Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Unknowing Sacrifices: Public Health And Radiation Illness In New Mexico And Nevada, 1940s-1960s, Beatriz Avila-Marquez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The detonation of the first atomic bomb in the early morning of July 16, 1945, in New Mexico welcomed the atomic age that forever changed the world. After that day, thousands of lives were lost due to nuclear weapons, and hundreds of thousands more continued to suffer from the effects of atomic testing. The Atomic Energy Commission, fueled by the arms race of the Cold War, chose Nevada to continue the United States’ nuclear weapons testing. Knowledge of the dangers of radiation exposure, the effects of radiation, and techniques to prevent exposure are now available in part due to the …

“A Land No One Would Want”: Environmental Activism And The Rejection Of ‘Wasteland’ Narratives In Southern Nevada, Steven Butler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper traces events within the history of environmental activism in Southern Nevada. The first chapter discusses the proposed high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The second chapter examines the closure of the Reid Gardner Generating Station in Moapa, Nevada. The third chapter details the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Groundwater Development Project. Each of the three chapters is linked by common themes within the history of Southern Nevada environmental activism, including dedicated coalition-building and the refusal of “wastelanding” of the region.

Preservation Of Sedimentary Rubidium Isotopic Signatures In Subduction Zones: Insights From The Schistes Lustrés Hp-Uhp Metasediments, Western Alps, Mary Clarich

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

When oceanic plates bend and sink into the mantle at subduction zones, they carry sediments from the surface down into the mantle. The recycled sediments contain elements, that are depleted in the mantle, thereby influencing the composition of the mantle wedge and the formation of arc magmas, which are the building blocks of juvenile continental crust. However, it remains poorly constrained how much these elements, particularly fluid-mobile elements such as rubidium (Rb), are lost into fluids during metamorphic dehydration, and how much is transported to sub-arc depths where arc magmas are generated. Rubidium in subducting sediments is mainly hosted in …

Research Remix: Teams, Tech, And Texts, Jaime Carbajal

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The pedagogical innovation that enhanced student learning in the Research Methodologies in Health Sciences course is described as Integrated Digital Collaborative Inquiry-Based Learning (IDCIBL). The IDCIBL approach leveraged digital tools (lecture videos, podcasts, recorded poster presentations, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms), integrated journal article analysis, utilized research-informed active learning, and included team-based learning activities. The combination of multiple innovative strategies into the IDCIBL model intentionally transforms the educational environment and optimizes the student learning experience, relating to the TLC priority area of teaching and assessments in the age of Gen AI.

Ai Literacy: An Annotated Oer Bibliography, Houy Yvonne

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

"Scalable, discipline-agnostic AI literacy instruction can be implemented incrementally without requiring full course redesign in higher education, supporting both technical understanding and critical engagement with the social and ethical dimensions of AI: The curated list of open educational resources (OER) on this poster enable a flexible, modular approach to teaching foundational AI literacy. The annotated list includes self-paced, hands-on projects with complementary educator-guided activities and discussion to support conceptual understanding of machine learning, training data, and algorithmic bias, drawing on OER such as Code.org’s AI curriculum, MIT RAISE’s Day of AI, and the multi-lingual Elements of AI course. Many resources …

Tariff Exposure In The U.S. National Sector: An Input-Output Analysis Of 2018-2019 Tariffs An Input-Output Analysis Of 2018-2019 Tariffs, Sean Curry

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

In March 2018, the United States imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, aiming to strengthen domestic production. While the policy targeted upstream industries, it raised many important questions such as: how do higher input costs affect employment in downstream industries that rely on these materials? This study examines the relationship between tariff exposure and employment growth using national industry-level data. The sectors chosen for this study were inspired from Nevada's unique economic structure. Nevada’s economy ( primary: services, mining, and a small but growing manufacturing sector) provides a good framework for …

Graph-Augmented Llms For Scalable Malware Detection: Integrating Gft And Rag In Portable Executable Malware Analysis, Matthew Jackson

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

The proliferation of generative AI has exponentially accelerated the generation of novel malicious software. Las Vegas’ gaming industry is a high-value target for these attacks. In 2023, a massive ransomware incapacitated gaming operations, leading to over $100 million dollars of damages and Nevada state services disrupted by cyberattacks in 2025, underscores the critical necessity for capable automated detection frameworks. Traditionally, malware analysis relies on manual, resource-intensive signature extraction by experienced analysts. While Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate utility in source code analysis, applying them to compiled Portable Executable (PE) Windows files is bottlenecked by LLM context window limitations and difficulty …

Nevada Mining & The Limits Of U.S. Energy Independence, Mckinley Brown, Emma Kitchen

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

This study examines how heavy equipment investment and project timelines in mining interact with permitting processes to influence blue collar employment in the United States. By using equipment purchases as a proxy for project scale, the research connects industrial activity driven by green energy demand to regional labor outcomes. The expansion of green energy has increased demand for critical minerals, making mining and industrial sectors central to economic growth. Permitting processes play a key role in determining how quickly these projects translate into job creation and regional development. Higher levels of industrial investment and more efficient permitting are associated with …

Navigating Sustainable Burial In Southern Nevada, Kristen Gibson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Navigating Sustainable Burial in Southern Nevada investigates the accessibility of environmentally conscious end-of-life options for individuals throughout the region. Sustainable burial practices, including green burial, water cremation, and natural organic reduction, provide alternatives to traditional burial and cremation methods. Research was conducted through an analysis of Nevada statutes, local reporting, funeral service resources, and public discussions related to sustainable burial. The research revealed that although Nevada expanded legal recognition of sustainable burial by legalizing natural organic reduction, public access to clear information and available services remains limited. These findings informed the creation of a choose-your-own-adventure booklet designed to translate legal …

Ecovoltaic Solar Energy Development Creates Novel Microclimate, Temperature, And Soil Moisture Patterns Under Solar Panels In A Warm Desert, Juan Pinos, Seth M. Munson, Claire C. Karban, Matthew D. Petrie

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Background As solar energy development expands in desert regions, new installation practices and solar technologies seek to balance ecosystem conservation and energy generation (ecovoltaics). The Gemini Solar Project, a large ecovoltaic facility located in the northeastern Mojave Desert, employed low impact installation methods to reduce disturbance of the desert ecosystem within arrays of bifacial panels mounted on solar tracking systems. We evaluated microclimate and environmental conditions across five locations: four within-facility microsites (underneath solar panels, east and west panel driplines, and interspaces between panel rows) and one in the undisturbed desert outside the facility. Results Under panel microsites experienced lower …

Data Centers In Mountain West Markets, 2026, Cason Noll, Krish Sharma, Maisoon Faris, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Transportation & Infrastructure

This fact sheet reports on the distribution and geographic concentration of data centers across the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah as of March 6th, 2026. Using data from DataCenterMap, this fact sheet examines the number of data centers in each Mountain West state and further analyzes market-level  distribution, defined as cities within each state where data centers are located. The data are used to compare state totals and to rank Mountain West markets from highest to lowest based on the number of data centers operating in that area.

A Mechanistic Model Of The Wash Shuffle And Monte Carlo Exploration Of Its Impact On Card Shuffling In Texas Hold’Em, Michael A. Alexeev, Peter B. Chi

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

In casino games using a standard deck of cards, a wash shuffle is sometimes performed prior to the rest of the card shuffling procedure. Unlike other methods of shuffling, the wash shuffle has not yet been well studied. To this end, we first develop a mechanistic model of the wash shuffle based on our observation of how cards tend to move when a wash shuffle is being performed. Then, we use this model to simulate the card shuffling procedure used in casino poker rooms, and explore the resulting impact on where the cards are dealt in the context of Texas …

Cash Or Crash: Return To Player Percentages And Expected Value Of Crash Games, Robert H. Scott Iii, Mikhail M. Sher, Jonathan Daigle

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Crash games are a new type of casino game offered on some online gambling sites. The first crash game was created by the online cryptocurrency casino Bustabit. Other cryptocurrency casinos started offering their own versions of crash games. Now mainstream online casinos have developed their own crash games—notably Rocket by DraftKings. Crash games are easy to learn and play. They offer the opportunity to increase your bet by many hundreds of multiples—though, as we show when deriving expected values, these outcomes are rare. In this paper, we study the history of crash games and calculate theoretical values of crash game …

First-Principles Insights Into Binary Oxide Systems Under Extreme Pressure, Daniel Schacher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Pressure is powerful tool by which one can manipulate the properties of materials. In this work we utilize pressure to explore binary oxide systems and characterize their structural and electronic properties. The observation of anomalous structural and electronic behavior in the rutile to CaCl2 phase transition in SnO2 led to the prediction that such behavior is inherent to all oxides experiencing such a phase transition sequence.[1] Here, the ultra-wide band gap semiconductor GeO2 is confirmed to exhibit anomalous behavior during the rutile to CaCl2 phase transition. A phase pure rutile GeO2 sample synthesized under high-pressure, high-temperature, conditions is probed using …

Ankimedbench: Evaluating Hierarchical Medical Knowledge In Language Model Embeddings, Neel Patel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Despite achieving over 90% accuracy on medical benchmarks, recent studies show physicians cannot effectively leverage language models to improve clinical reasoning. Current benchmarks test isolated factual recall, but clinical practice requires hierarchical navigation through diagnostic categories—starting broad and narrowing systematically from chest pain to cardiovascular pathology to myocardial infarction to specific STEMI types. Existing evaluations cannot measure whether models preserve this taxonomic structure essential for clinical reasoning.

We introduce AnkiMedBench, built from 16,512 medical flashcards used by students preparing for licensing exams. Cards are organized across six hierarchy levels spanning 16 broad medical specialties to 672 specific diseases and conditions. …

Quantifying Biocrust Evaporation In Arid Lands By Combining Thermal Imaging And Lysimeter Measurements, Rebekah C. Magness

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are miniature ecosystems of living organisms incorporated within the soil matrix and established in the topmost millimeters of the soil surface. Biocrust plays a critical role in the hydrologic processes in arid lands, yet the extent to which it increases or decreases evaporation remains unclear. To gain a better understanding of the impact of biocrust on evaporation compared to bare soil, I studied a cyanobacteria-dominated biocrust patch surrounded by bare soil atop a lysimeter in the Mojave Desert near Las Vegas, Nevada. Using high-resolution thermal imaging, and the known latent heat flux from the lysimeter, I …

Ultrafast Dynamics Of Two-Dimensional Electron Systems, Randy Michael Sterbentz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On-chip terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is a technique useful for measuring the ultrafast electrodynamics of two-dimensional (2D) electronic systems. Charge carrier collisions occur on the sub-picosecond time scale, and strongly correlated electron interactions (such as superconductivity) typically have energies on the order of milli-electron-volts. These phenomena fall within the terahertz bandwidth, which has historically been difficult to access. Commercial electronics operate with transistors capable of switching rates of around 100 GHz, while small band gap semiconductors (like InGaAs) can detect light down to 0.75 eV (180 THz). When combined with the difficulty of measuring 2D layered materials, with lateral sizes …

Shallow Groundwater Extraction Strategies In The Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, Teryl Stacey

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Las Vegas Valley faces severe water scarcity due to Nevada’s limited Colorado River allocation and an arid climate. Population growth and prolonged drought have intensified these constraints, necessitating alternative resource strategies. This project evaluated a strategy to make use of brackish, shallow groundwater (from the top 30 feet below ground surface) located in the central and east-central parts of the valley. Its objective was to extract lower quality shallow groundwater for use as an alternative to fresh water currently being used for some applications that require little to no treatment. Dust suppression is among the most promising of such …

Mapping Climatic And Environmental Determinants Of Parasitic Helminth Prevalence In Southeast Asia, Angelica Avisado

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Climate change is reshaping environmental conditions across Southeast Asia (SEA) through rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and increased droughts. These changes alter transmission dynamics of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by shifting spatial distribution, increasing larval development rates, faster pathogen growth development, and increasing transmission rates. NTDs are a group of preventable and treatable infections that disproportionately affect more than 1 billion people globally, specifically in tropical and subtropical regions. A subgroup of NTDs, parasitic helminth infections (PHIs) - particularly schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths, and lymphatic filariasis remains a public health concern in the Southeast Asian region. PHIs and their ecological responses …

Towards Spatial Inversion Of Aerial Gamma-Ray Survey Data For Measurement Of Naturally Occurring Radioactivity, Daniel A. Haber

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Aerial gamma-ray surveying (AGRS) is used in geologic and environmental contexts to provide data on the surface spatial distribution of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) or other gamma-ray-emitting isotopes. The standard data reduction workflow for AGRS data involves a process whereby pointwise gamma-ray spectral data are denoised, corrected for numerous sources of background radiation and aircraft height, and are finally converted to physical values by empirical conversion factors. The reduced pointwise data are then typically spatially interpolated to form a continuous surface map.

This dissertation introduces and explores a novel spatial inversion method for reduced AGRS data that considers aircraft …

Geometric And Proximity Based Substrate Targeting By Cullin-Ring Ligases, Jerry Li

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Homeostasis, the process of maintaining stable biochemical and biophysical conditions, is a fundamental facet of cellular viability. Biochemical homeostasis is critical to support the biological functions that sustain living organisms. Protein ubiquitylation is one of the primary cellular pathways that regulate protein homeostasis and turnover. Ubiquitylation is initiated through the conjugation of a small globular protein known as ubiquitin, onto a given substrate. There exists a myriad of cellular fates that ubiquitylated proteins may undergo, but the most widely studied pathway is protein degradation, whereby a ubiquitylated protein substrate is shunted to a large macromolecular protease known as the proteasome, …

Reconstructing Central American Hydroclimate Changes Across Time From Isotopic Signatures In Modern And Paleo-Rainfall Records, Giuseppe Lucia

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Tropical monsoon rainfall is a key component of Earth’s climate system and supports the livelihood and economy of billions of people. Yet, projections of future monsoons remain highly uncertain, particularly in regions with distinct physiography and complex land-ocean-atmosphere interactions like Central America, where long and continuous high-resolution paleoclimate data to test climate model simulations are still limited. This series of studies aims to reconstruct monsoon dynamics and underlying forcing controls in Central America on multiple timescales by the analysis and integration of stable isotope data in modern and paleo-rainfall records from Guatemala.

In Chapter 2, I present a daily-resolution, two-year-long …

Characterization Of The Electronic Structure Of Metal–Organic Framework Mil-125 And Its Derivatives Using Soft X-Ray Spectroscopies, Jennifer Alexia Napoles

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly porous, three-dimensional networks composed of coordinated metal clusters and organic ligand subunits. While tens of thousands of MOFs have been synthesized, the Ti(IV)-based MOF MIL-125 has garnered scientific interest due to the observed changes to its optical and photocatalytic properties upon chemical modification. For example, upon UV irradiation in the presence of an alcohol, MIL-125 undergoes a photochromic color change to a photodoped state that has been associated with the storage of charge in the form of Ti(III) sites. Another example is exemplified by the amine group functionalization of the 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (BDC) linker of MIL-125 …

Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography Into A Cdn-Style Pki: Tls And Quic Performance Across Pqc Suites, Katrina Mary Parsom

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) adds larger certificates and extra workload to the Transport Layer Security (TLS) handshake. In order to analyze the effect of that change on content delivery, a controlled testbed with conditions replicating a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used. The system uses a standard X.509 certificate chain over TLS 1.3. It compares RSA with classical key exchange, RSA with hybrid key encapsulation mechanism (KEM), and Module Lattice-based Digital Signature Algorithm (ML-DSA) with hybrid KEM. The test harness generates and provides certificates and establishes TLS parameters. The test harness also supports mixed web workloads and records key metrics, including …

A Comparison Of Airborne Tree Pollen In The Las Vegas Valley From 2017 – 2021, Asma Tahir

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Airborne pollen are a predominant cause of asthma, allergic disease, and respiratory infections. The strong allergenic potential of tree pollen is of a public health concern. Several allergenic trees grow in the Mojave Desert, but not all are native to the region. Concentrations of airborne tree pollen are affected by atmospheric, environmental, ecological, and geospatial factors. Previous research has reported high tree pollen concentrations in the Las Vegas Valley, but long-term comparison studies are lacking. This study measured and compared tree pollen concentrations from five different collection stations in Las Vegas. Pollen samples collected from January 1, 2017, to December …

Modeling The Mojave: A Multiphase, Mixed Methods Phenomenological Investigation Of Novice Understanding Of A Complex Ecological System, Nicole Juliana Thomas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research explores early college science majors’ conceptions of the Mojave Desert ecosystem as a complex system. A multi-level, explanatory sequential mixed methods design was employed to study college science majors’ understanding of the Mojave Desert ecosystem to better inform science pedagogy. The first level, the quantitative phase of the study, consisted of developing a mathematical representation of twelve ecosystem variables present within the Mojave Desert. The second level, the qualitative phase of the study, consisted of phenomenological semi-structured interviews with 23 early college science majors. The findings of this research suggest that the Mojave Desert operates as a complex, …

Enviromental Dna (Edna) Tools For Invasive Mosquitofish (Gambusia Affinis) Surveillance At The Shoshone Pupfish (Cyprinidon Nevadensis Shoshone) Refugium, Yusuf Olamilekan Umar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Spring-fed aquatic ecosystems of the North American Southwest and U.S. Great Basin hosts a plethora of endemic fish species due to the effects of hydrologic fragmentation that resulted from Pleistocene aridification. Threats to endemic fishes worldwide include human intentional or unintentional release of exotic species into their habitats. Early detection of invasive species, while corrective actions are still possible, is critical for management, yet traditional survey methods are often disruptive to sensitive ecosystems, costly, and limited in sensitivity. The recent development of environmental DNA (eDNA) approaches offers powerful alternatives for invasive species monitoring in aquatic systems. In this study, a …

Testing For Dice Control At Craps, Stewart N. Ethier

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Dice control involves “setting” the dice and then throwing them carefully, in the hope of influencing the outcomes and gaining an advantage at craps. How does one test for this ability? To specify the alternative hypothesis, we need a statistical model of dice control. Two have been suggested in the gambling literature, namely the Smith–Scott model and the Wong–Shackleford model. Both models are parameterized by θ ∈ [0, 1], which measures the shooter’s level of control. We propose and compare four test statistics: (a) the sample proportion of 7s; (b) the sample proportion of pass-line wins; (c) the sample mean …

The Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Economy In The Mountain West, 2025, Dre Boyd-Weatherly, Sean Curry, Krish Sharma, Kristian Thymianos, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet reports on the artificial intelligence (AI) readiness of five Mountain West metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs): Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ; Salt Lake City-Murray, UT; Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO; Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV; and Albuquerque, NM. Using data from the Brookings Institution's “Mapping the AI Economy” report, the MSAs are benchmarked based on their overall population, employment, talent, adoption, and innovation.

Controls On Speleothem Carbon Isotopes, Paloma Marcos

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

The Sistema Huautla cave system is the deepest known in the Western Hemisphere. It is located in the Sierra Mazateca Mountain Ranges near Jiménez de Huautla, Oaxaca. There are over 29 separately discovered entrances into this karst environment making it the 28th longest cave system in the world. It can be considered by some as one of the most complex vertical drainage systems on Earth. This extensive study site has been an area of interest among cavers and scientific researchers for nearly 6 decades. Speleothem samples from the study sites have been found to be over 433,000 years old. The …