Search Results

open access

Theoretical Analysis of Drug Analogues and VOC Pollutants

Description: While computational chemistry methods have a wide range of applications within the set of traditional physical sciences, very little is being done in terms of expanding their usage into other areas of science where these methods can help clarify research questions. One such promising field is Forensic Science, where detailed, rapidly acquired sets of chemical data can help in decision-making at a crime scene. As part of an effort to create a database that fits these characteristics, the present… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Garibay, Luis K.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Design and Implementation of an Effective Vision-Based Leader-Follower Tracking Algorithm Using PI Camera

Description: The thesis implements a vision-based leader-follower tracking algorithm on a ground robot system. One camera is the only sensor installed the leader-follower system and is mounted on the follower. One sphere is the only feature installed on the leader. The camera identifies the sphere in the openCV Library and calculates the relative position between the follower and leader using the area and position of the sphere in the camera frame. A P controller for the follower and a P controller for the … more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Li, Songwei
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Implications of Social Media: Secondary Teachers' use of Social Media for Personal, Professional, and Instructional Purposes

Description: Social media has the potential to be a critical force in creating connected educators. The collaborative nature of social media encourages personal connection, professional enrichment, and learning through co-creation of meaning. Secondary teachers are in a place that would permit them to harness these affordances, not only in their personal and professional environments, but also in their classrooms. This qualitative phenomenographic study aimed to uncover how secondary teachers used social me… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Quintanilla, Brenda U.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Imagining the Empire: Germany Through the Eyes of Early Modern English Travellers

Description: This thesis is a study of early modern English travel narratives and the ways they presented the German states and their people to the public through the medium of print. It is based on an analysis of forty seven published travel narratives written by men and women who toured Germany and wrote about their experiences. The study situates these writings in the context of the growing sense of national identity in early modern Europe and offers an assessment of how these travel narratives contribu… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Micheals, Isaac
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Teacher Leadership Implementation: Change Agents in a Large Urban School District

Description: Education reform initiatives continue to push schools to improve methods of measuring accountability intended to improve student achievement in the United States. Federal programs like the Teacher Incentive Find (TIF) provide school districts with funds to develop and implement school accountability and leadership programs. Teacher leadership is one of the concepts being formally developed amongst these initiatives. My applied thesis project focused on work I conducted with a team of researcher… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Hickling, Alexandra K
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Exploration of College Attitudes among Sioux Falls High School Students

Description: Since the recession of 2008, there has been an increased scrutiny of higher education, with little research done on how this affects high school students' college search process. This study seeks to understand how college perceptions are formed and how they affect the college decision process of high school students in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In order to gain a holistic perspective of this process, this study utilized a mixed method approach of analyzing public data, conducting interviews wi… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Duesterhoeft, Kristin
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Presence of Wolbachia, A Potential Biocontrol Agent: Screening for Vertebrate Blood Meal Source and West Nile Virus in Mosquitoes in the North Texas Region

Description: West Nile virus (WNV) is a geographically endemic mosquito-borne flavivirus that has spread across the United States infecting birds, mosquitos, humans, horses and other mammals. The wide spread nature of this virus is due to the ability of the mosquito vector to persist in broad, ecological diverse environments across the United States. In this study, mosquito populations in North Texas region were sampled for detection of Wolbachia, blood meal source, and WNV. The ultimate goal of this study … more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Adiji, Olubu Adeoye
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Observed Parenting Aspects of Child Compliance in Custodial Grandfamilies

Description: Custodial grandmothers and grandchild (aged 4 to 12) dyads (N = 170) completed self-report, other-report, and an observational task that captured child HI, expressive social support, and custodial grandmother-grandchild compliance variables. A multivariate analysis of covariance tested differences between high and low hyperactivity-inattention on observed parenting variables while controlling for child age. While overall results were not significant, there were significant differences between… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Portner, Laura Collier
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Environmental Ethics from the Periphery: José Lutzenberger and the Philosophical Analysis of an Unecological Economics

Description: This dissertation provides a philosophical analysis about the influence colonialism had over capitalism's current configuration and how their intricate interplay impacts both the social and the ecological spheres, in both central and peripheral countries. Such analysis draws from the work of José Lutzenberger, a Brazilian environmentalist. The current capitalist economic system tends to disregard the environment, since it would be greatly affected by negative externalities. A negative externali… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Valenti Possamai, Fabio
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

2D and 3D Fabrication Devices: Can They Improve Spatial Reasoning Skills in Children?

Description: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential benefit of two hours of activities involving 2D and 3D fabricators on the spatial reasoning skills of children in Grades 4 and 5, ages 9 to 10, from a private school in Southeast Texas. Can the introduction to hands-on activities with products created with these devices and learning about how these devices operate improve spatial reasoning skills? The research also evaluates the use of the Shapes Test as a valid measure of the spatial reaso… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Zimmerman, Ellen L
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Using a Conditional Discrimination Training Procedure to Teach College Students to Play Music by Ear

Description: A conditional discrimination training procedure was used to establish stimulus-stimulus relations that might lead to the emergence of relations that define playing by ear. The participants were four college students. Overall, the results varied across participants. Of the 3 participants who received Training 1 (hear-note-name/select-key), all 3 participants acquired that relation. Out of those 3 participants, 2 participants showed emergence of the hear-see-key-pressed/say-note-name relation aft… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Holder, Stephanie Shae
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Run, Women, Run! Female Candidates and Term Limits: A State-Level Analysis

Description: This dissertation seeks to explain the puzzle in the state politics literature which expects females to benefit from the enactment of term limits, but initial research finds the number of female in office decreases after the implementation of term limits. Examining this puzzle involves three separate stand-alone chapters which explore female candidate emergence (1), success rates (2), and women-friendly state legislative districts (3). The goal of the dissertation is to reconcile the puzzle whi… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Pettey, Samantha
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Conceptual Framework for the Development of an Air Quality Monitoring Station in Denton, Texas

Description: Denton, Texas consistently reaches ozone nonattainment levels. This has led to a large focus of air pollution monitoring efforts in the region, with long-range transport being explored as a key contributor. For this study, the University of North Texas Discovery Park campus was chosen as a prospective location for an extensive air quality monitoring station. Sixteen years of ozone and meteorological data for five state-run monitoring sites within a 25 mile radius, including the nearest Denton A… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Boling, Robyn
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Comparison of Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: Memory Specificity Training (MeST) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

Description: The effectiveness of memory specificity training (MeST) was compared with standard cognitive processing therapy (CPT) in treatment of individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder. Eighteen adults aged 18-36 were randomly assigned to the MeST intervention (n = 9) or to the active control group (n = 9) of CPT. Both treatments were administered in group format across 6 weeks. MeST consisted of 6 weekly sessions, while CPT consisted of 12 biweekly sessions. The trial was undertaken in the Psychol… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Maxwell, Kendal Lynn
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Group Activity Play Therapy for Preadolescents: Effects on Low Self-Esteem

Description: Research shows that preadolescent females are more prone to negative self-perceptions than their male counterparts which places them at greater risk of developing mental health problems stemming from low self-image. The purpose of this randomized, controlled outcome study was to examine the effectiveness of group activity play therapy (GAPT) compared to an evidenced based social skills/self-esteem group. Participants were 29 fourth and fifth grade girls in two Title I schools in the southwest U… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Yousef, Dina K.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Applied Real-Time Integrated Distributed Control Systems: An Industrial Overview and an Implemented Laboratory Case Study

Description: This thesis dissertation mainly compares and investigates laboratory study of different implementation methodologies of applied control systems and how they can be adopted in industrial, as well as commercial, automation applications. Namely the research paper aims to assess or evaluate eventual feedback control loops' performance and robustness over multiple conventional or state-of-the-art technologies in the field of applied industrial automation and instrumentation by implementing a laborat… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Zaitouni, Wael K
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Elementary Students' Critical Examination of Characters in Children's Literature Depicting Social Justice

Description: Despite the ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, segregation in schools is still quite visible with suburban schools educating a student body of more than 70% White and urban schools comprised of mostly Black, Hispanic, and Asian students. Ideally, a school should dispel social and structural inequities through curriculum and quality resources, but fallibly, schools continue to be the vehicles to maintaining the status quo. Students who develop critical awareness and cultivat… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Paiva, Deanne
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Understanding the Information Seeking of Pre-Kindergarten Students: An Ethnographic Exploration of Their Seeking Behaviors in a Preschool Setting

Description: Although there has been research conducted in the area of information seeking behavior in children, the research focusing on young children, more specifically on pre-kindergarten students, is almost nonexistent. Children at this age are in the preoperational developmental stage. They tend to display curiosity about the world around them, and use other people as a means to gain the information they are seeking. Due to the insistence from President Obama to implement pre-kindergarten programs … more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Stewart, Sarah Nykole
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Learner Modal Preference and Content Delivery Method Predicting Learner Performance and Satisfaction

Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate how the online, computer-based learner's personal learning profile (Preference), the content delivery method supplemented with visual content based on Neil Fleming's VARK (visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic) model (Content), and the interaction of Preference and Content, influenced learner performance (Performance) and/or learner self-reported satisfaction (Satisfaction). Participants were drawn from a population of undergraduates enrolled in a l… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Copeland, Matthew Blair
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Superstitious Behavior Classroom Game Teaching

Description: Superstitions flourish in cultures around the word and in everyday life. Superstitions are so prevalent and influence personal and political decisions, therefore, we sought to develop a classroom demonstration of superstitious behavior that could be used to show quickly and effectively how powerful adventitious reinforcement could be in modifying behavior. An online game was developed and played by one hundred thirteen university students enrolled in a class on critical thinking. Participants g… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Pourmorshed, Hormat Saadat
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Persistence Patterns of Mathematics and Science Majors: A Profile of Highly Motivated Freshmen

Description: Despite an increasing demand for college graduates skilled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ("STEM") fields, a substantial number of students who choose these majors leave after taking their first-year "gateway" math and science coursework. Research has shown GPA to be a salient predictor of persistence in STEM majors: Students who earn high grades in gateway courses are more likely to continue, and those who earn low grades are more likely to leave. However, a small number … more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Gonzales, Erin E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Impact of Digital Games on High School Students' Academic Achievement in Mathematics Education: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

Description: The focus of this study was to conduct a meta-analytic investigation to combine the results obtained in independent studies aimed at determining the effectiveness of using digital games, as opposed to traditional methods, as a strategy for improving students' performance in high school mathematics. The major question of this study is: "Does the research on the use of games in high school mathematics support the use of games as a teaching strategy for improving student achievement?" To answer th… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Okeke, Godwin Nnaemeka
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Relationship Between Shame and Attachment Styles

Description: Despite research documenting the association between shame and aspects of poor psychological functioning, shame's adverse effects have remained largely invisible in modern societies. Shame has been described as the "attachment emotion" (Lewis, 1980), yet, there is little research that examines the relationship between attachment style and shame, and conclusions from this research are tempered by methodological limitations. The current study aimed to address methodological limitations with a qua… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Atkins, Sarah Ann
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Understanding Principal Perceptions of Stress and Burnout: A Qualitative Case Study in North Texas School Districts

Description: This qualitative case study examined principals' perceptions regarding stress and burnout, investigated perspectives regarding ways to alleviate chronic stress, and analyzed the extent to which future role expectations are related to chronic stress and feelings of burnout. Perceptions of eight elementary principals in large, suburban school districts who experienced similar professional preparation prior to receiving their first principalship were analyzed. Participants, identified through cr… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Lovell, Joy E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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