Degree Level

States

The Apologist Tradition: A Transitional Period in Southern Proslavery Thought, 1831-1845

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Early antebellum defenders of slavery acknowledged that slavery created problems for southern society. They contended, however, that slave society was better and more natural than other forms of social organization. Thomas R. Dew, William Harper, and James Henry Hammond each expressed a social philosophy in which slavery had a crucial role in preserving social order. They argued from the basis of social organicism, the idea that society should have an elite that controlled the masses. For all three men, slavery represented a system of order that helped balance the dangers of democracy. Significantly, however, all three men recognized that the slave system was not perfect, and despite their defense of slavery, argued that it was a human institution and therefore corruptible.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Austin, Clara
System: The UNT Digital Library

Bird Bones and a Hatched Egg

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
A fifty page manuscript of poetry and a critical introduction detailing the poet's aesthetics. Using the idea of the double-image and eroticism, the poet places her work in the category of the surreal. She describes the process of writing poetry born of fragmentary elements as a feminist emergence of agency. The manuscript is composed of four sections, each an element in the inevitable breakdown of a love relationship: meeting, love-making, birth of a child, death. Quotes from various authors of anthropological and fictional texts begin each section to reinforce thematic structure in a process of unveiling the agency of the narrator. The poems are organized as a series, beginning and ending with sequence poems.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Skebe, Carolyn Alifair
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Effect of Attachment on Preschooler's Emotion Understanding

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between attachment and emotion understanding in preschoolers. Data was collected from 16 preschool children and their mothers recruited from a private learning center in a downtown metropolitan area. Attachment was measured by use of the Attachment Q-sort, 3.0 (Waters, 1995), while emotion understanding was assessed through use of Denham's (1986) affective perspective-taking task and interviews of children concerning naturally occurring emotions and emotion causes (Fabes et al., 1991). Results included a significant correlation (p < .05) between secure attachment and preschooler's ability to decipher the cause of another's emotion; however, a significant correlation was not found between secure attachment and preschooler's perspective-taking ability or ability to name other's emotions. Thus, conclusions about the impact of attachment upon emotion understanding were mixed, and more research on the subject was implicated.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Hernandez, Jennie R.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Effect of Engineered Surfaces on Valve Performance

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Performance of air operated valves is a major maintenance concern in process industries. Anecdotal information indicates that reliability of some high maintenance valves has been improved by using an ion deposition process to achieve engineered surfaces on selected components. This project compared friction for various surface treatments of selected valve components. Results indicate valve performance may be slightly more consistent when an engineered surface is applied in the valve packing area; however surface treatment in this area does not appear to have a dominant affect on reducing valve friction. Results indicate a linear relation between stem friction and torque applied to packing flange nuts, and even after a valve is in service, controlled packing adjustments can be made without significantly changing valve stroke time.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Pope, Larry G.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Effects of Reinforcement History on Stimulus Control Relations

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Ray (1969) conducted an experiment on multiple stimulus-response relations and selective attention. Ray's (1969) results suggested that stimulus-response relations function as behavioral units. McIlvane and Dube (1996) indicated that if stimulus-response relations are behavioral units the effects of environmental variables on stimulus-response relations should be similar to the effects of environmental variables on single response topographies. This experiment analyzed the effects of reinforcement history on the probability of stimulus-response relations with differing reinforcement histories. In separate conditions random-ratio schedules of reinforcement were contingent on each of four discriminated responses. To assess the effects of reinforcement, during test conditions stimuli controlling different topographies were present concurrently in composite form. Results show that reinforcement history affects the probability of each response topography and that the association between response topographies and their controlling stimuli tends to remain constant throughout variations in reinforcement probability.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Reyes, Fredy
System: The UNT Digital Library

Logic Programming Tools for Dynamic Content Generation and Internet Data Mining

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The phenomenal growth of Information Technology requires us to elicit, store and maintain huge volumes of data. Analyzing this data for various purposes is becoming increasingly important. Data mining consists of applying data analysis and discovery algorithms that under acceptable computational efficiency limitations, produce a particular enumeration of patterns over the data. We present two techniques based on using Logic programming tools for data mining. Data mining analyzes data by extracting patterns which describe its structure and discovers co-relations in the form of rules. We distinguish analysis methods as visual and non-visual and present one application of each. We explain that our focus on the field of Logic Programming makes some of the very complex tasks related to Web based data mining and dynamic content generation, simple and easy to implement in a uniform framework.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Gupta, Anima
System: The UNT Digital Library

Sarah T. Hughes: Her Influence in Texas Politics

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Conservative males traditionally dominated Texas politics. In 1930, however, Sarah T. Hughes, a liberal woman from Maryland, began a spectacular career in state politics despite obstacles because of her gender and progressive ideas. First elected to the Texas Legislature in 1930, she remained active in politics for the next fifty years. Hard work, intelligence, and ability allowed her to form solid friendships with Texas's most powerful politicians. She became the first woman in Texas to hold a district judgeship, the first woman from Texas appointed to the federal bench, and the only woman to swear in a U.S. president. Hughes profoundly influenced state politics, challenging the long-standing conservative male domination. She helped to create a more diverse political field that today encompasses different ideologies and both genders.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Justiss, Charnita Spring
System: The UNT Digital Library

Adherence and Haemagglutination of Moraxella Catarrhalis.

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
M. catarrhalis is a gram-negative diplococci frequently associated with infections of the upper respiratory tract. During the past decade, some preliminary studies have attempted to elucidate mechanisms of adherence and haemagglutination of M. catarrhalis. These studies have reported, in many cases, inconsistent results. There are two purposes of this research. First, identify mechanisms that may potentially be associated with the adherence and haemagglutination of M. catarrhalis. Second, suggest research directions that may be fruitful in clarifying these mechanisms.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Kosterman, Edward, III
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Application of a Health Service Utilization Model to a Low Income, Ethnically Diverse Sample of Women

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
A model for health care utilization was applied to a sample of low income women. Demographic Predisposing, Psychosocial Predisposing, Illness Level, and Enabling indicators were examined separately for African American (n = 266), Anglo American (n = 200), and Mexican American (n = 210) women. Structural Equation Modeling revealed that for African American and Anglo American women, Illness Level, the only significant path to Utilization, had a mediating effect on Psychosocial Predisposing indicators. The model for Mexican Americans was the most complex with Enabling indicators affecting Illness Level and Utilization. Psychosocial Predisposing indicators were mediated by Illness Level and Enabling indicators which both directly affected Utilization. Implications of the results for future research are addressed.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Keenan, Lisa A.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Assisted Living: The Need for Creation of Affordable Options

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Assisted living, the fastest growing segment of the senior housing industry, allows individuals to remain as independent as they prefer and still receive necessary services. However, assisted living residences exist primarily to serve those seniors who can pay for the services from their own savings/income. We are facing a critical need for housing options for both the current senior generation and the soon-to-be-retired baby boomers. How will access to assisted living be opened to all types of payors? How will states fund the growth of assisted living? The purpose of this paper is to discuss opportunities for expansion that will make assisted living an affordable option for the low- and moderate-income elderly.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Kretzinger, Robert W.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Characterizing the Municipal Solid Waste Stream in Denton, Texas

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Forty-two commercially collected dumpsters from Denton’s Municipal Solid Waste Stream were emptied, sorted and weighed to characterize the material types and make preliminary recycling policy recommendations. The general composition of Denton’s solid waste stream was not significantly different from the composition of the nation’s solid waste stream. Fifty-eight percent of the observed waste stream was recyclable. Paper made up the largest portion of recyclable materials and the "grocery" source category had more paper than any of the other five categories. Based on these findings, an incrementally aggressive approach is recommended to reduce certain types of wastes observed in the waste stream. This would include a Pay-As-You-Throw Program followed by an Intermediate Processing Center that can be converted to a Materials Recovery Facility.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Brady, Patricia D.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Consumer Attitude Towards Branded Quick-Service Foods on Domestic Coach Class In-Flight Menus

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
This study examined consumer attitude towards adding branded quick-service items on domestic airline in-flight menus with the aim of assessing the variables of perceived customer value and customer satisfaction. A random sample of one hundred sixteen frequent flyers residing in the United States participated in the study. An examination of consumer attitude towards branded quick-service menu items if introduced on domestic in-flight menus was performed. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine which of the four relationships was the most significant. The results showed that frequent flyer satisfaction with branded quick-service food items had the most significant relationship with perceived satisfaction of adding branded quick-service foods to coach class in-flight meal service.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Mills, Juline
System: The UNT Digital Library

General Biology Lecture and Laboratory Curriculum Outline in a Two or Four-Year College

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
In July of 1999, I wrote to 24 Texas junior and community colleges (and one four-year institution) describing my thesis agenda of a general biology lecture and laboratory syllabus for introductory biology students. I requested the titles and authors of the general biology textbooks and laboratory manuals they were currently using, the publishers of these texts, and the edition of said texts. I then contacted publishers of the various textbooks who, in turn, directed me to the Dallas-area representatives for further inquiries. I assimilated the various authors' general biology topics into a two-semester syllabus of lecture and one semester of laboratory. The document is not a text manuscript, but an all-inclusive listing of a general biology syllabus broken down by subject.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Moreland, Amy L.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Inquiry-based science for high school students: a forensic unit

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
This project constitutes an instructional unit for honors biology that involves the use of science in the field of criminal investigation and forensics. Before beginning the unit, the learners should have mastered basic laboratory skills, including use of the microscope. They should also have an understanding of the basic structure and function of DNA and its role in heredity and protein synthesis. The standard time frame is 24 days with 70-minute periods, but can be easily adjusted to meet classroom needs. Several instructional strategies enhance student learning and make science fun. The unit is inquiry-driven and activity-based. Students are surprised by the crime, gather and analyze evidence, and work towards proposing an explanation. This real world problem involves the use of cooperative learning and a variety of assessment techniques.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Apple, Kendra Kea
System: The UNT Digital Library

Keyboard Innovation: Harry Partch's Contributions

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
"Harry Partch's Keyboard Innovation" is a computer-assisted demonstration that introduces the tuning system used primarily by the twentieth-century American composer, Harry Partch. The multimedia product was developed in Director 6.0, and it includes sound and video clips from CDs and videocassettes of Partch's works produced by Phillip Blackburn and distributed by the American Composers Forum. The content of the demonstration involves a 43-tone microtonal tuning system and its application in the music literature. This demonstration will discuss the chronological order in which these prototypes were developed and also includes samples of the tuning of notes in Partch's scale that the novice can experiment with interactively. These tones were synthesized using the Csound scores shown in Appendix B. Materials for this demonstration are based on Harry Partch's Genesis of a Music.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Koh,Wee Lay
System: The UNT Digital Library

Life History and Case Building Behaviors of Phylloicus ornatus (Banks) (Trichoptera: Calamoceratidae) In Two Spring Fed Tributaries in the Central Edwards Plateau Bioregion of Texas

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The life history and case-making behaviors of Phylloicus ornatus from two springfed first order streams in the Edwards Plateau Bioregion of Texas were studied from January 1998 to November 1999. Field larval, pupal and adult samples and laboratory rearings indicated a multivoltine cycle. First instars differ from late instars in number of labral setae and in having a unique spur-like claw on each lateral hump. Larval development was asynchronous with second through fifth instars and pupae present most months. First instars were present April through July, October and November. Case making of first instar and case reconstruction of later instars extracted from their cases was documented by videophotography.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Norwood, James Christopher
System: The UNT Digital Library

Loading the Problem Loader: The Effects of Target Training and Shaping on Trailer Loading Behavior of Horses in a Natural Setting

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The purpose of this study was to develop an effective method for trailer loading horses based on the principles of positive reinforcement. Target training and shaping were used to teach trailer loading behavior in a natural setting. Five AQHA mares were selected for this program. All five had been loaded before through the use of punishment. A two-horse trailer was used. Approximations to loading and inappropriate behaviors were the dependent variables. When intervention started the target was moved to various locations inside the trailer. Subjects started training on the left side of the trailer. After a subject was loading in the left side they were moved to the right side, then to loading half on the right and half on the left, then they were loaded by a different trainer, and into a different trailer. For one subject a limited hold was utilized, as well as a companion horse.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Ferguson, Dawnery
System: The UNT Digital Library

Maintaining behavior in a child with autism using a previously neutral stimulus, a remote control tactile stimulus, as the consequence

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Few studies have investigated methods for establishing neutral stimuli as conditioned reinforcers in human subjects. Conditioned reinforcers, however, can alleviate some of the problems encountered in applied behavior analytic (ABA) therapy for children with autism, such as satiation and suitability of reinforcers for specific environments. A series of reversals evaluated the effects of a conditioning procedure involving pairing a neutral stimulus, the remote control stimulus (RCT), with an identified reinforcer. Phase 1 demonstrated that the RCT was neutral. In Phase 2, alternating pairing and testing conditions were run. During testing the effects of pairing were evaluated by the effectiveness of the RCT in maintaining a response in the absence of a previously available reinforcer (extinction test) and in increasing a new response over a baseline level (learning test). Results from the extinction test suggest that under some pairing conditions the RCT can acquire properties of a reinforcer.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Wheat, Leigh Ann Stiles
System: The UNT Digital Library

Multi-Agent Architecture for Internet Information Extraction and Visualization

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The World Wide Web is one of the largest sources of information; more and more applications are being developed daily to make use of this information. This thesis presents a multi-agent architecture that deals with some of the issues related to Internet data extraction. The primary issue addresses the reliable, efficient and quick extraction of data through the use of HTTP performance monitoring agents. A second issue focuses on how to make use of available data to take decisions and alert the user when there is change in data; this is done with the help of user agents that are equipped with a Defeasible reasoning interpreter. An additional issue is the visualization of extracted data; this is done with the aid of VRML visualization agents. The cited issues are discussed using stock portfolio management as an example application.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Gollapally, Devender R.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Stretched Out On Her Grave: The Evolution of a Perversion

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The word "necrophilia" brings a particular definition readily to mind – that of an act of sexual intercourse with a corpse, probably a female corpse at that. But the definition of the word did not always have this connotation; quite literally the word means "love of the dead," or "a morbid attraction to death." An examination of nineteenth-century literature reveals a gradual change in relationships between the living and the dead, culminating in the sexualized representation of corpses at the close of the century. The works examined for necrophilic content are: Mary Wollstonecraft’s Mary, A Fiction, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Jewel of Seven Stars.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Angel-Cann, Lauryn
System: The UNT Digital Library

Victims of Hope: Explaining Jewish Behavior in the Treblinka, Sobibór and Birkenau Extermination Camps

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
I analyze the behavior of Jews imprisoned in the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau extermination camps in order to illustrate a systematic process of deception and psychological conditioning, which the Nazis employed during World War II to preclude Jewish resistance to the Final Solution. In Chapter I, I present resistance historiography as it has developed since the end of the war. In Chapter II, I delineate my own argument on Jewish behavior during the Final Solution, limiting my definition of resistance and the applicability of my thesis to behavior in the extermination camp, or closed, environment. In Chapters III, IV, and V, I present a detailed narrative of the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau revolts using secondary sources and selected survivor testimony. Finally, in Chapter VI, I isolate select parts of the previous narratives and apply my argument to demonstrate its validity as an explanation for Jewish behavior.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Motl, Kevin C.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Women in Public Relations: Our Past, Present, and Future

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Since abolition, women have used the media to bring attention to causes and injustices in society. Issues faced by these women are some of the same issues faced by women in public relations today and possibly the future. This paper is the history of the women of pre-professional public relations in relation to their use of the media to bring about change and communicate with an audience. It also discusses the evolution of the public relations profession as it pertains to the parallel issues that the women of the first wave faced in relation to the second wave, or professional era. The paper will then synthesize these two eras in public relations and discuss the future of women in the profession as seen by researchers and women practicing at this time.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Moore, Jaimee
System: The UNT Digital Library

An Analysis of the Composition Process of Bartók's Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, Op. 20

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
This is a study of Bartók's compositional process as it relates to the Improvisations, Op. 20. The study, which focuses on the analysis of the draft manuscript 50PS1, compares the draft and other relevant sources with the final composition. Bartók's framework for the entire Improvisations is based on a compositional strategy of pairing individual improvisations combined with systematic revision of the draft copy by the introduction of tritones as tonal equivalents and movement by fifths from semitones, to achieve structural coherence in the individual improvisations. The tonic-dominant relationship is used to rearrange the individual improvisations in the draft and tritones as tonal equivalents are used to propel the movement between the improvisations to produce a coherent whole.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Kochbeck, Olivia M.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Depression, Anxiety, Self-Esteem, and Coping in Children and Adolescents Newly Diagnosed with Cancer and Children and Adolescents on Cancer Treatment for a Period of Seven Months or Longer

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Differences in self-reported depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and coping were evaluated in two groups of pediatric oncology patients: newly diagnosed (less than six months post-diagnosis) (n=5) and patients on cancer treatment for seven months or longer (n=5). Participants (6 males, 4 females, ages 7-17 years) completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), and the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory (CFSEI-2); nine of the ten participants discussed in a semi-structured interview their personal experiences and feelings about having cancer. Although the newly diagnosed group had a higher mean score on the CDI than the 7 months or greater group, the difference was not significant (p = .054). The newly diagnosed group also had higher mean state and trait anxiety scores on the STAIC, indicating higher anxiety levels, and a slightly lower CFSEI-2 mean score, indicating slightly lower self-esteem than the 7 months or greater group, but differences were not at a statistically significant level (p>.05).
Date: May 2000
Creator: Jones, Tracy L.
System: The UNT Digital Library