An Investigation of Selected Factors Affecting Automotive Service Excellence Test Outcome and Job Placement Rate (open access)

An Investigation of Selected Factors Affecting Automotive Service Excellence Test Outcome and Job Placement Rate

Under investigation in this study was the effect of ASE certification of automotive technician training programs and other selected factors on ASE test outcome and job placement rate. This research ponders whether the time and money invested in certifying technician training programs is returning desired improvements in this automobile manufacturer's dealer service staff. The study focussed on technicians employed at Chrysler dealerships around the United States. The 2 samples totalling 387 males between the ages of 22 and 30 were drawn from 1,007 graduates of automotive technician training programs. Technicians that completed a formal training program beyond the high school level certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) were compared to others whose training was not certified by ASE. Comparisons were made on the basis of ASE Automobile Technician Test scores and on the length of time from training program completion to employment. This research sought to identify the significance of association between three main predictors - the status of training program ASE certification, work experience and year of training program completion - and the most desirable levels of ASE test outcome (at or above 90% on the ASE test) and job placement rate (immediately following completion …
Date: August 1995
Creator: Karbon, Patrick J. (Patrick Joseph)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Mirror Confrontation on Body Image Ratings (open access)

The Effects of Mirror Confrontation on Body Image Ratings

There are conflicting data in the literature regarding the effects of mirror exposure on subjective body-image evaluation. Much of the objective self-awareness research by Duval and Wicklund concluded that the presence of a mirror leads people to evaluate themselves negatively, while other studies have reported contrary findings. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effects of mirror confrontation on individuals' body image ratings. Subjects were 88 childless, female university students. Using the Eating Disorders Inventory-Body Dissatisfaction subscale (BDS) as a screener, subjects were assigned to either a High Satisfaction group or a Low Satisfaction group. The subjects then completed the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) in either a Mirror or No Mirror condition. Results suggest that the presence of the mirror had no measurable effect on the subjects' ratings of themselves on the MBSRQ. There was a main effect for satisfaction level, and no interaction was found between the satisfaction level and the mirror condition. Possible explanations for these findings are offered.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Dell'Era, Maria Elena
System: The UNT Digital Library
Anxiety, Locus of Control and Stress in Adoptive and Biological Parents of Adolescents (open access)

Anxiety, Locus of Control and Stress in Adoptive and Biological Parents of Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to critically examine differences in levels of anxiety, locus of control and stress between adoptive and biological parents of adolescents.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Larussa, Thomas K. (Thomas Keith)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Influence of Flamenco on Selected Works of Picasso (open access)

The Influence of Flamenco on Selected Works of Picasso

This thesis investigates, analyzes, and discusses Picasso's imagery in the cultural context of the nineteenth-century Spanish tradition of flamenco. Two published photographs featuring the elderly artist with the gypsy guitarist Manitas de Plata initiated the study, and led me to the conclusion that selected works by Picasso were influenced psychologically, thematically, and formally by his youth which was spent in the Andalusian province of Malaga and later in Barcelona. Picasso's early artistic education occurred at precisely the same time and place as The Golden Age of Flamenco in Spain, a cultural phenomenon that profoundly affected both his life and art.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Twell, Mary Tudor
System: The UNT Digital Library
Subcellular Localization of N-acylphosphatidyl-ethanolamine Synthase in Cotyledons of Cotton Seedlings (open access)

Subcellular Localization of N-acylphosphatidyl-ethanolamine Synthase in Cotyledons of Cotton Seedlings

N-acylation of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) with free fatty acids catalyzed by N-acyl phosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE) synthase was reported in cotyledons of 24-h-old cotton seedlings. Here I report subcellular localization of this enzyme. Differential centrifugation, sucrose density gradient fractionation,aqueous two-phase partitioning and electron microscopy techniques were utilized to elucidate subcellular site(s) of NAPE synthase. Marker enzymes were used to locate organelles in subcellular fractions. Differential centrifugation indicated that NAPE synthase is present in more than one organelle and it is a membrane bound enzyme. Sucrose density gradient fractionations indicated that NAPE synthase is present in membranes derived from endoplasmic reticulum (ER),Golgi and possibly plasma membrane (PM) but not mitochondria, glyoxysomes or plastids. Aqueous two-phase partitioning experiments with cotton and spinach tissues supported these results but Goigi appeared to be the major site of NAPE synthesis. Electron microscopy of subcellular fractions was used to examine isolated fractions to provide visual confirmation of our biochemical results. Collectively, these results indicate that NAPE is synthesized in plant ER, Golgi and possibly PM.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Sriparameswaran, Anuja
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effect of Auditor Knowledge on Information Processing during Analytical Review (open access)

The Effect of Auditor Knowledge on Information Processing during Analytical Review

Auditors form judgments by integrating the evidence they gather with information stored in memory (knowledge). As they acquire experience, auditors have the opportunity to learn how different patterns of evidence are associated with particular audit problems. Research in experimental psychology has demonstrated that individuals with task-specific experience can match the cues they encounter with patterns they have learned, and form judgments without consciously analyzing the individual cues. Accounting researchers have suggested that auditors develop judgment templates through task-specific experience, and that these knowledge structures automatically provide decisions in familiar situations. I examined whether auditor knowledge leads to reliance on judgment templates. To test this thesis, I synthesized a theoretical framework and developed research hypotheses that predict relationships between task-specific experience (my surrogate for knowledge) and (1) measures of cognitive effort, (2) accuracy of residual memory traces, and (3) performance with respect to identifying potential problems. To test these predictions, I provided senior auditors with comprehensive case materials for a hypothetical client and asked them to use analytical procedures to identify potential audit problems. Subjects acquired information and documented their findings on personal computers using software that I developed to record their activities.
Date: February 1995
Creator: O'Donnell, Ed
System: The UNT Digital Library
Identification of Dissociative Experiences in Children and Adolescents (open access)

Identification of Dissociative Experiences in Children and Adolescents

This study attempts to quantify the dissociative experiences reported by children and adolescents, and to determine whether the variance in degree of dissociation in children has useful diagnostic and treatment implications.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Queener, Heather L. (Heather Lynn)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Psychoanalytic Assessment of Sexually Abused Girls: Questions of Trauma and Rorschach Methodology (open access)

Psychoanalytic Assessment of Sexually Abused Girls: Questions of Trauma and Rorschach Methodology

Using a clinical sample of 63 girls aged 5 - 16 years, the Psychoanalytic Rorschach Profile (PRP; Burke et al., 1988), a measure of drive, ego, and object relations functioning, was examined for differences between sexual abuse (SA) victims and distressed but nonabused (NA) peers. The hypothesis that the SA group would evidence more pathological, less developed levels of drive, ego, and object relations functioning than the NA group was not supported. Limitations of the use of archival data are discussed. The effects of controlling for the number of responses (R) in Rorschach research were examined by comparing entire protocols of a clinical sample of girls from 5 - 16 years of age to shortened versions which included only the first one (N = 89; R = 10) or two (N = 17; R = 20) responses to each blot. Of 12 PRP scales compared, differences between the R = 10 and entire protocols were found on 5 variables, but when R was increased to 20, only 2 differences remained. Support was given for the notion of uniform Rorschach administration in which 2 responses per card are solicited.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Isler, Diane E. (Diane Evelyn)
System: The UNT Digital Library
In Vitro Studies of Nuclear Changes in Mammalian CNS Neurons Subjected to Rapid Acceleration Impact Injury (open access)

In Vitro Studies of Nuclear Changes in Mammalian CNS Neurons Subjected to Rapid Acceleration Impact Injury

An in vitro model of Rapid Acceleration Impact (RAI) Injury was used to study the effects of multiple impact (220 g/impact, 3-5 sec intervals) trauma on cultures of murine CNS cells. Investigations with spinal cord cultures showed that 1) multiple impacts delivered tangential to the plane of cell growth caused neuronal death (12% after 3 impacts to 46% after 10 impacts); 2) multiple impacts delivered normal to the plane of cell growth were much less effective (8% dead after 10 impacts); 3) most neuronal death occurred within 15 minutes after injury 4) morphological changes observed included increased nuclear prominence and somal swelling; and 5) pretreatment with ketamine (0.1mM) reduced cell death from 51 to 14% and reduced somal swelling. Identical studies performed on cortical cultures revealed minimal differences between the two tissues in their response to multiple tangential impacts.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Wolf, Amy
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study on U.S. Japanese Foreign Trade (open access)

A Study on U.S. Japanese Foreign Trade

This research presents an in depth discussion and analysis on U.S. Japanese foreign trade. It is divided into two parts. The first hypothesis states that the appreciation of the dollar in the early eighties is positively correlated with the U.S. trade deficit, especially with Japan. The second hypothesis states that Friedrich Von Hayek's Theory of Social Order applies to the development of capitalism in that country. This can also be divided into two parts, a) this generation of Japanese consumes, saves, and invests differently than previous generations, and b) Japanese consumption and investment patterns follow U.S. consumption and investment patterns with a lag.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Hachem, Daniel R. (Daniel Raymond)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Quantitative Analysis of the Gabaergic System in Cat Primary Somatosensory Cortex and Its Relation to Receptive Field Properties (open access)

Quantitative Analysis of the Gabaergic System in Cat Primary Somatosensory Cortex and Its Relation to Receptive Field Properties

Sensory neocortex contains a significant number of inhibitory neurons that use gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as their neurotransmitter. Functional roles for these neurons have been identified in physiological studies. For example, in primary somatosensory cortex (SI), blockade of GABAa receptors with bicuculline leads to expansion of receptive fields (RFs). The magnitude of RF enlargement varies between SIpopulations of GABAergic neurons were identified by labeling specific calcium binding proteins.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Li, Jianying
System: The UNT Digital Library
Perceptions of Student Affairs Services by Students and Student Affairs Personnel at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan (open access)

Perceptions of Student Affairs Services by Students and Student Affairs Personnel at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of students and student affairs personnel of student affairs services at Andrews University's main campus in Berrien Springs, Michigan. A modified questionnaire, based on the work of Selgas and Blocker (1974) and Glenister (1977), was developed for this study. Eleven student services found in the Council for the Advancement of Standards for Student Services/Development Program's guidelines were included. A random sample of 280 students at Andrews University received surveys, with 165 (59%) responding. The 30 full-time student affairs personnel also received surveys, with 20 (67%) responding. Students and student affairs personnel rated their perceptions of student services, using 77 statements associated with these services. Services were rated on a 6-point scale in the categories of status of knowledge, relative importance, and effectiveness. Respondents were asked to include additional comments concerning the services and to provide biographical data. The following are some of the main findings: Significant differences between students' and student affairs personnel's status of knowledge of student services were found in career planning/employment, commuter programs/services, counseling services/substance abuse education, religious programs/services, student activities, and wellness/health. Significant differences between the two groups' perceptions of relative importance of student services were …
Date: December 1995
Creator: Akos, Hosea Dodo
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of a Teacher Inservice Training Model on Students' Perceptions of Elementary Science (open access)

Effects of a Teacher Inservice Training Model on Students' Perceptions of Elementary Science

The purpose of this study was to test a teacher inservice training model which was designed to increase the number and use of hands-on science activities, increase the number of times teachers teach science, and improve students' perceptions of science.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Haynes, Dawn (Dawn Marie)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brain Topography of Leadership: Neurophysiological Correlates of the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire (open access)

Brain Topography of Leadership: Neurophysiological Correlates of the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire

Laboratory research was performed to understand leadership by attempting to link EEG baseline frequency patterns with data from the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ) assessment survey. Research began with 293 right-handed males, 18 to 26 years-old, who completed the LOQ. Based on their scores, 61 subjects, grouped by the Ohio State Leadership Quadrants, were tested using brain-mapping technology.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Dukes, David Jefferson
System: The UNT Digital Library
How Adult Readers Navigate Through Expository Text in a Hypermedia Environment to Construct Meaning (open access)

How Adult Readers Navigate Through Expository Text in a Hypermedia Environment to Construct Meaning

Research methods from both the qualitative and quantitative paradigms were used to answer the question concerning how adult readers navigate through informational text embedded in a hypermedia environment to construct meaning.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Bland, Jana H. (Jana Hamilton)
System: The UNT Digital Library
US-Japan Relations during the Korean War (open access)

US-Japan Relations during the Korean War

During the Korean War, US-Japan relations changed dramatically from the occupation status into one of a security partnership in Asia. When North Korea invaded South Korea, Washington perceived Japan as the ultimate target. Washington immediately intervened in the Korean peninsula to protect the South on behalf of Japanese security. Japanese security was the most important objective of American policy regarding the Korean War, a reality to which historians have not given legitimate attention. While fighting in Korea, Washington decided to conclude an early peace treaty with Japan to initiate Japanese rearmament. The issue of Japanese rearmament was a focal point in the Japanese peace negotiation. Washington pressed Japan to rearm rapidly, but Tokyo stubbornly opposed. Under pressure from Washington, the Japanese government established the National Police Reserve and had to expand its military forces during the war. When the Korean War ceased in July 1953, Japanese armed forces numbered about 180,000 men. The Korean War also brought a fundamental change to Japanese economic and diplomatic relations in Asia. With a trade embargo on China following the unexpected Chinese intervention in Korea, Washington wanted to forbid Sino-Japanese trade completely. In addition, Washington pressed Tokyo to recognize the Nationalist regime in Taiwan …
Date: May 1995
Creator: Kim, Nam G. (Nam Gyun)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Assessment of Storm Water Toxicity from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Denton, Texas (open access)

An Assessment of Storm Water Toxicity from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Denton, Texas

With the advent of national storm water regulations, municipalities with populations greater than 100,000 are required to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permits (NPDES) for storm water discharges. In addition to the sampling required for the permit process, the City of Fort Worth contracted with the University of North Texas' Institute of Applied Sciences to conduct acute toxicity testing using Pimephales prcmelas and Ceriodaphnia dubia on storm water samples received from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. A Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE) was performed on four samples that exhibited acute toxicity to C. dubia. High levels of metals as well as diazinon were some of the probable toxicants found.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Keating, Paul Redmond
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carl Nielsen's Quintet for Winds, OP. 43: A Critical Edition, a Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works for Horn by Atterberg, Ries, Mozart, Rosetti, Musgrave, Larsson, and Others (open access)

Carl Nielsen's Quintet for Winds, OP. 43: A Critical Edition, a Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works for Horn by Atterberg, Ries, Mozart, Rosetti, Musgrave, Larsson, and Others

The purpose of this dissertation is to prepare and present a critical edition of Carl Nielsen's Quintet for Winds, Op. 43, a major work in the woodwind quintet repertoire. Written for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet in 1922, it is also considered a pivotal composition in Nielsen's artistic output. This treatise offers a brief biography of Carl Nielsen, documents the history and significance of the Quintet for Winds, Op. 43, and presents a critical edition that will enable more accurate performances of this important composition.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Spence, Marcia L. (Marcia Louise)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Development of a Model for a Provincial Science Museum in Thailand to Provide Education in Science and Technology (open access)

The Development of a Model for a Provincial Science Museum in Thailand to Provide Education in Science and Technology

This study was designed to develop a provincial science museum model for expanding science museums to the provinces in Thailand.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Yamsaengsung, Uraivan
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Role of Fluency in the Emergence of the Derived Relations of Stimulus Equivalence (open access)

The Role of Fluency in the Emergence of the Derived Relations of Stimulus Equivalence

Fluent component performances may be more readily available for recombination into more complex repertoires. This experiment considered the stimulus equivalence preparation as a laboratory analog for the co-adduction said to occur in generative instruction. Seven adults received minimum training on 18 conditional discriminations, components of 9 potential stimulus equivalence classes. Training was interrupted periodically with tests to determine whether fluency of original relations predicted emergence of derived relations. Fluency predicted emergence in 2 of 17 instances of emergent derived relations for 4 subjects. One subject demonstrated fluency without derived relations. Training accuracies as low as 58% preceded emergence for 3 subjects. Fluency appears to be neither necessary nor sufficient for derived relations. Fluency's role may be in retention and complex application tasks rather than acquisition of behavioral relations.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Burkett, Leslie Stewart
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effect of Relationship Support and Parenting Style on Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors of Children with ADHD (open access)

The Effect of Relationship Support and Parenting Style on Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors of Children with ADHD

Influences between quality of intimate heterosexual relationships, parenting style, and externalizing and internalizing behavior problems of children with Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were examined in a sample of intact and single parent families. The perspective on marital quality was expanded to include an examination of intimate adult relationships within single parent households. Associations between the quality of custodial parents' serious dating and/or cohabiting relationships, parenting style and the behavior problems of children with ADHD were studied. Results from this study found tentative support for previous findings that family functioning may mediate the development of conduct disorders among children with ADHD.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Walker, Frances (Frances Ann)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Predicting the Retirement Intentions of Professional Workers (open access)

Predicting the Retirement Intentions of Professional Workers

While research focusing on the retirement intentions of individuals within the general population has been undertaken, only two empirical studies have examined the retirement intentions of professional workers. This study expands the small, existing body of literature focusing on this topic by presenting eighteen hypotheses, grouped into five categories of factors, and testing them with the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Knapp, James L. (James Lyndon)
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study of the Effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction on Developmental Math Students in Higher Education (open access)

A Study of the Effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction on Developmental Math Students in Higher Education

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of participation in a Supplemental Instruction (SI) program on student test performance in a second-level developmental mathematics class in a four-year university setting. This research deviated from past research on Supplemental Instruction in that it examined effects of the program at the end of each test block rather than at the end of the course only. The quasi-experimental design was precipitated by an inability to control factors of participation and limited sample size. Test data were analyzed using analysis of variance; final course grades were analyzed using chi-square.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Stephens, Jan (Jan Ellen)
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence": The Rule of Desire in T.S. Eliot's Poetry (open access)

"Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence": The Rule of Desire in T.S. Eliot's Poetry

The poetry of T. S. Eliot represents intense yet discriminate expressions of desire. His poetry is a poetry of desire that extenuates the long tradition of love poetry in Occidental culture. The unique and paradoxical element of love in Occidental culture is that it is based on an ideal of the unconsummated love relationship between man and woman. The struggle to express desire, yet remain true to ideals that have deep sacred and secular significance is the key animating factor of Eliot's poetry. To conceal and reveal desire, Eliot made use of four core elements of modernism: the apocalyptic vision, Pound's Imagism, the conflict between organic and mechanic sources of sublimity, and precisionism. Together, all four elements form a critical and philosophical matrix that allows for the discreet expression of desire in what Foucault calls the silences of Victorianism, yet Eliot still manages to reveal it in his major poetry. In Prufrock, Eliot uses precisionism to conceal and reveal desire with conflicting patterns of sound, syntax, and image. In The Waste Land, desire is expressed as negation, primarily as shame, sadness, and violence. The negation of desire occurred only after Pound had excised explicit references to desire, indicating Eliot's struggle …
Date: August 1995
Creator: Adams, Stephen D. (Stephen Duane)
System: The UNT Digital Library