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Can’T Let Go: Anxiety, Ontological Security, And French Foreign Policy Decision-Making During The Hollande Administration, Peter D. Langley

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Why does France continue to intervene militarily in sub-Saharan Africa despite repeated commitments, both in practice and in rhetoric, to disengage and adhere to strict non-intervention? Although many accounts of France’s African security policy have been put forth, few have analyzed French foreign policy choices through the decision-making process itself, let alone exclusively applied International Relations (IR) theories to understand those decisions. Synthesizing a narrative approach with an ontological security interpretation, which understands states as having identity security needs on top of their physical ones, I propose an alternative framework for understanding France’s security-seeking, threats to identity, and how they …

Opportunities And Challenges From Major Disasters Lessons Learned Of Long-Term Recovery Group Members, Eduardo E. Landaeta

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Natural hazards caused by the alteration of weather patterns expose populations at risk, with an outcome of economic loss, property damage, personal injury, and loss of life. The unpredictability of disasters is a topic of concern to most governments. Disaster policies need more attention in aligning mitigation opportunities with disaster housing recovery (DHR). The effect of flooding, which primarily impacts housing in coastal areas, is one of the most serious issues associated with natural hazard. Flooding has a variety of causes and implications, especially for vulnerable populations who are exposed to it. DHR is complex, involving the need for effective …

U.S.-China Trade War: Phase One Agreement And Self-Enforcing Contracts, Hameedullah Hassani

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Sino-American bilateral trade relations have increased significantly in the past four decades since China started its economic reforms in 1978. The bilateral expansion in trade has been accompanied by increased complexity and tensions, which emerged in the form of a trade war during the President Trump administration. After a series of tit-for-tat tariff increases, in an attempt to address concerns through negotiations, both sides reached a Phase One agreement. However, the commitments made in the agreement were not delivered. In my thesis, I use the “self-enforcing contracts” theory to analyze the status of Phase One deal. The examination indicates that …

Preparing Teachers For Integrating Visual Arts For Academic Success Of Elementary School Students, Jennifer Roux

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The majority of people agree that students’ education should provide them with the essential skills to be successful in the 21st-century workforce. Although these same sets of skills are commonly practiced through the process of making art, art education continues to hold an inferior status in schools. This disconnection raises the question, what has led to the devaluation of art in academics? This senior capstone will explore how teachers are prepared to integrate visual arts into the classroom. Through the use of a literature review, interviews with three in-service teachers, and a survey of students majoring in Liberal Studies at …

The Civil War Conflict Between Anglophones/Francophones In The Northwest And Southwest Regions Of Cameroon, Myriam Jeter

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The Civil War conflict between Anglophones and Francophones, also known as the Ambazonia war, is a long-standing issue that continues to plague the people living in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. This paper explores the colonial history of the nation, the cause of the ongoing conflict, the reasons for its escalation, and how it gave rise to the Ambazonian separatists who want to have a separate nation called the Ambazonia Republic.

This study contributes to conflict understanding in two ways. First, it sheds light on the cultural and economic impacts of internally generated crises in a country. Second, …

A Leftist Political Surge: How An Authoritarian Past Helped Spawn A Modern Political Movement In Spain And Portugal, Jared Sykes

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Since the 2008 financial crisis ravaged the EU, Spain and Portugal struggled economically to recover, especially as forces in the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) enforced bailout packages conditional on the implementation of austerity. Additionally, Spanish and Portuguese society have continuously struggled with a history of authoritarian legacies, of the Franco and Salazar dictatorships that ruled the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 50 years. As outrage continued, protest movements, most notably the Spanish 15-M Movement, fueled voter dissatisfaction. Eventually, many prominent figures from the protest movement founded or brough momentum to left-wing political forces, …

"They Can Murder Us Today And It Wouldn’T Be A Novelty” U.S. Expulsion Policies And The Violent Structure Of The U.S. Enforcement Matrix, Cinthia Romo Alba

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the United States implemented two migrant expulsion policies: The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a policy which forces migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to remain in Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings, and Title 42, a policy that expelled migrants back to Mexico under the guise that it was a preventative measure for spreading COVID-19. I ask: What are the experiences of asylum seekers subjected to expulsion policies, and what do their experiences tell us about the structure of the U.S. Border Enforcement System? Relying on six months of ethnographic fieldwork at the Matamoros camp …

Rock Or Relic? Lithic Technology And Social Life In The Mimbres Mogollon Region Of Southwestern New Mexico, Jeffrey Dylan Clark Person

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research project investigates stone tool technology at pithouse and pueblo sites in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. Starting around AD 550, people in this area were shifting from mobile foragers who moved in seasonal rounds to sedentary village farmers. This process of subsistence change sparked further changes in material culture and social organization across the Mimbres region. The dissertation focuses on lithic debitage, the stone flakes and rock shatter that resulted from reducing stone cores into usable cutting and scraping tools. Debitage from three Mimbres sites, the Harris site, La Gila Encantada, and Elk Ridge were …

The Effects Of Habitat Isolation On Fine-Scale Genetic And Geographic Structure Of Populations Of Two Threatened Endemic Insects In Southern Nevada, Pseudocotalpa Giulianii And Icaricia Shasta Charlestonensis, Kristen Tovar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Assessing the role geographic isolation and ecological specialization have on phylogeographic patterns contributes to our understanding of the evolutionary history of a species and the processes that erode genetic diversity. I used mitochondrial and nuclear genomic sequences to assess whether habitat isolation has shaped the fine-scale patterns of present-day genetic structure and diversity in two threatened insect species endemic to southern Nevada. Pseudocotalpa giulianii (Coleoptera; Scarabaeidae) is a dune obligate scarab beetle endemic to only two small, isolated sand dunes in Nye County, Nevada, with a usable habitat of less than 4.2 km sq that is impacted by on-going degradation. …

Asian Culture In Western Music: Piano Music By Tan Dun And Bright Sheng, Guqi Zhang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Chinese-American composers Tan Dun and Bright Sheng present culturally eclectic writing styles in their contemporary compositions by leveraging Chinese folk elements, which have gained them an international reputation. This paper examines folk music elements in Tan Dun’s and Bright Sheng’s piano works and their methods of incorporating them. Two main sources provide my methodological models. Locating East Asia in Western Art Music, a collection of essays that compares Asian-influenced Western composers and Western-influenced Asian composers, combines music theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology to explore how composers construct and utilize Eastern and Western musical concepts. Le Kang’s 2009 “The Development of Chinese …

Etuaptmumk: A Means To Advance Indigenous Economic Development “In A Good Way”, Frankie Young

Dalhousie Law Journal

A reckoning is required on how Eurocentric laws and economic systems are biased toward Western worldviews while not accounting for Indigenous realities, legal orders, or economic perspectives. Most notably, Eurocentric laws have been instrumental in advancing non-Indigenous economic interests to the detriment of Indigenous interests, largely because Indigenous laws have not been respected. The strengthening of certain Eurocentric property and contract laws have limited Indigenous peoples’ legal and economic interests and continues to constrain positive economic outcomes and advancement for Indigenous nations. This article argues that re-centering Indigenous legal traditions is a means to advance Indigenous economic interests. The principle …

Where Neutrality Stops And Reality Begins: Why Considering Identity Is Vital To Lead And Class Counsel Selection, Melissa Mortazavi

UC Law Journal

When courts consider a choice of class or lead counsel in multidistrict litigation (“MDL”) or class action suits, they often follow the idea of a neutral partisan model. Such a model idealizes lawyer conduct as a blank conduit for client interests. In theory, lawyers should be able to bring their legal expertise absent any personal experiences, individualized identity, and morality outside of practice. But the reality is that neither lawyers nor their clients can fully divorce their identities or moral viewpoints from the legal system.

This Essay argues that an identity-blind choice of class or lead counsel, grounded in a …

Storm Surge Risk Assessment In Coastal Communities In The Rio Grande Valley: An Application Of Gis-Based Spatial Multicriteria Decision Analysis With Analytical Hierarchy Process, Dean Kyne

Sociology Faculty Publications

Cameron County, which is located in the Rio Grande Valley, maintains records of storm surges associated with noticeable property damage, fatalities, and injuries. This study investigates storm surge inundation risk in Cameron County using storm surge hazard datasets from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with American Community Survey 2019 block group datasets. Using a GIS-based spatial multicriteria decision analysis with an analytical hierarchy process method, the study estimates that storm surge water levels could be above 6.1 m (20 ft) in category 4 and 5 hurricane events, whereas about 37% of the county’s population (159,659 people) could be …

Disaster Resilience In Air Traffic Control: Recovery Of Airspace Activity At U.S. Primary Airports That Experience A Catastrophic Hurricane, Victoria Thorpe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between U.S. airport characteristics, hurricane strength, and hurricane proximity and the time it takes airspace activity to recover to normal after experiencing a catastrophic hurricane. It determined the relative influence of five airport characteristics and two hurricane characteristics as predictors of time for airspace activity to recover to normal. The result is a predictive airport disaster resilience equation to estimate the expected airport recovery rate for a forecasted catastrophic hurricane. This supports expectation management for aviation practitioners. This is significant for air traffic controllers because post-hurricane airspace is unpredictable, demanding, …

New-R Intervention For Clients With Severe Mental Illness And Obesity: Grant Writing For Implementation Funds Supporting Occupational Therapy Interventions, Kaitlyn Hoffman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Increasing numbers of people suffer from obesity and severe mental illness co-morbidly. If these conditions remain untreated, they can harm an individual's health and well-being. Unfortunately, there are very few programs currently available that target both management and improvement of these conditions simultaneously. Even so, despite the lack of programming options, it must be noted that the NEW-R program strives to reach those goals, although there hasn't been an abundance of literature supporting the effectiveness of this program. This poses a concern for occupational therapy practitioners who hope to assist their clients in managing these conditions as occupational therapy treatments …

The Covid-19 Pandemic And On-Time Vaccine Completion In The Childhood Population: A Strategic Plan, Chris Elaine Mariano

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In March 2020, the entire world was placed into lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus, which impacted everyday life, including healthcare. People were scared to leave their homes and obtain preventative services, including vaccinations from birth to adulthood. There was a significant decrease in childhood vaccinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A strategy mix is defined as an intervention utilized for vaccination improvement. Strategy mixes were implemented to improve vaccination administration, and ultimately, vaccination rates. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these strategy mixes or interventions were placed on hold causing immunization administration to decrease which could cause vaccine-preventable diseases …

Critical Metals: From Granitic Pegmatites To The Anthropogenic Cycle, Dalton Mccaffrey

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Critical metals are vital to the functionality of the modern world. The increased diversity and usage intensity of these commodities in defense-related and strategic technologies (e.g., jet engines, rocket assemblies), modern infrastructure and products (e.g., high-strength steel, cellular phones, laptop computers), and energy-related, low-emissions technologies (e.g., nuclear reactors, solar panels, wind turbines, hybrid and electric vehicles) has drastically increased our reliance on critical metals and, thus, the United States (and global) exposure to supply restrictions. Granitic pegmatites are unique mineral deposits that represent a past, present and future resource for many (approximately half) of these critical resources. Even with the …

Seeking Justice For Jews From Mena Countries Through International Law: Comparing The Cases Of Morocco And Iraq, Jessica E. Yeroshalmi

Student Theses and Dissertations

Little is known of the Jews of Middle Eastern North African (MENA) origin whose long standing history in the region did not protect them from discrimination, persecution, and ethnic cleansing. Although much of the research on contemporary Jewish history and persecution revolves around the Holocaust and European events and its implications for Jews and international law, far less is researched about the uprooting of nearly one million Jews from the MENA region. In this investigation, I aim to reconstruct that narrative, applying international law to Jewish refugees from Arab countries. My thesis will be a comparative analysis of Morocco and …

The Conceptual Compression Of Space And Time As Intimated In The Depiction Of The Horse In China, Circa 1250 Bce-Ce 400., Robert Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the horse in ancient China, from before its domestication in the 13th century BCE to the fourth century CE. The revolutionary utilization of the mounted horse influenced contemporary concepts of time and space. The topics include the history of equid domestication in Eurasia, horse-drawn vehicles and riding, the introduction of the horse-drawn chariot from Shang China to its decline in Eastern Zhou; the rise of cavalry in China in the fourth century BCE; and the administrative, martial, symbolic and religious roles given the horse up to the Han dynasty; the early Chinese world view as dictated by …

The Landscape Does Not Care It Is A Landscape: A Utopian Pessimist Journey In Kentucky., Shachaf Polakow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

These thesis and exhibition, invite the viewers to travel through different places in Central and Eastern Kentucky. The region’s landscape, like many other American landscapes, is often known to the public through the settler colonial lens—a lens that ignores Indigenous peoples’ history in the region. The work in the exhibition is a response to landscape art's history and its complicity with American settler colonialism- art that was recruited to create a new identity for the settlers and for the country from the beginning of the American Colonial Project. Landscape art was a crucial part of this effort, presenting the land …

Mapping Urban Forest Extent And Modeling Sequestered Carbon Across Chattanooga, Tn Using Gis And Remote Sensing, William Stuart

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Chattanooga, Tennessee is among many cities experiencing rapid urbanization and subsequent losses to urban forest area. Using remote sensing and digital image processing, this research 1) applied supervised hybrid classification across Landsat imagery that quantified the extent of urban forest loss across Chattanooga between 1984 and 2021, 2) modeled the carbon sequestered in the biomass of Chattanooga’s urban trees using field data and vegetation indices, and finally 3) developed the first city-wide high-resolution land cover map across Chattanooga using SkySat imagery and object-based classification. Results found that Chattanooga has lost up to 43% of its urban tree canopy and gained …

Landscape Genetics Of The Gulf Coast Tick, Amblyomma Maculatum, Sara Simmons Benham

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Connectivity among populations helps to maintain genetic diversity, population stability, and resilience. The Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, is a vector of the pathogen Rickettsia parkeri. Persistence of tick populations with high rates of R. parkeri infection poses health risks to humans and animals. Mitochondrial haplotypes were characterized by sequencing a fragment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene. A comparative study of A. maculatum and Amblyomma americanum was conducted to identify similar and unique patterns between the species within the same region. Next, I compared A. maculatum sites across three different regions of the United States. This work …

Adapting Elements Of Cleft Care Protocols In Low- And Middle-Income Countries During And After Covid-19: A Process-Driven Review With Recommendations, Matthew Fell, Michael Goldwasser, B S Jayanth, Rui Manuel Rodrigues Pereira, Christian Tshisuz Nawej, Rachel Winer, Neeti Daftari, Hugh Brewster, Karen Goldschmied, Collaborators Fernando Almas, Mekonen Eshete, George W Galiwango, Larry H Hollier, Akhter Hussain, Lun-Jou Lo, Paul Salins, Debbie Sell, Amanuel Tafase, Ronald M Zuker

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

A consortium of global cleft professionals, predominantly from low- and middle-income countries, identified adaptations to cleft care protocols during and after COVID-19 as a priority learning area of need. A multidisciplinary international working group met on a videoconferencing platform in a multi-staged process to make consensus recommendations for adaptations to cleft protocols within resource-constrained settings. Feedback was sought from a roundtable discussion forum and global organizations involved in comprehensive cleft care. Foundational principles were agreed to enable recommendations to be globally relevant and two areas of focus within the specified topic were identified. First the safety aspects of cleft surgery …

Hydroclimate Effects On Great Salt Lake Decline Since 1980, Siiri Joy Bigalke

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

As a terminal basin lake, the Great Salt Lake (GSL) is known to act as a barometer for low frequency climate variability for the Western United States. As thus, there are naturally occurring large changes to GSL elevation levels that vary on time scales from years to decades. However, amongst these naturally occurring interannual changes there has been a significant declining trend in the elevation levels since a string of anomalous pluvial years in the early 1980s. In the summer of 2022, the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest levels in recorded history, which coincided with a two-decades long regional …

No Destination: Queering Mobility Through The Virtuality Of Movement, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper advances the epistemological potential that exists at the nexus of queer theory and mobilities research. It aims to queer mobility by rejecting the idea of the destination and embracing the virtuality of movement instead. In doing so, it draws on the queer symbolism of the closet and the cruise to highlight the heteronormative framing that has come to define and constrain the new mobilities paradigm. Arguing that anybody has the capacity to be “queer”, it calls for a redefinition of the subject and an exploration of the world-making possibilities that emerge when the virtuality of movement is foregrounded.

“Back To The Jungle”: Investigating Rats, Grass, Scrub Typhus, And Plantations In Malaya, 1924–1974, Jack Greatrex

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In this article, I examine epidemiological research into scrub typhus in British Malaya between 1924 and 1974. Interwar research, I show, explained the incidence of the disease through conjunctions of rats, mites, plantations, lalang grass, and “jungle.” In the process, interwar researchers bridged a novel scientific vocabulary centering on disease “reservoirs” with older suspicions of plantations enabling “pests,” as well as with a later, explicitly ecological understanding of infectious disease. In exploring this history I thereby help to re-historicize the emergence of ecological notions of disease reservoirs, whilst also pushing at the limit-points of influential notions of “tropicality.”

25 Is The New 18: Extending Juvenile Jurisdiction And Closing Its Exceptions, Dylan Raymond

Utah Law Review

Courts are in broad agreement that juveniles—defined as people under 18-yearsold — are less culpable than adults and thus punish them differently. Indeed, few would disagree that the adult criminal system should apply only to adults—people “fully developed and mature.” If separating adults and juveniles based on culpability is the goal, it begs a simple question: should the split happen at age 18? Some U.S. institutions imply that they believe an 18-year-old lacks the requisite maturity to assume certain responsibilities, including the House of Representatives and car rental agencies, which permit participation at 25. Looking globally, important institutions like the …

An Analysis Of The Sophistication–Maturity Of Justice And Non-Justice Involved Youth And Young Adults, Lauren Grove

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Juvenile transfer refers to a set of mechanisms whereby a juvenile’s case may be processed in criminal court. Forensic mental health evaluators often assess youths’ risk/dangerousness, sophistication–maturity, and treatment amenability to assist judicial determinations regarding youth disposition. Of these three factors, sophistication–maturity—in which the law is concerned with the extent to which a juvenile defendant’s criminal sophistication and maturity level parallels that of an adult—has traditionally been the most challenging for practitioners to define and apply in practice. The Risk-Sophistication-Treatment Inventory (RSTI) is the only commercially available, specialized forensic assessment instrument for the assessment of youths’ sophistication–maturity. However, this tool …

Equity And Access To Care: Barriers To Diagnostic And Treatment Services For Black Families Of Autistic Youth, Harlee Onovbiona

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous barriers to diagnostic and treatment access are present for families concerned their child might have autism spectrum disorder (ASD; e.g., long waitlists, limited specialized providers). However, Black families of autistic youth may experience additional racial barriers (e.g.., racial microaggressions, perceived stigma) due to the intersectionality of their child's disorder and their identity as Black Americans, a group that is systematically minoritized in the United States. Despite the importance of early identification and intervention, little research has documented how these barriers to treatment participation may impact perceived treatment effectiveness, treatment satisfaction, and stress among Black families of autistic youth. This …

Cartographic Analysis Of Earth-Sun Relationships In Ancient Amazonia, Jackson Bennett Critser

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The alignments of ancient man-made earthworks across the Amazon Basin, known as geoglyphs, have recently been discovered to predate early societal dates. Although much research indicated that the Amazon was uninhabitable until the last 1000 years (Meggers 1971), new evidence suggests this is not the case. The application of advanced cartographic and GIS technologies were implemented to link solar ‘marker’ days (e.g. solstices, equinoxes) with the alignment of geoglyphs, megaliths, stone architecture, and broader city forms to discover and analyze previously unknown Earth-Sun relationships across the Amazon Basin to conceivably sophisticated urban and architectural plans. The study of these geoglyphs …