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"Mexican Goodbye"

Mexican Goodbye is a collection of poetry that interrogates the dichotomy of a family fractured in conjunction with a speaker's coming of age. The collection reckons with divorce and the subsequent dissolution of the speaker's Mexican American family. Individual poems deal with sisterhood, daughterhood, Chicanismo, grief, the intergenerational impact of the immigrant experience, and inherited trauma. The titular poem illustrates the typical Mexican goodbye, a Latine despedida which can last hours, extended by continued chisme and prolonged conversation. It is this cultural phenomenon that the collection endeavors to encapsulate by lingering in narrative, listing childhood experiences, and allowing the speaker to yearn to return and remain in the past. Ultimately, the speaker desires to linger in the farewell.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Hernandez, Xaviera
System: The UNT Digital Library

Structures of Multicomponent Silicate and Borosilicate Glasses from Molecular Dynamics Simulations: Effects of Iron Redox Ratio and Cation Field Strength

Multicomponent silicate and borosilicate glasses find wide technological applications ranging from optical fibers, biomedicine to nuclear waste disposal. As a common component of earth's mantle and nuclear waste, iron is a frequent encounter in silicate and borosilicate melts and glasses. The redox ratio in glass matrix defined by the ratio of ferrous and ferric ions is dependent on factors such as temperature, pressure, and oxygen fugacity. Understanding their roles on the short- and medium-range structure of these glasses is important in establishing the structure-property relationships which are important for glass composition design but usually difficult to obtain from experimental characterization techniques alone. Classical molecular dynamics simulations were chosen in this dissertation to study iron containing glasses due to challenges in experimental techniques such as NMR spectroscopy originated from the paramagnetic nature of iron. Magnesium is also a common element in the oxide glass compositions and its effect on the structure of boroaluminosilicate glasses were also investigated. Magnesium ion (Mg2+) has relatively higher cation field strength than other modifier cations and its structural role in oxide glasses is still under debate. Therefore, investigating the effects of cation field strength of modifier cations in light of MgO in boroaluminosilicate glasses is also ā€¦
Date: May 2023
Creator: Tuheen, Manzila Islam
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Influence of Particle Morphology and Heat Treatment on the Microstructural Evolution of Silver Inks for Additively Manufactured RF Applications: A Comparison between Nanoflake and Reactive Inks (open access)

The Influence of Particle Morphology and Heat Treatment on the Microstructural Evolution of Silver Inks for Additively Manufactured RF Applications: A Comparison between Nanoflake and Reactive Inks

In recent years, advancements in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have paved the way for 3D-printed flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) and created opportunities for extending these gains to RF applications. However, printed metal interconnects and devices are typically characterized by high porosity and chemical impurities that significantly limit their electrical conductivity and RF performance compared to bulk equivalents. Using direct ink writing (DIW), two silver inks, a nanoflake suspension and a nanoparticle-reactive ink, were investigated to understand the relationship between free interfacial energy, sintering behavior, DC conductivity, and RF loss. The printed silver samples were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to monitor microstructural evolution, grain size and orientation, and chemical purity as a function of heat treatment temperature. Three heat treatments were applied to each ink: the manufacturer's recommendation, 225Ā°C for 30 minutes, and 350Ā°C for 30 minutes. Four-wire structures and coplanar waveguides were printed to compare the DC and RF performance up to 18 GHz, respectively. The results show that ink formulations that facilitate larger grains, high density, and good chemical purity have superior RF performance. A low resistivity of 1.4 times bulk Ag, average of 0.8% greater RF loss factor than evaporated Ag, ā€¦
Date: May 2023
Creator: Summers, Jason Masao
System: The UNT Digital Library
Quantification of the Seasonality and Vertical Dispersion Environment of PM2.5 Variation: A Comparative Analysis of Micro-Scale Wind-Based Buffer Methods (open access)

Quantification of the Seasonality and Vertical Dispersion Environment of PM2.5 Variation: A Comparative Analysis of Micro-Scale Wind-Based Buffer Methods

Increasing PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers) poses a significant health risk to people. Understanding variables critical to PM2.5 spatial and temporal variation is a first step towards protecting vulnerable populations from exposure. Previous studies investigate variables responsible for PM2.5 variation but have a limited temporal span. Moreover, although land-use classes are often taken into account, the vertical environment's influence (e.g., buildings, trees) on PM2.5 concentrations is often ignored and on-road circle buffers are used. To understand variables most critical to PM2.5 concentration variation, an air pollution sensor and GPS unit were affixed to a bicycle to sample for variables over three seasons (spring, summer, fall). Samples were taken on a route during the weekdays at four targeted hours (7AM, 11AM, 3PM, and 7PM) and joined with meteorological data. 3D morphology was assessed using LiDAR data and novel wind-based buffers. Wind speed only, wind direction only, and wind speed and direction buffers were computed and compared for their performance at capturing micro-scale urban morphological variables. Zonal statistics were used to compute morphological indicators under different wind assumptions in seasonal ordinary least squares regression models. A comprehensive wind and buffer performance analysis compares statistical significance for spatial and temporal variation ā€¦
Date: May 2023
Creator: Ray, Noah R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Revving Up Revenue: Unlocking the Power of Cancellation Policies on Booking Intentions (open access)

Revving Up Revenue: Unlocking the Power of Cancellation Policies on Booking Intentions

Over the years, last-minute cancellations and no-shows have presented difficulties for the hospitality sector, negatively affecting hotel operations and revenue. The cancellation policies of hotels have changed significantly as a result. These rules have been modified to act as "price fences" as a result of revenue management strategies used in the hotel industry. This study aims to find out how various cancellation policies impact consumers' perceptions of risk and intent to reserve hotel rooms at various times. The study provides insight into the factors that affect consumer behavior and choices for hospitality goods and services by examining these elements. The results of the study offer some understanding into how hotels and other hospitality businesses can use cancellation policies to customize their marketing strategies to meet consumer needs and preferences while successfully managing revenue and profitability.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Vo, Le Bich Ngoc
System: The UNT Digital Library
Student Perceptions of Advanced Academic Coursework and Its Impact on College and Career Readiness (open access)

Student Perceptions of Advanced Academic Coursework and Its Impact on College and Career Readiness

Although students have more opportunities than ever before to participate in advanced academic programs while in high school, it is unclear whether this has affected their ability to succeed in college. To determine what impact the students' experiences in Advanced Placement (AP) and dual credit coursework had on their level of college and career readiness (CCR), students were asked to recall what factors influenced their ability to succeed in postsecondary education and describe what information is most beneficial for students as they select their academic pathways. This phenomenological qualitative study gathered data from students that had recently graduated from two high schools in a rapidly growing, suburban school district. Participants in the study reported that the most common benefits from advanced academic programs included more challenging expectations and learning how to navigate the various logistics of postsecondary education. By examining these students' perspectives, the findings from this study may positively influence policy and practice by increasing the likelihood that students are adequately prepared for college and have the ability to succeed at the collegiate level. Continued examination of student experiences in postsecondary education is imperative for improving CCR and may provide more insight into what factors inhibit student success after ā€¦
Date: May 2023
Creator: Doty, Rachel A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Blurring the Boundaries of Chinese and Western Musical Language: A Harmonic and Form Analysis of Chen Qigang's "La joie de la souffrance" (2017) in Reference to the Compositional Influence of Olivier Messiaen (open access)

Blurring the Boundaries of Chinese and Western Musical Language: A Harmonic and Form Analysis of Chen Qigang's "La joie de la souffrance" (2017) in Reference to the Compositional Influence of Olivier Messiaen

Chen Qigang (b. 1951) is one of today's most representative and prolific Chinese composers. His works are regarded as setting a standard of excellence among Chinese composers in the twenty-first century. Like many Chinese composers of his generation, Chen combines in his works the traits of both Chinese traditional music and Western musical language. La joie de la souffrance (The Joy of Suffering) for violin and orchestra, composed for the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition in 2016ā€“17, is one of his mature works that not only represents one of the great achievements of fusing Chinese and Western musical languages, but is also a major addition to the venerable tradition of Chinese concertos. By analyzing La joie de la souffrance as the nexus of old and new, East and West, I hope to provide not only insight into a valuable work of the twentieth-century violin concerto repertoire, but also a glimpse into some of the musical influences of a Chinese composer working in France in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. By extension, I hope to shed light on some of the factors, trends, and developments that have influenced Chinese composers in the early twenty-first century.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Xiong, Hanbin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Asepo (open access)

Asepo

My artistic practice centers around personal history, connection, and identity. I reflect on my experience as a Nigerian who has lived on three continents thus far, and how those experiences have led to the deconstruction, reassembly, and hybridization of my identity. My work pays homage to my tribe of origin, Yoruba, whilst redefining and exploring the hybridity that exists as a result of cross-cultural influences that are prominent in our world today. I incorporate varying objects and materials such as jewelry, sculpture, wood, metal, and fiber. This integration speaks to the multicultural existence of the world I live in the interrelationship between Nigeria and the West.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Adeleke, Atinuke
System: The UNT Digital Library
Rainbows, Stones & Ghosts (open access)

Rainbows, Stones & Ghosts

Rainbows, Stones and Ghosts is a two-part exhibition of multi-dimensional drawings about the almost and the not-yet-made. My Project-in-Lieu-of Thesis exists physically as a series of oil paintings, works on paper, and a site-specific sculptural installation. With recurring imagery of rainbows, stones, and construction debris, the works reimagine their subjects as icons and objects of potential. Highlighting time, labor, and material, my project questions the creation of value, status, and the concept of the ā€˜idealā€™. My drawings dissolve the boundary between the absence and presence by continuously breaking down, expanding, and reimagining their surfaces, subjects, and sites. Rainbows, Stones and Ghosts is an invitation to navigate the ā€˜almostā€™ as an immersive space of possibility.
Date: May 2023
Creator: DePetris, Sarah
System: The UNT Digital Library
From Every Depth of Good and Ill (open access)

From Every Depth of Good and Ill

Titled after a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, From Every Depth of Good and Ill, is an exhibition composed of vignettes created with ceramic sculpture, ephemeral installation works, and printmaking. The work primarily references domesticity and antiquated subjects to illustrate the process of coping with past trauma and the resultant feelings of shame, inadequacy, and incompleteness. Marked by a palette of warm rust and sepia, aged patterning, and worn textures, the tableau of objects presented within the space mimic old familial photographs. Each resulting work serves as a dirty looking-glass for the viewer to peer through.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Gibson, Jacob Tylor
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oil People (open access)

Oil People

My ceramics are composed of two bodies of work poised against one another, one rendered in porcelain and colored inclusion stains combined in processes rooted within the practices of laminating clay, and the other made of brutal metallic black stoneware. The first are made of landscapes and abstractly depict them, while the latter represent ways in which we consume oil literally and metaphorically. Within myself are conflicting desires for convenient access to my environment and the loss of biodiversity caused by my unsustainable use of it. This is the core of the conflict between my pieces and my intention in making work is to embody my relationship with nature as influenced by my familial context in the US. All of the vessels are designed to be functional, but to serve used motor oil instead of food or drink. If the purpose of the objects is to represent my relationship with nature and the iteration of days, then the performance of them is meant to invoke the recognition of multiform oil consumption and the effect it has on my life.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Grasham, Eric
System: The UNT Digital Library
Candalaria Paredes and Delores Martinez (open access)

Candalaria Paredes and Delores Martinez

My work explores my identity as a Latino, veteran, and father, and counteracts the lack of positive representation of men of color in society. While they are similar to traditional piƱatas in their design and construction, my sculptures are based on abstract representations of my internalized identity. These anthropomorphic forms stand rather than being hung, enacting ownership over their space. This allows them to take on a newly assigned identity and presence. These forms allow me to display, articulate, and communicate. the struggles I have experienced throughout my life because of systemic oppression.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Martinez, Saxon
System: The UNT Digital Library
One Thing at Least is Certain (open access)

One Thing at Least is Certain

Diana Rojas explores the hidden and invisible through interdisciplinary collaboration and conversation across fields such as Philosophy, Music Composition, Physics, Material Science and Visual Art. The tools and environments she creates - by utilizing the archaic and contemporary, the digital and sculptural, known and unknown, and the minute and immersive -culminate in experiential works that prompt viewers to slow down and inspire introspection. The slowing down that these works provoke raises questions about existence, reality and being. By combining materials and elements of theories and devices of exploration, she references their antecedents, but creates new opportunities for viewer investigation. This includes utilizing creative coding, video, 3D modeling, welding steel, kiln forming and soldering glass, and cutilizing sand as projection screens. Additionally, she utilizes sound and light to create captivating installations, inspired by interest in the influence that immaterial forces have on human minds and decisions.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Ponce, Diana Rojas
System: The UNT Digital Library
Times-Mu-Ta-Tion (open access)

Times-Mu-Ta-Tion

My work as an American artist (Korean diaspora) reflects the interplay of diverse cultures and locations that have shaped my experiences. Through the exploration of photo and video archives from my travels, I uncover patterns and images that symbolize both place and transition. Utilizing digital technology, I fragment and reconstruct visual elements, evoking a sense of longing and disconnection. I also investigate the relationship between the body and space, using multi-modal responses. My work aims to capture dualities and stimulate contemplative meditation through the juxtaposition of tangible and intangible, clear and hazy, large and small, and intimate and distant elements.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Suh, Jae-Eun
System: The UNT Digital Library
Inside, Outside, Under (open access)

Inside, Outside, Under

My ceramic works utilize a heightened sensory perception to encourage a prolonged engagement with the handcrafted objects. With an emphasis on repetition, I create individual rings from clay coils and interlink them in complex, radial configurations to produce a malleable, geometric network designed to respond to the user's movements. The work revolves around dichotomies: hard/soft, delicate/strong, inspired by clay's chemical alterations in the firing. Each malleable pattern preserves the fluid movement the pliable clay begins with. Overall, the abundance of ornament elevates the object, transforming an everyday object into something intended for special occasions or moments for the self.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Segrest, Courtney
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analysis of "The Seven Songs" From The Pilgrim's Progress By Ralph Vaughan Williams (open access)

Analysis of "The Seven Songs" From The Pilgrim's Progress By Ralph Vaughan Williams

The opera, The Pilgrim's Progress, was written by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1949. "The Seven Songs" are analyzed for performance, examining the elements of music and text of the songs, including melody, harmony, form, vocal line and accompaniment, with the intent of forming conclusions in regard to their usefulness as singular selections, or as a group, for performance.
Date: May 1968
Creator: Hindman, Jannette
System: The UNT Digital Library
Discriminative Control of Behavioral Variability in Video Game Play (open access)

Discriminative Control of Behavioral Variability in Video Game Play

Creativity can be a useful skill in today's classrooms and workplaces. When individuals talk about creativity, it's unclear what the controlling variables are when we tact behavior as "creative." Research in understanding the processes behind behaviors that are considered "creative" would assist in identifying functional relations and provide insight on how to teach creativity. Since creativity is often described as doing something different from the norm, behavioral variability may be a potential aspect of creativity. This study aimed to replicate previous findings by investigating the effects of discrimination training in a multiple schedule of varied and repetitive responding in the context of a video game. Participants played through a 2D online video game made in Bloxels. Different alternating-colored platforms served as the discriminative stimuli for the vary and repeat components. Three parameters of variability were measured (e.g., left jumps, right jumps, and double jumps). The results of the study indicate that participants were able to learn the discrimination of when to repeat and vary their responses depending on which colored platform they encountered.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Arias, Gabriela Isabel
System: The UNT Digital Library