Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Master’s of Music degree.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Master’s of Music degree.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Master’s of Music degree.

The Army, despite having been vexed for a century on how to effectively fight the Plains Indians, ultimately defeated them only a decade after the Civil War. This thesis will bring to the forefront those individuals who adapted fighting techniques and ultimately achieved victories on the Texas frontier before the Civil War. The majority of these victories came as a result of mounted warfare under the direction of lower ranking officers in control of smaller forces. The tactic of fighting Indians from horseback was shown to be effective by the Rangers and later emulated by the Army.

The cold-formed steel framed shear walls with steel sheets and wood-based sheathing are both code approved lateral force resisting system in light-framed construction. In the United States, the current design approach for cold-formed steel shear walls is capacity-based and developed from full-scale tests. The available design provisions provide nominal shear strength for only limited wall configurations. This research focused on the development of analytical models of cold-formed steel framed shear walls with steel sheet and wood-based sheathing to predict the nominal shear strength of the walls at their ultimate capacity level. Effective strip model was developed to predict the nominal shear strength of cold-formed steel framed steel sheet shear walls. The proposed design approach is based on a tension field action of the sheathing, shear capacity of sheathing-to-framing fastener connections, fastener spacing, wall aspect ratio, and material properties. A total of 142 full scale test data was used to verify the proposed design method and the supporting design equations. The proposed design approach shows consistent agreement with the test results and the AISI published nominal strength values. Simplified nominal strength model was developed to predict the nominal shear strength of cold-formed steel framed wood-based panel shear walls. The nominal shear …

Arvo Pärt, an Estonian composer, was born in 1935. Most of the works at the beginning of his career were for piano in the neo-classical style. After that, he turned his interest to serial music and continued creating works with serial techniques throughout the 1960s. After his "self-imposed silence" period (during the years 1968-1976), Pärt emerged with a new musical style, which he called tintinnabuli. Although, this technique was influenced by music from the medieval period, the texture and function of its musical style cannot be described easily in terms of any single musical technique of the past. This study explores the evolution of Arvo Pärt's tintinnabuli technique in its first decade 1976-1985, which is divided into three different types. It provides musical examples from the scores of selected works, Für Alina, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, Cantate Domino canticum novum, Missa Sillabica, Stabat Mater and Es sang vor langen Jahren, and their analyses with supporting interpretative sketches. The goal of this thesis is to provide the reader a basis for understanding and recognizing the different types of Pärt's tintinnabuli technique.

Many policy and business decisions regarding food deserts in the U.S. are based on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) definition of a food desert. This definition only includes large/national chain grocery retailers, based on the assumption that these major retailers are the only affordable sources of food contributing to balanced diets. As alternative distribution channels, including smaller stores, start to include groceries in their product offering, the need to consider the role of other businesses in the food retailing environment should be addressed. This thesis assesses the role of smaller format grocery retailers (small local grocers, convenience stores, gas stations, dollar stores, and drug stores) in shaping the food desert landscape in Dallas, Texas. The analysis evaluates the products offered in these stores, and then identifies the difference these stores make when included in the USDA analysis. This was done by collecting in-store data to determine the variety of products offered, the affordability of those products, and the overall healthfulness of the store. In addition, the gaps in supply and demand were identified in the USDA-defined food deserts in order to identify the impact any smaller format retailer may have. The findings suggest that, overall, smaller format retailers …

Bipolar disorder is associated with significant social and occupational impairments, as well as increased risk for substance abuse and suicide. More research is needed to identify potential mechanisms associated with vulnerability to the disorder. Previous research has identified altered processing of emotional information in bipolar and bipolar-prone individuals, including attentional biases which appear to differ based on the current affective state of the individual. The current study applied a sensitive measure of attention (i.e., eye-tracking) to assess whether vulnerability to bipolar disorder, as indexed by hypomanic personality traits, would be correlated with biases in attention to emotional facial stimuli, independent of mood state. Hypomanic personality traits were hypothesized to be associated with greater attention to happy and angry faces, as indexed by faster initial orientation, more frequent gazes, and longer gaze duration for these stimuli. Participants completed self-report measures assessing current mood symptoms, positive and negative affect, and hypomanic personality traits. They then completed two tasks assessing attention for emotional faces. The first was an eye-tracking task, which measured latency to first fixation, total gaze duration and total number of gazes for each emotional face category. The second was a spatial cueing task which assessed both attentional engagement with emotional …

Accurate estimates of tree and forest biomass are essential for a wide range of applications. Automated treetop detection and tree crown discrimination using LiDAR data can greatly facilitate forest biomass estimation. Previous work has focused on homogenous or single-species forests, while few studies have focused on mixed forests. In this study, a new method for treetop detection is proposed in which the treetop is the cluster center of selected points rather than the highest point. Based on treetop detection, tree crowns are discriminated through comparison of three-dimensional shape signatures. The methods are first tested using simulated LiDAR point clouds for trees, and then applied to real LiDAR data from the Soquel Demonstration State Forest, California, USA. Results from both simulated and real LiDAR data show that the proposed method has great potential for effective detection of treetops and discrimination of tree crowns.

Triclosan (TCS) is an antimicrobial compound found in several types of common household products. After being washed down the drain, TCS will then end up in the local watershed. Although numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the fate and effects of TCS in aquatic environments, there have been no studies evaluating the role arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) play in a plants response to TCS exposure. Three species of wetland plants native North Texas were inoculated with AM spores and exposed to 0, 0.4 g/L and 4.0 g/L TCS concentrations. Root morphology of E. prostrata and S. herbacea showed AM and exposure responses. S. herbacea produced the greatest amounts biomass and TCS bioaccumulation, in all but one treatment. It also displayed opposing results to E. prostrata in measures of root length, root surface area, relative root mass, relative shoot mass and shoot:root ratio. TCS root tissue concentrations increased with increased exposures for both E. prostrata and S. herbacea. Even though E. prostrata had the lowest levels in each measure of biomass production, it had the highest amount of root TCS bioaccumulation in the AM inoculated 4.0 g/L treatment. H. laevis was between the other two species in terms of biomass …

The study of terrorism has been both broad in scope and varied in approach. Little work has been done, however, on the territorial aspects of terrorist groups. Most terrorist groups are revolutionary to one degree or another, seeking the control of a piece of territory; but for the supportive population of a terrorist group, how important is the issue of territory? Are the intangible qualities of territory more salient to a given population than other factors? Are territorially based terrorist groups more durable than their ideologically or religiously motivated cohorts? This paper aims to propose the validity of the territorial argument for the study of political terrorism.

The purpose of this research was to explore historical perspective of brass music. There is a brief history of brass bands in Britain. Furthermore, the paper examines the differences between two brass band pieces in the repertoire, A Western Fanfare by Eric Ewazen and Brass Symphony by Jan Koetsier. Both of these pieces were compared and contrasted against the author's newly composed work for brass, Two Companion Pieces for Brass Ensemble. The paper covers different techniques commonly used in brass writing and points these techniques out in all three pieces.

This research examines the personal narratives of two contemporary non-native artists living and working on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Issues related to narratives, power structures, artistic processes, insider/outsider dynamics, Hawaiian culture, island life, surfing, and the researcher's own experiences are woven together to formulate realizations surrounding alternative knowledge systems and the power of multiple or hidden narratives to the practice of art education.

Classless: On Being Middle Class in America is a documentary film that explores what it means to be middle class in America. The film combines personal narrative, folksy reporting, and comedy as the film's director— Joe Brown, tries to reconcile his own status anxiety with everyday understandings of social class. Classless takes the form of a journey; the film travels through the American South, Northeast, and the Mountain West while trying to get at the heart of our middle class American Dream. Classless forwards three main arguments: (1) the American middle class is not as all-encompassing as seems; (2) Americans are more concerned about inequality than both politicians and the media suggest; and (3) many Americans are not actually middle class, economically speaking.

Incombustibility is one important advantage of the sheet steel sheathed shear wall over wood panel sheathed shear wall. Compared to shear wall sheathed with plywood and OSB panel, shear wall sheathed with flat sheet steel behaved lower shear strength. Although shear wall sheathed with corrugated sheet steel exhibited high nominal strength and high stiffness, the shear wall usually behaved lower ductility resulting from brittle failure at the connection between the sheathing to frames. This research is aimed at developing modifications on the corrugated sheathing to improve the ductility of the shear wall as well as derive practical response modification factor by establishing correct relationship between ductility factor ? and response modification factor R. Totally 21 monotonic and cyclic full-scale shear wall tests were conducted during the winter break in 2012 by the author in NUCONSTEEL Materials Testing Laboratory in the University of North Texas. The research investigated nineteen 8 ft. × 4 ft. shear walls with 68 mil frames and 27 mil corrugation sheet steel in 11 configurations and two more shear walls sheathed with 6/17-in.OSB and 15/32-in. plywood respectively for comparison. The shear walls, which were in some special cutting arrangement patterns, performed better under lateral load conditions according …

Patent litigation is notorious for the technicality of evidence and the rhetoric of experts. Citizens selected to serve on the jury have no specialized training and have rarely been exposed to the technology or the patent process. This study provides insight into the field of jury decision-making in complex patent cases by analyzing the cognitive gaps and the tactics used by jurors to minimize them. Additionally, the study examines the justifications for the damage awards jurors provide. This analysis focused on jurors engaged in mock trial patent deliberations. The story model and sensemaking theory serve as the theoretical framework of this research and provide a structure for support and a lens for analysis. The results indicate that jurors rely on three distinct and dichotomous topologies when navigating cognitive gaps. Searching for answers either individually or as a group, relying on lists or stories, and turning to facts or emotions, jurors navigate through their uncertainty. Through the line-by-line analysis of mock jury transcriptions, three continuums regarding damage justifications emerged. Jury members found themselves navigating uncertainty versus certainty, rationality versus irrationality, and facts versus emotions. The theoretical implications broaden the story model to include cognitive gaps in all phases and increase the …

Surfaces of low carbon steel sheet were modified by exposure to highly caustic aqueous solutions containing either chromium or aluminum cations. Corrosion resistances of such surfaces were compared with that of steel surfaces exposed to plain caustic aqueous solution. In all cases a highly uniform, black coating having a spinel structure similar to magnetite (Fe3O4) was obtained. The coated steel surfaces were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR). Polarization resistances (Rp) of modified steel surfaces were measured and compared with that of bare steel surfaces. Results indicate that chromium (Fe2+ Fe3+x Cr3+1-x) or aluminum (Fe2+ Fe3+x Al3+1-x) substituted spinel phases formed on steel surfaces showed higher Rp values compared to only magnetite (Fe2+ 2Fe3+O4) phase formed in the absence of either chromium or aluminum cations. Average Rp values for steel surfaces with chromium containing spinel phase were much higher (21.8 k?) as compared to 1.7 k? for bare steel surfaces. Steel surfaces with aluminum containing spinel phase and steels with plain magnetite coated samples showed average Rp values of 3.3 k? and 2.5 k? respectively. XPS and EDS analysis confirmed presence of cations of chromium and …

Pat Tillman—an Arizona Cardinals player who sacrificed everything to serve his country but died in Afghanistan—was initially touted as a true American hero who was killed by enemy fire. In reality, however, the Tillman narrative was based on nothing but military propaganda. This research focused on how mainstream U.S. newspapers used news frames, overall story tone, and news sources before and after the official acknowledgement of the true cause of Tillman's death as fratricide. As hypothesized from C. Wright Mills' "lesser institutions," Antonio Gramsci's hegemony, and Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's propaganda model, the newspapers generally decreased both direct and indirect references to news frames involving "lesser institutions" (e.g., NFL, Arizona State University) and ideological values (e.g., heroism, patriotism) after the revelation, but they were not critical of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars or the Bush administration at all. In addition, they increased their dependence on official sources and decreased family and friend sources after his cause of death was changed. The results as a whole indicate that in the Tillman saga, the revelation of his true cause of death introduced a significant disruption to the propaganda information system, causing news frames to decrease, but the third filter of the propaganda …

In the world of networked system, average consensus is an important dimension of co-ordinate control and cooperation. Since the communication medium is digital, real value cannot be transmitted and we need to perform quantization before data transmission. But for the quantization, error is introduced in exact value and initial average is lost. Based on this limitation, my 16 bit quantization method (sending MSB in 1-4 cycle and MSB+LSB in 5th cycle) reduces error significantly and preserves initial average. Besides, it works on all types of graphs (star, complete, ring, random geometric graph). My other algorithm, distributing averaging algorithm (PQDA) with probabilistic quantization also works on random geometric graph, star, ring and slow co-herency graph. It shows significant reduced error and attain strict consensus.

The purpose of this study was to provide a description of teacher perceptions concerning behavioral and physiological vocal issues among current gender groupings in sixth-grade choir classrooms through the collection of survey research data. Participants selected for this study consisted of registered Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area choral directors of the Texas Music Educators Association. Results of the study indicated that more girls were enrolled in sixth-grade choir than boys and that mixed choirs were more common than gender-specific choirs in sixth grade. Results also indicated that teachers perceived evidence of early voice change among both sixth grade boys and girls, and that there was a difference in behavior as students showed signs of puberty.

Undergraduate male and female students enrolled in an introductory behavior analysis course with minimal instruction on self-management were given modified exploratory logs to use in a self-management project. Students self-monitored behavior via the log, constructed their own interventions, and reported changes in behavior and extent of success in a write up at course end. Changes in self-reported descriptions in the logs as well as the written results of a pre and post survey of emotional responses were counted. Successful self-management project interventions were reported by most students. Correspondence between planned and actual events increased. Negative reinforcement procedures characterized most students' intervention. Correspondence between events at pre and post and actual log reports was highest at post.

This thesis discusses the design, fabrication, and testing of a high efficiency, dual band radio frequency power amplifier. While it is difficult to demonstrate an exact mode of operation for power amplifiers at radio frequencies, based on the characteristics of the transistor itself, the argument can be made that our high efficiency performance is due to an approximation to class E operation. The PA is designed around a CGH40025 transistor manufactured by Cree, Inc, which has developed a very useful nonlinear model of its transistor, which allows use of software load/source pull methods to determine optimum impedances to be presented to the gate and drain (hereafter referred to as source and load) of the transistor at each band of operation. A recent work on dual-band impedance matching is then used to design distributed element networks in order to present conjugate matches of these impedances to the transistor. This is followed by a careful layout, after which the PA is then fabricated on a low-impedance substrate using a LPKF Protomat S63 rapid prototyping machine. Measurements of gain and drain current provide values for power-added-efficiency. Simulated gains were 21 and 18 dB at 800 MHz and 1.85 GHz, respectively, with PAE around …

A conventional RF power amplifier will convert the low powered radio frequency signals into high powered signals. Along with the expected ability to increase the communication distance, data transfer rates, RF power amplifiers also have many applications which include military radar system, whether forecasting, etc. The main objective of any power amplifier research is to increase the efficiency while maintaining linearity and broadening the frequency of operation. The main motivation for the renewed interest in PA technology comes from the technical challenges and the economics of modern digital communication systems. Modern communications require high linear power amplifiers and in order to reduce the complete system cost, it is necessary to have a single broadband power amplifier, which can amplify multiple carriers. The improvement in the efficiency of the power amplifier increases the battery life and also reduces the cooling requirements for the same output power. In this thesis, I aim to design and build a wideband class J power amplifier suitable for modern communications. For wideband operation of the GaN technology PA, a bandwidth extension design method is studied and implemented. The simulation results are proved to have a good argument with the theoretical calculations.

The present research is centered on Miguel de Unamuno's Songbook which is studied through the prism of the theory of dialogism elaborated by Mikhail Bakhtin. This study overcomes the limitation of Bakhtin's theory which extends solely to narrative genres, and argues that dialogism can also be applied to poetry. In this thesis I seek to rectify the critical oversight of this significant and original work of Unamuno and show that Songbook has panoply of innovative techniques aimed at creating the multiple poetic voices and dialogical interaction. Strong links are established between Bakhtin's theory, Unamuno's aesthetics and the postmodernist episteme of "the death of the author" which heralds the new era of fiction writing. I give a detailed analysis of Songbook's poetry based on Bakhtin's theory and incorporate the pragmalinguistic view of poetic discourse as a communicative act that involves a constant interaction between the addresser and the addressees. I find different types of dialogical expression in accordance with the number and the nature of different addressees at which the poet aims his discourse. This study shows that poetic tools forged by Unamuno are born of the need to express a conflictive inner world that is opposed to any type of …