Digital Commons Network^™

"Already Writers": A Case Study In Assessment And Visual Rhetoric Connections In Digital Multimodal Composition, Fawn Elise Canady

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

English language arts must respond to shifts in literacy practices that reflect changes in ‘college and career ready’ that are more than technologically mediated, but also emphasize creative and social skills. The case study in this dissertation is a small part of a larger, ongoing formative experiment in digital multimodal composition (DMC). A formative experiment is a methodological approach that favors a collaborative, iterative research process that is centered on an instructional goal in authentic classroom settings (Reinking & Bradley, 2008). The intention of the larger research study was to support students’ learning through DMC. This dissertation explored one of …

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 …

Parents' Perceptions Of Smartphone Use And Parenting Practices, David Jackson Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The present study is a qualitative examination aiming to gain insight into parents’ perceptions of their smartphone use and the effects it may be having on their children as well as parenting practices. Participants (N=12) were smartphone using parents that consisted mostly of young college-educated females. Thematic analysis of individual interviews resulted in five primary themes: (1) Disengagement, (2) Concern for Future, (3) Change in Social Norms, (4) Boundaries, and (5) Cognitive Dissonance. These findings indicate significant effects parental smartphone use is having in the lives of study participants. These thematic findings call for additional research examining the impact parental …

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 …

Acute Salivary Steroid Hormone Responses During Coalitional And Dyadic Competitions In Hong Kong Juvenile Children, Timothy Mchale

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A large body of research links testosterone and cortisol responses to competition during adulthood. Little psychoneuroendocrine research has explored salivary steroid hormone responses to competition during middle childhood. This project investigated the relationship between acute salivary steroid hormone change, performance, competitor type, and outcome effects in three different field studies, while controlling for Body Mass Index (BMI) and pubertal development, in a population of ethnically Chinese, Hong Kong juvenile children, 8-11 years of age. The relative dynamics of salivary steroid change were assessed during a 1) coalitional physical competition (soccer) in boys, 2) a non-physical mixed-sex coalitional competition (math contest), …

Latino Lgbq Young Adults' Coming-Out Experiences, Monica Munoz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There is limited research on Latino LGBQ individuals and their coming-out experiences. To understand the coming out process of Latino LGBQ individuals, interviews were conducted with 10 Latino LGBQ young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. Using Moustakas (1994) phenomenological approach, six themes derived from the study: (a) The disclosure process impacts family closeness and distance, (b) Latino LGBQ individuals’ family members enter a state of disbelief about their sexual orientation, (c) control of disclosure influences Latino LGBQ young adults’ perception of their coming-out experience, (d) the experience of coming-out for Latino LGBQ individuals is influenced …

Subjective Beat Perception In Musical Rhythms In Adult Listeners, Karli M. Nave

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Synchronization to rhythmic stimuli is an everyday experience, whether it is exercising to the beat of music, dancing salsa, or rocking a baby to sleep. Commonly, humans synchronize their movements with the frequency of the beat (a quasi-isochronous pattern of prominent time points). Previous research has shown that the intended beat periodicity of a rhythmic stimulus can be observed in periodic neural activity; however, the extent to which this reflects robust perception of musical rhythm versus purely stimulus-driven activity is unknown. In Experiment 1 and 2, I investigated how long listeners can maintain a percept of the beat once the …

The Effects Of Distributed Trials On Behaviors Of Students With Significant Disability, Mona Nasir-Tucktuck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Teaching academic instruction to students with significant cognitive disability (SCD) has been done with success over the past years (Browder, Mims, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, & Lee, 2008; Hudson & Test, 2011; Mims, Hudson, & Browder, 2012), However, research is scarce and further instructional strategies are needed to help align the standard-based curriculum for this population of students (Browder, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Flowers, & Baker, 2012).

The academic inclusion of students with SCD has been a topic of interest for researchers over the past few decades. In 1997, research on teaching academics to students with SCD was scarce (Nietupski, Hamre-Nietupski, Curtin, Shrikanth, 1997). The …

The Effects Of Exhaust Vent Location On Thermal Comfort Inside The Residential Buildings Equipped With An Evaporative Cooling System, Armin Saraei

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Inlet and outlet conditions, Including size and location, have significant effects on the air distribution, temperature, humidity and thermal comfort in the buildings. In the current study, various strategies are presented for exhaust air vents and the effects of inlet and outlet vents locations are evaluated on providing thermal comfort in the residential and industrial buildings. To provide thermal comfort, three key factors need to be investigated based on ASHRAE standard 55- 2013 as follows: Comfort Zone, Thermal Sensation and Draft Rate. Flow distribution is studied as well in order to investigate the strategies, which make more vorticity in the …

Lock-Free Self-Adjusting Binary Search Tree, Sachiko Sueki

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A binary search tree (BST) is a fundamental data structure for maintaining data in a way to allow fast search. As multi-core processors are widely used nowadays, such data structures require the ability to handle concurrent accesses to exploit the concurrent hardware. There are several algorithms on lock-based as well as lock-free BST with and without self-balancing. On the other hand, only a few reports can be found on lock-based self-adjusting BST. To the best of our knowledge, there are no algorithms for lock-free self-adjusting BST. Lock-free guarantees overall progress even if some processes fail, whereas lock-based algorithms fail to …

Setting The Childless Free: An Ethnographic Study Of The Practice Of The Childfree Identity, Shelly Volsche

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Heeding Sherry Ortner’s call to turn anthropological analysis inward, toward one’s own culture, the following dissertation seeks to understand the identity and practice of the voluntarily childless (hereafter “childfree”) movement in the United States. How do these individuals practice their identity, and how does the identity of “childfree” interact with other roles in their lives? How do they build meaning in a society that emphasizes children as a hallmark of adulthood? What other outlets do childfree individuals have for the “nurturing” tendencies of our species?

Combining sociohistoric analysis with identity and feminist theories, I embarked on nearly two years of …

Contingency Management Interventions For Tobacco And Other Substance Use Disorders In Pregnancy., Dennis J Hand, Jennifer D Ellis, Meagan M Carr, Diane J Abatemarco, David M Ledgerwood

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Papers

Contingency management (CM) is an effective intervention for reducing use of licit and illicit substances in a variety of populations. Pregnant women are a vulnerable population with much to gain from effective interventions for substance use disorders, and for whom CM interventions may be especially well-suited. We reviewed the literature on CM interventions among pregnant women with tobacco and other substance use disorders with 3 aims: (a) describe the effectiveness of CM for reducing use of tobacco and other substances during pregnancy, (b) describe the effects of CM interventions on infant outcomes, and (c) identify needs for future research on …

An Evaluation Of Full-Day Kindergarten Programming, Amy Houlihan

Dissertations

The purpose of this program evaluation document is to provide a rationale and structure for implementing full-day kindergarten. The persistence of the achievement gap in the United States requires considerable and deliberate action to narrow and eliminate the gap over time. With the evolving educational landscape and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, early education, including systematically designed and implemented full-day kindergarten are one way to afford children the opportunity to begin their education on pace to succeed. This program evaluation examines the differences between half-day kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs including data analysis from the first year …

Utilizing Formative Assessments To Inform Teacher Instruction And Student Engagement, Kim Ontiveros

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this program evaluation was to gain a clear understanding of how formative assessments impact teacher instruction and engage students. I used a survey with the teachers and data taken from their math formative assessments and NWEA MAP testing results on the mathematical concepts such as: Operations and Alegebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations, Measurement and Data and Geometry. There were gaps identified with the formative assessments, teacher reflection with instruction and the absence of student engagement throughout the process. I found that teachers were not always using formative assessments to reteach concepts or adapt their instruction. Additionally, …

Advocacy For Compliance With Existing Policy In Social Emotional Learning, Emilie Correa

Dissertations

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) standards were adopted by the state of Illinois in 2004. Local SEL policy was adopted by District 1234 in 2010. This policy advocacy work presents how findings from a district’s SEL Audit helped a team of administrators identify areas for growth and advocate for compliance of existing state and local SEL policy. This work documents how a district went from no SEL programming, to the creation of an SEL Task Force, the powering of SEL standards, and the planning for systemic implementation of SEL. According to research (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011), students who …

An Evaluation Of Avid As A Supplemental Education Program At The Middle School Level, Lori Bradner

Dissertations

This is a study of AVID as a supplemental education program at the middle school level that includes a quantitative evaluation of the academic efficacy of AVID utilizing anonymized, longitudinal student achievement data. The second section is a qualitative evaluation of the AVID program at one middle school within a district to determine the perceived efficacy of the AVID program among stakeholders using surveys and interviews. This also includes a discussion of the necessary change in leadership determined by the evaluation portions of this project. The third portion outlines a policy change essential for satisfactory outcome as defined by AVID …

Emotional Wellness And Learning, Emilie Correa

Dissertations

“Education has two great goals: to help students become smart, and to help them become good” (Lickona & Davidson, n.d., p. 15). This program evaluation is an evaluation of the Emotional wellness (EW) program in District 1234 (pseudonym). Through this program evaluation, one can expect to gain a deeper understanding of the original program goals, framework, and effectiveness, based on district-wide culture and climate surveys. The primary research questions for this program evaluation are to determine if the emotional wellness program (EWP) is being implemented with fidelity, and how the EWP is impacting stakeholders in D1234. This program evaluation serves …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Mentee Experiences In A Campus-Based Mentoring Program, Shelley Haddock, Toni Schindler Zimmerman, April Gile Thomas, Lindsey Weiler

Journal of Youth Development

Preventing first-time offending youth from repeating delinquent behavior is of interest to society. Empirical evidence indicates that high-quality mentoring can prevent a wide array of negative outcomes for at-risk youth. This study examines the perspectives of 87 first-time offending youth, ages 10 to 18 years (M = 15), who participated in Campus Connections: Therapeutic Mentoring of At-Risk Youth. Through in-depth individual interviews, youth reported that mentoring helped them: (a) improve school experiences and performance, (b) create healthier relationships, (c) feel better about themselves, (d) think more positively about their future, and (e) decrease engagement in delinquency. The mentees attributed program …

Towards The Promotion Of Positive Development Among Boys In Challenging Contexts: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Engagement In The Scoutreach Initiative, Robey Champine, Sara Johnson

Journal of Youth Development

Engagement in youth development programs reflects the quality of young people’s program-related experiences. However, more research is needed that explores cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of engagement in programs that serve underrepresented youth of color. The present cross-sectional and mixed-methods study assessed potential relations among dimensions of engagement in the Boston-area Scoutreach initiative, character attributes, self-perceived school competence, and intentional self-regulation. We analyzed data from 32 Scouts (Mage = 9.97 years, SD = 2.46, Range = 6 to 14), 32 parents/guardians, and five Scoutreach leaders. Scouts demonstrated that they were cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally engaged in Scoutreach, and these dimensions …

Supporting Adolescent Exploration And Commitment: Identity Formation, Thriving, And Positive Youth Development, Mary Elizabeth Arnold

Journal of Youth Development

The large body of literature on adolescent identity formation, pre-dating and found largely outside the main body of positive youth development (PYD) literature, shows that identity formation remains a key process for adolescent well-being. This paper revisits the critical adolescent task of identity formation proposed by Erikson (1950) and outlines an alignment of identity formation with adolescent thriving and PYD. By highlighting the congruency of identity formation and PYD the paper considers the role that youth development programs can play in assisting the process of identity formation in adolescents. Practical program implications for facilitating identity formation are presented.

Correction To: Jean-Phillipe, S., Richards, J., Gwinn, K., & Beyl, C. “Urban Youth Perceptions Of Agriculture.” Journal Of Youth Development, 12(3) 2017, Kate Walker

Journal of Youth Development

There was a mistake in the spelling of the first author’s last name. Jean-Phillipe should be spelled Jean- Philippe. The original article can be found via the DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2017.497.

Strategies To Scale Up Social Programs: Pathways, Partnerships And Fidelity, Priscilla Sanchez

Journal of Youth Development

Strategies to Scale Up Social Programs: Pathways, Partnerships and Fidelity (Larson, Dearing, & Backer, 2017) summarizes a comparative case study of 45 social programs that scaled up. Three pathways, various partnerships, and fidelity considerations are discussed. This resource, commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, will be helpful to youth development organization leaders desiring to scale up. Youth development practitioners will benefit from the discussion on fidelity considerations in implementation.

A Validation Study Of The Cross Cultural Competenc E Navigator, Xiaowen Chen

Theses and Dissertations

C ross cultural competency (3C) is defined as an individual’s capability to effectively function in culturally diverse contexts, which is influenced by a set of individual antecedents. In the literature 3C has been characterized by a number of models and associated measures. In this thesis, 3C capability was described by seven distinctive antecedents, i.e. mindfulness, inquisitiveness, interpersonal skills, emotional stability, cultural knowledge, cultural experience and foreign language. A pragmatic 3C model was presented based on the literature findings, detailing the underlying mechanisms of 3C and its potential nomological network. The model attempted to reconcile three major disagreements in 3C research, …

High Volume Test Automation With Yeager, Casey Doran

Theses and Dissertations

High Volume Automated Testing is a powerful family of software testing techniques which enable a variety of testing goals, including the discovery of hard-to-reproduce bugs, which can enable new levels of quality assurance when applied correctly. This thesis presents a software tool, Yeager, which may be used in conjunction with existing test code to execute tests similar to Long Sequence Regression Tests based on an inferred state-model of the system under test as provided by tester annotations of state transitions caused by individual test code snippets. The usefulness of the package is evaluated through the development and deployment of a …

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 …

A Mixed-Reality Approach For Cyber-Situation Awareness, Tapas Dipakkumar Joshi

Theses and Dissertations

As the proliferation and adoption of smart devices increase, there is an unprecedented amount of data being released into the network every second. Computer networks are the carriers for the movement of this ever generating amounts of data, but are dumb in a way that they do not distinguish between suspicious data traffic and valid data traffic. Also, for however secure a computer network be, suspicious network traffic activities are bound to happen. These suspicious traffic activities have to be detected, analyzed and stopped before it compromises the entire network and leaves the information and data security of an organization …

A Context-Free Method Of Visualizing Streaming Object Data For The Purpose Of Identifying Known Events: An Implementation And Analysis, Quinn Gregory Carver

Theses and Dissertations

This year, every second, five gigabytes of new data will be streamed to storage and yet less than half a percent of all this data will ever be analyzed. Much of this muted data is high-variety object data, unnoticed in a void of sorely needed tools to make it readily understandable. A software tool for visualizing streaming object data in a context-free manner can be built, and this tool would aid in finding predictor data for known events which are functions of the data. The design of the tool to support the hypothesis is presented and field results from over …

Mining Location And User Information From Users’ Trajectories, Marcello Tomasini

Theses and Dissertations

The understanding of human mobility is integral to the advancement of many fields including public health, city planning, economic forecasting, and it attracts the interest of researchers from a broad number of fields. The work of such researchers would not have been possible without the availability of large localized datasets such as mobile phone Call Detail Records (CDRs) provided by telco operators and Location Based Social Networks (LBSNs) check-ins provided by popular applications such as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. However, such datasets are often incomplete, anonymized, and/or inaccurate. Hence there is a need to partially reconstruct or extract more information …

Investigating The Influence Of Functional And Nonfunctional Requirements On Change And Change Propagation, Nathaniel Conde Voris

Theses and Dissertations

The research presented in this thesis investigates the nature of change and change propagation in requirement documents as they are influenced by requirement type, that is, “Functional” or “NonFunctional,” and how an understanding of these types may refine utilization of the Automated Requirement Change Propagation Prediction (ARCPP) tool when used by design teams. Functionality is determined by asking the question “Does the requirement prescribe something for the project to accomplish?” This question separates the requirements into their requisite types. Using the ARCPP, the relationship and propagation scores were determined for each requirement. Furthermore, the number of relationships were determined for …

Youth Focus Groups: Design And Analysis Plan For The Bears Project, M. Renee Beacom Claborn

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

This capstone project produced a qualitative research design and analysis plan for youth focus groups as part of a Quality Improvement project at OneWorld Community Health Center (OWCHC) School-Based Health Center (SBHC) located at Bryan High School (BHS) in a program called BEARS. The intended use of this project is to serve as a reference guide for BEARS program planners to utilize as part of the data collection and analysis processes. The purpose for collecting qualitative data for this project is three-fold. 1. To explore adolescents’ perspectives of risk behaviors and associated health determinants common to their age group 2. …