Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Korean Mask-Dance And Aristotle's Poetics, Teayong Pakr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Korean mask-dance is the traditional theatre of Korea. It was formerly the country's most well-known form of drama among traditional theatrical entertainments. This study explores the theatrical structure of Korean mask-dance as well as its historical background.

The rise of Korean mask-dance may be traced back to the shamanistic village ritual which gradually became similar to the extant form after absorbing aspects of the Buddhism festival through the Goryeo Dynasty, which lasted from 918-1392). During the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the mask-dance had acquired its basic form with aspects of professional theatrical entertainment. The mask-dances have been performed during traditional holidays …

Strike Out Across The Shoreless Ocean, Julia Claire Paajanen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

What happens between a reader and a poem is none of my business. The world has always been yours; find your own way.

(1) Every choice is correct.

(2) Everything is true.

(3) What is anything, unless so far as it is enjoyed?

All you have to do is see the course, and when you see it, go.

A Landscape Approach To Late Prehistoric Settlement And Subsistence Patterns In The Mojave Sink, Tiffany Ann Thomas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The environment of the Late Prehistoric period (1200 A.D. to Historic Contact) Mojave Sink was wetter than modern conditions. The settlement and subsistence patterns of the occupants of the region during this period were driven by the availability of water, subsistence resources, raw material sources, and tradition. These people utilized the regional landscape based upon the seasonal availability of these resources. Supplemental agricultural production has been proposed for the Mojave River Delta due to the more favorable environmental conditions of this period. If agriculture was being practiced it would have affected the regional land-use patterns. For this thesis I propose …

The Impact Of Regulating Social Science Research With Biomedical Regulations, Brenda Braxton Durosinmi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Impact of Regulating Social Science Research with Biomedical Regulations Since 1974 Federal regulations have governed the use of human subjects in biomedical and social science research. The regulations are known as the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, and often referred to as the "Common Rule" because 18 Federal agencies follow some form of the policy. The Common Rule defines basic policies for conducting biomedical and social science research. Almost from the inception of the Common Rule social scientists have expressed concerns of the policy's medical framework of regulations having its applicability also to human research in …

The Watchmaker Series, Christopher Michael Seelie

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Watchmaker Series celebrates and inquires into time as a biproduct of consciousness and practices the application of this notion in poetry. The series begins with the numeral poems, all of which relate directly to the theoretical and polemical aspects. Along the way, other poems with individual titles are interspersed to reflect or redirect the abstract considerations to more concrete subjects. Gradually, as the series progresses, the interacting and recurring associations meld theory and practice into a compositional whole.

The central notion that contemporary poetry is not a machine made of words but rather, like the watch that gives itself …

The Role Of Metrical Structure In Tonal Knowledge Acquisition, Matthew Rosenthal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Experienced listeners possess a working knowledge of pitch structure in Western music, such as scale, key, harmony, and tonality, which develops gradually throughout childhood. It is commonly assumed that tonal representations are acquired through exposure to the statistics of music, but few studies have investigated potential learning mechanisms directly. In Western tonal music, tonally stable pitches not only have a higher overall frequency of occurrence, but they may occur more frequently at strong than weak metrical positions, providing two potential avenues for tonal learning. Two experiments employed an artificial grammar learning paradigm to examine tonal learning mechanisms. During a familiarization …

Clarinet Performance Practices For Alberto Ginastera's "Variaciones Concertantes": Solutions For Orchestral Auditions And Performances, Thomas James Kmiecik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The principal clarinet part of Alberto Ginastera's Variaciones concertantes (1953) requires the performer to execute a number of exposed passages that are considered impractical by many clarinetists as published. The Boosey & Hawkes edition of Variaciones concertantes was published for the B-flat clarinet. On account of this clarinet choice, the part exceeds the traditional upper range of the instrument in the third variation (Variazione in modo di Scherzo per Clarinetto ). Moreover, it requires very awkward fingering patterns in passages because they are written in the Phrygian mode of C-sharp. To avoid some of these technical obstacles, many professional …

Newe Country: Environmental Degradation, Resource War, Irrigation And The Transformation Of Culture On Idaho's Snake River Plain, 1805--1927, Sterling Ross Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Idaho's Shoshone and Bannock Indians have long relied upon the Snake River. The waterway provides salmon and waters the vast Camas Prairie. On the prairie grows the Camas plant, the roots of which Shoshones and Bannocks harvest as a staple of their diet. Grass also grows on the prairie and the surrounding plains, which fed huge herds of bison that Shoshones and Bannocks also relied upon for food and skins to wear and trade. As a result of integration into the globalizing economy initiated by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, indigenous peoples of the area and Euroamericans overhunted bison populations, …

On The Back Of The Army: A Comparative Study Of Romanization In Britain And Egypt, Renee Wiseman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Romanization is the process of understanding how Rome culturally expanded beyond military actions. This study seeks to compare how Romanization proceeded in the provinces of Britain and Egypt.

For The Benefit Of Others: Harriet Martineau: Feminist, Abolitionist And Travel Writer, Laura J. Labovitz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

One of the distinctive and remarkable traits of Harriet Martineau was her need to publish information that she believed would benefit society. Her publications - Illustrations of Political Economy (1832), Society in America (1837) and Retrospect of Western Travel (1838) - have the distinct characteristic of being published with the intent to inform and educate the British public. Scholars have focused on her later 1848 publication, Eastern Life: Present and Past, as her most important publication. Yet I will argue that it was her earlier works which set the stage for this later, better known book. Her travel to the …

Methodological Quality Of Quantitative Nursing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Research From 2000 To 2010, Michael Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people constitute one of the largest underserved populations in any nursing setting. Despite the large LGBT populations, very little nursing research has been conducted on these populations. Nurse researchers have recommended that nursing researchers end the silence on LGBT research. To accomplish this, the methodological rigor of LGBT nursing research must be evaluated and improved upon. Currently, no literature examines the methodological quality of quantitative nursing LGBT research. Using a cross-sectional design, it was the purpose of this study to evaluate the methodological quality of quantitative nursing LGBT research from 2000 to 2010 using …

The Impact Of World War Ii On Women's Fashion In The United States And Britain, Meghann Mason

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

World War II (hereafter referred to as WWII) is a fascinating era in fashion, society, and politics. The fashion of the era was truly representative of the events happening in the world in a most visible way. This era made indelible marks on future designers and the science of fashion as the world knows it. Fashion and costume design were influenced and changed due to the many limitations presented and imposed by WWII. WWII represents a great marker of change socially, technologically, economically, and politically. While it affected the entire world, the main focus of this thesis will explore the …

The American Homophilic School Of Composition, Rik Noyce

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A small enclave of gay composers in New York, led by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) and Virgil Thomson (1896-1989), established a distinct twentieth-century musical sound that became synonymous with America. Copland and Thomson were prominent among a group of gifted gay musicians and conductors in New York in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. While perhaps not self-identifying as gay, as the term had not yet been coined, they did however acknowledge, honor, and support one another's lives as being homosexual. Is it possible that something as seemingly unrelated as sexual preference could, in fact, impact a musical style?

In this document, …

The Influence Of Peer Tutors And Technology-Actuated Reading Instruction Process On Third-Grade Students' Self-Perceptions As Readers: A Multiple Case Study, Brenda Shill Daw

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Driven by Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory (1986), my study investigated the self-perceptions and interactions of seven underperforming, third-grade readers while using Technology-Actuated Reading Instruction (TARI). Partnered with same-age peer tutors, readers used digital tools to listen to, read/record, and playback oral reading passages. They practiced, peer- or self-edited, and selected their best reading products as part of the iterative process. As reading is a complex cognitive skill (Reinking, 2005), TARI incorporated higher cognitive learning activities via a synthesis of Gagné's (1985) nine conditions of learning and the Four-Component Instructional Design Model (van Merriënboer & Kester, 2005).

Much of the current …

Adolphe Nourrit, Gilbert Duprez, And The High C: The Influences Of Operatic Plots, Culture, Language, Theater Design, And Growth Of Orchestral Forces On The Development Of The Operatic Tenor Vocal Production, Micheal Lee Smith Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The operatic tenor voice has evolved from a variety of influences. This document identifies four influences involved in the development of the operatic tenor voice and describes their impact on performance practices including the chest voice high C (C5). Modern tenors’ performance practices originate in the nineteenth century ascendance of an Italian singing technique. This particular singing technique achieved popularity when Gilbert Duprez sang the role of Arnold in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell with a do di petto (i.e. from-the-chest) production of sound rather than the mix of falsetto and head voice that was traditional at the time. The role of …

Indigent Women And Access To Prenatal Care, Zoe Ann Zelazny

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

One aspect of America's health care system that illustrates the great need for health care reform, but receives little attention, is prenatal care. The United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world. Adequate prenatal care results in healthier babies, more full-term babies delivered, and a decrease in other serious problems related to pregnancy and health care costs. The purpose of this study is to examine the history of prenatal policy and how it has developed into what it is today, to understand why medically indigent women are not receiving adequate prenatal care, and to highlight …

To Receive My Services You Must Be Dying And Alone, Kathryn Kruse

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Following is a collection of short fiction. The work comes out of the tradition of realism with influences from surrealism and the gothic grotesque.

While most of the work of creation centered around character and voice, several themes emerge in the final product. Death and its perception in American society play central roles in many pieces. Also, the collection explores the experience of intimacy in many types of interpersonal relationships. Several of the pieces focus on the effects environment and location have on individuals and how change of location impacts a character. In conjunction with these many themes, obsession as …

Gambling With Lives: A History Of Occupational Health In Southern Nevada, 1905--2010, Michelle Ann Turk

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In April 2009, the Pulitzer committee awarded its public service prize to the Las Vegas Sun for its coverage of the high fatalities on Las Vegas Strip construction sites. The newspaper attributed failures in safety policy to "the exponential growth in the Las Vegas market." In fact, since Las Vegas' founding in 1905, rapid development in the region has always strained occupational health standards. From transporting hazardous railroad cargoes to building Hoover Dam, chemical processing at Basic Magnesium, nuclear testing, and dense megaresort construction on the Strip, workers, residents, and tourists alike have been exposed to the threat of living …

The Size Of The Risk: An Environmental History Of The Nuclear Great Basin, Leisl Ann Carr Childers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Throughout the twentieth century, Congress has managed the nation's public lands for the greater good of the country under a multiple-use construct. Land-use decisions based on serving the nation's public interest entailed federal land management agencies finding the utility of the land in order to put as much of it as possible into some kind of economic production and provide equitable access, as much as was feasible, to all the various public land users. But every federal program enacted on the nation's public lands has had an associated cost; not everyone or every environment has benefited from multiple-use public land …

Nabokovilia: References To Vladimir Nabokov In British And American Literature And Culture, 1960-2009, Juan Martinez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The dissertation examines allusions to the Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov in the work of 147 contemporary cultural producers and – through this filter – the way in which allusion functions as symbolic capital in the field of cultural production. Critics have traditionally considered allusion a strictly localized phenomenon, but this approach – which draws upon the work of sociologists of literature such as Franco Moretti and Pierre Bourdieu, as well as the poetics of Gérard Genette – considers how a Nabokov allusion operates as an intra-authorial calling card, where Nabokov appears as an idealized, intransigent autonomous authorial figure in the …

The Male Educational Leader In Utah: Gender Dynamics, Power, And Relational Leadership In A Mormon Dominant Culture, Rick Robins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This qualitative study explored the impact of Mormon culture and theology on male and female school leaders that co-exist on high school administrative teams. This problematic relationship is caused by the scarcity of female administrators in Utah as they move up the leadership ladder in education. According to the Utah State Office of Education in 2006, there were 118 public high schools in the state of Utah. Out of those 118 high schools, 18 were lead by female principals. There were 141 middle schools. Of the middle schools in the state, 40 were lead by female principals. Of the 617 …

Prayer In Jewish Community High Schools: Generation Y Jews In An Era Of Unlimited Choices, Yonatan Yussman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and analyze tefilla (prayer) programs in three Jewish community high schools, as well as professional leadership practices in these schools as they related to prayer. The questions that guided this research were: (1) What does prayer education and practice look like in Jewish community high schools? (2) How is prayer education and practice perceived by key constituencies in Jewish community high schools? (3) How do educators and students in Jewish community high schools describe authentic prayer?

Site observations, interviews with students, faculty, and administration, as well as data collected from sources …

1983: The Most Dangerous Year, Andrew R. Garland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A series of otherwise unrelated events culminated to make 1983 the most dangerous year the world has ever known, with the United States and the Soviet Union even closer to war than during the much more well-known events of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis of 1983 arose from a sequence of accidents, misunderstandings, and mistakes. From highly publicized events such as President Ronald Reagan‘s application of morality to foreign policy to the Soviet Union‘s attempt to discover NATO‘s secret attack plans, an extraordinary confluence of events brought the two superpowers closer to nuclear exchange than is commonly believed. …

A Montage In Its Leaves, Andrew S. Nicholson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation consists of a series of lyric poems preceded by an introduction to those poems. The introduction gives a background to the method of composition and historical precedents to the poems, connecting the lyric poems to the writing and thoughts of William Blake, Martin Heidegger, and Robert Creeley. The poems are presented in three parts, and cover a variety of subjects, frequently favoring the presentation of subjective experience over an imagined objectivity.

The Father Birth, Alissa Nutting

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This creative dissertation is a fabulist and satirical novel. The book follows the story of main character and narrator Earleen, an atypical and hyper-intelligent sixteen-year-old who continues to be traumatized by her sociopathic father even after he dies. A self-taught bookworm born in the early 1980s, her formative years were spent trapped inside her parents' rural methamphetamine cookhouse. When her parents blow up inside their house during a drug-manufacturing incident on the eve of Earleen's early adolescence, she finds herself in the arms of an affluent adoptive couple (Dennis Stark, a fertility specialist, and his homemaker wife Beverly) who have …

Jackpot! A Legal History Of Indian Gaming In California, Aaron Peardon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Indian Gaming has transformed the economic, political, and sociological landscape of California. The growth of Indian casinos has had a profound impact on both Indian and non-Indian communities alike. California tribes took the lead in legalizing Indian Gaming throughout the nation. The efforts of California tribes in the legislative and political process have enabled many tribal groups to rise out of poverty and to gain prosperity that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. They have also brought increased revenue to local communities and have provided thousands of jobs to all Californians.

This thesis discusses the historical relationships between Native American …

Factors Influencing Music Teacher Retention: A Mixed Method Study, Charles W. Cushinery

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine what internal and external factors influence the retention attributions of secondary level music teachers who participated in this study and identify what interactions exist between those factors. Phase one of this study was a survey of a group of secondary music teachers (N=260). The survey was used to quantify those factors that influenced music teacher retention and how those factors were ranked by the survey group. Phase two of this study employed case study methodology, specifically, interviews of six secondary music teachers selected from the initial survey pool, to provide a …

The Whiter Lotus: Asian Religions And Reform Movements In America, 1836-1933, Edgar A. Weir Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the influence of Asian religions and thought on various reform movements in America, including anti-slavery, labor rights, the alleviation of poverty, women's rights, and the rights of immigrants. The interactions between these two forces will be uncovered and analyzed from 1836, the year Ralph Waldo Emerson's ground-breaking work Nature was published, until 1933, the year that Dyer Daniel Lum, the last individual discussed in this work, passed away. Previous studies have demonstrated that those who incorporated Asian religions and thought into their own lives and worldviews also affixed great importance on affecting society in a positive manner. …

“Change” In The 2008 Presidential Campaign: A Study In Rhetorical Definition, Graciela Saez Kleriga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Every election cycle, the major party candidates accept a nomination for the presidency and launch the general campaign. These rhetors not only weave a narrative about themselves as qualified candidates; they also forward an argument about how the public should choose between two candidates. In particular, the 2008 presidential campaign's central question asked Americans about the type of change the nation should undertake. By tracing the definitional arguments utilized at the outset of the general election, this project analyzes how Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain utilized this desire for "Change" as a strategic theme.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (Pcos) In Urban India, Heidi A. Manlove

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis research focuses on urban women in India diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a complex metabolic, endocrine and reproductive disorder affecting approximately 5-10% of the female population in developed countries. The prevalence of PCOS is on the rise in developing nations like India, which are undergoing rapid nutritional transitions due to Westernized diets and lifestyle. However, less appreciated in the literature are the developmental psychosocial impacts for women diagnosed with PCOS, especially in developing countries. Thus, the goal of my thesis research was to contribute to the small but growing literature by investigating psychosocial dimensions of …