Search Results

open access

Variability in the Natural World: An Analysis of Variability in Preschool Play

Description: Children acquire many skills through play. These range from fine and gross motor skills, social skills, problem-solving, to even creativity. Creativity or creative engagement is frequently a component in early preschool curricula. A pivotal repertoire to engage in behaviors deemed creative, such as art, storytelling, problem-solving, and the like, is the ability to vary one's responses regardless of the specific repertoire. Researchers have developed methods to produce response variability. How… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Armshaw, Jared T
Partner: UNT Libraries

Impact of Anti-S2 Peptides on a Variety of Muscle Myosin S2 Isoforms and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Mutants Revealed by Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer and Gravitational Force Spectroscopy

Description: Myosin subfragment-2 (S2) is an intrinsically unstable coiled coil. This dissertation tests if the mechanical stability of myosin S2 would influence the availability of myosin S1 heads to actin thin filaments. The elevated instability in myosin S2 coiled coil could be one of the causes for hypercontractility in Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (FHC). As hypothesized FHC mutations, namely E924K and E930del, in myosin S2 displayed an unstable myosin S2 coiled coil compared to wild type as mea… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Aboonasrshiraz, Negar
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Applicability of the PICTS-SV in Offenders with Severe Substance Use Histories

Description: Two important developments are addressed by this dissertation. First, the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles-Simplified Version (PICTS-SV) was examined in relation to the original PICTS. Second, the vulnerability of the PICTS-SV to intentional risk minimization (RM) was tested. Two separate studies recruited a total of 150 offenders from a court-mandated residential substance use treatment facility. As expected, Study I established the PICTS-SV's good concurrent validity with t… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Williams, Margot Maryanne
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Contributions to Geometry and Graph Theory

Description: In geometry we will consider n-dimensional generalizations of the Power of a Point Theorem and of Pascal's Hexagon Theorem. In generalizing the Power of a Point Theorem, we will consider collections of cones determined by the intersections of an (n-1)-sphere and a pair of hyperplanes. We will then use these constructions to produce an n-dimensional generalization of Pascal's Hexagon Theorem, a classical plane geometry result which states that "Given a hexagon inscribed in a conic section, the… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Schuerger, Houston S
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

That Isolation Creeps In: Exploring the Intersection of Public Transit and Mental Health in Dallas County, Texas

Description: The primary goal of the research project was to organize a community needs assessment, which culminated in a report attached in the appendix. Data from sixteen interviews with community leaders involved in mental health promotion throughout Dallas County, Texas was used as the foundation of the professional report. This data revealed several key barriers faced by those with mental illness in their ability to access mental health services in Dallas County. The information gathered prompted furth… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Sanderson, Brittney
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Examining Human Information Behavior on Social Media: Introducing the Concept of Social Noise

Description: Social media information behavior is increasingly critical, impacting not only individuals and groups but the beliefs, values, and direction of society and culture. The purpose of this study was to investigate how persistent observation by members of the online network influences social media users' information behavior, resulting in the phenomenon of social noise. Data analytics, including LDA, LSA, and clustering methodologies, were performed but could not provide information about the users'… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Zimmerman, Tara D
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Exploration of RDA-Based MARC21 Subject Metadata in Worldcat Database and Its Readiness to Support Linked Data Functionality

Description: Subject of information entity is one of the fundamental concepts in the field of information science. Subject of any document represents its intellectual potential -- 'aboutness' of the document. Traditionally, subject (along with title and author) is the one of three major ways to access information, so subject metadata plays a central role in this process and the role is constantly growing. Previous research concluded that the larger bibliographic database is, the richer subject vocabularies … more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Zavalin, Vyacheslav I.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Così fan tutte? A Study of Character Development through Key Characteristics in the Prima Donna and Soubrette Roles from Four of W.A. Mozart's Late Italian Operas

Description: This dissertation investigates how W. A. Mozart applies the concept of key characteristics—the affective properties of each tonality—as discussed by three of his contemporaries, Johann Mattheson, C.F.D. Schubart and G.J. Vogler, to four soubrette and four prima donna characters from four of his late Italian operas: La Contessa and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro; Donna Anna and Zerlina in Don Giovanni; Fiordiligi and Despina in Così fan tutte; Vitellia and Servilia in La clemenza di Tito. The ana… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Tsai, Meng-Jung
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Crisis, New Imperialisms, and Accumulation by Dispossession: The Case of the Pakistan Railways

Description: My research examines the three interrelated concepts of crisis; new imperialisms, spatial-temporal fix and accumulation by dispossession (ABD) stemming from the work of David Harvey as a way to understand the contested history of the Pakistan Railways. For the first thirty odd years after Pakistan's inception in 1947, the railways, a state-owned institution, was the primary mode of transport for the public, cargo, and workers. Alongside basic infrastructure, the railways had a vast network of h… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Khan, Sher Ali
Partner: UNT Libraries

Multifactorial Determinants of Change in Mental Disorder and Happiness among Older Americans

Description: Mental health is an intrinsic capability that constitute an essential component of healthy aging. Mental health is constituted by positive constructs such as happiness and negative constructs (mental disorders) such as depression. As people grow older, they become more prone to developing mental disorders which are linked to poorer quality of life, increased disability, increased utilization and cost of health services, and higher rates of suicide. This dissertation involved three studies that … more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Adaralegbe, Adeleye Ayinde
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Radial and Axial Designs for Magnetic Absorbent Collector in Water

Description: The use of collection systems for magnetic sorbents such as Magnetic Activated Carbon are discussed in order to gauge their efficacy in marine environments. Two collectors were built and tested, one which utilized a radial orientation of magnets and another with axially placed magnets. The two systems underwent a series of test with differing linear velocities and angular velocities. From the results, the axial system outperformed its radial counterpart, being most effective with a relatively h… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Renzetti, Andrew John
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Laying Second Eyes: A Qualitative Assessment of Pediatric Tele-Specialty Programs

Description: This study aimed to create a holistic understanding of the physician experience in relation to telemedicine. This study examined a Tele-NICU and a Tele-ER program at a large metropolitan pediatric specialty hospital with a Level IV NICU that provides telemedicine consults to 16 remote sites across Texas. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with physicians and nurses at remote hospitals, physicians who provide consultations from the pediatric specialty hospital, and managers of… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Deahl, Claire C
Partner: UNT Libraries

Investigating the Mechanisms involved in Traffic-Generated Air Pollution: Mediated Disruption of the Blood-Brain Barrier in a Wild Type Mouse Model using a Pharmaceutical Intervention Approach

Description: This study investigated whether oxLDL and/or angiotensin (Ang) II signaling pathways mediate traffic-generated air pollution- exposure induced alterations in blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity and permeability in a healthy wild type (C57Bl/6) mouse model; additionally, whether these outcomes are exacerbated by a high fat-diet investigated. An environmentally relevant concentration of a mixture of vehicle engine exhaust (MVE) was used. To investigate the hypotheses, 12 wk old male C57Bl/6 mice… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Suwannasual, Usa
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Interstate Influence Strategies in Border Crises: 1918-2015

Description: Within interstate militarized disputes, states use different kinds of influence strategies, like bullying, reciprocating, and trial-and-error. My dissertation examines state influence strategies within border disputes. This context serves as a hard test which could testify if state behaviors in world politics are mainly driven by the salience of contested issues. Or other factors, like leader militarized backgrounds (e.g., participating in rebellions or military service), may also at work. On t… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Yao, Jiong
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Democracy of Death: US Army Graves Registration and Its Burial of the World War I Dead

Description: The United States entered World War I without a policy governing the burial of its overseas dead. Armed only with institutional knowledge from the Spanish-American War twenty years prior, the Army struggled to create a policy amidst social turmoil in the United States and political tension between France and the United States.
Date: August 2020
Creator: Hatzinger, Kyle
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

How is the Volatility Priced by the Stock Market?

Description: Traditional portfolio theory suggests that, in equilibrium, only the market risk is priced in the cross-section of expected stock returns. However, if the market is not perfect and investors are constantly changing investing behaviors based on their perceptions about future market outlook, then non-traditional risk factors could potentially provide significant power of describing the expected stock returns. This dissertation has two essays on the pricing of volatility, in which the market is no… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Yu, Huaibing
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Predictors of Perfectionistic Tendencies in Sport among Undergraduate Kinesiology Students

Description: The purpose of this study was to examine current kinesiology students' athletic identity, identity foreclosure, perceived task value in sport, and perfectionism. An online survey was distributed via email to current kinesiology students. The survey contained questions regarding demographic information and items from the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status, Perceived Task Value in Sport, Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-2, and Multidim… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Boyd, Christopher A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Effect of Trauma-Related Stress during Acute Alcohol Intoxication on Driving-Related Risky Decision-Making

Description: Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes are a major preventable cause of death in the United States. One potential factor that may modulate the influence of alcohol intoxication on driving-related decision-making is posttraumatic stress. The current study evaluated the influence of induction of acute trauma-related stress (via script-driven imagery) during alcohol intoxication (.06% BrAC) on driving-related risky decision-making – willingness to drive, driving-related decision-making (i.e., attem… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Kearns, Nathan T
Partner: UNT Libraries

An Investigation of the Influence of Attributional Complexity, Intolerance, Optimism, and Experiential Avoidance on Personal Psychological Distress

Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of low attributional complexity, intolerance, optimism, and experiential avoidance (EA) on psychological distress (stress, anxiety, and depression); specifically, the mediating role of EA in these relationships was examined. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test the hypothesized model. The overall model accounted for 62% of the variance in psychological distress. The direct negative effect of intolerance on psychological … more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Ergüder, Leyla
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Pedagogical Approach and Strategies for the Trumpet Ensemble

Description: The trumpet ensemble has increasingly become a popular chamber ensemble inside music programs at the secondary and collegiate level. Chamber music ensembles are frequently guided by both democratic processes and ensemble coaches with limited chamber music experience. As trumpet ensembles grow in popularity, pedagogical resources are needed to guide rehearsals. This project serves as a guide for educators and performers to focus on fundamental issues related to trumpet ensembles as well as strat… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Jensen, Aaron (Trumpeter)
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Performance Guide to Cécile Chaminade's "Concertstück for Piano and Orchestra," Op. 40

Description: Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was a remarkably successful French composer and pianist for a woman in the early part of her career, although her reputation waned rapidly after her death. Concertstück (1888), a single movement for piano and orchestra, was her only work in this medium. It requires many traditional piano skills and therefore can serve admirably as a comprehensive technical and artistic study. This dissertation includes a formal analysis of this piece, a discussion of each type of sp… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Zhuang, Yuan (Pianist)
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Pedagogical Guide to Teaching Tone Production for Elementary-Level Piano Students, with Examples from Appropriate Elementary-Level Music

Description: The early stage of piano students' training is one of the most important, because it is then that they establish their habits for life. Those who teach beginners need clear principles for developing a solid technical foundation and for preventing bad technical habits. One of the most difficult principles to inculcate in young students is that of tone production and quality. The primary purpose of this study is to provide a pedagogical guide to help piano teachers teach tone production to elemen… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Kim, Gyuwan
Partner: UNT Libraries

Frameworks for Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) Policy Engineering

Description: In this disseration we propose semi-automated top-down policy engineering approaches for attribute-based access control (ABAC) development. Further, we propose a hybrid ABAC policy engineering approach to combine the benefits and address the shortcomings of both top-down and bottom-up approaches. In particular, we propose three frameworks: (i) ABAC attributes extraction, (ii) ABAC constraints extraction, and (iii) hybrid ABAC policy engineering. Attributes extraction framework compris… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Alohaly, Manar
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Design Optimization of Functionalized Silica-Polymer Nanocomposite through Finite Element and Molecular Dynamics Modeling

Description: This dissertation focuses on studying membrane air dehumidification for a membrane moisture exchanger in a membrane heat pump system. The study has two parts: an optimization of membrane moisture exchanger for air dehumidification in the macroscale, and diffusion of water vapor in polymer nanocomposites membrane for humid air dehumidification in the nanoscale. In the first part of the research, the mass transport of water vapor molecules through hydrophilic silica nanochannel chains in hydropho… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Almahmoud, Omar H. M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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