Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Public Participation Program Development: An Analysis Of Public Participation In The Water Industry, Marcia Lynne Holmberg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The field of public participation is a distinct, but yet unpolished facet within the public relations industry. While the purpose of and need for public participation are becoming increasingly clear, many remain unaware or unconvinced of its advantages. Likewise, even among those who endorse the necessity of public participation, its methods and strategies continue to be a mystery to most.

One industry, in particular, that has recognized and embraced the benefits of conducting public participation is the water utility industry. The purpose of this thesis is to 1) crystallize the understanding of why public participation is a necessary and advantageous …

A Plan For Characterizing Waste For The Defense Special Weapons Agency At The Nevada Test Site, Tiffany A. Hatcher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 1976, Congress adopted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to govern hazardous waste. The Act was amended in 1984 with the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments in order to further define the requirements of RCRA. RCRA is meant to protect human health and the environment from the effects of hazardous waste, promote waste minimization, and encourage material recycling and recovery. For this purpose, regulations are implemented that cover every aspect of the hazardous waste problem, including generation, transport, treatment, storage, and disposal.

Generators of waste are the most important part of this chain. As defined in RCRA, a …

Volcanology And Geochemistry Of Pliocene And Quaternary Basalts On Citadel Mountain, Lunar Crater Volcanic Field, Pancake Range, Nevada, Loretta D. Dickson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Alkali basalts on Citadel Mountain form the southern margin of the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field (LCVF) in the central Great Basin, Nevada. Citadel Mountain comprised of a faulted, north tilted section of Tertiary andesite and ash-flow tuff is capped by Pliocene and Quaternary alkali basalt flows that erupted from six major cinder cones. The basalt flows on Citadel Mountain can be divided into two groups (older and younger) based on age and isotopic signatures. The older basalt group is characterized by higher ⁸⁷ Sr/⁸⁶Sr and lower E_Nd and the younger group has lower ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr …

The Migration Of Arsenic And Lead In Surface Sediments At Three Kids Mine Henderson, Nevada, Douglas Brian Sims

Publications (WR)

This study focused on the distribution of arsenic and lead in surface sediments at Three Kids Mine in Henderson, Nevada. The mine site encompasses approximately 470 acres of desert and is situated above two developing communities (Lake Las Vegas and Calico Ridge) and the Las Vegas Valley's water source (Lake Mead).

Transport of arsenic and lead appears to have occurred within a limited range in both the eastern and western washes on the eastern and western sides of Three Kids Mine. Concentrations of arsenic range between 20 mg/kg (ppm) and 1130 mg/kg and between 20 mg/kg and 8400 mg/kg for …

Simulation Study Of Learning Automata Games In Automated Highway Systems, Cem Unsal, Pushkin Kachroo, John S. Bay

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

One of the most important issues in Automated Highway System (AHS) deployment is intelligent vehicle control. While the technology to safely maneuver vehicles exists, the problem of making intelligent decisions to improve a single vehicle’s travel time and safety while optimizing the overall traffic flow is still a stumbling block. We propose an artificial intelligence technique called stochastic learning automata to design an intelligent vehicle path controller. Using the information obtained by on-board sensors and local communication modules, two automata are capable of learning the best possible (lateral and longitudinal) actions to avoid collisions. This learning method is capable of …

The Use Of Spectrofluorimetry And Capillary Electrophoresis/Laser-Induced Fluorescence For The Detection Of Fluorescent Dyes In Groundwater Migration Studies, Patrick Ferguson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis involves work that was accomplished during a two-year internship at the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA), Environmental Chemistry Branch. The research is an application of trace level determination of fluorescein dyes used as groundwater tracers. The work was performed to determine whether groundwater could migrate from a Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) site to an adjacent Superfund site. The research involved using Spectrofluorimetry and a new technique called capillary electrophoresis/laser induced fluorescence (CE/LIF) to determine tracer dyes that were injected at the RCRA site and monitored at the Superfund site. Results from Spectrofluorimetry were compared to those of CE/LIF. …

Aspects Of Postcollision Interactions (Pci) Near The Ar L-Shell, James A.R. Samson, Y. Lu, Wayne C. Stolte

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

In the present work we are interested in near-threshold photoionization experiments involving postcollision effects related to the Auger decay of a vacancy in the Ar L shell. In particular, we have measured the photoelectron energy spectrum resulting from the above postcollision interaction effects and have observed electrons produced by the process of electron capture and reemission.

Nondipole Resonant X-Ray-Raman Spectroscopy: Polarized Inelastic Scattering At The K Edge Of Cl2, J. D. Mills, J. A. Sheehy, T. A. Ferrett, S. H. Southworth, R. Mayer, Dennis W. Lindle, P. W. Langhoff

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

Experimental and theoretical studies are reported on the inelastic (Raman) scattering of wavelength-selected polarized x rays from the K edge of gas-phase chlorine molecules. The polarized emission spectra exhibit prominent nondipole features consequent of phase variations of the incident and emitted radiation over molecular dimensions, as predicted by the Kramers-Heisenberg scattering formalism. Issues pursuant to the detection of core-hole localization by resonant Raman scattering from homonuclear diatomic molecules are critically examined. [S0031-9007(97)03486-8]

Breakdown Of The Independent Particle Approximation In High-Energy Photoionization, E. W. B. Dias, H. S. Chakraborty, P. C. Deshmukh, S. T. Manson, Oliver Hemmers, P. Glans, D. Hansen, H. Wang, S. B. Whitfield, Dennis W. Lindle, R. Wehlitz, Jon C. Levin, I. A. Sellin

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

The independent particle approximation is shown to break down for the photoionization of both inner and outer nℓ (ℓ>0) electrons of all atoms, at high enough energy, owing to interchannel interactions with the nearby ns photoionization channels. The effect is illustrated for Ne 2p in the 1 keV photon energy range through a comparison of theory and experiment. The implications for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of molecules and condensed matter are discussed.

Artificial Recharge In The Las Vegas Valley: An Operational History, Michael Johnson, Erin Cole, Kay Brothers, Las Vegas Valley Water District

Publications (WR)

Artificially recharging the Las Vegas Valley (Valley) ground-water system with treated Colorado River water is one water resource management option employed by the Las Vegas Valley Water District (District) to help meet future long-term and short-term peak water demands. The District began operation of an artificial ground-water recharge program in 1988 in order to bank water for future use and to slow declining water levels. Artificial recharge occurs in the winter months, typically from October to May, when there is excess capacity in the Southern Nevada Water System (SNWS), currently a 400 Million Gallon per Day (MGD) treatment and transmission …

Estimation Of Groundwater Velocities From Yucca Flat To The Amargosa Desert Using Geochemistry And Environmental Isotopes, Ronald L. Hershey, Steve Y. Acheampong

Publications (WR)

Geochemical modeling techniques were applied to groundwater flowpaths from Yucca Flat on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) to the Amargosa Desert, south of the NTS to estimate groundwater flow velocities for independent comparison to velocities calculated by other methods. The groundwater flowpaths examined considered flow in the carbonate aquifer beneath Yucca and Frenchman flats mixing with flow from carbonate aquifers east and southeast of the NTS and discharging at wells south of the NTS border. The approach used the computer codes WATEQ4F and NETPATH to calculate chemical speciation, determine the saturation state of mineral phases, and simulate mixing and the …

Blm Rangeland: Has The Condition Improved?, Angela C. Dudley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

"Whose Home Is the Range, Anyway?: The latest research is confirming that in the West's fragile public lands, cattle are often bad news for wildlife." This is the title and headline of Lisa Drew's article in the December/January 1994 issue of National Wildlife. It shows a picture of what looks like a wasteland with only cattle, manure and a fence, no vegetation (Drew, 1994). Inside the article, Drew quotes biologist Bob Ohmart at Arizona State University's Center for Environmental Studies as saying, "Livestock grazing is without a doubt the greatest threat to western wildlife" (p. 15). Drew contends that, "The …

Las Vegas Wash Water Quality Monitoring Program: 1996 Report Of Findings, Richard A. Roline, James J. Sartoris, U.S. Bureau Of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey

Publications (WR)

Las Vegas Wash, a natural wash east of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, carries stormwater, groundwater drainage, and sewage effluent from three sewage treatment plants to Lake Mead. The Wash provides nearly the only surface water outlet for the entire 2,193 mi² of Las Vegas Valley. A drainage area of 1,586 mi² contributes directly to the Wash through surface flow which is channeled to Las Vegas Bay of Lake Mead, while drainage of the remaining 607 mi² is presumably subsurface and may drain toward Las Vegas Wash.

In the 1930's and 1940's, sewage treatment plants were …

The Eldorado Landfill: A Case Study, Heather A. Nash

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 1995, Boulder City bought from the federal government 167 square miles of land in the Eldorado Valley which is located approximately seven miles west of the city. Soon afterward, the current landfill in Boulder City began accepting construction waste from Las Vegas. The large dump trucks had to travel through Boulder City on route to the landfill. In doing this they passed through three school zones and residential areas. When residents began complaining about the trucks, the Boulder City City Council began investigating various ways to solve the problem. The solution they adopted was to construct a new landfill …

Recycling At Work: Waste Reduction And Recycling In The Las Vegas Hospitality Industry, Darlene M. Cartier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Las Vegas hotel and restaurant industries generate 27% of the total waste for Clark County, Nevada. In an effort to study and increase recycling participation in the hospitality industry, Las Vegas hotels and restaurants were contacted to participate in a collaborative project between UNLV's Department of Environmental Studies and the Clark County Health District's Environmental Health Division, The project involved interviewing establishments with recycling programs currently in place. Information gathered from interviews and program tours was used to develop programs for hotels and restaurants who were not yet recycling. This thesis contains case studies of restaurants and hotels who …

Investigating The Use Of Kalman Filtering Approaches For Dynamic Origin-Destination Trip Table Estimation, Pushkin Kachroo, Kaan Ozbay, Arvind Narayanan

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

This paper studies the applicability of Kalman filtering approaches for network wide traveler origin-destination estimation from link traffic volumes. The paper evaluates the modeling assumptions of the Kalman filters and examines the implications of such assumptions.

Feedback Control Solutions To Network Level User-Equilibrium Real-Time Dynamic Traffic Assignment Problems, Pushkin Kachroo, Kaan Ozbay

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

A new method for performing dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) is presented which is applicable in real time, since the solution is based on feedback control. This method employs the design of nonlinear H∞ feedback control systems which is robust to certain class of uncertainties in the system. The solution aims at achieving user equilibrium on alternate routes in a network setting.

Critical Evaluation Of The Double Tracks Remediation Project, Craig J. Barnes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) (now the U.S. Department of Energy), in testing the safety of nuclear weapons under many different conditions, detonated single plutonium bearing devices in such a fashion as to simulate an unintentional detonation of the high-explosive portion of nuclear weapons. This resulted in the uncontained spread of plutonium and other radionuclides, such as americium and depleted uranium, in the environment in the vicinity of these experiments. The Double Tracks site was one of these experiments on the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) which was contaminated hi excess of 200 picocuries per gram (pCi/g). The Double Tracks …

Composting Landscape Waste From The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, K. Jill Hammond

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is a major producer of organic waste in the Las Vegas Valley. Composting landscape wastes is one way to reduce both landfill dumping and fertilizer costs for the university. It is also an environmentally friendly means of curbing a nationwide problem: unnecessary use of landfill space. Three sites within Clark County were analyzed for the feasibility of composting: Frenchman Mountain, UNLV Campus, and Boulder City Landfill. Using cost analysis, water availability, and other factors to analyze each site, Boulder City Landfill appears to be the best place to house UNLV's composting operation. Composting in …

The Influence Of The Wastewater Drainage From The Las Vegas Valley On The Limnology Of Boulder Basin, Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona, James F. Labounty, Michael J. Horn, Bureau Of Reclamation

Publications (WR)

Lake Mead, Colorado River, Arizona-Nevada, is one of the most heavily used reservoirs in the western United States, providing abundant recreational opportunities as well as downstream domestic and agricultural water for over 22 million users. Based on average nutrient levels and productivity, Lake Mead is classified as mildly mesotrophic. The interflow of the Colorado River dominates the limnology of much of the 106 km-long reservoir, and may still be identified at Hoover Dam under certain conditions. The lower basin of Lake Mead ending at Hoover Dam is known as Boulder Basin and is near the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Las …