Digital Commons Network^™

Connection, Technology, Positionality: An Inside Look At Women Faculty's Positionality Toward "Connection" And "Technology", Wei Zhai

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Women faculty members have been reported rating their level of knowledge and experience in using technologies lower than male faculty members. A closer examination revealed that women faculty members were likely to use technologies that fit into their pedagogy, met students' learning styles and needs, and facilitated their interactions with colleagues and students. So women faculty's choices of particular technologies can be assumed to reflect their particular instructional beliefs and perspectives, represented as a connected approach to learning and teaching. Gender alone is inadequate to explain women faculty's use of technology.

The purpose of this study was to explore women …

Examination Of The Relationship Between Perfectionism And Religiosity As Mediated By Psychological Inflexibility, Jesse M. Crosby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The relationship between perfectionism and religiosity is clarified when the adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of both constructs are compared. Literature in both areas implicates the idea of a rigid and inflexible personality style as a possible mediator in the relationship. This investigation examined the relationship of perfectionism and religiosity, using adaptive and maladaptive dimensions, as mediated by psychological inflexibility.

Measures of perfectionism, religiosity, and psychological inflexibility were given to 376 undergraduate college students in an anonymous online survey. Adaptive perfectionism was found to be significantly correlated with adaptive religiosity. Maladaptive perfectionism was found to be significantly correlated with maladaptive religiosity. …

Adaptive Management Of Complex Environmental Problems – Comparison Of National Nuclear Waste Management Policies, Carmel Letourneau

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many of today's challenging environmental problems, to the point of manifesting themselves on a scale that has global, political consequences, likely result from long-term evolutionary developmental processes. The degree to which humans can manage the evolution of these problems remains an open question. Faced with such challenges, since the mid 1980s, an increasing number of scholars have developed other forms of management, in particular, adaptive management. Scholars suggest that improving the performance of adaptive management requires that environmental problems be understood as 'complex', open, evolving systems of interacting social and environmental subsystems. To date, narrative has been the primary approach …

The Effects Of Cellular Theta Breathing Meditation On Cell Mediated Immune Response: A Controlled, Randomized Investigation Of Altered Consciousness And Health, Marjorie D. Hardgrave

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Medical anthropology is well positioned to make contributions to consciousness research based on biocultural approaches that integrate methodologies from the biological, behavioral and social sciences to explore aspects of human health. The ubiquity and perseverance of health related activities involving altered states of consciousness (ASC) across cultures past and present suggest that these potentials are deeply rooted in human sociocultural evolution. Analyzing the relationship between immune function and meditative ASC represents an effort to empirically investigate the adaptive value of these human potentials.

A controlled, randomized investigation of two meditation practices was conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas …

Exploring Preservice Teachers' Views Of Intelligence, Anne Marie Poliquin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study explored preservice teachers' views of intelligence. Specifically, I was interested in whether preservice teachers believed that intelligence was changeable (incremental) or fixed (entity). Dweck and colleagues found that people view traits like intelligence as either fixed or incremental (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995; Plaks, Grant & Dweck, 2005). Teachers bring both their beliefs and knowledge into the classroom. Views about intelligence affect beliefs about student ability. Teachers' expectations, instructional decisions, teaching strategies, and educational assessment are affected by these beliefs. In order for change to occur, learners must engage deeply (Dole & Sinatra, 1998, …

Implementation Of The Wiegand Sun Safety Program Into Physicians’ Offices In Southern Nevada, Breanne Eddington

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this study Nevada Cancer Institute’s Wiegand Sun Safety Program was implemented in 14 clinics in Southern Nevada as a pilot run to increase awareness in children and their guardians through educational materials in pediatricians’ and family physicians’ offices. It was hypothesized that the increased display of information regarding sun safety and skin cancer in physicians’ offices would increase patient and guardian awareness of the subject and increase the likelihood of patients and/or guardians asking their physician questions about skin cancer and sun safety, resulting in an increase in preventive actions by guardians to protect their children from damaging rays …

Use Of An Animal Model To Explore Prenatal Predictors Of Insulin And Glucose Metabolism In Southwestern Alaskan Yupiit, Julie Jo Kachinski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Compared to other North American indigenous populations, Southwest Alaskan Yupiit exhibit very low rates of type 2 diabetes despite the occurrence of common risk factors. Contemporary Yupiit obtain a substantial portion of their calories from traditional foods, which contain high amounts of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Epidemiological and experimental animal research has linked glucose and insulin homeostasis with a diet high in omega-3s. This study used an experimental animal model to explore potential diabetes protective effects (for adult offspring) of prenatal maternal nutrition modeled on traditional locally-obtained Yupiit diets. The results of this study showed that the adult offspring whose …

Oral Cancer In Nevada: A Public Health Perspective, Karl Kingsley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, and oral cancer remains the eighth leading cause of cancer death among US males. Although previous epidemiologic studies have found that overall rates of cancer, including oral cancer, have declined in the US in recent decades – these declines are neither uniform nor consistent within this population. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that rates of oral cancer in Nevada are relatively high, although no evidence was available to support these assertions.

Oral Cancer Epidemiology: Based upon this information, a detailed and thorough epidemiologic examination of oral cancer rates in …

Self-Efficacy And The Predictors For Nclex-Rn® Success For Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Linda Anne Silvestri

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX) is the examination that nursing graduates must pass to attain the title of registered nurse and practice professionally. Each year a substantial number of nursing graduates are unable to enter the nursing profession because of failure on the NCLEX. Failure on this examination is a concern, especially since this country desperately needs nurses. Currently, the United States (U.S.) is faced with a nursing shortage. This shortage significantly impacts the U.S. health care system and requires urgent attention so that the health care needs of the people in this country are met. …

The Portrayal Of Schizophrenia In Television: An Experiment Assessing How Viewer Attitudes Are Affected, Lindsey Jo Hand

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The media have been found to be the public’s main source of information on mental illness. Schizophrenia is one of the most widely misunderstood, stereotyped and stigmatized mental disorders, and it is no surprise that portrayals of schizophrenia in the media have been found to be very negative in nature. Participants were given a pretest, shown stimulus material, then given a posttest. The pretest and posttest consisted of questions from the Community Attitudes on Mental Illness (CAMI) scale and questions assessing views of dangerousness. Participants viewed an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in which a man with …

Cluster Analysis Of The Tomal Standardization Sample, Nicholas Shizuo Thaler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Children experience natural cognitive changes as they grow older, with more rapid memory development when they are younger. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the expected normal variation in youth using the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL; Reynolds & Bigler, 1994). The TOMAL is a broad-band verbal and nonverbal memory battery that has been standardized on youth aged 5-19, providing a good source of information on memory development in healthy children. Cluster analysis analyzed 1121 children selected from the TOMAL standardization sample and identified homogeneous profile subtypes of memory and learning. In addition, three age ranges …

The Role Of Ecdysone Signaling In Fat-Body Tissue Remodeling And Pupal Metabolism, Nichole Dinell Bond

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Holometabolous insects undergo an astonishing transition during their development. During metamorphosis, the larva dramatically changes form and becomes an adult fly. During this process obsolete larval tissues must be eliminated, while tissues required for further development are retained and often remodeled to meet the needs of the adult fly. Tissue remodeling is characterized by morphological changes of the cells in a tissue mass. In many cases, remodeling is characterized by dissociation of the tissue mass, releasing cells to move freely around the body cavity. This process is also common in wound healing and is a key feature of human disease …

The Effect Of Goal Orientation Of Attention, Learning, And Metacognitive Awareness, Ordene V. Edwards

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An experimental study was conducted to examine whether achievement goals affect attention, comprehension, and metacognition. One hundred and twenty undergraduate students enrolled in introductory educational psychology classes participated. Students were randomly assigned to one of four goal groups (mastery, performance approach, performance avoidance, or control group) and one of three question groups (emotions, brain, and no questions). The study was conducted in two sessions. First, students were given a reading test, and questionnaires to measure their prior knowledge and personal goals. Second, students read the text on a computer. Then they completed an interest questionnaire, a manipulation check, a post …

Characterization Of Plutonium Particles Originating From The Bomarc Accident -1960, Richard Charles Gostic

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Within the U.S. arsenal, 32 accidents with nuclear weapons were reported between 1950 and 1980. One of these accidents occurred at McGuire AFB in 1960. A BOMARC missile armed with a nuclear warhead caught on fire and as a result the warhead was destroyed. Sub-millimeter particles consisting of weapons grade plutonium (WGPu) produced by this accident were distributed around the site and remained in the environment for 47 years. Soil cores known to contain WGPu particles produced by this accident were obtained. The particles were localized and removed from the soil with the aid of high resolution computed tomography. The …

Relative Deprivation, Relative Gratification, Status, And Health, Samuel A. Holland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The role of perceived inequity in health was assessed and compared to other social constructs predicted to be relevant in the relationship between inequity and health. Four studies were conducted that demonstrated that a social comparison-based measure of relative deprivation (RD) and relative gratification (RG) can predict health and continues to do so even after accounting for perceived stress, personal income, perceived control, and social participation. A measure of RD/RG was developed that was based on prominent social comparisons and objects of comparison. This measure was reliable and predictive of health in two samplings of different populations. Comparisons of the …

Principal Stress: Working In Conflicting Paradigms From Newtonian To New Science, Shelley Kresyman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Shortages of qualified principal candidates and retention of motivated principals, combined with the evidence that the principal is a vital part of effective school improvement, has ominous implications for the future quality of education. A body of research exists describing school administrators' stress over the last 25 years; yet, limited research reflects the impact the changing role of the principal in the accountability era of No Child Left Behind has had on principal stress and the possible connections to the shifting paradigms in organizational leadership.

If principals perceive themselves to be overstressed and unprepared to meet the current expectations and …

Antimicrobial Activity Of D-Lenolate®, Andy Phui

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Olive trees are one of the most important fruit trees in the Mediterranean. Although not validated by research, olive leaves are traditionally believed to fight off fever and infections. It has been shown that olive leaf extracts possess antimicrobial activity. Olive leaf extracts contain polyphenols. One of the major phenolic compounds is oleuropein. Oleuropein and other polyphenols have been shown to exhibit antimicrobial activity. East Park Research (EPR) developed an extraction process that they claim does not alter the chemical composition of the olive leaves. The extract is known by the commercial name d-lenolate®. Studies have provided evidence that d-lenolate®, …

Sex, Drug Courts, And Recidivism, Doria Nour Dandan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research studies have identified gender differences in the drug abusing patterns and treatment needs of men and women. Even so, studies on the drug court model have not assessed drug court effectiveness across sex. Using secondary data collected from the Ada County Drug Court, the recidivism rates of drug court participants (n=259) and probationers (n=235) were analyzed. Drug court participants were found to be less likely to recidivate compared to probationers, which supports previous research on drug court effectiveness. Regression analyses failed to find an interaction between group membership and sex, thereby indicating that the effect of the drug court …

Bacillus Cereus And Bacillus Anthracis Germination Kinetics: A Michaelis-Menten Approach, Helen Luu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bacillus species are rod-shaped, gram-positive bacteria that are capable of producing endospores. In this dormant stage, the endospores can persist in hostile physical and chemical environments. Once conditions become favorable, the spores germinate into actively dividing cells, vegetative cells. Germination is a crucial step for the pathogenicity of the Bacilli in affecting a host organism.

Our study applies mathematical approaches to spore germination to determine whether the binding of one germinant will affect the binding of another germinant. We pursued this approach with two different species, B. cereus and B. anthracis, both pathogenic organisms. B. cereus is a widely known …

Health Status Of Infants And Children From The Bronze Age Tomb At Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates, Kathryn Mary Baustian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Tell Abraq is significant because it is the largest prehistoric site on the southern coast of the Arabian Gulf. It was strategically important as an ancient port, regionally surrounded by large political centers. Commingled remains were located in a small tomb (6 m) used for a 200 year period (2200-2000 BC). The site was continually occupied from the 3rd millennium BC up to the 1st century AD. In the tomb were minimally 286 adults and 127 subadults. What is extraordinary is the number of pre-term (3rd trimester) infants (n=28, 22%), neonates (n=12, 9%), and infants under 2 years (n=46, 36%). …

Transforming Space Into Place: Development, Rock Climbing, And Interpretation In Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, 1960-2010, Megan Sharp Weatherly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Though Americans tend to view wilderness as separate from nature, environmental historians have argued that wilderness is a cultural construct more than a quantifiable geographic category. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (NCA), a 195,000-acre tract located west of Las Vegas, Nevada, is one such cultural construction. Since 1960, this BLM-managed parcel has served as a local and regional expression of broader, national trends in outdoor recreation, interpretation, and development and thereby forced visitors to engage (often unknowingly) in a cultural dialogue about consumerism, technology, and identity. With information from newspapers, archival collections, oral histories, and government documents, this thesis …

African American And Caucasian Males' Evaluation Of Racialized Female Facial Averages, Rhea M. Watson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The answer to what makes a face attractive has been debated for generations and studied in different disciplines. The current study investigated African American and Caucasian males' evaluation (attraction) to racialized female faces. Faces varied from 100% African American to 100% Caucasian (and included variations that were 25% of either group, or 50% of both groups). Twenty African American and 30 Caucasian men each viewed ten faces, and evaluated them in terms of their appearance and the likelihood that the men would interact with (befriend, date, or marry) the person pictured. Findings revealed that African American men found the 100% …

Phylogeography Of Two Closely Related Anurans, The Relict Leopard Frog (Rana Onca) And Lowland Leopard Frog (Rana Yavapaiensis), Viktoria Hemmings

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

I investigate the phylogeography of the relict and lowland leopard frogs (Rana onca; R. yavapaiensis) inhabiting the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. In Chapter 1, I summarize literature describing taxonomy, phylogenetics, and the possible effects of Quaternary climate change on distribution. Examples of phylogeographic patterns from generally co-distributed organisms are provided to develop background for interpreting the structure. In Chapter 2, I investigate the phylogeography of these frogs using mitochondrial DNA data. The analysis supports a previously determined phylogenetic break between taxa however further dividing R. yavapaiensis into two lineages. I estimate a possible Early Pleistocene divergence of R. onca and …

Grade Point Average As A Predictor Of Timely Graduation From Associate Degree Registered Nursing Programs, Delores J. Jackson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if admission selection strategies that utilize cumulative and/or pre-requisite GPA are predictive of timely graduation for associate degree nursing (RN-AD) students. Data were obtained from de-identified records of 437 associate degree nursing students enrolled in three Midwest community colleges from 2003-2006. Of the total sample, only 44% of the students graduated on time (i.e., in four semesters or two years). Although a statistically significant difference was found for timely graduation rates between colleges (ranging from 29% in College B to 54% in College A), no relationship was found for cumulative GPA, pre-requisite …

The Effects Of An Inquiry-Based Earth Science Course On The Spatial Thinking Of Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Education Students, Kevin Douglas Weakley

Dissertations

This study examined the effectiveness of two geography courses at improving student spatial thinking skills. Spatial thinking is an important cognitive skill in the sciences and everyday life. A taxonomy of spatial thinking was constructed by Gersmehl (2008) in geography education which included core modes assessed in this study: comparison, region, transition, analogy, pattern, and association. Two additional modes related to space over time, change and movement, were also assessed. The central research question in this study is: What are the effects of a pre-service teacher education earth science content course (Geography 1900) that is conceptually designed and inquirybased on …

Electrospun Scaffolds For Directed Pancreatic Differentiation Of Human Ips Cells, Karl Sonntag

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this work, an electrospinning device for fabricating three-dimensional scaffolds was constructed. The device can be used to produce tissue engineered scaffolds electrospun for directing the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into glucose-responsive, insulin-secreting cells for diabetes treatment. Electrospinning utilizes high electrical charge to generate nanofibers from polymers dissolved in solution. A standard setup for such a device includes a high-voltage power source, a syringe pump, and a grounded collector. The process works by dissolving the polymer in a volatile solvent, and filling a syringe with the polymer/solvent mixture. Next, the syringe is locked into place in …

Reproductive Failure And The Stress Response In American Kestrels Nesting Along A Human Disturbance Gradient, Erin Hennegan Strasser

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Human disturbance may be an influential environmental stressor that affects birds across life stages. I examined whether external and endogenous factors including habitat type, habitat quality and individual quality (hereafter quality), or human disturbance affect American Kestrel reproductive success in southwestern Idaho. Specifically, I was interested in how these factors lead to nest failure or abandonment. I also investigated whether elevated corticosterone (CORT) concentrations mediate the relationships among explanatory variables and nest failure. As nestling kestrels may respond to stressors differently from adults, I examined whether conditions experienced during the nestling stage affected nestling American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) hypothalamic pituitary …

Exploring Brain-Based Instructional Practices In Secondary Education Classes, Constance Darcy Jack

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Research on how the brain perceives, processes, stores, and retrieves information is important to guide pedagogy, yet many schools continue to promote practices that are inconsistent with practices suggested by brain research. Brain-based teaching practices promote a more holistic approach to teaching that acknowledges the interconnectedness of the brain and how it naturally learns.

In order to explore brain-based teaching practices, this study focused on a high school (grades 9-12) in southwestern Idaho to determine whether teachers’ perceptions of their use of brain-based teaching strategies are consistent with the strategies they demonstrate in the classroom. Data included two original instruments: …

Bioengineering Tissue Constructs Using Elastic Alginate Hydrogels, Barbana A. Graham

Biological Sciences

Bioengineered 3-D tissue constructs have great potential for understanding tissue development and tissue repair in patients lacking functional organs. One of the major challenges faced in the field, however, is to build functional tissue constructs that resemble tissue found in vivo. Cells and tissues in the body are organized into three-dimensional architectures, which interact with fibrillar extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins at a nanoscale. Both the topology and elasticity of the ECM play critical roles in regulating tissue formation. Alginate, a naturally occurring polysaccharide, is a good candidate to use as a biomaterial to mimic the topography and elasticity of the …

In Vitro Analysis Of Microfluidic Neural Probes, Joshua Kessler

Biological Sciences

The clinical impact of neural prostheses has been inhibited by a lack of functional stability of the devices due to acute and chronic reactive tissues' responses in the brain. However, prosthetic stability could be improved via local drug administration or delivery of siRNA to mitigate the reactive tissues using microfluidic probes. Neural prosthetic probes have been previously developed, but had asymmetric and uneven distribution of fluid delivery to brain phantoms. Therefore, probes with different geometries and fluid delivery pores (holes ranging from 10 to 20 μm) were tested for functionality in vitro using a crystal violet/PBS solution. Compound light microscopy …