Degree Level

Ethnically Mixed Individuals: Cultural Homelessness or Multicultural Integration? (open access)

Ethnically Mixed Individuals: Cultural Homelessness or Multicultural Integration?

Studies addressing racial/ethnic identity development have often overlooked the developmental cultural context. The impact of growing up with contradictory cultures has not been well explored. Immersion in multiple cultures may produce mixed patterns of strengths deficits. This study reviews the literature's currently inconsistent usage of the terms race, ethnicity, and culture; introduces the concept and theoretical framework of Cultural Homelessness; relates CH to multicultural integration; and develops two study-specific measures (included) to examine the construct validity of CH. The sample’s (N = 448, 67% women) racial, ethnic, and cultural mixture was coded back three generations using complex coding criteria. Empirical findings supported the CH-specific pattern of cognitive and social strengths with emotional difficulties: social adaptability and cross-cultural competence but also low self-esteem and shame regarding diff
Date: May 1999
Creator: Navarrete-Vivero, Veronica
System: The UNT Digital Library
Toward an Ecofeminist Environmental Jurisprudence: Nature, Law, and Gender (open access)

Toward an Ecofeminist Environmental Jurisprudence: Nature, Law, and Gender

This thesis develops a legal theory reflecting the insights of feminism and environmental philosophy. I argue that human beings are not ontologically separate, but embedded in webs of relationality with natural others. My primary purposes are to 1) delineate ways in which institutions of modernity (such as law and science) have precipitated ecosocial crisis through the attempt to dialectically enforce mastery and control over nature and women; and 2) explore alternate political forms and ontologies which challenge the classical liberalist view of the (human) individual as a radically isolated, discrete, autonomous being. My overarching theme is that law functions as a narrative that can both hinder and enhance the promotion of ecological ideas, and how ecofeminism can contribute to transformative projects of environmental philosophy and feminist law.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Mallory, Chaone
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exhibit Eh: Canadian Dependency, U.S. Hegemony, and the Amorphousness of English Canadian Culture (open access)

Exhibit Eh: Canadian Dependency, U.S. Hegemony, and the Amorphousness of English Canadian Culture

This thesis begins by examining the factors that have resulted in the dependent nature of Canada's political and economic structure, and proceeds to examine how this has contributed to the cultural amorphousness of English Canadian identity. The hegemonic authority of American and trans-national interests, established and maintained in the cultural sphere through the extensive monopoly of the distribution of cultural and media products, perpetuates the amorphousness of English Canadian culture through the appropriation of Canadian space by the international image industry. Such categorization of Canadian space reflects and perpetuates the imaginary representation of Canada within the dominant ideology as an indistinct and amorphous entity, and comes to usurp the materiality that constructs the lived identities of English Canadians.
Date: August 1999
Creator: McIntosh, Andrew
System: The UNT Digital Library
Girl Power: Feminism, Girlculture and the Popular Media (open access)

Girl Power: Feminism, Girlculture and the Popular Media

This project is an interrogation of three examples from recent popular culture of girlculture, specifically texts that target young female consumers: the Spice Girls, Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These examples are fundamentally different than texts from earlier female targeted generic models because they not only reflect the influence of the feminist movement, they work on feminism's behalf. The project's methodology grows out of feminist film theories and cultural studies theories. One chapter is dedicated to each text, and each reading works to reappropriate girlculture texts for a counter-hegemonic agenda by highlighting the moments when each text manages to subvert its mass mediated conservative biases.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Smith, Ashley Lorrain
System: The UNT Digital Library
Syllabus Outline for Genetics Lecture and Laboratory (open access)

Syllabus Outline for Genetics Lecture and Laboratory

This work is intended to be used as a teaching tool in conjunction with the text cited. It is written in outline format, highlighting the major concepts of each pertinent chapter. In this format, the concepts can be expanded upon at the discretion of the instructor. This work is to be used as a guide for lecture. The basic concepts contained in the outline are in such a format as to be able to work in more information regarding the subject matter if needed. The instructor can work from this outline as a starting point. Major topics in the chapters are highlighted, making lecture notes for the instructor easier to do.
Date: December 1999
Creator: Preston, E. Lynn
System: The UNT Digital Library
Performing "Camp, Vamp & Femme Fatale": Revisiting, Reinventing & Retelling the Lives of Post-Death, Retro-Gothic Women (open access)

Performing "Camp, Vamp & Femme Fatale": Revisiting, Reinventing & Retelling the Lives of Post-Death, Retro-Gothic Women

This thesis examines the production process for "Camp, Vamp and Femme Fatale," performed at the University of North Texas in April of 1997. The first chapter applies Henry Jenkins's theory of textual poaching to the authors' and cast's reappropriation of cultural narratives about female vampires. The chapter goes on to survey the narrative, cinematic and critical work on women as vampires. As many of the texts were developed as part of the fantasy role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, this chapter also surveys how fantasy role-playing develops unpublished texts that can make fruitful ground for performance studies. The second chapter examines the rehearsal and production process in comparison to the work of Glenda Dickerson and other feminist directors.
Date: December 1999
Creator: Ruane, Richard T.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Toward a Rhetoric of Marketing for High-Tech Services (open access)

Toward a Rhetoric of Marketing for High-Tech Services

The market for high-tech services is expanding, and writers will have to create more documents to market these services. Researchers note marked differences between traditional goods marketing and services marketing. A rhetorical framework for high-tech services marketing will give writers a tool for creating effective marketing messages. This study examines the five canons of rhetoric in their classical context, and then examines how the first professional teachers, the Sophists, used rhetoric to promote their services. The canons of rhetoric are then analyzed to show their modern significance. This study also considers visual rhetoric and how writers can use it effectively. This study shows that companies should promote service quality and strong service relationships through the rhetorical element of ethos. This study examines services marketing samples through a visual and verbal rhetorical framework, providing rhetorical insights that writers can use in their work.
Date: December 1999
Creator: Willerton, David Russell
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Extinction on Human Performance Following Exposure to Fixed Ratio Schedules of Reinforcement (open access)

The Effects of Extinction on Human Performance Following Exposure to Fixed Ratio Schedules of Reinforcement

This experiment examined the effects of extinction on rate of responding and several topographical and temporal measures in adult humans. Three college students were trained to type the sequence 1•5•3 on a numeric keypad on a computer. The subjects were exposed to different fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement (FR1, FR 5, and FR10 respectively) and extinction. Subjects displayed typical schedule performances during the maintenance phase of the experiment. During extinction the performances were disrupted, they showed a "break and run" pattern and a general decrease in responding. Also, new topographical and temporal patterns emerged. These data are consistent with those reported for non-human species and special human populations.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Anderson, Richard L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gestalt Work For the Actor: A Documentary Video Production (open access)

Gestalt Work For the Actor: A Documentary Video Production

Gestalt Work for the Actor is a documentary about Dr. Renee Vincent's Gestalt acting exercise. Students are trained to recall powerful emotions and then employ the conjured passions into performance. This documentary examines the Gestalt acting exercise and what benefits it affords actors. The accompanying production book explains the production processes: preproduction, production, and postproduction, as well as the theoretical approaches used in the documentary.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Massey, Hugh Richard
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Evolution of Gentility in Eighteenth-Century England and Colonial Virginia (open access)

The Evolution of Gentility in Eighteenth-Century England and Colonial Virginia

This study analyzes the impact of eighteenth-century commercialization on the evolution of the English and southern American landed classes with regard to three genteel leadership qualities--education, vocation, and personal characteristics. A simultaneous comparison provides a clearer view of how each adapted, or failed to adapt, to the social and economic change of the period. The analysis demonstrates that the English gentry did not lose a class struggle with the commercial ranks as much as they were overwhelmed by economic changes they could not understand. The southern landed class established an economy based on production of cash crops and thus adapted better to a commercial economy. The work addresses the development of class-consciousness in England and the origins of Virginia's landed class.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Nitcholas, Mark C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Teacher Training: An Examination of Skill Acquisition, Generalization, and Increases in Child Appropriate Behavior (open access)

Teacher Training: An Examination of Skill Acquisition, Generalization, and Increases in Child Appropriate Behavior

The effects of a training package (modeling, role-playing, and feedback) were evaluated using a multiple baseline across skill areas. Two trainers taught two teachers to use basic intervention skills that included components of both discrete trial teaching (DTT) and the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP). Training occurred in the context of one task. Generalization was assessed with two untrained tasks. Teachers' responses in the target task increased following training, as did appropriate responding from the child. Some generalization of the teaching skills occurred. Teachers were instructed to generalize acquired skills as a possible method to promote generalization. The results of these findings and implications for training of ABA providers are discussed.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Sawyer, Rebecca Jo Moore
System: The UNT Digital Library
L2 acquisition of Spanish telic se  constructions (open access)

L2 acquisition of Spanish telic se constructions

This thesis examines the acquisition of the aspectual properties of the Spanish se in transitive constructions by L2 learners of Spanish. Based on a parameterized distinction of the telic features in English and Spanish, this study investigates whether second language (L2) learners are able to reset the aspectual value of the English parameter to that of Spanish in their interlanguage grammar. Results indicate that L2 learners' responses to a picture interpretation task vary according to proficiency levels. Low-intermediate and intermediate learners did not differentiate between telic and atelic constructions whereas advanced learners successfully acquired the telic properties of the transitive se constructions. Results were interpreted in the light of current theories of second language acquisition and the mental representation of aspect in interlanguage.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Suárez Cepeda, Sonia
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Different Reinforcers: Sound-Clips Versus Points Exchangeable for Money (open access)

A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Different Reinforcers: Sound-Clips Versus Points Exchangeable for Money

Human operant studies frequently use points exchangeable for money as reinforcers. Some studies employ more immediately consumable reinforcers to emulate properties of food reinforcers. This study examined demand for points/money and for sound-clips to compare their economic characteristics. Across four participants, demand was often higher and less elastic for points/money than for sounds. During subsequent exposures at each response requirement, demand for sounds often decreased to a greater degree than demand for points/money. Thus, sound-clips seem less durable than points/money across prices and across repeated exposure to the same price. Response rates for points/money were often higher than for sounds, suggesting that reinforcers that generate higher response rates may be less elastic than reinforcers that generate lower response rates.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Alvey, Debi A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Unexpected Unexpected Utilities: A Comparative Case-Study Analysis of Women and Revolutions (open access)

Unexpected Unexpected Utilities: A Comparative Case-Study Analysis of Women and Revolutions

Women have been part of modern revolutions since the American Revolution against Great Britain. Most descriptions and analyses of revolution relegate women to a supporting role, or make no mention of women's involvement at all. This work differs from prior efforts in that it will explore one possible explanation for the successes of three revolutions based upon the levels of women's support for those revolutions. An analysis of the three cases (Ireland, Russia, and Nicaragua) suggests a series of hypotheses about women's participation in revolution and its importance to revolutions' success.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Casey, Walter Thomas
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Behavioral Economic Analysis of the Demand for Money in Humans (open access)

A Behavioral Economic Analysis of the Demand for Money in Humans

This study investigated the effects of unit price structure, unit price descriptions, and unit price sequence on the demand for money in humans. Six groups of 3 participants solved multiplication problems in exchange for money under various unit prices. Consumption of money decreased as the unit price increased across all conditions. However, the data also showed that: (a) fixed price structures produced slightly more elastic demand than did variable price structures, (b) price descriptions produced more elastic demand under variable price structures but had little or no effect under fixed price structures, and (c) the alternate sequence used with fixed price structures produced slightly more elastic demand.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Reyes, Jorge R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
By Air Power Alone: America's Strategic Air War in China, 1941-1945 (open access)

By Air Power Alone: America's Strategic Air War in China, 1941-1945

During World War II, the Army Air Force waged three strategic air offensives in and from China against Japan. At first, the Flying Tigers and 10th Air Force constituted the whole of American aid to China, but the effort soon expanded. Supported by Chiang Kai-shek, Claire Chennault and his 14th Air Force waged an anti-shipping campaign, to which the Japanese Imperial Army responded with Operation Ichigo and against which Joseph Stilwell accurately warned. 20th Bomber Command used B-29s to wage Operation Matterhorn, failed, and later conducted PACAID missions. 14th Air Force then waged a counterproductive transportation campaign as The Pacific War, also known as the Greater East Asian War, ended. Events in the China-Burma-India and China Theaters provide lessons in logistics, targeting, training, and air-ground cooperation that are applicable in the post-Cold War era.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Jahnke, Todd Eric
System: The UNT Digital Library
A survey of the Greater Dallas Crime Commission and its effect on the (open access)

A survey of the Greater Dallas Crime Commission and its effect on the

This thesis examines the history of the Greater Dallas Crime Commission and its effectiveness within the criminal justice system. It is a private agency established fifty (50) years ago to monitor and investigate the criminal justice system. Today, it serves as a source of funding for criminal justice agencies, provides awards and recognition forums for law enforcement and lobbies for legal revisions of the criminal code. The research is designed to examine their role within the criminal justice system. Whether current crime theories are supported by the commission is central to the thesis. There are no prior studies available of crime commissions perhaps because they are privately funded and operated by civilians. Crime commissions do exert influence, politically and financially, upon law enforcement. It is reflected often in their history. The extent of this effect is the subject of the paper. To this end, the commission's role in changing state laws, providing funds for police training, recognizing prosecutors and paying awards to informants lends credibility to their role in the criminal justice system. Their function has often changed during the fifty-year history. If there is a deficit, it may be that the commission has the capability, through its sphere of …
Date: May 2001
Creator: Latham, H. Lee
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Stylistic Analysis of American Indian Portrait Photography in Oklahoma, 1869-1904 (open access)

A Stylistic Analysis of American Indian Portrait Photography in Oklahoma, 1869-1904

This thesis studies the style of Native American portrait photographs of William S. Soule (1836-1908), John K. Hillers (1834-1925), and William E. Irwin (1871-1935), who worked in Oklahoma from 1869 to 1904. The examination of the three men's work revealed that each artist had different motivations for creating Native American portrait photographs, and a result, used a distinct style. However, despite the individual artistic styles, each artist conformed to Native American stereotypes common during the nineteenth-century. The thesis includes a discussion of the history of the area, photographer biographies, a stylistic analysis of the photographs, and how the images fit into American Indian stereotypes.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Nelson, Amy
System: The UNT Digital Library
Revisiting Eric Nordlinger: The Dynamics of Russian Civil- Military Relations in the Twentieth Century (open access)

Revisiting Eric Nordlinger: The Dynamics of Russian Civil- Military Relations in the Twentieth Century

This paper examines the role that military has played in the political development of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the modern Russian Federation. By utilizing the theoretical tenets of Eric Nordlinger, this paper endeavors to update and hopefully revise his classic work in civil-military relations, Soldiers in Politics. Chapter one of this paper introduces many of the main theoretical concepts utilized in this analysis. Chapter two considers the Stalinist totalitarian penetration model that set the standard for communist governments around the world. Chapter three follows up by addressing the middle years of Khrushchev and Brezhnev. Both reformed the military in its relation to the party and state and made the armed forces a more corporate and professional institution. Chapter four pinpoints the drastic changes in both the state and armed forces during Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost. The military briefly ventured to a point it never gone before by launching a short coup against the last Soviet president. Chapter five focuses on the last ten years in the Russian Federation. While still a professional organization typical of the liberal model of civil-military relations, the armed forces face great uncertainty, as economic and social problems demand more of their …
Date: August 2001
Creator: Ardovino, Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
Case studies in terrorism-drug connection: the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and the Shining Path (open access)

Case studies in terrorism-drug connection: the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and the Shining Path

This study scrutinizes the drug-terrorism nexus critically with intent to conceive possible remedies for the problem. The vast turnover of the global illicit drug industry constitutes the largest portion of organized crime enterprises' income. Different circles have argued that these enterprises are not the sole actors of the drug business, but terrorist groups, whose ultimate aim is a political change rather than financial strength, also profit from the “business.” The controversial nature of the problem fuelled heated debates and requires an in depth and impartial analysis, which was the main subject of the current study. At the first stage, three different cases, the PKK, the LTTE, and the SL, were studied either to prove or deny the alleged phenomenon. The sampled groups' ideology, structure, and operations helped understand the motives pushing the organizations into the ‘business.' Subsequently, several recommendations capturing vital issues both in countering terrorism and breaking terrorism-drugs link were spelled out.
Date: August 2001
Creator: Sahin, Fuat Salih
System: The UNT Digital Library
"There's A Man With A Gun Over There": Cops And The Counterculture (open access)

"There's A Man With A Gun Over There": Cops And The Counterculture

By 1960, television advertisers recognized the economic potential of American youth, and producers were expected to develop programs to attract them, while still maintaining appeal for the older audience members. This task was to prove difficult as the decade wore on. While continuing to link the nation's cold war concerns to the portrayal of good and evil, some shows, like 77 Sunset Strip, and The Mod Squad, explored alternative lifestyles, but still accepted American values. As the 1960s developed, crime programs continued to promote American hegemony but became increasingly more open to alternative reading strategies. This study examines the strategies developed to draw a youth audience to 1960s crime programs, while also supporting the dominant ideology of American society.
Date: December 2001
Creator: Moellinger, Terry
System: The UNT Digital Library
College Freshman Biology Two Semester Course: Integrating Deep Processing Teaching Techniques (open access)

College Freshman Biology Two Semester Course: Integrating Deep Processing Teaching Techniques

Development of a college level freshman biology course was undertaken in response to government reports that American students have fallen behind students of other countries in the area of the sciences. Teaching strategies were investigated to accomplish two objectives, to define essential academic material to include in the course and to investigate teaching techniques that would increase deep processing of the information. An active process that consisted of applying the cognitive information to solving problems or developing answers to questions was defined as critical thinking. Critical thinking was incorporated into the course by the use of case studies.
Date: May 2002
Creator: Blevins, Mary Jean
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Measurement System for Monitoring Play in Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism (open access)

A Measurement System for Monitoring Play in Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism

A comprehensive measurement system was developed to monitor play in children with autism and typically developing children. The study was conducted in a preschool operated in conjunction with a center-based program for children with autism. The development of the measurement system was based on observations of four children with autism and three typically developing children during social and play activites. Data were collected on material use and several dimensions of play: Simple Manipulation, Functional Manipulation, Symbolic Toy Play, Symbolic Role Play and Play Themes. The results indicated that the measurement system consistently measured a wide range of play behaviors across children and materials. Significance of the information gathered from the measurement system in assessing play and designing interventions is discussed.
Date: May 2002
Creator: Gudmundsdottir, Kristin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bioreactor Landfill Cell Feasibility Study ' Reference to City of Denton Subtitle-D Permit #1590A Landfill (open access)

Bioreactor Landfill Cell Feasibility Study ' Reference to City of Denton Subtitle-D Permit #1590A Landfill

The City of Denton Landfill, Permit #1590A, utilizes “Dry-Tomb” techniques for disposal and promotion of municipal solid waste stabilization, as described by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) prohibition in 40 CFR. Bioreactor research suggests re-circulating leachate increases biodegradation rates and reduces long-term monitoring from fifty years to less than ten years. Current procedures that are followed at Denton's landfill, literature review and the use of the Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model, suggest that a bioreactor landfill cell is worthy of further research. Re-circulating leachate and augmenting it with additional liquid will increase biodegradation and the need to design and build a landfill gas collection system to capture methane for energy recovery uses.
Date: May 2002
Creator: Roberts, Elizabeth
System: The UNT Digital Library