Digital Commons Network^™

Sex Worker And Proud: A Phenomenological Study Of Consensual Sex Workers' Lives, Michael Gerald Curtis Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ten consensual sex workers who were currently working in Nevada were qualitatively interviewed in an effort to explore their perceptions of the adult industry. Interviews specifically focused on their experience disclosing their profession to others and the potential effects that it has on their personal relationships, and access to effective treatment. The Moustakas method of phenomenological inquiry was used to analyze data from ten participants who self-identified as direct sex workers. Seven essential themes emerged from this analysis: (1) the adult industry provides professional and personal agency, (2) the industry is often transient, (3) disclosure is an impactful and ongoing …

Co-Navigating The U.S. Educational System: A Multiple Case Study Of The Social And Academic Pressures Experienced By Iranian Immigrant Parents And Their 1.5-Generation Immigrant Children, Shahla Fayazpour

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The United States of America is a complex, diverse nation, and the number of immigrant families grows daily. Since parents and family play central roles in their children’s future and academic achievements, the purpose of this study is to examine how immigrant parents navigate their children’s education in the United States. The goal of this research is to amplify the voices of immigrant families while informing policymakers and individuals about the racial issues and barriers that immigrant families face in society and school, and about how this affects their parenting and their children’s academic performance. This research aims to reduce …

Complete Sequencing And Comparative Analysis Of The Genomes Of The First Magnetotactic Gammaproteobacteria Isolated In Pure Culture: Strains Bw-2 And Ss-5, Corey Geurink

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The genomes of the first two discovered magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) belonging to the ammaproteobacteria, strains BW-2 and SS-51, were sequenced, sealed, annotated and compared to MTB of other phylogenetic groups. Cells of both strains are rod-shaped and biomineralize cuboctahedral and elongated octahedral crystals of magnetite, respectively, that are enveloped in a protein-embedded, lipid-bilayer membrane referred to as the magnetosome membrane or vesicle. The crystals and their associated membranes are known as magnetosomes. Magnetosome crystals consist of either magnetite (Fe3O4) or greigite (Fe3S4) and, because of their specific mineral compositions, crystal morphologies and sizes, the biomineralization processes involved in magnetosome formation …

The Effect Of Oil Prices On Workforce In Selected Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (Oecd) Countries, Amjad Kisswani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Oil prices have greatly increased and decreased over the past few years, and have constantly been responsible for causing undesirable world economic performance and employment effects. The increase of oil prices usually leads to the rising prices of services such as production costs, energy bills, and petroleum products. Therefore, the increase will lower the productivity level, which affects interest rates and inflation rates, investments, product selling prices, consumption levels, unemployment rates, and real wage rates (Loungani, 1986). The oil price shocks since the 1970s have had a significant impact on the economy and are considered an important element of economic …

Persistence Of Escherichia Coli O157:H7 And Listeria Monocytogenes On The Exterior Of Common Packaging Materials, Duleeka Prasadani Kuruwita Arachchige

All Theses

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE), a major cause of illness, results in 179 million AGE cases every year in the United States. AGE bacteria that have low-infectious dose include E. coli O157:H7 (<10-100 cells) and L. monocytogenes (<1000 cells). Because of their low-infectious dose and high environmental resistance, contaminated surfaces, such as the exterior surface of food packages, could be a source for disease transmission. Our aim was to determine the persistence of E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes on three packaging materials - oriented polyethylene terephthalate (OPET), oriented polypropylene (OPP), and nylon-6. Coupons (25 cm2) from each material were sterilized under ultraviolet light for 5 minutes. Spot and spread inoculation was done on treatment coupons with ca. 7 log CFU of a 3-strain-mixture of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled E. coli O157:H7. All the coupons were incubated at Technical …

The Effect Of Hydrostatic Pressure On Neuronal Cell Morphology In Vitro, Kallie Etten

All Theses

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and subsequent rises in intracranial pressure (ICP) are associated with high mortality and has a number of physical and behavorial consequences to which the specific causes are unknown. We hypothesized that exposure of neuronal cells to elevated pressure can cause neurite retraction and / or apoptosis. Loss of communication between neurons due to these cellular-level events may play a part in complications seen in TBI patients, such as neurodegenerative diseases, increased anxiety, fear, depression, cognitive problems, as well as motor and visual deficits. In the present study, the effect of elevated hydrostatic pressure was evaluated at …

Successful Reversal Of Furosemide-Induced Secondary Hyperparathyroidism With Cinacalcet., Tarak Srivastava, Shahryar Jafri, William E. Truog, Judith Sebestyen Vansickle, Winston M. Manimtim, Uri S. Alon

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is a rare complication of furosemide therapy that can occur in patients treated with the loop diuretic for a long period of time. We report a 6-month-old 28-weeks premature infant treated chronically with furosemide for his bronchopulmonary dysplasia, who developed hypocalcemia and severe SHPT, adversely affecting his bones. Discontinuation of the loop diuretic and the addition of supplemental calcium and calcitriol only partially reversed the SHPT, bringing serum parathyroid hormone level down from 553 to 238 pg/mL. After introduction of the calcimimetic Cinacalcet, we observed a sustained normalization of parathyroid hormone concentration at 27 to 63 pg/mL …

Wide-Area Mapping Of Invasive Species Propagation And Containment Zones In Somaliland Using Phenometric Trends And Generalized Linear Modelling, Tobias Landmann, Olena Dubovyk, Gohar Ghazaryan, Jackson Kimani, Elfatih Abdel-Rahman

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Spatial information on the occurrence and propagation of invasive species is imperative in order to manage their risk and spread. In this contribution we used phenology and vegetation productivity trends (2001 to 2014) from 250-meter MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) time-series data to map propagation and possible containment areas for Prosopis juliflora and Parthenium hysterophorus in western Somaliland (eastern Africa). Generalized Linear Modeling (GLM) with a binomial logistics function was used to link available reference data (Landsat-based) on both invasive species to the MODIS-based vegetation trends. Spread corridors and containment zones were, furthermore, identified for both …

Amputating Rights-Making, Anthony Michael Kreis

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Race Politics, O’Hare Airport Expansion, And Promissory Estoppel: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same, Judith L. Maute

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Communicating Seismic Risk: The Geoethical Challenges Of A People-Centred, Participatory Approach, Is Stewart, J Ickert, R Lacassin

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) encourages scientists to participate in bottom-up risk communication approaches that directly engage hazard-prone populations. Effective communication of seismic risks not only has economic impacts in terms of hazard mitigation but also provides social value in potentially empowering the marginalized populations that disproportionately live in high-risk areas. This emphasis on community-focused disaster preparedness, however, presents a novel set of communication challenges for geoscientists. Few scientists have training in or experience of translating their science for lay publics, and conveying complex risk information is especially difficult in circumstances where scientific issues are socially contested …

Standards-Based Grading Within A School District Using Personalized Learning, Dywayne Hinds

Dissertations

This policy advocacy document, as part of my study, focused on my desire to implement a new grading practice within the district. This change will result in moving to a standards-based grading system from a traditional grading system. Although this would be a new practice within the district, many districts throughout the nation are making similar changes. The reason for my policy is associated with the need to measure more accurately student performance and to determine if students have mastered content specific standards within a course of study. Educators must place emphasis on the mastery of content specific standards that …

Exploring Teacher Effectiveness As Measured By The Danielson Framework For Teaching And Student Achievement Outcomes: Pursuing An Understanding Of Leading Students To Excellence-Pulse Study, Caletha White

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The idea of teacher excellence is the guiding principal of exploring the teacher evaluation ratings of effective teachers. Using the Danielson Framework for Teaching as a tool for measuring teacher effectiveness through common goals, language and practices is the core of this study. Adding value to the teacher evaluation process through measures of student achievement supports the ideals around effective teaching and learning and teacher evaluation. As an educator and researcher, the goal is to understand what combination of teacher behavior, student learning and academic outcomes contribute to overall success for our students. Analyzing data in the school district …

Policy Advocacy - Advocating For Redesigned Adult Learning In Support Of Value-Added Teacher Evaluation, Caletha White

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Redesigning adult learning in order to move toward excellence in the classroom is critical to improving the state of the reform work occurring in our schools. Building coherence among teams of educators by linking staff development to student achievement is the goal of the advocated policy. Providing a professional learning network for educators to work in teams, engage in meaningful and relevant work and develop transformative practices for the classroom is essential to school reform. Creating practical learning networks for classroom teachers that are based on student achievement, current practice, and staff needs is the basis for the policy. …

Policy Advocacy: Standards For Professional Learning, Emily Crement

Dissertations

This paper advocates for a district level policy the Standards for Professional Learning as a way of defining what high quality professional learning should look like. The Standards for Professional Learning represent a compilation of decades of research on what characterizes effective professional learning. Since improvements in professional learning will lead to large scale school improvement, this paper concludes that the Standards be used to define effective professional learning. Presented in this paper is an analysis of need from the educational, economic, political, social and ethical perspectives. An argument in favor of adopting the standards is presented, and a counterargument …

Nitrogen Doped Carbon Nanofibers Derived From Water-Soluble Precursors, Lee Cremar, Ben Jones, Nicole Martinez, Gustavo Mejia, Hilario Cortez, Edgar Muñoz, Rocío Nava, Karen Lozano

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Nitrogen doped carbon fibers were synthesized from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), a water soluble precursor. The PVA fine fibers were first developed by centrifugally spinning an aqueous based solution using Forcespinning® technology. The precursor fibers were then exposed to sulfuric acid vapors to partially carbonize and stabilize the fibers for further heat treatment. For nitrogen doping, the fibers were exposed to two different heat treatment routes. One was under a nitrogen atmosphere at 850°C followed by exposure to ammonia gas at 500°C. The second route consisted of heating the treated fibers in pure ammonia gas only, up to 850°C. Both heating …

Code-Switching And Its Challenges: Perspectives On Translanguaging In The Efl/Esl Classroom, Michael Spooner

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

Structured in sections that represent the author’s teaching perspectives and research perspectives, the portfolio comprises reflective pieces written at the end of the Master of Second Language Teaching program and other pieces written as coursework during the author’s study in that program. In the first section, the author describes the principles that guide his own teaching and, in light of those principles, he reviews his experience as a learner, reports on observations of other teachers, and assesses his own performance based on observations done by others. The second section offers a set of four research papers that progressively develop and …

Application: Solving For A Local Companys Optimal Storage Strategy, Dakota Ferrin

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

This project used historical spot and futures price data of two fairly closely correlated commodities to simulate many possible spot and futures price paths that could have occurred over a given time frame. These simulated prices were then used to test various commodity storage strategies available through futures contracts. This paper explains how results, including values such as the mean terminal cumulative profit and the standard deviation of the mean terminal cumulative profits for each strategy, can be interpreted to help determine a local company’s optimal storage strategy.

This paper specifically provides a way for a local company to find …

New Perspectives For Teaching French In Iraq: Principles And Practices, Marwan Ahmed

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

This portfolio embeds the author’s perceptions and beliefs with regard to modern foreign/second language teaching and learning. The first section includes the author’s teaching philosophy, which presents the importance of the communicative language teaching (CLT) in a student-centered classroom, the role of grammar instruction in support of communication, and the effective use of technology in language teaching and learning. The second section consists of three research perspectives: the first reflects on the effective types of oral corrective feedback in language classes, while the second includes teaching French apologizing strategies to Iraqi-Arabic speakers, and the third investigates the use of Facebook …

The Impact Of Researchers’ Perceptions Of Insecurity And Organized Crime On Fieldwork In Central America And Mexico, Dawid K. Wladyka, William Yaworsky

Sociology Faculty Publications

This article explores field researchers’ perceptions of field site security and causes of fieldwork disruption. We seek to quantify what phenomena are decisive in perceiving a field site insecure and to gauge whether researchers find rural or urban areas to be more secure from organized criminal violence. We also identify the conditions that best predict scholars’ willingness to abandon research in any given region. To do so, we use a regression analysis of the results of a survey administered to anthropologists working in Mexico and Central America. The article reveals that anthropologists view urban areas as being less secure and …

Additive Manufacturing With Metals: Exploring Automated Mig Welding To Create Near Net Shape 3d Parts, James C. Block

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Route To Water Security For Texas: The 2015–2016 Texas Water Roadmap Forums, Rudolph A. Rosen, Rabi Mohtar, Luis A. Cifuentes, Stephen Frayser, Gwendolyn Hustvedt, Wesley Patrick, Chara Ragland, Susan V. Roberts, Jorge Vanegas, Cindy Wall, James Wall

Water Resources Science and Technology Faculty Publications (Archived)

Three forums were held between February 2015 and November 2016, bringing together Texas water experts from business, industry, government, academia, research, and the investment community in impartially facilitated sessions to deter-mine ways to secure Texas’ water future through accelerating growth of infrastructure, technologies, research, education, and sustainable use. Consensus emerged after the first forum that Texas is approaching a water crisis reflecting matters of supply, allocation, and quality that demands immediate action to ensure water security and equitable access to this vital resource. Participant focus rested on new technology acceleration and investment, workforce education, research underway and desired by segments …

Functional Isolation: Understanding Isolation In Trafficking Survivors, Liz Mahan

Student Theses

This study examined how traffickers used different elements of isolation and how such tactics may have contributed to the traffickers’ success in maintaining control over the victim. I examined in-depth narratives from 14 women between the ages of 20-53, primarily immigrants, who were recruited from an agency serving victims of sex trafficking in a large metropolitan city. The tactics used by traffickers varied and included not only the commonly defined structural isolation in which victims are restricted physically and socially, but also included a shrinking of safe social space and an elimination of privacy and social support. The latter is …

Information Densification Of Social Constructs Via Behavior Analysis Of Social Media Users – A Study On Twitter, Diogo F. Pacheco

Theses and Dissertations

We live in a digital era where everyday activities are increasingly being replaced by online interactions. In addition, technology advances and data availability are changing the way we expand our knowledge about ourselves, society, and the environment. The increasing availability of data, especially social media data, has called the attention of researchers, and we have been witnessing an outbreak in studies relying on this rich source of information. However, most social media research is tuned to improve the outcomes of specific problems. Therefore, the reuse of techniques used in different areas is limited to data specialists. We propose a straightforward …

The Psychological Health Of Airline Pilots: A Flight Deck Crew’S Perceptions And Willingness To Fly, Jason Charles Herkimer

Theses and Dissertations

Pilots have an image of bravado and charisma which includes that of a hardened, unemotional professional. What happens when the inevitable hardship occurs to a pilot? In the past, physical attributes were highly sought after in the recruitment of pilots. Eventually, pilots can and will suffer from the same psychological stressors as the general population. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect stigmatizing attitudes and psychological treatment of pilots have on a flight deck crew’s willingness to fly. The current study incorporated several different methodologies including a between subjects true experimental, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), an …

The Gritty Black Single Mother: Protective Factors And The Influence Of Black Single Mother’S Grit On Young Adult Outcomes, Keara Cherrell Washington

Theses and Dissertations

Over the span of decades, literature has highlighted that offspring from Black Single Maternal Caregiver Households (BSMCH) will experience negative outcomes, including academic deficits and psychological distress, as a function of the adversarial barriers (i.e. low socioeconomic status, mother’s lack of educational attainment, and ecological threats) encountered within their environment. Despite the apparent potential negative outcomes, there are numerous examples of Black offspring from BSMCH who are resilient and successful, despite dire familial circumstances. However, their stories do not appear to be reflected in the literature. The purpose of this study was to reveal the untold story of resilient Black …

System Study Of An On-Orbit Additive Manufacturing Cubesat, Juliette Isabelle Bido

Theses and Dissertations

The AddCube mission aims to demonstrate additive manufacturing technology in microgravity on a CubeSat platform by 3D-printing a 1-meter long rectangular beam on orbit. To accomplish this task, Made In Space Inc. (MIS) will provide the Extended Structure Additive Manufacturing Machine – CubeSat (ESAMM-C) payload. The high power required by the ESAMM-C payload creates a complex thermal problem within the spacecraft due to tight volume constraints associated with CubeSats. To cope with this problem, an in depth worst-case thermal analysis of the integrated spacecraft is conducted and an appropriate thermal management system for the mission is designed. Temperature regulation is …

Managed Containers For Increased Cyber-Resilience, Xavier J. Merino Aguilera

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional defense mechanisms are no longer adequate in protecting critical infrastructure and mission critical systems. These systems require to be always-on-always-connected. High availability and data integrity become crucial to deliver their mission. Unable to guarantee uncompromisable security and given that systems will inevitably be attacked, we must change our goals to guarantee mission survivability, the ability of the system to fight through the attack. Previous work has been done to increase availability and integrity using virtual machines. We move away from virtual machines towards Linux containers and implement resiliency strategies to guarantee stateful system recovery after an attack. The goal …

Performance Evaluation Of Mission Critical Communications Services Over Lte Networks, Kehinde Olumide Olasupo

Theses and Dissertations

he existing Private/Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) technologies designed specifically for Mission Critical Communication (MCC) systems are narrowband and wideband devices, with limited network data capacity in emergency scenarios. They are majorly used to support MCC voice communications and low data rate applications during mission critical operations. However, the need for broadband systems that would support high radio data capacity keep increasing during major incidents and accident scenarios. Because of this, the MCC agencies were attracted by the broadband capabilities of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. But, the uplink capacity of LTE- based MCC systems is still a concern. In planning …

Comparison Of Reference Signal Received Power Measurements Between Cell Phone And Scanning Receiver In Lte, Sahin Gullu

Theses and Dissertations

In cellular technology, before giving service to customers, coverage estimation, network optimization, and maintenance rely on RSRP (Received Signal Reference Power) measurements that are collected in a given area. This measurement collection is called “drive test or drive testing” that is very common practical experiment for RF engineers. These measurements are usually recorded by a professional receiver or a professional phone with appropriate software and license. A scanning receiver, PCTEL SeeGull EX scanning Receiver in this thesis, is a common professional tool for RF engineers to collect data. A cell phone, HTC One M7 for this experiment, has an appropriate …