Digital Commons Network^™

Application Of A Judgment Model Toward Measurement Of Clinical Judgment In Senior Nursing Students, Tiwaporn Pongmarutai

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Clinical judgment, defined as “the application of the nurse’s knowledge and experience in making decisions about client care” (The National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2005, p. 2), has been recognized as a vital and essential skill for healthcare providers when caring for clients. Undisputedly, nurses represent the largest component of the healthcare profession and, therefore, play a major role in ensuring quality patient care in the United States. Although the concept of clinical judgment in nursing has been discussed for more than three decades, and in spite of numerous efforts to improve student clinical judgment, the recent literature …

Vertical Transmission Of West Nile Virus In Culex Spp. Mosquitoes Of Clark County, Nevada, Vivek K. Raman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

West Nile Virus (WNV) is an RNA arbovirus that cycles between mosquitoes and birds, but also infects and causes disease in humans, horses and other vertebrate species. Although most infections are asymptomatic, WNV has emerged as the most common cause of epidemic meningoencephalitis in North America and the leading cause of arboviral encephalitis in the United States.

Mosquitoes of the genus Culex are the most active vectors of WNV in North America. Approximately 85% of human WNV infections in the United States occur in late summer with a peak number of cases in August and September. Vertical transmission is defined …

Private Or Public Insurance? The Institutional History Of Health Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Karin M. Abel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The primary question at issue in this paper is the following: given the similarities between the two countries with regard to welfare state institutions, why have the United States and the United Kingdom diverged on the issue of health care? Drawing on sociological institutionalism, a branch of the new institutionalist paradigm, this paper provides an answer to this question: during the formative years of the health care stories in the two countries, variations in institutional and cultural conditions produced contrasting policy outcomes. More specifically, this paper discusses how the combination of institutions (political, labor, and medical) and culture led to …

Parental Attitudes And Perceptions Related To Their Children's Physical Activity And Eating Patterns, Megan Leatham Dubois

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Children's physical inactivity and poor eating patterns have received a great deal of attention in our country and worldwide. Studies have been conducted to identify determinates related to children's physical activity and eating patterns and to identify strategies for promoting positive behaviors. Parental support is a well-accepted determinate of children's physical activity and eating patterns. However, little qualitative research has been done to determine parental attitudes and perceptions related to this critical role.

First, the study sought to gain a greater understanding of parental perspectives on their children's physical activity and eating patterns. Second, the study examined parental attitudes and …

Interclonal Variation Of Primary And Secondary Chemistry In Western Quaking Aspen And Its Influence On Ungulate Selection, Damon A. Winter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) clones within close proximity to one another can exhibit drastically different levels of browsing by ungulates. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine interclonal differences in plant chemistry between adjacent clones exhibiting different degrees of herbivory which may influence the browsing behavior and patterns of ungulates, and (2) determine if correlation exists in the levels of salicortin and tremulacin between current year's suckers and current year's growth on older trees. This second objective was meant to indicate a protocol for land managers for identifying clones meriting increased protection from herbivory after treatment …

Recent Accelerated Second-Degree Baccalaureate Graduates’ Perceptions Of Educational Preparation, Susan Candelaria

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As of 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor is predicting a need for greater than one million new registered nurses by the year 2016 (American Associations of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2008). One way that nursing schools around the country are dealing with this issue is through the creation of accelerated second-degree programs for non-nursing graduates.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the perceptions of educational preparation of accelerated second-degree baccalaureate graduates, who have been out of school for at least one year, but no longer than four years. The sample consisted of 54 graduates from an …

Environmental Influence On Brain, Behavior, And Gene Expression In Drosophila, Xia Wang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Brain development and behavior are sensitive to environmental stimuli. To gain an understanding of how and to what extent environmental variations, particularly with regard to thermal stress and sensory input, affect brain development, function, and genomic activity, in this dissertation, three interrelated studies were conducted in Drosophila melanogaster.

The first study examined the effects of ecologically-relevant hyperthermia stress on development of the Drosophila mushroom body (MB), a conserved sensory integration and associative center in the insect brain. A daily hyperthermic episode throughout larval and pupal development was shown to severely disrupt MB anatomy by reducing intrinsic Kenyon cell neuron …

Hotel Revenue Management: Investigating The Interaction Of Information Technology And Judgmental Forecasting, I-Pei Claire Chen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traditionally, forecasting has included human judgment and/ or guessing. The process has often been described as “guesstimation.” For instance, people are easily affected by user interface issue or rewarding policies during this process. The purpose of the study is to study and understand how revenue managers and other decision makers “make noise” during forecasting, especially when utilizing the advanced RMS, and to offer constructive suggestions to overcome the issues related to human judgment. In other words, the main objective of this study is to analyze the known influential factors for the interaction of revenue managers’ judgment and RMS tools by …

Understanding American Customer Perceptions On Japanese Food And Services In The U.S, Hoon Lim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to provide an appropriate approach for Japanese restaurant operators to identify the wants and needs of their American customers, and thereby assist restaurateurs in developing strategies that would best attract this market. There are many important attributes of Japanese food and services that affect the satisfaction and behavioral intentions of American customers. Japanese restaurant operators should recognize the perceptions of their American customers and monitor the factors affecting customer satisfaction and revisit intention. This effort will lead Japanese restaurants in the U.S. to improve their operational and marketing efficiency, and thereby increase profitability.

Production, Purification And Crystallization Of Membrane Integrated Multimeric Bax, Adelbert Mark Villoso

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a vital process intimately involved in the embryonic development and homeostatic maintenance of all multicellular organisms. The committing step to apoptosis is regulated by a key protein, Bax, and its ability to integrate and form a pore structure at the outer mitochondrial membrane.

Unfortunately, the molecular details of apoptosis remain largely unclear due to the lack of structural data of integral membrane (IM) Bax. Experimental limitations of membrane protein production have slowed the pursuit of an IM-Bax structure simply because standard protocols for producing recombinant IM-Bax are inefficient in producing adequate quantities of IM-Bax …

Development Of Novel Biomarkers In Cancer: Detection Of Circulating Mir-141 As A Potential Prognostic Marker For Prostate Cancer, Jason Cadaoas Gonzales

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Prostate cancer (CAP) is the most common epithelial malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in American men. The identification of predictive and prognostic biomarkers in CAP patients is critical for improving clinical outcomes. Although the measurement of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and radiographic studies are clinically approved to predict response to therapy, these tests can oftentimes prove to be inadequate in certain patients. Thus, it is important to discover new biomarkers to improve chances of survivability. We and others have shown that longitudinal measurements of circulating tumor cells (CTC) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) may aid in predicting response …

Critical Success Factors In Barbecue Restaurants: Do Operators And Patrons Agree?, John Raymond Farrish

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The research addresses a gap in the literature regarding the barbecue restaurant industry. Specifically, it examines whether barbecue restaurant operators have a thorough understanding of customer preferences. The research was a mixed methods study: four separate case studies were conducted of barbecue restaurants in specific areas of the United States, each of which represented one of the four major barbecue traditions. The case studies were used to create a model of success factor peculiar to barbecue restaurants.

The qualitative model was then tested by administering a survey to regular patrons of barbecue restaurants. Principal component analysis yielded a six-factor model …

Efficiency Of Fiscal Allocations In Site-Based Empowered Schools, Jerome Jay Meyer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study implemented a two phase concurrent mixed-methods design to generate a greater understanding of how elementary schools with increased autonomy in fiscal decision making allocated their money, how their site-based decisions affected allocative efficiency, and how increased autonomy affected site-based decision making when compared with a set of matched control schools within a large urban district.

Phase I compared school site expenditure patterns of site-based empowered schools to demographically matched control schools and to all elementary schools within a large urban district over four years, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08. Expenditure data were collected from the In$ite data base …

Effects Of Comprehensive Education On Elementary School Student Performance On Standardized Exams, Kenneth Vaughn Higbee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose if this study was to compare math and reading Criterion Reference Test (CRT) scores of 3rd and 5th grade students using two distinct educational models: a comprehensive educational curriculum (CEC) model and a No Child Left Behind (NCLB) curricular model. While the CEC curricular model focuses on a combination of core and non-core curriculum, the NCLB curricular model focused on a combination of intense core remediation and the reduction of some non-core curriculum. Students were from two demographically similar frontier Nevada elementary schools. Test scores were compared in 2004 when both schools used identical curricular approaches, and then …

The Physical Activity Patterns And Constraints Of Diverse Female College Students, Kathleen Victoria Minkel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Diverse college aged females from a public university in the southwest were asked to participate in an online survey to determine their constraints to physical activity, as well as their current activity level. The groups were compared to establish the differences among the minority groups. Raymore, Crawford, and Godbey’s Hierarchical Model of Constraints was used as a framework when creating the survey. Data analysis showed only one significant difference among the racial/ethnic groups, when looking specifically at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints categories. Hispanic women differed significantly from Caucasian women in their perception of interpersonal constraints on their physical …

Evaluation Of Guided Visualizations And The Relationships Among Perceived Stress, Differentiation Of Self, Sense Of Coherence, Dyadic Satisfaction And Quality Of Life, Kim R. Rogers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focused on three main areas. These areas involved (1) the relationship among perceived stress, global orientation to life and indicators of physical, psychological and dyadic relational distress, (2) the effect of a brief CBT-based relaxation/guided visualization intervention on these outcome indicators of distress, and (3) changes in physiological indicators during the intervention sessions. The study population was drawn from couples who perceived themselves as living highly stressed lifestyles.

Results suggested that global orientation to life as reflected by differentiation of self inventory (DSI) and sense of coherence scale (SOCS) scale scores mediated the relationship between stress and distress. …

Evaluating And Improving The Quality Of Teacher’S Language Modeling In Early Childhood Classrooms, Lillian White Englund

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The relationship between pre-school teachers and the children in their classrooms directly influences the degree of success the children experience in school and in life. The emphasis on quality pre-K education in the U.S. has resulted in an increased need for highly qualified teachers who are capable of engaging in meaningful interactions with young children. An important component of high-level teacher-child interactions is the teacher's ability to model language for children as they acquire vocabulary and language context.

This mixed-methods study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a professional development intervention designed to improve the quality of language modeling …

The Crooked Median, Monica Zarazua

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Words search. There are specific points designated by written language, where one might stand for just a little while until the satisfaction of a pattern is revealed. In this collection of stories, one of the forces that serves as a catalyst for this search is the outside gaze. The gaze exerts itself onto characters. The characters may or may not be conscious of it, may or may not welcome it, but they must grapple with it. The gaze projects its needs and desires onto the characters. It seeks to control them, and it desires to be viewed with admiration, lowered …

The Early American Table: Food And Society In The New World, Andrew P. Haley

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A New Approach To Construct Pathway Connected Networks And Its Application In Dose Responsive Gene Expression Profiles Of Rat Liver Regulated By 2,4dnt, Sudhir Chowbina, Youping Deng, Junmei Ai, Xiaogang Wu, Xin Guan, Mitchell S. Wilbanks, Barbara Lynn Escalon, Edward J. Perkins, Jake Y. Chen

Faculty Publications

Background: Military and industrial activities have lead to reported release of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4DNT) into soil, groundwater or surface water. It has been reported that 2,4DNT can induce toxic effects on humans and other organisms. However the mechanism of 2,4DNT induced toxicity is still unclear. Although a series of methods for gene network construction have been developed, few instances of applying such technology to generate pathway connected networks have been reported.

Results: Microarray analyses were conducted using liver tissue of rats collected 24h after exposure to a single oral gavage with one of five concentrations of 2,4DNT. We observed …

Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products In Ground Water From Municipal Lagoon Treatment, Teresa Nicholas

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are biologically active, organic chemicals that are introduced into the environment through wastewater streams. These chemicals are being found in the environment in trace concentrations and are of concern due to their unknown potential for harm to the health and welfare of the environment. The hypothesis is that during the course of wastewater treatment in a municipal lagoon system from a small community, PPCPs are seeping into ground water resulting in chronic low exposure in the environment. The objective of this work was to study a specific wastewater lagoon treatment system in Mountain Home, …

Counseling Professionals' Attitudes Toward Transgender People And Responses To Transgender Clients, Emily A. Nisley

Dissertations

The multicultural counseling movement emphasizes the critical nature of counselor attitudes in providing culturally competent service (e.g., Sue, 2001; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992; Sue et al, 1982; Sue & Sue, 2003). Until recently, however, the counseling professions have paid little attention toward transgender people as a cultural minority group. The purpose of this study was to conduct the first assessment of counseling professionals' attitudes toward transgender people and to examine relationships between such attitudes and responses to a transgender client.

A national convenience sample of 138 master's and doctoral level counselors and counseling psychologists, recruited via electronic mailing lists, …

Confidence Intervals And Tests On The Difference Of Means Of Two Delta Distributions, Karen Grace Villarente Rosales

Dissertations

Various research fields produce data that are lognormally distributed and inflated with zero values. This type of data follows a delta distribution. In this study, we want to extensively investigate different interval and hypothesis testing methods for comparing the means of two delta populations to see which methods are optimal under different conditions of the populations.

For confidence intervals, existing MVUE methods are extended to two sample cases and compared to classical and two proposed robust methods. We investigated the performance of the classical Student's t, Welch t, and Wilcoxon-based interval to see if these methods really perform badly on …

Effects Of Yellow Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacons And Novel Lane Markings On Motorists’ Yielding, Speed, And Headway At Multilane Uncontrolled Crosswalks, Jimmy Wayne Shurbutt

Dissertations

Several methods have been examined to increase motorists’ yielding to pedestrians and the distance at which they yield on multilane crosswalks at uncontrolled locations with relatively high average daily traffic (ADT). A series of 5 experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of rectangular rapid-flashing beacons (RRFBs) as effective pedestrian crossing aides. The first experiment found that the RRFBs produced a significant increase in yielding behavior at all 26 sites located in 3 cities in the United States. Data collected over a 2-year follow-up period at 22 of these sites plus 14-month follow-up at an additional 4 sites documented the …

Performance Attribution: Are Sector Fund Managers Superior Stock Selectors?, Nicholas Scala

Business/Business Administration

Abstract:

Do equity sector fund managers outperform diversified equity fund managers? This paper examines this question during 2000-2009 by formulating simulated portfolios of Fidelity Select Sector Funds with weights similar to the sector weightings of actual multi-sector equity fund portfolios. The returns of the simulated portfolios were then netted against the actual portfolios to determine which outperforms. The results indicate that Sector Fund managers have superior stock selection ability, with one notable exception: the small-cap value investment style. Small-cap value multi-sector equity fund managers outperformed the simulated portfolios, indicating superior stock selection ability by fund managers in that category. Although …

Orientation And Mobility, Reading, And Math: Analysis Of Data For Children With Visual Impairments From The Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study, Dawn L. Anderson

Dissertations

This dissertation research comprised three studies focused on vision-specific skills, and their association with functional and academic outcomes for school-age students with visual impairment. The studies involved analysis of secondary data for 850 students with visual impairment who participated in the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS). Data in the SEELS were gathered using direct assessment and parent and teacher responses for a nationally representative sample of elementary and middle school students.

The first study used Chi Square analysis to determine if participation in Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training, or if the time when O&M instruction was received, was associated …

Wildly Unpopular And Totally Inappropriate, Katherine Tippins

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

"Wildly Unpopular and Totally Inappropriate" is a screenplay about a budding high school romance between two unlikely (and quite opposite) teenagers. The two students, Beth and Alex, go through a series of trials in their relationship before even realizing they like each other: impersonating a parent, sabotaging a dinenr date, suspension, food fights and humiliation.

The Effect Of Classroom Bibliotherapeutic Intervention On Perceptions Of Bullying Among Teachers Of Young Children Aged Four And Five, Patricia Gail Doss

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

This paper investigates how the application of bibliotherapeutic intervention affects teachers’ perceptions of bullying in their young students, ages four and five. Bullying has become a serious global concern that has manifested itself in school dropouts, shootings, and suicides. Bibliotherapy is one way to help children solve problems using books and is advocated by researchers for use with bullying prevention.

Little research has been done on bullying in young children. This qualitative phenomenological study will add to the body of literature regarding bullying in young children ages four and five and will examine perceptions of teachers of young children regarding …

The Fertile Dark, Jacob M. Martin

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The Fertile Dark is a portfolio comprised of approximately forty poems and an introductory essay. All of the poems were written and revised by me while I was a student in the Master of Arts in Professional Writing program, working under the direction of Dr. Jim Elledge and Dr. Ralph Wilson. Although no single theme characterizes the portfolio, the interplay between darkness and light may be seen throughout. As the son of a minister, I am fascinated by these elemental forces and how they shape our lives, our realities, and our beliefs.

Women As Subject And Audience In World War Ii Venereal Disease Posters, Kyra Whitton

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Internationally, venereal disease first became a major health concern during World War I. Venereal diseases were some of the most common infections and led to more hospitalizations among soldiers than wounds or battle-related illness. The Selective Service discovered that almost fifteen percent of those who were eligible for the draft were already infected with a venereal disease, sparking an intense anti-venereal disease campaign across America. Red-light districts were shut down, and American cities sought new laws that would criminalize prostitution to protect young men from contracting a venereal infection.

Though venereal disease rates were still high during World War II, …