Digital Commons Network^™

Characterization Of The Isothermal Titration Calorimetry Single Injection Method Using T4 Polynucleotide Kinase As A Model System For Kinases, Rebecca Chaehee Lim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Kinases are an important class of enzymes involved in the regulation of different cellular processes. The dysfunctional activity, either hyperactivity or inactivity, of kinases has been associated with many types of diseases, making kinases a major therapeutic target. As of 2020, more than 80 kinase inhibitors have been FDA-approved and have revolutionized the treatment for progressive disorders such as cancers and Alzheimer's diseases. However, there is always the possibility of developing severe side effects or resistance to drugs so the search for new therapeutics must continue with efficiency and accuracy.Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a state-of-the-art technique specialized in detecting …

Dynamic Surface Tension Of Surfactants Through Separation Of Diffusion And Dilation Effects, Brandon Ortiz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Surfactants are biphilic monomers that adsorb to interfaces and have the ability to reduce interfacial tension. From this reduction in interfacial tension, surfactants are able to function as emulsifiers, detergents, and wetting agents among a variety of other things. Despite their ubiquity surfactants and surfactant behaviors, in particular those in highly dynamic environments, are not yet well characterized. In these environments, surfactants undergo significant distortions to droplet, bubble, and foam geometries which induce changes to the surface tension. This establishes a need to understand how surfactants respond to distortions of geometry through diffusion and dilational effects. To address this need, …

Alleviating Labor Crunch In Singapore's Hospitality Industry, Chuah Peini

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The acute shortage of manpower in hospitality workforce has been a persistent problem in Singapore throughout these years which adversely affects both the managerial and lower-skilled occupational groups of employees. The pandemic has further accelerated human resource issues across the country in 2020. It particularly hits the hospitality industry hard since hotel businesses are highly human-centric and the unprecedented world event has adversely resulted in severe manpower leakages and a dilution of talent pool. This paper will analyze the reasons, severity and impact of the manpower shortage within the hospitality industry in Singapore, focusing on service quality. Lastly, the author …

Study Protocol Cover-All: Clinical Impact Of A Volumetric Image Method For Confirming Tumour Coverage With Ablation On Patients With Malignant Liver Lesions, Yuan-Mao Lin, Iwan Paolucci, Brian M Anderson, Caleb S O'Connor, Bastien Rigaud, Maria Briones-Dimayuga, Kyle A Jones, Kristy K Brock, Bryan M Fellman, Bruno C Odisio

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the intra-procedural use of a novel ablation confirmation (AC) method, consisting of biomechanical deformable image registration incorporating AI-based auto-segmentation, and its impact on tumor coverage by quantitative three-dimensional minimal ablative margin (MAM) CT-generated assessment.

Materials and methods: This single-center, randomized, phase II, intent-to-treat trial is enrolling 100 subjects with primary and secondary liver tumors (≤ 3 tumors, 1-5 cm in diameter) undergoing microwave or radiofrequency ablation with a goal of achieving ≥ 5 mm MAM. For the experimental arm, the proposed novel AC method is utilized for ablation applicator(s) placement verification and MAM assessment. …

Aiii Sài Gòn Hông?, Jackie Ta, Ngoc Uyen Phuong Ta

All Theses

“Aiii Sài Gòn Hông?”

In Saigon, “Ai… hông?” is a phrase that street vendors often shout to advertise what they sell for the day. This body of work, “Aiii Sài Gòn Hông?” (Translates: “Saigon, anyone?”) invites the audience to take a glimpse into the vivid everyday life in contemporary Vietnam through a perspective of a Saigon local. Utilizing the modalities of painting and sculpture, I collect, accumulate and organize parts of the streets and marketplace by manipulating and amplifying certain key visual elements. The goal of the work is to reconstruct an experiential space that speaks not only to the …

Wireless Smart Electric Meter Operation Under Data Security Attacks, Patrick Nnaji, Harsh Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Wireless Smart meters are increasingly being deployed by the utility companies to remotely collect power consumption data from customer premise periodically in real time. It gives utility companies the information needed to efficiently administer their customers for their electricity usage. Knowing how critical these data are, it is important to ensure that data recorded locally at the smart meters or communicated remotely or wirelessly are both confidential and reliable. Despite the efforts being made to secure the smart meter data, security threats on smart meters continue to evolve at the same time, with an increasing number of security breaches happening …

Diagnosing Covid-19 Infection In Chest X-Ray Images Using Neural Network, Salim M. Zaki, Mustafa Musa Jaber, Mohammed A. Kashmoola

Baghdad Science Journal

With its rapid spread, the coronavirus infection shocked the world and had a huge effect on billions of peoples' lives. The problem is to find a safe method to diagnose the infections with fewer casualties. It has been shown that X-Ray images are an important method for the identification, quantification, and monitoring of diseases. Deep learning algorithms can be utilized to help analyze potentially huge numbers of X-Ray examinations. This research conducted a retrospective multi-test analysis system to detect suspicious COVID-19 performance, and use of chest X-Ray features to assess the progress of the illness in each patient, resulting in …

A Tokenized Future: Regulatory Lessons From Crowdfunding And Standard Form Contracts, Darian M. Ibrahim

UC Law Journal

This Article examines the world of risk investing in the cryptoeconomy. The broader crypto market is booming despite the latest downturn. People and institutions are buying in. The question is now how to regulate it.

This Article first tackles the question of whether coins, tokens, and other investable cryptoassets are securities. Second, for those cryptoassets that are not securities, this Article seeks to find a regulatory solution that balances promoting innovation with investor protection, just as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would do. To strike the right balance, this Article adopts a proposal by Ian Ayres and Alan Schwartz …

Forensic Linguistics: Science Or Fiction?, Abigail Shim

UC Law Journal

The history of linguistics is meager and splintered due to the subject’s interdisciplinary nature. In the postwar era, the discipline attempted to revive as a scientific one, spearheaded by Noam Chomsky and his theory of generative grammar. Linguistics consequently broke away from the predominant structuralist approach of the nineteenth century, returning to rationalist roots. But with the rise of computer technology, Chomsky’s critiques of empirical, applicational linguistic approaches have lost their force. As academic linguistics splinters off again, loses its scientific edge, and regroups with the humanities, linguistics applied in the forensic context may implicate more questions than it answers, …

The Impact Of The Male Gaze: Femininity And Female Sexuality In Shunga Prints Of The Edo Period, Meredith Keukelaar

Theses

The Edo period of Japan (1603-1868) was a time of great cultural and economic growth as the country flourished from political stability under the Tokugawa clan’s rule for over two centuries. During this time, many prints, illustrated books, and paintings were created, the most famous of which are known as ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world.” A popular sub-genre of ukiyo-e were the erotic shunga prints, created by and primarily for men. While most of these prints were heterosexual in nature, there were still several works that depicted homosexual relations. The majority were of male homosexuality, but scenes of …

From The Invisible Object To The Void: An Examination Of Surrealism And The Lacanian Real, Isabela Fernandes Pinheiro

Theses

No abstract provided.

The Right To Transparency And The Right To Opacity: The Works Of Safaa Mazirh And Alia Ali, Katherine Vines

Theses

This research focuses on a study of the photographic works of two contemporary female photographers from the MENA region: Alia Ali and Safaa Mazirh. Rather than trying to define art in the region and its diasporas, this research stresses the distinctiveness of two artists' specific experiences in relation to gender, religion, tradition, and modernity. A common thread is the constant navigation between the artists’ lived experiences of their postcolonial reality and collective memories of the colonial past. When comparing these artists, I argue that viewing their works in conjunction highlights the principle of “the right to opacity” as discussed by …

The Democratization Of Art: Placemaking Initiatives In Rural Spaces, Sarah Leigh Ayers

Theses

Creative placemaking is defined as when artists, arts organizations and community development practitioners deliberately integrate the arts and culture into revitalization work. Examining the historical context and implementation of creative placemaking practices before the coining of the term, the following essay uses Marxist and Post-Modern methodologies to examine the ways in which art can serve as a tool for driving economic growth while exploring the socio. Using examples ranging from politically driven initiative the New Deal to non-profit contemporary art museum La Chinati in Marfa, Texas, I examine the ways that culturally-driven projects have affected the rural communities in which …

The Death Of Malls: The Rise Of E-Commerce And Digitally Native Brands, Alexis Montgomery

Theses

Since the mid-2000s, malls and retail brick and mortar stores have been on the decline. Stores not making enough revenue in-person; the rise of online shopping and e-commerce, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rise of digitally native brands have contributed to this. This research aims to figure out how the current consumer atmosphere, as well as how the rise of e-commerce and digital marketing, will impact the mall of the future. This research aims to discover how local malls are faring, if stores are truly closing and if national retail brands are pulling out of malls. This research also aims …

Virtual Reality And Video Game Gatekeeping, Autumn Franke

Theses

This thesis focuses on the effects of the video game industry being the only influence on the development of virtual reality technology and the hindrance caused by it. The aim of this thesis is to discuss this flaw and recommend a different route to develop the technology through the education and medical fields instead of the video game industry.

En’S Adventure: Exploring Modern Design Mechanics In Retro Adventure Games, Frank Fasola

Theses

This project focuses creating a small game prototype that can be used to build a full game around. The primary focus is to create a short experience to establish the mechanics and gameplay of the game. Games made in the style of retro games are released every year, but most of these games strive to provide the same experience from the late 1980s. The project is a top down 2D retro adventure game made using modern techniques and learning from game development in the 30 years since these games were released.

Ux/Ui Research-Applied Strategies For Building A Custom Wordpress Theme Using Underscores And Elementor, Sandi Harageones

Theses

The aim of this project is to offer a new, easier method to web designers and web design instructors for creating a custom-built WordPress theme using primarily Underscores, a starter theme made by Automattic, the creators of WordPress; and Elementor, a leading WordPressbased web creation platform. WordPress is a leading, free content management system (CMS) for building websites. Premised on user experience/user interface (UX/UI) applied research, this method can help web design professionals avoid using third-party WordPress themes. Moreover, web design instructors can incorporate this method into their course curricula to prepare their students for professions in custom CMS web …

Beyond Elements And Principles: Bringing A Visual Culture Curriculum To High School Art, Julie Winston

Theses

The elements and principles of design are the building blocks that art students use to create a composition. These foundational tools have been used by art students throughout their elementary and secondary school years, as required by state and national art standards. This project is an example of how to enrich high school introductory art classes by implementing lessons that include visual culture education. A combination of successful art museum teen programs and existing visual culture curriculum were used to aid in the development of a semester’s worth of lessons that emphasize visual culture. Visual culture curricula produces more student …

Evolution Of Authenticity: Investigating The (De)Restoration Of Ancient Sculpture (De)Restorations In The 1970s, Amelia Griese

Theses

This thesis focuses on the period of de-restoration of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures in the 1970s. While three distinct periods of restoration history have been well-defined by scholars (17th to 19th century, the 1970s, and modern-day), the discussion of the motivations behind the focus on purism that led to de-restoration in the 1970s are lacking in the literature. The Lansdowne Herakles and the Aegina Marbles will be used in this analysis because of their illustration of the different periods of restoration history. While both the Lansdowne Herakles and the Aegina Marbles were de-restored in the 1970s, their fate in …

The Foreboding Campaign System, Michael Fetters

Theses

This project creates a new campaign setting compatible with the Dungeons and Dragons system utilizing the SRD Open Game License content as a starting point. The campaign setting created establishes mechanics allowing for narrative interaction between the past and present timeline of events in the world of Lunaria. This new system, entitled The Foreboding, utilizes a shift mechanic to alter the player characters in several possible ways, ranging from changes in race or character history to interactions with past time periods and events that alter the present timeline of the narrative. New character options for race and class were also …

Fitting Solar Panel Brdf Parameters To Out-Of-Plane Empirical Data, Michael R. Gross

Theses and Dissertations

The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) describes material reflectance by describing how incident irradiance reflects into all possible scatter angles as a function of incident angle. However, a solar panel has unique features that are not featured in any of these previously known models. A previous project at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) created a novel microfacet-like BRDF to model a solar panel with a prominent diffractive feature present which had not been previously modeled. This BRDF was coded into MATLAB for modeling purposes and C++ to test its speed with a MEX function call. A previous thesis …

Exploring The Effects Of Tree Roots On Infiltration Process, Nazife Onaral

Masters Theses

Effects of the root structures on soil infiltration dynamics are not clearly defined. Imaging the complex tree root structures and movement of water through the root ball is a challenging task to achieve without damaging the trees and roots by conventional methods. Commonly used methods are invasive, labor-intensive, and not easily accessible. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has commonly been used to characterize soil profiles and it can be a reliable tool to map complex root structures with a novel high-resolution circular data collection technique. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is another reliable geophysical method to image infiltration processes by the change …

A Collaborative Autoethnography: Your Passport To Immigrant Women Of Color Leader's Stories Of Identity Exploration And Leadership Barriers And Possibilities, Fraylanie Adan Aglipay

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of the personal and career narratives of immigrant Women of Color can lead to more appropriate standards in mainstream work environments and to the expansion of professional leadership opportunities for immigrant Women of Color. The experiences of immigrant Women of Color leaders are varied and complex, with each leader’s experience offering unique perspectives on their leadership journey. Additionally, it is important to analyze their identities because they contain multiple layers, serving as the foundation that has shaped them into the authentic leaders they are today. As scholars, researchers, and activists, we have a duty to address the lack …

Best Practices In Disaster Public Communications: Evacuation Alerting And Social Media, Frannie Edwards, Kaikai Liu, Amanda Lee Hughes, Jerry Zeyo Gao, Dan Goodrich, Alan Barner, Robert Herrera

Mineta Transportation Institute

This research project examines the current state of the practice for disaster public communication, the distrust of government, the training available to public information officers, and the literature available to guide the design of effective public outreach messaging, especially for rapid on-set events. Growing distrust in government had led to lack of public confidence in public agency messaging during emergencies, yet public agency public information officers are using multiple pathways, including both traditional and social media resources, to try to reach impacted communities effectively. The introduction explains the development of wildfire events in the West and their context. A literature …

Perception Of Police And The Mediation Of Memory Distortion Via Trauma: Body Worn Camera Footage Of An Emotional Police-Citizen Encounter, Arlyn Abreu

Student Theses

This present study calls to question the objectivity of police body-worn camera (BWC) footage. Proponents assume that BWCs will be a panacea in a climate of heightened tensions between officers and communities. In spite of this, our findings challenge the rhetoric, and the purpose BWC is intended to serve. We explored its implications on memory distortion by posing two questions (a) can people come to remember BWC footage as more traumatic than they initially experienced (b) to what degree can external information and internal influences impact peoples' judgment about a traumatic event. We addressed both questions in this two-part study, …

Tympanostomy Tubes In Children: A Fem Study Of Adverse Effects, Manuel Nicolas Jaramillo Bucheli

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The current study investigates if tympanic (myringotomy) tubes affect hearing by comparing the harmonic displacement response to sound excitation within the hearing frequency range for healthy vs. surgically-treated pediatric tympanic membranes. The use of ear myringotomy tubes has proven an effective method for combating recurrent ear infections in infants and children. These tubes are placed in the tympanic membrane through an incision and connect the middle ear to the external ear, thereby allowing fluid drainage and middle-ear ventilation. While this treatment has been proven beneficial in alleviating urgent pus accumulation in the middle ear, recent research shows that it …

Facilitating Second Language Development Via Interaction In An Online Classroom, Jen Cummings

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

This portfolio is a collection of essays tying together perspectives and major themes in second language teaching of importance to the writer. It begins with an introduction piece, followed by a description of professional environment and a teaching philosophy statement focused on teacher-student relationships, varied assessments, and culture-focused teaching. This section is followed by a classroom observation. The main section of the portfolio is a reflection paper presenting perspectives on the importance of providing interaction opportunities in asynchronous online language learning classrooms. The portfolio concludes with a statement of future goals.

Training Needs And Applications For Special Educators With Paraeducator Supervision Responsibilities, Joanna M. Cornejo

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

This project highlights the need for training for paraeducators working in Special Education settings. Duties performed by paraeducators often overlap with teacher duties and much of the direct instruction provided to students in self-contained classrooms is delivered by paraeducators. The tasks of training and supervising paraeducators often falls on the special education teacher, who may not have received training in supervision. The project includes a brief review of the literature on this topic and two project reports. I designed my project with the objective of improving the quality of instruction being delivered to students in my classroom through training of …

Computer-Aided Drug Discovery For Helicobacter Pylori, Nicole Ann Vita

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Helicobacter pylori is a high-priority drug-resistant pathogen and is currently the only bacteria considered to be a class I carcinogen and there is a critical need to identify novel chemical matter to treat H. pylori infections. Hp is responsible for greater than 60% of gastric cancer related deaths and 89% of all gastric cancer morbidities. In a previous study, our lab identified novel Hp thienopyrmidine inhibitors that target respiratory complex I, an essential enzyme in respiration. Respiratory complex I is a large asymmetric multidomain and membrane bound enzyme and due to these innate features, it is not practical for biophysical …

Teaching About Race And Family Law: Introduction, Jessica Dixon Weaver, Lisa F. Grumet

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.