Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Predictors Of Recall And Reading Time For Seductive And Nonseductive Text Segments, Ivan V. Ivanov

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This correlational study explored how concreteness, relevance, importance, and interestingness related to the recall of seductive details and base text, while controlling for text coherence, and student background knowledge. Previous research has provided evidence for the significant relationship between these variables and the seductive details effect in particular and text recall in general. However, this is the first study to consider all these variables simultaneously. A group of 68 undergraduates read an expository text on lightning formation, performed an immediate test on free recall, and rated each text sentence for concreteness, relevance, importance, and interestingness. A simple regression analysis revealed …

Building Dupont: Capitalism, Manufactures, And Place In Early America, 1800-1820, Christopher Manning

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Though there is a rich literature dealing with the DuPont Company, the historiography remains dedicated to studies of the family’s life, corporate methods, working-class culture, and technological know-how. Rarely do studies engage the company’s wider economic position or regional influence in early America. This study analyzes the way early American culture guided and influenced DuPont’s growth and success. It also examines the company’s efforts to promote manufactures, create markets, and shape its surrounding landscape. As in other parts of the world, the development of industrial capitalism, and the wider acceptance of domestic manufacturers and large-scale industry in the United States …

The Physical Activity Patterns And Constraints Of Diverse Female College Students, Kathleen Victoria Minkel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Diverse college aged females from a public university in the southwest were asked to participate in an online survey to determine their constraints to physical activity, as well as their current activity level. The groups were compared to establish the differences among the minority groups. Raymore, Crawford, and Godbey’s Hierarchical Model of Constraints was used as a framework when creating the survey. Data analysis showed only one significant difference among the racial/ethnic groups, when looking specifically at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints categories. Hispanic women differed significantly from Caucasian women in their perception of interpersonal constraints on their physical …

Evaluation Of Guided Visualizations And The Relationships Among Perceived Stress, Differentiation Of Self, Sense Of Coherence, Dyadic Satisfaction And Quality Of Life, Kim R. Rogers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focused on three main areas. These areas involved (1) the relationship among perceived stress, global orientation to life and indicators of physical, psychological and dyadic relational distress, (2) the effect of a brief CBT-based relaxation/guided visualization intervention on these outcome indicators of distress, and (3) changes in physiological indicators during the intervention sessions. The study population was drawn from couples who perceived themselves as living highly stressed lifestyles.

Results suggested that global orientation to life as reflected by differentiation of self inventory (DSI) and sense of coherence scale (SOCS) scale scores mediated the relationship between stress and distress. …

Political And Civic Engagement Attitudes Among Asian American College Students, Matthew Vanada

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study explored the attitudes of political and civic engagement among Asian American college students. Previous research suggests that young people are increasingly more inclined to participate in civic activities over traditional forms of political participation. The researcher considered this trend by examining the views of Asian American students, a group whose political behavior has not been largely investigated.

This study employed a qualitative research design. Students from public institutions of higher education in Las Vegas were interviewed using an in-depth and semi-structured format. Findings suggest that there is a general willingness to become involved in civic activity such as …

Plato’S Gorgias: Rhetoric, The Greatest Evil, And The True Art Of Politics, Paul A. George

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The interweaving of rhetoric, the greatest evil, and the true art of politics create the unity of the dialogue. Whereas Gorgianic rhetoric is pleasure seeking flattery which inspires belief without knowledge, noble rhetoric is refutative, inspiring the acknowledgment of falsity or ignorance. Moreover, it is self-refutation, meaning that the person being persuaded arrives at the conclusion of his ignorance by his own realization; the noble rhetor does not connect all the dots for them. The greatest evil is to have a false opinion about justice. A just penalty for suffering from the greatest evil is to face selfrefutation in hopes …

Therapist-Initiated Addiction Assessment Procedures Of Marriage And Family Therapists In The Southwest United States, Emire Olmeztoprak

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the addiction assessment procedures of marriage and family therapists. Addiction prevalence rates are growing therefore it is likely that marriage and family therapists will have clients affected by addiction. Undetected addictions can impede treatment and/or prevent the therapist from making appropriate treatment related decisions. Marriage and family therapists in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico were invited to complete a web-based survey containing a series of questions about their assessment procedures for addiction as well as a series of demographics questions. The data from the completed surveys was collected and analyzed. The data …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2010, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Why Would They Try? Motivation And Motivating In Low-Stakes Information Skills Testing, Jeanne M. Brown, Carrie A. Gaxiola

Library Faculty Research

In 2008 the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) University Libraries piloted the Educational Testing Service’s standardised test of information, communication, and technology (ICT) skills (iSkills) in spring and autumn 2008. In the course of administering the test we explored motivational strategies, a critical component in low-stakes, low-personal-consequences testing. Motivational strategies included providing feedback on test performance, highlighting the value of the test for the individual student, and appealing to the student’s willingness to improve the overall performance of the institution. We addressed ways to motivate students in order to enhance their level of participation in and performance …

Mountain Monitor-3rd Quarter 2010, Jonathan Rothwell, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

One year after the Mountain Monitor began tracking recession and recovery in the Intermountain West, the Southern Nevada economy has yet to turn around. The rate of slippage across a range of indicators has slowed measurably, but evidence of a nascent recovery eludes. Las Vegas' poor relative performance over the past year can be attributed not only to the legacy of a particularly devastating initial wave of economic distress, but also to a continued struggle to slow and reverse the downward trend.

Model-Based Analysis Of Electric Drive Options For Medium-Duty Parcel Delivery Vehicles, Robb A. Barnitt, Aaron D. Brooker, Laurie Ramroth

Publications (T)

Medium-duty vehicles are used in a broad array of fleet applications, including parcel delivery. These vehicles are excellent candidates for electric drive applications due to their transient-intensive duty cycles, operation in densely populated areas, and relatively high fuel consumption and emissions. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a robust assessment of parcel delivery routes and completed a model-based techno-economic analysis of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) configurations. First, NREL characterized parcel delivery vehicle usage patterns, most notably daily distance driven and drive-cycle intensity. Second, drive-cycle analysis results framed the selection of drive cycles used …

“You Can’T Change What You Don’T Acknowledge”: A Content Analysis Of The Dr. Phil Show And Implications For Marriage And Family Therapists, Barbara Ann Spanjers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Marriage and family therapists work from an ecological perspective, which includes the influence of mass media. The current study, a quantitative content analysis of The Dr. Phil Show, draws from communication studies, specifically cultivation theory. A content analysis is a first step to understanding how television messages affect client expectations of psychotherapy. Coding categories adapted from the common factors of psychotherapy literature are employed to determine how well the messages of The Dr. Phil Show correspond with practices related to positive psychotherapeutic outcomes. Common factors specific to the field of marriage and family therapy are utilized. The Dr. Phil …

Attachment Theory As A Predictor Of Communicative Responses To Infidelity, Sandra Donovan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study set out to determine one’s communicative responses to infidelity as predicted by attachment style. Three hundred and ninety-two participants responded to a measure of attachment and were then randomly assigned to one of three scenarios: imagining a partner’s sexual infidelity, imagining a partner’s emotional infidelity and imagining a partner’s combined sexual and emotional infidelity. Participants then responded to a communicative response scale in reaction to the scenario. Results showed moderate support for attachment theory. Additional analysis revealed responses differed by infidelity type. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Study Of Stemming Algorithms, Savitha Kodimala

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Automated stemming is the process of reducing words to their roots. The stemmed words are typically used to overcome the mismatch problems associated with text searching.

In this thesis, we report on the various methods developed for stemming. In particular, we show the effectiveness of n-gram stemming methods on a collection of documents.

Altering Explicit And Implicit Racial Prejudice Towards African American Males, Veronica A. Glover

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Researchers tested 281 undergraduates to determine if positive behavior messages about African American males presented during a learning task affected scores on explicit and implicit racial prejudice measures. During the learning task, we manipulated how many positive messages the participant viewed (100 vs. 150 or none) and the amount of African American males these messages applied to (1 vs. 3). Participants who viewed 150 positive messages about one African American male displayed more explicit prejudice than participants in control groups or participants learning 100 messages about one person. Results for the implicit measure indicated that participants who learned about three …

Composite Of Complexity: Manifestations Of Whiteness And Class Among Las Vegas Italian Americans, Danielle Nicole Axt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Conventional terminology and conventional boundaries, in regard to ethnicity, are no longer applicable to the ever shifting population of the United States. In specific, the various degrees of White ethnic identity does not easily transition into convenient all encompassing categories such as Caucasian or more simply, White. Whiteness studies have been at the forefront of this critique, most recently asserting that White ethnic identity is heavily influenced by context. However, although many studies are now recognizing the impact of multiple layers of White ethnic identity (along the lines of gender, locale, socioeconomic level etc.) many still neglect to identify a …

Bordered Identities: Class, Ethnicity, And Transnational Social Networks, Rayette Ellen Martin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis looks at the bordered identities of middle class second generation Mexican Americans in Las Vegas, Nevada. Through an analysis of the borderlands or gray spaces that occur at the intersections of class practices, transnational relationships and ethnic identities, participants’ bordered identities were found to be reinforced, contested, and generally negotiated. Participants’ identities are flexible; their expressed identities change in relation to context or situation. In the United States, Mexicans and Latinos more generally have been subjected to racial and ethnic oppression since the Mexican American war ended in 1848.This long history of discrimination has maintained perceptions that all …

Selling Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis Of Attorney Advertisement In Las Vegas, Giselle Velasquez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

I analyze how Las Vegas attorneys represent themselves, their associates and clients in televised law firm commercials. I use attorney commercials as a case to explore cultural beliefs in media representations. Using an inductive method, I analyze the textual, visual, and aural symbols that appear most frequently in television commercials to interpret how law firm advertisements convey themes of attorney expertise, knowledge, ethnic and gender stereotyping. I introduce this study with a historical evaluation of the rise of advertisement in the United States. I continue discussing how the media is an important realm of discourse that affects people's identity. Using …

The Multiple-Choice Concept Map (Mccm): An Interactive Computer-Based Assessment Method, Ioan C. Sas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research attempted to bridge the gap between cognitive psychology and educational measurement (Mislevy, 2008; Leighton & Gierl, 2007; Nichols, 1994; Messick, 1989; Snow & Lohman, 1989) by using cognitive theories from working memory (Baddeley, 1986; Miyake & Shah, 1999; Grimley & Banner, 2008), multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001), and cognitive load (Chandler and Sweller, 1991, 1992; Cerpa, Chandler, & Sweller., 1996) to identify potential design weaknesses of traditional select-and-fill-in (SAFI) concept map assessment and then to guide the design of the new and improved multiple-choice concept map (MCCM) assessment method. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the …

To Me, Goffman Was A Shakespearean Figure, The Fool Who Spoke The Wisdom Of The Play, Marvin B. Scott

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

Dr. Marvin B. Scott, Professor Emeritus at Hunter College, wrote this memoir at the request of Jackie Wiseman.

Research-Based Learning From The Start: Developing Undergraduate Researchers, Anne E. Zald, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Presentations

This presentation will:

- Describe the Faculty Institute for Research-Based Learning in High Impact Classes at UNLV –Goals and curriculum –Examples of impact to date

- Rough assessment of need to intentionally integrate research skills into curriculum at your institutions

- Action plan focusing on potential collaborators at your institutions

From Forgotten Intranet To Successful Wiki, Darcy C. Del Bosque, Kristen Costello

Library Faculty Research

Communication within an academic library can be challenging. The collective nature of wikis and their ability to allow multiple people to edit them have made wikis an ideal technology to help address communication issues within organizations. A successful wiki implementation can help to improve communication issues, but only if staff adopt the new technology. University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) libraries implemented an internal staff wiki in 2007 to replace the staff intranet. Information routinely stored on the wiki includes meeting minutes and committee work, policies and procedures and training materials. This paper illustrates the implementation process by providing an …

Strategic Recovery Requires Leadership, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

As public managers work toward a successful recovery post-midyear elections, we all must deal with system-wide problems arising from the recession. This requires first recognizing that the crisis continues and must be addressed not just by increasing revenue but by fixing system-wide structural and operational issues.

To do so involves developing the skills required in a recovery, identifying the causes of the crisis so that future crises can be better managed and concentrating on the key areas of leadership expertise needed to effectively communicate and deliver better outcomes.

Introducing Transliteracy: What Does It Mean To Academic Libraries?, Thomas A. Ipri

Library Faculty Research

Transliteracy is recent terminology gaining currency in the library world. It is a broad term encompassing and transcending many existing concepts. Because transliteracy is not a library-centric concept, many in the profession are unsure what the term means and how it relates to libraries’ instructional mission and to other existing ideas about various literacies. Transliteracy is such a new concept that its working definition is still evolving and many of its tenets can easily be misinterpreted. Although this term is in flux, academic librarians should watch developments in this new field to continually assess and understand what impact it may …

Film Noir: The Encyclopedia, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Research

This fourth edition of Film Noir extends what has been the greatest strength of this work: the detailed, readable essays that contextualize plot details with keen and insightful critical analysis.

"Telemedicine And Advanced Technology Research Center: Quarterly Report, July 18, 2010 To October 17, 2010, Bea Babbitt

Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center

Development of a P.O.I. and a Blended Learning Ecology for use in
Combat Lifesaver Skills Training for the Army.

Combat Lifesaver Course, Telemedicine And Advanced Technology Research Center

Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center

No abstract provided.

Developing A Library Value Indicator For A Disciplinary Population, Jeanne M. Brown

Library Faculty Presentations

Three different ways of documenting library value were presented to fourth year landscape architecture students in the UNLV School of Architecture: a contingent valuation survey, a library calculator, and a survey to rate importance and impact of library services and features. Students used the three approaches, then discussed their experiences with the author. Their input suggested improvements in the instruments and provided feedback on possible positive and negative consequences of inviting this kind of valuing. Working with a focused collection and population provided a relatively safe environment to explore concerns about negative consequences.

Developing A Library Value Indicator For A Disciplinary Population, Jeanne M. Brown

Library Faculty Presentations

Population
- Landscape architecture studio of ten 5th year students
- Use of physical library ranges from 1- 30 times/month
- Use of virtual library ranges from 2-30x/month
- Compared to others in School of Architecture use is moderate
- They self-rate as average or above average on library skills, compared to their peers

The Housing Market 'Reset' And The Future Of American Housing Policy, Alan Mallach

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

The foreclosure crisis and the collapse in housing prices that have engulfed much of the United States are fundamentally changing the ways in which the American housing market works, challenging many of the assumptions about the role of housing and the housing market that we have held for the past decades. In my lecture, I will discuss how and why those changes are taking place and how they vary across the United States and explore what they mean for American housing policy in the future, and how they are making us reconsider how we think about home ownership, rental housing, …