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Development and Testing of Gold(I) and Europium(III) Based Sensors for Environmental Applications

Description: This dissertation focuses on the development, characterization, and analysis of luminescent materials and coatings for sensing applications, including CO2, heavy metals, and silver. Chapter 2 involves the use of a gold(I) pyrazolate trimer that is able to detect silver ions with an AgNP medium. Detection of silver is vital, because there is an influx of silver into our environment caused by the increased use of AgNP. Therefore, having a sensor that is able to differentiate between and detect on… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Benton, Erin Nicole
Partner: UNT Libraries

Computational Studies of C-H Bond Activation and Ethylene Polymerization Using Transition Metal Complexes

Description: This work discusses the C-H bond activation by transition metal complexes using various computational methods. First, we performed a DFT study of oxidative addition of methane to Ta(OC2H4)3A (where A may act as an ancillary ligand) to understand how A may affect the propensity of the complex to undergo oxidative addition. Among the A groups studied, they can be a Lewis acid (B or Al), a saturated, electron-precise moiety (CH or SiH), a σ-donor (N), or a σ-donor/π-acid (P). By varying A, we seek… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Parveen, Riffat
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

News Framing and Social Media Responses to the Release of Boko Haram Female Captives

Description: This qualitative study sheds light on the framing of the sexual abuse of the Boko Haram's female captives sent to the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and analyzes emotional themes from tweets focusing on the release of the Boko Haram's female victims, the Chibok girls. Six articles were chosen from BBC (a British news source), Punch (a Nigerian news source), and the New York Times (an American news source) to reveal the frames. In addition, 118 tweets were examined to address emotional… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Omokore, Joy Oluwadamilola
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Universal Pre-K as a Vehicle for Reversing the Impact of Historic Racial Segregation in the United States

Description: Not all children begin their educational journey on equal footing. The purpose of this study is to investigate how universal prekindergarten (UPK) can serve as a key to remedying issues surrounding educational inequity. In order to understand educational inequity, I dive into the history of neighborhood racial segregation in the United States, and how it led to our currently unjust system. Racial segregation, specifically city zoning laws, created racially separate neighborhoods that are still … more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Bartley, Sarah
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Building a Collaborative Smartphone Application for Blind and Low Vision Visitors at the Dallas Museum of Art

Description: The goal of my study is to develop a mobile application to enable all visitors, including blind and low-vision visitors, to autonomously gather and share information about interpretations of art and to have a fully independent museum-going experience. With an application, blind visitors have more access to opportunities and tools in the museum, which empowers their museum experience. My study used a qualitative, mixed-methods approach to research how blind and low vision museum visitors might i… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Aljuidan, Hanan Abdulaziz M
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Perceptions of Small Rural District Principals on Their Superintendent's Effectiveness in Principal Leadership Development

Description: Empirical research has shown a relationship between the school principal's leadership ability as an instructional leader and student learning outcomes. It would be reasonable to assume that the school principal benefits greatly from his or her superintendent sharing his or her knowledge and experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of a sample of rural West Texas principals and the frequency and extent to which their superintendent provides them effective professional… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Bartram, Timothy Lynn
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Transhumanism: An Ontology of the World's Most Dangerous Idea

Description: Transhumanism is the name given to the cultural and philosophical movement which advocates radical human technological enhancement. In what follows, I use perspectives drawn from existential philosophy to problematize transhumanists' desire to recast human finitude as a series of technical problems with technical solutions. The ontological account of transhumanism offered here questions the assumed benefit and inevitability across six chapters. Following an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 intro… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Ross, Benjamin David
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Hispanic Students' Perceptions of How Well Public High School Prepared Them for College

Description: Although Hispanics are graduating from high school at greater rates, it is not leading to college success as college graduation rates remain low. In Texas, the Hispanic population has grown to the point that one out of three of all Texans are Hispanic. A phenomenological approach to research was used to investigate the perceptions of Hispanic college students on how well their public high school prepared them for college. Through face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions, eight Hisp… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Soto, Lionel
Partner: UNT Libraries

Three Essays on Internet of Things Adoption and Use

Description: Internet of Things (IoT) is a promising technology with great potential for individuals, society, governments, and the economy. IoT is expected to become ubiquitous and influence every aspect of everyday experience. Thus, IoT represents an important phenomena for both organizational and behavioral information system (IS) researchers. This dissertation seeks to contribute to IS research by studying the aspects that influence IoT adoption and use at both consumer and organizational levels. This d… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Aldossari, Mobark
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Effects of Common and Uncommon Elements on the Emergence of Simple Discriminations

Description: A computerized program was designed to test whether arranging a common element in two, otherwise independent, 2-term correlations (stimulus-stimulus and response-stimulus) would result in emergent simple discriminative-stimulus properties for the antecedent stimulus relative to an arrangement with no common elements programmed. Data from 8 adult participants in this experiment indicate that common element arrangements led to relatively high rates of responding in the presence of the putative di… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Niland, Haven Sierra
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Students' Attitudes toward Educational Gamification in Online Learning Environments

Description: This study explored undergraduate and graduate students' attitudes toward the pleasurability of educational gamification in online learning environments. The study is a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research that investigated students' attitudes quantitatively, then qualitatively. In the quantitative phase, an online survey, the Pleasurable Learning Experiences scale (PLLEXs), was administrated at one of the largest public southwestern universities in the U.S. (N = 119). The qualitative … more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Abu Dawood, Sumayah Mohammadlutfi
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Data-Driven Computational Framework to Assess the Risk of Epidemics at Global Mass Gatherings

Description: This dissertation presents a data-driven computational epidemic framework to simulate disease epidemics at global mass gatherings. The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arabia is used to demonstrate the simulation and analysis of various disease transmission scenarios throughout the different stages of the event from the arrival to the departure of international participants. The proposed agent-based epidemic model efficiently captures the demographic, spatial, and temporal heterogeneit… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Alshammari, Sultanah
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

NCAA Violations and Institutional Self-Sanctions: Assessing the Impact on Alumni Charitable Contributions

Description: The growing commercialism within Division I big-time athletics has raised the financial stakes for universities, as successful athletic programs benefit from increased opportunities for financial gain. This has contributed to a pervasive "win culture" that drives institutions to seek competitive advantages, and as a side effect, NCAA rule violations have become incentivized. Programs whose infractions go unnoticed may benefit from the competitive advantage gained, but for programs investigated … more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Thomas-Seltzer, Ashley
Partner: UNT Libraries

Two Essays on Non-GAAP Reporting

Description: This dissertation investigates the interrelationships between a client's non-GAAP earnings disclosures, financial health (profit and loss status), and the external auditor's assessment of the client's going concern status. This dissertation comprises two essays. Essay 1 examines the informativeness and the quality of non-GAAP earnings disclosures in profit and loss firms separately. Using a large sample of non-GAAP earnings voluntarily disclosed by managers, I find that the informativeness and … more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Nie, Dongfang
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Relationship of Five Facets of Teacher Trust in the Principal to Teacher Efficacy

Description: Relational trust exists between and among individuals within complex human organizations; however, within a school, the relationship between teachers and the principal is at the heart of the organization. The purpose of this mixed method study was to gain an understanding of the relationship between teachers' trust in their principal and teacher efficacy and determine which leadership behaviors and facets of trust have the greatest influence on the trust relationship between teachers and the pr… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Caudle, Airemy Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Sexual Victimization of Black College Women

Description: Sexual victimization is a pervasive mental and physical health issue with overarching implications for university campuses and victim service providers alike. While a large expanse of research exists on sexual violence and the factors associated with victimization, less is known about the potentially unique experiences faced by Black college women in particular. Utilizing data collected by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examines the prevalence of colle… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Wilson, Hannah Caroline
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Last Karankawas: Stories

Description: A collection of interconnected short stories set in diverse corners of Texas, converging on Galveston Island before and after Hurricane Ike.
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Garza, Kimberly Rose
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Differentiation: A Taxonomy of Online Learner Types in Higher Education

Description: Online learning is no longer considered novel within higher education. It has emerged as an accepted distinct channel and environment for instructional engagement. There is a notable deficit of works and theoretical constructs specifically addressing the identification and differentiation of online learner types and examining them as a distinct system within the learning environment. Learning effectiveness within an online instructional environment is affected by the individual student engaged … more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Darby, Douglas
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Extracting Temporally-Anchored Spatial Knowledge

Description: In my dissertation, I elaborate on the work that I have done to extract temporally-anchored spatial knowledge from text, including both intra- and inter-sentential knowledge. I also detail multiple approaches to infer spatial timeline of a person from biographies and social media. I present and analyze two strategies to annotate information regarding whether a given entity is or is not located at some location, and for how long with respect to an event. Specifically, I leverage semantic roles o… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Vempala, Alakananda
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Instructional Personnel Perceptions on Integrating Instructional Technology in K-12 Classrooms: A Case Study

Description: Integrating digital pedagogy into instruction in a manner that promotes critical thinking and drives increased student achievement and engagement in all classrooms is a goal of many campuses and districts that invest heavily in hardware, software, and professional development on an annual basis. Digital pedagogy goals tend to center around preparing students for the 21st century workforce, promoting instruction that is more engaging, and providing deeper learning for all students; however, achi… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Agent, Renee L
Partner: UNT Libraries

Quantile Regression Deep Q-Networks for Multi-Agent System Control

Description: Training autonomous agents that are capable of performing their assigned job without fail is the ultimate goal of deep reinforcement learning. This thesis introduces a dueling Quantile Regression Deep Q-network, where the network learns the state value quantile function and advantage quantile function separately. With this network architecture the agent is able to learn to control simulated robots in the Gazebo simulator. Carefully crafted reward functions and state spaces must be designed for… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Howe, Dustin
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Assessment of Riparian Buffer Effectiveness in the Upper Hickory Creek Watershed: A GIS Approach Using the Riparian Buffer Delineation Equation (RBDE) and the Buffer Improvement Potential Percentage (BP)

Description: As population increases and urbanization occurs, watershed management will be critical in the protection of water resources in North Central Texas. By 2040, Denton County will nearly double its 2010 population. The Upper Hickory Creek Watershed lies west of Denton and empties into Lake Lewisville. Lake Lewisville provides drinking water for Denton, Dallas, and other neighboring cities. Mitigation of non-point source pollutants as a result of urban and agricultural practices is essential to prot… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Yesildirek, Monica Veale
Partner: UNT Libraries

Decision Making in Alternative Modes of Transportation: Two Essays on Ridesharing and Self-Driving Vehicles

Description: This manuscript includes an investigation of decision making in alternative modes of transportation in order to understand consumers' decision in different contexts. In essay 1 of this study, the motives for participation in situated ridesharing is investigated. The study proposes a theoretical model that includes economic benefits, time benefits, transportation anxiety, trust, and reciprocity either as direct antecedents of ridesharing participation intention, or mediated through attitude towa… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Amirkiaee, Seyede Yasaman
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Abelian Group Actions and Hypersmooth Equivalence Relations

Description: We show that any Borel action on a standard Borel space of a group which is topologically isomorphic to the sum of a countable abelian group with a countable sum of lines and circles induces an orbit equivalence relation which is hypersmooth. We also show that any Borel action of a second countable locally compact abelian group on a standard Borel space induces an orbit equivalence relation which is essentially hyperfinite, generalizing a result of Gao and Jackson for the countable abelian grou… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Cotton, Michael R.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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