Digital Commons Network^™

Kindergarteners' Concept Development In Science And Literacy Learning Through Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (Cori), Char Adelia Moffit

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The notion that "real work" is somehow different from authentic and engaging discovery is troublesome. (Passman, 2001, p.196)

This qualitative case study examined science concept and literacy learning along with engagement of the students in a Kindergarten class in which science and literacy instruction was integrated through Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI). CORI is an instructional framework created to increase reading engagement by teaching reading comprehension strategies along with science concepts (Guthrie, et al., 1996). This study explored CORI at the Kindergarten level to examine how this curriculum framework engaged young learners in science concept and literacy learning. The study was …

A Case Study Of Zero Energy Home Built For Solar Decathlon Competition 2013, Sanjib Mulepati

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Energy consumption in residential homes has been a subject of research related to sustainability. Reduction in the consumption of energy is a goal of sustainable construction. The Department of Energy (DOE) started a Solar Decathlon competition in 2002 in which the students from different universities around the globe build an energy efficient and affordable home suitable for their climate and location. The main goal of this competition is to select the best home that is designed and built in a sustainable way. In this study, the home designed and constructed for participation in the competition by the students at University …

Performance Measure For Transportation Network: A Study In Travel Time Dynamics, Anuj Nayyar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Arterial Performance Measurement and Monitoring is one of the leading goals of any transportation agency. The complexity of the differences between performance measures is highlighted and the various data collection methodologies are highlighted. A major performance measure that impacts end users and traffic planners is travel time. This study presents defining a mathematical system for modeling travel time. The modeling in real-time is presented and methods are proposed to evaluate it using vehicle trajectories. Also comparative results are presented between the actual sensor data sets and simulated data to study the effectiveness of the system developed.

Estimation Of Travel Time Based On Vehicle-Tracking Models, Anuj Nayyar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this thesis we study the travel time problem based on the known traffic density model. Using the conservation law, we model the travel time function by a boundary value problem of a non homogeneous linear hyperbolic equation. The equation is transformed into an initial value hyperbolic equation, and the well-posedness of the problem is discussed. The mathematical analysis for both density and travel problems are given. We also derive the analytic solutions for several special cases of traffic density. Numerical schemes are proposed for solving for travel time problem. Several numerical examples are presented and error analysis on the …

The Water Wall: A Passive Solar Collection And Thermal Storage Device For Supplementary Radiant Heating, Rhett Roman Noseck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Through the implementation of passive solar building systems, suburbia could take a fresh new step forward toward a progressively more sustainable direction. Making passive solar strategies a priority, master planned community developments would see opportunity to change the style and design of future suburban residences.

The focus and intention of this body of work is to research, design, fabricate, and test a prototype of a passive solar heating device using water as the medium for thermal storage. The size and shape of the design for the water wall device will be determined by the currently built suburban environment; however, for …

Factors Associated With Parental Decision Making And Childhood Vaccination, Zuwen Qiu-Shultz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In order to better understand factors affecting immunization status, logistic regression was used to assess the association of various socio-demographic factors and whether parents would have their child immunized if not a state mandate. Factors included in the study were race, household income, number of children in the household, number of adults in the household, if the child had a primary provider, if the child had a health check-up in the last twelve months, and medical insurance status of the child. The combined Nevada Kindergarten Health Survey Result of 2009-2010 (Year Two) and 2010-2011 (Year Three) conducted by the Nevada …

A More General Diffusion Model For Lightning Radiative Transfer, Elliott Paul Saint-Pierre

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A more general diffusion model for lightning radiative transfer is presented. The development is based on the work published by Koshak et al (J. Geo. Phys. Res., vol. 99, (D7), 14361-371, (1994). In this thesis, the diffusion coefficient is allowed to vary as a function of the radial component of the cloud and cylindrical geometry is used. Different approximations in the analysis of the resulting radial equation are provided. The method of Frobenius permits the obtention of a complete solution. Possibilities and means for further development of this research are included.

Pennsylvanian To Cretaceous Folds And Thrusts In South-Central Nevada: Evidence From The Timpahute Range, Angela Giovanna Russo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Understanding Permian and Mesozoic contractional structures from southern California to northern Nevada requires correlation through south-central Nevada. After the Devonian-Mississippian Antler orogeny through the Permian-Triassic Sonoma orogeny and then up to the Sevier orogeny, south-central Nevada was thought to have remained tectonically inactive. However, Pennsylvanian through Jurassic age deformation is documented to the south in Death Valley and to the north. Identifying geometries, spatial relationships, and relative timing of deformations in the Timpahute Range, south-central Nevada, is an essential piece to completing the overall understanding of Nevada geology. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze deformational structures …

A Survey On Detection And Defense Of Application Layer Ddos Attacks, Naga Shalini Vadlamani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As the time is passing on, the effect of DDoS attacks on Internet security is growing tremendously. Within a very little span there is a huge increase in the size and frequency of DDoS attacks. With the new technologies and new techniques, the attackers are finding more sophisticated ways to attack the servers. In this situation, it is necessary to come up with various mechanisms to detect and defend these DDoS attacks and protect the servers from the attackers. Many researches have been carried out to detect the DDoS attack traffic in transport layer, which is more vulnerable to DDoS …

Robust And Adaptive Attitude Control Of Spacecraft Using Solar Radiation Pressure, Lakshmi Srinivasan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Satellites in orbit are expected to maintain a preset attitude either pointing towards Earth (in case of satellites for weather) or pointing towards space for the purpose of research and exploration. The satellite as a system though is extremely nonlinear and the system parameters are not easily available. The goal of this thesis is to develop robust and adaptive control laws that can be used to control the attitude of satellites in elliptic orbits. The attitude of the satellite is controlled by the use of Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP) on the solar panels of the satellite. The SRP is basically …

Ichnology And Paleoecology Of The Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, Heather Marie Stoller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this study I describe and interpret tracks and trackways of the Jurassic Aztec Sandstone of southern Nevada and southern California. This study involved mapping of all known tracks and trackways, including foot length, stride length, and trackway width. Photogrammetric data, collected by Bureau of Land Management scientists, were utilized for several trackways in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

More than three hundred tracks belonging to five ichnotaxa were documented within the Aztec Sandstone, including about 165 tridactylGrallator, 250 tetradactyl (four-toed)Brasilichniumtracks, and 7 arthropod trackways ofOctopodichnusandPaleohelcura. Four of the five ichnotaxa were not previously reported from the Aztec Sandstone. …

Time-Dependent Random Effect Poisson Random Field Model For Polymorphism Within And Between Two Related Species, Shilei Zhou

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Molecular evolution is partially driven by mutation, selection, random genetic drift, or combination of the three factors. To quantify the magnitude of these genetic forces, a previously developed time-dependent fixed effect Poisson random field model provides powerful likelihood and Bayesian estimates of mutation rate, selection coefficient, and species divergence time. The assumption of the fixed effect model that selection intensity is constant within a genetic locus but varies across genes is obviously biologically unrealistic, but it serves the original purpose of making statistical inference about selection and divergence between two related species they are individually at mutation-selection-drift inequilibrium. By relaxing …

Transfer-Free Growth Of Graphene On Sio2 Insulator Substrate From Sputtered Carbon And Nickel Films, Genhua Pan, Bing Li, Mark Heath, David Horsell, M. Lesley Wears, La Taan, Shakil Awan

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Flow Injection Analysis For The Photometric Determination Of Promethazine-Hcl In Pure And Pharmaceutical Preparation Via Oxidation By Persulphate Using Ayah 3sx3-3d Solar Micro Photometer, Issam M. A. Shakir, Nagam S. Turkey

Baghdad Science Journal

The first flow injection spectrophotometric method is characterized by its speed and sensitivity which have been developed for the determination of promethazine-HCl in pure and pharmaceutical preparation. It is based on the in situ detection of colored cationic radicals formed via oxidation of the drug with sodium persulphate to pinkish-red species and the same species was determined by using homemade Ayah 3SX3-3D solar flow injection photometer. Optimum conditions were obtained by using the high intensive green light emitted diode as a source. Linear dynamic range for the absorbance versus promethazine-HCl concentration was 0-7 mmol.L-1, with the correlation coefficient (r) was …

Notes On Approximately Pure Submodules, Zahraa A. Mohammed

Baghdad Science Journal

Let R be a commutative ring with identity 1 and M be a unitary left R-module. A submodule N of an R-module M is said to be approximately pure submodule of an R-module, if N ∩ IM = I N+ J(R)M ∩ (N ∩ i m)for each ideal I of R. The main purpose of this paper is to study the properties of the following concepts: approximately pure essentialsubmodules, approximately pure closedsubmodules and relative approximately pure complement submodules. We prove that: when an R-module M is an approximately purely extending modules and N be Ap-puresubmodulein M, if M has the …

Detection Of Pulsar Beams Deflected By The Black Hole In Sgr A*: Effects Of Black Hole Spin, Sourabh Nampalliwar, Richard H. Price, Teviet Creighton, Fredrick A. Jenet

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Some Galactic models predict a significant population of radio pulsars close to the Galactic center. Beams from these pulsars could be strongly deflected by the supermassive black hole (SMBH) believed to reside at the Galactic center and as a result reach Earth. Earlier work assuming a Schwarzschild SMBH gave marginal chances of observing this exotic phenomenon with current telescopes and good chances with future telescopes. Here we study whether those estimates are significantly affected by SMBH spin. We find that spin effects make a negligible difference in detectability, but the pattern of pulse arrival times is clearly affected. In particular, …

Multicenter Study Of Pectus Excavatum, Final Report: Complications, Static/Exercise Pulmonary Function, And Anatomic Outcomes., Robert E. Kelly, Robert B. Mellins, Robert C. Shamberger, Karen K. Mitchell, M Louise Lawson, Keith T. Oldham, Richard G. Azizkhan, Andre V. Hebra, Donald Nuss, Michael J. Goretsky, Ronald J. Sharp, George W. Holcomb, Walton K T Shim, Stephen M. Megison, R Lawrence Moss, Annie H. Fecteau, Paul M. Colombani, Dan Cooper, Traci Bagley, Amy Quinn, Alan B. Moskowitz, James F. Paulson

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: A multicenter study of pectus excavatum was described previously. This report presents our final results.

STUDY DESIGN: Patients treated surgically at 11 centers were followed prospectively. Each underwent a preoperative evaluation with CT scan, pulmonary function tests, and body image survey. Data were collected about associated conditions, complications, and perioperative pain. One year after treatment, patients underwent repeat chest CT scan, pulmonary function tests, and body image survey. A subset of 50 underwent exercise pulmonary function testing.

RESULTS: Of 327 patients, 284 underwent Nuss procedure and 43 underwent open procedure without mortality. Of 182 patients with complete follow-up (56%), …

Quantification Of Acid Loads And Delineation Of Hydrochemical Facies At A Phreatic Mine Spoil Aquifer, Mitchell A. Mcadoo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Acid mine drainage geochemistry and in situ alkaline injection were investigated at the DLM coal mine, Alton West Virginia. These included spatial and temporal investigations into hydrochemical controls that were initiated with reclamation efforts. Approaches included the delineation of hydrochemical facies and analysis of time series data to develop a methodology for estimating acid loads.;Results of agglomerative hierarchical clustering were mapped to demonstrate spatial variations in response to reclamation efforts over time. Spatial patterns were determined and indicate that aquifer chemistry continued to evolve during the study period. Results confirmed that injection of alkalinity into the aquifer effected acid producing …

An Analysis On Soil Properties On Predicting Critical Hydraulic Gradients For Piping Progression In Sandy Soils, Tammy Jacobson

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

Piping is a form of internal erosion in which soil particles are eroded at a seepage exit location due to the forces imposed on the particles by seeping water. Laboratory testing was performed on a variety of soils in order to assess a correlation between unit weight, angle of internal friction, grain size, gradation, and void ratio and the critical hydraulic gradient at which piping initiates and progresses. A multi-variable regression analysis was used to form equations to predict critical hydraulic gradient based upon each of these soil parameters. Variations in the accuracy of these equations are thought to be …

Skill Finder: Automated Job-Resume Matching System, Thimma Reddy Kalva

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

Skill Finder is a tool which ranks the student skills from the resumes to the job requirements from Employers, Department and Faculty looking for student interns, full-time employees and also Research, Graduate and Teaching Assistants. Skill Finder hosts student resumes, Academic history and contact information. Authorized users from the Department can post jobs, view job applicants and the Skill finder automatically sorts the students resumes based on the degree of match with the job. Skill finder also sends e-mail alerts to students about the jobs posted and keeps track of employer’s history by maintaining the complete history of jobs posted …

The Modern Language Classroom: Individuality, Technology, And Context, Eric Sims

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

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s research-supported ideas on what good language teaching looks like. The central component is the teaching philosophy, in which the author explains that respect for individuality, use of technology, and use of culture as context for learning are the three elements seen as most important for successful language learning.
The teaching philosophy is supported by artifacts about peer feedback in language learning, literacy in adult English as a Second Language learners, and autonomy in culture learning. Finally, in three annotations the author branches out from the pillars of the teaching philosophy and examines …

Pyrolysis Of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (Abs) Under High Heat Flux Conditions, James R. Wilson

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

Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) is a common industrial plastic that is widely used for structural and piping applications. Additionally, within the past decade ABS has become the most popular material used in a type of rapid prototyping known as fused- deposition modeling (FDM). Within the past three years, ABS plastic blends have also been investigated as a potential fuel for hybrid- and solid-propelled rocket systems, exhibiting promising results. Because the use of ABS as a rocket propellant is very recent, a pyrolysis database, describing how ABS will burn, at the temperatures and heating rates experienced by rocket systems does not exist. Previous …

Creating A Maturity Model For Business Intelligence In Healthcare, Patti Brooks

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Healthcare is a very complex, knowledge-driven industry. The accumulation of data is quickly outpacing the capacity to use the information to improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare. At the same time, the demand for higher level knowledge to manage consumer information and to predict outcomes of care continues to rise. Business intelligence (BI) can help organizations improve efficiency in managing information and can provide decision makers with timely and accurate information. The use of a business intelligence maturity model can provide organizations with a systematic method for assessing their maturity level relative to important process areas critical to the …

Analytical And Computational Study Of Flame Acceleration In Tubes: Effect Of Wall Friction, Berk Demirgok

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Premixed flame acceleration is especially strong in the case of flame propagation in tubes or channels. Being a reasonably simple configuration to investigate fundamental flame properties, combustion tubes have numerous practical applications such as safety issues in mines, subways and power plants. This work is devoted to the analytical formulation and computational simulations of premixed flame acceleration induced by wall friction in tubes/channels. Specifically, the evolution of the flame dynamics and morphology is determined, and the main characteristics of the flame acceleration such as the flame shape and propagation speed, the acceleration rate as well as the combustion-generated velocity profile …

Determining Transportation And Development Impacts Of Consolidated Schools In West Virginia, Bradley J. Dicola

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

School consolidation has become commonplace in the West Virginia, with a declining student population as West Virginia has lost population over the last several decades. Consolidated schools offer school districts the opportunity to provide greater offerings in terms of coursework and extracurricular activities, while also allowing a reduction in some operating costs since fewer facilities are maintained and few administrative staff are needed to operate them. Consolidation also has impacts on school transportation, both in terms of time and mode choice, as well as the impact on land use patterns around the consolidated school facility.;This research seeks to help quantify …

Modeling And Recognizing Binary Human Interactions, Ke Feng

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recognizing human activities from video is an important step forward towards the long-term goal of performing scene understanding fully automatically. Applications in this domain include, but are not limited to, the automated analysis of video surveillance footage for public and private monitoring, remote patient and elderly home monitoring, video archiving, search and retrieval, human-computer interaction, and robotics. While recent years have seen a concentration of works focusing on modeling and recognizing either group activities, or actions performed by people in isolation, modeling and recognizing binary human-human interactions is a fundamental building block that only recently has started to catalyze the …

Wind And Wake Sensing With Uav Formation Flight: System Development And Flight Testing, Trenton Jameson Larrabee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Wind turbulence including atmospheric turbulence and wake turbulence have been widely investigated; however, only recently it become possible to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as a validation tool for research in this area. Wind can be a major contributing factor of adverse weather for aircraft. More importantly, it is an even greater risk towards UAVs because of their small size and weight. Being able to estimate wind fields and gusts can potentially provide substantial benefits for both unmanned and manned aviation. Possible applications include gust suppression for improving handling qualities, a better warning system for high wind encounters, and enhanced …

Microfluidic Generated Egf-Gradients Induce Chemokinesis Of Transplantable Retinal Progenitor Cells Via The Jak/Stat And Pi3kinase Signaling Pathways, Uchenna J. Unachukwu, Moira Sauane, Maribel Vazquez, Stephen Redenti

Publications and Research

A growing number of studies are evaluating retinal progenitor cell (RPC) transplantation as an approach to repair retinal degeneration and restore visual function. To advance cell-replacement strategies for a practical retinal therapy, it is important to define the molecular and biochemical mechanisms guiding RPC motility. We have analyzed RPC expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and evaluated whether exposure to epidermal growth factor (EGF) can coordinate motogenic activity in vitro. Using Boyden chamber analysis as an initial highthroughput screen, we determined that RPC motility was optimally stimulated by EGF concentrations in the range of 20-400ng/ml, with decreased stimulation …

A Study Of Energy Transfer Of Wind And Ocean Waves, Shahrdad Sajjadi, Mason Bray

Publications

To develop a better understanding of energy transfer between wind and different types of waves a model was created to determine growth factors and energy transfers on breaking waves and the resulting velocity vectors. This model was used to build on the research of Sajjadi et al (1996) on the growth of waves by sheared flow and takes models of wave velocities developed by Weber and Melsom (1993) and end energy transfer by Sajjadi, Hunt and Drullion (2012).

Electrospinning Polymer Blends For Biomimetic Scaffolds For Acl Tissue Engineering, Vanessa Lizeth Garcia

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is one of the most common knee injuries. Current ACL reconstructive strategies consist of using an autograft or an allograft to replace the ligament. However, limitations have led researchers to investigate tissue engineered grafts, known as scaffolds, through electrospinning. Scaffolds made of natural and synthetic polymer blends have the potential to promote cell adhesion while having strong mechanical properties. However, enzymes found in the knee are known to degrade tissues and affect the healing of intra-articular injuries. Results suggest that the natural polymers used in this study modify the thermal properties and tensile strength …