Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Impact Of Economic Recession On The Health Of Adult Nevadans, Ariana Goertz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recessions are generally considered to cause negative consequences, but recent studies have provided evidence that some health outcomes improve as the economy deteriorates. The relationship between economic downfalls and health is not straightforward; it is important to look at how health has been impacted in one of the areas hit hardest by the recession. Las Vegas, Nevada was previously considered recession-proof, seemingly unaffected by previous economic downturns exhibited by the rest of the country. However, during the Great Recession of 2007-2009, Las Vegas led the country in highest rates of unemployment and foreclosures. This was quite a collapse for a …

The Role Of Pre-Existing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus In Colorectal Cancer Stage And Survival In Elderly Americans: A Seer-Medicare Population-Based Study 2002-~2011, Sanae El Ibrahimi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Diabetes is a common comorbid condition among colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, yet its effects in CRC outcomes, particularly stage at diagnosis, risk of death and variations by diabetes severity (complications vs no complications) and Hispanic ethnicity have not been adequately studied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between pre-existing T2DM and advanced stage at diagnosis in elderly patients with CRC; to examine whether diabetes is an independent predictor of poor survival from all-cause and CRC-specific mortality; to assess whether variations exist by diabetes severity and to analyze the outcomes for the Hispanic group.

The Surveillance Epidemiology …

Does Educational Level Influence Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Mortality Among Asians In U.S.?, Sfurti Maheshwari

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Studies on mortality from postmenopausal breast cancer (PMBC) by education level have not shown consistent results among US women. For US Asians, often seen as a “model” minority in terms of affluence and education this relationship has never been studied despite PMBC being the most common cancer in the country.

We analyzed 2008-2012 California Vital Statistics data and population data from the American Community Survey 2012 to compute age and education adjusted mortality ratios using negative binomial regression model for White (as a reference category) and Asian women. In total 3,277,106 (80%) White women and 852,376 (20%) Asian women died …

Price Prediction: Determining Changes In Stock Pricing Through Sentiment Analysis Of Online Consumer Reviews, Daryl F. Boykin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The rapid growth of technology has changed the dynamics in which consumers socialize and make their purchasing decisions. The volume of online reviews has grown rapidly over the past decade, leading the peer groups of consumer to carry a disproportionate weight in the purchasing decision process. The sheer volume of reviews can be a daunting task for an operator to attempt to incorporate the reviews in their analysis. Sentiment analysis allows for large volumes of consumer reviews to be processed in a relatively easy, and time sensitive manner. The information contained in these reviews, the sentiment score, is the same …

Generalized Clusterwise Regression For Simultaneous Estimation Of Optimal Pavement Clusters And Performance Models, Mukesh Khadka

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The existing state-of-the-art approach of Clusterwise Regression (CR) to estimate pavement performance models (PPMs) pre-specifies explanatory variables without testing their significance; as an input, this approach requires the number of clusters for a given data set. Time-consuming ‘trial and error’ methods are required to determine the optimal number of clusters. A common objective function is the minimization of the total sum of squared errors (SSE). Given that SSE decreases monotonically as a function of the number of clusters, the optimal number of clusters with minimum SSE always is the total number of data points. Hence, the minimization of SSE is …