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Sowing the Seeds of Stewardship in Texas: An Ethnographic Study of Nature and Visitor Experience at Texas State Parks
This study uses a mixed methods approach to investigate how individuals perceive nature and engage with Texas state park (TSP) programs and resources while also identifying major barriers that visitors perceive/encounter when visiting TSPs. This study looks through the anthropological lens by using theoretical frameworks such as habitus, presentation of the social self, space and place, as well as communities of practice (CoP), to better understand the factors that influence the establishment and maintenance of an individual's relationship to nature and participation in related practices. This study illustrates how an individual's relationship to nature is influenced by experiences in early life that involve activities, landscape or bioregion, and social factors. Relationships with nature are strengthened through social support especially when CoPs are involved. By understanding park visitor experiences through motivations and limitations to participating in the outdoors, parks can expand engagement tactics, foster existing and create new CoP related to nature that aid in the introduction and adoption of outdoor learning and experiences creating lifelong stewards. The study offers recommendations on how TSPs can address visitor barriers and increase nature affinity with the use of targeted outreach and engagement methods through agency interpretive resources and programs with the goal of …
Date:
May 2023
Creator:
Saintonge, Kenneth C.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Data Mining Using Direct Injection Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry, Infrared Spectroscopy, Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy, and Polymerase Chain Reaction for the Rapid Identification of Nutraceuticals and Contaminants
There has been a rapid surge toward "organic" products devoid of GMOs, MSGs, and other common compounds found in processed foods that continue to indicate an association with an increased risk for disease. These consumers seek nutrients and vitamins that are lacking in their diet and lifestyle in the form of nutraceuticals for disease prevention and treatment as well as overall lifestyle enhancement. However, these products generally lack clinical evidence as well as legal definition. Due to this ambiguity, nutraceuticals are neither considered a food product nor a pharmaceutical product. Furthermore, due to their alleged natural properties allowing for safe, therapeutic effects, nutraceuticals are being eagerly sought after by consumers in the place of pharmaceuticals. Additionally, since nutraceutical substances are "naturally" derived, there is a general lack of regulation regarding the manufacturing and distribution process. This mismanagement leads to lack of quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) protocols strictly implemented to define appropriate production and storage parameters. Without these critical measures, consumers are subjected to contamination of their products resulting from improper storage conditions and unmanaged production. These contaminants often include heavy metal impurities, pesticides, bacterial activity, and may also be adulterated with illicit drugs, all leading to detrimental …
Date:
December 2022
Creator:
Yazici, Micayla Rose Morgan
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Re-Envisioning the Future: A Research Study about Increased Plastic Pollution from Desalination Plants and Environmental Education in Texas
This study examines the relationship between proposed desalination plants and increased plastic pollution along the Texas Gulf Coast. It specifically focuses on their expected impact on communities in the area and was conducted for Society of Native Nations. The goal was to gather information about environmental ideologies and experiences from different environmental experts and scientists to educate community members and inform policy recommendations. The study relied on semi structured interviews and archival research to understand how environmental experts and scientists envision the future, how they interpret the impact of desalination plants as related to plastic pollution. Ideas that guided this research include decolonial methodologies, political ecology, Indigenous research agendas, environmental justice and knowledge, cultural hybridity, and the anthropology of the borderlands. This research provides actionable steps and recommendations to improve environmental education in Texas Gulf Coast communities on the U.S./Mexico border and to reduce plastic pollution in order to ensure that these communities have ample amounts of water supply without relying on desalination plants.
Date:
May 2022
Creator:
Gutierrez, Gabriela L.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Understanding the Hazard Adjustments and Risk Perceptions of Stakeholders in El Reno, Oklahoma
This qualitative study utilized the protective action decision model to explore the risk perceptions and hazard adjustments to the earthquake risk of residents in El Reno, Oklahoma.
Date:
May 2022
Creator:
Smith, Jeremy Austin
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Influence of Hypoxia on Acute Lead Toxicity and Calcium Homeostasis in Early Life Stage Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Pb and hypoxia co-exposure on Pb toxicity and Ca homeostasis in early life stage (ELS) zebrafish (Danio rerio). Previous evidence indicates that exposure of ELS zebrafish to hypoxia (~20% air saturation) reduces Ca uptake, likely through down-regulation of the apical epithelial Ca channel (ECaC). Considering that Pb and Ca are known antagonists and compete for uptake pathways, it was hypothesized that co-exposure of Pb with hypoxia would decrease Pb toxicity by reducing Pb uptake (likely mediated through a reduced number of ECaCs). However, it was shown that at 96 hpf, whole body accumulation of both Pb and Ca was lower at 40% air saturation compared to 100% and 20% air saturation. This result closely aligned with the 96h LC50 results which showed the highest mortality of zebrafish at 40% compared to the other air saturation levels. This suggests that toxicity is likely the result of exacerbated hypocalcemia at 40% air saturation due to both Pb competition for Ca binding to Ca uptake channels/transporters, such as ECaC, and potentially reduced expression of such channels/transporters in response to this level of hypoxia. Overall, it appears that ELS zebrafish respond differentially to …
Date:
December 2021
Creator:
Moghimi, Mehrnaz
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A History of Howard Payne College
Unpublished thesis on the development and history of Howard Payne College.
Date:
1951
Creator:
Hitt, Bowling M.
System:
The Portal to Texas History
A History of Howard Payne College from 1890 to 1898
Unpublished thesis on the history of Howard Payne College from 1890 to 1898.
Date:
1940
Creator:
Moore, Mary Prince
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Development and Application of Novel Computer Vision and Machine Learning Techniques
The following thesis proposes solutions to problems in two main areas of focus, computer vision and machine learning. Chapter 2 utilizes traditional computer vision methods implemented in a novel manner to successfully identify overlays contained in broadcast footage. The remaining chapters explore machine learning algorithms and apply them in various manners to big data, multi-channel image data, and ECG data. L1 and L2 principal component analysis (PCA) algorithms are implemented and tested against each other in Python, providing a metric for future implementations. Selected algorithms from this set are then applied in conjunction with other methods to solve three distinct problems. The first problem is that of big data error detection, where PCA is effectively paired with statistical signal processing methods to create a weighted controlled algorithm. Problem 2 is an implementation of image fusion built to detect and remove noise from multispectral satellite imagery, that performs at a high level. The final problem examines ECG medical data classification. PCA is integrated into a neural network solution that achieves a small performance degradation while requiring less then 20% of the full data size.
Date:
August 2021
Creator:
Depoian, Arthur Charles, II
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Community First: An Ethnographic Approach to Understanding Local Perceptions of Sustainability in the Age of Neoliberalism
This work describes ethnographic research completed in order to understand how local community members in Denton, Texas define, conceptualize, and speak about sustainability. The goal of this research is to encourage a more representative approach to sustainability initiatives within the City of Denton by uniting community ideas with local governance. Data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews with residents, participant observation at community meetings, and quantitative survey analysis. Through the use of a Foucauldian framework for analysis, in conjunction with David Harvey's "entrepreneurial city," and work done in the field of environmental justice, this study highlights a potential link between neoliberal approaches to city governance and community perceptions of sustainability. This research concludes by calling for more representation of all community members within local sustainability initiatives, and provides several suggestions for how this can be achieved.
Date:
May 2021
Creator:
LeMay, Brittany Michelle
System:
The UNT Digital Library
In the Tall Grass West of Town: Racial Violence in Denton County during the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan
The aim of this thesis is to narrate and analyze lynching and atypical violence in Denton County, Texas, between 1920 and 1926. Through this intensive study of a rural county in north Texas, the role of law enforcement in typical and systemic violence is observed and the relationship between Denton County Officials and the Ku Klux Klan is analyzed. Chapter 1 discusses the root of the word lynching and submits a call for academic attention to violence that is unable to be categorized as lynching due to its restrictive definition. Chapter 2 chronicles known instances of lynching in Denton County from its founding through the 1920s including two lynchings perpetrated by Klavern 136, the Denton County Klan. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between Denton County Law Enforcement and the Klan. In Chapter 4, seasons of violence are identified and applied to available historical records. Chapter 5 concludes that non-lynching violence, termed "disappearances," occurred and argues on behalf of its inclusion within the historiography of Jim Crow Era criminal actions against Black Americans. In the Prologue and Epilogue, the development and dissolution of the St. John's Community in Pilot Point, Texas, is narrated.
Date:
May 2020
Creator:
Crittenden, Micah Carlson
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Framing a Sacred Fight: Framing Analysis and Collective Identity of the #noDAPL Movement
The #noDAPL movement was an Indigenous-led environmental social movement occurring between 2015 and 2017, in which the Standing Rock Sioux and other American Indian tribes comprising the Oceti Sakowin garnered support to oppose the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline. Pipeline opponents agreed that the pipeline's construction posed a threat to the health and safety of tribal members and other residents of the area and that the pipeline's path crossed previously-designated tribal treaty boundaries, compromising tribal sovereignty. In this body of work, I utilize Facebook data from the Sacred Stone Camp Facebook page to locate and identify collective action frames and core framing tasks, adhering to social movement framing theory. Further, I provide insight into the movement's most used collective action frames and how their use enabled to movement to maintain occupation at protest camps along the Missouri River, garner resources from participants and gain international social support. I also draw on concepts of pan-Indianism and supratribalism to discuss indigenous collective identity, as well as concepts like relational values and Indigenous traditional knowledge to better assess the nuances of Indigenous environmental activism and how this movement evoked discussions of modern day settler colonialism.
Date:
May 2020
Creator:
Gaston, Emilia
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Irrigation Methods and Their Effects on Irrigation Water Efficiency in High Tunnels
Improving water efficiency is and will continue to be a top concern to meet the world food production demands for a growing population. By having a clear understanding of water efficiencies, communities will be able to address these concerns from an economic standpoint and use more productive methods to grow food and limit water consumption. This study examines the water efficiencies of three irrigation methods over a single growing season in southeastern Oklahoma. Two crops, tomatoes and cucumbers, were grown using drip irrigation, a self-wicking container, and a non-circulating hydroponics barrel. Results at the end of the season showed the drip irrigation method had the highest water efficiency in terms of yield of product over water applied for both crops. The drip irrigation method also had the lowest associated set up costs and second lowest time requirements after the hydroponics method. These results were found to be consistent with other studies that compared drip irrigation to other irrigation methods and showed drip to have the highest water efficiencies.
Date:
December 2019
Creator:
Young, Lauren
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Hauntology Man
Hauntology Man, a 48-minute documentary, follows former UNT Professor, Dr. Shaun Treat, as he leads a walking ghost tour of downtown Denton, Texas. As the expedition moves from storefront to storefront, each stop elicits a new tale. But, as Dr. Treat points out, the uncertainties of history are the real ghosts. That is, rather than simply presenting a "haunted history" of Denton, it's more accurate to say this movie's center resides at the precipice of a "haunting history." Not all ghost stories need spectres. Sometimes not knowing is ghost enough.
Date:
May 2018
Creator:
Wright, Adam Michael
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Maximal Proposition, Environmental Melodrama, and the Rhetoric of Local Movements: A Study of The Anti-Fracking Movement in Denton, Texas
The environmental problems associated with the boom in hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," such as anthropogenic earthquakes and groundwater contamination, have motivated some citizens living in affected areas such as Denton, Texas to form movements with the goal of imposing greater regulation on the industry. As responses to an environmental threat that is localized and yet mobile, these anti-fracking movements must construct rhetorical appeals with complicated relationships to place. In this thesis, I examine the anti-fracking movement in Denton, Texas in a series of three rhetorical analyses. In the first, I compared fracking bans used by Frack Free Denton and State College, Pennsylvania to distinguish the argumentative claims that are dependent on the politics of place, and affect strategies localities must use in resisting natural gas extraction. In the second, I compare campaign strategies that use local identity as a way of invoking legitimacy, which reinforces narrative frameworks of environmental risk. In the third, I conduct and analyze interviews with anti-fracking leaders who described the narrative of their movement, which highlighted tensions in the rhetorical construction of a movement as local. Altogether, this thesis traces the rhetorical conception of place across the rhetoric of the anti-fracking movement in Denton, Texas, while …
Date:
December 2017
Creator:
Hensley, Colton Dwayne
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Urban Hydraulic Rhizome: Water, Space, and the City in 20th Century North Texas
During the modern era, the urbanization of water has been facilitated by various privileged discourses, which valorize major engineering interventions for the sake of continued urban growth. This research examines discourse surrounding the 2-th Century proposal and construction of a reservoir near the then-tiny farming community of Grapevine, Texas, for the benefit of urban interests. I argue that urban interests produced Grapevine space as nothing more than a container for city water, by rendering meaningless any conception of space that was not directly articulated with urban economic networks. Modern discourse collapsed Denton Creek space from a watershed and landscape into a dimensionless node in the urban space of flows. In return, rural inhabitants were encouraged to progress and to modernize their own spaces: to become urban. Whereas urban discourse entails an implicit spatial imaginary of networks, I deploy the conceptual framework of settler colonialism to show that a core-periphery relationship remains relevant, and is not reducible to a network spatial ontology.
Date:
May 2017
Creator:
Simon, James-Eric H.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The 50,000 Watt Blowtorch of the Great Southwest: The History of WBAP
This paper looks at the history of WBAP while examining how programming has changed from 1922-2014 and how WBAPs audience helped shape programming at the station. This paper reveals four formatting changes throughout the stations history and provides in-depth statistical analysis of how WBAPs audience changed during the stations 90 plus years of existence.
Date:
December 2016
Creator:
Dixon, Chad M
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Banks and Bankers in Denton County, Texas, 1846-1940
This thesis investigates the importance banks, and bankers had with the development of the Denton County Texas from the 1870s until the beginning of the Second World War. Specifically, their role in the formation of both private and public infrastructure as well as the facilitation towards a more diverse economy. Key elements of bank development are outlined in the study including private, national, and state bank operations.
Date:
December 2016
Creator:
Page, Shawn
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Effect of the Assimilation of the La Reunion Colonists on the Development of Dallas and Dallas County
This study examines the impact of the citizens of the La Reunion colony on the development of Dallas and Dallas County. The French, Belgian, and Swiss families that formed the utopian colony broughta blend of European culture and education to the Texas frontier in 1853. The founding of La Reunion and a record of its short existence is covered briefly in the first two chapters. The major part of the research, however, deals with the colonists who remained in Dallas County after the colony failed in 1856. Chapters three and four make use of city, county, and state records along with personal collections from the Dallas Historical Society Archives and the Dallas Public Library to examine the colonists effect on the government and business community. Chapter five explores the cultural development of the area through city and county records and personal collections.
Date:
December 1986
Creator:
Sandell, Velma Irene
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Cast-Iron Facades in Texas
In this limited survey, nineteenth-century cast-iron facades in Texas were recorded and compared to iron-fronted buildings in New York City. It was found that generally, the still existing buildings in Texas cities and towns were similar to those in New York in style but differed to the extent to which the cast-iron elements were used. It appears that nineteenth-century builders in Texas knew of New York trends in cast-iron but had definite regional preferences.
Date:
December 1978
Creator:
Giritz, Cheryl A.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Personal Study and Comparative Analysis of the Track Men and the Football Men at North Texas State Teachers College for the Period of Ten Years (1930-1940)
This study deals with an investigation of letterman in track in North Texas State Teachers College during the ten- year period of 1930-31 through 1939-40, as compared with football lettermen of the same period. More especially, it is a study of the program, the accomplishments, and the later occupations followed by the individual athletes who earned letters in track. The status of the athletes was considered from the standpoint of their athletic and scholastic attainments as well as their social activities while in college, The athletes were also considered from the standpoint of position and location since leaving college. It is recommended that in the near future a similar study be made of the other sports in North Texas State College to parallel this study.
Date:
August 1949
Creator:
Brown, Elmer Arthur
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Home Beautification Project Developed by the Art Club of the Travis Elementary School in Mineral Wells, Texas
For three years the writer has worked with children from a section in Mineral Wells, Texas, in which home environments were unnecessarily bad. They offered none of the wholesome stimuli for growth and development that homes should give. The houses were drab and cheerless, and the grounds were neglected, often grown up in weeds or cluttered with trash. Through its members, made up of sixth and seventh grade children of Travis Elementary School and including children from the affected homes, plans and procedures were formulated for improving homes, and the interest and cooperation of the parents were secured in extending the improvements over the area. By this plan the writer hoped that life might be made more satisfying for these people as a result of improved surroundings.
Date:
August 1941
Creator:
Shipman, Bonita L.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Landscape Legacies of Gas Drilling in North Texas
In North Texas, the Barnett Shale underlies large areas of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (DFW), which magnifies debates about the externalities of shale gas development (SGD). Continued demand for natural gas and expansive urbanization in DFW will cause more people to come in contact with drilling rigs, gas transport, and other urban shale gas landscapes. Thousands of gas wells within the DFW region occupy a large, yet scattered land surface area. DFW city planners, elected officials, and other stakeholders must deal with current and future urban growth and the surface impacts that are associated with gas development. This research examines how shale gas landscapes affect urban land uses, landscapes, and patterns of development in DFW. The study focuses on multiple fast growing DFW municipalities that also have high numbers of gas well pad sites. This study asks what are the spatial characteristics of gas well production sites in DFW and how do these sites vary across the region; how do gas well production sites affect urban growth and development; and how are city governments and surface developers responding to gas well production sites, and what are the dominant themes of contestation arising around gas well production sites and suburban growth?
Date:
May 2016
Creator:
Sakinejad, Michael Cyrus
System:
The UNT Digital Library
“Just Tell Me the Truth”: Understanding Health Risks and Community Perspectives in Karnes County, Texas, an Oil and Gas Community
Using ethnographic research methods, I collaborated with the organization Earthworks to conduct a community assessment on the health issues related to the air quality in Karnes County, Texas, an oil and gas community. The research consisted of in-depth interviews with residents on their experiences and knowledge on the health issues associated to air quality. This research is going to be used to inform the community and develop strategies to empower community members in improving their environmental conditions.
Date:
May 2016
Creator:
Villa, Priscilla
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Lone Star Insanity: Efforts to Treat the Mentally Ill in Texas, 1861-1929
During the mid-nineteenth century, the citizens of Texas were forced to keep their mentally disturbed family members at home which caused stress on the caregivers and the further debilitation of the afflicted. To remedy this situation, mental health experts and Texas politicians began to create a system of healing known as state asylums. The purpose of this study is to determine how Texas mental health care came into being, the research and theories behind the prevention and treatment programs that asylum physicians employed to overcome mental illness, in addition to the victories and shortcomings of the system. Through this work, it will be shown that during the 1850s until the 1920s institutions faced difficulty in achieving success from many adverse conditions including, but not limited to, overcrowding, large geographical conditions, poor health practices, faulty construction, insufficient funding, ineffective prevention and treatment methods, disorganization, cases of patient abuse, incompetent employees, prejudice, and legal improprieties. As a result, by 1930, these asylums were merely places to detain the mentally ill in order to rid them from society. This thesis will also confirm that while both Texas politicians and mental health experts desired to address and overcome mental illness in Texas, they were …
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
Boyd, Dalton T.
System:
The UNT Digital Library