Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of A Work Site Exercise Program On Selected Fitness And Psychological Parameters, Kristen Ann Christiansen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The increasing rates of obesity continue to threaten the vitality of our nation. Health care costs are soaring and chronic diseases are reaching even the youngest populations. Physical activity is an integral component in reversing the obesity epidemic and improving the health of today's workforce. The present study sought to determine the effect of a work site exercise program on select fitness and psychological parameters. Five female employees participated in a six-week exercise program utilizing HealthBeat(TM) outdoor exercise equipment in a circuit fashion for 30 minutes, 2 days per week. Eighty percent of participants were categorized as sedentary or low-active …

Global And Specific Controls Of Protein Synthesis In Hibernators, Peipei Pan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Mammalian hibernation is a highly dynamic physiological process that is composed of a series of torpor bouts, wherein hibernators oscillate between periods of torpor and interbout arousal. Although normally vital to homeostasis, many energetically consumptive processes such as translation or protein synthesis are virtually ceased during hibernation. Earlier studies indicated that protein synthesis had fallen to almost negligible levels. Cap-dependent initiation of translation is well regulated by eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) and its binding partner eIF4E-binding protein 1 (4E-BP1) when hibernators cycle in and out the torpor state. Herein, I investigated well-characterized regulatory mechanisms of global and specific …

The Effect Of Pre-Collaborative Activity Instruction On Self-Efficacy, Robert Ray Mattson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Collaborative learning is increasing in popularity in education. This collaborative pedagogy is based on a significant body of research that shows positive learning gains. Additionally, given the nature of much of the information-age work, it is thought that such collaborative activity in school helps develop knowledge, skills and attitudes that will be beneficial to students in their post-college lives.

In spite of collaborative learning's increasing use and popularity, there is only limited research on how students feel about such methods and their level of confidence in their collaborative knowledge, skills and attitudes. Based on the current theories about self-efficacy, delineated …

The Relationship Between The Functions Of School Refusal Behavior And Family Environment, Rachel Marie Schafer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study examined the relationship between the functions of school refusal behavior and family environment characteristics in a community sample of youth. The primary aim was to determine the family environments most strongly associated with each function of school refusal behavior in an ethnically diverse, community-based sample of youths referred to the legal process for absenteeism. Hypotheses for the current study were based on the premise that family environment characteristics of the community sample of youths with problematic absenteeism would generally resemble those identified in previous clinical samples. The first hypothesis was that youth who refuse school primarily to …

Microbial Impacts On Endocrine Disrupting Contaminants: Las Vegas Wash And Lake Mead, Nevada, Susanna May Blunt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

International concern over endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has become heightened in recent years as more studies reveal their persistence in the environment and their detrimental effects on wildlife. However, little is known about the role of microorganisms in the fate and transport of these compounds in surface waters. Las Vegas Wash, a stream flowing into Lake Mead and fed primarily by treated wastewater effluent, provided a unique experimental system in which to study the role microorganisms play in the dispersal of these compounds in aquatic systems. Samples were collected from the Las Vegas Wash downstream of the Las Vegas Valley's …

The American Homophilic School Of Composition, Rik Noyce

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A small enclave of gay composers in New York, led by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) and Virgil Thomson (1896-1989), established a distinct twentieth-century musical sound that became synonymous with America. Copland and Thomson were prominent among a group of gifted gay musicians and conductors in New York in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. While perhaps not self-identifying as gay, as the term had not yet been coined, they did however acknowledge, honor, and support one another's lives as being homosexual. Is it possible that something as seemingly unrelated as sexual preference could, in fact, impact a musical style?

In this document, …

The Relationship Of Teachers' Perceptions Of High School Principal's Monitoring Student Progress And Student Achievement In Southeastern Ohio, T. C. Chappelear

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Principals in school buildings across this nation and perhaps throughout the world are under immense pressure to improve outcomes for all students. Recent literature suggests this accountability may be warranted, at least in part, as there is overwhelming evidence that building principals can positively impact student achievement through their behavior as effective instructional leaders. Much of the evidence for this emanates from the elementary school level. The problem is that little research exists at the high school level to examine the relationship between building principals monitoring student progress and student achievement.;This baseline study examined the relationship between teachers' perceptions of …

Report On Advances In The Field Of Artificial Intelligence Attributed To Captcha, Craig M. Schow

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A CAPTCHA is a specialized human interaction proof that exploits gaps between human and computer recognition abilities. By design, the hardness of a CAPTCHA is based on the difficulty of advancing the underlying artificial intelligence [AI] technology to a level that eliminates any exploitable gap. Due to this fact computer scientists have concluded that the widespread use of CAPTCHA would accelerate research in the underlying fields of AI eventually leading to near-­‐human capabilities in certain AI systems. Despite these predictions no attempt has been made to identify advances in AI which can be attributed to the use of CAPTCHA.

The …

Optimization Of Crime Control Resources In A Society, Steven S. Thompson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper looks at the economics of crime control through the Phillips-Votey Societal Cost Function model and mathematically proves that there is a socially optimal point at which society should be devoting resources towards the prevention of crime. This allows the society to minimize the social cost of crime given a theoretical cost constraint. This paper take the model further by conducting comparative analysis to determine the effect that changes in the functional form of crime generation, and crime prevention will have on society as represented in the model. This paper also looks at the counter intuitive effect that growth …

The Social Transformation Of Coffee Houses: The Emergence Of Chain Establishments And The Private Nature Of Usage, Dawn Marie Lozzi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Much attention is given to Ray Oldenburg's (1989) concept of third places as environments that offer visitors friendship and a sense of community. However, given that coffee houses have moved from small-scale businesses to chain-owned and many people now use them to work on laptops, this idealized image of the coffee house also may be changing. Few empirical studies have addressed such possibilities. Using unobtrusive observation data on three independently-owned coffee houses and three chain-based coffee houses, this research examines the concept of third places to better understand the ways in which modern coffee houses live up to Oldenburg's social …

Solidarity Versus Sisterhood: Women's Issues, Feminism And Potential In Poland, Abigail E. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Exploring the history and trajectory of women's issues and activism in Poland, this work begins discussing the early twentieth century, moving through to the time period of the Solidarity trade union movement, continuing through the political transitions during the 1990s and ending in the present day. By examining a multitude of issues which affect women's lives (in the quotidian and overall senses), the existence, development and necessity of women's organizations and feminist activism in Poland becomes apparent. Labor, social, legal, and economic issues are of primary concern in contextualizing Polish women's place in society.;The introductory chapter begins by examining Polish …

Social Skills As Predictors Of Theory Of Mind Development Among Children, Lucia A. Salinas

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study examined relationships among social skills including deceptive behavior, socioeconomic status, and theory of mind development in 98 predominantly Hispanic 3- to 7-year-old children residing in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Measures were of vocabulary, deceptive ability, true belief, and false belief understanding. Children’s interactions with others were also measured through observational methods and parental data was obtained to compute socioeconomic status and validate social skills information. It was hypothesized that social skill development, including deception would emerge along with theory of mind understanding in this population, and that children from households of lower socioeconomic status would …

The Role Of Thermally-Induced Geometrical Changes In Temperature Trending Of Railroad Tapered Roller Bearings, Andrei G. Vaipan

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The understanding of the phenomenon of temperature trending of railroad tapered roller bearings is of paramount importance to the railroad industry. The problem that this poses to the industry is that it leads to false alarms triggered by wayside detectors, which forces the premature removal of defect-free bearings. This thesis provides more insight into this phenomenon and answers questions regarding the importance of key tapered roller bearing components geometry and geometrical changes during temperature trending events. In this study, dynamic experiments conducted in the laboratory have represented the primary method of testing bearing temperature trending. The experimental results are brought …

The Effects Of Physical Activity On Self-Injurious Behavior, Lynnette D. Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Auto-mutilation is a maladaptive coping mechanism and a major problem confronting behavioral medicine with no known treatment to date to place the behavior on complete extinction. The purpose of this experiment is to examine the possible beneficial effects of running relative to caffeine-induced SIB. Female Sprague Dawley rats (n = 4) served as subjects with each having a different extended baseline and treatment condition. Visual analysis of a multiple baseline graph did not support the hypothesis that as treatment (physical activity) was implemented SIB would decrease. It was found that subjects who drank more caffeinated water had higher amounts of …

Keep Pressing On, Genevia Silvernail

ATS Chapel Services

No abstract provided.

The Ecology Of Cognitive Training And Aging, Anya Potter

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Older individuals represent the fastest growing portion of the population in the United States, and are threatened by the loss of mobility and independence. The present study examined the relationship of a computer-based training program, specifically Posit Science Cortex^TM with InSight DriveSharp^TM, and performance on neuropsychological measures and an on-road driving paradigm in a normal aging sample. Participants, ranging in ages 60-75 and randomly assigned to the treatment group, completed the DriveSharp^TM as did, subsequently, a wait-list control group. Identical neuropsychological and on-road assessments were conducted at each visit. Neuropsychological assessment of visual attention included the …

Captain Pierce's Fight: An Investigation Into A King Philip's War Battle And Its Remembrance And Memorialization, Lawrence K. Lacroix

Graduate Masters Theses

On March 26, 1676 Native Americans from southern New England overran a company of Plymouth Colony militia, handing the English one of their worst defeats during King Philip's War. This study was concerned with the reconstruction of the Pierce Battle, as it has come to be known, and its eventual memorialization. The study's two main research questions were: First, to what extent did a complete and critical examination of the primary and secondary sources change, support, or add to the commonly accepted battle perspective? Second, in what ways did a contextual analysis of King Philip's War monuments in Rhode Island …

The Practice Effect: The Relationships Among The Frequency Of Early Formal Mindfulness Practice, Mindfulness Skills, Worry, And Quality Of Life In An Acceptance-Based Behavior Therapy For Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Lucas Paul Kawika Morgan

Graduate Masters Theses

Mindfulness- and acceptance-based treatments are currently being used to treat a variety of medical and mental health difficulties. Most of these treatments teach formal mindfulness practices which aim at developing mindfulness skills. However, little is known about the relationships among amount of formal mindfulness practice, changes in mindfulness skills, and changes in outcome variables. An acceptance-based behavior therapy (ABBT) has been shown to be particularly effective in the treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD; Roemer & Orsillo, 2007; Roemer, Orsillo, & Salters-Pednault, 2008). This study explored the relationships among formal mindfulness practice, skills, and outcomes in the context of an …

An Emptying Village: Transformations In Architecture And Spatial Organization At Streamstown Village, Co. Galway, Meagan K. Conway

Graduate Masters Theses

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Ireland was a country of instability. The population rose rapidly, and traditional farming practices shifted to accommodate the rapidly changing population in addition to incorporating and almost entirely depending on a new crop, the potato. A spattering of famine years culminating in the Great Famine of 1847-1850 created an unstable environment for rural Irish farmers and factored into massive depopulation of the western counties. Abandonment of the western counties created dozens of empty villages across the landscape, the majority of which are comprised of stone structures located in farmland and in varying degrees of …

The Marketplace Of Boston: Macrobotanical Remains From Faneuil Hall, Ciana Faye Meyers

Graduate Masters Theses

Residents of Boston in the eighteenth century utilized a wide range of botanical materials in their daily lives, navigating complex urban marketing systems and utilizing their own individual ingenuity to procure botanical resources. The one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three botanical remains recovered from a "community midden" underneath the present-day Faneuil Hall represents a diverse collection of taxa which encodes information not only about the localized dietary practices of colonial urban residents, but also helps to illuminate the more subtle ramifications of Boston's participation in the Atlantic economy on the lives of its residents. These botanical remains represent taxa from …

How Institutional Context Alters Social Reproduction Dynamics: Ethnic Track Placement Patterns In The U.S. And Germany, Regina E. Werum, Tomeka Davis, Simon Cheng

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

How does institutional context shape the way family dynamics, especially ethnic background and parental resources, affect track placement? We contrast the track placement patterns of immigrants and ethnic majority students in two countries marked by drastic differences in the social organization of schooling. Drawing on German (GSOEP) and U.S. (NELS) data, we find that, in general, more family resources pull students from lower to higher tracks, but ethnic inequalities in these resources favor the ethnic majority groups in both countries. In addition, institutional context conditions which parental resources shape educational outcomes, and how they do so. We find that the …

Religious Affiliation And Attendance As Predictors Of Immigration Attitudes In Nebraska, Courtney Lyons Breitkreutz

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines the relationship between religious affiliation, church attendance, and attitudes towards immigration. Following the ethnoreligious perspective, I predict that those who identify as Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, or Catholic will hold more positive attitudes than those who do not affiliate, which would reflect the teachings of their churches. I also predict that Catholics may have particularly positive attitudes because of social identity theory. Attending church services should be associated with more positive attitudes, according to religious restructuralism. Using 2006 telephone survey data of 1,135 Nebraskans from the Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS), I use binary logistic regression …

Grapher: A Multiplatform Gui For Drawing Customizable Graphs In R, Maxime Hervé

The R Journal

This article presents GrapheR, a Graphical User Interface allowing the user to draw customizable and high-quality graphs without knowing any R commands. Six kinds of graph are available: histograms, box-and-whisker plots, bar plots, pie charts, curves and scatter plots. The complete process is described with the examples of a bar plot and a scatter plot illustrating the legendary puzzle of African and European swallows’ migrations.

Content-Based Social Network Analysis Of Mailing Lists, Angela Bohn, Ingo Feinerer, Kurt Hornik, Patrick Mair

The R Journal

Social Network Analysis (SNA) provides tools to examine relationships between people. Text Mining (TM) allows capturing the text they produce in Web 2.0 applications, for example, however it neglects their social structure. This paper applies an approach to combine the two methods named “content-based SNA”. Using the R mailing lists, R-help and R-devel, we show how this combination can be used to describe people’s interests and to find out if authors who have similar interests actually communicate. We find that the expected positive relationship between sharing interests and communicating gets stronger as the centrality scores of authors in the communication …

Reflections Of Self: An Autoethnography Exploring A Survivor's Journey To Healing, Shemika Maria Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study exposed the ramifications of childhood sexual abuse in regards to an African American woman's self-representation by contextualizing this experience within the larger cultural context; thereby, illuminating issues regarding race, class, gender, and relationships with others. Framed within a feminist theoretical paradigm, this study integrated the sociological context of race and culture using Black Feminist thought (Collins, 2000) and Relational Cultural Theory, which examines women's psychological identity development (Jordan, 2010; Miller, 1976). To illustrate an African American woman's negotiation of existence as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, this qualitative study employed the research methodology autoethnography. Employing autoethnography provides …

Ethnic Difference In Healthcare Delivery, Benny Mathew Varghese

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Quality in healthcare is a very important aspect; this is obtained when there is proper care provided to the patients without any discrimination. The healthcare system in the US can be improved in the fields of patient’s care, the amount of money spent and proper advice, if proper responsibilities are taken. Quality has been improving over the years, but the median by which there is an increase is too small. The other main factor is access to the healthcare system, which has over the year, has not progressed. Studies in healthcare quality should be conducted on a regular base, so …

A Study Of The Early American Author Judith Sargent Murray, Her Role In Early American Print Culture And Her Misappropriation By Twentieth-Century Feminism, Robert Allen Fowler

Master's Theses

In 1798, Judith Sargent Murray published a three-volume collection of one hundred miscellaneous essays on topics ranging from social politesse to women’s education to international politics. Her diligence, forethought and manipulation of pseudonyms in the print-hungry post-Revolutionary America create a unique place for her in the history of American letters. However, in the twentieth century, modern feminism has attempted to claim Murray as one of their own, choosing between one and four examples of her work as proof of her forward-looking philosophy, while ignoring significant pieces of those same works as well as much of her oeuvre as a whole …

"Ein Staat Der Jugend": The Politics Of Socialist Patriotism And National Consciousness In Shaping Youth Policy In The German Democratic Republic, 1961–1967, Regina K. Ernest

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In attempts to bridge the increasing gap between youth and socialism in the German Democratic Republic in the 1960s, the Socialist Unity Party (SED) modified its youth policy by encouraging a socialist patriotic consciousness rather than solely emphasizing socialist development. For the duration of its statehood, the SED claimed that socialist patriotism and proletarian internationalism were intrinsically connected. However, in the pursuit of producing a consolidated youth, the SED became divided not only on the direction of youth policy but also on this symbiotic connection. In his liberal reform movement, head of state Walter Ulbricht and his advocates focused predominantly …

Reforming Attempt Liability Under 18 U.S.C. § 2422(B): An Insubstantial Step Back From United States V. Rothenberg , Korey J. Christensen

Duke Law Journal

The statute under which Internet sex predators are prosecuted for illicit online communications prohibits attempts to “knowingly persuade[], induce[], entice[], or coerce[]” minors to engage in “any sexual activity for which any person” can be criminally charged. This broad language has allowed courts to gradually expand the statute’s reach by reducing the level of conduct considered sufficient to constitute a substantial step toward commission of the crime. The Eleventh Circuit’s decision in United States v. Rothenberg is especially illustrative of this problematic expansion, as the court held that a conversation between consenting adults, without more, was sufficient to support a …

Chosen In Faith, Karen Greenawalt

ATS Chapel Services

No abstract provided.