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The Use of Evidence-based Practices in the Provision of Social Skills Training for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a National Survey of School Psychologists' Training, Attitudes, and Practices (open access)

The Use of Evidence-based Practices in the Provision of Social Skills Training for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a National Survey of School Psychologists' Training, Attitudes, and Practices

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine school psychologists' use of evidence- based practices (EBP), in general, and more specifically in the area of social skills training (SST) for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Study participants, consisting of 498 school psychologists from across the nation, participated in an online survey that gathered information about their training, attitudes, and practices. The frequency with which specific EBP practices for social skills training for students with ASD was examined, as was prediction of use of these practices. Multiple-regression analyses revealed multiple independent variables that were predictors for overall use of EBP. Results indicated that over half of the participants provide SST for students with ASD. Although the majority of participants indicated that their graduate program included at least one course with information about ASD and EBP practices, in general, nearly half indicated that their coursework did not include any courses that directly addressed social skills training for students with ASD. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine the extent to which the data fit the factor model. Participants' perception of the importance placed on EBP by their school district, scores on the openness subscale of the Evidence Based Practices …
Date: August 2011
Creator: Austin, Jennifer E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Booty Calls, Rage, and Racialized/sexualized Subjects: Tmz's Coverage of Rihanna and Chris Brown (open access)

Booty Calls, Rage, and Racialized/sexualized Subjects: Tmz's Coverage of Rihanna and Chris Brown

Internet-based celebrity gossip blog site, TMZ, is a growing cultural force. Employing critical rhetorical analytics, the author examines the TMZ coverage of Chris Brown's assault on his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. This project explicates TMZ's enthymematic invocation of dominant cultural ideologies surrounding race, sex, and domestic violence. Chapter 1 demonstrates the theoretical importance of both celebrities and gossip blogs, signaling the ideological importance of each. Chapter 2 critiques TMZ's reliance on historic myths regarding sex and race in their reporting on this case. Chapter 3 analyzes TMZ's humorous and affective strategies that bolster broader investments in colorblind ideologies. Chapter 4 concludes by examining the interplay of formal rhetorical elements that inform the project's findings. This research reveals that TMZ utilizes affective, enthymematic strategies that camouflage broader racist and sexist ideological impulses that perpetuate domestic violence myths.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Sabino, Lauren
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of the Amob/vll Program for Participants in North Central Texas (open access)

An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of the Amob/vll Program for Participants in North Central Texas

This study assessed falls efficacy and confidence-related changes among participants attending the a Matters of Balance/Volunteer Lay Leader (AMOB/VLL) falls prevention program for older adults, based on their residential location. Data were examined from 431 older Texans enrolled in AMOB/VLL during a two-year period, and assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Results indicate that participants significantly increased falls efficacy, reduced activity interference due to their health, and decreased the number of days limited from usual activity. Regression models show that participants, despite entering the program with lower reported health status, reported greater rates of positive change for falls efficacy and health interference compared with their baseline pre-intervention counterparts. Overall program attendance and attendance at major sessions showed the greatest influence. Findings contribute to the understanding of cognitive restructuring and strengthening variations with falls prevention program outcomes.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Ewing, Charles W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Organic-Progressive Principle in the Political Thought and Internationalism of Woodrow Wilson (open access)

The Organic-Progressive Principle in the Political Thought and Internationalism of Woodrow Wilson

This is an investigation of the intellectual roots of the political thought and internationalism of Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eightieth president of the United States. Exposed to the influence of Darwin, Wilson believed that politics had to be redefined as an evolutionary process. the older mechanical understanding of politics was to be replaced with an organic understanding of political development. This allowed Wilson to synthesize a concept of politics that included elements from the Christian tradition; the English Historical School, particularly Edmund Burke; and German idealism, including G.W.F. Hegel. However, because he placed a heavy emphasis on Burke and Hegel, Wilson moved away from a natural rights based theory of politics and more towards a politics based on relativism and a transhistorical notion of rights. Wilson had important theoretical reserves about Hegel, as a result, Wilson modified Hegel’s philosophy. This modification took the form of Wilson’s organic-progressive principle. This would greatly affect Wilson’s ideas about how nations formed, developed, and related to one another. This study focuses on Wilson’s concept of spirit, his theory of history, and his idea of political leadership. the organic-progressive principle is key to understanding Wilson’s attempts to reform on both the domestic and international levels.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Flanagan, John Patrick
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Chopin Etudes: a Study Guide for Teaching and Learning Opus 10 and Opus 25 (open access)

The Chopin Etudes: a Study Guide for Teaching and Learning Opus 10 and Opus 25

The etudes of Chopin are masterworks of the piano literature and are designed to go beyond mere technical exercises; moreover, each etude represents not only a technical study but also has a distinct musical character. Alarmingly, the current trend seems to be to assign the Chopin etudes at an increasingly young age to students who are not yet equipped either technically or musically to handle them. As Chopin’s pupil, Carl Mikuli, commented in the preface to his Chopin edition, the etudes were meant for “more advanced students.” If Chopin had intended his etudes for students at an intermediate level, he would have assigned them to most of his students; however, only a limited number of students had his permission to work on their master’s etudes. As a teacher, I have always felt the need to devise a systematic teaching plan to guide students to handle the challenges of these pieces both physically and musically. This study examines the repertoire which might help prepare a student to learn the etudes without overstraining his/her muscular and mental ability. Rooted in Chopin’s teaching and his recommendation of the pieces to learn before tackling the etudes themselves, this pedagogical study guide intends to help …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Kim, Min Joung
System: The UNT Digital Library
My Whine, Your Wine (open access)

My Whine, Your Wine

Grapes hold the flavors of the lands where they grow, and when you make wine from them, those flavors of the land come through. Tasting wine from a place you've been can bring you back to that place with aromas and notes indicative of that place. A bottle of wine changes every day, and how it will taste depends on the moment you choose to release it from the glass walls. I have a vested interest in wine, because it is a living thing. I am compelled to make wine because its characteristics are like personality traits. Although some of those characteristics are harsh at times, I appreciate them all. Each trait plays an important role in the balance, the overall personality. Like my own personality flaws, wine's harsh tones can smooth over time. My relationship with wine is constantly evolving, with every new varietal, vintage, batch and blend. Believe me, after some of the jobs I had before my first day at Su Vino, I cherish every moment of my winemaking career. My Whine, Your Wine is the story of how it all started.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Abbott, Shannon Marie
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Priming, Culture, and Context on Perception of Facial Emotion, Self-representation and Thought: Brazil and the United States (open access)

The Effects of Priming, Culture, and Context on Perception of Facial Emotion, Self-representation and Thought: Brazil and the United States

Individualist and collectivist cultural approaches describe the relationship between an individual and his or her social surroundings. the current study had a two-fold purpose. the first was to investigate whether Brazilians, like other collective peoples, displayed more group self-representations, categorized items more relationally and paid more attention to context than Americans. the second purpose of this study was to investigate if counter-cultural primes played a role in activating either collective or individual selves. Both American (n = 100) and Brazilian (n = 101) participants were assigned either to a no-prime condition or a counter-cultural prime condition and then were asked to rate emotion cartoons, categorize items, complete the Twenty Statement Test (TST), and choose a representative object. As expected, unprimed Brazilian participants displayed more collectivist patterns on emotional (F[1,196] = 10.1, p = .001, ?²= .049; F[1,196] = 7.9, p = .006, ?²= .038; F[1,196] = 9.0, p = .005, ?²= .044) and cognitive (F[1, 196] = 6.0, p < .01, ?² = .03) tasks than Americans. However, Brazilians offered more individualist self-representations (F[1, 195] = 24.0, p < .001, ?² = .11) than American participants. Priming only had a marginal effect on item categorization (F[1,194] = 3.9, p = …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Hoersting, Raquel Carvalho
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fields and Armor: A Comparative Analysis of English Feudalism and Japanese Hokensei (open access)

Fields and Armor: A Comparative Analysis of English Feudalism and Japanese Hokensei

Fields and Armor is a comparative study of English feudalism from the Norman Conquest until the reign of King Henry II (1154-1189) and Japan’s first military government, the Kamakura Bakufu (1185- 1333). This thesis was designed to examine the validity of a European-Japanese comparison. Such comparisons have been attempted in the past. However, many historians on both sides of the equation have levied some serious criticism against these endeavors. In light, of these valid criticisms, this thesis has been a comparison of medieval English government and that of the Kamakura-Samurai, because of a variety of geographic, cultural and social similarities that existed in both regions. These similarities include similar military organizations and parallel developments, which resulted in the formation of two of most centralized military governments in either Western Europe or East Asia, and finally, the presence and real enforcement of two forms of unitary inheritance in both locales.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Garrison, Arthur Thomas
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gis, Modeling And Human Civilization: The Birth Of Geo-social Engineering (open access)

Gis, Modeling And Human Civilization: The Birth Of Geo-social Engineering

Computer-based, mathematical models have significant value in describing the processes behind urban development and its inhabitants. The following research describes the theories and concepts behind modeling and offers insight into the potential future of the field. First, the research covers a brief history of applicable modeling strategies. This is followed by a summary of current popular approaches. The numerical background of geo-social engineering is developed through mathematical techniques. Geo-social engineering is the integration of modeling into the basic design human civilization. The mathematical models will be incorporated into a design of a computer program. From this, a possible geo-social model structure is presented and its architecture is described.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Morris, E. Scott
System: The UNT Digital Library
James (Santa Fe) Galloway’s Alabado And The Musical Traditions Of The Penitentes (open access)

James (Santa Fe) Galloway’s Alabado And The Musical Traditions Of The Penitentes

This dissertation explores the musical traditions of the Penitentes of New Mexico and how these traditions influenced James (Santa Fe) Galloway’s Alabado for soprano, alto flute, and piano. Due to geographical isolation and religious seclusion the music of the Penitential Brotherhood is not well known outside of these New Mexican communities. The focus of this study, as pertaining to the music of the Penitentes, is the alabado “Por el rastro de la cruz,” and the pito, a handmade wooden flute. Included in this paper are transcriptions of pito melodies performed by Vicente Padilla, Cleofes Vigil, Emilio Ortiz, and Reginald Fisher, which have been transcribed by John Donald Robb, William R. Fisher, Reginald Fisher, and Rebecca Weidman-Winter. Few resources are available on Galloway or Alabado, an unpublished work, yet the popularity of this piece is apparent from the regular performances at the National Flute Association Conventions and by flutists throughout the United States. This paper represents a significant contribution to the study of Alabado, the composer, and how this composition reflects the music, history, and people of New Mexico.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Weidman-Winter, Rebecca
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comparative Analysis Of 105 Higher Education Doctoral Programs In The United States (open access)

Comparative Analysis Of 105 Higher Education Doctoral Programs In The United States

The mission types of 105 current doctoral programs in higher education and the extent to which their missions have changed since a similar study was conducted by Dressel and Mayhew in 1974 was studied. The curricula offerings of these programs by degree type (e.g., Ed.D. & Ph.D.) were compared with Fife’s 1991 findings. Finally, the study examined the various modes of instruction (e.g., classroom, online, cohort, blended) these programs utilize. The population was the 131 U.S. higher education doctoral program coordinators or directors who were identified using the ASHE Higher Education Program Directory. A total of 46 hosted Ed.D. programs and 59 hosted Ph.D. programs for a combined total of 105 doctoral programs. An electronic survey, developed by utilizing an expert panel and the cognitive interviewing technique, was sent to each participant. A total of 46 hosted Ed.D. programs and 59 hosted Ph.D. programs for a combined total of 105 doctoral programs. A total of 77 institutions (59%) returned usable questionnaires, and six other universities (5%) indicated their doctoral higher education programs no longer existed. Twenty-three of the responding institutions identified with a research-focused mission; 25 institutions identified with a practitioner-based mission; and 28 institutions identified with both types of …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Valerin, Marcus P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biodegradable Poly(hydroxy Butyrate-co-valerate) Nanocomposites And Blends With Poly(butylene Adipate-co-terephthalate) For Sensor Applications (open access)

Biodegradable Poly(hydroxy Butyrate-co-valerate) Nanocomposites And Blends With Poly(butylene Adipate-co-terephthalate) For Sensor Applications

The utilization of biodegradable polymers is critical for developing “cradle to cradle” mindset with ecological, social and economic consequences. Poly(hydroxy butyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) shows significant potential for many applications with a polypropylene equivalent mechanical performance. However, it has limitations including high crystallinity, brittleness, small processing window, etc. which need to be overcome before converting them into useful products. Further the development of biodegradable strain sensing polymer sensors for structural health monitoring has been a growing need. In this dissertation I utilize carbon nanotubes as a self sensing dispersed nanofiller. The impact of its addition on PHBV and a blend of PHBV with poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) polymer was examined. Nanocomposites and blends of PHBV, PBAT, and MWCNTs were prepared by melt-blending. The effect of MWCNTs on PHBV crystallinity, crystalline phase, quasi-static and dynamic mechanical property was studied concurrently with piezoresistive response. In PHBV/PBAT blends a rare phenomenon of melting point elevation by the addition of low melting point PBAT was observed. The blends of these two semicrystalline aliphatic and aromatic polyesters were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry, small angle X-ray scattering, dynamic mechanical analysis, surface energy measurement by contact angle method, polarized optical and scanning electron microscopy, and rheology. The study …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Vidhate, Shailesh
System: The UNT Digital Library
Rehlet Iraqi (An Iraqi Journey) (open access)

Rehlet Iraqi (An Iraqi Journey)

Rehlet Iraqi was created to depict an Iraqi refugee family’s struggle after fleeing war-torn Iraq. Their struggle is highlighted with hope and high expectations for a better life within the United States. This film emphasizes the toll that emigration has on the life of a family before and after their arrival to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Wahbeh, Fadi
System: The UNT Digital Library
Baroque Elements In The Piano Sonata, Opus 9 By Paul Creston (open access)

Baroque Elements In The Piano Sonata, Opus 9 By Paul Creston

Paul Creston (1906-1985) was one of the most significant American composers from the middle of the twentieth century. Though Creston maintained elements of the nineteenth-century Romantic tradition and was categorized as a “Neo-Romantic” or “20th-century traditionalist,” many of Creston’s compositions contain elements of Baroque music. His Piano Sonata, Opus 9 provides significant examples of Baroque elements, while already foreshadowing his mature style. The purpose of this study is to explore Baroque elements in the compositional language of Paul Creston’s Piano Sonata, Opus 9. All four movements of the Piano Sonata will be examined in regards to its stylistic features associated with Baroque practices. These features mainly consist of rhythm, texture, imitative writing, and repeated phrase structure. Each category of the study will include comparisons of Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas with Creston’s sonata. Through an examination of the Piano Sonata and its Baroque elements, this study hopes to inspire renewed interest in the work among musicians and to help the performer give a more stylistically coherent, and accurate, performance.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Watanabe, Chie
System: The UNT Digital Library
The “Dallas Way” in the Gayborhood: The Creation of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community in Dallas, Texas, 1965-1986 (open access)

The “Dallas Way” in the Gayborhood: The Creation of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community in Dallas, Texas, 1965-1986

This thesis describes the creation of the gay and lesbian community in Dallas, the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. Employing more than seventy-five sources, this work chronicles the important contributions the gay men and lesbians of Dallas have made in the struggle for gay civil rights. This thesis adds to the studies of gay and lesbian history by focusing on a region of the United States that has been underrepresented, the South. In addition, this work addresses the conflicts that arise within the community between men and women.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Wisely, Karen S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Factors Affecting Faculty Use Of Learning Object Repositories: An Exploratory Study Of Orange Grove And Wisc-online (open access)

Factors Affecting Faculty Use Of Learning Object Repositories: An Exploratory Study Of Orange Grove And Wisc-online

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that motivate or impede faculty use of learning object repositories (LORs). The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) served as the theoretical framework for this study. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in the study to explore two research questions relating to factors affecting faculty use of LORs. Research subjects were faculty and instructional staff users from two LORs: Orange Grove and Wisc-Online. This study was a two-phase design study. In Phase I, I conducted 13 interviews and analyzed data by a content analysis method. Phase II of the study was designed based on the results of Phase I. I collected data by a survey instrument from 38 respondents and analyzed the data by descriptive statistics and analysis of variance in Phase II. The results of the study indicated 22 factors as motivators for faculty use of LORs and 13 factors as barriers for faculty use of LORs. The study is the first to identify factors affecting faculty use of LORs from actual faculty users’ perspectives based on UTAUT. The study’s findings contribute to understanding the reasons that faculty use or do not use LORs and provide …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Xu, Hong
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploration Of Energy And Area Efficient Techniques For Coarse-grained Reconfigurable Fabrics (open access)

Exploration Of Energy And Area Efficient Techniques For Coarse-grained Reconfigurable Fabrics

Coarse-grained fabrics are comprised of multi-bit configurable logic blocks and configurable interconnect. This work is focused on area and energy optimization techniques for coarse-grained reconfigurable fabric architectures. In this work, a variety of design techniques have been explored to improve the utilization of computational resources and increase energy savings. This includes splitting, folding, multi-level vertical interconnect. In addition to this, I have also studied fully connected homogeneous and heterogeneous architectures, and 3D architecture. I have also examined some of the hybrid strategies of computation unit’s arrangements. In order to perform energy and area analysis, I selected a set of signal and image processing benchmarks from MediaBench suite. I implemented various fabric architectures on 90nm ASIC process from Synopsys. Results show area improvement with energy savings as compared to baseline architecture.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Yadav, Anil
System: The UNT Digital Library
Validation Of The Facet Satisfaction Scale (Fss): An Evaluative Approach To Assessing Facet Job Satisfaction (open access)

Validation Of The Facet Satisfaction Scale (Fss): An Evaluative Approach To Assessing Facet Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction has, and continues to be an important construct of interest to researchers and practitioners alike. However, conflicting operational definitions and inconsistent measurement systems have reduced the efficacy of the construct in predicting important job-related outcomes for organizations and their employees. The Facet Satisfaction Scale (FSS) was designed to overcome these deficiencies by creating a facet-based measure that assesses job satisfaction in accordance with recent definitions of the construct. Reliability and validity analyses were conducted on both the complete and shortened version of the scale. The FSS exhibited evidence of reliability (ranging from .52 to .93 for the shortened FSS, and .53 to .96 for the complete FSS). Evidence of scale validity was also obtained through the use of construct, content, and criterion-related validity measures. Implications of the study on future research on job satisfaction are discussed.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Yeoh, Terence Eng Siong
System: The UNT Digital Library
Diffusion Of Location Based Services And Targeting Us Hispanics: A Case Study (open access)

Diffusion Of Location Based Services And Targeting Us Hispanics: A Case Study

This study reviews factors that identify U.S. Hispanics as being an ideal target market for adopting Location Based Services (LBS). By using the diffusion of innovation theory, an observed pattern of Hispanics’ adoption of technology, advertisements, smartphones and various smartphone value-added services reveals U.S. Hispanics to be more likely to adopt LBS than non-Hispanics. The study also identifies the top U.S. cell phone wireless providers and analyzes their marketing position towards U.S. Hispanics. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are noted as marketing their services to U.S. Hispanics via in-culture messages and campaigns. The four wireless providers also utilize LBS as a profitable tool and market LBS to their customers, regardless of ethnicity.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Yepez, Jennifer
System: The UNT Digital Library
Interfacial Electrochemistry of Copper and Spectro-Electrochemical Characterization of Oxygen Reduction Reaction (open access)

Interfacial Electrochemistry of Copper and Spectro-Electrochemical Characterization of Oxygen Reduction Reaction

The first part of this dissertation highlights the contents of the electrochemical characterization of Cu and its electroplating on Ru-based substrates. The growth of Ru native oxide does diminish the efficiency of Cu plating on Ru surface. However, the electrochemical formed irreversible Ru hydrate dioxide (RuOxHy) shows better coverage of Cu UPD. The conductive Ru oxides are directly plateable liner materials as potential diffusion barriers for the IC fabrication. The part II of this dissertation demonstrates the development of a new rapid corrosion screening methodology for effective characterization Cu bimetallic corrosion in CMP and post-CMP environments. The corrosion inhibitors and antioxidants were studied in this dissertation. In part III, a new SEC methodology was developed to study the ORR catalysts. This novel SEC cell can offer cheap, rapid optical screening results, which helps the efficient development of a better ORR catalyst. Also, the SEC method is capable for identifying the poisoning of electrocatalysts. Our data show that the RuOxHy processes several outstanding properties of ORR such as high tolerance of sulfation, high kinetic current limitation and low percentage of hydrogen peroxide.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Yu, Kyle Kai-Hung
System: The UNT Digital Library
Integrating Selective Herbicide and Native Plant Restoration to Control Alternanthera philoxeroides (Alligator Weed) (open access)

Integrating Selective Herbicide and Native Plant Restoration to Control Alternanthera philoxeroides (Alligator Weed)

Exotic invasive aquatic weeds such as alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides) threaten native ecosystems by interfering with native plant communities, disrupting hydrology, and diminishing water quality. Development of new tools to combat invaders is important for the well being of these sensitive areas. Integrated pest management offers managers an approach that combines multiple control methods for better control than any one method used exclusively. In a greenhouse and field study, we tested the effects of selective herbicide application frequency, native competitor plant introduction, and their integration on alligator weed. In the greenhouse study, alligator weed shoot, root, and total biomass were reduced with one herbicide application, and further reduced with two. Alligator weed cumulative stem length and shoot/root ratio was only reduced after two applications. In the greenhouse, introduction of competitors did not affect alligator weed biomass, but did affect shoot/root ratio. The interaction of competitor introduction and herbicide did not significantly influence alligator weed growth in the greenhouse study. In the field, alligator weed cover was reduced after one herbicide application, but not significantly more after a second. Introduction of competitor species had no effect on alligator weed cover, nor did the interaction of competitor species and herbicide application. This …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Adams, Justin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dynamic Measurement of Intraoral Pressure and Sound Pressure With Laryngoscopic Characterization During Oboe Performance (open access)

Dynamic Measurement of Intraoral Pressure and Sound Pressure With Laryngoscopic Characterization During Oboe Performance

Measurements of intraoral pressure (IOP) and sound pressure level (SPL) were taken of four oboists as they performed two sets of musical exercises: (1) crescendo-decrescendo from pp to ff and back to pp on the pitches D4, G4, C5 and A5, and (2) straight and vibrato performances of the same four pitches at mf. Video images of the vocal tract were also made using flexible fiberoptic nasoendoscopy (FFN). IOP and SPL data were captured in real time by the WinDaq®/Lite software package, with the dB meter located 8-9 inches in directly front of the oboe bell. The study yielded minimum and maximum values from 21.04 to 57.81 mm Hg and from 65.53 to 100.89 dB across all pitches examined. Discussion is included for the following topics: (1) the oboe’s sound envelope, or functional range of IOP and SPL values at different pitch levels, including the nonlinearity in the relationship between IOP and SPL on the oboe, (2) the static activation and kinetic maintenance thresholds for reed vibration, (3) the effect of vibrato on IOP/SPL, (4) the utilization of the vocal tract during execution of dynamic changes and vibrato, and (5) the impact of player experience on control of physical variables.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Adduci, Michael Douglas
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Threats to Compliance with International Human Rights Law (open access)

The Threats to Compliance with International Human Rights Law

In this project I investigate the factors shaping compliance with international human rights agreements and I provide a definition of compliance, which goes beyond “ratification.” I argue that compliance is a multistage process, built upon three different steps: ratification/accession, implementation, and what I call “compliant behavior.” As an alternative to the dominant structural and normative explanation of compliance, I suggest that the factors affecting compliance are not only endogenous to state characteristics, such as the democratic/non-democratic nature of governments, but also exogenous, such as the perceived level of threat to national security. I offer a twofold theory that looks at leaders’ behavior under conditions of stability and instability and I suggest that under certain circumstances that threaten and pressure government leaders, state compliance with international human rights law becomes more costly. I suggest that regardless of regime type, threats shape leaders’ behavior toward international law; states are faced with the choice to abide by international obligations, protecting specific human rights, and the choice to protect their national interests. I argue that when the costs associated with compliance increase, because leaders face threats to their power and government stability, threats become the predictor of non-compliant behavior regardless of the democratic or …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Aloisi, Rosa
System: The UNT Digital Library
Economic Motivation of the Ex-Dividend Day Anomaly: Evidence from an Alternative Tax Environment (open access)

Economic Motivation of the Ex-Dividend Day Anomaly: Evidence from an Alternative Tax Environment

Several studies have observed that stocks tend to drop by an amount that is less than the dividend on the ex-dividend day, the so-called ex-dividend day anomaly. However, there still remains a lack of consensus for a single explanation of this anomaly. Different from other studies, this dissertation attempts to answer the primary research question: How can investors make trading profits from the ex-dividend day anomaly and how much can they earn? With this goal, I examine the economic motivations of equity investors through four main hypotheses identified in the anomaly’s literature: the tax differential hypothesis, the short-term trading hypothesis, the tick size hypothesis, and the leverage hypothesis. While the U.S. ex-dividend anomaly is well studied, I examine a long data window (1975 to 2010) of Thailand data. The unique structure of the Thai stock market allows me to assess all four main hypotheses proposed in the literature simultaneously. Although I extract the sample data from two data sources, I demonstrate that the combined data are consistently sampled. I further construct three trading strategies: “daily return,” “lag one daily return,” and “weekly return” to alleviate the potential effect of irregular data observation. I find that the ex-dividend day anomaly exists …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Anantarak, Sarin
System: The UNT Digital Library