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UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

2009

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Articles 61 - 86 of 86

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Child Neglect And Trauma: The Additive Traumatic Effects Of Neglect On Maltreated Adolescents, Adrianna Rachel Wechsler Jan 2009

Child Neglect And Trauma: The Additive Traumatic Effects Of Neglect On Maltreated Adolescents, Adrianna Rachel Wechsler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Child maltreatment affects thousands of youths in the United States and poses numerous detrimental effects to individuals, families, and the community. Neglect is the most commonly reported and least studied form of child maltreatment. All types of child maltreatment may result in negative outcomes, but the chronic and pervasive nature of child neglect poses a significant threat to child development. No studies have been published evaluating the role of child neglect in the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and PTSD-related symptoms. This study examined whether neglect has an additive traumatic effect on maltreated youth. The first hypothesis was that …


When Did The Ancestors Of Polynesia Begin To Migrate To Polynesia? The Mtdna Evidence, David Lesniewski Jan 2009

When Did The Ancestors Of Polynesia Begin To Migrate To Polynesia? The Mtdna Evidence, David Lesniewski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The timing and nature of the migration of the ancestors of the Polynesian people is debated by two competing theories. The "Express Train" and "Slow Boat" theories assert that the migration of the Proto-Polynesian people began around 6,000 years before present (BP) or around 10,000 years BP respectively. Through the use of haplogroups and specific genetic mutations a direct relationship between the Proto-Polynesians and modern Polynesians was attempted to test which of these theories was correct. The ancient skeletal remains from the island of Borneo currently housed at UNLV were used in this study as their dates fall within both …


New Yarmouth, Eastern Neck, Maryland: Resistance To Town Building From The Colonial Period To The Present, Brynn Torelli Jan 2009

New Yarmouth, Eastern Neck, Maryland: Resistance To Town Building From The Colonial Period To The Present, Brynn Torelli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The work presented in this thesis is an attempt to shed light on the early colonial development of Maryland's Eastern Shore and its possible relationship with current settlement patterns in the region, with particular interest in Kent County. Traditional interpretations of the lack of urban development on the Eastern Shore, both in the Colonial era and the present, have tended to focus on environmental and geographical factors. This research seeks to examine this trend toward rural living in newer and broader ways by incorporating human agency and investigating the possibility that the lack of town development during the Colonial era …


Posttraumatic Stress Disorder And Other Consequences Of A Picu Admission, Stephanie Ann Stowman Jan 2009

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder And Other Consequences Of A Picu Admission, Stephanie Ann Stowman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Currently, there is a paucity of literature regarding children's experiences in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) relative to caregivers' experiences. Children admitted to a PICU and their caregivers are at risk for various psychopathology. Disorders commonly identified in seriously ill children include depression, anxiety, acute stress disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Caregivers of seriously ill children are at increased risk of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, acute stress disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Researchers often fail to examine all relevant psychopathology and contributing factors and stressors, such as family environment, in seriously ill children and their caregivers. This study assessed …


Illegal Immigration And Worldview Defense: Distaste For Human Migration In The Context Of Tmt, John Matthew Bergen Jan 2009

Illegal Immigration And Worldview Defense: Distaste For Human Migration In The Context Of Tmt, John Matthew Bergen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the impact of mortality salience on opinions about illegal immigrants. Participants were asked to write about their own death or a control subject and then presented with scenarios of illegal immigration to the United States. The scenarios included a defendant who was either of Latin American or European origin and had or had not learned to speak English. However, the European condition had to be dropped due to unreliable identification of the origin of the European defendant. The results indicate that mortality salience caused an increase in the preference for deportation of an illegal immigrant who was …


Race Stereotypic Crimes And Juror Decision Making: Hispanic, Black, And White Defendants, Joseph Francis Boetcher Jan 2009

Race Stereotypic Crimes And Juror Decision Making: Hispanic, Black, And White Defendants, Joseph Francis Boetcher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A race stereotypic crime is a crime that most people tend to associate with a certain race. This is a type of racial bias that affects juror decision making by undermining the presumption of innocence and lowering the prosecution's burden of proof. Two studies investigated race stereotypic crimes. Study 1 used a new scale to identify race stereotypic crimes for black, Hispanic, and white males. Study 2 used a mock juror paradigm with a realistic stimulus and sensitive measures to focus on the influence of this type of bias on mock juror decision making. Study 1: Participants were 143 undergraduate …


The Effectiveness And Adoption Of Market-Based State Health Care Expansion Programs, Nathan Gregory Myers Jan 2009

The Effectiveness And Adoption Of Market-Based State Health Care Expansion Programs, Nathan Gregory Myers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Market-based state health expansion programs are alternatives to government programs like Medicaid and SCHIP which also seek to expand access to health insurance for uninsured populations. These programs either utilize the private health insurance market or function according to market principles. The market-based policies at issue in this research are state high-risk health insurance pools, limited benefit plans, group purchasing arrangements, reinsurance programs, and Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability waivers. This research addresses two separate but related research questions: (1) Do these market-based programs provide general economic and social benefits for the citizens of a state? (2) What role does …


Brothers Are Better Than Sisters: A Semiotic, Feminist Analysis Of Hbo's "Rome", Patricia Mamie Peers Jan 2009

Brothers Are Better Than Sisters: A Semiotic, Feminist Analysis Of Hbo's "Rome", Patricia Mamie Peers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2005, the Home Box Office and British Broadcasting Corporation partnered to produce Rome , a television series that retells the Roman histories of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony and Augustus through the lives of two centurion soldiers, Titus Pullo and Lucious Vorenus. The show's producers endeavored to bring Roman streets to life and included more storylines of women, men and children of all classes. At first considered a more egalitarian approach to history, Rome 's women are said to "challenge expectations" (Vu, 2005) and "forge a new path" (Ragalie, 2007, p. 2). But does this new representation challenge the old …


Paradigmatic Recrudescence: Classical Realism In The Age Of Globalization, Nerses Kopalyan Jan 2009

Paradigmatic Recrudescence: Classical Realism In The Age Of Globalization, Nerses Kopalyan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The paradigm of classical realism has been the subject of extensive debate in the study of international relations. Its axiomatic suppositions, conceptual structures, theoretical framework, and analytical scope have made realism the subject of both genuine veneration and intense scrutiny at the hands of international relations scholars. This has had a three-fold effect on the evolvement of the paradigm: realism has been methodically revised by neorealists; realism has become a tool of analysis for revisionist non-realists; and realism has been marginalized and erroneously critiqued. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate and prove the following four points. First, to …


A Validation Study Of Risk Management Systems, Bridget Kelly Jan 2009

A Validation Study Of Risk Management Systems, Bridget Kelly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive validity of Risk Management Systems (RMS) as a risk assessment instrument. To date, a published validation study does not exist for the RMS. The study employs secondary data analysis to examine the predictive validity of RMS recidivism and violence scores on three outcomes: arrest, unsuccessful termination from supervision, and technical violations. The study sample consisted of 830 probationers from the United States Probation Office, District of Nevada. The analyses showed that RMS recidivism and violence scores were moderately predictive of all three outcomes.


A Perspective Of Global Capitalism, James Soller Jan 2009

A Perspective Of Global Capitalism, James Soller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the 1970s, the political-economic structure of global society has undergone drastic restructuring. International political economy is concerned with providing explanations for these changes. This thesis will provide an alternative view of international relations that is often marginalized in the mainstream literature. It will be argued that global society needs to be understood under the historical context of capitalism and the class relations that stem from it. Central to this argument is a Gramscian derived articulation of hegemony. Thus, hegemony will be conceptualized in this thesis as a transnational class that governs over global society through consent and coercion. While …


A Palestinian State, Jennifer A. Hileman-Tabios Jan 2009

A Palestinian State, Jennifer A. Hileman-Tabios

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Should an independent, sovereign state of Palestine have the right to exist? The establishment of an independent Palestinian state is important because it could possibly end an extended period of violence with Israel, where civilian casualties have been high, and it could help to solidify a foundation of political tolerance and acceptance in the Middle East. Under the proposed two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state is possible. However, to determine if a Palestinian state is viable, it will be necessary to examine internal political struggles, economic resources, systems of communication, political systems and internal and external political policies. This qualitative …


Perspectives On Timeshare Ownership: An Exploratory Study Of Markets In China, Kai-Li Chi Jan 2009

Perspectives On Timeshare Ownership: An Exploratory Study Of Markets In China, Kai-Li Chi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study aims to explore the attitudes of prospective customers in China about timeshares, and to identify potential marketing opportunities for timeshare companies targeting China. This exploratory study is the first of its kind and it intends to provide valuable information about the consumer potential for the timeshare industry in China. The findings indicate that consumer acceptance of timeshares in China is high. Six socio-demographic variables were identified as keys in predicting those with statistically significant likelihood of purchasing a timeshare within the next three years: age, occupation, marital status, annual household income, vacation frequency, and attendance at a previous …


Eminent Domain: The Unintended Consequences Of Kelo, Tracy Lynn Bower Jan 2009

Eminent Domain: The Unintended Consequences Of Kelo, Tracy Lynn Bower

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In recent years, local governments in the United States have increasingly used eminent domain to promote economic development, raising concerns among property-right advocates over what those advocates view as unlawful, or what should be unlawful, takings of private property in order to benefit another private property owner. This philosophical and legal dispute reached a crisis point in the 2005 United States Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In that decision, the court narrowly upheld a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling granting the City of New London permission to redevelop land that had been seized from existing homeowners …


Communication Technologies: Diffusion Of Online News Use And Credibility Among Young Web Users In The Information Age, Chee Youn Kang Jan 2009

Communication Technologies: Diffusion Of Online News Use And Credibility Among Young Web Users In The Information Age, Chee Youn Kang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The increasing popularity and extensive usage of communication technologies, particularly the Internet and online news, makes it important to obtain an insightful perception of the new media. The purpose of this study is to examine the diffusion of online news use and credibility among young web users in terms of how these main users adopt, use, and trust the new media. This study attempts to find which online news sites are widely used by this group, based on the credibility of online news adopted among undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), in which demographic …


The Cuban Missile Crisis Speech: An Analysis Of Text Evolution, Ashlyn Gentry Jan 2009

The Cuban Missile Crisis Speech: An Analysis Of Text Evolution, Ashlyn Gentry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered a televised speech announcing the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. This speech has been a subject of scholarship in the field of communication, yet no critic has performed a comprehensive analysis of its multiple drafts and their relationship to the final version. By using a comparative analysis, one can examine the process of presidential decision-making, the translation of those decisions into prose, and the strategic language used to communicate a particular message. This project follows the evolution of Kennedy's address, tracing the changes from one draft to the next, in …


Disease In The Desert: Las Vegas As A Case Study Of How First Responders And Emergency Managers Understand Novel Threats To Human Health And Plan To Respond During Biological Emergencies, Monique Williamson Jan 2009

Disease In The Desert: Las Vegas As A Case Study Of How First Responders And Emergency Managers Understand Novel Threats To Human Health And Plan To Respond During Biological Emergencies, Monique Williamson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over recent years it has become clear that technological advancements, globalization, and ecological change, combined with the onset of increased terrorist incidents, are all currently working to create an extremely hazardous environment in terms of pathogenic invasion. Realizing that infectious diseases are both newly emerging and re-emerging in many parts of the world, the question of how prepared an expansive United States will be in the face of an oncoming global pandemic is easily raised. Using Las Vegas as an example of just how unequipped a largely visited U.S. city may be in the face of such a situation, this …


Passage And Initial Implementation Of The Supplemental Educational Services Element Of The No Child Left Behind Act: An Historical Inquiry Study, Brad D. Christensen Jan 2009

Passage And Initial Implementation Of The Supplemental Educational Services Element Of The No Child Left Behind Act: An Historical Inquiry Study, Brad D. Christensen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With reports alleging a sharp decline in student achievement in the last several years, there has been a call for higher standards in the United States education system. In response, with bipartisan support, politicians overwhelmingly passed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. NCLB, the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), mandated increasing the educational performance of all children by focusing on accountability for student achievement, flexibility, higher academic standards, research-based reforms, parental choice, annual testing to measure student progress, analysis of the annual testing data, and sanctions for schools where students did …


On-Board Three-Dimensional Object Tracking: Software And Hardware Solutions, Ajay Kumar Mandava Jan 2009

On-Board Three-Dimensional Object Tracking: Software And Hardware Solutions, Ajay Kumar Mandava

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

We describe a real time system for recognition and tracking 3D objects such as UAVs, airplanes, fighters with the optical sensor. Given a 2D image, the system has to perform background subtraction, recognize relative rotation, scale and translation of the object to sustain a prescribed topology of the fleet. In the thesis a comparative study of different algorithms and performance evaluation is carried out based on time and accuracy constraints. For background subtraction task we evaluate frame differencing, approximate median filter, mixture of Gaussians and propose classification based on neural network methods. For object detection we analyze the performance of …


Diversity Issues In Recruitment And Retention Of Clients For Parenting Classes, Rachel Elizabeth Davis Jan 2009

Diversity Issues In Recruitment And Retention Of Clients For Parenting Classes, Rachel Elizabeth Davis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Parenting skills classes are an effective means of preventing and remediating juvenile delinquency, youth violence, and child maltreatment. In particular, juvenile delinquency and child maltreatment disproportionately affect low-income African American families. Unfortunately, data from most parenting classes suggest dismal attendance and participation rates for racial- and ethnic-minorities from low-income backgrounds. The lack of effective recruitment may be due, in part, to the level of cultural competency inherent in the design, content, and implementation of existing parenting classes. Using semi-structured interviews and the qualitative methodology of grounded theory, this study explored the self-reported parenting beliefs, values, and struggles of a sample …


Send For Success: A Descriptive Look At Prescriptive Manuals For Email, Jean Reid Norman Jan 2009

Send For Success: A Descriptive Look At Prescriptive Manuals For Email, Jean Reid Norman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Email has existed for almost forty years, but in the past ten, it has become a dominant form of communication in the business world. A sign of the maturation of email and its dominance in commerce is the rise of how-to books on writing effective emails. This paper analyzes six of those recent texts to develop a taxonomy of current prescriptive advice for email. It examines contextual issues as well as issues of content, such as structure and tone; format, such as length of paragraphs, forms of salutation and farewell, and use of emoticons and abbreviations; and grammar and correctness. …


The Effects Of Gaming On Residential Real Estate Prices And Sales: A Case Study Of Las Vegas: 1990--2008, Christopher Alan Miller Jan 2009

The Effects Of Gaming On Residential Real Estate Prices And Sales: A Case Study Of Las Vegas: 1990--2008, Christopher Alan Miller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation empirically investigates the effects of the gaming industry on a local economy, specifically housing prices and sales in the city and surrounding areas of Las Vegas. This study explores many of the economic effects that Las Vegas' relatively unrestricted gaming industry has on surrounding home prices and sales and analyzes the specific forces and the issues they involve. As of this writing, little to no research has used seminal economic theories to analyze the effects of the performance of a locale's gaming industry on the surrounding residential real estate market. This study addresses this gap by examining the …


Patient-Focused Research: Examining The Psychotherapist As A Feedback Receiver, Michael Haderlie Jan 2009

Patient-Focused Research: Examining The Psychotherapist As A Feedback Receiver, Michael Haderlie

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The provision of feedback to psychotherapists regarding patient progress has been shown to produce improved therapy outcomes. However, little is known regarding therapists' responses to feedback. The current research examined novice therapists' perceptions of feedback based on the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45). It was hypothesized that feedback would be considered more valuable when it was negatively-valenced (i.e., indicated that patient response to therapy was worse than expected). Patients (N = 19) of 5 trainee psychotherapists completed the OQ-45 before each session. Therapists then received feedback and rated it based on several characteristics. As hypothesized, negatively-valenced feedback was rated as more valuable …


Neurocognitive Deficits And Functional Outcome In Bipolar Disorder, Danielle T. Bello Jan 2009

Neurocognitive Deficits And Functional Outcome In Bipolar Disorder, Danielle T. Bello

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder affects approximately 1% of the population. It is a severe and debilitating illness, causing serious impairment of interpersonal, occupational and social functioning. The disorder is characterized by marked mood swings as well significant neurocognitive deficits. Based on work with other psychiatric and neurological disorders, neurocognitive deficits in bipolar disorder are expected to be strong predictors of functional capacity. However, few studies have evaluated the consequences of neurocognitive deficits in this disorder. Most available studies have focused on the clinical correlates of functional outcome, such as number of hospitalizations, age of disorder onset, and severity of symptoms. While useful, …


Analysis Of Flaked Stone Lithics From Virgin Anasazi Sites Near Mt. Trumbull, Arizona Strip, Cheryl Marie Martin Jan 2009

Analysis Of Flaked Stone Lithics From Virgin Anasazi Sites Near Mt. Trumbull, Arizona Strip, Cheryl Marie Martin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines flaked stone tools that were used by the Virgin Anasazi and the debitage resulting from their manufacture at six sites in the Mt. Trumbull region in order to infer past human behavior. The behaviors being examined include activities carried out at sites, the processing and use of raw stone materials, and patterns of regional exchange. I have applied obsidian sourcing technology and an analysis of flaked stone attributes. The research indicates a range of activities occurred at habitation sites at Mt. Trumbull, and toolmakers did not need to expend large amounts of time and energy on acquiring …


Optimization Of The Microprecipitation Procedure For Nuclear Forensics Applications, Lyndsey Renee Kelly Jan 2009

Optimization Of The Microprecipitation Procedure For Nuclear Forensics Applications, Lyndsey Renee Kelly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Microprecipitation has become one of the most widely used sample preparation techniques for alpha spectroscopy. Many factors during the precipitation process can affect the yield and energy resolution by adding unwanted mass to the sample. Current applications in nuclear forensics call for an optimization of energy resolution and yield in order to improve identification and quantify specific radionuclides. The purpose of this research is to determine the optimal parameters used for microprecipitation. The optimal solution temperature, precipitation time, carrier amount, and hydrofluoric acid amount are used to investigate the influence of varying the type of carrier, as well as, the …