Digital Commons Network^™

The Untold History Of Nevada's Shield Statute, Matthew Travis Ward

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The history of American journalism is replete with anecdotes about news reporters enduring jail and other penalties to protect the identities of confidential sources of information. Since as early as the American Revolution journalists have often found themselves at odds with established authority. In the political cauldron of the late 1960s and early 1970s, U.S. government intrusion into the news gathering process was widespread. The notion the First Amendment protected journalists from revealing sources was invalidated by the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Branzburg v. Hayes. Many states throughout the nation reacted by codifying a reporter's privilege. Nevada did so …

Decontamination Protocols For Watercraft And Wildland Firefighting Equipment In Preventing The Spread Of Invasive Quagga (Dreissena Rostriformis Bugensis) And Zebra (Dreissena Polymorpha) Mussels, Ashlie Watters

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Quagga and zebra mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis and Dreissena polymorpha) are two invasive species introduced via ballast water discharged by large oceanic cargo ships to the North American Great Lakes in the late 1980s. Once established, the mussels spread quickly. In January 2007, D. rostriformis bugensis was discovered in Lake Mead, NV-AZ, and in that same year, mussels were confirmed further south on the Colorado River in Lakes Mojave and Havasu. Dreissenids clog water intake pipes, water filtration systems, and electric generating plants. The mussels also ruin boat motors, damage recreational equipment, and once established in the reservoir, routine maintenance …

Chinese Outbound Tourists Food Consumption In The U.S.: An Extension Of The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Kaiyang Wu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Although Chinese outbound tourists made enormous economic contribution to the U.S. restaurant industry, they seem to have the tendency to consume Chinese cuisine solely during their international trips. This study applies structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate different behavioral beliefs' impact on the intentions of Chinese outbound tourist unfamiliar ethnic food consumption in the U.S. Additionally, this research combines the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and food neophobia, a food-related personality trait to better explain Chinese outbound tourists' food rejection behavior in the U.S.

Results of this study showed safety concern, acceptance of table manners, perceived communication gap and food …

Physical Therapy Non-Treatment Of The Acute Hospital Inpatient, Daniel Lee Young

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The detrimental effects of inactivity and mobility extend to the most ill and injured patients in the acute hospital setting. Facilitating the activity and exercise of these most critical patients often requires the skill and expertise of a physical therapist. When physical therapists are involved in the care of hospital inpatients they experience significant benefits; patients experience fewer secondary complications related to their primary illness or injury, they spend less time in critical care units and less time in the hospital overall, and when they leave they go to less restrictive environments and more comfortable care settings. These known benefits …

Induction Of Differentiation Of Dental Pulp-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (Dpsc), Aubrey Young

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Mesenchymal stem cells are derived from a variety of human tissues and are being bioengineered and studied for possible uses in the advancement of medicine. Recent efforts are being focused on Dental Pulp Stem Cells (DPSC's) due to the accessibility of this tissue. Many factors influence DPSC quality and quantity, including the specific methods used to isolate, collect, concentrate, and store these isolates once they are removed. Ancillary factors, such as the choice of media, the selection of early versus late passage cells, and cryopreservation techniques may also influence the differentiation potential and proliferative capacity of DPSC isolates.

The objective …

Analysis Of Lithic Assemblages From Virgin Branch Puebloan Sites On The Shivwits Plateau, Thomas Carl Wambach

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Flaked stone technology, as with any utilitarian technology, is studied by archaeologists for a number of reasons. Often lithics are studied to understand the activities of a prehistoric group. Everything from the final product to the waste material can, when recovered in suitable amounts, reflect the conscious decisions of its creator. Understanding this helps to embed all stages of stone tool (lithic) use into aspects of human behavior and in understanding the organization of technology.

The Virgin Branch Puebloans are the westernmost sub-branch of the Ancestral Puebloan culture of the American Southwest. While some of their expanse has been studied …

Gilded Age Visual Media As The Impetus For Social Change: Jacob Riis's Reform Photography And The Antecedents Of Documentary Film, Denitsa Yotova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the birth and evolution of the social documentary genre in visual media. It proposes that a mixture of ideology, technology, and social awareness are necessary for a successful social reform. Its review and study of related primary and secondary sources determines that despite the limitations of technology during the nineteenth century, social documentaries were produced long before they were part of the genres of photography and film. By focusing on the work of Danish photographer Jacob Riis and tracing the emergence of the film medium through time, this thesis demonstrates a strong connection between documentary film and …

Exact Controllability Of The Lazer-Mckenna Suspension Bridge Equation, Lanxuan Yu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

It is well known that suspension bridges may display certain oscillations under external aerodynamic forces. Since the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge in 1940, suspension bridge models have been studied by many researchers. Based upon the fundamental nonlinearity in suspension bridges that the stays connecting the supporting cables and the roadbed resist expansion, but do not resist compression, new models describing oscillations in suspension bridges have been developed by Lazer and McKenna [Lazer and McKenna (1990)]. Except for a paper by Leiva [Leiva (2005)], there have been very few work on controls of the Lazer-McKenna suspension bridge models …

Jack Kerouac's Artistic Apprenticeship And The Discovery Of His Authentic Voice, Nathaniel Botsis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Few novels so clearly dramatize an artist's discovery of his authentic voice as does Kerouac's On the Road. The publication of the writing that Kerouac did before On the Road, and particularly the writing he did before The Town and the City, offers almost unprecedented opportunity to study his artistic apprenticeship and trace his development as an artist. To study Kerouac's apprenticeship is to witness him learning how to liberate himself in order to be that which he would become. In addition to shedding light on this unexamined aspect of Kerouac's career, I hope this study might inspire similar breakthroughs …

No Prejudice Here: Racism, Resistance, And The Struggle For Equality In Denver, 1947-1994, Summer Marie Cherland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study chronicles a story of civil rights that has been left untold until now. Recent scholarship contributing to the history of the "long civil rights movement" has reframed our understanding of civil rights beyond the years of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition, it has also demonstrated that civil rights activity occurred in regions other than the South. However, most work on the long civil rights movement demonstrates that activism among blacks began much earlier than the Brown v. Board Supreme Court case and instead, was a part of a longer freedom struggle that, in many ways, …

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Race And Sports Book Complimentary Awards Program, Pak Szeto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to develop a proper way to measure the effectiveness of complimentary award programs in race and sports books. Like most businesses, casinos seek to increase business volume by offering promotions. According to existing research on casino marketing, promotion activities are often measured by the change in business volume (Lucas & Kilby, 2008). Casino operators should be careful because an increase in business volume does not always equal an increase in profit. To create a positive effect on profit, a promotion must at least create enough gross revenue to offset its cost. Some casino executives …

A Study Of Airbnb As A Potential Competitor Of The Hotel Industry, Quynh Nguyen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of the study is to examine Airbnb as a possible competitor of the hotel industry using Peteraf and Bergen’s broad-based competitor identification tool. Unlike existing empirical research on the subject, the study takes a qualitative approach to answer the research question. The results of the study assist hotel operators in determining the competitiveness of Airbnb and the need for a business response to the service.

A Study On Employee Turnover In Shanghai’S Fine Dining Restaurants, Yang Liu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of National Culture On Tipping Behavior, Zina Abraham

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this professional paper is to explore the various factors that contribute to cultural differences in tipping behavior. This meta-analysis of the current research can be applied to understand the tipping habits of international tourists in Las Vegas, a relatively unexplored topic.

A Model For Meeting And Event Venues To Implement Green Practices, Justine Clewer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2007 green meetings were ranked as the third most anticipated trend by Event Solutions magazine’s survey of 1,350 event professionals, however by 2011 it was an emerging trend (Goldblatt, 2012). Today, meeting and event planners are increasingly including clauses in their contracts with venues pertaining to green practices, and are willing to look elsewhere if a venue does not agree to partake in the green initiatives. For venues the failure to “go green” can mean a substantial loss of revenue. Nonetheless, many businesses are hesitant to engage in green (sustainable) practices, because they are not properly educated on the …

Fabrication, Testing And Analysis Of A Fatigue Sensor For Structural Health Monitoring, Subash Gokanakonda

Dissertations

A novel fatigue monitoring sensor (FMS) is designed, fabricated and tested for detecting and monitoring the fatigue damage and estimating the remaining life of structures and components subjected to cyclic loads. The concept is based on the characteristics of stress / strain life cycle relationship of engineering materials. Sensor consists of alternate slots and strips having different strain magnification factor with respect to the nominal strain. The sensor is designed in such a way that the strips will experience the strain which closely resemble the actual strain distribution in the notch or critical area of the component. The sensor can …

Nnlo Hard Functions In Massless Qcd, Alessandro Broggio, Andrea Ferroglia, Ben D. Pecjak, Zhibai Zhang

Publications and Research

We derive the hard functions for all 2 → 2 processes in massless QCD up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the strong coupling constant. By employing the known one- and two-loop helicity amplitudes for these processes, we obtain analytic expressions for the ultraviolet and infrared finite, minimally subtracted hard functions, which are matrices in color space. These hard functions will be useful in carrying out higher-order resummations in processes such as dijet and highly energetic top-quark pair production by means of soft-collinear effective theory methods.

Jellyfish, Forage Fish, And The World's Major Fisheries, Kelly L. Robinson, James J. Ruzicka, Mary Beth Decker, Richard D. Brodeur, Frank J. Hernandez, Javier Quiñones, E. Marcelo Acha, Shin-Ichi Uye, Hermes Mianzan, William M. Graham

Faculty Publications

A majority of the world’s largest net-based fisheries target planktivorous forage fish that serve as a critical trophic link between the plankton and upper-level consumers such as large predatory fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals. Because the plankton production that drives forage fish also drives jellyfish production, these taxa often overlap in space, time, and diet in coastal ecosystems. This overlap likely leads to predatory and competitive interactions, as jellyfish are effective predators of fish early life stages and zooplankton. The trophic interplay between these groups is made more complex by the harvest of forage fish, which presumably releases jellyfish from …

On Designing Collaborative Robotic Systems With Real-Time Operating Systems And Wireless Networks, Andrew Jacob Wolin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Robotic devices currently solve many real-world problems but do so primarily on an individual basis. The ability to deploy large quantities of robots to solve problems has not yet been widely embraced partially due to the complex nature of robotics and levels of research investment.

Existing research in robot collaboration largely exists in the forms of models and simulations. This work seeks to accelerate the next level of research in this area by providing a low cost, collaborative capable robotic system. This platform can be used as a gateway to transport simulations into physical representations. This research not only presents …

Finding Success In Elementary Science Across Socioeconomic Boundaries, Jill K. Hettinger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Elementary science education provides a platform for intellectual development, building a foundation of scientific literacy and a first entry point into interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. A significant body of research on elementary science education clearly defines what high-quality science education should look like at the elementary level. However, there is little understood about how to implement high-quality science instruction effectively within a school system. Prior research indicates that this problem is further compounded in low socioeconomic elementary schools by a lack of resources, time, and high teacher mobility. I used descriptive research to identify the …

Co-Creating Value: Student Contributions To Smart Cities, Chetan S. Sankar, Barry A. Cumbie

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lawyers And Sawyers: Venetian Forest Law And The Conquest Of Terraferma (1350-1476), Michael S. Beaudoin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Venice played a direct role in shaping the future of Northeastern Italy. The standing scholarship views Venetian involvement on the mainland as either an abandonment of the city’s maritime tradition or as a buffer zone against rival powers, like Milan. Venice’s western mainland empire, Terraferma, provided Venice with many commercial products that the Eastern Mediterranean did not. One mainland product, timber, was a central focus of Venetian expansion into Terraferma and has thus far been neglected by historians. This thesis argues that the Venetian Republic manipulated mainland legal traditions in order to obtain …

Radiation-Induced Effects In Chalcogenide-Based Memory Devices And Films, Kasandra Wolf

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Continued scaling of memory devices has produced many issues for the current foremost non-volatile memory—the flash memory—leading to the emergence of a wide variety of alternative memory solutions. Redox Conductive Bridge Memory (RCBM) is one such solution that has shown great promise in recent years. However, the performance of these devices under radiation conditions has not been explored in detail. This work investigates the effects of x-rays and electron bombardment on chalcogenide glasses and RCBM devices based on these materials.

RCBM devices are a form of Resistance Change Memory, which rely on two distinct resistive states to represent the binary …

From Teachers' Control Of Curricula To Curricula's Control Of Teachers: An Analysis Of Loss Of Autonomy In The Lnstructional Labor Process, Joseph Daniel Abbott Jr.

Dissertations

This dissertation explores how the labor process of public school teaching, a white-collar profession, is deskilled. In a content analysis of English/language arts teacher’s manuals and teacher’s editions of student textbooks, I examine public school teachers’ degree of autonomy from an objective, macro-analytical perspective. Applying Harry Braverman’s (1974) theory of the degradation of the modern worker under monopoly capitalism, I explain how teacher deskilling reflects structural factors in the work context that prevent teachers from accessing their professional and personal skill sets via the separation of conception and execution in the instructional labor process.

The formal curricula drive the teaching …

Printing Functional Electronic Circuits And Components, Ahmed Tausif Aijazi

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges in printing reliable multilayer flexible circuits, devices and components. Gravure was used as the primary printing process for this work, but due to some limitations of gravure, other printing methods were also investigated. At first a systematic study was done to determine the optimum parameters for the gravure printing of sub 50 micron lines. Commercially available silver nanoparticle inks were printed on a lab scale gravure printer, Accupress®. The highest resolution line that was electrically conductive was 36μm wide. The 9μm, 18μm and 27μm lines were printed but were not …

Place-Based Education: An Impetus For Teacher Efficacy, Tamara Chase Coleman

Dissertations

This research investigated professional development in place-based (PB) methodology on the efficacy of science teachers. While teachers are expected to use best practices they do not always implement them due to a lack of efficacy in implementation. A professional development program (PD) was designed to increase confidence among teachers planning to incorporate PB methods. Place-based education (PBE) is recognized as a best-practice among professional educators. PBE includes the selection, design and engagement with science using the geographic place as the content. The literature reports that student learning and teacher efficacy will improve when teachers are prepared effectively in PB practices. …

Cruise Industry: Size Matters, Christina Antoinette Wedderburn

Business/Business Administration

This study investigates the relationships between several measures of market share and specific levels of financial performance. The study focuses directly on the cruise line industry and pairs two significant firms to test the hypothesis. The two firms are Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. When correlating higher market share with the return on assets, operating margin and book-to-market aspect of performance it was discovered that higher market share produces higher productivity and efficiency.

Cyber Attacked: Could You Be Next?, Sarah Desjardins

Business/Business Administration

In today’s modern world, companies store the majority of their business information on computer systems. If not properly protected, private data such as customer financial records, trade secrets, and company financials, can be easily compromised. Major data breaches are becoming more frequent, as hackers are becoming more sophisticated. Cyber-attacks have a negative impact on customers, shareholders, employees, and of course the company itself. This paper examines several recent cyber-attacks and explores the reaction to these by the corporations. It examines the potential and verifiable consequences of these attacks and identifies a range of shareholders who can be injured by the …

Three Essays On Gender Differences On Risk Preferences And Credit Market Constraints, Jyoti Rai

Dissertations

The disadvantages that women face in the financial market hamper their social and economic well-being. These disadvantages may arise from their own risk preferences or from financial market. The aim of this dissertation is to examine different aspects of the disadvantages that women face in the U.S Financial Market. In that light, I present three essays that analyze gender differences in risk preferences and credit market constraints. I use the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) data for all my empirical analysis.

In the first essay, I examine whether women exhibit greater financial risk aversion than men using attitudinal and behavioral …

Magnetic Nickel Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Environmental Lmplications And Potential Role As Drug Carriers, Setare Tahmasebi Nick

Dissertations

The design and synthesis of well-defined magnetic particles with nanoscale dimensions is opening new avenues in understanding their fundamental chemical and physical properties. Our work describes a novel facile procedure for the synthesis of homogenous isotropic and anisotropic magnetic nickel nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were produced using a wet-chemical process and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Magnetic measurements were acquired using a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. While there is significant interest in using magnetic nanoparticles for biological …