Digital Commons Network^™

Micro Grid Control Optimization With Load And Solar Prediction, Shaju Saha

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Using renewable energy can save money and keep the environment cleaner. Installing a solar PV system is a one-time cost but it can generate energy for a lifetime. Solar PV does not generate carbon emissions while producing power. This thesis evaluates the value of being able to make accurate predictions in the use of solar energy. It uses predicted solar power and load for a system and a battery to store the energy for future use and calculates the operating cost or profit in several designed conditions. Various factors like a different place, tuning the capacity of sources, changing buy/sell …

Development And Initial Validation Of The Veterans Educational Transition Scale (Vets): A Brief Scale To Predict Successful Transition Of Student Veterans To College, Lisa Beckman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The aim of this dissertation was to develop and validate a scale to assess factors that interfere with veterans’ successful transition from military life to the college environment. Student veterans are a unique population in the student body and often have unique challenges assimilating to the college environment, including difficulties making social connections, multiple life responsibilities, and unique mental health presentations. Currently, there is no measure to assess and identify transition challenges that student veterans may experience, and yet significantly more veterans are enrolling in college to take advantage of their post-9/11 GI bill benefits. This dissertation includes two studies. …

Validation Of Novel Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment With Silicone Gel Experimental Models, Dustin Walter Burd

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Predictive modeling to increase treatment success rates for surgical procedures is becoming more common in the scientific community. For obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), modeling has been predominately performed using computers as opposed to experimental models. Computer simulation saves time by eliminating the need to fabricate complex experimental models but comes at the expense of insight gained through physical observations made in real time. Experimental models for studying OSA are needed to validate computational work, provide perspective on anatomical scale and demonstrate complex deformations in real time. This work addresses prior hurdles in experimental model fabrication with a novel process using …

Managing The Performing Arts Center: Best Practices For University-Based Performing Arts Centers, Lori Cobo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

University-based performing arts centers are an asset not only for the institutions where they exist, but also the community that it serves. This thesis takes a brief look at the following topics; reporting structure, billing practices, presenting, and student tickets/fees. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Performing Arts Center has been a part of the university since 1976 and the focal point of this paper. Nineteen other similar institutions were surveyed with results from eleven others used as comparison. University-based performing arts centers can and should be seen as a strong financial partner for the institution.

The Economy Of (Dis)Honor In The Americas: A Transnational Rupturing Of American Literature Through Faulkner, García Márquez, And Silko, Clayton Neil Cobb

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Honor is misunderstood within popular culture, but it is also misunderstood within academic contexts. This is due to a decoupling of the term from its long historical significance, a significance that must not be ignored. That is because honor in the Americas is a structure of the hemisphere’s colonial legacy, its manifestation in the cultural fabric a result of the invasion of the continents by European settlers and colonizers. In the case of history, philosophy, and social science, the study of honor is beginning to undergo appropriate theorization to recognize that legacy; however, within literary studies disciplines, critical understanding of …

The Effect Of Asynchronous Versus Synchronous Online Course Delivery On Hesi Scores And Student Engagement For Rural Pre-Licensure Nursing Students, Susan Luke Belliston

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since nurses are the primary providers of direct patient care in the United States, a shortage in any community can impact the quality of health care available. Rural areas were among the first to be affected by the current nursing shortage. Further challenges to the rural nurse supply include a lack of access to nursing education, particularly baccalaureate education.Both distance and online education options allow for the increased reach of higher education to rural areas. Existing nursing education literature focuses on graduate nurse education and baccalaureate completion education. The pre-licensure nursing student is mostly absent from the existing literature concerning …

Current-Mode Photon-Counting Circuit With Sige Bicmos Input Stage, Gonzalo Guadalupe Arteaga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Continued advances in photodetector technology have helped improve the imaging capabilities of LiDAR systems or other time-of-flight imaging efforts. As a major part of the receiver within a LiDAR system, the photodetector can offer features such as faster rise times, narrower pulse widths, or larger gains to help achieve greater timing resolution or sensitivity to faint light levels. These benefits, however, are contingent on the ability of the accompanying readout circuit to reliably process the fast, electrical signals generated by the photodetector. While common front-end circuits involve the use of feedback amplifiers, their stability can become a major concern at …

Validity And Diagnostic Accuracy Of An Adhd Symptom Rating Scale For Identifying Adults With Adhd, Stacy Jean Graves

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Specific rating scales of ADHD symptomatology are often included in neuropsychological assessments evaluating adults diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale-IV (BAARS-IV) is a widely used symptom rating scale that includes four questionnaires: self-report current, self-report childhood, other-report current, and other-report childhood. In addition to ADHD symptoms, each of the forms include items that assess functional impact and developmental history of symptomatology. While similar symptom rating scales have been found to have high validity and diagnostic utility in children, it is unclear the extent to which the BAARS-IV shares substantial common variance with other …

Vibration Overtone Hyperpolarizability Measured For H2 Using Electric Field Induced Second Harmonic Generation, Rachel Ellis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The vibrational contribution to the second hyperpolarizability (γ) of gas phase H2 was measured using electric field induced second harmonic generation. Measurements were made for the pure vibrational 3-0 Q(J) overtone transitions (v=0,J → v’=3,J for J = 0,1,2,3). Measured intensities were found to be 4-14% larger than ab initio calculations. The first chapter of this thesis provides an introduction to nonlinear optics, second harmonic generation, and the tensor nature of hyperpolarizabilities. The second chapter provides theoretical expressions for γ and relevant static and Raman polarizabilities. The third chapter covers the experimental design and electric field induced second harmonic generation. …

Association Between White Matter Hyperintensities, Cortical Thinning, And Clinical Outcomes In Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Thomas Helmut Knoblauch

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a global health challenge, with over 4.6 million confirmed cases annually in North America alone. Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) are the most common and make up approximately 81% of all TBI diagnoses worldwide [1]. Studies indicate that 10–15% of patients suffer from trauma induced symptoms (i.e. headache, loss of balance, cognitive impairments, fatigue, and mental health/affective disorders) as far as 1 year post injury [2]. Prediction and management of these post-traumatic sequalae is complicated by a lack of symptom associated neuroimaging findings. In spite of a “prominent distribution” of frontotemporal WMHs in pediatric subjects …

A Fortified Extension Of The Aes And Its Implementation, Ashby Mullin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the advancement of quantum computing (QC), the integrity of cryptography has been called into question. For example, two QC algorithms have been developed that can break asymmetric encryption (i.e., Grover’s, Shor’s), which also poses a threat to symmetric encryption. Asymmetric encryption efforts addressing this threat include lattice-based cryptography, which uses lattice problems to reduce efficiency of cryptanalysis. Symmetric encryption security can be bolstered by increasing the key length, allowing for additional permutations a key could have; known as keyspace. This thesis seeks to expand the keyspace of symmetric encryption in order to create more possibilities. This fortification to the …

Tissue-Specific Responses From A Global Developmental Signal: A Detailed Subcellular Analysis Of The 20e And Rab Signaling Pathways Controlling Exocrine Secretion During Drosophila Development, Nichalas Nelson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

During metamorphosis, the steroid hormone 20-hydroxecydysone (20E) triggers a plethora of tissue-specific responses in the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The salivary glands are exocrine organs that respond to a large pulse of 20E to secrete a massive cargo of stored glycoproteins called glue. Because the glands are amenable to ex vivo-organ culture and powerful genetic manipulations, they are an excellent model for studying the conserved developmental and physiological signaling pathways that regulate the general function of these specialized secretory tissues. Our lab has generated transgenic animals in which the secreted glue molecules are tagged with fluorescent proteins. I have …

Synthesis, X-Ray Absorption, And X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy Studies Of Uranium Based Heavy Fermion Systems, Vahe Mkrtchyan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Heavy fermion systems have attracted a great deal of interest since the discovery of the phenomenon in the 1970s. Over the past 35 years, the research in this field revealed a variety of unprecedented properties that the conventional theoretical framework considered conflicting or impossible. The subset of intermetallic compounds containing rare earth and actinide elements is of special interest, as these materials exhibit a range of exotic properties associated with 4f or 5f electrons. A thorough examination of the reports in the literature indicates a delicate interplay between the competing ground states, giving rise to anomalous properties including non-Fermi liquid …

Minimizing Visual Defects Through Augmentation Of Computer Aided Diamond Rough Planning, Abhijith Prabhu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many computer aided design systems today utilize a workflow where physically accurate rendering of the product is not a functional component of its design process. This gap in workflow can lead to a sub optimal product or even a longer iterative design process in instances where a product's visual attributes and aesthetics are one their primary functional characteristic.

Diamonds are graded on their carat, color, clarity and cut, referred to as the 4Cs of a diamond; a standard set by G.I.A. and universally agreed upon. The cut of a diamond significantly affects the rest of the characteristics as it modifies …

Effects Of Wildfire On Plant And Insect Pollinator Communities In The Mojave Desert, Nha Trang Vivian Sam

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The changing fire regime of landscapes across the Mojave Desert has prompted considerable research on its effects on plant community recovery, but it has not been widely studied what effects wildfire may have on native pollinators and the vital ecosystem services they provide. Ecological changes from increased wildfire severity from invasive exotic annual grasses will likely continue influencing pollinator habitats and floral resources. Understanding the effects that wildfires have on pollinators is valuable to make decisions as to whether active management and restoration activities are required to conserve ecologically vital pollinator functions. The intention of this thesis was to examine …

Fighter Aircraft Guidance And Control, Kaushik Raj

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Aircraft technology has undergone momentous improvements over the decades due to the growing demand and competition among industries. The performance requirement and stability of fighter aircraft is a major factor due to the ever-increasing flight envelope. Advanced fighter aircraft are expected to be highly maneuverable. To achieve extreme maneuverability a very good aircraft design with multiple redundant control actuators having static instabilities in certain modes, near accurate nonlinear aircraft mathematical model, and suitable nonlinear control design technique is required. Conventionally, training aircrafts such as Cessna and Piper aircraft are built for static and dynamic stability, making them easy to trim …

Thinking About Thinking: Children’S Awareness And Development Of Metacognitive Emotion Regulation, Reilly Rowland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Metacognitive emotion regulation is a complex system of our underlying thinking that contributes to the emotions that we endure. By gaining an understanding of this concept, young children can learn various strategies, e.g. cognitive reappraisal, problem solving, and delayed gratification, to help alter their thoughts and/or goals to alleviate negative emotion. Thus, they are able to increase their confidence in their own metacognitive emotion regulation abilities and awareness. This study explored the awareness of young children and their metacognitive emotion regulation abilities, the strategies that young children take part in to try and control negative emotion, and the learning strategies …

Bayesian Variable Selection Methods For Genome-Wide Association Studies With Categorical Phenotypes, Benazir Rowe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) attempt to find the associations between genetic markers and studied traits (phenotypes). The problem of GWAS is complex and various methods have been developed to approach it. One of such methods is Bayesian variable selection (BVS). We describe the BVS methods in detail and demonstrate the ability of BVS method Posterior Inference via Model Averaging and Subset Selection (piMASS) to improve the power of detecting phenotype-associated genetic loci, potentially leading to new discoveries from existing data without increasing the sample size.

We present several ways to improve and extend the applicability of piMASS for GWAS. The …

Fluctuating Cohesion: A Grounded Theory Study Of Nursing Students Engaged In A Hybrid Debriefing Format, Carol Lynn Senette

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Debriefing is a key component of simulation that promotes development of students’ reflective processes. Instructor-led debriefing (ILD) is considered the gold standard; however, research conducted over the past decade demonstrates the negative effects of anxiety on student reflection during ILD. Nursing students’ experiences with ILDs have been substantially investigated; yet scant research explores students’ perceptions and experiences of more learner-centered debriefing formats that deemphasize the instructor role.

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore undergraduate nursing students’ perceptions and experiences of a hybrid debriefing format consisting of peer-led debriefing followed immediately by ILD. Specifically, I aimed to …

An Exploration Of The Numeracy Skills Required For Safe, Quality Nursing Practice, Anna Wendel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to explore the numeracy skills required for safe, quality nursing practice. Using a descriptive mixed methods design, this study answered two research questions: 1) What numeracy skills do nurses perceive as important for providing safe, quality nursing care in the first three years of practice? 2) How do nurses incorporate numeracy skills into daily patient care during the first three years of practice? Early career nurses from a not-for-profit health care organization in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States (n=109) responded to an online survey tool developed by the student investigator that ranked …

The Processj C++ Runtime System And Code Generator, Alexander Christian Thomason

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

ProcessJ is a modern Process-Oriented language that builds on previous work from other languages like occam and occam-pi. However, the only readily-available runtime system is built on top of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This is not a choice made intentionally, but simply out of a lack of other implementations -- until now. This thesis introduces the new C++-based runtime system for ProcessJ, coupled with a new C++ code generator for the ProcessJ compiler. This thesis later examines the implementation details of the runtime system, including the components that make it up. We also examine the ability to cooperatively schedule …

Influence Of Curricular Organization On Cognitive Load And Student Performance In Online Learning Environments, Michael Wilder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of curricular organization on student cognitive load and student performance in online learning environments. The findings of this study contribute to the development of usable instruction design principles for online education.

This research study used the lens of cognitive load theory to examine how online course organization affects student learning. A review of the literature included the elements of cognitive architecture that have been measured in prior studies, various methods in which cognitive load has been measured, and the basic requirements for measurement of cognitive load in instructional research.

A …

Developing The Young Dramatic Soprano Voice Ages 15-22, Monica Ariane Williams

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This doctoral dissertation provides information on how to develop the young dramatic soprano, specifically through more concentrated focus on the breath. Proper breathing is considered the single most important skill a singer will learn, but its methodology continues to mystify multitudes of singers and voice teachers. Voice professionals often write treatises with a chapter or two devoted to breathing, whose explanations are extremely varied, complex or vague. Young dramatic sopranos, whose voices are unwieldy and take longer to develop are at a particular disadvantage for absorbing a solid vocal technique. First, a description, classification and brief history of the young …

Developments Of Machine Learning Potentials For Atomistic Simulations, Howard Yanxon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Atomistic modeling methods such as molecular dynamics play important roles in investigating time-dependent physical and chemical processes at the microscopic level. In the simulations, energy and forces, sometimes including stress tensor, need to be recalculated iteratively as the atomic configuration evolves. Consequently, atomistic simulations crucially depend on the accuracy of the underlying potential energy surface. Modern quantum mechanical modeling based on density functional theory can consistently generate an accurate description of the potential energy surface. In most cases, molecular dynamics simulations based on density functional theory suffer from highly demanding computational costs. On the other hand, atomistic simulations based on …

The Need For Comprehensive Care For Persons With Chronic Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura., Kristin T. Ansteatt, Chanel J. Unzicker, Marsha L. Hurn, Oluwaseun O. Olaiya, Diane J. Nugent, Michael D. Tarantino

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Chronic platelet disorders (CPD), including chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (cITP), thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and platelet function disorders are among the most common bleeding disorders and are associated with morbidity and mortality. The clinical phenotype and complexity of cITP is much like that of hemophilia. In cITP and hemophilia, bleeding is problematic for many, complicating employability, insurability and overall quality-of-life (QoL). While myriad drug therapies are available for cITP and hemophilia, each are variable in their effectiveness, very few (except for clotting factor concentrates for hemophilia) alter the natural history of the disorder and sometimes contribute to specific morbidities and …

Image Encryption Using Gingerbreadman Map And Rc4a Stream Cipher, Abdul Gaffar, A. B. Joshi,, Dhanesh Kumar

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Day to day increasing flow of sensitive or confidential information, such as images, audio, video, etc., over unsecured medium (like Internet) has motivated more concentration for concrete crypto algorithms. In this paper, an image encryption algorithm based on a permutation and substitution cipher has been proposed. In permutation stage, image pixels are shuffled using gingerbreadman map while in substitution stage, pixels are bit-wise XOR-ed with the keystream generated using RC4A (Rivest Cipher 4A) stream cipher algorithm. For the proposed scheme, statistical analyses, like histogram, adjacent pixels correlation coefficient, and information entropy are given. Security analyses, like key sensitivity, occlusion analysis …

On A New Class Of Bivariate Survival Distributions Based On The Model Of Dependent Lives And Its Generalization, Shirin Shoaee

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

In this paper, a new class of survival distributions based on the model of dependent lives and proportional hazard rate family is introduced. This new family of bivariate survival models contains several bivariate lifetime models and is more flexible. The main purpose of this paper is to generalize this family of bivariate survival distributions of dependent lives so that more flexible models can be achieved. These new families of distributions are called the bivariate proportional hazard rate (BPHR) and the bivariate proportional hazard rate-geometric (BPHRG) families, respectively. It is also observed that, if θ = 1, then the BPHR family …

Towards Sensorimotor Coupling Of A Spiking Neural Network And Deep Reinforcement Learning For Robotics Application, Kashu Yamazaki

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Deep reinforcement learning augments the reinforcement learning framework and utilizes the powerful representation of deep neural networks. Recent works have demonstrated the great achievements of deep reinforcement learning in various domains including finance,medicine, healthcare, video games, robotics and computer vision.Deep neural network was started with multi-layer perceptron (1stgeneration) and developed to deep neural networks (2ndgeneration)and it is moving forward to spiking neural networks which are knownas3rdgeneration of neural networks. Spiking neural networks aim to bridge the gap between neuroscience and machine learning, using biologically-realistic models of neurons to carry out computation. In this thesis, we first provide a comprehensive review …

Implementation Of An Intra-Hospital Transport Safety Checklist In A Pediatric Emergency Department, Cecilia Sotomayor, Paul Mullan, April Venn, Andrea Jennings, Sandip Godambe, Faiqa Qureshi

General Submissions: Presentations (Oral and Poster)

Intra-hospital transports (IHT) are high risk events with potential for adverse patient outcomes. The care of a patient in our emergency department (ED) needing IHT to the intensive care unit (ICU) identified opportunities for improving IHT safety. We are unaware of any published IHT guidelines to facilitate safe transport in pediatric hospitals.

How To Be A First Responder For Colleagues After Adverse Events: Instituting A Peer Support Program In The Emergency Department, Kerry A. Gold, Melissa Connor, Ashley Trueblood

General Submissions: Presentations (Oral and Poster)

Healthcare workers exposed to adverse events can suffer emotional and physical consequences, often referred to as "second-victim" or "identified individual" After an adverse event occurs, there may be immediate, midterm, and delayed harm to the caregivers involved, including: increased depression, anxiety about future errors, loss of confidence, sleeping difficulties, reduced job satisfaction, and harm to their reputation. In our health system, the Emergency Department (ED) is subject to the highest number of staff assaults, workplace violence and critical events. With this knowledge, an interdisciplinary team was created to address the issues. The objective was to implement a peer support team …