Digital Commons Network^™

Measuring Freedom: An Analysis Of The Economic Freedom Index, Derek Mcafee

All Theses

The creation and empirical use of economic freedom indices has produced a growing amount of literature over the last decade. A survey of this literature is provided, and the difficulty of measuring this concept, as well as the usefulness and limits of the various indices are discussed. The indices are reduced to their components, and testable models are used in order to determine which components are most important. Secure property rights are found to be the most important component driving the results. The results are consistent with previous studies, which indicate that greater economic freedom is related to greater growth …

Book Review: Fireship: The Terror Weapon Of The Age Of Sail, Robert Oxley

Humanities & Communication - Daytona Beach

This document is Dr. Oxley's review of Fireship: The Terror Weapon of the Age of Sail by Peter Kirsch, translated from the German by John Harland. Naval Institute Press, 2009. 256 pp. Maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781591142706 $74.95

Police Blotter, Unlv Department Of Police Services

Police Blotter

No abstract provided.

New American Home 2010: Las Vegas, Nevada, Building Technologies Program, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Publications (SD)

This brochure details the New American Home 2010, which demonstrates the use of innovative building materials, cutting-edge design, and the latest construction techniques.

Usability As A Method For Assessing Discovery, Thomas A. Ipri, Michael A. Yunkin, Jeanne M. Brown

Library Faculty Research

The University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries engaged in three projects that helped identify areas of its website that had inhibited discovery of services and resources. These projects also helped generate staff interest in the Usability Working Group, which led these endeavors. The first project studied student responses to the site. The second focused on a usability test with the Libraries’ peer research coaches and resulted in a presentation of those findings to the Libraries staff. The final project involved a specialized test, the results of which also were presented to staff. All three of these projects led to improvements …

Teacher Candidates' Experience Of Ubd In A Social Studies Methods Course, Patricia K. Gulsvig

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher candidates in secondary social studies education come to their methods course eager to share their passion for the subject. Enthusiasm often turns to confusion and frustration when they are confronted with unforeseen decisions about the content they will teach before they determine the instructional strategies for teaching that material. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Understanding by Design (UbD) as a model in a social studies methods course for preparing teacher candidates to make purposeful curricular and instructional decisions.

This study took place at a small private Midwestern college and involved 10 participants between …

Mountain Monitor-3rd Quarter 2009, Brookings Mountain West

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Nationwide, the recession is technically over. Or at least that is the view of most economists. They note that real U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) finally expanded in the third quarter of 2009, growing at a 2.8 percent annual rate after four consecutive quarters of contraction. They point to a significant slowing of job losses in November, rising housing prices, and a slight downtick in unemployment as other positive signs. Their conclusion: Economic recovery is at last underway. And yet, the pace of renewal seems tentative and its geography patchy. Most notably, the aggregate national story of recovery and expansion …

Artist In Residence, Michael Lewin

Faculty Recitals

Program listing performers and works performed

Wind Energy And Power System Operations: A Review Of Wind Integration Studies To Date, Jennifer Decesaro, Kevin Porter

Publications (E)

This paper provides an overview of the challenges associated with wind integration and summarizes the findings of the wind integration studies conducted over the course of the past five years. We begin with an overview of the approximate time frames used in grid operations. We then describe how wind integration studies are conducted, discuss the results on wind integration costs and grid impacts from these grid integration studies, and assess some of the grid planning and operation changes that may be necessary to incorporate higher levels of wind generation. We close with several conclusions.

Solar Ready Buildings Planning Guide, L. Lisell, T. Tetreault, A. Watson

Publications (E)

This document identifies the important aspects of building design and construction to enable installation of solar photovoltaic and heating systems at some time after the building is constructed. This document addresses photovoltaic (PV), solar hot water (ST), and solar ventilation preheat (SVP) systems.

Biodiesel Handling And Use Guide: Fourth Edition (Revised), National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Publications (T)

This document is a guide for those who blend, store, distribute, and use biodiesel and biodiesel blends. It provides basic information on the proper and safe use of biodiesel and biodiesel blends in compression-ignition engines and boilers, and it is intended to help fleets, individual users, blenders, distributors, and those involved in related activities understand procedures for handling and using biodiesel fuels.

“Discovery” Focus As An Impetus For Organizational Learning, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Research

The University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries' focus on the concept of discovery and the tools and processes that enable our users to find information began with an organizational review of the Libraries' Technical Services Division. This article outlines the phases of this review and subsequent planning and organizational commitment to discovery. Using the theoretical lens of organizational learning, it highlights how the emerging focus on discovery has provided an impetus for genuine learning and change.

Revitalizing The Shakespeare Press Museum, Alix Katherine Guyot

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine how the Shakespeare Press Museum could attract more visitors, what kind of programs the Shakespeare Press Museum can offer to those visitors and how the Shakespeare Press Museum can turn frequent and interested visitors into volunteers. The popularity of letterpress printing has grown significantly over the last few years and interest in the museum the has grown as well.

This study investigated the practices of other similar organizations and suggestions from experts with knowledge related to organizing and maintaining exhibits and knowledge of the Shakespeare Press Museum. Elite and specialized interviews were …

Color Correction For Underwater Photography, Vanessa Pateman

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to develop knowledge of the practice of underwater photography and determine how color correction leads to the success of an underwater photograph. Color is one of the photographer's greatest assets. When light travels through water instead of air, different techniques and equipment are necessary for correct color capture.

Human perception of color changes with depth underwater, which is due to the decrease in natural light. The scientific method, elite and specialized interviewing, and content analysis were used in this study to determine useful tools in color capture and reproduction in underwater photographs.

An experiment …

Microsphere Based Protease Assays And High Throughput Screening Of Bacterial Toxin Proteases, Matthew J. Saunders

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Proteases, proteins which cleave peptide bonds in other proteins, are a large and varied group of proteins which regulate a variety of physiological processes. Methodologies to study proteases are often protease specific and often differ greatly from the roles proteases play in vivo. In vitro protease assays often use peptide based substrates, which do not take into account highly specific interactions distal from the proteolytic site of peptide cleavage on protease substrates. In the work described here we have developed a microsphere based protease assay, capable of using full length protease substrates, and have successfully measured proteolytic activity via loss …

Inducible Heat Shock Protein 70 Enhances Human Papillomavirus Type 31 Genome Replication, Viral Capsid Protein Nuclear Localization And Progeny Virion Morphogenesis In Human Keratinocytes, Hebin Song

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are small, non-enveloped double stranded DNA viruses that demonstrate a strict species and cell type tropism for human epithelial cells. The association between high-risk HPV types and cervical cancer is well established. Additionally, HPVs have been implicated as causes in development of several other epithelial cancer types. Increasing data indicate heat shock proteins (HSPs) including inducible HSP70 (HSP70i) are involved in the replicative cycles of different viruses including adenoviruses, polyomaviruses (PyV), and some RNA viruses. Cell-free system studies implicate HSP70i in HPV11 genome replication with E1 and E2 proteins, and there is evidence that HSP70 is involved …

Traditional Medicinal And Economic Uses Of Gymnosperms Of Dir Kohistan Valleys, Nwfp, Pakistan, Gul Jan, Mir Ajab Khan, Farzana Jan

Ethnobotanical Leaflets

The ethnobotanical data of four families of gymnosperms with 11 species were collected from Dir Kohistan Valleys. These are Cupressaceae, Ephedraceae, Pinaceae and Taxaceae. A complete list of the plants is given with their name, family and ethnobotanical use, distribution and occurrence. Indigenous knowledge of local inhabitants about the use of native plants were collected during field trips through questionnaire. The inhabitants of the area have to use the medicinal plants for various purposes and have for a long time been dependent on surrounding plant resources for their food, shelter, fodder’s, health, care and other cultural purposes. Pinus roxburgii, P. …

Transfinite = 譯誌, 2009-2010 Publication Workshop, Department Of Translation, Lingnan University

Bilingual Publication Workshop 雙語出版工作坊

This bilingual magazine was created and produced by the 55 students in a course called Publication Workshop, which is offered by Lingnan’s Department of Translation. Dr. Roberta Raine, as the teacher for this course, his role as “Editor-in-Chief” has been to guide the students in learning hands-on, through practical experience what is involved in publishing a magazine. The students have been responsible for every step of the process: brainstorming ideas for articles, writing, translating, editing, finding photos and artwork, designing, proofreading, preparing the magazine for printing, and distribution.

這本雙語雜誌是由嶺南大學翻譯系修讀”出版工作坊”的55名學生精心編著的。在此過程中，Dr. Roberta Raine 作為任課老帥兼「主編」，引導學生在實踐中來學習。從擬稿、寫作、翻譯、編輯、後期美工設計、校對、印刷到最後的派發，學生們在每個步驟上都身體力行。

A Conversation With Philippe Descola, Eduardo Kohn

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

The distinguished anthropologist Philippe Descola has worked among the Jivaroan Achuar in Ecuador’s Amazon region, since the mid-1970s. Author of numerous influential books and publications, he holds a professorship at the Collège de France and is also Directeur d’études and Directeur du Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Made-From-Bone: Trickster Myths, Music, And History From The Amazon, Evan Killick

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of Made-from-Bone: Trickster Myths, Music, and History from the Amazon. Jonathan D.Hill. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 2009. 224 pp., 17 figures, 6 maps, bibliography, index $65.00 (Cloth), $22.00 (Paper). ISBN 978-0-252-07570-4. [www.press.uillinois.edu].

A Southern Moderate In Radical Times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808-1892, Robert Tinkler

Civil War Book Review

An Alabamian’s Life During the Civil War and Reconstruction

Existing Biomass Infrastructure And Theoretical Potential Biomass Production In The U.S, Jeremy R. Porter, Frank M. Howell, Philip B. Mason, Troy C. Blanchard

Faculty Publications

The recent and projected status of energy production and consumption in the U.S., resulting in substantial dependencies upon foreign oil, has continued to provide pressure on domestic energy security. All told, bio-energy systems, and biomass crop production in particular, will be important elements of national security, economic vitality, and public policy. Using biomass crop estimates based upon models developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we identify potential biomass crop production zones within the contiguous 48 states of the United States using spatially centered analytic methods. The Midwest and the South regions of the United States are, by far, the …

Faculty Perceptions Of Faculty Evaluation Programs At Selected Private Colleges/Universities In The Southeast United States, Jeffrey L. Rector

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the faculty performance appraisal programs at the participating institutions. Faculty perception, regarding the effectiveness of the faculty evaluation appraisal program at their institution can be an important part of assessing the program itself. The study attempted to identify whether or not faculty members perceive that faculty performance appraisal is effective? Institutions continue to have difficulty in implementing a successful faculty performance appraisal program (Cashin, 1978). This difficulty and the need for institutions to implement effective faculty performance appraisal programs were the rationale for this study. Through analysis of the appraisal programs …

A Drama Of Discourse: Competing Narratives In The Book Of Job, Hannah Louise Coffey

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study engages the biblical Book of Job, subsequent medieval commentaries, and literary sources from the 15 through 20 centuries that use the language and motifs canonized in the Book of Job. This thesis is primarily concerned with the multiple stylistic elements used in the work and how they constitute a discourse of their own, or as has been sometimes asserted by critics, “competing narratives.” This discourse then finds voice in the usage of the Joban motif by other authors in works of ambiguous genre, lending credence to the complicated and multifaceted nature of the Book of Job’s genre and …

Sonic Boom Prediction Methods Using Feature-Based Adaptation Of Unstructured Meshes, Jacob Chackasseril Varghese

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the improvement of near-field sonic boom prediction of an inviscid supersonic configuration using two grid generation refinement procedures. The first method uses P_HUGG, a parallel hierarchical Cartesian mesh generation algorithm to generate a volume mesh, with the solution-based mesh adaptation capability of P_HUGG being exploited. The mesh quality was improved using P_OPT, a parallel optimization-based mesh-smoothing program. In the second method, the commercially-available software POINTWISE™ is used for volume mesh generation. Then, P_REFINE, a parallel subdivision refinement code, is used t o adaptively refine the mesh. The effectiveness of capturing far field shocks was examined using TENASI, …

The Role Of Is Project Critical Success Factors: A Revelatory Case, Cecil Eng Huang Chua, Wee-Kiat Lim

CCX Research

Research in Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Enterprise Systems (ES) projects has identified numerous practitioner governance mechanisms for ensuring project success. However, such research has not developed a theory of why certain critical success factors encourage project success. Our research develops such theory on a case study where even though the levels of several critical success factors were weak, the project nevertheless succeeded. Specifically, the logistics ES project succeeded even though there was (1) only marginal top management support, (2) low key user commitment, and (3) change management, training and other critical aspects of user management and communication were not …

Complete Issue

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

42 | Horbat ‘Uza: The 1991 Excavations Volume Ii: The Late Periods, Nimrod Getzov, Dina Avshalom-Gorni, Yael Gorin-Rosen, Edna J. Stern, Danny Syon, Ayelet Tatcher

IAA Reports—Monograph Series of the Israel Antiquities Authority

This is the second of two volumes documenting the IAA excavations at this site in the ‘Akko Plain. This volume deals with the late periods, spanning the time from the Roman to the Mamluk periods, and presents the pottery and glass assemblages, the coins and other small finds. The history of settlement at the site, from the earliest to the latest occupations is summarized.

First Choice, December 2009, Wusf Public Media

First Choice Monthly Newsletter

The December 2009 issue of WUSF's newsletter "First Choice."

Is Performance In Pre-Clinical Assessment A Good Predictor Of The Final Doctor Of Medicine Grade?, Nadia M. Al-Wardy, Syed G. Rizvi, Riad A. Bayoumi

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVES: To investigate if any correlation exists between students9 grades on their final doctor of Medicine (MD) assessment and their overall preclinical grade point average (GPA) and its component parts. METHODS: Student data available from the Deanship of Admissions and Registration were analyzed. Pearson correlation coefficient was obtained to assess the degree of linear relationship between performance in the preclinical and the MD assessment of 529 students who graduated from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud, Oman from June 1998 to June 2005. Simple and multiple regression analyses were performed to evaluate individual and combined …