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Field Validation of Zero Energy Lab Water-to-Water Ground Coupled Heat Pump Model (open access)

Field Validation of Zero Energy Lab Water-to-Water Ground Coupled Heat Pump Model

Heat pumps are a vital part of each building for their role in keeping the space conditioned for the occupant. This study focuses on developing a model for the ground-source heat pump at the Zero Energy lab at the University of North Texas, and finding the minimum data required for generating the model. The literature includes many models with different approaches to determine the performance of the heat pump. Each method has its pros and cons. In this research the equation-fit method was used to generate a model based on the data collected from the field. Two experiments were conducted for the cooling mode: the first one at the beginning of the season and the second one at the peak of the season to cover all the operation conditions. The same procedure was followed for the heating mode. The models generated based on the collected data were validated against the experiment data. The error of the models was within ±10%. The study showed that the error could be reduced by 20% to 42% when using the field data to generate the model instead of the manufacturer’s catalog data. Also it was found that the minimum period to generate the cooling …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Abdulameer, Saif
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ozone Pollution of Shale Gas Activities in North Texas (open access)

Ozone Pollution of Shale Gas Activities in North Texas

The effect of shale gas activities on ground-level ozone pollution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is studied in detail here. Ozone is a highly reactive species with harmful effects on human and environment. Shale gas development, or fracking, involves activities such as hydraulic fracturing, drilling, fluid mixing, and trucks idling that are sources of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), two of the most important precursors of ozone. In this study two independent approaches have been applied in evaluating the influences on ozone concentrations. In the first approach, the influence of meteorology were removed from ozone time series through the application of Kolmogorov-Zurbenko low-pass filter, logarithmic transformation, and subsequent multi-linear regression. Ozone measurement data were acquired from Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) monitoring stations for 14 years. The comparison between ozone trends in non-shale gas region and shale gas region shows increasing ozone trends at the monitoring stations in close proximity to the Barnett Shale activities. In the second approach, the CAMx photochemical model was used to assess the sensitivity of ozone to the NOX and VOC sources associated with shale oil and gas activities. Brute force method was applied on Barnett Shale and Haynesville Shale emission …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Ahmadi, Mahdi
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Decision Makers’ Cognitive Biases in Operations Management: An Experimental Study (open access)

Decision Makers’ Cognitive Biases in Operations Management: An Experimental Study

Behavioral operations management (BOM) has gained popularity in the last two decades. The main theme in this new stream of research is to include the human behavior in Operations Management (OM) models to increase the effectiveness of such models. BOM is classified into 4 areas: cognitive psychology, social psychology, group dynamics and system dynamics (Bendoly et al. 2010). This dissertation will focus on the first class, namely cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is further classified into heuristics and biases. Tversky and Kahneman (1974) discussed 3 heuristics and 13 cognitive biases that usually face decision makers. This dissertation is going to study 6 cognitive biases under the representativeness heuristic. The model in this dissertation states that cognitive reflection of the individual (Frederick 2005) and training about cognitive biases in the form of warning (Kaufmann and Michel 2009) will help decisions’ makers make less biased decisions. The 6 cognitive biases investigated in this dissertation are insensitivity to prior probability, insensitivity to sample size, misconception of chance, insensitivity to predictability, the illusion of validity and misconception of regression. 6 scenarios in OM contexts have been used in this study. Each scenario corresponds to one cognitive bias. Experimental design has been used as the research …
Date: May 2016
Creator: AlKhars, Mohammed
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Conversational Use of Photographic Images on Facebook: Modeling Visual Thinking on Social Media (open access)

Conversational Use of Photographic Images on Facebook: Modeling Visual Thinking on Social Media

Modeling the "thick description" of photographs began at the intersection of personal and institutional descriptions. Comparing institutional descriptions of particular photos that were also used in personal online conversations was the initial phase. Analyzing conversations that started with a photographic image from the collection of the Library of Congress (LC) or the collection of the Manchester Historic Association (MHA) provided insights into how cultural heritage institutions could enrich the description of photographs by using informal descriptions such as those applied by Facebook users. Taking photos of family members, friends, places, and interesting objects is something people do often in their daily lives. Some photographic images are stored, and some are shared with others in gatherings, occasions, and holidays. Face-to-face conversations about remembering some of the details of photographs and the event they record are themselves rarely recorded. Digital cameras make it easy to share personal photos in Web conversations and to duplicate old photos and share them on the Internet. The World Wide Web even makes it simple to insert images from cultural heritage institutions in order to enhance conversations. Images have been used as tokens within conversations along with the sharing of information and background knowledge about them. The …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Albannai, Talal N.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Development of an Instrument to Measure the Level of Acceptability and Tolerability of  Cyber Aggression: Mixed-Methods Research on Saudi Arabian Social Media Users (open access)

Development of an Instrument to Measure the Level of Acceptability and Tolerability of Cyber Aggression: Mixed-Methods Research on Saudi Arabian Social Media Users

Cyber aggression came about as a result of advances in information communication technology and the aggressive usage of the technology in real life. Cyber aggression can take on many forms and facets. However, the main focus of this study is cyberbullying and cyberstalking through information sharing practices that might constitute digital aggressive acts. Human aggression has been extensively investigated. Studies focusing on understanding the causes and effects that can lead to physical and digital aggression have shown the prevalence of cyber aggression in different settings. Moreover, these studies have shown strong relationship between cyber aggression and the physiological and physical trauma on both perpetrators and their victims. Nevertheless, the literature shows a lack of studies that could measure the level of acceptance and tolerance of these dangerous digital acts. This study is divided into two main stages; Stage one is a qualitative pilot study carried out to explore the concept of cyber aggression and its existence in Saudi Arabia. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 Saudi social media users to collect understanding and meanings of cyber aggression. The researcher followed the Colaizzi’s methods to analyze the descriptive data. A proposed model was generated to describe cyber aggression in social media …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Albar, Ali Aldroos
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

LEAP II Institute: Digital Curation and Lifecycle Management Workshop

This presentation contains a pre- and post-workshop surveys, with an overview of digital libraries, digital lifecycle management, and digital preservation.
Date: May 17, 2016
Creator: Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Open Educational Resources: Reducing Costs, Expanding Access, and Improving Efficacy captions transcript

Open Educational Resources: Reducing Costs, Expanding Access, and Improving Efficacy

Video of the presentation "Open Educational Resources: Reducing Costs, Expanding Access, and Improving Efficacy," with an overview of the open educational resources movement, how it is playing out on campus, and research showing the impact on students.
Date: May 20, 2016
Creator: Allen, Nicole
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploring Analog and Digital Design Using the Open-Source Electric VLSI Design System (open access)

Exploring Analog and Digital Design Using the Open-Source Electric VLSI Design System

The design of VLSI electronic circuits can be achieved at many different abstraction levels starting from system behavior to the most detailed, physical layout level. As the number of transistors in VLSI circuits is increasing, the complexity of the design is also increasing, and it is now beyond human ability to manage. Hence CAD (Computer Aided design) or EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools are involved in the design. EDA or CAD tools automate the design, verification and testing of these VLSI circuits. In today’s market, there are many EDA tools available. However, they are very expensive and require high-performance platforms. One of the key challenges today is to select appropriate CAD or EDA tools which are open-source for academic purposes. This thesis provides a detailed examination of an open-source EDA tool called Electric VLSI Design system. An excellent and efficient CAD tool useful for students and teachers to implement ideas by modifying the source code, Electric fulfills these requirements. This thesis' primary objective is to explain the Electric software features and architecture and to provide various digital and analog designs that are implemented by this software for educational purposes. Since the choice of an EDA tool is based on the …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Aluru, Gunasekhar
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nuestra Voz (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 24, Ed. 1, May 2016 (open access)

Nuestra Voz (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 24, Ed. 1, May 2016

Monthly newspaper providing news and information to the Tarrant, Dallas, and Denton County Latino communities along with advertising.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Alvarado, Felix
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Southwest Retort, Volume 68, Number 9, May 2016 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 68, Number 9, May 2016

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: May 2016
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S.-Nordic Relations (open access)

U.S.-Nordic Relations

This report briefly discusses U.S. relations with the Nordic countries--Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
Date: May 10, 2016
Creator: Archick, Kristin
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Summary for Policy-makers (open access)

Summary for Policy-makers

Report summarizing the policy-relevant findings of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme' 2015 assessments of short-lived climate pollutants (Methane, Black carbon, and Ozone).
Date: May 23, 2016
Creator: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Correspondence between Multiple-Respondent Anecdotal Assessments and Functional Analysis: Analyses of Rank-Order, Magnitude-of-Difference, and Overall Outcomes (open access)

Correspondence between Multiple-Respondent Anecdotal Assessments and Functional Analysis: Analyses of Rank-Order, Magnitude-of-Difference, and Overall Outcomes

We administered the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) and the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) to five raters and compared the results with functional analysis outcomes for 12 cases in which agreement was obtained for at least four out of five raters on either anecdotal assessment. The scores for functional categories on the MAS and QABF were ranked by averaging the scores for the raters who agreed on the primary maintaining variable. Functional analysis results were ranked by examining average responding across all conditions. A comparison showed correspondence between the highest category and the highest functional analysis condition for 10 out of 11 cases for the MAS and all 10 cases for the QABF. Correspondence for the category and condition ranked second was found for 2 out of 11 cases for the MAS and 2 out of 10 cases for the QABF. The magnitude of difference between categories on the MAS/QABF did not appear to predict the amount of difference in responding in the corresponding functional analyses.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Arnalds, Holmfridur Osk
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Determinants of Principal Pay in the State of Texas (open access)

Determinants of Principal Pay in the State of Texas

The purpose of the study was to examine district, campus, and community determinants of principal’s salaries using a spatial econometric framework. Among the district variables business tax (p = 0.001), property tax (p < .01), and the Herfindahl Index (measure of competition) were statistically significant indicators of principal salaries. The results suggest that more affluent districts tend to pay principals higher salaries, which was expected. Regarding campus characteristics, the percent of economically disadvantaged was not a statistically sound indicator (p = 0.468), but campus enrollment was significant (p = <.01). Interestingly as the percentage of economically disadvantaged students increased, the principal salary decreased. In contrast, as student enrollment increases the salary of principals increases, suggesting that principals of larger campuses earn higher salaries. Interestingly, student achievement was not a statistically significant predictor of principals’ salary given that pay for performance in Texas is at the forefront of political debate. Among the variables examined at the community level, only the percentage of homes owner occupied (p = 0.002) was found to be a statistically significant indicator of principal salary (p = .002). The lack of evidence on reforms, such as determinants of principal salary, points to data and research deficiencies to …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Asbury, Elizabeth Ann
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Teaching beyond the walls: A mixed method study of prospective elementary teacher's belief systems about science instruction (open access)

Teaching beyond the walls: A mixed method study of prospective elementary teacher's belief systems about science instruction

This mixed method study investigated K-6 teacher candidates' beliefs about informal science instruction prior to and after their experiences in a 15-week science methods course and in comparison to a non-intervention group. The study is predicated by the literature that supports the extent to which teachers' beliefs influence their instructional practices. The intervention integrated the six strands of learning science in informal science education (NRC, 2009) and exposed candidates to out-of-school-time environments (NRC, 2010). Participants included 17 candidates in the intervention and 75 in the comparison group. All were undergraduate K-6 teacher candidates at one university enrolled in different sections of a required science methods course. All the participants completed the Beliefs about Science Teaching (BAT) survey. Reflective journals, drawings, interviews, and microteaching protocols were collected from participants in the intervention. There was no statistically significant difference in pre or post BAT scores of the two groups; However, there was a statistically significant interaction effect for the intervention group over time. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that the intervention candidates displayed awareness of each of the six strands of learning science in informal environments and commitment to out-of-school-time learning of science. This study supports current reform efforts favoring integration …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Asim, Sumreen
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Impact of Grit on Performance After Mastery- or Performance-Oriented Feedback (open access)

Impact of Grit on Performance After Mastery- or Performance-Oriented Feedback

Grit and achievement motivation have been predictors of behavior in academia and military settings (Duckworth, Matthews, Peterson, & Kelly, 2007), but to date, research on their effects on sport performance has been limited. Given grit's predictive role in other performance domains, grit may be influential in athletes' long-term goal attainment, interacting with their achievement motives and leading to better performances. Athletes' trait levels of grit may influence how they understand and respond to messages received within motivational climates from key personnel such as from coaches and teammates. We examined potential moderating effects of grit on the relationship between motivational feedback and high school soccer players (N = 71, Mage = 15.81) performance on a soccer task, their desire to persist in the task, and their choices of task difficulty. We used hierarchical multiple regression to test the main effects of feedback and grit and to determine if grit moderated the effects of feedback on performance. Grit was a significant moderator of the feedback-shooting performance relationship, accounting for 3.9% of variance. Simple slopes analysis revealed a significant effect for low (B = 13.32, SEb = 4.44, p = .004, t = 2.99), but not high, (B = 2.11, SEb = 4.31, …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Auerbach, Alex
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 (S. 524): Comparison of Senate- and House-Passed Versions (open access)

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 (S. 524): Comparison of Senate- and House-Passed Versions

This report discusses selected differences and similarities between the Senate- and House-passed versions of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 (CARA; S. 524), which aims to address the problem of opioid addiction in the United States. The two versions of the bill differ substantially. The scope of the differences may be illustrated by their structures: The Senate bill has 28 sections organized in 8 titles, whereas the House bill has 69 sections organized in 18 titles.
Date: May 23, 2016
Creator: Bagalman, Erin & Sacco, Lisa N.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Active Opioid Legislation in the House: In Brief (open access)

Active Opioid Legislation in the House: In Brief

This report briefly summarizes opioid-related bills that were considered during "Opioid Week" (the week of May 9, 2016) The summaries in this report may be useful illustrations of the range of approaches Members of Congress have proposed to address the problem of opioid addiction.
Date: May 13, 2016
Creator: Bagalman, Erin; Sacco, Lisa N. & Rosen, Liana W.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comparative Study of Perceived Barriers to Faculty Participation in Distance Education at a Four-Year University (open access)

Comparative Study of Perceived Barriers to Faculty Participation in Distance Education at a Four-Year University

The purpose of this Bailey study was to identify perceived barriers of faculty participation in distance education courses in a four-year university and identify the differences in perceived barriers between the Hebert 2003 study and this Bailey study. The literature review covers numerous studies and articles written within the last 10 years that are related to a variety of barriers perceived by faculty and administrators. There were no statistically significant relationships found between faculty demographics including gender, age, position at the university, tenure status, and number of years faculty have taught in post-secondary education. There were no statistically significant relationships found between the top administrator-ranked motivators and corresponding faculty-ranked motivators, nor between the top administrator-ranked inhibitors and the corresponding faculty-ranked inhibitors. Out of the top four non-participating, faculty-ranked barriers, three were found to have statistically significant relationships with the corresponding administrator-ranked barriers. Statistically significant relationships were found between the faculty-ranked motivators and corresponding administrator identified motivators and between the top ranked barriers identified by non-participating faculty and administrators in Hebert’s study compared to non-participating faculty-ranked and administrator-ranked barriers identified in this study.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Bailey, Elizabeth, 1963-
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with John Baker, May 18, 2016 transcript

Oral History Interview with John Baker, May 18, 2016

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Baker. Baker joined the Army Air Forces around 1942. He completed flight school and served as a bomber pilot. He was selected to serve as a B-24 pilot instructor in Courtland, Alabama. He flew B-29s. Baker was discharged in August of 1946 and remained in the Reserves.
Date: May 18, 2016
Creator: Baker, John
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with John Baker, May 18, 2016 (open access)

Oral History Interview with John Baker, May 18, 2016

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Baker. Baker joined the Army Air Forces around 1942. He completed flight school and served as a bomber pilot. He was selected to serve as a B-24 pilot instructor in Courtland, Alabama. He flew B-29s. Baker was discharged in August of 1946 and remained in the Reserves.
Date: May 18, 2016
Creator: Baker, John
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Value and Pricing of MOOCs (open access)

Value and Pricing of MOOCs

This article reviews the potential for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to transform higher education delivery, accessibility, and costs.
Date: May 27, 2016
Creator: Baker, Rose M. & Passmore, David L.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library

Open Minds But Closed Access. Why Are There So Few Gold Open Access LIS Journals? And Why Are So Many Librarians Unwilling To Unlock Their Scholarship?

This presentation contains an evaluation of the open access availability of library and information science literature.
Date: May 20, 2016
Creator: Baker, Sarah & Chaudhuri, Jayati
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Getting to Digital Publishing at WVU [Keynote] captions transcript

Getting to Digital Publishing at WVU [Keynote]

Video recording of the keynote session for the 2016 Library Publishing Forum. This presentation discusses digital publishing at West Virginia University and the development of Vega, an open-source academic publishing platform.
Date: May 18, 2016
Creator: Ball, Cheryl
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library