This report was submitted to the Denton County Commissioner’s Court on December 12, 2023. The independent research contained herein was inspired by a collaborative community effort to highlight the emerging historical narrative of the St. John's freed-persons community of Pilot Point, its unexplained disappearance in the 1930s, and the events that led to the community's cemetery becoming landlocked and inaccessible to the public for more than eighty years.

Existing studies of people who are homeless provide descriptive information about the heterogeneity of the population. Families who are homeless are the fastest growing subset of this population. This study examined the variability in psychological and social functioning among homeless mothers and attempted to identify risk factors that predict level of adult functioning. Data was collected from 76 homeless mothers with minor aged children receiving services at area shelters. The sample was divided between highly structured and unstructured shelter environments. Each participant completed an extensive interview which included measures of personal and family history, risk factors and current psychological and social functioning. Social functioning was able to be predicted by a number of these risk factors.

Sixty-two mothers of childhood cancer patients completed questionnaires on family demographics, parental stress, sense of parenting competence, self esteem, health locus of control, attitudes toward cancer, life events, social support, and psychological symptomatology. Correlation and regression procedures were used. Time since diagnosis and the severity rate of a child's illness did not predict the mother's sense of parenting competence, but a negative correlation at the $p<.01$ level between mothers' report of self esteem and their distress was revealed. Social support was negatively correlated at the $p<.01$ level with psychological distress, but life events were positively correlated at the $p<.01$ level. Internal locus of control was positively correlated with psychological distress, but attitudes toward cancer did not correlate with psychological distress.

Stress responses and coping strategies were assessed for 155 fire fighters who worked during and immediately following Hurricane Andrew in Dade County, Florida in 1992. The participants were surveyed approximately two months after the hurricane, and again one year following the hurricane. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the amount of emotional social support received and the amount of symptomatology the participants experienced. This study also introduced empathy as a form of perceived emotional social support and examined the relationship between the empathy felt by the participants and the symptomatology they experienced. For this study, empathy was defined as a participant's ratings of feeling that others truly understand what he or she has been through and is feeling. While other forms of received motional social support were related to an increase in symptomatology, more empathy was related to less symptomatology, in some cases significantly.

This creative problem project aimed to develop a series of vase forms expressive of clay and its plasticity as developed through the throwing process.

This paper discusses the development of a Stress Tolerance Scale for the purpose of use at assessment centers. Charles P. Lankford discusses the behavioral checklist used in a study of graduate students in business administration and the assessment of their stress reactions.

This paper provides a historical overview of the creation of the Concerto in E-flat Major for alto saxophone and string orchestra, Op. 109, by Alexander Glazunov, performs a structural and melodic analysis of the piece, and makes suggestions for the application of the findings.

This paper evaluates the musical contributions of Jimmy Blanton to the history of jazz bass playing. Rex O. Bozarth investigates the development of the jazz bass throughout the twentieth century, the influences that impacted Blanton's style, and the musical innovations the performer introduced.

This paper provides findings on the history of music for flute and guitar in combination. Karen Futterer explores the background of this combination in the seventeenth century and follows its development into the modern day, including prominent forms, composers, and musical trends.

This paper discusses De Rosenkavalier, an opera written by Richard Strauss through collaboration with Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and its three leading female roles. Martha Hartman Whitmore divulges the historical background behind the work and compares the three soprano roles.

This paper traces the genealogy of the Hotteterre and the Chédeville families through a translation of three works by Jules Carlez, Ernest Thoinan, Nicolas Mauger. Carol Padgham Albrecht annotates these translations with biographical information and highlights the contributions of the instrument makers.

Thesis explores the vocal music of the Comédies-Ballets written by Jean Baptiste Lully and Jean Baptiste Molière. Susan Kaye Schafer provides historical context to the collaboration between Lully and Molière and investigates the content of their work.

This paper explores the French mélodies written by Henri Duparc and includes a historical background of both Duparc and the mélodie as a type of song. Carol Tagg explores the roots of the mélodie and how influences of the Romantic movement are reflected in Duparc's work.

This paper analyzes Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra written in 1949. Deborah Lee Erftenbeck explores his eclectic style and the manner of its development, determining the originality of its nature and his works.

This paper examines the learning rate of the two different hemispheres of the brain and compares them through a study. Lance Hoffmeyer explains the findings derived from a test conducted through having subjects complete a random polygon task.

This paper discusses a study conducted with 34 elderly volunteers and 34 young subjects to determine the differences in time estimation by age and their reflection in prospective memory. Kirk Rowe explains the reproduction, production, and numerical estimation tasks carried out, the scores of the subjects, and the findings of the study.

This paper discusses the results of a study to examine how "crisis points" throughout the progression of HIV in HIV+ women contributes to stress responses of avoidant behavior, hyperarousal, and intrusive thoughts. Deborah Jones explains how stress levels were determined and stressors were analyzed throughout the course of the study.

This paper examines visual field asymmetries and their relationship with learning through a study of three groups of 309 people. Richard Herrington discusses the results of subjects performing two visual half-field advantage reaction time tasks, a bar graph task and a word task, as well as both tasks, with extended practice.

This paper presents a study of the anxiety symptoms of first-time and multiple time incarcerates and the differences in number of symptoms. Vianey Reinhardt discusses the findings of the study conduced with 129 male offenders who were assessed through a series of tests.

This paper discusses the creation process of thirteen works by the author addressing women's issues using mannequins of actual women as a metaphor. Robyn Beirman Jamison discusses interviewing and photographing the women, creating the works, and the imagery of objectification of women by society.

This paper discusses the author's work creating five collagraph prints based on imagery used during the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration and the process of making these prints. Eduardo J. Garcia discusses how heritage impacted these works and explores the meaning behind the folk art imagery.

This paper explores the influence of composer Arnold Schoenberg's tonal language on the work of his pupil, Alban Berg, illustrated in Berg's Four Pieces for Clarinet, Op. 5. Beverly Ann Lavocat introduces the concept of atonality and provides a musical analysis of Berg's piece.

This paper analyzes the soprano arias in three of Franz Joseph Haydn's oratorios, which are Il Ritorno di Tobia, Die Schöpfung, and Die Jahrezeiten. Deborah Thomas analyzes Haydn's oratorio style and attests that development is reflected in the soprano arias.

This paper discuss Maurice Ravel's Jeux d'eau and its accomplishment as one of the first piano solo compositions to reflect impressionistic techniques. Frederika E. Smith traces the history of Ravel's work and the originality of the Impressionism in his work.