Digital Commons Network^™

Stride Length-Speed Relationship During Body Weight Supported Running, Carmen Chona

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to determine if body weight support influences the stride length-speed relationship. Additionally, the purpose was to determine if impact characteristics of running are influenced by body weight support and speed. Subjects (n=10; 6 female, 4 male) volunteered to participate in this study. All subjects were injury free and were comfortable running on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Subjects ran on a lower body positive (LBPP, Alter-G, G-Trainer) treadmill for 4 conditions of body weight (100, 40, 30 and 20% of body weight) and 4 running speeds (100, 110, 120 and 130% of the preferred …

Modeling And Development Of Human Interface For Pedestrian Simulator, Romesh Khaddar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

According to Traveler opinion and perception survey of 2005, 107.4 million Americans use walking as regular mode of travel, which amounts to 51% of American population. In 2009, 4092 pedestrian fatalities have been reported nationwide with a fatality rate of 1.33 which totals 59,000 crashes. Also, pedestrians are over represented in crash data by accounting more than 12% of fatalities but on 10.9% of trips. This makes a perfect case for understanding the causes behind such statistics, calling for a continuous research on pedestrians walking behavior and their interactions with surroundings.

Current research in pedestrian simulation focuses on surveys and …

25-Hydroxyvitamin D, Igf-1, And Waist Circumference A Cross-Sectional Study, Damon Mccune

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Purpose: Waist circumference has been shown to have a link to various forms of chronic disease and low levels of Vitamin D (25(OH)D) and IGF-1. The purpose of this study is to assess if there is a relationship with Vitamin D (25(OH)D) and IGF-1 levels and waist circumference.

Methods: As part of a cross-sectional correlation study, participants were males and females (n=26), ages 25-65, who were students at UNLV and/or individuals who attend local health and wellness facilities as well as attendees of classes held by the UNLV Nutrition Center. Participants reported to UNLV to review and sign informed consent …

Impaired Theory Of Mind In Psychotic And Affective Disorders, Erik Nelson Ringdahl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Psychotic symptoms in bipolar I disorder during mood episodes has been associated with several negative outcomes raising the question as to whether psychosis is a risk factor for a more severe form of this chronic and debilitating condition. However, relatively little research has been directed at understanding the relationships among social cognitive functioning in bipolar I disorder with and without a history of psychosis. Impaired social cognition has been identified as a putative endophenotypic markers in schizophrenia and the evidence is mounting as to whether similar impairments also exist in bipolar I disorder. Given the plethora of research supporting the …

The Influence Of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick On Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian, Ryan Joseph Tesar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While many works exert an influence on Cormac McCarthy's 1985 novel Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West, I argue in this thesis that Herman Melville's Moby-Dick stands above them all in importance. I examine some areas where Melville's influence on McCarthy's work can be most notably located. I argue that Melville's importance to McCarthy can be seen in the latter's use of several characters from Moby-Dick in his own novel. I also examine the parallels that arise when one examines the confluences between the two novels' structures, vocabularies, and settings. I also consider how Melville's violent aesthetics …

Survival, Growth, And Settlement Of Dreissena Rostriformis Bugensis Veligers In Low And High Calcium Waters, Emma Ruhmann

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Populations ofDreissena rostriformis bugensis(quagga mussels) have continued to spread throughout the western United States since their discovery in the Boulder Basin of Lake Mead, NV-AZ in early 2007. Today, quagga mussel specific research is still lacking and the physicochemical characteristics of aquatic systems required by quagga mussels to successfully establish is not fully understood. This includes an absence of research in aquatic environments in the western United States and on quagga mussel veligers (larval stage). Calcium is considered the defining factor for determining if a lake or river is suitable for quagga mussel establishment. The minimum calcium threshold for invasion …

Accessibility Of Tourism Websites: Attitudes And Behaviors, Filza Armadita

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While developed countries continue to shape an industry that has somehow become an integral part of the society, it only seems fair that the industry should provide equal access for every member of the society, recouping members of the market that is excluded without notice. The basic tier of service in the web interface is to provide information, before any booking systems and online purchasing (Siegel, 1997). In the travel industry, this basic tier is achieved in many different travel businesses, but consistently in destination marketing websites that solely promotes a tourism destination through delivering information about the specific location. …

Clear As Mud: Recreating Public Water Rights That Already Exist, Kathryn A. Tipple

Utah Law Review

“Speculation. Water monopoly. Land monopoly. . . . John Wesley Powell was pretty well convinced that those would be the fruits of a western land policy based on wishful thinking, willfulness, and lousy science.”186 PWR 107 was created to avoid water monopolization through land reservation. However, it would seem that management of public water reserves on federal lands has succumbed to some of John Wesley Powell’s concerns: management has been incomplete, ad hoc, and potentially based on incomplete hydrological data. PWR 107, as well as federal water reserves in general, pits western states against the BLM where there is a …

Quantifying Habitat Relationships Of Songbirds In Quaking Aspen (Populus Tremuloides) And Other Montane Communities Of The Jarbidge Mountains, Nevada, Kevin Patrick Glueckert

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) woodlands are expected to be sensitive to climate change, and have declined in parts of the West. Great Basin mountain ranges may be near the limits of aspen’s climatic threshold, in terms of temperature and aridity, and thus are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Birds associating with aspen are likely to undergo regional population fluctuations and changes in distribution as a result of changes in aspen availability or distribution. Thus, understanding the habitat relationships of avian communities in aspen and other montane cover types is important for tracking the impacts of future landscape change. …

Gravity & Einstein: Assessing The Rubber Sheet Analogy In Undergraduate Conceptual Physics, Tiffany Rae Watkins

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The rubber sheet analogy for Einstein’s General Relativity model of gravity is a popular way to visualize the effect mass has on the curvature of spacetime. My single group, quasi-experimental study with repeated measures was designed to assess the effectiveness of the rubber sheet analogy in teaching gravitational fields. I developed instructional materials, including a hands-on lab, to engage university students in thinking about gravity using the rubber sheet analogy. Previous research on students’ ideas about gravity informed the development of the pre/post-test. My work is an important first step in establishing a standard assessment on gravity.

Approximately 97 students …

Methods For Efficient Object Categorization, Detection, Scene Recognition, And Image Search, Alessandro Bergamo

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

In the past few years there has been a tremendous growth in the usage of digital images. Users can now access millions of photos, a fact that poses the need of having methods that can efficiently and effectively search the visual information of interest. In this thesis, we propose methods to learn image representations to compactly represent a large collection of images, enabling accurate image recognition with linear classification models which offer the advantage of being efficient to both train and test. The entries of our descriptors are the output of a set of basis classifiers evaluated on the image, …

Mechanistic And Substrate Specificity Studies On Burkholderia Mallei Quorum Sensing Signal Synthesis Enzyme, Aubrey N. Montebello

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Gram-negative bacteria use acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) based quorum sensing (QS) to regulate the expression of genes that give the bacteria a selective advantage over host defenses and antibiotic treatment. Burkholderia mallei is an antibiotic resistant pathogen that causes Glanders disease. B. mallei BmaI1 AHL-synthase uses octanoyl-Acyl Carrier Protein (C8ACP) and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) to synthesize the AHL, octanoyl-homoserine lactone (C8HSL). Inhibiting AHL-synthases has been difficult because mechanistic and substrate specificity details for these enzymes are not well understood. Our goal was to determine how BmaI1 activity and enzymatic mechanism changes with nonspecific, variable acyl chain acyl-ACP substrates. We found that catalytic …

A Document In Death And Madness: A Cultural And Interdisciplinary Study Of Nineteenth-Century Art Song Settings On The Death Of Opelia, Jennifer Leigh Tipton

Dissertations

In the nineteenth century the character of Ophelia transformed from a minor role in Hamlet into one of the great muses of the Romantic period. Ophelia’s rise to an archetype of feminine madness was not a result of Shakespeare’s pen alone, but of the accumulation of interpretations of her character from actresses, artists, critics, writers, musicians, and social attitudes toward women. This paper focuses on nineteenth-century interpretations of her death, specifically art song.

A brief survey of the nineteenth-century European cultural and social climate pertaining to Ophelia is included in the paper:

*Shakespeare in France and Germany

*Nineteenth-Century Actresses in …

Do Social Communication Skills Mediate The Relation Between Adhd Symptoms And Reltionship Satisfaction?, Erin Clarke Bell

Dissertations

Very few studies have examined adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and relationship satisfaction. The current study focused on ADHD symptoms, social communication skills, and relationship satisfaction. Based on previous research that provides evidence that individuals with ADHD tend to have more difficulty with both receptive and expressive social communication skills as well as the large amount of evidence that communication is a key component to relationship satisfaction, it was expected that higher ADHD symptoms in one partner of a romantic dyad would relate to less relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, because ADHD is associated with a positive illusory bias (PIB), it was also …

Development And Applications Of The Expanded Equivalent Fluid Method, Bharath Kumar Kandula

Dissertations

Ocean acoustics is the study of sound in the oceans. Electromagnetic waves attenuate rapidly in the water medium. Sound is the best means to transmit information underwater. Computational numerical simulations play an important role in ocean acoustics. Simulations of acoustic propagation in the oceans are challenging due to the complexities involved in the ocean environment. Different methods have been developed to simulate underwater sound propagation. The Parabolic-Equation (PE) method is the best choice in several ocean acoustic problems. In shallow water acoustic experiments, sound loses some of its energy when it interacts with the bottom. An equivalent fluid technique was …

Keyhole Garden: A Key To Nutritional Health, August 2014

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

Economic transformations have had consequences for nutrition and health in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica (Himmelgreen et al, 2013). A rapid shift from agriculture to a mixed economy based on tourism continues to morph the nature of the community (Himmelgreen, 2013). As a result of the shift to ecotourism, many in Monteverde suffer from varying levels of food insecurity (Himmelgreen, 2006). The Community Health and Globalization Field School is a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and organized by the University of South Florida and the Monteverde Institute. This year’s researchers explored the …

Effects Of Leptin On Established Glioblastoma Cell Lines, Nicholas J. Cook

All NMU Master's Theses

Glioblastoma is one of the most difficult cancers to treat because it is aggressive and resistant to therapy. The discovery of new therapeutic targets is drastically needed as zero improved treatment options have been added to the standard of care over the past 15 years. New and promising therapeutic targets are arising from psychosocial and environmental enrichment studies examining the role of stress in cancer progression. In animal models, eustress appears to slow tumor growth and recurrence resulting in increased overall survival and progression free survival while distress is associated with decreased overall survival. The cellular pathways activated by eustress …

Where I Belong, Joy E. Weitzel

All NMU Master's Theses

This project compiled research of my family history to present an honest and creative portrayal of my family’s journey, connecting the stories of my ancestors to the common struggle, movement, and growth of humanity. The Duckworth’s were farmers who came to West Virginia from Maryland in the 1830s. Five pieces follow the course of the Duckworths, who witnessed the growth of industrialism, the toils of migration, the extension of the B&O railroad, and the eruption of the American Civil War. The lives described in this thesis are the patriarchs of the Duckworth family, beginning with Henry Duckworth migrating to West …

Seasonal Roads, Lynn K. Fay

All NMU Master's Theses

Lynn Kimball Fay has been publishing for twenty-five years under the pen-name L. E. Kimball.
As a writer, I’m interested in the way Truth seems to me—intuitively—nonlinea. I’m interested in story cycles that examine Truth from different points of view, usually nonlinearly; and I’m interested in the way setting reveals Truth and how it reveals character. I’m interested in Faith—a kind that is not irreconcilable with science, the kind it takes to put that foot in front of the other.
The kind we have in one another.
I have always, therefore, been fascinated with layers of Time, the nonlinear and …

Millennial Alumni Perceptions Of Communications Media Utilized By The Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences, Amanda Nicole Anthony

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alumni relationship cultivation serves as the foundation of higher education and must be maintained to keep graduates and alma maters connected. To evaluate the success of communications media in reaching recent graduates, classified as Millennials, this study sought to determine Millennial alumni perceptions of media distributed by the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences (Bumpers College) from 2012 through 2014. Assessed communications media included The Graduate and AR Culture magazines, The Graduate e-newsletter, tailgate and mocktail party invitations, College website, and social media presences. Active and inactive Millennial alumni (N = 20) responses were gathered through …

An Open Access Distribution Tariff: Removing Barriers To Innovation On The Smart Grid, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This Article proposes that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) consider promulgating an Open Access Distribution Tariff (OADT) to open the nation's electric grid to new products and services at the consumer (distribution) level. Design of the OADT would be comparable to the Open Access Transmission Tariff that the FERC has used previously to open the nation's transmission wires. This Article argues that an OADT is necessary to create a smart electricity network that would be national, multimodal, and interactive. There is no smart electricity network at present, and there are numerous barriers to the development of open networking, such …

Mckee Minute August 2014, Southern Adventist University

McKee Minute – McKee Library This Month

The August 2014 McKee MInute focuses on books along the theme "Do the Impossible," features several films on sports and recreation, recommends health periodicals, and spotlights visual arts.

Book Review Forum: Glenn Petersen, Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, And Political Organization, Karen L. Nero

Pacific Studies

Glenn Petersen. Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009. Pp. 288. ISBN: 978-0-8248-3248-3. US$42.00 cloth.

Review: KAREN L . NERO

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

More Than A Feeling: The Transmission Of Affect And Group Identity, Lauren Fine

Student Works

This thesis explores the implications that the transmission of affect (when one person’s emotions are transferred through pheromones and visual cues to trigger a similar affective response in someone else) could have on the study of rhetoric, specifically how we understand rhetorical situations involving large groups. According to Kenneth Burke, our identities are made up of the groups we identify ourselves with, which makes our identities largely based on emotionally connecting with other people. When groups are gathered together, particularly in emotionally charged situations, this emotional connection is often triggered by the subconscious transmission of affect. Transmission can lead a …

Nationalism, Universality, And Globalization: Notes On The Narrative Of Three Guatemalan Authors, Marcie Noble

Dissertations

This dissertation examines various works of literature produced by three Guatemalan authors: Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974), Augusto Monterroso (1921-2003), and Rodrigo Rey Rosa (1958) in order to trace a trajectory in the narrative written by Guatemalans from a nationally focused literature to one that is increasingly global. The first chapter provides an overview of the study and clarifies the terminology applied throughout the dissertation. In chapter two I analyze El Señor Presidente (1946), Hombres de maíz (1949), and Mulata de Tal (1963) as key examples of Asturias’ nationally focused works, which continually represented and mythologized Guatemala. In chapter three I …

Vocabulary Growth Using Nonfiction Literature And Dialogic Discussions In Preschool Classrooms, Gwen R. Marra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The preschool years are a crucial time for children to develop vocabulary knowledge. A quality preschool environment promotes large amounts of language usage including picture book read alouds and discussions. There is growing research to support the use of nonfiction literature in preschool classrooms to promote vocabulary growth and knowledge of the world for preschool children. This research study compared vocabulary growth of preschool children using fiction and dialogic discussions versus vocabulary growth of preschool children using nonfiction and dialogic discussions following a six week study of autumn and changes that happen during this season to the environment and animals. …

The Relationship Between Mothers' Physical Self-Perceptions, Exercise Self-Regulation, Body Image Discrepancy And Sport-Specific Socialization Support For Their Daughters, Janelle K. Beilman

Master's Theses

Opportunities in youth sport are impacted by many socialization factors. In order to keepfemales engaged in sport, the study of additional factors that predict girls sport socialization is important. This study investigated the relationships among mothers’ physical self-perceptions, self-regulation of exercise, body image discrepancies (BID) and sport/activity socialization for their daughters. One hundred and four mothers (M= 44.932, SD= 5.8078) completed self-report questionnaires that assessed their physical self-perceptions, exercise self-regulation, body image discrepancy and support for their daughters’ participation in 20 different sports and physical activities. Results indicated that no significant correlations between the physical self-perception competence and most importance …

Liminal River: Art, Agency And Cultural Transformation Along The Protohistoric Arkansas River, Leslie Walker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For nearly a century, ceramic vessels looted from Protohistoric Native American Graves in the Central Arkansas River Valley have raised questions about the ethnic identity of the inhabitants of the region and their relationship to their neighbors in time and space. This analysis combines careful documentation of 1198 of these vessels with excavated sherds and other data from the Carden Bottoms site (3YE0025) and adjacent rock art sites in the Arkansas River Valley to provide a context for these vessels and, in so doing, defines the Dardenne Style of artistic production. Comparing motifs, and the manner in which they are …

Identification And Development Of The Support Needs In Nematology For Arkansas Cooperative Extension Personnel, Mia Gentry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

County extension agents are vital to the land-grant university system and are responsible for transferring current, research-based knowledge from the university to the community. In-service training allows agents the means to maintain a current, sound knowledge base. Needs identified by leading nematologists led the researcher of this study to assess if nematology education was a topic that warranted in-service training development for Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service (CES) agents. The researcher also assessed agents' comfort level with job related technology. Of the respondents, 67% identified general knowledge of plant parasitic nematodes necessary to meet the needs of their clientele. Findings from …

A Mixed Methods Approach Of Communication Campaign Development And Assessment: Identifying The Needs Of An Audience And Determining The Value In Evaluation, Tara Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two articles presented in this thesis used both quantitative and qualitative research methods to examine two distinct stages of communication campaigns: research and evaluation. In the quantitative study, students (n = 440) at the University of Arkansas were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC), water resources, and water issues. A questionnaire was developed from an existing instrument, reviewed by a panel of experts, pilot tested, and revised. The researchers found participants were most aware (M = 3.23, SD = 1.14), concerned (M = 4.07, SD = 0.86), and interested (M = 4.10, SD …