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Current and Future Trends in Computer Use in Elementary School Settings
The study examined current and future trends in computer use in elementary school settings. A survey instrument was developed and validated for distribution to a random sample of 200 technology coordinators in the public school districts in the state of Texas from whom 95 responses were received. The survey instrument was used to obtain information about five areas of computer use in elementary schools. These areas are: physical configurations, instructional uses, implementation issues, training and staff development, and Internet use. The study found that all public school districts that participated in the study have acquired computer hardware in their elementary schools. In addition, some other advanced computer technology components are starting to be found in elementary schools, such as teacher workstations, CD-ROM, interactive video, computer multimedia, LCD panels, and laser printers. Respondents reported that elementary school teachers in their districts have incorporated computers into their classrooms as an instructional tool and many changes have occurred in teachers teaching styles due to computers. However, there are some problems that hinder the effective use of computers. The major problem is lack of training. A high percentage of respondents, 81.3%, indicated that the majority of their elementary school teachers had completed less than …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Al-Awidi, Hamed M.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Vicarious Traumatization, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Burnout in Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Agency Staff and Volunteers
Two constructs, vicarious trauma (VT) and secondary traumatic stress (STS), describe therapists reactions to clients traumatic material. VT (TSI Belief Scale [BSL]), emphasizes cognitive belief system changes resulting from cumulative exposure to survivors. STS, (Compassion Fatigue Self-test for Psychotherapists [CFST]) combines PTSD and burnout symptomatology explaining sudden adverse reactions to survivors. Burnout (BO; Maslach Burnout Inventory [MBI]), links emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and deficient personal accomplishment to inadequate institutional supports in interpersonally demanding work. This study investigated BSL and CFST validity, counselor trauma history, and client exposure-related VT, STS, and BO in 105 trauma counselors. Results demonstrate concurrent validity between BSL and CFST; other results dispute adequate validity. BO, and client exposure were related. Traumatized counselors scored higher than non-traumatized counselors on CFST, BSL, and SCL-90-R.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Baird, Stephanie
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Affective Reactions and Psychosocial Functioning in the Course of Psycho-Educational Assessment
Every day, children throughout the United States are given psychological evaluations for many different clinical and psycho-educational purposes. Very little research has attempted to investigate children's responses to the experience of having intellectual and achievement tests administered. The goal of the current research was to explore the effect a psycho-educational evaluation has on children in areas of self-concept and anxiety. Dependent variables consisted of pre- and post-test measures of anxiety and self-concept. A total of 75 children in the 4th 5th and 6th grades were recruited after referral for evaluation and possible placement in the Talented and Gifted Program or Special Education. This study employed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), t-tests, multiple regression analysis, and correlational analysis. Findings included initial evidence that children endorsed decreased anxiety after psycho-educational assessments rather than increased anxiety, suggesting that fear of unknown situations may be more anxiety provoking than the actual situation itself, potentially beneficial findings for psychology and psychometric professionals who evaluate children daily. Students endorsement of academic self-concept significantly predicted anxiety after a psycho-educational evaluation, indicating that students who feel capable in academic areas may endorse less anxiety after an evaluation than students who do not feel academically capable. Finally, negative verbal interaction …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Buenrostro, Martha
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Work Function Study of Iridium Oxide and Molybdenum Using UPS and Simultaneous Fowler-Nordheim I-V Plots with Field Emission Energy Distributions
The characterization of work functions and field emission stability for molybdenum and iridium oxide coatings was examined. Single emission tips and flat samples of molybdenum and iridium oxide were prepared for characterization. The flat samples were characterized using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to determine elemental composition, chemical shift, and crystal structure. Flat coatings of iridium oxide were also scanned by Atomic Force Microscopy to examine topography. Work functions were characterized by Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy from the flat samples and by Field Emission Electron Distributions from the field emission tips. Field emission characterization was conducted in a custom build analytical chamber capable of measuring Field Emission Electron Distribution and Fowler-Nordheim I-V plots simultaneously to independently evaluate geometric and work function changes. Scanning Electron Microscope pictures were taken of the emission tips before and after field emission characterization to confirm geometric changes. Measurement of emission stability and work functions were the emphasis of this research. In addition, use of iridium oxide coatings to enhance emission stability was evaluated. Molybdenum and iridium oxide, IrO2, were characterized and found to have a work function of 4.6 eV and 4.2 eV by both characterization techniques, with the molybdenum value in agreement with previous …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Bernhard, John Michael
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Information Seeking in a Virtual Learning Environment
Duplicating a time series study done by Kuhlthau and associates in 1989, this study examines the applicability of the Information Search Process (ISP) Model in the context of a virtual learning environment. This study confirms that students given an information seeking task in a virtual learning environment do exhibit the stages indicated by the ISP Model. The six-phase ISP Model is shown to be valid for describing the different stages of cognitive, affective, and physical tasks individuals progress through when facing a situation where they must search for information to complete an academic task in a virtual learning environment. The findings in this study further indicate there is no relationship between the amount of computer experience subjects possess and demonstrating the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions described by the ISP Model. The study demonstrates the ISP Model to be independent of the original physical library environments where the model was developed. An attempt is made to represent the ISP model in a slightly different manner that provides more of the sense of motion and interaction among the components of thoughts, feelings, and action than is currently provided for in the model. The study suggests that the development of non-self-reporting …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Byron, Suzanne M.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Structural Equation Model of Contributing Factors to Adolescent Social Interest
The focus of the present study was to test through SEM the relationships between family influences (FI) and school influences (SI) on factors hypothesized to be associated with adolescent social interest: school belonging (SB), extracurricular participation (EP), and peer/romantic involvement (PRI). The final model consisted of FI and SI that contributed to the expression of adolescent social interest. FI included parental communication and parental caring. SI consisted of teacher fairness. SB consisted of a child's self-reported feelings of belonging at school, EP included self-reported involvement in sports or academic clubs, and PRI consisted of self-reported desire for romantic involvement or desire for participation with others. The proposed model suggested that FI contributed significantly to self-reported SB, EP, and PRI. Additionally, it was hypothesized that SI would contribute significantly to SB and EP, but not to PRI. The data used in the current study were part of an existing data set collected as part of the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. The total sample size for the present study was 2,561 male and female adolescents aged 12-19 years. The data consisted of adolescent and parent self-report information. Results suggested a significant relationship between FI and self-reported SB and PRI. As …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Craig, Stephen E.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Customer Induced Uncertainty and Its Impact on Organizational Design
How firms facing environmental uncertainty should organize their activities remains an important and challenging question for today's managers and organizational researchers. Proponents of contingency theory have argued that organizations must adjust their activities to fit the level of environmental uncertainty to ensure long-term survival. Although much work has been done on contingency theory, it is clear that our understanding of uncertainty is far from complete. One important aspect of today's organizations is their focus on service, mass customization, and continuous innovation. This focus often results in the customer being brought either into the organization or at least into closer contact with it. Even though the literature provides numerous evidences of the increasing customer focus, it is yet to empirically explain how the complications of customer-organizational interactions might create uncertainty for contemporary organizations. The traditional measure of uncertainty still considers customers as an environmental factor causing demand uncertainty while ignoring the complex nature of customer and organizational encounters. Seeking to further refine the concept of uncertainty and focusing on the contemporary business phenomena, this study develops measures aspects of customer induced uncertainty and examines their relationships with three organizational design variables. Specifically, this study explains the complicated nature of customer - …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Chowdhury, Sanjib Kumar
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Profile of the Youth Self-Report Among South Texas Adolescents and the Potential Relationship to Pesticide Exposure
The potential for human exposure to pesticides exists particularly for agricultural workers (i.e. migrant workers) and individuals within close proximity to pesticide-sprayed crops (i.e. those living on or near agricultural farms). Children, through biology and behavior, may be more susceptible and vulnerable to exposure to pesticides than adults. The purpose of this study was to examine young populations particularly at-risk for occupational or accidental exposure to pesticides and determine associated behavioral, emotional, and physical symptoms. A total of 444 students from two South Texas school districts completed questionnaires assessing level of risk of exposure to pesticides and were categorized into at-risk and low risk categories. Physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms were obtained using the Youth Self-Report. Children who were at-risk demonstrated significantly higher scores on the Youth Self-Report (YSR) in the areas of anxious/depressed, attention problems, social problems, somatic complaints, thought problems, withdrawal, internalizing behaviors, and total problem behaviors than children who were at lower risk of pesticide exposure. Odds ratios were obtained and suggested that children in the at-risk category were more five times more likely to score in the clinically significant range on the Attention Problems subscale, and three times more likely to score in the clinically significant …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Hagar, Kristy S.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Ethnic Identity, Gay Identity and Sexual Sensation Seeking: HIV Risk-taking Predictors Among Men of Color Who Have Sex with Men
This study examined relationships among ethnic identity, gay identity, sexual sensation seeking, and HIV risk-taking behaviors among 302 men of color recruited from gay bars, bathhouses, community agencies, and the 1998 United States Conference on AIDS. The sample included 24% African American, 28% Latino, 25% Asian/ Pacific Islander, 19% Caucasian, 1% American Indian, and 3% other ethnicity. Logistic regression analysis identified sexual sensation seeking, having an undefined gay identity, being in a sexually exclusive relationship, not being HIV seronegative, and length of stay in the country (for those born overseas) as significant predictors of unprotected anal intercourse (insertive and penetrative) among men of color who have sex with men.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Géliga-Vargas, Jesús A.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Night of No Exile
Night of no Exile is a collection of poems preceded by a critical article entitled "‘Exile seems both a blessing and a curse': A Blissful Reading of Li-Young Lee's Poetry." That article discusses Lee's quest to achieve communication, truth, and transcendence through poetic language and concludes that he finally reaches his goal through a leap from narrative poetry to lyricism. The "exile" alluded to in the title of the article is not only geographic, but also interioran exile due to the natural limitations of all languages, and which can be bridged only in linguistic ways. Lee's solution to that problem (lyricism) turns his poetry into what Roland Barthes would call "a text of bliss," a text that manages to deeply destabilize language, while simultaneously achieving a new kind of meaning. In the main body of the manuscript, the first section contains short love lyrics. The second section, "Night of no Exile," is an attempt at the demanding genre of the longer lyric poem. The third section uses short lyrics to explore various topics, such as discovering one's identity, friendship and solidarity between women, family history, and childhood memories. Finally, the last section includes poems, four of them longer, attempting to …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Jones, Marie C.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Explorations with Polycarbocyclic Cage Compounds
A variety of novel cage-functionalized pyridyl containing crown ethers have been prepared for use in selective alkali metal complexation studies. A highly preorganized, cage-functionalized cryptand also has been designed and has been synthesized for use as a selective Li+ complexant. The alkali metal picrate extraction profiles of these cage-functionalized crown ethers also have been studied. Novel cage-functionalized diazacrown ethers have been prepared for selective alkali metal complexation studies. Alkali metal picrate extraction experiments have been performed by using this new class of synthetic ionophores to investigate the effects of cage-annulation and the influence of N-pivot lariat sidearms upon their resulting complexation properties. Novel pyridyl containing calix[4]arene receptors were prepared. Analysis of their respective 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectra suggests that calix[4]arene moieties in the ligand occupy the cone conformation. The complexation properties of these host molecules were estimated by performing a series of alkali metal picrate extraction experiments. An optically active cage-functionalized crown ether which contains a binaphthyl moiety as the chiral unit was prepared. The ability of the resulting optically active crown ether to distinguish between enantiomers of guest ammonium ions (i.e., phenylethylamonium and phenylglycinate salts) in transport experiments was investigated. Hexacyclo[11.2.1.02,12.05,10.05,15.010,14]hexadeca-6,8-diene-4,11-dione was prepared from hexacyclo[7.4.2.01,9.03,7.04,14.06,15] pentadeca-10,12-diene-2,8-dione. Unanticipated …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Chong, Hyun-Soon
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Toward an Ecofeminist Environmental Jurisprudence: Nature, Law, and Gender
This thesis develops a legal theory reflecting the insights of feminism and environmental philosophy. I argue that human beings are not ontologically separate, but embedded in webs of relationality with natural others. My primary purposes are to 1) delineate ways in which institutions of modernity (such as law and science) have precipitated ecosocial crisis through the attempt to dialectically enforce mastery and control over nature and women; and 2) explore alternate political forms and ontologies which challenge the classical liberalist view of the (human) individual as a radically isolated, discrete, autonomous being. My overarching theme is that law functions as a narrative that can both hinder and enhance the promotion of ecological ideas, and how ecofeminism can contribute to transformative projects of environmental philosophy and feminist law.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Mallory, Chaone
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Study of Block Scheduling and Instructional Strategies and their Influence on Algebra Achievement in Classrooms Throughout North Central Texas
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of block scheduling and instructional strategies on student achievement in Algebra I. The study was conducted during the 1997-98 school year. This study was comprised of two components, a quantitative study and a qualitative study. The quantitative study focused on block and traditional scheduling and the influence identified through scores on the Texas End-of-Course exam for Algebra I. The sample for this study consisted of 59 school districts from five counties in the north Texas area. The qualitative portion of this study focused on 10 classrooms, 5 block and 5 traditional, taken from the sample of 59 districts. Data for the qualitative study included questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The End-of-Course scores were analyzed using an ANOVA at the .05 level of significance, no significant difference was identified in the achievement levels of the two groups. The qualitative data was organized by categories derived from the NCTM teaching standards. Data from this portion of the study indicated that teachers in both block and traditionally scheduled classes spend their class time in a similar manner, using similar materials, and using more traditional strategies. Additional analyses of data based upon usage of the …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
McClure, Melissa Sue
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Discrimination of Software Implementation Success Criteria
Software implementation projects struggle with the delicate balance of low cost, on-time delivery and quality. The methodologies and processes used to create and maintain a quality software system are expensive to deploy and result in long development cycle-time. However, without their deployment into the software implementation life-cycle, a software system will be undependable, unsuccessful. The purpose of this research is to identify a succinct set of software implementation success criteria and assess the key independent constructs, activities, carried out to ensure a successful implementation project. The research will assess the success of a software implementation project as the dependent construct of interest and use the software process model (methodology) as the independent construct. This field research involved three phases: (1) criteria development, (2) data collection, and (3) testing of hypotheses and discriminant analysis. The first phase resulted in the development of the measurement instruments for the independent and dependent constructs. The measurement instrument for the independent construct was representative of the criteria from highly regarded software implementation process models and methodologies, e.g., ISO9000, Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM). The dependent construct was developed from the categories and criteria from the Delone and McLean (1992) MIS List of …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Pryor, Alan N.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Exhibit Eh: Canadian Dependency, U.S. Hegemony, and the Amorphousness of English Canadian Culture
This thesis begins by examining the factors that have resulted in the dependent nature of Canada's political and economic structure, and proceeds to examine how this has contributed to the cultural amorphousness of English Canadian identity. The hegemonic authority of American and trans-national interests, established and maintained in the cultural sphere through the extensive monopoly of the distribution of cultural and media products, perpetuates the amorphousness of English Canadian culture through the appropriation of Canadian space by the international image industry. Such categorization of Canadian space reflects and perpetuates the imaginary representation of Canada within the dominant ideology as an indistinct and amorphous entity, and comes to usurp the materiality that constructs the lived identities of English Canadians.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
McIntosh, Andrew
System:
The UNT Digital Library
On the Cohomology of the Complement of a Toral Arrangement
The dissertation uses a number of mathematical formula including de Rham cohomology with complex coefficients to state and prove extension of Brieskorn's Lemma theorem.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Sawyer, Cameron Cunningham
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Girl Power: Feminism, Girlculture and the Popular Media
This project is an interrogation of three examples from recent popular culture of girlculture, specifically texts that target young female consumers: the Spice Girls, Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These examples are fundamentally different than texts from earlier female targeted generic models because they not only reflect the influence of the feminist movement, they work on feminism's behalf. The project's methodology grows out of feminist film theories and cultural studies theories. One chapter is dedicated to each text, and each reading works to reappropriate girlculture texts for a counter-hegemonic agenda by highlighting the moments when each text manages to subvert its mass mediated conservative biases.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Smith, Ashley Lorrain
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Computation of Ultrapowers by Supercompactness Measures
The results from this dissertation are a computation of ultrapowers by supercompactness measures and concepts related to such measures. The second chapter gives an overview of the basic ideas required to carry out the computations. Included are preliminary ideas connected to measures, and the supercompactness measures. Order type results are also considered in this chapter. In chapter III we give an alternate characterization of 2 using the notion of iterated ordinal measures. Basic facts related to this characterization are also considered here. The remaining chapters are devoted to finding bounds fwith arguments taking place both inside and outside the ultrapowers. Conditions related to the upper bound are given in chapter VI.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Smith, John C.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Picosecond Dynamics of Free-Carrier Populations, Space-Charge Fields, and Photorefractive Nonlinearities in Zincblende Semiconductors
Generally, nonlinear optics studies investigate optically-induced changes in refraction or absorption, and their application to spectroscopy or device fabrication. The photorefractive effect is a nonlinear optical effect that occurs in solids, where transport of an optically-induced free-carrier population results in an internal space-charge field, which produces an index change via the linear electrooptic effect. The photorefractive effect has been widely studied for a variety of materials and device applications, mainly because it allows large index changes to be generated with laser beams having only a few milliwatts of average power.Compound semiconductors are important photorefractive materials because they offer a near-infrared optical response, and because their carrier transport properties allow the index change to be generated quickly and efficiently. While many researchers have attempted to measure the fundamental temporal dynamics of the photorefractive effect in semiconductors using continuous-wave, nanosecond- and picosecond-pulsed laser beams, these investigations have been unsuccessful. However, studies with this goal are of clear relevance because they provide information about the fundamental physical processes that produce this effect, as well as the material's speed and efficiency limitations for device applications.In this dissertation, for the first time, we time-resolve the temporal dynamics of the photorefractive nonlinearities in two zincblende semiconductors, …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Stark, Thomas S.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Syllabus for Advanced Placement Biology
The purpose of this syllabus is to provide a working copy to those teachers of the advanced placement biology course taught at the high school level. Reference materials used were the Texas Education Agency ( TEA ) approved Campbell text Biology and the College Board's, Advanced Placement Biology Laboratory Manual. The syllabus is divided into major topics with outlined notes and includes laboratory exercises as recommended by the College Board. The AP biology course is intended to be equivalent to college biology. College freshman biology courses can differ among colleges and among teachers within the same college. This syllabus is intended to serve as an aid to AP teachers, to cover the topics and experiments as set out by the College Board, and to the high school student, the necessary material to successfully complete the AP examination while providing freshman biology equivalence.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Turk, Cathy Christine
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Parents' Motivation in Registering their Child for Gymnastics
This study examined factors that motivate parents to involve their children in organized gymnastics programs. A questionnaire based on McCullagh et al.'s (1993) study of recreational soccer players was used along with open-ended questions. The questionnaire was administered to parents of children who were involved in a private gymnastics club. Descriptive statistics of 156 surveys showed that fitness, skill development, and fun were most frequently cited reasons for parents in their decision to enroll and keep their child in gymnastics programs. Competition was the least important factor. ANOVA showed that competition and team membership factors were more important to the parents of competitive gymnasts than parents of recreational gymnasts. Coaches and youth sport program organizers could use these findings to develop and market youth activity programs.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Wald, Jennie
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Development of IAM District Lodge 776 in Fort Worth, Texas, 1942-1946: A Case Study in the Growth of Organized Labor During World War II
This thesis concentrates on a local union of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), District Lodge 776, of Fort Worth, Texas, during the war years. The main argument of the thesis runs along three basic lines. First, it demonstrates that the experiences of the Fort Worth Machinists clearly fit into the national labor movement during the war years. Second, it argues that the existence, survival, and strength of the union depended greatly on outside forcesan expanding national economy, a powerful national union, and a generally labor-friendly government. Third, it shows that union officers and rank-and-file members used their bases of strengththe national economy, the national IAM, and the federal governmentto build an effective local labor organization.
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
White, Kirk
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Academic Lineage and Student Performance in Medical School
This research investigated the association between academic lineage and student performance in medical school. The purposes of the study were to: (1) determine whether the Carnegie classifications of medical school applicants' institutions of origin are associated with academic performance in medical school; (2) consider the relationship between the admission selectivity of the schools of origin and the academic performance of medical school students; (3) compare the performance of medical students from institutions under public governing control with students from privately controlled institutions; and (4) establish a model by which the relative academic strengths of applicants from a variety of undergraduate institutions can be understood more clearly based on the previous performance of medical students from schools with similar institutional characteristics. A review of the literature on medical school admissions was completed and used to develop this research. Medical students from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas who enrolled between the years 1990 and 1994 and graduated or were dismissed between the years 1994 and 1998 were selected as the sample for the study (n=933). The undergraduate institution of origin for each student was coded based on its Carnegie classification, admissions selectivity group, and whether its governing control …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Wright, James Scott
System:
The UNT Digital Library
An Assessment of the Use of Seeding, Mowing, and Burning in the Restoration of an Oldfield to Tallgrass Prairie in Lewisville, Texas
An examination of the effectiveness of seeding, burning, and mowing in the reestablishment of tallgrass prairie species on overgrazed and abandoned pastureland. The study site is a 20 acre tract on U.S. Corps of Engineers land below Lake Lewisville in Denton County, Texas. The site was partitioned into thirty-nine 40 by 40 meter plots with seeding (carried out in 1996) and management treatment (burning, mowing, and no maintenance carried out in 1998) randomly applied following a two level design. For each plot, nine stratified-random 0.1 m2 subplots were examined and shoot counts for each species recorded. The effects of the treatments on individual species and species richness were analyzed with a two-way ANOVA followed by a SNK multiple range test, both on ranked data. Community level analysis was conducted with both a MANOVA on ranked data and a Canonical Correspondence Analysis on raw data. Results indicate that seeding positively affected species richness, particularly when combined with either burning or mowing in the early spring. Mowing also significantly increased species richness in areas that were not seeded, while burning negatively affected species richness on unseeded plots. Treatments significantly affected community composition with treatments having the most clear effect on spring and …
Date:
August 1999
Creator:
Windhager, Steven
System:
The UNT Digital Library