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Acoustic Resonance Characteristics of Rock and Concrete Containing Fractures (open access)

Acoustic Resonance Characteristics of Rock and Concrete Containing Fractures

None
Date: August 1, 1998
Creator: Nakagawa, S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
N-Acylethanolamines and Plant Phospholipase D (open access)

N-Acylethanolamines and Plant Phospholipase D

Recently, three distinct isoforms of phospholipase D (PLD) were identified in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLD α represents the well-known form found in plants, while PLD β and γ have been only recently discovered (Pappan et al., 1997b; Qin et al., 1997). These isoforms differ in substrate selectivity and cofactors required for activity. Here, I report that PLD β and γ isoforms were active toward N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE), but PLD α was not. The ability of PLD β and γ to hydrolyze NAPE marks a key difference from PLD α. N-acylethanolamines (NAE), the hydrolytic products of NAPE by PLD β and γ, inhibited PLD α from castor bean and cabbage. Inhibition of PLD α by NAE was dose-dependent and inversely proportional to acyl chain length and degree of unsaturation. Enzyme kinetic analysis suggested non-competitive inhibition of PLD α by NAE 14:0. In addition, a 1.2-kb tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) cDNA fragment was isolated that possessed a 74% amino acid identity to Arabidopsis PLD β indicating that this isoform is expressed in tobacco cells. Collectively, these results provide evidence for NAE producing PLD activities and suggest a possible regulatory role for NAE with respect to PLD α.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Brown, Shea Austin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adlerian Personality Priorities of Siblings of Individuals with Tourette Syndrome (open access)

Adlerian Personality Priorities of Siblings of Individuals with Tourette Syndrome

This study was designed to examine Adlerian personality priorities of siblings of individuals with Tourette Syndrome (TS). This study aimed to investigate whether a difference exists between TS siblings and siblings of those without disabilities on variables related to personality priorities. It was hypothesized that TS siblings would score significantly higher than the control group on the superiority and pleasing personality priorities and significantly lower on the comfort and control personality priorities. Both of the hypotheses were rejected. First, no significant difference was found between TS siblings and the control group on the superiority and pleasing personality priorities. Second, no significant difference was found between TS siblings and the control group on the comfort personality priority, and TS siblings scored significantly higher than the control group on the control personality priority.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Sims, Deanna
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Personality Characteristics and Comorbidity (open access)

Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Personality Characteristics and Comorbidity

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is surrounded by confusion and controversy regarding its definition, course, etiology and treatment. Among adults, ADHD is rarely considered a diagnostic reality of primary importance and is often overlooked. This study provides descriptive validity for adult ADHD in distinguishing it from controls, and identifying both a pure condition and one wrought with comorbidity.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Austin, Karla Michele
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Adult Educational Research Model for Developing an Evaluation System for Clergy (open access)

An Adult Educational Research Model for Developing an Evaluation System for Clergy

Formal job performance evaluation of a church's pastoral staff has been almost nonexistent in many churches. While business and education have been making strides in evaluation techniques during the past three decades, the church is just beginning to notice the need for this kind of accountability and ongoing professional development. In this research, the author applied the evaluation techniques of education to church pastoral staff members. Evaluation can be understood as both a formative process and a summative decision. The steps to planning an evaluation that will be both formative and summative are discussed. Qualifying the ministerial tasks through objective job descriptions will enable the church to quantify the job performance through evaluation. Suggestions are given for developing a ministerial evaluation instrument. In this research a model from educational evaluation was adapted for use in a local church setting. One denomination was selected to demonstrate the process of evaluation development. Denominational governments differ considerably. Therefore, the key stakeholders of the church for the chosen denomination were identified as pastors and church board members. These stakeholders were used as a "panel of experts." The Delphi technique was used to develop consensus from the participants concerning (1) the core skills of ministerial …
Date: August 1998
Creator: Burnside, Burnie R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Advanced far infrared blocked impurity band detectors based on germanium liquid phase epitaxy (open access)

Advanced far infrared blocked impurity band detectors based on germanium liquid phase epitaxy

This research has shown that epilayers with residual impurity concentrations of 5 x 10{sup 13} cm{sup {minus}3} can be grown by producing the purest Pb available in the world. These epilayers have extremely low minority acceptor concentrations, which is ideal for fabrication of IR absorbing layers. The Pb LPE growth of Ge also has the advantageous property of gettering Cu from the epilayer and the substrate. Epilayers have been grown with intentional Sb doping for IR absorption on lightly doped substrates. This research has proven that properly working Ge BIB detectors can be fabricated from the liquid phase as long as pure enough solvents are available. The detectors have responded at proper wavelengths when reversed biased even though the response did not quite reach minimum wavenumbers. Optimization of the Sb doping concentration should further decrease the photoionization energy of these detectors. Ge BIB detectors have been fabricated that respond to 60 cm{sup {minus}1} with low responsivity. Through reduction of the minority residual impurities, detector performance has reached responsivities of 1 A/W. These detectors have exhibited quantum efficiency and NEP values that rival conventional photoconductors and are expected to provide a much more sensitive tool for new scientific discoveries in a …
Date: May 1, 1998
Creator: Olsen, C.S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Advanced Molecular and Microbial Techniques: a Complete Laboratory Notebook (open access)

Advanced Molecular and Microbial Techniques: a Complete Laboratory Notebook

The purpose of this project is to produce a complete and thorough notebook that may be used to supplement laboratory coursework. Its intent is to be used primarily by the students to aid them in understanding background information and the proper laboratory procedures involved in various types of experiments. The laboratory notebook is a summation of all the experiments and procedures used in the six-credit hour Advanced Microbial and Molecular Biology (BIOL 5160) course offered during the summer semester at the University of North Texas. This class is a team taught effort by Professors O'Donovan and Kunz. The course is constructed as an intensive practice exercise to teach the student about gene mutations, biosynthetic pathways, preparation and analysis of plasmid DNA, and many other topics included in the notebook.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Brito-Rodriquez, Carmen Lydia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Advanced Techniques in Microbial and Molecular Biology: Laboratory Procedures for a Graduate Level Course (open access)

Advanced Techniques in Microbial and Molecular Biology: Laboratory Procedures for a Graduate Level Course

Advanced laboratory techniques for Microbial and Molecular Biology at the graduate level are presented in this thesis. The procedures for the laboratory experiments are set forth in detail. This laboratory is conducted as two parts, each by a different professor. Part 1 covers the experiments conducted by Dr G.A.O. Donovan. These experiments include an introduction, staining procedures, biochemical reactions, mutagenesis experiment, essays,. preparation and analysis of plasmid DNA and various other topics. Part 2 covers the experiments conducted by Dr. Daniel Kunz and includes various topics like media preparation, phenotyping strains, conjugative transfer of plasmids, SDS-PAGE, induction and measurement of enzyme and transposon mutagenesis
Date: August 1998
Creator: Kumar, Shalini
System: The UNT Digital Library
I. Advances in NMR Signal Processing. II. Spin Dynamics in Quantum Dissipative Systems (open access)

I. Advances in NMR Signal Processing. II. Spin Dynamics in Quantum Dissipative Systems

None
Date: November 1, 1998
Creator: Lin, Yung-Ya
System: The UNT Digital Library
Alcohol Use, Violence, and Psychological Abuse in Intimate Relationships (open access)

Alcohol Use, Violence, and Psychological Abuse in Intimate Relationships

Women in distressed relationships who had sustained severe psychological abuse and either no, moderate, or severe violence from their partner were included (N = 93). Men's and women's alcohol use did not differ with level of violence. Different patterns were found in the moderate violence group regarding women's beliefs about their partner's substance problem, men's psychological abuse, and the relationship of men's and women's quantity of alcohol use and times intoxicated. Uncertainty resulting from moderate violence may strengthen the emotional impact of psychological abuse. Even when psychological abuse is exacerbated by violence, women may use active coping techniques rather than drinking to cope with abusive relationships. The findings suggest that an inordinate focus on alcohol abuse may be ineffective in combating the problem of domestic violence.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Falla, Karen M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
American Indian Music in Elementary School Music Programs of Oklahoma : Repertoire, Authenticity and Instruction (open access)

American Indian Music in Elementary School Music Programs of Oklahoma : Repertoire, Authenticity and Instruction

The purpose of this study was to determine the instructional methods of Oklahoma's elementary school music educators with respect to the inclusion of an authentic repertoire of American Indian music in the curriculum. The research was conducted through two methods. First, an analysis and review of adopted textbook series and pertinent supplemental resources on American Indian music was made. Second, a survey of K-6 grade elementary music specialists in Oklahoma during the 1997-1998 school year was conducted.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Damm, Robert J., 1964-
System: The UNT Digital Library
American Literary Pragmatism : Lighting Out for the Territory (open access)

American Literary Pragmatism : Lighting Out for the Territory

This thesis discusses pragmatist philosophy in the nineteenth century and its effect on American literature of the time.
Date: August 1998
Creator: England, Peter S. (Peter Shands)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analyses of Particulate Contaminants in Semiconductor Processing Fluids (open access)

Analyses of Particulate Contaminants in Semiconductor Processing Fluids

Particle contamination control is a critical issue for the semiconductor industry. In the near future, this industry will be concerned with the chemical identities of contaminant particles as small as 0.01 pm in size. Therefore, analytical techniques with both high chemical sensitivity and spatial resolution are required. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides excellent spatial resolution and yields structural and compositional information. It is rarely used, however, due to the difficulty of sample preparation. The goals of this research are to promote the use of TEM as an ultrafine particle analysis tool by developing new sample preparation methods, and to exploit the new TEM techniques for analysis of particles in semiconductor processing fluids. A TEM methodology for the analysis of particulate contaminants in fluids with an elemental detectability limit as low as 0.1 part per trillion (ppt), and a particle concentration detectability limit as low as 1 particle/ml for particles greater than 0.2 pm was developed and successfully applied to the analysis of particles in HF, H202, de-ionized (DI) water, and on the surface of an electronic device. HF samples from three manufacturers were examined. For HF (B), the maximum particle concentration was 8.3 x 103 particles/ml. Both a viscous material …
Date: August 1998
Creator: Xu, Daxue
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of Basic Design Education in Turkey and Implications for Changes in Postsecondary Art Curriculum (open access)

An Analysis of Basic Design Education in Turkey and Implications for Changes in Postsecondary Art Curriculum

This study explored the current status of Turkish basic art education and the objectives of the first year art program at the university level in Turkey. Also, the researcher attempted to explore the objectives and expectations of Turkish art professors and to examine the applicability of certain concepts of American basic design education in the teaching of studio foundation courses in Turkish art schools. The study included the literature review concerning changes in educational philosophy related to the history of design education in the West and in Turkey.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Oztuna, Haci Yakup
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of How Interest Groups Influence the Policy-making Process for the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1997 (open access)

An Analysis of How Interest Groups Influence the Policy-making Process for the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1997

This study examined the policy letters and verbal testimony transcripts submitted by interest groups to the United States Department of Education (USDE) in response to the proposed regulations pertaining to the implementation of the 1997 reauthorization of P. L. 105-17, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Specifically, this study analyzed the emerging themes in the area of discipline. Responses were received from the following interest groups: (a) school administrators, (b) parents, (c) teachers, (d) state educational agencies (SEAs), (e) national educational organizations, and (f) members of the United States Congress. In addition to analyzing the emerging themes, the study compared these themes to ones found in the current literature and court cases.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Price, Laura Black
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analysis of Phytoplankton Responses to Water Chemistry Dynamics in a Moderately Eutrophic North Texas Reservoir (open access)

Analysis of Phytoplankton Responses to Water Chemistry Dynamics in a Moderately Eutrophic North Texas Reservoir

Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to explore relationships between measured environmental variables and in situ phytoplankton communities in a moderately eutrophic North Texas Reservoir.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Banks, Kenneth E. (Kenneth Edward)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of the Performance of a Clinical Sample of African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic Children on the WISC-III (open access)

An Analysis of the Performance of a Clinical Sample of African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic Children on the WISC-III

The goals of revision for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition included enhancement of the factor structure, improvement of subtests, and revision of norms. The researchers reported that the very few items that were found to be biased were replaced. The WISC-III performance of a clinical sample of African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic children was analyzed to determine if the test bias was eliminated as claimed in the goals of the revision.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Ewing, Melissa L. (Melissa Lynn)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analysis of the Trypanosoma brucei Genome and Identification and Characterization of a Gene Family Encoding Putative EF-Hand Calcium-Binding Proteins (open access)

Analysis of the Trypanosoma brucei Genome and Identification and Characterization of a Gene Family Encoding Putative EF-Hand Calcium-Binding Proteins

The flagellum of Trypanosoma brucei contains a family of antigenically related EF-hand calcium-binding proteins which are called the calflagins. Genomic Southern blots indicated that multiple copies of calflagin genes occur in T brucei. All of the copies were contained in a single 23 kb Xhol-Xhol fragment. Genomic fragments of 2.5 and 1.7 kb were cloned that encoded calflagin sequences. Two new members of the calflagin family were found from genomic clone sequences. The deduced amino acid sequences of the genomic clones showed the calflagin genes were arranged tandemly along the genomic fragments and were similar to previously described calflagins. The calflagin genes were related by two unrelated 3' flanking sequences. An open reading frame that was unrelated to any calflagin was found at the 5' end of the 2.5 kb genomic fragment. Each encoded protein (~24,000u) contained three EF-hand calcium-binding motifs and one degenerate EF-hand motif. In general, variability among the T. brucei calflagins is greater than related proteins in T. lewisii and T. cruzi. This variability results from amino acid substitutions at the amino and carboxy termini, and duplication of internal segments.
Date: May 1998
Creator: DeFord, James H. (James Henry), 1956-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analysis of Thermoplastic Polyimide + Polymer Liquid Crystal Blends (open access)

Analysis of Thermoplastic Polyimide + Polymer Liquid Crystal Blends

Thermoplastic polyimides (TPIs) exhibit high glass transition temperatures (Tgs), which make them useful in high performance applications. Amorphous and semicrystalline TPIs show sub-Tg relaxations, which can aid in improving strength characteristics through energy absorption. The a relaxation of both types of TPIs indicates a cooperative nature. The semicrystalline TPI shows thermo-irreversible cold crystallization phenomenon. The polymer liquid crystal (PLC) used in the blends is thermotropic and with longitudinal molecular structure. The small heat capacity change (ACP) associated with the glass transition indicates the PLC to be rigid rod in nature. The PLC shows a small endotherm associated with the melting. The addition of PLC to the semicrystalline TPI does not significantly affect the Tg or the melting point (Tm). The cold crystallization temperature (Tc) increases with the addition of the PLC, indicating channeling phenomenon. The addition of PLC also causes a negative deviation of the ACP, which is another evidence for channeling. The TPI, PLC and their blends show high thermal stability. The semicrystalline TPI absorbs moisture; this effect decreases with the addition of the PLC. The absorbed moisture does not show any effect on the degradation. The addition of PLC beyond 30 wt.% does not result in an improvement …
Date: May 1998
Creator: Gopalanarayanan, Bhaskar
System: The UNT Digital Library
Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Hell: the Rhetoric of Universality in Bessie Head (open access)

Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Hell: the Rhetoric of Universality in Bessie Head

This dissertation approaches the work of South African/Botswanan novelist Bessie Head, especially the novel A Question of Power, as positioned within the critical framework of the postcolonial paradigm, the genius of which accommodates both African and African American literature without recourse to racial essentialism. A central problematic of postcolonial literary criticism is the ideological stance postcolonial authors adopt with respect to the ideology of the metropolis, whether on the one hand the stances they adopt are collusive, or on the other oppositional. A key contested concept is that of universality, which has been widely regarded as a witting or unwitting tool of the metropolis, having the effect of denigrating the colonial subject. It is my thesis that Bessie Head, neither entirely collusive nor oppositional, advocates an Africanist universality that paradoxically eliminates the bias implicit in metropolitan universality.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Edwards, George, Jr.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Apostasy (and Return) of Lenny Gorsuch (open access)

The Apostasy (and Return) of Lenny Gorsuch

This comic romantic novel engages the question of how the Christianity of the southern, fundamentalist world of the Texas bible belt, finding its primary cultural assumptions about human existence challenged by the more confusing elements of a modern sensibility, a sensibility over-laden with strange-attractors, mechanistic psychologies, relativistic physics and ethics, evolutionary premises, newly proclaimed rights and freedoms, a deterioration in cultural political naivete, and the advent of an increasingly incomprehensible set of technologies, can survive. The "central" character is a young, slightly deformed man raised by his ostensibly "Christian" grandparents who, through a rather odd set of legal circumstances and physical events, not only become wealthy, but somewhat powerful in their immediate community. He finds himself involved with a young woman, raised in an equally "Christian" household, but, as is true of any romantic plot, the relationship between the two is destined, by virtue of circumstance and the meddling of other characters, to struggle and mishap. In the end, the text, in its own fashion, asserts that the Christian impulse can survive the modern era by virtue of one of its central tenets: faith, in the Christian world, is very much the same as life itself, a process of waiting …
Date: August 1998
Creator: Guidici, Guy R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The applicability of certain Monte Carlo methods to the analysis of interacting polymers (open access)

The applicability of certain Monte Carlo methods to the analysis of interacting polymers

The authors consider polymers, modeled as self-avoiding walks with interactions on a hexagonal lattice, and examine the applicability of certain Monte Carlo methods for estimating their mean properties at equilibrium. Specifically, the authors use the pivoting algorithm of Madras and Sokal and Metroplis rejection to locate the phase transition, which is known to occur at {beta}{sub crit} {approx} 0.99, and to recalculate the known value of the critical exponent {nu} {approx} 0.58 of the system for {beta} = {beta}{sub crit}. Although the pivoting-Metropolis algorithm works well for short walks (N < 300), for larger N the Metropolis criterion combined with the self-avoidance constraint lead to an unacceptably small acceptance fraction. In addition, the algorithm becomes effectively non-ergodic, getting trapped in valleys whose centers are local energy minima in phase space, leading to convergence towards different values of {nu}. The authors use a variety of tools, e.g. entropy estimation and histograms, to improve the results for large N, but they are only of limited effectiveness. Their estimate of {beta}{sub crit} using smaller values of N is 1.01 {+-} 0.01, and the estimate for {nu} at this value of {beta} is 0.59 {+-} 0.005. They conclude that even a seemingly simple system …
Date: May 1, 1998
Creator: Krapp, D.M. Jr.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Applications of electrochemically-modulated liquid chromatography (EMLC): Separations of aromatic amino acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (open access)

Applications of electrochemically-modulated liquid chromatography (EMLC): Separations of aromatic amino acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

The research in this thesis explores the separation capabilities of a new technique termed electrochemically-modulated liquid chromatography (EMLC). The thesis begins with a general introduction section which provides a literature review of this technique as well as a brief background discussion of the two research projects in each of the next two chapters. The two papers which follow investigate the application of EMLC to the separation of a mixture of aromatic amino acids and of a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The last section presents general conclusions and summarizes the thesis. References are compiled in the reference section of each chapter. The two papers have been removed for separate processing.
Date: March 27, 1998
Creator: Deng, L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Assessing the Feasibility of Developing a DBAE Curriculum in Qatar Utilizing Multimedia Technology (open access)

Assessing the Feasibility of Developing a DBAE Curriculum in Qatar Utilizing Multimedia Technology

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of developing an art curriculum in Qatar, using the principles of the DBAE curriculum in conjunction with technology. Many of the challenges facing art educators and the art curriculum in Qatar can be approached through the multimedia applications of DBAE, which will provide instructors and students with an opportunity to more readily interact with visual art and to discover its educational relevance. Additionally, this study attempted to discover whether teachers are engaged in implementing technology in the art classroom and whether they are given the opportunity to engage in art to their satisfaction.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Al-Hamad, Wafaa
System: The UNT Digital Library