Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of The Influence Of Human Disease Pathogens On Core Behaviors Of The Black-Legged Tick, Emily F. Marinko

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ixodes scapularis, the black-legged or deer tick, is a vector for several different disease-causing microbes, including the causative agent of Lyme disease. As such, it is a major health concern for people living within its range in the eastern half of the United States, a habitation area that is increasing due to climate change. Despite its medical relevance as a disease vector, there is still much to learn about the basic behavior of these arachnids in the wild. Thus, the major hypothesis of this thesis is that ticks that are infected with specific human disease-causing microbes behave differently than those …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Revised Butte Hill Revegetation Specifications, Mike Mcanulty, Eric Hassler

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

No abstract provided.

Damage Localization Of Simp Ly Supported Beams Based On Deflection Influence Surfaces Calculated By Three-Dimensional Boundary Face Method, Yin Xinfeng, Luo Zonghao, Yan Wanli, Kaiersaer ∙Tuerdi

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

The deflection influence surface (DIS) of a spatial structure is difficult to calculate using the existing two-dimensional boundary element method.To address this issue,a damage localization method based on DIS calculated using the three-dimensional boundary face method (BFM ) was proposed.A custom BFM program with an internal loop was developed,and the internal forces and deformations of a square plate and a supported T-beam structure were calculated using the static method.By specifying the domain of the order of a bivariate polynomial function (BPF ),a secondary optimization program for influence surfaces was established,and the DIS with the minimum mean square error was obtained.The …

Wind Tunnel Test On Wind-Resistant Performance Of Suspended Monorail Cable-Stayed Bridge, Chen Yujiang

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

To investigate the wind-induced vibration of a suspended monorail bridge,a full-bridge aeroelastic model at a 1∶40 scale was designed and fabricated according to the geometrical parameters and dynamic characteristics of the real bridge.Wind tunnel tests on the bridge in both the completed state and the maximum cantilever state were conducted under different conditions,including uniform flow and turbulent flow,yaw angles of ± 45°,±30°,±15°,and 0°,and wind attack angles of ‒ 3°,0°,and + 3°.Both vertical and torsional displacements of the structure under different wind speeds were measured.The test results show that the vertical displacements and torsional responses of the cable-stayed bridge increase when …

Walking Each Other Home: A Social Work Portfolio Of Healing, Justice, And Becoming, Serah Lander

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Abstract

This portfolio documents the integration of lived experience, academic training, and professional practice in the pursuit of a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree. Grounded in a personal history shaped by chronic illness, solo motherhood, and economic precarity, this work reframes individual challenges as symptoms of structural neglect and systemic inequity. Through reflective narrative, I explore identity development across intersecting contexts—white, queer, neurodivergent, Jewish by choice, and chronically ill—connecting personal transformation to professional readiness.

Section I: Living the Questions chronicles my evolution from navigating institutional barriers to becoming a systems thinker, crisis counselor, policy advocate, and coalition leader. This …

Restoring Translational Control With Novel Small Molecule Activators Of Pp2a In Cancer Cells, Kayla A. Jonas

Theses & Dissertations

Hyperactivation of eIF4E-dependent translation in tumor cells is required for robust expression of oncogenic proteins and maintenance of the transformed phenotype. eIF4E binds to the 7-methylguanylate structure at the 5’ end of cellular mRNAs and nucleates the formation of the translation initiation complex, eIF4F, which recruits the preinitiation complex and resolves secondary structure in the mRNA. The ability of eIF4E to promote eIF4F assembly is negatively regulated by the translational repressor, 4E-BP1, and tumorigenesis depends on functional inactivation of 4E-BP1. A major mechanism of 4E-BP1 inactivation involves inhibitory phosphorylation by mTOR which prevents eIF4E binding. Functional inactivation can also occur …

Scientist Perspectives: A Correlation Analysis Of Translational Science Competencies Compared With Principles Of Engagement And Knowledge Integration, Rachel Wenzl

Theses & Dissertations

The competencies identified in the development of the “Fundamental Characteristics of the Translational Scientist” may not consider and fully integrate the concepts of knowledge integration and engagement, key components of the translational science spectrum. This gap may be widening and deepening the “valley of death” and exacerbating ongoing challenges in the field of translational science. This dissertation explored the association of knowledge integration, stakeholder engagement, and community engagement principles compared with translational science competencies.

Utilizing content review and a non-experimental, correlation study design, data were collected through a quantitative survey from adult research subjects all self-identified as a research investigator …

Beyond The Bruise: Understanding Injury Risk Factors Among Livestock Workers In Cattle Feedyards And Animal Handling Farms And Ranches, Rishad Ahmed

Theses & Dissertations

Cattle feeding and livestock production are central to U.S. agriculture and represent some of the most hazardous occupational environments. Workers in feedyards and on cattle farms and ranches face elevated risks of injury due to physically demanding labor, frequent animal handling, and exposure to environmental and ergonomic hazards. Many feedyard workers are Hispanic/Latino immigrants who may experience additional barriers related to language, healthcare access, and job security. Similarly, injury risks among cattle producers are compounded by seasonal workload fluctuations, limited rest opportunities, and psychosocial stressors. Beyond individual impacts, agricultural injuries also pose a substantial economic burden. Recent estimates indicate that …

Transcriptomic And Epigenomic Profiling Of Immune Cells Responses To Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection In The Brain, Xiaoke Xu

Theses & Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is an enveloped retrovirus that significantly impairs the human immune system. A common complication of HIV-1 infection is HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND), which, prior to the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART), led to considerable morbidity and mortality due to untreated neuropsychiatric manifestations. Although ART has substantially reduced the incidence of HIV-associated dementia (HAD), approximately 50% of people living with HIV (PLWH) continue to experience milder forms of HAND. The CNS is seeded by HIV during the acute phase of infection. Once in the brain, HIV targets and activates resident immune cells, primarily microglia and …

Analyzing Food Access: An Investigation Of Food Insecurity Amongst Latinos In Rural Nebraska, Natalia Santos

Theses & Dissertations

Background: Food insecurity is a public health issue in the United States, with disproportionately higher rates among Latino/Hispanic households. Rural communities face unique geographical, socioeconomic, and systemic barriers that often exacerbate food access disparities. Despite the growing Latino population in rural areas, particularly in Midwestern states like Nebraska, there remains a critical gap in comprehensive research that integrates both objective and subjective understandings of their food environments. Understanding these multifaceted influences is crucial for developing effective, culturally sensitive interventions.

Problem Statement: This dissertation aims to answer the central question: How does food access and food insecurity manifest amongst Latinos in …

The Characterization Of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Nebraska Drinking Water And Human Health Impacts, Sarah Tucker

Theses & Dissertations

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic compounds that have been detected in water sources of urban and rural environments with evidence of adverse human health effects from exposure. Humans are primarily exposed through ingestion of contaminated water and food. PFAS exposure has been linked to negative multi-system health outcomes (liver, kidneys, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune). PFAS occur as persistent mixtures in environmental media with decades long consequences to water quality. While national agencies have launched large-scale PFAS water quality monitoring studies, limited data exists for contamination of rural water in Nebraska, especially private wells. The aims of this study …

Symptom Clusters And Their Association With Health-Related Quality Of Life In Pediatric Cancer Survivors After Treatment Completion, Krishtee Napit

Theses & Dissertations

A critical area of cancer research, symptom management, has evolved from focusing on individual symptoms to recognizing the complexity of co-occurring symptoms, commonly referred to as symptom clusters. However, most studies on pediatric cancer symptom clusters have focused primarily on the treatment phase or long-term survivorship, overlooking the early post-treatment period. This dissertation examines the prevalence of multiple symptoms and symptom clusters in pediatric cancer survivors post-treatment; factors associated with the total number of symptoms and symptom clusters; and the association of the total number of symptoms and symptom clusters with health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We developed and tested …

Temporal Patterns Of Ectopic Pregnancy: Using The Electronic Health Record To Illuminate A Dark Corner In Women's Health, Kirsten Hepburn

Theses & Dissertations

Ectopic pregnancy remains a significant contributor to pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality, yet little is known about whether its occurrence follows discernible temporal patters that could inform prediction and prevention efforts. This dissertation aimed to explore the temporal characteristics of ectopic pregnancy through three interrelated projects: development of a new theoretical framework, a scoping review of the literature on ectopic pregnancy temporal patterns, and an empirical study using electronic health records data from a ten-year period at a single academic medical center. The Nursing Genomic and epigenomic, Environment, and Microbiome (N-GEM) situation-specific theoretical framework was introduced as a novel nursing theory …

Role Of Stabilin-1 Expressing Macrophages In Colorectal Liver Metastasis, Jampa L. Gurung

Theses & Dissertations

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 2nd most common cause of cancer-related mortality, primarily due to its spread to distant organs. Colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) is the foremost form of CRC spread due to the anatomical link between the liver and intestine. Despite advancements in diagnostic tools and adjuvant therapies, the survival rate of CRLM remains low, indicating the significant need to identify targetable mechanisms. Stabilin-1 (STAB1), a scavenger receptor expressed on tumor-associated macrophages, has been linked to tumorigenesis and poor outcomes in various cancers. However, the role of STAB1 in CRLM is not known. Here, we investigated the role of …

Challenges And Opportunities In Medical Tourism, Nizar Zein

Visions in Leisure and Business

Medical tourism is a rapidly expanding industry, with an increasing number of patients traveling abroad for medical treatments and procedures. This trend is expected to continue as the industry evolves to meet shifting patient demands and preferences. People are motivated to seek healthcare outside their home countries for various reasons, such as access to advanced technology, faster treatment, higher quality care, or more affordable options available in the destination country. Patients today are more informed and selective about their healthcare choices. They seek not only cost-effective treatments but also high-quality care and an exceptional patient experience. The future of medical …

Introduction, Fang Wang, Katey Price, David Groves

Visions in Leisure and Business

No abstract provided.

Perspective, Fang Wang, Katey Price, David Groves

Visions in Leisure and Business

Health and medical tourism are a very complex set of issues. This issue of Visions cannot address this issue of complexity, but there are three primary dimensions. They appear in a number of articles that are directly related to the future of health and medical tourism. These three issues are data, cooperation, and barriers. These are not interrelated concepts, but will have an impact upon future considerations. In addition, to these basic issues, the dimension of agencies that are involved is highly diverse. This perspective reviewed some of the basic structures to gain a greater understanding for further discussions and …

Health Tourism Facility Use Of Digital Marketing And Ai, David Vequist Iv

Visions in Leisure and Business

The proliferation of social media platforms has fundamentally reshaped patient acquisition strategies in health and wellness tourism, creating unprecedented opportunities for providers to engage with international patients across diverse digital channels. From boutique clinics in Mexico offering specialized dental, cosmetic, and bariatric procedures, to destination medspas providing aesthetic treatments, and even comprehensive global hospitals like the Mayo Clinic, healthcare providers are leveraging multi-platform social media strategies to attract and inform potential medical travelers. Research indicates that these digital marketing approaches now encompass a sophisticated array of content formats, including short-form video on TikTok, professional imagery on Instagram, long-form educational content …

The Role And Purpose Of Social Media In Contemporary Health Tourism: A Means To An End, Konstantinos Konstantinidis

Visions in Leisure and Business

No abstract provided.

Exploring How Potential Medical Tourists Engage In Ewom On Reddit, Katey A. Price

Visions in Leisure and Business

Medical tourism is an increasingly popular form of travel as well as lucrative business as access to healthcare services varies drastically from one region to another. Individuals who are interested in travel, and specifically medical tourism, are using electronic word of mouth to connect with others who have experience in this form of travel. This research explores how potential medical tourists actively engage in information-seeking through the social media platform Reddit. Analysis of original posts showed that when seeking information from experienced medical tourists, potential medical tourists provided reasoning and context for wanting to travel to seek medical services and …

Conceptual Framework: Emotional Intelligence And Social Media For Health And Medical Tourism, David L. Groves, Katey A. Price, Fang Wang

Visions in Leisure and Business

Social media technologies have played a significant role in most people's lives in recent years. It has significantly changed the way we do business, form relationships, etc. The health and tourism industry has been significantly changed with the new technologies. It is not only from a client perspective, but also from infrastructural relationships among administrators, doctors, nurses, etc. This is also greatly reflected from a cultural perspective. It is obvious that two of the outstanding elements in helping to understand the impacts of social media are cognitive and emotional factors. Emotional factors play a significant role in social media, and …

A Comparative Subnational Policy Analysis Of State Covid-19 Vaccine Policies And Application Of The Political Determinants Of Health Model, Demetrius Cianci Chapman

Nursing ETDs

A COMPARATIVE SUBNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS OF STATE COVID-19 VACCINE POLICIES AND APPLICATION OF THE POLITICAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH MODEL

By

Demetrius Cianci Chapman

Associate of Science Nursing, Jewish Hospital College of Nursing and Allied Health, 1998

Bachelor of Science of Nursing, Saint Louis University, 2000

Master of Public Health, Saint Louis University, 2004

Master of Science Nursing (Research), Saint Louis University, 2004

Doctor of Philosophy, Nursing, University of New Mexico, 2025

ABSTRACT

This study uses the political determinants of health (PDoH) framework to analyze state-level COVID-19 vaccine policies and their impact on population health. The PDoH model examines how structured …

Flowing Progress: Transforming The Danube Through Infrastructure, Stefan Dorondel, Luminita Gatejel

Central European Studies

Flowing Progress: Transforming the Danube Through Infrastructure focuses on how different political regimes and forms of governance have imagined and technologically transformed the most international river in the world. Multidisciplinary and drawing on methodologies of history, anthropology of infrastructure, and science, technology, and society, this collection explores the tensions between the river and its natural pulses, the humans that populate its floodplains, state agencies, and infrastructure. The book engages the concept of disturbance to point out the circular and spiraling dynamics between hydrological processes and technopolitical and economic practices. Disturbance denotes a specific type of long-term dynamic between human attempts …

Empowering Science With The World's First High Accuracy And High Throughput Functional Assay, Christopher Giacoletto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Understanding the functional consequences of genetic mutations remains a central challenge in modern biology, with far-reaching implications for human health and disease. While early systematic methods like alanine scanning and phage display provided foundational insights into protein structure and function, the emergence of high-throughput approaches—such as Multiplexed Assays of Variant Effect (MAVEs)—and predictive tools powered by artificial intelligence have vastly expanded our ability to profile mutational landscapes. However, these methods are often constrained by trade-offs between accuracy, scalability, and biological relevance.This dissertation presents the development and application of the GigaAssay, the world’s first high-throughput functional assay capable of delivering both …

Exploring The Processing Of Objects, Settings, And Global Properties In Natural Auditory Scenes, Margaret A. Mcmullin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Our auditory system has a remarkable ability to make sense of complex environments, allowing us to identify what we are hearing and where sounds come from. This process of auditory scene analysis is essential for situational awareness, decision-making, and effective communication in daily life. While much is known about how listeners segregate and identify individual sound sources (e.g., voices), less is understood about how global properties of a scene (e.g., openness, naturalness) contribute to perception. This dissertation examined how object- and setting-level information in natural auditory scenes are processed, and whether they rely on distinct or overlapping mechanisms. In Experiment …

The Dropbot: Design And Development Of A Custom Drone For Precision Water Drop Penetration Time (Wdpt) Testing, Mugundan Prakash

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Assessing the hydrophobic characteristics of soil is vital for understanding soil wettability or soil-water interactions, particularly in post-wildfire environments where water repellency can significantly impact ecosystem recovery, water infiltration, and erosion control. One key metric in soil wettability studies is the Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT) test, which evaluates the hydrophobicity of soil and guides land treatment strategies. This thesis presents the design and development of DropBot, a custom-built drone platform engineered for the precise delivery and analysis of water droplets in WDPT tests.The DropBot, a custom drone, integrates a lightweight, 3D-printed frame with a self-leveling platform, enabling consistent droplet …

Internalized Weight Stigma As A Mediator Between Past Weight Stigma And Current Healthcare Avoidance/Comfort In Seeking Medical Care, Shannon Joyel Sagert

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research has found that medical providers such as physicians, nurses, and medical support staff may contribute to externalized weight stigma directed toward youth (Garcia et al., 2016; Gorlick et al., 2021). Individuals who have encountered weight stigmatization may internalize those experiences, leading to psychological, physical, and behavioral changes that reduce their quality of life (Palad et al., 2019; Romano et al., 2023; Tanas et al., 2022; Zancu & Diaconu-Gherasim, 2023). However, little is known about how historical externalized weight stigma from medical providers relates to future healthcare access behaviors. This study examined whether internalized weight stigma mediated two relationships: First, …

Understanding The Role Of Drug Offenses And The Death Penalty In Iran, Cyrus Zarganj

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been governed by Islamic laws devised by Shia Muslim clerics, significantly influencing the nation's legal framework in both criminal and civil contexts. The death penalty in Iran covers a broad spectrum of offenses, many of which would not be considered capital crimes or even crimes globally. This extensive application of the death penalty is an instrument of social control during periods of political tension, indicating a direct relationship between the regime's stability and the enforcement of extreme punitive measures. Despite some reduction in the visibility of executions due to international …

Factors Associated With Discrimination-Related Distress Among Sexual And Gender Minority Individuals: A Predictive Analysis, Emylia Terry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals face disparate rates of mental health outcomes, such as psychological distress, which contributes to suicidality. This may be attributable to minority stress, which posits that health inequities impacting this community are driven by increased exposure to stigma- and discrimination-related stressors. The negative physical and psychological health impacts of psychological distress and discrimination are well-documented in the literature. Structural stigma – in the form of harmful anti-LGBTQIA+ laws and policies – is associated with increased suicidality. However, little is known about factors associated with perceived discrimination occurrences and discrimination-related distress. First, a systematic review was …