Digital Commons Network^™

Whalesong 2011-12-01, Tyler Preston, David House, Mckenzie Dornbirer, Colten Oliver, Irene Muller, Adam Wood, Teresa Kennedy, Nicole Luchaco, Ian Larsen, Jeremia Schrock

Whalesong

No abstract provided.

Soundings 2011-12-01, N/A N/A

Soundings

No abstract provided.

The Affects Of Manipulatives On Sight Word Recognition, Meghan Huver

Education Masters

The following study examines the affect manipulatives have on sight word recognition. Data was collected in a variety of ways throughout this action research project, which include observations, interviews, audio recordings, questionnaires, as well as authentic work completed by the participant. This study reveals that the use of hands-on materials increase one’s sight word recognition, motivation, and engagement. As a result, teachers should incorporate manipulatives and educational games into their curriculum. These tools will motivate students and assist them in learning new sight words.

Synthesis Of An Antimicrobial Textile Coating, William M. Morris

Chemistry and Biochemistry

A titania nanosol was synthesized and coated onto nylon/cotton blended textile substrates. The substrates were characterized via SEM for adhesion and nanoparticle formation, then subjected to antimicrobial efficacy tests. The titania nanosol was successfully coated on to textiles samples. Particles were observed to be around 2 by 3 micrometers and formed between the interstitial space of textile fibers. Although larger than typical nanoparticles, the coatings exhibited what seemed to be antimicrobial activity. Titania nanosol coated textile samples were subjected to Kirby Bauer Assay in the presence of S. aureus. The coated textile sample exhibited an inhibition of growth around its …

Beyond Lean: Simulation In Practice, Charles R. Standridge Ph.D.

Open Textbooks

Lean thinking, as well as associated processes and tools, have involved into a ubiquitous perspective for improving systems particularly in the manufacturing arena. With application experience has come an understanding of the boundaries of lean capabilities and the benefits of getting beyond these boundaries to further improve performance. Discrete event simulation is recognized as one beyond-the-boundaries of lean technique. Thus, the fundamental goal of this text is to show how discrete event simulation can be used in addition to lean thinking to achieve greater benefits in system improvement than with lean alone. Realizing this goal requires learning the problems that …

Influence Of Warm Mix Additives Upon High Rap Asphalt Mixes, William Rogers

All Dissertations

This study was conducted to determine the effect of warm mix (WMA) modifiers on asphalt mixes containing high percentages of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Mixes were created using three aggregate sources, four RAP percentages (0%, 20%, 35%, and 50%), and three warm mix modifiers (HMA, zeolite, and Sasobit®). Base binders from the same source (PG 64 -22, 58 -28, 52 -28) and one rejuvenator were used for each mix to ensure the final blended binder grade was at least PG 64 -10.
Specimens were created at HMA or suggested WMA temperatures and tested for rut depth, indirect tensile strength (ITS), …

The Tetrafluoroborate Salt Of 4-Methoxybenzyl N-2-(Dimethylamino)Ethyl-N-Nitrosocarbamate: Synthesis, Crystal Structure And Dft Calculations, Helene Hedian, Vladimir Benin

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The tetrafluoroborate salt of 4-methoxybenzyl N-2-(dimethylamino)ethyl-N-nitrosocarbamate was prepared in two steps, via the corresponding carbamate. Its crystal structure is monoclinic, space group P21/c. The unit cell dimensions are: a = 19.499(8) Å, b = 5.877(3) Å, c = 15.757(7) Å, α = 90°, β = 110.019(7)°, γ = 90°, V = 1696.5(12) Å3, Z = 4. The structure exhibits an unexpected, pseudo-gauche conformation with respect to the C2–C3 bond, due to a stabilizing hydrogen bond between the carbonyl oxygen (O1) and the hydrogen atom at the trialkylammonium center (H3n), with a distance between them of …

Small-Scale Hybrid Alternative Energy Maximizer For Wind Turbines And Photovoltaic Panels, Ross Kerley

HIM 1990-2015

This thesis describes the creation of a small-scale Hybrid Power System (HPS) that maximizes energy from a wind turbine and photovoltaic array. Small-scale HPS are becoming an increasingly viable energy solution as fossil fuel prices rise and more electricity is needed in remote areas. Modern HPS typically employ wind speed sensors and three power stages to extract maximum power. Modern systems also use passive rectifiers to convert AC from the wind turbine to DC that is usable by power electronics. This passive system inefficiently wastes power and introduces damaging harmonic noise to the wind turbine. The HPS described in this …

Context-Based Friend Suggestion In Online Photo-Sharing Community, Ting Yao, Chong-Wah Ngo, Tao Mei

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the popularity of social media, web users tend to spend more time than before for sharing their experience and interest in online photo-sharing sites. The wide variety of sharing behaviors generate different metadata which pose new opportunities for the discovery of communities. We propose a new approach, named context-based friend suggestion, to leverage the diverse form of contextual cues for more effective friend suggestion in the social media community. Different from existing approaches, we consider both visual and geographical cues, and develop two user-based similarity measurements, i.e., visual similarity and geo similarity for characterizing user relationship. The problem of …

Temporal And Spatial Analysis Of Stream And Groundwater Interactions, Ryan Eugene Warden

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Water chemistry and ecology of streams are impacted by the amount of water that exchanges between the surface water system and the adjacent saturated area, called the hyporheic zone, a dynamic area of stream channel sediments, which undergoes down-welling or up-welling of stream water. The rate and volume of water exchange between the surface water and the hyporheic zone are primary controls on stream ecology, but are challenging to assess. A common approach is to model the exchange rate with a one-dimensional advection-dispersion equation that includes solute exchange with transient storage zones, which is referred to as a transient storage …

Coloring Problems, Thomas Antonio Charles Chartier

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers several coloring problems all of which have a combinatorial flavor. We review some results on the chromatic number of the plane, and improve a bound on the value of regressive Ramsey numbers. The main work of this thesis considers the problem of whether given any n ≥ 1; one can color Z+ in such a way that for all a ϵ Z+ the numbers a, 2a, 3a, ..., na are assigned different colors. Such colorings are referred to as satisfactory. We provide a sufficient condition for guaranteeing the existence of satisfactory colorings and analyze the …

Evolving Law And Policy For Freshwater Ecosystem Service Markets, Martin W. Doyle, Todd Bendor

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

The Relation Between Black Hole Mass And Host Spheroid Stellar Mass Out To Z~2, Vardha N. Bennert, Matthew A. Auger, Tommaso Treu, Jong-Hak Woo, Matthew A. Malkan

Physics

We combine Hubble Space Telescope images from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey with archival Very Large Telescope and Keck spectra of a sample of 11 X-ray-selected broad-line active galactic nuclei in the redshift range 1 < z < 2 to study the black-hole-mass-stellar-mass relation out to a look-back time of 10 Gyr. Stellar masses of the spheroidal component (M _sph, ) are derived from multi-filter surface photometry. Black hole masses (M _BH) are estimated from the width of the broad Mg II emission line and the 3000 Å nuclear luminosity. Comparing with a uniformly measured local sample and taking into account selection effects, we find evolution in the form M _BH/M _sph, (1 + z)^{1.96 …}

The Effect Of Teacher Collaboration And Co-Teaching On The Response To Reading Intervention Of Elementary-Aged Students With Learning Disabilities, Jennifer Brinker Mccammon

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of teacher collaboration and co-teaching on the response to literacy intervention of elementary-aged students with learning disabilities. The study utilized a multiple-baseline approach. The participants in this study included three second-grade students identified with learning disabilities, their special education teachers, and their classroom teachers from a north metro school district in Colorado. During the baseline phase, students received traditional pull-out literacy interventions and classroom instruction. During the intervention phase, the general education teacher and special education teacher collaboratively planned and cotaught the student’s small group reading lesson. Students’ literacy skills …

Energy-Based Analysis Of Utility Scale Hybrid Power Systems, Kwame Agyenim-Boateng

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The promise of large-scale use of renewables such as wind and solar for supplying electrical power is tempered by the sources' transient behavior and the impact this would have on the operation of the grid. Among the methods cited for addressing some of those concerns are exploring the complementary nature of solar and wind power generation, and through the use of supplemental energy storage. While the technology for the latter has not been proven to be economical on a large scale at the present time, some assessments of what magnitude is required can be made. An energy-based analysis of utility …

Environmental Impact Of The Three Kids Mine Tailings, Henderson, Nv, Ji Hye Park

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research focused on the distribution of the Three Kids Mine tailings in surface soils in and around the mine in Henderson, Nevada. It is situated next to the communities of Calico Ridge and Lake Las Vegas Resort, and, just the west of the Lake Mead Recreation area. Even though the mine has been inactive for almost 50 years (1917-1961), tailing piles and other sources of contamination on the mine are currently exposed to the atmosphere. In this study, surface soil samples were collected along eight transects emanating from the center of Three Kids Mine tailing piles up to five …

Spectroscopic Studies Of Melamine At High Pressure, Martin Donald Galley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

We have performed mid- and far- Infra Red (IR) absorption, Raman spectroscopy, and angular dispersive x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies on melamine under high pressure and room temperature. We have verified the presence of two prior reported phase transitions, the first between 1-2 GPa, and the second between 7-9 GPa. We have also found evidence of a third unreported phase transition between 14-16 GPa, during which, there was a sudden disappearance of all low energy peaks (^-1 ) in both the Raman and IR spectra. The far-IR peak movement experiences a discontinuity as the rate of peak movement suddenly changes. …

Identifying Effort Estimation Factors For Corrective Maintenance In Object-Oriented Systems, Michael J. Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research identifies factors that impact software maintenance effort by exploring the decision-making process of expert estimators of corrective maintenance projects by using qualitative methods to identify the factors that they use in deriving estimates. We implement a technique called causal mapping, which allows us to identify the cognitive links between the information that estimators use, and the estimates that they produce based on that information. Results suggest that a total of 17 factors may be relevant for corrective maintenance effort estimation, covering constructs related to developers, code, defects, and environment. When these factors are rank-ordered, they demonstrate that some …

Direct Contact Pyrolysis Of Hydrocarbons: A Source Of Hydrogen And Interesting Carbon Formations, Peter G. Faught

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The work detailed in this document looks at a novel liquid metal supported catalytic system for the generation of hydrogen by decomposition of ethanol through direct contact pyrolysis. The hydrogen is produced at relatively low temperatures (500-600°C) and has carbon and water as co-products. It should be noted that CO is not observed as a product at these low temperatures. This is to be contrasted with the hydrogen produced at higher temperature from ethanol which does contain carbon monoxide. The presence of carbon monoxide in hydrogen complicates fuel cell operation and catalytic chemical processes. Thus, the lack of CO in …

Processj: A Process-Oriented Programming Language, Matthew Sowders

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Java is a general purpose object-oriented programming language that has been widely adopted. Because of its high adoption rate and its lineage as a C-style language, its syntax is familiar to many programmers. The downside is that Java is not natively concurrent. Volumes have been written about concurrent programming in Java; however, concurrent programming is difficult to reason about within an object-oriented paradigm and so is difficult to get right.

occam -π is a general purpose process-oriented programming language. Concurrency is part of the theoretical underpinnings of the language. Concurrency is simple to reason about within an occam -π application …

Quantification Of Stochastic Uncertainty Propagation For Monte Carlo Depletion Methods In Reactor Analysis, Quentin Thomas Newell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Monte Carlo method provides powerful geometric modeling capabilities for large problem domains in 3-D; therefore, the Monte Carlo method is becoming popular for 3-D fuel depletion analyses to compute quantities of interest in spent nuclear fuel including isotopic compositions. The Monte Carlo approach has not been fully embraced due to unresolved issues concerning the effect of Monte Carlo uncertainties on the predicted results.

Use of the Monte Carlo method to solve the neutron transport equation introduces stochastic uncertainty in the computed fluxes. These fluxes are used to collapse cross sections, estimate power distributions, and deplete the fuel within depletion …

Intragroup Separation Of Trivalent Lanthanides And Actinides For Neutron Capture Experiments In Stockpile Stewardship Sciences, Narek Gharibyan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Knowledge of low-energy cross sections for stable and unstable nuclei in neutron-, γ- and ion induced reactions is important in both the simulation and radiochemistry diagnosis of nuclear device performance. This dissertation explores extraction chromatography and ion chromatography methods for the intragroup separation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides in support of cross section measurements for isotopes of interest. For trivalent actinides, americium (Am(III)) and curium (Cm(III)), separation is necessary to assist in experiments related to the measurement of neutron capture cross section for ²⁴¹ Am and the production of ^{242 m} Am/^242g Am isomeric ratio. Extraction chromatography resins …

Modeling Of A Novel Solar Down Beam Test Facility Utilizing Newtonian Optics, Ryan J. Hoffmann

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As advances in concentrated solar energy progress there will inevitably be an increase in the demand of resources for testing new conceptions. Currently, there are limited facilities available for taking concentrated solar energy concepts from the laboratory bench scale to the engineering test scale. A proposed solution is a scientific and developmental facility that provides highly concentrated solar energy at ground level. The design presented is a solar down beam test facility utilizing a Newtonian optics approach with a flat rectangular down beam mirror to reflect and concentrate the sun's rays at ground level.

Literature review suggests a hyperbolic reflector …

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 …

Development Of A Simulation Tool For Analysis Of Freeway Crashes Due To Cell Phone Usage, Sourabh Sriom

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research shows that drivers are susceptible to numerous distractions while driving which can be held responsible as the reason of a crash. Usage of cell phones, i.e. talking or texting while driving is considered one of the prominent distractions which causes a crash. This dissertation aims to study the number of crashes occurring on the freeways and their relation with the drivers of these cars using cell phones while they are driving. Since crashes occur relatively less frequently, the study of crashes is done using what is called the "rare event" theory. Java based simulations are done to model a …

Fall Prevention Training And Its Impact To Southern Nevada Construction Workers, Vedaspati Joshi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Death and injury from falls are a long-standing and continuing problem in construction, responsible for at least a third of the construction deaths in the U.S. from 2004 to 2007. Each of those years, Nevada has exceeded the national percentage. Although 29 CFR 1926.503 sets forth Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)'s requirements that construction employers train employees exposed to fall hazards and document such training, the incidence of deaths and injuries from falls are an indicator that this training was not provided or else was not effective.

Conventional fall protection training is more narrowly focused on recognizing fall hazards …

Modeling Passive Solar Distillation Production In Las Vegas, Nevada, Noe I. Santos

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A study has been performed to examine the effects of daily weather on the performance of commercial solar distillation basins (solar stills). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the long term performance of solar stills, to instrument two solar stills and record sub-hourly thermal properties, to evaluate existing heat transfer modeling methods for hourly production, and to create new models to predict daily production using experimental distillate production and local weather data by utilizing artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, and multivariate regression. A system dynamics model was also created to determine the required basin area and storage volume …

Ensemble Methods For Dynamic Data Assimilation Of Chemical Observations In Atmospheric Models, Adrian Sandu, Emil Constantinescu, Gregory R. Carmichael, Tianfeng Chai, Dacian Daescu, John H. Seinfeld

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The task of providing an optimal analysis of the state of the atmosphere requires the development of dynamic data-driven systems (DDDAS) that efficiently integrate the observational data and the models. Data assimilation, the dynamic incorporation of additional data into an executing application, is an essential DDDAS concept with wide applicability. In this paper we discuss practical aspects of nonlinear ensemble Kalman data assimilation applied to atmospheric chemical transport models. We highlight the challenges encountered in this approach such as filter divergence and spurious corrections, and propose solutions to overcome them, such as background covariance inflation and filter localization. The predictability …

Examining Revenue Management Practices In Las Vegas Casino Resorts, Arun Tanpanuwat

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The overall goal of this study was to examine Revenue Management (RM) practices in Las Vegas casino resorts. A great deal of research has been done on RM in the hospitality industry. The academic research has examined RM in hospitality in general, but not specifically in casino resorts, which gain their revenue from both rooms and resort amenities. Moreover, the academic literature often show high-level mathematic-based solutions or statistical applications, but not necessarily pragmatic techniques for practitioners. This qualitative study investigates the extent to which the essential fundamentals of any RM system are implemented successfully by casino RM professionals and …

Automating Construction And Selection Of A Neural Network Using Stochastic Optimization, Jason Lee Hurt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An artificial neural network can be used to solve various statistical problems by approximating a function that provides a mapping from input to output data. No universal method exists for architecting an optimal neural network. Training one with a low error rate is often a manual process requiring the programmer to have specialized knowledge of the domain for the problem at hand.

A distributed architecture is proposed and implemented for generating a neural network capable of solving a particular problem without specialized knowledge of the problem domain. The only knowledge the application needs is a training set that the network …