The sudden or violent death of a loved one (e.g., suicide, homicide, accident, etc.) poses unique challenges for the bereaved. Research has found such losses to be associated with higher levels of chronic psychological distress, now termed Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder in the DSM-5 and Prolonged Grief Disorder in the forthcoming ICD-11. The present study, developed through the lens of Multidimensional Grief Theory (MGT; Kaplow et al., 2013), explored underlying mechanisms and risk and protective factors for both prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth. With a mixed college and community sample of 374 traumatically bereaved adults, results of a path analysis suggest that insecure attachment strategies play a significant role in prolonged grief symptoms through the mediators of identity distress and shattered assumptions. Faced with the traumatic loss of a loved one, the ability and desire to effectively access relationships facilitating intentional processing that promotes cognitive reorganization is predicated on the bereaved's internal working model of attachment. Specifically, attachment anxiety in relation to close others and God, and attachment avoidance in relation to close others, were indirectly associated with prolonged grief. However, attachment avoidance in relation to God was negatively associated with both prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth, and there was …

This phenomenological multiple case study provides the details, reasoning, and discussion of the role of study abroad experience and its perceived impact(s) on three in-service teachers. Two research questions were posed: What are the perceived impacts on in-service teachers' practice of a study abroad program experience and how does the in-service teacher's perception of impact change over time within a teacher's career? Results of this study suggest that the teaching practice of in-service teachers who study abroad would benefit, especially in the area of intercultural competence, if this experience is structured in a way where the curriculum of the study abroad program aligns with the content of their future teaching assignment i.e. curricular bridging. Case evidence further suggests that long-term impact of a study abroad experience upon a teacher's practice is related to providing the future teacher an opportunity for to develop and maintain pedagogical relationships with students while abroad. The term ‘submersion' is introduced to help articulate depth of impact during a study abroad program experience.

It is the fundamental insight of phenomenology that meaning is first and foremost - not something which we intellectually reflect on. It is not a product of the mind reworking raw, perceptual experiences. Rather meaning, and our connection to the world, are perceptual phenomena. Thus, to understand the ways in which children find meaning demands a turn toward perceptual experiences - how children see and feel. In this theoretical dissertation, I explore questions of perceptual experiences through a phenomenological framework that I refer to as the perceptual rite of passage (PRoP). The conceptual framework, which centers on attentiveness, labors to help us understand the ontology of perception for preadolescents and how meaning emerges through everyday encounters.

Gyorgy Druschetzky was a noted Czech composer of Harmoniemusik, who wrote more than 150 partitas and serenades, along with at least thirty-two other selections for larger wind groups. This is in addition to twenty-seven symphonies, eleven concertos (most for wind instruments), two fantasias, forty-seven string quartets, two operas, a ballet that is lost, and other miscellaneous chamber music for various combinations of wind/string instruments. Three of his works for winds have existed only in manuscript form since their composition: Concerto in E-flat pour 2 clarinett en B, 2 cors en E-flat, 2 fagott; Overture to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; and Partitta a la camera a corno di bassetto primo, secondo, terzo, due corno di caccia, due fagotti. These works remain remarkably interesting to modern ears and deserve to be heard in the twenty-first century. Along with a brief examination of Druschetzky's life and how it figures into the history of Harmoniemusik, this work presents each piece edited into a modern performance edition.

Little research has examined the role of physical activity in relationship functioning. Utilizing two heterosexual subsamples of 618 females and 155 males, results indicated that physical activity was positively correlated with sexual satisfaction and self-esteem for the female subsample, but was not significant for the male subsample. For both subsamples, although physical activity was not a significant unique predictor of relationship functioning in regression analyses, sexual satisfaction and self-esteem each significantly contributed the variance relationship functioning. The findings of this study increase our knowledge of mechanisms that impact sexual satisfaction, self-esteem, and physical activity among women, which in turn can potentially guide treatment planning and interventions.

Chronic or prolonged stress has been shown to have deleterious impacts on mental health, physical health, and cognitive functioning. However, not all individuals show the negative effects of continued exposure to stress. Past research has identified personality as a contributor to resiliency, while also identifying it as an important predictor of negative outcomes, such as psychopathology. More recently, personality researchers have emphasized the importance of examining personality at the level of specific underlying facets, as it can provide a more refined and predictive picture than higher-order personality traits. The current study examined the predictive utility of personality facets in regard to risk and resiliency in high-achieving individuals exposed to transient and chronic stress. Results indicated personality facets provided strong prediction of mental health and behavioral functioning outcomes, and added to the understanding of the association among personality and functioning. In particular, hierarchical linear modeling analyses identified significant risk and protective facets prior to the inclusion of stress and also when interacting with stress. The implications of these analyses, such as identification of particular strategies for boosting protective facets and limiting harmful facets, is discussed.

This study examines the sense of preparedness of preservice special education teachers (PSETs) to instruct English language learners. Pre- and post-survey measures were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for a group of PSETs as they engaged in their second semester of student teaching experience. To explore emerging themes, a post-qualitative analysis was performed using focus groups. Quantitative results revealed no statistical difference except for the Self-Efficacy subscale. Focus group data showed increased confidence levels resulting from the student teaching experience. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare pre-survey results between PSETs who had and PSETs who had not taken advanced coursework or participated in student teaching. With the exception of the subscale, Attitude Towards ELs in the Classroom, results revealed no statistical difference between the two groups. At the same time, qualitative, open-response questions revealed PSETs who had participated in advanced coursework and student teaching seemed to have a deeper understanding of ELs' instructional and linguistic needs. Contributions to the literature are presented which may help in designing teacher preparation programs to increase PSETs' sense of preparedness to better serve ELs with disabilities.

There is growing concern for eating pathology and body dissatisfaction in sports; particularly, in sports that emphasize a lean body type. In 325 female collegiate swimmers/divers and gymnasts, we examined psychosocial well-being (i.e., perception of weight pressures, levels of internalization, body satisfaction, dietary intent, negative affect) at the beginning and end of an athletic season and predict their eating disorder classification at the end of their athletic season. Logistic regressions revealed that a model containing all 14 predictors at the beginning and end of an athletic season significantly predicted eating disorder classification at the end of an athletic season. Specifically, in the longitudinal logistic regression, with every one unit of increase on a measure of the pressure felt within the sport environment regarding their weight and every unit increase on a measure of their intentions to diet, respectively, the female athletes were 49% and 89% more likely to be classified in the subclinical/clinical group at the end of their sport season. Surprisingly, with every one unit of increase on a measure of sociocultural pressure to exercise, female athletes were 43% less likely to be classified in the subclinical/clinical group six months later. The cross-sectional logistic regression found that only dietary …

Bullying has long-term negative effects on the mental health and wellbeing of everyone involved. School-wide interventions have been successful in some contexts, but they often require significant institutional and financial resources. Empathy is comprised of a cognitive component (perspective taking) and an affective component (empathic concern), both of which may be necessary for prosocial behavior. According to relational frame theory (RFT), empathy involves a transformation of stimulus functions across deictic relations (I-YOU, HERE-THERE, NOW-THEN), which also requires psychological willingness (i.e., psychological flexibility). The present study investigated this theoretical model of empathy based on RFT and the role of this model in middle school bullying. Results tentatively support this model by demonstrating two ways in which psychological flexibility moderates the relationship between deictic framing ability and empathy. The utility of deictic framing and psychological flexibility in predicting bullying behaviors was also examined. Deictic framing ability and psychological flexibility were expected to negatively predict bullying behaviors, and psychological flexibility was expected to moderate the relationship between deictic framing ability and relational bullying in particular. Additional research questions explored the roles of deictic framing and psychological flexibility in the relationship between relational bullying and other relevant psychological determinants: (a) parental discord, (b) social …

The architecture of mobile networks has dramatically evolved in order to fulfill the growing demands on wireless services and data. The radio resources, which are used by the current mobile networks, are limited while the users demands are substantially increasing. In the future, tremendous Internet applications are expected to be served by mobile networks. Therefore, increasing the capacity of mobile networks has become a vital issue. Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) have been considered as a promising paradigm for future mobile networks. Accordingly, the concept of small cell has been introduced in order to increase the capacity of the mobile networks. A femtocell network is a kind of small cell networks. Femtocells are deployed within macrocells coverage. Femtocells cover small areas and operate with low transmission power while providing high capacity. Also, UEs can be offloaded from macrocells to femtocells. Thus, the capacity can be increased. However, this will introduce different technical challenges. The interference has become one of the key challenges for deploying femtocells within a certain macrocells coverage. Undesirable impact of the interference can degrade the performance of the mobile networks. Therefore, radio resource management mechanisms are needed in order to address key challenges of deploying femtocells. The objective of …

In this project I identify the pedagogical techniques, philosophy and legacy of Raymond Crisara. I examine how his pedagogical philosophy led to Crisara's personal success as a teacher and to his students' success in their performing and teaching careers. In much the same way that Ernest Williams's legacy has been passed on to his students, Crisara's legacy is now being handed down. I have examined Crisara's pedagogical concepts and philosophy through the eyes of four former students: Dr. Todd Hastings (Professor, Pittsburg State University), Billy Hunter (Principal Trumpet, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Dr. Gary Mortenson (Dean of the School of Music, Baylor University) and Keith Winking (Professor, Texas State University) as well as from transcripts of interviews Crisara gave. Crisara extended and modified William's pedagogy through the use of a multitude of étude methods. This modification and Crisara's experience as a leading New York freelance musician greatly influenced the teaching and success of the four subjects I interviewed. While these teachers have adopted Crisara's pedagogy and philosophy largely unchanged, I found that they modified his pedagogy slightly through the use of added teaching materials never used in Crisara's career or teaching studio.

Maintaining cognitive health is often a pressing concern for aging adults, and given the world's shifting age demographics, it is impractical to assume that older adults will be able to rely on individualized human support for doing so. Recently, interest has turned toward technology as an alternative. Companion robots offer an attractive vehicle for facilitating cognitive exercise, but the language technologies guiding their interactions are still nascent; in elder-focused human-robot systems proposed to date, interactions have been limited to motion or buttons and canned speech. The incapacity of these systems to autonomously participate in conversational discourse limits their ability to engage users at a cognitively meaningful level. I addressed this limitation by developing a platform for human-robot book discussions, designed to promote cognitive exercise by encouraging users to consider the authors' underlying intentions in employing creative metaphors. The choice of book discussions as the backdrop for these conversations has an empirical basis in neuro- and social science research that has found that reading often, even in late adulthood, has been correlated with a decreased likelihood to exhibit symptoms of cognitive decline. The more targeted focus on novel metaphors within those conversations stems from prior work showing that processing novel metaphors …

In situations where information infrastructure is destroyed or not available, on-demand information infrastructure is pivotal for the success of rescue missions. In this paper, a drone-carried on-demand information infrastructure for long-distance WiFi transmission system is developed. It can be used in the areas including emergency response, public event, and battlefield. In years development, the Drone WIFI System has developed from single-CPU platform, twin-CPU platform, Atmega2560 platform to NVIDIA Jetson TX2 platform. By the upgrade of the platform, the hardware shows more and more reliable and higher performance which make the application of the platform more and more exciting. The latest TX2 platform can provide real time and thermal video transmission, also application of deep learning of object recognition and target tracing. All these up-to-date technology brings more application scenarios to the system. Therefore, the system can serve more people in more scenarios.

Research suggests that using data driven solutions in policing strategies improves the quality of service provided by the police department. Unfortunately, many police departments, including the Denton Police Department, do not use their spatial data to inform beat zone placement. Analysis of the current beat zone configuration found that there are disparities in the workload, as measured by number of calls for service, between beat zones. Further, there was also a statistically significant difference between the median response times across all the five beat zones in Denton. This means that the median response time varies depending on where the call for service originates. Using readily available data, these police departments can apply methods such as UPAS to improve the quality of service provided by the department. UPAS is a deterministic algorithm that produces a given number of contiguous spatial partitions of approximately equal population size; in this case, calls for service are substituted for population. Although this algorithm was originally developed to create solutions for bio-terrorism response planning, it has been applied to the problem of creating beat zones of roughly equal workload in this research. I have shown that this algorithm results in a beat zone configuration that significantly …

This study was designed to investigate the correlational relationship between four school elements listed on the Texas Academic Progress Report (TAPR) and the academic achievement of 8th grade African American male students. Data for this study was provided from the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) Office for Public Information Requests. The study included four independent variables: percent of socioeconomically disadvantaged students, average years of teachers' experience, attendance rate and average class size in mathematics. The dependent variable was the 8th grade African American males' performance on the mathematics STAAR exam. The study examined scores from the mathematics STAAR exam for the years 2012-2014. The sample population included 1,540 schools and 47,169 individual test results. The results of the correlational analysis indicate that none of the independent variables were correlated to each other, but each of the independent variables had a statistically significant correlation with the dependent variable at the p < .05 level. The study also sought to explore the variance in academic achievement that could be explained by the four independent variables when used as a model. The results of the simple multiple regression suggest that not only were the results statistically significant at the p < .01 level, but …

Retirement from sport can be difficult for athletes. Physically, retirement is associated with challenges such as weight gain, muscle loss, and degradation of physical skills. Psychologically, retirement has been linked to increased identity confusion, depression, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating. Research shows that exercise is a way athletes cope with stressors such as psychosocial pressure and retirement. However, exercise is positively correlated with psychological well-being for some individuals, whereas for others exercise is associated with increased levels of depression, anxiety, and body dissatisfaction. Reasons for exercise behavior, as well as the type of exercise in which someone engages, may explain the contrasting psychological outcomes of exercise. I examined perceived societal pressures, exercise, and reasons for exercise in relation to the psychological well-being (i.e., depression, satisfaction with life, body satisfaction) of 218 college female athletes who had been retired from 2-6 years. Through regression analysis, I examined the extent to which the predictors were related to each measure of psychological well-being, controlling for BMI and years since retirement. For life satisfaction (Adj. R2 = .08), exercising to meet potential romantic partner was significant (β = -.158). Higher levels of depressive symptoms (Adj. R2 = .15) were predicted by exercising to improve …

Intergroup relations and the factors affecting them constitute a subject of recurring interest within the academic community. Social identity theory suggests that group membership and the value we assign to it drives the expression of in-group favoritism and outgroup prejudice, among other intergroup phenomena. The present study examines how (ir)religious identities are related to topic-sentiment polarization in the form of positive in-group and negative outgroup bias during interreligious debates in YouTube commentaries. Drawing from the propositions of social identity theory, six hypotheses were tested. The data for the study, a product of a natural experiment, are comments posted on YouTube commentary sections featuring videos of interreligious debates between (a) Christian and atheist or (b) Christian and Muslim speakers. Using topic-sentiment analysis, a multistage method of topic modeling with latent semantic analysis (LSA) and sentiment analysis, 52,607 comments, for the Christian - atheist debates, and 24,179 comments, for the Christian - Muslim debates, were analyzed. The results offer support (or partial support) to the hypotheses demonstrating identity-specific instances of topic-sentiment polarization to the predicted direction. The study offers valuable insights for the relevance of social identity theory in real-world interreligious interactions, while the successful application of topic-sentiment analysis lends support for …

Resistance exercise (RE) training is a well-known and effective method for promoting increases in muscle mass and strength. A single bout of RE induces physiological disturbances that require coordinated activation of the immune system and intramuscular signaling in order to return the tissue to homeostasis and adapt to the RE challenge. On the other hand, acute binge alcohol consumption can affect the immune response to an inflammatory challenge, intramuscular anabolic signaling, and muscle protein synthesis, and the effects of alcohol on these processes are opposite that of RE. Furthermore, individuals who report more frequent exercise also report a greater frequency of binge drinking. However, few investigations exist regarding the effects of binge alcohol consumed after a bout of RE on RE-induced physiological changes and performance recovery. Therefore, the overarching purpose of the investigations contained within this dissertation was to investigate the effect of alcohol consumed after RE on the RE-induced changes in mTOR pathway signaling, muscle protein synthesis, inflammatory capacity, strength recovery, and power recovery. Although RE increased mTOR pathway signaling and inflammatory capacity after exercise and reduced maximal strength and explosive power the day after exercise, we observed no effects of alcohol (1.09 g ethanol∙kg-1 lean body mass, designed …

The primary focus of RtI has been at the elementary school level. However, over the past few years there has been a shift, and RtI has been expanding to secondary schools. Through this expansion, it is unclear if RtI has been effectively implemented at the secondary level. The ultimate goal for any school implementing change is institutionalization or sustainability. Therefore, this qualitative case study examined the institutionalization or sustainability of RtI systems in one high school. This study was designed to deepen the understanding of secondary RtI and to add to the literature on RtI at the secondary level. The purpose was to understand how one secondary school addressed the complexity and uniqueness of the secondary environment while sustaining RtI practices. The participants in this study shared several research-based practices that they believed assisted struggling students to become academically successful. The findings regarding RtI practices and implementation were supported by researchers whose works were analyzed in the literature review. The study concluded that understanding the phases of change, the three major forces which influenced change and a clear, well thought out plan are vital components to success.

Restless Soul is composed of observational and expository style to depict a culture of youth, strength, and passion. The film captures an improvising musician and composer named Garrett Wingfield, who expresses spontaneous sound reflected in his mind, body and spirit. By working with his music friends, he releases his creative energies through his compositions and his different types of saxophones. The documentary allows its audience to experience the youth culture in a postmodern world.

It is well established that national retail chains impact small, single location retail businesses in terms of revenue generation, retail structure, retail type diversity, and location. This study examines the retail structure and diversity of five retail districts in the City of Denton, Texas. The analysis focuses on one central business district (CBD), one traditional retail strip center (University Drive, also known as US HWY 380), one special retail district (Fry Street District), one traditional enclosed shopping mall and associated development (Golden Triangle Mall), and one power retail center (Denton Crossing). The empirical foundation for the investigation is a historical business database covering years 1997 to 2010, obtained from Info Group's Reference USA. This Reference USA database includes location, industry, and status (single versus chain location) information for each business. Retail diversity and evenness were measured for each of the five retail districts using the Simpson's Diversity Index and the Simpsons Measure of Evenness, leading to specification of the differences that exist in retail structure and diversity among the districts. Golden Triangle Mall and Denton Crossing were primarily chain location in composition while Fry Street District, the CBD, and University Drive were primarily single location in composition. Across all years, …

The ovarian hormone 17β-estradiol (E2) is one of the central regulators of the female reproductive system. E2 is also a pleiotropic regulator since it can exert its non-reproductive role on other organ systems. E2 is neuroprotective, it maintains body's energy homeostasis, participates in various repair mechanism and is required for neural development. However, there is a substantial evidence suggesting that there might be a molecular reprogramming of E2's action when it is supplied exogenously after E2 deprivation. Though the length of E2 deprivation and age has been linked to this phenomenon, the molecular components and how they activate this reprogramming is still elusive. Our main goal was to perform global proteomics and metabolomics study to identify the molecular components and their interaction networks that are being altered in the brain and serum after a short-term E2 treatment following ovariectomy (OVX) in Sprague Dawley rats. One of the strength of our global study is that it gave us extensive information on the brain proteome itself by identification of a wide number of proteins in different brain sections. By analyzing the differentially expressed proteins, our proteomics study revealed 49 different networks to be altered in 7 sections of the brain. Most of …

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a form of direct self-harm that involves willful damage to bodily tissue without suicidal intent; it includes behaviors such as cutting, burning, carving, biting, scraping, and scratching of the skin, as well as hitting and skin and scab picking. Engagement in NSSI has been shown to relate to a host of maladaptive states and outcomes, including depression, anxiety, poor emotion regulation, and suicidal ideation and attempts. Socially sanctioned forms of body modification (e.g. tattoos and piercings) have received less attention as potential self-harm outlets, but have been posited to represent similar physical outlets of emotional pain. Indirect self-harm, in contrast, can include behaviors such as substance abuse, disordered eating, participation in abusive relationships, and sexual risk-taking. Extant literature suggests that self-harm in either form is associated with higher levels of self-criticism than healthy adults endorse. However, few studies have examined self-criticism in each of these self-harming subgroups. Female participants were recruited online using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Results from the present study indicate that 1) direct self-harming individuals are considerably more self-critical than indirect self-harmers and control subjects, 2) those who engage in multiple forms of self-harm are more self-critical than those engaging in only one form, …

As chickens hatch, there is a rapid change in their physiology and metabolism associated with attaining endothermy. It is thought that thyroid hormones (TH) play a major role in regulating developmental changes at hatching. In birds, TH regulates skeletal muscle growth, which has a direct impact on the chick's ability to thermoregulate via shivering thermogenesis. To better understand the role of TH in the timing of hatching, development of thermogenic capacity, and metabolic rate, we manipulated plasma TH levels in chicken embryos beginning at 85% development (day 17 of a 21 day incubation) with either thyroperoxidase inhibitor methimazole (MMI) or supplemental triiodothyronine (T3). After TH manipulation, we characterized O2 consumption and body temperature in the thermal neutral zone and during gradual cooling. Externally pipped embryos and 1 day post hatch (dph) chicks were cooled from 35 to 15°C. Manipulation of TH altered the timing of hatching, accelerating hatching under hyperthyroid conditions and decelerating hatching with hypothyroid conditions. Cohen's d revealed a large effect size on body temperature (Tb) of EP embryos of hypothyroid animals when compared to euthyroid animals in environmental temperatures of 32°C to 15°C, which was not seen in 1dph animals. Hyperthyroid EP animals were able to maintain …