Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Orthodontic Appliance Base Plate Material, Pmma, Infused With Silver And A Novel Antibacterial Compound On Biofilm Formation, Ryan D. Jolley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Retention is required in the majority of orthodontic patients throughout the remainder of their life. The traditional Hawley style retainer is still considered by many orthodontic professionals to be the gold standard in retention appliances. The orthodontic population, in general, is at a higher risk for caries due to plaque accumulation from poor diet, suboptimal oral hygiene, and often a lack of motivation. A Hawley retainer that reduces caries-causing oral microbes could improve oral health and be very beneficial to the post-orthodontic patient. Developing methods to safely include antibacterial products within the Hawley retainer’s base plate material could help effect …

The Big Band And The Piano: Nikolai Kapustin’S Variations Op. 41, Ryan Kelly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Much has been written and said on how piano works should almost imitate the sounds of an orchestra to be played well. There is a style and musical language that serious pianists must master in order to play with correct voicing, specific tones, and other techniques that make a piano sound like a full orchestra and thus bring it to life.

While there much written about how the piano should imitate the traditional orchestra in the classical and romantic style, what of the big band? In the last century many works have been written for the piano using jazz rhythms, …

A World Of Warning: Exploring U.S. Department Of State Travel Warnings And Alerts, Ryan Daniel Larsen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts are documents issued by the United States Department of State to inform U.S. citizens traveling to other countries about the safety conditions of the desired destination. Travel Warnings are created for protracted conditions while Travel Alerts are meant for temporary circumstances. Scant research exists about official State Department travel advice, and there is an absence of knowledge about its components. This qualitative study seeks to answer the questions, what is the nature of State Department Travel Warnings and Alerts and what is their function? This study explores and seeks to describe the nature of Travel …

Globalization And The Rise Of Militant Islamic Social Movement Organizations: The Case Of Uamsho (Awakening) Group In Zanzibar., Deogratius Mshigeni

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation set out to explore how specific aspects of globalization affect the growth and development of particular militant neo-fundamentalist social movements and in what ways globalization affect the resources and collective identity of these movements. To examine this, I conducted ethnographic and archival research and in-depth interviews with 40 activists in the UAMSHO (AWAKENING) group in Zanzibar, which is associated with the rise of violent activities since the first multiparty elections, held in 1995. Most of these activities have been associated with the UAMSHO (AWAKENING) group, that adheres to strict neo-fundamentalist views of Islam, and which calls for Zanzibar …

Novel Non-Blocking Approach For A Concurrent Heap, Rashmi Niyolia

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

We present a non-blocking algorithm for a concurrent heap in asynchronous shared memory multiprocessors. Processors in these machines often execute instructions at varying speeds and are subject to arbitrarily long delays. Our implementation supports Non-blocking Insert, Delete, and Find-Min operations on a heap. Non-blocking techniques avoid the drawbacks associated with mutual exclusion and also admit improved parallelism. Insert and DeleteMin operations in heap take more than one atomic instruction to complete, thus, it is possible that a new operation may be started before the previous one completes, leaving heap inconsistent between operations. We have represented heap as an array of …

A Case Study On Enterprise Content Management Using Agile Methodology, Rohit Raj

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Every organization has the need to create, classify, manage and archive information so that it is accessible when they need it. The amount of data or information needed for an organization to build their business and for them to be more positive in today’s business world is increasing exponentially, which also includes unstructured data or unstructured content. It is not appropriate only to “manage” content, but whether the correct version of the data or document or record can be accessed. Enterprise Content Management is an efficient collection and planning of information that is to be used by a very particular …

The Intergenerational Effects Of Parental Divorce On Young Adult Relationships, Skyler William Roper

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Due to the current high rates of divorce, many young adults have experienced the effects of parental divorce. Although a variety of research has investigated both the positive and negative implications of divorce for individuals, relatively little research has looked at the relationship effects of parental divorce. Yet divorce likely influences both parent-child relationships (especially with a non-custodial parent) and young adult romantic relationships. The purpose of this study was to explore more fully how parental divorce affects young adult relationships by investigating the relationship between divorce and parent-child relationship quality, perceived comfort within close relationships (i.e., attachment), romantic relationship …

Image, Narrative, & Concept Of Time In Valerie Capers's Song Cycle Song Of The Seasons, Lillian Channelle Roberts

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Once I was a classical pianist, then I was a jazz pianist, but now I’m a pianist – No label. And in my writing, I’m not concerned with any particular style. I’ve found that if you have musical groundwork and some idea of the emotional impact the music should have, the musical style will hang together.

—Valerie Capers

Primarily known as a renowned jazz pianist, Valerie Capers is a blind, African-American woman composer who defied all odds by becoming the first blind graduate of The Juilliard School. Dr. Capers also became valedictorian of the New York Institute for the Education …

Bursting The Backpacker Bubble: Exploring Backpacking Ideology, Practices, And Contradictions, Mark J. Salvaggio

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation, I discuss the growing development of international backpacking in Central America. I focus on backpackers because they are a significant, yet understudied and undertheorized, part of the newly mobile world. Drawing from more than 12 months of ethnographic data collected in Central America, I explore backpacking as a youth subculture. I used a subcultural framework to explain backpacking ideology, practices, and contradictions. Understanding backpacking as a youth subculture tells us a lot about the myths and realities of 21st century adventure in the context of global mobility, globalization, and economic changes in international tourism that shape what …

The Effect Of Blackboard Tools On The Community Of Inquiry And Learner Satisfaction With Learning Management System-Enabled Courses, Alice Swift

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Online education has increased in popularity throughout higher education in recent decades, with learning management systems (LMSs) now being used by the majority of higher education institutions throughout the United States (Allen, Seaman, Poulin, & Straut, 2016). The Community of Inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework is composed of interrelated cognitive, teaching, and social presences, which make up a deeper learning experience (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2010). This study sought to further the theoretical and practical application of the CoI by evaluating learner satisfaction with LMS-enabled courses in vocational areas of study and additional course delivery formats (online, hybrid, and web-enhanced). Results …

George Crumb’S Personal Response To The Golden Age Of Social Activism: Night Of The Four Moons, Black Angels, And Vox Balaenae, Yi Ling Tsai

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

American composer George Crumb (b. 1929) started to garner public attention in the 1960s with a new kind of message and sound. Crumb’s approach to composition has been to exploit music as a form of communication to convey the metaphysical and the psychological through various mediums. With the social movements in the 1960s, many Americans were inspired to fight for change; as for Crumb, composing became his platform for social commentary. His approach to social activism was to express his ideas through musical dialogues and symbolism. The subtle quotations that he often borrowed from other composers are typically short in …

Beyond Regietheater: The Oper Frankfurt Behind The Curtain, 1979 - 2015, Cordelia Elizabeth Chenault

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation focuses on the Oper Frankfurt, a musical institution that has played an influential role in the development of operatic staging since the 1980s. Through an examination of productions staged at the house in two different periods (1979 – 1987 and 2010 – 2015), I pay particular attention to the ways in which these contemporary stagings contribute to a discourse about recent opera— particularly in Germany— and what has frequently been called Regietheater. This polemical term, often translated as “director’s theater,†connotes a provocative, theatrically experimental, even massively reenvisioned reading of an operatic work, propelled by a visionary stage …

Sovereign Invulnerability: Sexual Politics And The Ontology Of Rape, Jane Clare Jones

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

As Rebecca Whisnant has noted, notions of “national…and…bodily (especially sexual) sovereignty are routinely merged in rhetoric and metaphor.†(2008:155) Departing from this observation, this project explores the ‘existential infrastructure’ of the ‘logic of sovereign integrity’ in which personhood is thought as analogous to jurisdiction over a bounded territorial enclosure. It traces the philosophical history of this logic, and unfolds the post-Heideggerian French critique of sovereignty as an analysis of how sovereign imperatives are animated by a drive to deny the vulnerabilities of constitutive ontological relation, and are thus implicated in violent cycles of disavowal and appropriation. It then applies this …

Physical Polymerization Mechanisms In The Chemistry-To-Biology Transition, Elizaveta Guseva

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Studying complex systems and emergent phenomena is very popular today. The reason is that we desperately need more knowledge about many complex systems such as cells, organisms, society and emergent phenomena on the internet. Applying physical and quantitative methods to such systems resulted in many discoveries, yet a lot of knowledge is missing. In particular, we don’t fully understand living systems including their emergence. What are the minimal requirements for life? How to make a chemical system capable of inheritance and open ended evolution? If a system is capable of Darwinian evolution, is it necessarily a living system? Modern life …

Applications Of Tensor Network Algorithms In Quantum Many-Body Physics, Colin Gareth West

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The classical simulation of many-body quantum systems is an essential tool in understanding many fundamental aspects of condensed matter physics. But a major obstacle arises from the number of degrees of freedom involved in describing such systems, which is exponential in the system size. Recently, however, a class of numerical techniques based on structures called "tensor networks" has emerged, which allows many "typical" quantum states (such as the ground states of gapped, local Hamiltonians) to be represented much more efficiently. In this work we extend and apply these techniques to consider several central topics in quantum many-body physics. After reviewing …

Hito Steyerl's "Duty-Free Art" As Politics And Pedagogy, Rachel Carina Sigismondi

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

How does contemporary art engage the contemporary, exactly? Artist Hito Steyerl actively engages this question in her recent works. One might notice upon visiting a Hito Steyerl exhibition that her video works often include recordings of lectures she has given to live audiences in art spaces. Because Steyerl is engaged in this pedagogical practice as an artist, can it be considered contemporary art? Steyerl’s written, lectured, and visual works engage the contemporary moment prodigiously, and cannot be eschewed in an analysis of the perpetually evolving nature of contemporary art. With the use of critical, theoretical and formal analytical tools, this …

Partisanship, Political Information, And Money, Jeeyoung Park

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation contains three parts - three papers. My dissertation tries to bridge the gap between two perspectives: the socio-psychological model and the rational choice model in voting behavior. The first part investigates how partisans behave in the prediction market. Using an agent-based model, my simulation results show that participants’ initial beliefs about a candidate’s winning probability, confirmation biases in accepting information, and monetary incentives strongly increase changes in participants’ beliefs about the electoral outcome captured by price volatility in the prediction market. The second part explores the microfoundation about individuals’ behavioral motivations in evaluating political candidates. My experimental results …

Examining The Effects Of Binegativity On Components Of Sexual Identity And Internalizing Symptomatology Among Bisexual Women Using A Longitudinal Study Design, Christina Dyar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Recent research indicates that experiences of binegativity (stigmatization of bisexuals) have detrimental impacts on components of sexual identity (e.g. | sexual identity uncertainty and internalized binegativity) and mental health (e.g. | internalizing symptoms, substance abuse). The current study is the first to longitudinally examine the impact of experiences of binegativity on components of sexual identity and mental health. 180 cisgender bisexual women completed three surveys assessing a total of four timepoints. Results indicate that experiences of binegativity predict subsequent increases in internalized binegativity, which in turn, predict increases in sexual identity uncertainty and strength of identification as heterosexual and lesbian …

A Comparison Of Two Theoretical Approaches To Addressing Ageism: Education And Extended Contact, Ashley Elizabeth Lytle

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Ageism continues to be a widespread problem and is of increasing concern given the growing older population worldwide and youth-centered focus of many societies. Despite the need for a better understanding of attitudes towards older adults, ageism is a relatively understudied area of social psychology. This dissertation sought, for the first time, to compare two theoretical approaches to addressing ageism: education about aging (providing accurate information about aging) and extended contact (knowledge of positive intergenerational contact) as well as their potential combined impact (education plus extended contact). Across two studies, participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions: …

Novel Processing Of Ceramics With Polymorphic Control, Gagan Jodhani

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Polymorphism is an important phenomenon exhibited by many materials, including ceramic oxides. The availability of multiple structural configurations for the same chemical composition opens the pathway to a large number of phases with distinct properties. The formation of the crystal structures can be directly correlated to the processing temperature and/or pressure as well as the particle size for nanomaterials. This work focuses on the tailored synthesis of the desired polymorphs of binary and ternary metal oxides through nanoscale processes with emphasis on flame spray pyrolysis. Flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) is a scalable nano-manufacturing process used for the synthesis of oxide …

Estimation Of Stable Distribution And Its Application To Credit Risk, Hua Mo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

To capture the heavy tails and the volatility clustering of asset returns is always an important topic in Â…nancial market. We studies two projects related to the Alpha Stable distribution and Classical Tempered Stable(CTS) distribution respectively which both have desired properties to accommodate heavy-tails and capture skewness in Â…nancial series. (1) In the major part of the Â…rst project, we introduce the algorithm of indirect inference method. By using the skewed-t distribution as an auxiliary model which is easier to handle, we can estimate the parameters of the Alpha Stable distribution since these two models have the same numbers of …

An Investigation Into The Effects Of Process Parameters On The Quality Of Laminates, Haomin Liu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In this work curing process for glass fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates is studied. Curing temperature, time and pressure were selected as the cure parameters for optimization. Central composite design (CCD) of design of experiment (DOE) approach was adopted for conducting the experiments. Flexural strength and flexural modulus of the composite laminate were the response measures to select the final cure parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), surface plots and contour plots clearly demonstrate that temperature, time and pressure contribute greatly to the response functions. This establishes two models that can be used to predict the mechanical properties of composite laminated …

Novel Processing Of Ceramics With Polymorphic Control, Gagan Jodhani

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Polymorphism is an important phenomenon exhibited by many materials, including ceramic oxides. The availability of multiple structural configurations for the same chemical composition opens the pathway to a large number of phases with distinct properties. The formation of the crystal structures can be directly correlated to the processing temperature and/or pressure as well as the particle size for nanomaterials. This work focuses on the tailored synthesis of the desired polymorphs of binary and ternary metal oxides through nanoscale processes with emphasis on flame spray pyrolysis. Flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) is a scalable nano-manufacturing process used for the synthesis of oxide …

Novel Processing Of Ceramics With Polymorphic Control, Gagan Jodhani

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Polymorphism is an important phenomenon exhibited by many materials, including ceramic oxides. The availability of multiple structural configurations for the same chemical composition opens the pathway to a large number of phases with distinct properties. The formation of the crystal structures can be directly correlated to the processing temperature and/or pressure as well as the particle size for nanomaterials. This work focuses on the tailored synthesis of the desired polymorphs of binary and ternary metal oxides through nanoscale processes with emphasis on flame spray pyrolysis. Flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) is a scalable nano-manufacturing process used for the synthesis of oxide …

Estimation Of Stable Distribution And Its Application To Credit Risk, Hua Mo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

To capture the heavy tails and the volatility clustering of asset returns is always an important topic in nancial market. We studies two projects related to the Alpha Stable distribution and Classical Tempered Stable(CTS) distribution respectively which both have desired properties to accommodate heavy-tails and capture skewness in nancial series. (1) In the major part of the rst project, we introduce the algorithm of indirect inference method. By using the skewed-t distribution as an auxiliary model which is easier to handle, we can estimate the parameters of the Alpha Stable distribution since these two models have the same numbers of …

Molar Topographic Shape As A System For Inferring Functional Morphology And Developmental Patterning In Extant Cercopithecoids, Julia Mackay Winchester

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

New imaging technologies are rapidly changing the nature of morphological data by making possible the creation and sharing of large samples of digital scan data, creating a need for high-throughput morphometric methods. A promising example of this can be found in morphological topographic analysis, a suite of algorithms for describing surface shape properties. Topographic methods have been used effectively to address dietary functional morphology of molars in a number of mammal radiations. These methods may be also useful for answering other questions concerning molar shape. Empirical models of mouse molar morphogenesis include predictions concerning molar shape variation that could apply …

Institutional Change In Undergraduate Education At A Research University: The Stony Brook Undergraduate Colleges, Donna M. Di Donato

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This qualitative case study concentrates on the evolution of undergraduate education at Stony Brook University, with particular focus on the establishment and continuity of the Undergraduate College program. The Undergraduate Colleges represent the most broadly imagined undertaking in undergraduate education in Stony Brook’s history and, therefore, is a good case study for the exploration of the topic of institutionalizing change and programmatic persistence. The Undergraduate Colleges marked the first attempt to establish a formal introduction to Stony Brook as a research university to all incoming freshmen, involving both academic and student affairs components and, most importantly, faculty. Program architects contended …

Urbanization And The Formation Of Modern Nation-States In The Turko-Persian World, Can Ersoy

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Formation of modern states has been studied by numerous scholars over the last four decades however, the particular role of urbanization in this process have received considerably less attention. The few existing works that do focus on this issue exclusively examine the European experience and explain the interaction between cities and emerging states within that historical framework. This dissertation examines socio-political dynamics of urbanization and urbanism in the Turko-Persian geography during the establishment of modern nation-states in order to identify the ways, in which the dynamics affected the ensuing state-society relations. For this purpose I conducted a comparative historical analysis …

At The Juncture Of Homonationalism And Homophobic Nationalism: Sexual Justice Organizing In Uganda And The Paradox Of Transnational Advocacy, Sasha Maria Rodriguez

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 propelled Uganda to the forefront of global media. In its initial manifestation, the Bill threatened to penalize “aggravated homosexuality†with the death penalty. The media attention earned by the proposed legislation opened avenues for transnational cooperation and communication between US-based Human and LGBTI Rights organizations and Ugandan kuchus – a Ugandan identity that encapsulates various identities of same gender loving or gender nonconforming peoples. This project focuses on this transnational relationship as it interacts with the dynamic of organizing in the midst of a national project of sexual repression. This dissertation asks how kuchu organizing …

"Lost My Job, Found An Occupation:" Space, Networks, And Organization In Occupy Wall Street, Gianmarco Savio

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

While scholars have separately analyzed the role of both networks and space in social movements, little attention has been drawn to their relationship. This dissertation draws from in-depth qualitative research on the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement in New York City in order to provide an insight into this relationship. The findings discussed in the dissertation suggest, in particular, that social movements’ internal networks and various uses of space have a mutually constitutive and interactive relationship—that different uses of space create, reflect, and reproduce social movement networks. The findings of the research are presented in three substantive chapters. The first …