Digital Commons Network^™

Job Involvement And Its Relationship To The Daily Disturbances Among Educational Counselors, سالم حميد عبيد

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

The study aims to identify Job Involvement and its relationship to the Daily disturbances among Educational Counselors. The researcher uses descriptive approach and the study sample consists of (200) Educational Counselors. The research instruments used are: Job Involvement scale and Daily disturbances scale. The (face, and construction) validity and consistency of the instruments have been investigated using internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha). The study came to the following findings: - The degree of Job Involvement among Educational Counselors was (31.8350) and this refers to a higher level compared with the theoretical average (30) and that their Daily disturbances level is (157.0800) …

Barbara Kingsolver: Evaluating Her Contribution To The Eco-Feminist Novel, صباح عطا الله خليفة علي, زيد ابراهيم اسماعيل

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

Climate change, together with terrorism, economic depressions, and mass-destructive weaponry, is a source of international phobia for many people. The advancement in technology increases the competition among world powers and economic systems to develop their industrial enterprises. The smoke that emits from the factories, the pollution caused by the industrial projects, the excessive use of green gas result in the increase of global warming and have catastrophic effects on the ecosphere of the planet. Besides, man’s wrong practices even in agricultural matters are exhausting the natural resources of the lands, and they badly affect the ecological diversity and the wellbeing …

The Linguistic Deviations Of The Grammatical Level In (Saleh Yousefi) Poetry, كاوان أسماعيل خليل, دولت محمد احمد

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

The current research study focuses on the linguistic deviations of the grammatical level in the poetry of the poet (Saleh Yousefi). His poetry is regarded as a noticeable example of his age. This is because at that time the poets of southern Kurdistan were very adhered to their revolutions and political attempts imposed by social conditions and the conditions of life at that period where it was a major cause to the emergence of such poems. The importance of this research study lies in that it is a practical analytical research from one hand and a good factor for every …

Wheelchair Propulsion For Everyday Manual Wheelchair Users: Repetition Training And Machine Learning-Based Monitoring, Pin-Wei Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Upper limb pain and injuries are prevalent among manual wheelchair users and can restrict their participation and daily activities. Due to the high repetition and force in wheelchair propulsion, chronic wheelchair propulsion has been linked to the risk of upper limb pain and injury. Prevention of upper limb pain and injury is a high priority in wheelchair-related research. Decades of research in wheelchair propulsion biomechanics have led to clinical practice guidelines (CPG). Unfortunately, a decade after the publication of the CPG, CPG-recommended propulsion is still uncommon. Hence, for the first aim, a randomized controlled trial pilot study with two groups …

Generation And Utilization Of Diverse Memory B Cells After Flavivirus Challenges, Rachel Wong

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Over the course of an effective immune response to an infection, two distinct B cell populations are generated to provide protection against reinfection, long-lived plasma cells (LLPCs) and memory B cells (MBCs). LLPCs and MBCs originate from germinal center (GC) B cells that have undergone B cell receptor (BCR) affinity maturation through iterative rounds of somatic hypermutation, proliferation, and selection. Thus, LLPCs and MBCs can bind to their antigen with higher affinity than their naïve B cell precursors. LLPCs constitutively secrete antibodies and can provide sterilizing immunity that pre-exists subsequent infections. MBCs, on the other hand, are quiescent and provide …

The Tortured Pre-History Of Urban Blight: African American St. Louis And The Politics Of Public Health, 1877-1940, Taylor Desloge

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a long history of the contested legal and environmental category of blight, especially in its racialized dimensions, in tandem with the African American experience of living in blighted urban spaces and forging a black politics of public health and welfare. Rethinking the conventional view that identifies blight as simply a preoccupation of post-World War II planners, this dissertation relocates its roots in a politics of public health that emerged a hundred years earlier, in the Post-Reconstruction Era, when black migration to the city and the rise of industrial capitalism raised new questions over both the social needs …

Uncovering The Women In Ocean’S Eight: Understanding The Trends Of The Women’S Movement With The Portrayals Of Women In Film, Elyssa Michelle Day

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study seeks for a better understanding of the correlations between major milestones in the women’s movement and how that is reflected onto the silver screen. With the rise of sexual assault allegations against prominent figures in Hollywood, and the growth of the #MeToo movement, we in turn are beginning to see an influx of films being released, and older films being rebooted, with an all-female led cast. One of those all-female film reboots is Ocean’s Eight, a film coming from a male-dominated trilogy and genre. Because of this correlation, the question of whether the narratives within Ocean’s Eight reinforce …

Meal Duration: Implications For Restaurant Revenue Management, Dale F. Billings

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A comprehensive revenue management strategy addressing space, product, price and time, has been shown to increase profits within the hospitality sector. While the literature shows that the restaurant industry has frequently addressed space, product, and price when looking at financial strategy, the effect of the variable of time on revenue generation has not been adequately studied. Restaurants shy away from the practice of using time as a commodity, particularly regarding meal duration, due to fears of reducing customer satisfaction.

This project explores the use of time as a commodity in restaurant revenue management. In particular, it examines consumers’ feelings about …

Evaluating Parents Sociodemographic Factors And Childhood Vaccine Decisions, Mehret Girmay

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Vaccination is considered one of the most successful public health achievements of the 20th century. However, with increasing vaccine skepticism emerging over the past decades, there is a threat to the ongoing sustainment of vaccine coverage within all US communities. This study evaluated and compared parents’ sociodemographic factors associated with childhood vaccine decisions. This study is a secondary analysis of 893 parents/guardians, age 18-55 years with child(ren) < 7 years living in the U.S.

Predictive analysis was conducted using multinomial logistic regression modeling was used to examine vaccine decisions (accept, hesitant, and refuse) in relation to parents’ sociodemographic factors. Overall, (66.6%) of parents accepted recommended vaccines, while …

Disparities In Administrative Pediatric Asthma Prevalence In Clark County, Aaliyah Goodie

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objective: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases affecting young children nationally and globally. Asthma affects more than 25 million people in the nation, of which 6

million are children. Lifetime asthma prevalence for children in Nevada is 11.5% (CDC, 2016). This is likely an underestimate due to a large undocumented Hispanic population. In Clark County School District (CCSD) during the 2016-2017 school year, 20,235 students (8%) listed asthma in school records as a health concern. Asthma burden varies by sociodemographic group with highest rates documented among Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and pediatric populations. The Centers for Disease Control …

Galena Creek Bridge Structural Health Monitoring Instrumentation And Modeling, Leopold Falkensammer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Structural health monitoring (SHM) of an instrumented structure provides numerous benefits when assessing the long-term condition of the structure against degradation, or the short-term condition after an extreme event, such as an earthquake. The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) has an interest in expanding the use of SHM for such assessments. Accordingly, the objective of the current study is to develop and implement a permanent SHM system for the Galena Creek Bridge, the largest concrete cathedral arch bridge in the world, to monitor its response to routine traffic and seismic activity. Completed in 2012, the bridge connects Reno and Carson …

Community Exposure To Particulate Matter And Its Impact For Students And Residents Near A Construction Asphalt Plant: A Case Study, Aman Gebremariam Gebreselassie

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Particulate matter (PM) consists of various small particles in the atmosphere that has been associated with environmental health risk factors for many deadly diseases. PM2.5 is particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, PM10 is particulate matter 10 micrometers or less in diameter and are both respirable particles that can penetrate the lungs and increase risk of cardiovascular problems and respiratory illness, among other health issues. Exposure to particulate pollution in the environment tends to cause lost income from work absence, students’ absences from school, hospital admissions as well as emergency and doctor room visits.

Although asphalt plants are …

Treatment Of Perchlorate And Multiple Oxyanions: Chemical And Biological Investigations, Mark Elkouz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Groundwater contamination with oxyanions is an issue that must be addressed for environmental, ecological and societal reasons. Chemical and biological treatment methods of reduction are already known and practiced, but the simultaneous presence of multiple oxyanions can add complicating effects to treatment sequence and efficacy. This research was concerned with the investigation of the chemical reductive treatment of Cr(VI) using both calcium polysulfide (CaSx) and ferrous sulfate (FeSO4), and the biological reductive treatment of chlorate, Cr(VI), nitrate and perchlorate using multiple organic substrates. The chemical treatment phase consisted of initial jar tests, using CaSx and FeSO4, followed by a laboratory …

The Historical And Cultural Influences Of Gagok 가곡 (Korean Art Song): A Musical Guide, Sarah Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document explores what Gagok (Korean Art Song) consists of, the origins and history of it and how one may approach it musically, vocally and interpret it textually. The main questions I answer in this document include: What makes these art songs distinctly Korean? What significance does the role of Eastern Asian history have in order to closely tie the inspiration of writing Gagok? How does the text and music express these important historical events? The answers to these questions are essential to understanding Gagok by analyzing and interpreting the songs also in relation to approach learning them.

The research …

Lifting The Veil: Do Health Care Price Transparency Laws Actually Lower Costs?, Nora Michelle Irene Langendorf

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this research is to determine whether or not health care transparency laws, in the form of price transparency, lower the rate of increase paid out in health care expenditures in those states that have enacted these laws compared to those states that have not. By controlling for factors such as poverty, age, chronic illnesses, and income that may play a part in lowering or raising health care costs, the primary explanatory variable – health care price transparency laws – can determine if there is a strong relationship with the dependent variable (the rate of increase on health …

Ethnic Power Dominance In A Resource-Rich Sub Saharan African State: An Analysis Of Violent Conflict Accelerators And The Mitigating Influence Of Civil Society In Nigeria, Victor O. Fakoya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My dissertation research explores the impacts of ethno-regional power dominance, trust, and violent conflict in a resources-rich multiethnic, sub-Saharan African state. This dissertation examines the impact that ethnic power dominance has on the relationship between conflict and civil society in a resource rich sub-Saharan African (SSA) nation examined. Relying upon intra-state case study analysis of the socio-political climate in Nigeria, I argue that distrust in the national government, when motivated by ethno-regional cleavages has an accelerating influence on the incidence of conflict. Using cross-national survey data in conjunction with field interview data, this research finds that in the regions where …

On Action Quality Assessment, Paritosh Parmar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation, we tackle the task of quantifying the quality of actions, i.e., how well an

action was performed using computer vision. Existing methods used human body pose-based features to express the quality contained in an action sample. Human body pose estimation in actions such as sports actions, like diving and gymnastic vault, is particularly challenging, since the athletes undergo convoluted transformations while performing their routines. Moreover, pose-based features do not take into account visual cues such as water splash in diving. Visual cues are taken into account by human judges. In our first work, we show that using …

Impact Of Design Cost Percentage On Cost Growth, Schedule Growth, And Construction Intensity Of Road Construction Projects, Elina Prajapati

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The performance of construction projects is measured in terms of cost and schedule variation. Studies have identified that such variations are mainly due to design changes, which are more frequent on projects executed through the design-bid-build (DBB) delivery method. Thus, the design factor is identified as one of the major parameters affecting the performance of DBB projects. Despite the majority of road projects being constructed following the DBB method, the impact of design cost on the performance of road projects has not been sufficiently studied yet. Therefore, this study focuses on determining the effect of design cost on the performance …

Development Of Natural Perlite Based Concrete For Sustainable Construction, Seyedmahmoud Motaharikarein

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study aimed to partially replace Portland Cement (PC) with environmentally friendly binders capable of improving the longevity of concrete. The new binders consisted of different proportions of natural pozzolan (perlite) with various fineness and particle size distributions. A step-by-step research program was designed to: (1) discover the optimum fineness of perlite powder and its optimum replacement level with cement; (2) investigate the rheological properties of the perlite-containing mixtures, and examine whether this binder can be used in selfconsolidating concrete; and (3) assess the weaknesses of the new binder, and improve its deficiencies by using nanomaterials such as nano-silica. The …

Application Of Data-Driven And Process-Based Modeling Approaches For Water Quality Simulation In Lakes And Freshwater Reservoirs, Ali Saber Sichani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lakes and freshwater reservoirs often serve as the primary drinking and irrigation water sources for surrounding communities. They provide recreational and tourism opportunities, thereby promoting the prosperity of neighboring communities. Reliable estimates of water quality in lakes and reservoirs can improve management practices to protect water resources.

Seasonal water temperature and solar shortwave radiation variations, and their subsequent interactions with water column aquatic life, combined with seasonal variations of mixing intensity throughout the water column, result in variations of water quality constituents with depth during the annual cycle. The complexity of these variations entails the use of advanced water quality …

Sizing A New Bike Sharing System For The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nesley Orochena

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The strategic planning objectives for a novel Bike Sharing Systems (BSS) are to locate the BSS stations, size the stations, and determine the bicycle fleet size, among others. Current guidelines to design BSS programs are tailored to city centers with large coverage areas and high bicycle to population ratios, and thus not directly transferable to a university setting. An ordered probit model was created using data from a university online stated preference survey to determine the key factors that affect the uptake rates for the UNLV BSS program and to estimate the potential demand. The demand analysis was incorporated into …

An Evaluation Of Factors Associated With The Perceptions Of Diabetes In A Filipino American Sample Residing In Clark County, Nevada, Lawrence Nartatez Sagadraca

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study assessed beliefs about the contribution of the Filipino diet and genetics to diabetes burden and its ability to control it without medical interventions. The data from a need’s assessment survey of 200 Filipino Americans residing in Clark County, Nevada, were analyzed by using the logistic regression model. A significant proportion of the participants believed that diabetes is a problem in the Filipino community (79%) and is related to the Filipino diet (75%) and genetics (69.0%), and that it can be controlled without medical intervention (52.4%). In univariate analyses, age (Odds ratio [OR]: 1.03, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01 …

Carbon Management And Volatile Fatty Acid Production In Primary Clarifiers At A Wastewater Treatment Plant, Brittany Nicole Radke

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An increasing number of treatment plants are required to remove nutrients from domestic wastewater to lessen the impact of nutrient loading to water bodies. Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) is one of the processes commonly used to remove phosphorus from domestic wastewater. The presence of an adequate quantity of volatile fatty acids (VFA) in the wastewater influent to EBPR is important for process efficiency and stability. The objective of this research was to investigate the production of VFAs through fermentation of sludge in primary clarifiers as it related to improving nutrient removal, primarily targeting phosphorus.

The research tested, in full-scale, …

A Community Of Care: Patterns Of Pathology And Trauma With A Focus On The Bioarchaeology Of Care At Carrier Mills, Il (10,000 – 1000 Bp), Alecia Schrenk

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Illness and injury are universal human experiences which are endowed with cultural meaning. Bioarchaeology has only recently begun to engage with the socioeconomic impacts of illness, injury, impairment, and healthcare provisioning in the past. This study examines how the Middle Archaic (6000 – 300 BC) and Early Woodland (1000 – 200 BC) hunter-gatherer community of Carrier Mills, Illinois was affected by and managed the socioeconomic burdens of poor health. The data presented in this study used bioarchaeological analyses to reveal patterns of poor health and healthcare provisioning within the Carrier Mills community. Bioarchaeology is ideally situated for such investigations since …

The Perplexing Paradox Of Clostridioides (Clostridium) Difficile Infection (Cdi) - Analysis Of Anti-Germinants As Part Of Cdi Prophylaxis, Christopher Yip

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infections (CDI) have become the leading cause of nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhea worldwide. Under normal circumstances, bacteria found in the gastrointestinal tract provide a barrier against C. difficile colonization. Upon antibiotic therapy, the protective barrier is lost as the microbial community becomes depleted thus providing the opportunity for C. difficile to colonize the human gut. Exposure to taurocholate, a bile acid produced within the mammalian gastrointestinal tract, causes C. difficile spores to begin their transition, a process known as germination, from metabolically dormant structures to toxin-producing cells. As germination is required for the onset of CDI, anti-germination compounds …

Balys Dvarionas: A Brief History, Analysis Of His Concerto For Horn And Orchestra, And The First Recording Of The Concerto, Jonathan Lewis Snyder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document will concentrate on the currently unpublished and incomplete manuscript of the orchestral version of Concerto for Horn and Orchestra [Koncertas valtornei su orkestru], composed by Lithuanian composer Balys Dvarionas (1904–1972). Despite his popularity and importance in Lithuania, Dvarionas’s music is not as well known throughout the rest of the world. This document aims to redress this situation.

The document provides a more thorough English-language biography about the composer than those that currently exist in print. It discusses various aspects of the concerto, including its place in Dvarionis’s output and a brief analysis, a core aspect of which is …

The Symbolism Of Play Behavior In Child-Centered Play Therapy, Kaitlin Andrewjeski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is an evidence-based approach for mental health treatment with children. CCPT is based on the belief that play is a child’s natural language and so the therapist is required to make inferences of themes through observations of free play; however, there is no standard process by which themes are identified. The purpose of the current study is to gain detailed descriptions of play behavior in order to describe how themes emerge and how they are displayed in child-centered treatment. The themes were then used to describe the progression through the typical stages of child-centered play therapy. …

On Improving Performance Of The Binary Logistic Regression Classifier, Michael Chang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Logistic Regression, being both a predictive and an explanatory method, is one of the most commonly used statistical and machine learning method in almost all disciplines. There are many situations, however, when the accuracies of the fitted model are low for predicting either the success event or the failure event. Several statistical and machine learning approaches exist in the literature to handle these situations. This thesis presents several new approaches to improve the performance of the fitted model, and the proposed methods have been applied to real datasets.

Transformations of predictors is a common approach in fitting multiple linear and …

Reconciling Incongruencies: Examining The Meaning And Influencing Factors Of Oncology Nurses' Professional Quality Of Life, Rebecca Lynne Boni

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nurses often witness suffering and loss. These experiences are intrinsic to the practice of nursing and can exert a strong, cumulative effect on nurses’ professional quality of life (QOL). Stamm (2010b) conceptualizes professional QOL as a composite of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. Inferior professional QOL has been linked to numerous negative healthcare outcomes. Oncology nurses are particularly vulnerable to compassion fatigue. The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), created by Stamm (2009), is the current survey used to measure professional QOL, but it may not be specific enough for oncology nurses.

The purpose of this grounded theory study was …

Infection Control: The Nurse's Responsibility, Marisa Francis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the last century and a half, infection control measures implemented by nursing staff have continued to evolve, resulting in improved patient outcomes. While this progress is impressive, a decline in rates of hospital acquired infections (HAIs) seems to have slowed, with only a 0.5% decrease in the last seventeen years. Unfortunately, nurses are rarely provided educational support on infection control practices beyond undergraduate and new employee trainings. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is frequently updating their infection control practice recommendations.

The purpose of this project was to observe the current rate of infection control compliance by nurses, …