding its environmental and economic benefits.

I hypothesize that one environmental indicator, carbon emissions, will decrease with proper access management. Controlling access increases the speed at which vehicles travel, improving fuel efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. My hypothesis relative to financial impacts is that access management will neither help nor harm businesses. Controlling access can reduce travel time which has the effect of increasing …

An Observational Tool For Measuring The Dealer's Emotional Labor In A Casino, Alfred Sukwon Jang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The hotel industry has been interested in friendliness as a means of improving the relationships with customers. Upon how to operationally measure the employee’s friendliness, emerging studies have mentioned emotional labor at work. This study developed an observational tool for measuring the dealer's emotional labor in a casino by observing the smiling, eye contact, collecting in a gentle manner, greeting, thanking, and apologizing.

The Relationship Between High Risk Athletes Risk Perception Of Adventurous Activities, Their Travel Destinations And Their Vacation Travel Patterns, Tanir Magen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Adventure tourism is a growing market segment in the US; the decision to participate in adventurous activities and the selection of risky destinations while on vacation involves ones risk perception about the physical risks that can lead to fatal results from these activities. Existing literature suggest that risk perception is a determinate in choosing a leisure activity and destination while on vacation and that level of tolerance to uncertainty can determine travel behavior (Floyd & Gibson, 2004; Fuchs & Reichel, 2006; Hofstede, 2001; Iso- Ahola, 1980, 1982; Money & Crotts, 2003; Reisinger & Mavondo, 2005). People who have high tolerance …

Camping: A Positive Developmental Context For Youth With Disabilities/Serious Illness, Christopher T. Troxell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The paper will examine how elements of youth development can enhance the camp experience, so that new camps for youth with disabilities and/or serious illness, such as Flying Horse Farms, can start with a solid knowledge base of what works and why it works. Also, even though the paper is geared toward these specific types of camps, part of its recommendation could be modified to fit the purpose of any camp.

Taxonomy Of Knowedge Management Research In Hospitality And Tourism, Henner Nehles

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The hospitality industry is operating in an ever increasing knowledge-based economy, where hotels have to increase customer satisfaction and retention levels, lower employees turnover rates and operating expenses, maximize profits and strive to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. “Knowledge management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival, and competence in the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combinations of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings” (Civi, 2000, p.166). Knowledge Management (KM) is not a new concept. It has its …

Counselors Working In Integrated Primary Behavioral Health And The Influence On Professional Identity: A Phenomenological Study, Geniene Michelle Gersh

Dissertations

Over the past several years there has been a paradigm shift within the primary care delivery system from a traditional medical approach of providing behavioral health services to an integrated primary behavioral health model. This shift in patient care presents new opportunities for professional counselors to assume a role working in the health care arena. Currently there is a lack of research exploring the experiences of counselors working in this model. In addition, there is a deficit in the existing counseling literature specifically examining how working in this setting may potentially influence counselor identity. In an effort to inform counselors …

An Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of The Consultant Workshop Model In A Human Service Setting, Nicole E. Gravina

Dissertations

The purpose of the present dissertation was to document and evaluate the consultant-workshop model commonly employed by OBM consultants. The consultation took place in a non-profit human service setting that delivers behavioral services to children diagnosed with autism and their families. Workshop attendees were 13 senior therapists each of whom oversaw 6 to 8 instructor therapists who provided behavioral services to clients and 3 clinical supervisors who oversaw senior therapists. The training took place in 2005 (i.e., three years prior to this evaluation) across five months and four workshop sessions. Participants learned to pinpoint, measure, diagnose, and intervene and then …

The Sins Of Kalamazoo, A Full-Length Play Based On The Works Of Carl Sandburg, Christine Iaderosa

Dissertations

The Sins of Kalamazoo , is a creative work, a frill-length play adapted from the poem of the same name and other works by Carl Sandburg. This playfollows a nonlinear storyline based on images suggested by Sandburg's poem as well as portions of the city of Kalamazoo's history.

"The Sins of Kalamazoo", poses the question: "I hear America, I hear, what do I hear? America's national narrative is made up of both the shining promise of the future and of the recognition of the decay as its cultural identity becomes fragmented through time. The theatre provides an exceptional cultural space …

Flexography Printing Of Silver Based Conductive Inks On Packaging Substrates, Ramesh Chandra Kattumenu

Dissertations

Printing technologies for the production of flexible electronics have gained much interest due to its potential as a means to reduce the complexity and costs of present technology. High volume printing techniques like flexography are of great importance in order to produce rolls of flexible electronics printed directly on paper substrates. The proposed research will be focused on RFID components being in-line printed using flexography printing as the manufacturing platform. The properties of substrates and inks and printing process parameters are evaluated to study their effect on printed traces and RFID antenna. It was found in the study that properties …

Estadounidenses And Gringos As Reality And Imagination In Mexican Narrative Of The Late Twentieth Century, Jessica Lynam

Dissertations

The representation of North Americans in contemporary Mexican narrative texts is frequent, complex and worthy of study. The present dissertation makes no pretense of being a comprehensive catalogue of “gringos” in Mexican narrative; it can be better seen as a cross-section of Mexican literature concerning people from the United States published during the final two decades of the twentieth century. My intention is to explore how this Mexican narrative has characterized non-Mexican Americans and contextualize these visions in terms of their cultural and historical origins. In this study I analyze six texts authored by both men and women, border authors …

High School Mathematics Teachers' Evolving Understanding Of Comparing Distributions, Sandra R. Madden

Dissertations

Statistics has achieved a position of status in the secondary curriculum (College Board, 2006b; Franklin et al., 2007; NCTM, 2000) and understanding of statistics is essential for high school mathematics teachers if they are to engage students in thoughtful pursuit of statistical ideas. High school teachers typically are ill-prepared in the area of statistics (Ben-Zvi & Garfield, 2004a; CBMS, 2001; Shaughnessy, 1992, 2007). Using methods of design research, this study investigated 56 high school mathematics teachers' understanding of the statistical concept ofcomparing distributions and demonstrated that a modest four-day, statistics-oriented, technology-rich, professional development program may significantly improve teachers' understanding. …

Construction Of A New Model System In Saccharomyces Cerevisa To Study Yopo And Identify Its Targets, Laura Nejedlik

Dissertations

Yersinia species use a type three secretion system (TTSS) to inject Yersinia outer proteins (Yops) into the target cell. The effector YopO is a serine/threonine kinase which upon association with actin becomes active. However, activation of the kinase is not required for actin disruption. YopO also contains a Rho/Rac binding domain, but it is unclear how it affects these proteins.

We have established an expression system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to study YopO. The expression vector contains a GAL1 promoter for inducible expression of YopO as well as a V5 epitope used for visualization of each Yop. We have shown that …

Research Self-Efficacy And Research Mentoring Experiences As Predictors Of Occupational Commitment In Counselor Education Doctoral Students, Glinda Jeanette Rawls

Dissertations

The demands of research and pressure to publish have been identified as reasons doctoral graduates in counselor education infrequently choose faculty careers (Maples, Altekruse, & Testa, 1993; Swickert, 1997). Despite this finding, the counselor education literature provides very little information on doctoral students' research self-efficacy or perceived ability to complete research-related tasks (Bieschke, Bishop, & Herbert, 1995). In addition, research mentoring can enhance research self-efficacy (Hollingsworth & Fassinger, 2002), yet it too remains understudied. Research mentoring involves someone more experienced promoting research skill, awareness, and productivity to someone less experienced (Dohm & Cummings, 2002). Few studies have explored research self-efficacy, …

The Effects Of Interactive Writing Instruction On Kindergarten Students' Acquisition Of Early Reading Skills, Cindy D. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study focused upon the established importance of the reading-writing relationship and its posited effect on literacy development. A repeated-measures experimental design investigated the effects of interactive writing instruction on 151 kindergarten students’ acquisition of early reading skills. Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate the impact of the reading-writing relationship as operationalized with interactive writing and writing workshop on the acquisition of early reading skills as repeated outcome measures at four points in time (Level 1) were clustered within students (Level 2). Results of this study indicated that instruction grounded in the reading-writing relationship, namely, interactive writing and writers’ workshop …

Evaluating Descriptive Richness In Collection-Level Metadata, Oksana L. Zavalina, Carole L. Palmer, Amy S. Jackson, Myung-Ja Han

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

When many collections are brought together in a federation or aggregation, the attributes of the original collections can become difficult to discern. Collection-level metadata has the potential to provide important context about the purpose and features of individual collections, but the qualitative aspects of collections are difficult to describe in a systematic way. This paper reports on a content analysis of collection records in the Digital Collections and Content (DCC) aggregation, conducted to analyze the kinds of substantive and purposeful information represented across 202 cultural heritage collections. We found that the free-text Description field often provides more accurate and complete …

Chebyshev Collocation Method For The Effect Of Variable Thermal Conductivity On Micropolar Fluid Flow Over Vertical Cylinder With Variable Surface Temperature, Nasser S. Elgazery, Nader Y. Abd Elazem

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

An analysis is performed to study the role of a variable thermal conductivity on unsteady free convection in a micro-polar fluid past a semi-infinite vertical cylinder with variable surface temperature in the presence of magnetic filed and radiation. The surface temperature is measured to vary as a power of the axial coordinate measured from the leading edge of the cylinder. The governing non-linear partial differential equations are transformed into a linear algebraic system utilizing Chebyshev collocation method in spatial and Crank-Nicolson method in time. Numerical results for the velocity, angular velocity and temperature profiles as well as for the local …

Trânsitos Da Censura O Teatro Como Resistência Cultural Ao Autoritarismo, Roseli Figaro

Teatro: Revista de Estudios Escénicos / A Journal of Theater Studies

Esto artículo discute los tránsitos de la cultura y de la censura entre el Brasil y España por medio del teatro popular y no profesional, encenados por los inmigrantes españoles, en la ciudad de São Paulo. Este tema es parte del eje de la investigación «A cena paulista: um estudo da produção cultural de São Paulo de 1930 el 1970», del Archivo Miroel Silveira, de la Biblioteca de la Escuela de Comunicaciones y Artes de la Universidad de São Paulo, que tiene financiación de la Fundación de la Ayuda a la Investigación del Estado de São Paulo. La colección se …

University Reporter - Volume 13, Number 04 - December 2008

1996-2009, University Reporter

This issue of the University Reporter includes articles about the Haynes Distinguished Professorship in Urban Studies, a conference on rebuilding sustainable communities after disasters, budget reductions, celebrations involving alumni of Boston State college, and other news from UMass Boston.

People Profile: Catherine Mitchell, Editor

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

If Rumors Were Horses, Katina Strauch

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Film Families: The Portrayal Of The Family In Teen Films From 1980 To 2007, Caroline Clayton Clark

Theses and Dissertations

American adolescents watch an average of 3.5 hours of television and movies everyday; many attend more than one movie a month. Adolescents as a group watch more movies than any other group of the population, yet little research has been done on what is shown in teen movies. Adolescence is a time when values, beliefs, and opinions are formed and the media has been found to be a place that adolescents find information that can influence the construction of these identities. While there has been a vast amount of research looking at the family as portrayed on television shows, there …

Developing A Grounded Theory Model On Collaboration In Learning, Michelle J. Boese, Hong Sheng, Richard H. Hall

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Purpose of This Research is to Develop a Grounded Theory Model to Explain the Factors Influencing Collaborative Learning in Higher Education, the Role of Technology in Facilitating Collaboration, and the Outcome of Collaboration. We Assigned 28 Participants to Small Groups to Work on Course-Related Questions; Half of the Groups Were Face-To-Face Groups and the Other Half Groups Were Collaborating in a Simulated Virtual Environment with the Aid of Information Technology. Interview Data Was Collected and Analyzed Following the Grounded Theory Approach. Congruent with Distributed Cognition Theories, the Results of Our Study Suggest that Both Social and Technological Factors Were …

Mixed Methods For Mixed Reality: Overcoming Methodological Challenges To Understand User Activities In Virtual Worlds, David F. Feldon, Yasmin B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines the use of mixed methods for analyzing users’ avatar-related activities in a virtual world. Server logs recorded keystroke-level activity for 595 participants over a six-month period in Whyville.net, an informal science website. Participants also completed surveys and participated in interviews regarding their experiences. Additionally, the study included online ethnographic observations of Whyville and offline observations of a subset of 88 users in classroom and after-school settings during their participation. A mixed-methods analysis identified a major user emphasis on avatar appearance and customization that was invariant across user typologies. Implications for the use of mixed methods in online …

Communication On The Paper "A Reference-Dependent Regret Model For Deterministic Tradeoff Studies", Xiaoting Wang, Evangelos Triantaphyilou, Edouard Kujawski

Faculty Publications

This communication focuses on a fundamental problem related to the recently introduced Reference-Dependent Regret Model (RDRM) [E. Kujawski, Syst Eng 8(2) (2005), 119-1371 for deterministic multi-criteria decision-making. Kujawski asserted that the RDRM model satisfies three properties. The first of these properties, referred to as the "independence of dominated alternatives," seems to be an intuitive one. According to this property, the RDRM model preserves the ranking of two alternatives Ai and Aj with ranking Ai > Aj when a new alternative dominated by Ai is introduced or an old alternative dominated by Aj is dropped. In this communication it is demonstrated algebraically …

Candor, Zeal, And The Substitution Of Judgment: Ethics And The Mentally Ill Criminal Defendant , John D. King

American University Law Review

This Article explores the tension between autonomy and paternalism that characterizes the attorney-client relationship when a criminal defense attorney represents a mentally impaired client. Specifically, the Article analyzes the ethical frameworks that constrain the discretion of the attorney in this situation and proposes a new paradigm for ethical decisionmaking when an attorney represents a marginally competent client.

The criminal defense attorney is both a zealous advocate for her client and an officer of the legal system. In representing a marginally competent client, the initial ethical dilemma facing the attorney is whether she has an obligation to alert the court to …

Entretien Avec Véronique Tadjo, Écrivaine Ivoirienne, Micheline Rice-Maximin, K. Anyinefa

French & Francophone Studies Faculty Works

Dans cet entretien enregistré en 2004 (actualisé pour les besoins de cette publication), l'écrivaine ivoirienne Véronique Tadjo, Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire en 2005, médite d'abord sur les problèmes sociopolitiques de l'Afrique du Sud et sur le potentiel économique, sur le capital symbolique de ce pays où elle vit depuis 2001. Elle parle ensuite de son œuvre romanesque et poétique, de ses grands thèmes, de son écriture influencée surtout par l'oralité traditionnelle ainsi que de ses textes destinés à la jeunesse, textes qu'elle illustre très souvent ellemême. C'est sans doute cette versatilité formelle qui la distingue entre autres parmi les …

Parallel Trade In Prescription Medicines In The European Union: The Age Of Reason?, Ian S. Forrester, Anthony Dawes

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

No abstract provided.