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Reinterpretation Of The Mesozoic Thrust Complex Of The Southern Spring Mountains, Nevada, Warren Harding Allen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The east verging Keystone thrust fault in the southern Spring Mountains west of Goodsprings, Nevada, is mapped with a sharp bend in its trace near Keystone Wash. This bend was previously explained in the context of out-of-sequence thrusting and a salient-recess relationship along the thrust system; a simple redirection of the Keystone thrust to a north verging thrust. Recent geochronological studies indicate that the east verging Keystone thrust to the north of Keystone Wash formed between 83-103Ma. Approximately 5 kilometers to the east a north verging branch of the fault system overlies rocks as young as 99Ma. At the location …

Health And Stress Symptoms In University Professors And Their Relationship With The Process Of Obtaining A Permanent Position, Irene Concepcion Carrillo-Saucedo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research study used a quantitative, correlational method to examine health and stress symptoms in university professors and their relationship with the process of obtaining a permanent position and participation in a merit pay program. The Stress Profile Inventory (PEN) was used to measure professors’ health habits, social support network, Type A behavior, cognitive hardiness, coping styles and psychological well-being. An original measure with a Likert-type scale was used to measure health status. The questionnaires were distributed to 104 professors from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) who provided voluntary participation. Based on the results of the study, certain …

Short-Term Forecasting Analysis Of Municipal Water Demand In El Paso, Texas, Alejandro Ceballos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Short-term water demand forecasts inform decisions regarding budgeting, rate design, water supply system operations, and effective implementation of conservation policies. This study develops a Linear Transfer Function (LTF) forecasting model for El Paso, Texas, a growing city located in the desert Southwest region of the United States. The model is used to generate monthly-frequency out-of-sample simulations of water demand for periods when actual demand is known. To measure the accuracy of the LTF projections against viable alternatives, a set of benchmark forecasts is also developed. Both descriptive accuracy metrics and formal statistical tests are used to analyze predictive performance. The …

The Impacts Of Health Status And Exposure To Environmental Toxins On Children's Grade Point Average In El Paso, Texas, Stephanie Elizabeth Clark

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Studies in the US have found that both exposure to environmental toxins and children's general health status negatively impact children's academic achievement. This Thesis will be made of up two papers. The first examines the impact of exposure to residential air toxins from a variety of sources on student's academic achievement and the second paper incorporates a measure of children's general health status into the statistical model from the first paper. This Thesis employs National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) risk estimates from a variety of sources and individual-level data collected through a mail survey of fourth and fifth grade school …

Parental Perception On The Impact Of Continued Use Of Baby Sign On Stress And Parent-Child Interaction: Follow-Up Survey One Year Post Hoc Of A Baby Sign Workshop, Brenda G. Compean

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Past research has indicated that teaching baby sign language to infants can be stressful for parents. Thus, a previous study to test this assertion was conducted. A baby sign workshop was conducted and consisted of teaching the parents approximately 200 signs and information on implementation. Results indicated that parents did not report stress as a result of using baby sign with their children. The current case study administered a modified version of the baby sign workshop survey one year post hoc. Purpose: To observe continued use of baby sign, as well as parental perception of the impact of baby …

La Lutte Pour L'Azawad: Mnla Public Relations Responses To Conflict In Northern Mali, 2011-2014, Sean Neil Curtis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis examines the Internet public relations content of Mali's Tuareg rebel group, the Mouvement National de la Liberation de L'Azawad (MNLA). Content analysis grounded in speech act securitization theory is applied to the 259 posts on the MNLA's primary French language website in order to determine if MNLA website posts correlate with the events occurring in the northern Mali conflict. The data reveals that various characteristics of MNLA statements do correlate with events in the conflict. What the MNLA says provides important insight into the organization and the conflict itself. The identified correlations allow for MNLA rhetoric and activity …

Development Of Rigorous Electromagnetic Simulation Tools For Anisotropic Structures, Jose Luis Enriquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Many times, mankind's creative nature has pushed the envelope beyond what was deemed physically possible at the time. People have engineered ways for us to fly, communicate across the globe in seconds, landed on the moon, and more recently discovered ways to make an object invisible. Unfortunately, there are times that this creativeness is hindered by funding, access to required tools or a combination of both. While this work cannot provide funding, it does provide a tool that one could use to model and simulate a variety of media. The media can vary from devices already being implemented to more …

Depositional Facies And Interpretation Of Salt-Sediment Interaction In The Lower Triassic Moenkopi Formation Adjacent To The Castle Valley Salt Wall, Paradox Basin, Utah, Ann Marie Foster

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Stratigraphic, sedimentologic and compositional data collected from the Triassic Moenkopi Formation adjacent to the Castle Valley salt anticline, Paradox Basin, Utah indicate passive diapirism of the salt wall with well-developed topography and exposed salt during the Early Triassic. Moenkopi strata thin to 150m on to the Castle Valley salt anticline and thicken to an estimated 275m away from it, indicating control of sedimentation by salt-generated topography. The distribution of nine terrestrial facies assemblages within Moenkopi Formation strata on the margins of Castle Valley Salt Wall, in combination with identification of three halokinetic sequences interpreted from stratal architecture adjacent to the …

Simulations Of The Effects Of Temperature And Plasma In Carbide Processing, Alejandro Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The transient surface temperature of particles within a packed bed was simulated to enable ultimately the prediction of plasma-surface reactions at ultrahigh temperatures. The motivation for the present study was along two fronts - the reactive infusion of liquid alloys at ultrahigh temperatures to process metal matrix or ceramic matrix composites and the plasma processing of materials to spike the surface temperatures to enable the formation of protective oxidizing scales on ultrahigh ceramic composites. The transient temperature simulations determined that a graphite crucible containing B4C spherical particles heated from 298 to 2128 K and 2504 K occurred in about 900 …

Electrical Stimulation Uses Sodium Channel Dependent Depolarization To Produce Exocytotic-Like Dopamine Release And Rotational Behavior In Vivo, Alice Elaine Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this project was to establish Electrical Stimulation (ES) in combination with In Vivo Intracerebral Microdialysis (IVMCD) as a methodology to evoke exocytotic-like dopamine (DA) release. To provide evidence that ES mimics action potential-mediated DA exocytosis, we hypothesized that ES produces depolarization of the membrane potential that is dependent upon sodium (Na+) -channels to produce DA release concomitantly with rotational behavior. To test this, rats received electrode and cannulae implants along the medial forebrain bundle, which contains the DAergic nigrostriatal pathway, and a microdialysis probe at the striatum to undergo IVMCD testing. To begin, steady baseline DA levels …

Computational Search For Novel Magnetic Clusters With Large Magnetic Anisotropy Energy, Nabil Md Rakinul Hoque

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The clusters of transition metal atoms often show high spin moments but generally are reactive with the environment. Passivation of the surface atoms can lead to more stable clusters. We have explored one such avenue for passivation in this work. We picked the As@Ni12@As20 cluster which in the neutral state has a magnetic moment of 3 μB. We doped this cluster with various numbers of Mn atoms by substituting Ni atoms. The substitutional doping leads to spin moments located on the Mn atoms. The doping leads to symmetry breaking and as a consequence the number of structural isomers and spin …

Late Miocene-Quaternary Fault Evolution And Interaction In The Southern California Inner Continental Borderland, Christopher C. Sorlien, Jonathan T. Bennett, Marie-Helene Cormier, Brian A. Campbell, Craig Nicholson, Robert L. Bauer

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Changing conditions along plate boundaries are thought to result in the reactivation of preexisting structures. The offshore southern California Borderland has undergone dramatic adjustments as conditions changed from subduction tectonics to transform tectonics, including major Miocene oblique extension, followed by transpressional fault reactivation. However, consensus is still lacking about stratigraphic age models, fault geometry, and slip history for the near-offshore area between southern Los Angeles and San Diego (California, USA). We interpret an extensive data set of seismic reflection, bathymetric, and stratigraphic data from that area to determine the three-dimensional geometry and kinematic evolution of the faults and folds and …

High School Mathematics Teachers' Connective Knowledge Of The Challenges And Possibilities In Implementing The Flipped Learning Model: An Embedded Mixed-Methods Study, Karla Huereca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The impact of technology advancements in our current society continues to transform the ways in which we interact with each other, and the educational field has not been exempt from this transformation. Integration of technology in schools has influenced educators to seek new ways of teaching that adapt to the needs of students who are impacted by a digital wave. That is the case of a new instructional approach, which is being known as the Flipped Learning Model (FLM). The FLM intends to use pre-recorded video lessons to teach outside the classroom and incorporate homework and problem solving inside the …

Optimization Of Green Logistics Using Genetic Algorithm Approach, Gabriela Ituarte-Villarreal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Green Logistics (GL) becomes critical in Supply Chain Management (SCM) due to it having less of an impact to the environment. Green Logistics optimization refers to the determination depot quantity, decreasing uncovered demand and CO2 emission reduction. To date, application of Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been proven to be very efficient and reliable in solving optimization problems; it is also capable of operating simultaneously with multiple solutions. Basically, GA imitates the natural evolution of a population with initial solutions. In this Thesis a modified Genetic Algorithm is proposed to solve the multiple objective GL optimization problem. MATLAB software is used …

Memory, State Violence, And Revolution: Mexico's Dirty War In Ciudad Juárez, Vanessa Claire Johnson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

After the uprising that took place in Madera, Chihuahua on September 23, 1965, the first armed challenge to the state since the Mexican Revolution, the north became a region of historical significance for understanding the subsequent "Dirty War" that spanned from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Ciudad Juárez was a key locale in which a wide variety of revolutionary groups conducted both open and clandestine activities. Attempting to rouse the masses, a dedicated few organized protests, counter-meetings, popular assemblies, and launched a prepa popular to reorganize and democratize education. The Mexican state responded to these events with repression, …

The Window To The Bilingual Mind: Eye Movements Reveal Psycholinguistic Grain Unit Sizes Of Bilingual Spoken Word Recognition, Yu-Cheng Lin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although there are common phonological units across different languages, previous studies have shown that individual differences of language proficiency affect sound unit preferences in monolingual and bilingual speakers. The cross-language lexical activation of phonological representations in bilingual minds can provide a great opportunity for testing hypotheses about how this key factor modulates the cross-linguistic phonological transfer across languages. In this study, I used the eye-tracking technique and quantitative methods (i.e., growth curve analysis and multilevel regression) to examine how individual differences in language proficiency affect cross-language phonological unit size transfer in Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants heard a spoken word and were …

Iso-Power-Efficiency: An Approach To Scaling Application Codes With A Power Budget, Rogelio Long

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For many applications, speedup saturates and parallel efficiency decreases if the problem size is held fixed while increasing the number of processors. For some problems, it is possible to maintain a fixed parallel efficiency by increasing both the problem size and the number of processing elements. The rate at which the problem size must increase to maintain constant efficiency for a given rate of increase of the number of processors is given by the iso-efficiency function. We have developed a new scalability function called iso-power-efficiency that determines the rate at which the problem size must increase to maintain constant efficiency …

Bounded Rationality In Decision Making Under Uncertainty: Towards Optimal Granularity, Joseph Anthony Lorkowski

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Starting from well-known studies by Kahmenan and Tversky, researchers have found many examples when our decision making seems to be irrational. We show that this seemingly irrational decision making can be explained if we take into account that human abilities to process information are limited. As a result, instead of the exact values of different quantities, we operate with granules that contain these values. On several examples, we show that optimization under such granularity restriction indeed leads to observed human decision making. Thus, granularity helps explain seemingly irrational human decision making.

Similar arguments can be used to explain the success …

Exploratory Study Of Seasonal Indoor Bioaerosols And The Associated Health Outcomes In Low-Income Communities In El Paso, Texas, 2014, Eric Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Structural degradation, moisture levels, and building failures can influence poor indoor air quality and create a good environment for bioaerosols. People spend much of their time indoors and can potentially be exposed to these bioaerosols. Several studies have correlated exposures to high concentrations of bioaerosols to various health problems, severe allergies, asthma, or other respiratory illness. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to describe bioaerosol concentrations, meteorological factors, and health outcomes during the summer and fall seasons; characterize bioaerosols (bacteria and fungi) collected in low-income communities; compare bioaerosol concentrations by season; compare meteorological factors to bioaerosol concentrations by …

Rural Clinicians’ Perceived Ethical Dilemmas: Relationships With Clinician Well-Being And Burnout, Amithea M. Love

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Mental health clinicians are bound by professional ethics codes that are intended to ensure beneficence toward clients. When clinicians reside in rural areas, ethical dilemmas result from the distinct nature of rural life and clinical practice. Despite extant literature on the ethical dilemmas of rural practice, little research has examined the effect of ethical dilemmas on the social-emotional functioning of clinicians. In response to this need, the study investigated the relationships of frequency of and discomfort from ethical dilemmas on clinician social-emotional functioning. Participants were rural and small town clinicians (N = 60) between ages 24-65 and primarily Caucasian (83.3%), …

Adapting To A Virtual Learning Environment, Winston H. Maddox

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This participatory action research (PAR) dissertation examines the experiences of five experienced faculty transitioning from teaching in a traditional classroom to a virtual learning environment. The research participants used technology to deliver course material and reflected on the changes in their pedagogical practice. Data were collected using four phased sessions, including the completion of interview questions, individual interview video sessions, and group video sessions and the review of participant video validation postings. Research participants used journaling to reflect on their values, beliefs, assumptions, and experiences associated with teaching and learning. Research participants teaching in virtual learning environments were provided an …

Leadership For Social Change: Illuminating The Life Of Dr. Helen Caldicott, Leah Hanes

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is a biographical study of the life of Dr. Helen Caldicott that details her life and work over the years from 1997 to 2014. The history of her significant role in the end of the Cold War and her influence in public opinion regarding nuclear power and nuclear arms has been well-documented through many books, films, and articles as well as her own autobiography up to this twenty-year-period. My study will help to fill the gap in her most recent life. In particular, I will explore the impact of her activism on society and her personal life in …

African American Women Leaders In The Civil Rights Movement: A Narrative Inquiry, Janet Dewart Bell

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to give recognition to and lift up the voices of African American women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. African American women were active leaders at all levels of the Civil Rights Movement, though the larger society, the civil rights establishment, and sometimes even the women themselves failed to acknowledge their significant leadership contributions. The recent and growing body of popular and nonacademic work on African American women leaders, which includes some leaders’ writings about their own experiences, often employs the terms “advocate” or “activist” rather than “leader.” In the academic literature, particularly on …

Perceived Gender Role Conflict And Violence: Mexican American Gang Members, Lorraine Gray

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine gender role conflicts (the inability to express emotions or feelings) within the lived experiences of former Mexican American gang members. This study involved exploring the relationship between restricted emotionality, machismo, and violence. O’Neil developed the theory of gender role conflict in 1980 to identify areas of stress in masculine behavior, cognitions, affective behavior, and the unconscious. According to O’Neil (1981a), “Gender role conflict is a psychological state in which gender roles (masculine, feminine, or androgynous roles) have negative consequences or impacts on the persons” (p. 203). The extreme result of conflict …

Child-Centered Play Therapy For Children With Autism: A Case Study, Ashley H. Morgenthal

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation evaluated archival data from the implementation of a child-centered approach to play therapy with a young girl diagnosed with autism. Goals of treatment included promoting spontaneous symbolic play and increasing verbal communication skills. Young children with autism who engage in early intervention often receive behavioral interventions, such as applied behavior analysis (ABA), on a regular basis. However, the use of child-centered play therapy as an intervention is not as common, as play is frequently viewed as being a deficiency for children with autism. In psychological theory, play is often regarded as a child’s work, and his or her …

Effects Of Presenting Normative Alcohol Data On Perceptions Of College Drinking Behavior, Cullen Patrick Hardy

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Alcohol abuse, often in the form of binge drinking, is a problem that every college campus faces. Many researchers suggest that students believe that their peers drink more alcohol than is actually true, and use such a perception as a justification to drink more alcohol than should be consumed (Perkins, Haines, & Rice, 2005). The purpose of this study is to understand whether presenting normative information on drinking behavior among college students in two different ways (focus on heavy drinking or focus on abstinence) has an effect on the perceptions of drinking behavior.

When The Heroes Become Less Super: Coping With Problems Of Professional Competence, Gregory Betz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation addresses the subject of problems of professional competency within clinical psychology. A review of the current literature on the subject begins with topics including recent changes in terminology, conceptualization, and prevalence of competency problems. Contributing factors, differences between practicing psychologists and trainees, and ethical issues are addressed. The review concludes with current perspectives for assessing and intervening for problems of professional competence. The second section provides the methodology for the study which was a mixed-methods design consisting of a quantitative and qualitative component. The primary procedure consisted of an educational intervention provided to first-year students of a clinical …

Worlds Of Connection: A Hermeneutic Formulation Of The Interdisciplinary Relational Model Of Care, Susana Lauraine Mccune

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Despite a general agreement across health care disciplines that Advanced Care Planning (ACP) and Advanced Directives (ADs) add important elements to a patient's end-of-life care desires, and can inform their loved ones and advocates, help create ease of mind, and enhance quality of care, they continue to remain significantly underused. More than half of Americans transition to chronic and terminal illness without having completed them. The aim of this study was to increase the frequency and enhance the quality of communication about Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning within the clinical relationship. The resulting Interdisciplinary Relational Model of Care (IRMOC) …

The Moderating Effect Of Resilience Factors On Bully Victimization And Subsequent Psychological Adjustment Problems Among Adolescent Girls, Alexandra Hayley Quinn

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Bully victimization is linked to poor psychological adjustment, low self-esteem, and social withdrawal in children and teens. However, little research to date has examined the unique experiences of adolescent girls, the specific contributions of various subtypes of bullying, and the utilization of comprehensive instruments to examine the constructs of psychological adjustment and bully victimization. Further, researchers studying these issues have called for more studies to examine buffering factors that may protect teen girls from the psychological insults associated with peer victimization. This study advances research in the field by utilizing standardized self-report measures to examine the relationship between bully victimization …

A Model For A Haitian Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center: An Accounting, Corey Gifford

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Mental health resources are minimal and in need of further development. The goal of this dissertation project was to develop a model for a comprehensive outpatient Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was both critical and essential that the development of a CMHC be considered within the sociopolitical and economic context of Haiti. As such, this project first examined relevant information regarding Haitian geography, poverty, government, and culture. Within this context, the impact of the 2010 earthquake was considered. This context was then used to consider relevant literature, …