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Cognitive Level Demands of Test Items in State-Adopted Computer Science Textbooks (open access)

Cognitive Level Demands of Test Items in State-Adopted Computer Science Textbooks

Test items supplied with seven textbooks approved for use in Computer Science I and II curricula in Texas public schools were categorized by Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Eating was done by a panel of ten judges selected from a group of participants at a taxonomy workshop. The selection criterion was demonstration of at least 80 percent competency in item classification. Judges received a small stipend for completing the rating task. Of 2020 possible items, 998 were randomly selected for analysis. Equal percentages of items from each text were then randomly assigned to each rater. All statistical analyses were computed using SPSS/PC+ (version 2.1). In both courses, CLD frequencies decreased through the three lower levels. The percentage of questions falling in these levels was approximately 83 percent for both courses. However, the higher-level course contained almost 10 percent more Knowledge level questions than did the lower course. At the higher taxonomic levels, the decline was roughly five percent per level in CS I but erratic in CS II. Analysis by book also revealed wide differences within each course.
Date: August 1988
Creator: Aman, James R.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Three Item Selection Methods in Criterion-Referenced Tests (open access)

A Comparison of Three Item Selection Methods in Criterion-Referenced Tests

This study compared three methods of selecting the best discriminating test items and the resultant test reliability of mastery/nonmastery classifications. These three methods were (a) the agreement approach, (b) the phi coefficient approach, and (c) the random selection approach. Test responses from 1,836 students on a 50-item physical science test were used, from which 90 distinct data sets were generated for analysis. These 90 data sets contained 10 replications of the combination of three different sample sizes (75, 150, and 300) and three different numbers of test items (15, 25, and 35). The results of this study indicated that the agreement approach was an appropriate method to be used for selecting criterion-referenced test items at the classroom level, while the phi coefficient approach was an appropriate method to be used at the district and/or state levels. The random selection method did not have similar characteristics in selecting test items and produced the lowest reliabilities, when compared with the agreement and the phi coefficient approaches.
Date: August 1988
Creator: Lin, Hui-Fen
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of UFO and Near-Death Experiences as Vehicles for the Evolution of Human Consciousness (open access)

A Comparison of UFO and Near-Death Experiences as Vehicles for the Evolution of Human Consciousness

Abstract: This study compares unidentified flying object experiencers (UFOErs) with near-death experiencers (NDErs) in regard to changes in attitudes toward self, others, and life in general, toward religious or spiritual orientation, and toward psychic abilities and beliefs. Kenneth Ring's questionnaires administered to NDErs (1984) were given in this study to 93 persons whose UFOE included either a light experience, and object experience, or a "close encounter." The author concludes that the UFOE, like the NDE, provides impetus toward spiritual growth, but neither as consistently nor as strongly.
Date: Summer 1988
Creator: Davis, Lorraine
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Computer Graphics Primitives and the Scan-Line Algorithm (open access)

Computer Graphics Primitives and the Scan-Line Algorithm

This paper presents the scan-line algorithm which has been implemented on the Lisp Machine. The scan-line algorithm resides beneath a library of primitive software routines which draw more fundamental objects: lines, triangles and rectangles. This routine, implemented in microcode, applies the A(BC)*D approach to word boundary alignments in order to create an extremely fast, efficient, and general purpose drawing primitive. The scan-line algorithm improves on previous methodologies by limiting the number of CPU intensive instructions and by minimizing the number of words referenced. This paper will describe how to draw scan-lines and the constraints imposed upon the scan-line algorithm by the Lisp Machine's hardware and software.
Date: December 1988
Creator: Myjak, Michael D. (Michael David)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Computer Realization of Human Music Cognition (open access)

Computer Realization of Human Music Cognition

This study models the human process of music cognition on the digital computer. The definition of music cognition is derived from the work in music cognition done by the researchers Carol Krumhansl and Edward Kessler, and by Mari Jones, as well as from the music theories of Heinrich Schenker. The computer implementation functions in three stages. First, it translates a musical "performance" in the form of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) messages into LISP structures. Second, the various parameters of the performance are examined separately a la Jones's joint accent structure, quantified according to psychological findings, and adjusted to a common scale. The findings of Krumhansl and Kessler are used to evaluate the consonance of each note with respect to the key of the piece and with respect to the immediately sounding harmony. This process yields a multidimensional set of points, each of which is a cognitive evaluation of a single musical event within the context of the piece of music within which it occurred. This set of points forms a metric space in multi-dimensional Euclidean space. The third phase of the analysis maps the set of points into a topology-preserving data structure for a Schenkerian-like middleground structural analysis. This …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Albright, Larry E. (Larry Eugene)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Connections (open access)

Connections

In my problem-in-lieu-of-thesis, I investigated the connections formed between images which refer to disorder and those which connote imposed order; therefore, I pursued the following questions: 1. What connotations did each of the images have for me? 2. How was each image affected by taking it out of one context and placing it in a new one? 3. What relationships formed between images thus juxtaposed?
Date: May 1988
Creator: Miller, David
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Corporate Tax Rates and the Purchasing Power Parity Doctrine (open access)

Corporate Tax Rates and the Purchasing Power Parity Doctrine

This thesis analyzes the effect of corporate tax rates on the purchasing-power-parity (PPP) doctrine. The data used to test this hypothesis are drawn from the U. S., the U. K., the Federal Republic of Germany, Canada, and Japan. The first chapter introduces the reader to the concepts of the PPP doctrine and states the hypothesis. Chapter 2 reviews the literature on the PPP doctrine. Chapter 3 specifies a model of the PPP doctrine including tax rates. Chapter 4 reports and interprets the findings. The study is summarized and conclusions are drawn in chapter 5. In this study it is shown that tax rates are significant only in the case of the U. S. dollar/Canadian dollar exchange rate.
Date: August 1988
Creator: Ballard, Billy L. (Billy Lanoy)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Counseling Service Needs of Chinese College Students: Student, Faculty, and Student Affairs Staff Perceptions (open access)

Counseling Service Needs of Chinese College Students: Student, Faculty, and Student Affairs Staff Perceptions

This study was designed to explore the different perceptions of college students' counseling service needs as well as the perceptions of counseling services by the student, faculty, and student affairs staff groups and subgroups of each group. The research approach of this investigation was a case study of one national university in the Republic of China. This study tested seven hypotheses and the major findings are as follows: there were significant differences among students, faculty, and student affairs staff members' perceptions of counseling services in terms of importance and success. Although all three groups agreed that the achievement of the counseling goals were important, the students showed a significantly stronger expectation than did faculty members. Findings related to the success of counseling services in the institution indicated that student affairs staff members showed higher mean scores than did the faculty and students. All three groups perceived a significant discrepancy between the importance of counseling services and the success of counseling services. Moreover, all subgroups of students, as divided by demographic variables, perceived a significant discrepancy between the importance and success of counseling services. All subgroups of faculty and student affairs staff members, except the members of military instructors and members …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Chang, Sheue Mei
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cross-Cultural Validity of the Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence (open access)

Cross-Cultural Validity of the Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a non-verbal test of intelligence, the Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence (TONI), may be used for assessing intellectual abilities of children in India. This investigation is considered important since current instruments used in India were developed several years ago and do not adequately reflect present standards of performance. Further, current instruments do not demonstrate adequate validity, as procedures for development and cultural transport were frequently not in adherence to recommended guidelines for such practice. Data were collected from 91 normally achieving and 18 mentally retarded Indian children, currently enrolled in elementary schools. Data from an American comparison group were procured from the authors of the TONI. Subjects were matched on age, grade, and area of residence. Subjects were also from comparative socioeconomic backgrounds. Literature review of the theoretical framework supporting cross-cultural measurement of intellectual ability, a summary of major instruments developed for cross-cultural use, non-verbal measures of intellectual ability in India, and issues in cross-cultural research are discussed, with recommended methodology for test transport. Major findings are: (a) the factor scales derived from the Indian and American normally achieving groups indicate significant differences; (b) items 1, 3, 5, 8, …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Parmar, Rene S. (Rene Sumangala)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Decline of the Country-House Poem in England: A Study in the History of Ideas (open access)

The Decline of the Country-House Poem in England: A Study in the History of Ideas

This study discusses the evolution of the English country-house poem from its inception by Ben Jonson in "To Penshurst" to the present. It shows that in addition to stylistic and thematic borrowings primarily from Horace and Martial, traditional English values associated with the great hall and comitatus ideal helped define features of the English country-house poem, to which Jonson added the metonymical use of architecture. In the Jonsonian country-house poem, the country estate, exemplified by Penshurst, is a microcosm of the ideal English social organization characterized by interdependence, simplicity, service, hospitality, and balance between the active and contemplative life. Those poems which depart from the Jonsonian ideal are characterized by disequilibrium between the active and contemplative life, resulting in the predominance of artifice, subordination of nature, and isolation of art from the community, as exemplified by Thomas Carew's "To Saxham" and Richard Lovelace's "Amyntor's Grove." Architectural features of the English country house are examined to explain the absence of the Jonsonian country-house poem in the eighteenth century. The building tradition praised by Jonson gradually gave way to aesthetic considerations fostered by the professional architect and Palladian architecture, architectural patronage by the middle class, and change in identity of the country …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Harris, Candice R. (Candice Rae)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Derivation of Probability Density Functions for the Relative Differences in the Standard and Poor's 100 Stock Index Over Various Intervals of Time (open access)

Derivation of Probability Density Functions for the Relative Differences in the Standard and Poor's 100 Stock Index Over Various Intervals of Time

In this study a two-part mixed probability density function was derived which described the relative changes in the Standard and Poor's 100 Stock Index over various intervals of time. The density function is a mixture of two different halves of normal distributions. Optimal values for the standard deviations for the two halves and the mean are given. Also, a general form of the function is given which uses linear regression models to estimate the standard deviations and the means. The density functions allow stock market participants trading index options and futures contracts on the S & P 100 Stock Index to determine probabilities of success or failure of trades involving price movements of certain magnitudes in given lengths of time.
Date: August 1988
Creator: Bunger, R. C. (Robert Charles)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Descriptive Profile of Freshman Student-Athletes on a Division IAA University Intercollegiate Football Team for Consideration in General Administrative Decision Making Processes (open access)

A Descriptive Profile of Freshman Student-Athletes on a Division IAA University Intercollegiate Football Team for Consideration in General Administrative Decision Making Processes

The purpose of this study is to identify which characteristics of student-athletes are most helpful in making administrative decisions about intercollegiate athletic programs, and then to develop a descriptive profile of a group of student-athletes at a particular university. Additional purposes include comparing these descriptive data with other group data and with perceptions of the same group of student-athletes by faculty administrators at the same university. Data were collected in four phases. First, a jury of three experts developed a list of student-athlete characteristics they believed to be helpful in making administrative decisions regarding those athletes. Next, information was gathered to develop a descriptive profile of a selected group of eighteen student-athletes based on the identified characteristics. Next, statistical comparisons were made with available data from other groups of students and from the eight Athletic Council members' perceptions of the study group. Major findings include the identification of useful characteristics, inconsistencies between student-athlete high school ranks in class and SAT scores, high scores in hostility, and accurate perceptions of student-athletes by Athletic Council members.
Date: December 1988
Creator: Gunn, Lindsey
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Detector Comparison for Simultaneous Determination of Organic Acids and Inorganic Anions (open access)

Detector Comparison for Simultaneous Determination of Organic Acids and Inorganic Anions

The research reported here is a study of detector systems to determine those most suited for simultaneous organic acid, inorganic anion determination. Comparisons are made on the basis of detection limits and sensitivities for conductivity, UV/Vis, photoconductivity, and derivative conductivity detection systems. The investigation was made using a constant chromatographic system with the only variable component being the detector system. Eluant optimization conditions for each detector are reported along with tables reporting detection limits and sensitivities for each detector system. Various chromatograms are also shown to provide a visual comparison between detector results.
Date: August 1988
Creator: Pannell, Daniel K. (Daniel Kirk)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Determinants of Off-Balance-Sheet Hedging in the Value-Maximizing Firm: an Empirical Analysis (open access)

The Determinants of Off-Balance-Sheet Hedging in the Value-Maximizing Firm: an Empirical Analysis

The observed use (and indeed tremendous growth in volume) of forward contracts, futures, options, and swaps as hedges against interest rate risk, foreign exchange risk, and commodity price risk indicates that hedging does add value to the firm. The purpose this research was to empirically examine the value of off-balance-sheet hedging. The benefits of off-balance-sheet hedging were found to accrue from reducing (1) taxes, (2) expected financial distress costs, and (3) agency costs. Taxes. Hedging reduces the firm's tax liability by reducing the variability in taxable income. The value of hedging to the firm is a positive function of the convexity of the tax function and the variability of taxable income. Expected Financial Distress Costs. The value of hedging is a positive function of the degree to which hedging reduces the probability of financial distress and the costs of financial distress. Agency Cost. Due to the fact that bondholders and some managers hold fixed claims while shareholders hold variable claims, shareholders desire more risky projects than do bondholders or managers. Hedging reduces this conflict by allowing shareholders to undertake higher risk projects while protecting the holders of fixed claims. Firms can achieve the same benefits of hedging by using alternative …
Date: December 1988
Creator: Nance, Deana R. (Deana Reneé)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Determinants of Small Firm Performance: the Importance of Selected Managerial Personality Traits, Perceived Environmental Uncertainty, Scanning Activities, and Managerial Goal Setting Activities (open access)

Determinants of Small Firm Performance: the Importance of Selected Managerial Personality Traits, Perceived Environmental Uncertainty, Scanning Activities, and Managerial Goal Setting Activities

Much of the previous research on organizational performance deals with the larger businesses. As such, the owner/managers of small firms and researchers interested in small businesses have had to work with planning models which were not formulated with small businesses in mind. Therefore, the general purpose of this study is to help correct this deficiency and add to the body of knowledge concerning the contributions specific factors make toward increasing the performance of small firms. Specifically, selected managerial personality traits, managerial perceived environmental uncertainty, managerial scanning habits, and managerial goal setting activities are utilized to develop three models. The three models are used to determine the relationship the factors have to each other and the contribution the variables make toward the performance of the firm. The firms included in this study are located in a South Central metropolitan area. The firms have between 2 and 100 employees, sales of less than 3 million dollars, and have been in operation 2 years or longer. This study utilizes regression analysis and path analysis to determine the effects the factors have on each other and their contribution to the firm's performance. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSSx) is utilized to run …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Walker, Jim L.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Development of a Definition and Applied Evaluation Criteria for Psycho-Narrative Video Art (open access)

The Development of a Definition and Applied Evaluation Criteria for Psycho-Narrative Video Art

This thesis is concerned with three problems. The first is that of distinguishing and defining one category of video art. The second is developing criteria for the evaluation of works in this category. The third problem is the application of these criteria to a new psycho-narrative video art piece created by the author as well as two pieces by other artists. This paper examines the use of film and video as an art form, focusing on specific influences affecting the evolution of psycho-narrative video art. Definitions for video art and psycho-narrative video art are developed. Descriptive criteria and three critiques are used to justify the conclusions. A concluding artist statement presents the personal view of the author.
Date: May 1988
Creator: Sadlowski, Gail
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Development of the Near-Death Phenomena Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire (open access)

Development of the Near-Death Phenomena Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire

Article explaining a questionnaire used to study nurses' knowledge of and attitudes toward near-death phenomena and patients who have experienced them, as well as the development of a revised questionnaire that is more valid and reliable.
Date: Summer 1988
Creator: Thornburg, Nina R.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Developmental Appropriateness of the English Language Arts Essential Elements for Kindergarten (open access)

The Developmental Appropriateness of the English Language Arts Essential Elements for Kindergarten

The developmental appropriateness of the English language arts essential elements for kindergarten children in the State of Texas was evaluated by surveying the opinions of thirty-six kindergarten teachers in one school district. A questionnaire was developed using the essential elements so that respondents could record a yes or no opinion and supply additional comments on each essential element. Ninety-seven percent of the teachers responded. The results indicated rates of agreement for developmental appropriateness by the teachers surveyed to be 100% for language, 95% for listening, 94% for speaking and reading and 81% for writing.
Date: December 1988
Creator: Anderson, Susan R. (Susan Rogers)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Devil in Heaven: A Near-Death Experience with both Positive and Negative Facets (open access)

The Devil in Heaven: A Near-Death Experience with both Positive and Negative Facets

Article describing a near-death experience that is of interest because it began to unfold as a positive experience but then changed course to become a negatively toned one. The article presents the details of the case and notes its principal theoretical implications.
Date: Autumn 1988
Creator: Irwin, Harvey J. & Bramwell, Barbara A.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Differences in the Actual and Ideal Roles of Secondary School Counselors in Region X Schools as Perceived by Counselors, Principals, and Counselor Educators (open access)

Differences in the Actual and Ideal Roles of Secondary School Counselors in Region X Schools as Perceived by Counselors, Principals, and Counselor Educators

There has been extensive criticism of schools for allowing counselors to be used for duties that lie beyond defined counselor roles. The purpose of this study was to determine if counselors are still being misused today as they have allegedly been in the past. The problem was divided into nine questions in order to ascertain differences in actual and ideal roles of secondary school counselors as perceived by counselors, principals and counselor educators. The study was limited to secondary schools in the Region X Education Service Center in Texas. The study included brief definitions of roles and an extensive review of literature. Twenty-three schools from the Region X Education Service Center in Texas were chosen using a random, stratified selection process. A counselor and the principal from each of these schools were interviewed using a Q sort. Three counselor educators were randomly selected to participate from each of three universities in the area. The Q-sort technique was used in order to determine differences in actual and ideal perceptions of the counselor's role as held by counselors, principals, and counselor educators. Cohen's equation for Q sorts was used to establish correlations between the different perceptions. A t distribution for correlation was …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Dethlefsen, Anna K. (Anna Katheryn)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dress Style, Counselor and Client Gender and Expectations About Counseling (open access)

Dress Style, Counselor and Client Gender and Expectations About Counseling

This study explored the effects of counselor dress style and counselor and subject gender on clients' expectations about counseling. Two hundred fifty undergraduate students were given Tinsley's Expectations About Counseling questionnaire. Dress style was shown to have no effect on the expectations measured. Significant main effects were found for client gender, counselor gender and their two way interaction on the measures of responsibility, acceptance, confrontation, empathy, genuineness, tolerance, trustworthiness, concreteness, and immediacy. Post hoc analysis revealed that both male and female participants had higher expectations of female counselors than male counselors. Participants of both genders also expected female counselors to be more confrontive, genuine, trustworthy, concrete, and accepting than male counselors. They also had a higher expectation that counseling would address their immediate concerns.
Date: August 1988
Creator: Kimsey, Lisa P. (Lisa Pierce)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dually Semimodular Consistent Lattices (open access)

Dually Semimodular Consistent Lattices

A lattice L is said to be dually semimodular if for all elements a and b in L, a ∨ b covers b implies that a covers a ∧ b. L is consistent if for every join-irreducible j and every element x in L, the element x ∨ j is a join-irreducible in the upper interval [x,l]. In this paper, finite dually semimodular consistent lattices are investigated. Examples of these lattices are the lattices of subnormal subgroups of a finite group. In 1954, R. P. Dilworth proved that in a finite modular lattice, the number of elements covering exactly k elements is equal to the number of elements covered by exactly k elements. Here, it is established that if a finite dually semimodular consistent lattice has the same number of join-irreducibles as meet-irreducibles, then it is modular. Hence, a converse of Dilworth's theorem, in the case when k equals 1, is obtained for finite dually semimodular consistent lattices. Several combinatorial results are shown for finite consistent lattices similar to those already established for finite geometric lattices. The reach of an element x in a lattice L is the difference between the rank of x*, the join of x and all …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Gragg, Karen E. (Karen Elizabeth)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dubuisson: A Study of His Music for Solo Bass Viol (open access)

Dubuisson: A Study of His Music for Solo Bass Viol

Dubuisson (fl.1666-c.1685) is the sole French viol player-composer between Nicolas Hotman (1613-1663) and Le Sieur de Sainte-Colombe (d.c.1700) whose works are extant. His four suites from a Library of Congress manuscript (1666) are the oldest dated French music for the bass viol; his approximately 125 pieces are contained in five manuscript sources. This thesis brings together, for the first time, all the music from the five sources for study and analysis. Together with the few biographical details, this material is used to assess his position within the French viol school. Brief histories of the viol and the suite in France precede a discussion of Dubuisson's contributions to the evolution of the genre.
Date: December 1988
Creator: Cheney, Stuart
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Duval County Picture (San Diego, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 6, 1988 (open access)

Duval County Picture (San Diego, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 6, 1988

Weekly newspaper from San Diego, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: January 6, 1988
Creator: Cardenas, Alfredo E.
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History