Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Environmental Prompts On Stair Usage, Lori Andersen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The objective of this study was to evaluate whether environmental prompts placed in two-story buildings on a university campus would increase stair usage. Three buildings were used. One served as a control, while the other two received an intervention. Participants of three buildings were observed taking the stairs and elevator for seven weeks. Baseline data was collected; signs were introduced, and then removed during this time period. Approximately 2700 observations were collected. Environmental prompts did not appear to increase stair usage. There were significant differences in the amount of stair users between buildings. The stair usage rates of this particular …

Political And Civic Engagement Attitudes Among Asian American College Students, Matthew Vanada

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study explored the attitudes of political and civic engagement among Asian American college students. Previous research suggests that young people are increasingly more inclined to participate in civic activities over traditional forms of political participation. The researcher considered this trend by examining the views of Asian American students, a group whose political behavior has not been largely investigated.

This study employed a qualitative research design. Students from public institutions of higher education in Las Vegas were interviewed using an in-depth and semi-structured format. Findings suggest that there is a general willingness to become involved in civic activity such as …

“You Can Pick Really Good Literature That Will Lead Them There”: Investigating The Instructional Roles Teachers Utilize When Conducting Literature Discussions, Sophie M. Ladd

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this multi-case study was to investigate the instructional roles teachers utilize in whole group and small group discussion. This study highlights the questioning and response strategies two elementary teachers used during read alouds and literature discussions. Data sources included whole group and small group discussions, interviews, teachers' reflection journals, classroom observations, researcher field notes, and Informal correspondence. Data were analyzed using Merriam's (1998) analytic framework for case study. A within-case analysis was conducted for each case, followed by a cross-case analysis. Through with-in case analysis questioning and response categories were developed. These categories included: appealing, prompting, examination, …

Variability Of Pacing In Marathon Distance Running, Thomas A. Haney Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purposes of this study were to describe variability of pacing during a marathon and to determine if there is a relationship between variability of pacing and marathon performance. A total of 301 race profiles that contained personal global positioning system (GPS) from the Rock „n‟ Roll Las Vegas (Race 1) and San Diego (Race 2) marathons were downloaded (http://connect.garmin.com) and analyzed. Each marathon finish time was placed into one of three finish time bins: Bin 1: 2.5 – 3.9 hrs, Bin 2: 4.0 – 4.6 hrs, Bin 3: 4.7 – 7.2. The coefficient of variation of velocity (Velcov) was …

Effect Of Spatial And Temporal Variability Of Antecedent Moisture Content On Model-Generated Runoff From An Arid Watershed, William J. Meyer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Streams in the arid southwest are typically ephemeral, and stream gages are not commonly available. Consequently, runoff data from storm events is not available, and flood control facility design or other water resource related decisions are based on synthetic hydrographs. In the Mojave Desert region of Southern Nevada, the duration of storm used to develop these synthetic hydrographs is the 6 hour storm. The 6 hour storm is used to simulate high intensity summer storms. Additionally, soils information used in the calculations for these synthetic hydrographs is taken from maps that are generally developed for a broad range of issues …

An Annotated Guide To Flute And Guitar Music, Kristi Benedick

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document will contain an annotated bibliography of all of the flute and guitar music that is currently available. The annotations, organized by level of difficulty, will include title, composer, arranger, publisher, date of publication, level of difficulty, description of difficulties, and description of the piece.

The pieces will be located and obtained by diverse sources, including libraries, various collections, and catalog listings. The study will be completed after careful examination of each piece listed in the document. The end result will be a publishable resource for both flutists and guitarists of all levels.

Bridging The Gap: Self-Directed Staff Technology Training, Quinn Galbraith, Kayla L. Quinney, Sara D. Smith

Faculty Publications

Undergraduates, as members of the Millennial Generation, are proficient in Web 2.0 technology and expect to apply these technologies to their coursework—including scholarly research. To remain relevant, academic libraries need to provide the technology that student patrons expect, and academic librarians need to learn and use these technologies themselves. Because leaders at the Harold B. Lee Library of Brigham Young University (HBLL) perceived a gap in technology use between students and their staff and faculty, they developed and implemented the Technology Challenge, a self-directed technology training program that rewarded employees for exploring technology daily. The purpose of this paper is …

Revolutionizing Literature: Anarchism In The Lives And Works Of Emma Goldman, Dorothy Day, And Bernard Shaw, Virginia Costello

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

My dissertation seeks both to discover and analyze a current of anarchism present in the autobiographies and other works of two early-twentieth-century radical and radically different women: Emma Goldman and Dorothy Day. Both activists sought to express their anarchism, not primarily through political theory or through anarchist political action but through an explicit form of living: their radicalism was an aesthetic anarchism in that they advocated and exemplified a practice of radical self-creation. For Goldman this meant she synthesized politics, sexuality, and aesthetic sensibility. In her lectures and essays she employed drama, particularly George Bernard Shaw's, to convey her anarchist …

Correlation Between Structure And Thermoelectric Properties: Searching For Better Thermoelectric Materials, Qing Jie

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The wide-spread application of thermoelectric devices is important for effective utilization of energy and environment. The market share of thermoelectric devices could potentially reach billions of dollars per year and urgently needs new materials with high energy conversion efficiency, which depends primarily on the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT). ZT = S2T/(ΡΚ), where S, Ρ, Κ, T are Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity and absolute temperature, respectively, and S2/Ρ is the power factor (P.F.). ZT could be enhanced by either decreasing the thermal conductivity or increasing the power factor of the material under study. In this work, the relationship …

Generation Of Conformation Sensor Recombinant Antibodies To Understand Redox Regulation Of Ptp1b, Aftabul Haque

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) plays important roles in down-regulation of insulin signaling. Although it has been established as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of diabetes and obesity, the finding of pharmaceutically acceptable inhibitors remains challenging. PTP1B is regulated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced in response to insulin. The reversibly oxidized form of this enzyme (PTP1B-OX) is inhibited and undergoes profound conformational changes at the active site. We hypothesized that a conformation-sensor antibody that recognizes PTP1B-OX may stabilize the inactive state and inhibit phosphatase activity. We isolated PTP1B-OX-specific single chain variable fragments (scFvs) from an antibody phage …

The Other Side Of Vietnam: The Conservative Movement And The Vietnam War, Seth Offenbach

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The conservative movement was one of the few political movements which supported the Vietnam War. This dissertation looks at the reasons why most conservatives supported the Vietnam War and how that affected the Right's political philosophy. The Right's anti-communist and anti-liberal identity explains much of the reasons why it supported the war, but supporting the unpopular war greatly affected the movement's makeup and ideology. Complicating movement cohesion was the presence of a conservative anti-war protest movement.This dissertation's central argument is that the politics of supporting the war helped unravel the movement's various intellectual factions, largely resulting in the separation of …

Life After Beanbag Genetics: Theoretical And Empirical Studies On Epistasis And Penetrance, Joseph Lachance

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Population genetics reduces the description of a population to a set of genotype frequencies. Because of this, it has been called"beanbag genetics.". However, greater complexity and biological realism can be incorporated into this framework. Two examples of this include interactions between different genes (epistasis) and individuals with the same genotype that have different phenotypes (incomplete penetrance). During the course of my Ph.D. work, both of these topics were investigated using theoretical population genetics and Drosophila genetics. One unifying theme was that genes do not exist in isolation: they occur within genetic and environmental contexts. In turn, these contexts were found …

Solid State Nmr And Pair Distribution Function Studies Of Silicon Electrodes For Lithium-Ion Batteries, Baris Key

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The universally used negative electrode material in a LIB is carbon, because of its moderate capacity (372 mAhg-1 for graphite), cyclability and high rate capability. However, new, low cost, safe electrode materials with higher capacities are still urgently required for both portable and transportation applications. Silicon anodes are particularly attractive alternatives to carbon with extremely high gravimetric energy densities (3572 mAhg-1). Compared to graphite, silicon has a massive volumetric capacity of 8322 mAhcm-3 (calculated based on the original volume of silicon) which is approximately ten times that graphite. At room temperature, upon electrochemical lithiation, silicon undergoes a crystalline to amorphous …

Kings, Evil Courtiers, And The Intended Audience Of The Historia Langobardorum, Edward Currie

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The Historia Langobardorum (History of the Langobards) was written by Paul the Deacon in the 780s-790s. It is an important work of historiography, but little attention has been paid to the power of the text as political propaganda. This study sets out to analyze how Paul promotes harmony between Carolingians and Langobards, uplifts the image of the old Langobardic king Grimoald I, and encourages an agreeable view of the contemporary prince of Benevento, Grimoald III, who rebelled against Charlemagne in 791.

Wiki Vandalysis. Wikipedia Vandalism Analysis, Manoj Harpalani

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Wikipedia describes itself as"The free encyclopedia that anyone canedit". Along with the helpful volunteers who contribute by improving the articles, a great number of malicious users abuse the open nature of Wikipedia by vandalizing articles. Wikipedia editors fight vandalism both manually and with automated bots that use regular expressions and other simple rules to recognize malicious edits[Carter]. Researchers have also proposed Machine Learning algorithms for vandalism detection[Smets et al. | 2008; Potthast et al. | 2008a], but these algorithms are still in their infancy and have much room for improvement. This paper presents an approach to fighting vandalism using natural …

Life Cycle And Population Dynamics Of The Marine Ectoparasite Dichelesthium Oblongum (Copepoda: Dichelesthiidae) On Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser Oxyrinchus Oxyrinchus), Alicia Brown

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Dichelesthium oblongum belongs to the family Dichelesthiidae, within the Suborder Siphonostomatoida, subclass Copepoda (Kabata 1979; Huys and Boxshall 1991). A description of the life cycle and the morphology of its developmental stages is described and compared with that of other organisms within this family and suborder. As expected within the Dichelesthiidae, Dichelesthium oblongum, life cycle appears to consist of nine stages, from nauplius 1 to adult. Sexes are easily distinguished from the 1st copepodid stage on the host through adulthood. General trends include the development of the lateral process on the endopod of the second leg on the male, the …

Local Adaptation Along A Latitudinal Gradient In Pacific Versus Atlantic-Coast Fishes, Elizabeth Ellen Brown

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Understanding how species adapt to spatial climate gradients can provide clues to potential evolutionary responses to climate change. Species distributed across broad environmental gradients, such as those that occur along latitudes or altitudes, often exhibit adaptive genetic variation. However, little attention has been given to how the type of environmental gradient shapes adaptive responses. To provide insight into this, local adaptation is compared in related fish species across two very different environmental gradients: the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. Local adaptation is first examined in the California grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) and then results are compared to previous work …

Politics In Black And Brown: The Prospects For Political Alliances Between African Americans And Hispanic Americans, Tony Eugene Carey Jr

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The similar economic circumstances of blacks and Latinos have led some researchers to argue they should engage in political alliances. Nevertheless, while their economic hardships should serve as a basis for cooperation, they may also lead to conflict, especially within contexts where both groups must compete for scarce material resources. To date, research indicates the influence of economic self-interestson political behavior is circumscribed. Furthermore, recent work shows intergroup attitudes are shaped by economic disparities between blacks and Latinos within their communities; however, the work on this subject has been limited. Using the 1993-4 Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI), I …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Nitrogen Substituted Zeolites, Fulya Dogan

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The interest in basic solid materials, particularly for basic zeolites has considerably increased in the last two decades because of their potential use in catalysis and separation. Basic zeolites have most often been obtained by ion-exchange or impregnation with alkali metal cations or grafting of organic bases onto zeolite pore walls. Such materials often suffer from instability and/or pore blockage, because none of these approaches places basic sites directly into the zeolite framework. Recently zeolitic materials have been made with some of the bridging oxygen atoms in Si-O-Si and/or Si-O-Al linkages replaced by NH groups, i.e. by substitution of framework …

The Sense Of The City: Politics And Culture In Pre-Revolutionary New York City, Luke John Feder

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation explores how political partisanship and local understandings of British political culture shaped New York City's reaction to the revolutionary crisis of the 1760s and 1770s. I investigate how the Livingston faction, DeLancey faction, and Sons of Liberty each attempted to define and manipulate"the sense of the city" to suit its private agenda. In the eighteenth century,"the sense of the city" and other similar phrases stood for public opinion. For this study, however, I push the term beyond public opinion and also use it to unpack how New Yorkers made and unmade the practices, rules, rituals, and symbols that …

Winter 2010 E-Certi Newsletter, Center For Educational Research And Teaching Innovation

CAFE Faculty Newsletters

Hello S&T faculty and welcome to another edition of the CERTI newsletter, dedicated to celebrating excellence in the classroom. In this issue, you’ll find articles on a unique method for students to ask questions and how to make history a hands-on learning experience. Also, here are tips from the Curators’ Teaching Professors on working toward balance in your career.

A Quantitative Analysis Of Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Health Care Usage: The Roles Of Perceptions Of Care & Expected Longevity, Jeffrey Alfred Jones

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Countless studies have documented the existence of disparities byrace and ethnicity in the health care system in the United States.However, not many have sought to explicitly quantify the relativeimportance of each of the proposed determining factors. Thisdissertation thus sought to identify the major causes of disparitiesin health care usage by employing an adaptation of theBlinder/Oaxaca decomposition method originally used in theliterature on wage differentials.Specifically, this study sought to investigate the roles that racialdifferences in patients' perceptions of care and expected longevity(as they relate to expected gains) might play in the observeddisparities in usage. Perceptions of care measures (trust andfear/dislike) were …

Links Between Conservation/Development Projects And International Conventions And Programs : The Southeastern Rainforest Of Madagascar., Benedicte Leclercq

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, to reconcile the need to protect threatened natural areas and, at the same time, to foster human development. Increasingly, around the world, natural resources were being rapidly depleted. In some cases local communities were held responsible for over-exploiting these resources, even when for their subsistence. The present research was based on an intensive case study of an ICDP developed within the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and implemented around Midongy-Befotaka National Park, in the Southeastern Humid Forests of Madagascar. The main activities involved were linked not …

From Sin To Sickness: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Four Major American Newpapers' Representations Of Alcoholism, Amy Platt

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

AbstractFrom Sin to Sickness: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Four Major American Newspapers' Representation of AlcoholismByAmy PlattSchool of Social Welfare The purpose of this study is to explore how four major American newspapers represent alcoholism. These newspapers are: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Articles were collected over a five year period (2004-2008) using a constructed, random sample. The principal research questions are: (1) How do different newspapers portray alcoholism?, (2) How much emphasis do the articles place on the moral model of addiction? (3) How much emphasis do the articles place …

Investigation Of Factors Involved In The Interaction Between Quahog Parasite Unknown (Qpx) And Its Host, The Hard Clam Mercenaria Mercenaria, Mickael Perrigault

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

QPX (Quahog parasite unknown) is a protistan parasite affecting the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria along the Northeastern coast of the United States. The geographic distribution and occurrence of disease epizootics suggests the involvement of environmental parameters and host genotype in disease development. Field investigations and laboratory transmission studies revealed some variations in the susceptibility of different hard clam stocks to QPX infection. Histological observations demonstrated that clams mount marked inflammatory responses against the infection that can sometimes lead to the healing of infected individuals. This study investigated host-pathogen interactions in QPX disease by studying individual components of the tripartite interaction: …

Measures Of Immune System Status In Young-Of-The-Year Winter Flounder (Pseudopleuronectes Americanus) From Long Island Coastal Bays, Jaime Solange Romany

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The immune status of YOY winter flounder was evaluated in fish collected from six areas around Long Island, including Jamaica Bay, Little Neck Bay, Manhasset Bay, Oyster Bay, Port Jefferson, and Shinnecock Bay; sites geographically distributed from west to east, representing a large gradient in urbanization, and thus likely contaminant inputs from the water shed. Fish were collected from June to October, and expression of pleurocidin, a gene coding for an antimicrobial peptide found in skin mucus, as well as antimicrobial activity of skin mucus assessed in individual fish from each site. Cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) expression was also measured as …

Shear-Induced Platelet Sensitization And The Development Of An Activation Model, Jawaad Sheriff

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Increased shear stresses are a hallmark of flow conditions in blood recirculating devices, and patients implanted with such devices require lifelong anticoagulation to counteract the high risk of thromboembolism. Despite this limitation, manufacturers only test for hemolysis in order to optimize device design. This is primarily due to the paucity of data regarding platelet damage, a major precursor of thromboembolism. Several studies have shown that platelets exposed to constant shear stress for a specified duration become activated. However, post high-shear stress activation behavior of platelets, which is critical to understanding increased thrombotic risk associated with blood recirculating devices, is poorly …

Reading Into Race: Unsettled Reading And The Performance Of"Race", Julie Burton Swift

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Reading, race, and the primary productive link between the two--performativity--are the subject of this dissertation. By reading the formative discourse of phrenology and Ethnology, as well as nineteenth-century textbooks which teach reading, I suggest a context in which reading operates as an expressive framework for the problematics of race. In considering selected works of Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Herman Melville, I examine the uses to which reading is put, not only to elaborate, but to perform race. By looking at unsettled reading--breakdowns of reading, failures to read, readings that prove unaccountable to the text--I emphasize the …

Studies Of Auxetic Foam And Bridge Deformation Using Digital Speckle Photography, Jiandong Yu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The mechanical properties of auxetic (negative Poisson's ratio) foam are studied and reviewed with different experimental methods. Developments in design, manufacture, test and analysis of auxetic foam and related composites are presented. Auxetic foam can be made by open-cell conventional PVC foam, through volumetric compressing and heating process successively. When cooling down to room temperature, the cellular micro structure of PVC foam has been turned out to be re-entranted, which means the ribs of each cell of the foam are protrude inward permanently due to the external mechanical and thermal effects. The new re-entranted structure opens out many interesting and …

Design And Optimization On Mobile Data Gathering In Wireless Sensor Networks, Miao Zhao

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have emerged as a new information-gathering paradigm for taking spatial and temporal measurements of a given set of real-word parameters. In these applications, sensors monitor the environment and route their sensing data back to a static data sink. As the routing task depends purely on sensors themselves, the sensors near the sink need to relay much more packets than the sensors far away from the sink. As the result, it would incur substantial and non-uniform energy consumption among sensors. Therefore, how to efficiently aggregate the information from scattered sensors, generally referred to as data gathering, is …