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Broad-band Light Emission From Ion Implanted Silicon Nanocrystals Via Plasmonic and Non-plasmonic Effects for Optoelectronics
Broad band light emission ranging from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near infrared (NIR) has been observed from silicon nanoparticles fabricated using low energy (30-45 keV) metal and non-metal ion implantation with a fluence of 5*1015 ions/cm2 in crystalline Si(100). It is found from a systematic study of the annealing carried out at certain temperatures that the spectral characteristics remains unchanged except for the enhancement of light emission intensity due to annealing. The annealing results in nucleation of metal nanoclusters in the vicinity of Si nanoparticles which enhances the emission intensity. Structural and optical characterization demonstrate that the emission originates from both highly localized defect bound excitons at the Si/Sio2 interface, as well as surface and interface traps associated with the increased surface area of the Si nanocrystals. The emission in the UV is due to interband transitions from localized excitonic states at the interface of Si/SiO2 or from the surface of Si nanocrystals. The radiative efficiency of the UV emission from the Si nanoparticles can be modified by the localized surface plasmon (LSP) interaction induced by the nucleation of silver nanoparticles with controlled annealing of the samples. The UV emission from Si nanoclusters are coupled resonantly to the LSP …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Singh, Akhilesh K.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Silent Cry: Visualizing Data on Sex Trafficking
In this era of globalization, human trafficking is emerging as a major theme, with rapid movement of information, capital and people across international borders. Despite the red alert over the issue, the crime of human trafficking remains highly unreported even in the most developed countries like United States of America. This silence over the issue in this country can be attributed to the lack of awareness about its prevalence in our own back yard and the measures available against it. This silence is further compounded by economic, social, cultural and psychological factors. Acknowledging the need to break the silence over this globalized issue, A Silent Cry is an interdisciplinary response in the form of a documentary film. It combines the strengths of cinema and anthropology attempting to humanize the data available on the phenomena. This document contextualizes the issue dealt in the documentary and along with an insight into its production process.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Singh, Arvind Daman
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Burushaski Case Marking, Agreement and Implications: an Analysis of the Hunza Dialect
This thesis was written to explore the structural case patterns of the Burushaski sentence and to examine the different participant coding systems which appear between noun marking and verb agreement. Verb suffixes follow nominative alignment patterns of agreement, while the verb prefix agrees with the affected argument as determined by semantic relations, as opposed to syntactic ones. The agent noun phrase is directly marked when highly active or volitional, suggesting a system of agent marking on the noun phrase and nominative alignment on the verb suffix. Nominative alignment also allows for a less marked presence of passive voice. Burushaski's agent marking is not entirely consistent; however, its nominative alignment is consistent. The conclusion is that Burushaski is not an ergative language at all.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Smith, Alexander
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Effects of Peripheral Nerve Injury on the Cells of the Dorsal Root Ganglion: a Role for Primary Cilia
Primary cilia are ubiquitous sensory organelles found on most cell types including cells of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). The DRG are groups of peripheral neurons that relay sensory information from the periphery to the CNS. Other cell types in the DRG include a type of glial cell, the satellite glial cells (SGCs). The SGCs surround the DRG neurons and, with the neurons, form functional sensory units. Currently are no reports describing the numbers of DRG cells that have cilia. We found that 26% of the SGCs had primary cilia. The incidence of cilia on neurons varied with neuron size, a property that roughly correlates with physiological characteristics. We found that 29% of the small, 16% of the medium and 5% of the large neurons had primary cilia. Primary cilia have been shown to have a role in cell proliferation in a variety of cell types. In some of the cells the cilia mediate the proliferative effects of Sonic hedgehog (Shh). In the CNS, Shh signaling through primary cilia affects proliferation during development as well as following injury, but no studies have looked at this function in the PNS. The SGCs and neurons of the DRG undergo complex changes following …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Smith, Sarah K.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Fidget, Sway, and Swerve: Three Works Inspired By Movement From the Intricate Maneuvers Series
Intricate Maneuvers is a series of musical works that were composed using movement as a model for compositional processes and forms. This essay presents in-depth analyses of three works from the series; Fidget, Sway: The Mildest Form of Falling, and Swerve for Chamber Ensemble. The analysis of each work highlights correlations between the musical characteristics of that work and the temporal, spatial, contextual, and psychological implications of the motion after which it was modeled. The third chapter also demonstrates the ways in which the creation of Sway was influenced by materials and processes taken from Ruth Crawford's String Quartet 1931. In order to investigate the question of how life experiences can function as models for compositional processes, the essay examines precedents for the compositional modeling of extra-musical ideas and images in the works of Bed?ich Smetana, Elliott Carter and Roger Reynolds. It also discusses approaches to modeling movement in music created for dance. Throughout the Intricate Maneuvers series, movement is modeled not merely to create an association between a musical work and a particular movement pattern, but rather to infuse the compositions with the dynamism that defines a particular kinetic experience.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Summar, Sarah Page
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Étude Comparative De Messages Publicitaires Anglophones Et Francophones À La Lumière D'éléments Culturels [Comparative Study of English and French Advertisements Through a Cultural Lens]
This thesis aims to demonstrate the crucial role of cultural aspects such as attitudes, values, social common places, and expectations in the international advertising industry. Through the analysis of written advertisements used in the United States and France, general trends regarding various commercial sectors and products (automobiles, electronics, cosmetics, and so forth) are highlighted and explored. From a linguistic perspective, the purpose of this thesis is not only to observe the semantic differences between translations of the same slogans and messages, but also to draw attention to the tools used in doing so.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Tison, Jean-Bernard
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of a Group Parent-coaching Package on the Behavior of Children with Autism and Their Parents
Support for parents is an important part of treatment programs for children diagnosed with autism. Parent training programs have generally focused on prescribed goals in one-on-one training settings with measures directly related to the goals. Of interest here are the few studies that included collaborative goals, expanded measures, and group training. Benefits of such approaches include the establishment of natural communities of reinforcement and better understanding of the breadth of effects. The purpose of this study was to determine if a group coaching approach would be effective in changing a large range of parent and child skills. This experiment involved group sessions (presentations, discussion, video sharing, and problem solving) and three individual in-vivo coaching sessions. The intervention took place over the course of four weeks. Direct measures included a parent skills checklist and child target behaviors. Results indicated an overall improvement on most measures that maintained or improved at follow-up.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Vaughn, Brittany M. L.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The "Good" Mother: Ideology, Identity, and Performance
The purpose of this study is to understand the power and influence of the institution of motherhood and how it is shaped by culture. More specifically this research explores the ideology that shapes our understanding of the good mother in the contemporary United States; how this ideology affects the way mothers view their identity; and how both the ideology and identity shape actions and performance. Twenty women were interviewed in North Texas and the results were: first, this group of mothers recognizes the ideology of the good mother, but does not accept all components of this ideology; next, the identity of mother is the primary identity for most of these women; and, last, performance is most greatly influenced by socio-economic status and the support system that mothers have in place.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Vigil, Jennifer M.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Does Family Quality of Life Change? Evaluation of a Group Parent-coaching Package
Improving family quality of life is an important goal when working with families of children with autism. Researchers have attempted to measure changes by developing indices of quality such as affect, stress, and confidence. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a group parent-coaching program on measures aimed at addressing quality: a) parent confidence, stress and affect ratings; b) child affect ratings; c) the frequency of coordinated joint attention (CJA); and d) parent report of satisfaction and efficacy. Over the course of four weeks, the coaching program involved group presentations, discussions, video sharing, and problem solving, and individual in-vivo coaching sessions regarding specific child skill development. Results from the five parent-child dyads suggested increases in areas associated with quality of life. Results are discussed in the context of quality themes and mixed methods research.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Wiles, Amber Marie
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Noisefold
This documentary film follows the group NoiseFold as they rehearse and perform their unique style of interactive video art before an enthusiastic audience. Originally hailing from the vibrant art community in Santa Fe, New Mexico, founders David Stout and Cory Metcalf return home to prepare for a special performance along with the addition of collaborator and cellist, Frances-Marie Uitti. Shot in black and white, the film aesthetically borrows from early cinema and incorporates a blend of cinéma-vérité and direct cinema styles for the purposes of creating a film that is both visually and sonically rich.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Lewis, Robert
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Source and Channel Coding Strategies for Wireless Sensor Networks
In this dissertation, I focus on source coding techniques as well as channel coding techniques. I addressed the challenges in WSN by developing (1) a new source coding strategy for erasure channels that has better distortion performance compared to MDC; (2) a new cooperative channel coding strategy for multiple access channels that has better channel outage performances compared to MIMO; (3) a new source-channel cooperation strategy to accomplish source-to-fusion center communication that reduces system distortion and improves outage performance. First, I draw a parallel between the 2x2 MDC scheme and the Alamouti's space time block coding (STBC) scheme and observe the commonality in their mathematical models. This commonality allows us to observe the duality between the two diversity techniques. Making use of this duality, I develop an MDC scheme with pairwise complex correlating transform. Theoretically, I show that MDC scheme results in: 1) complete elimination of the estimation error when only one descriptor is received; 2) greater efficiency in recovering the stronger descriptor (with larger variance) from the weaker descriptor; and 3) improved performance in terms of minimized distortion as the quantization error gets reduced. Experiments are also performed on real images to demonstrate these benefits. Second, I present a …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Li, Li
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Endogenous Information and Inter-state War Expansion
Scholars have long debated the causes of late third party state joining in ongoing inter-state wars. This research has generally concluding that peace-time conditions, measured in terms of: third party capabilities; proximity to warring states; and inter-state alliances, are determining factors in the decision to join. However, these studies utilize theories derived from static pre-war measures of capabilities and motivation to explain late joining; indeed, the same measures that fail to predict participation at war's outset. Further, extant research has no explanation for why weak and non-proximate states every participate. Existing theory thus fails to provide a comprehensive explanation of joining behavior. This project contends that a resolution lies the interaction between pre-war conditions and intra-war events. Intra-war events that are allowed to vary on a per battle basis, including change in combat location and alliance entry and exit from combat, reveal new information about the war and its progress, thereby forcing third party states to recalculate their initial decision to abstain in relation to their pre-existing situation. Incorporation of intra-war processes helps to better explain decisions by third party states to join ongoing inter-state wars late in their development, and why states that frequently choose to abstain (e.g., weak …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Liebel, Steven R.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Similarities and Differences in Borderline and Other Symptomology Among Women Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma with and Without Complex Ptsd
Women interpersonal chronic trauma survivors are frequently misdiagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which often results in mistreatment. Neither PTSD nor BPD adequately describes the unique character alterations observed among those exposed to prolonged early childhood trauma. Researchers suggest survivors of interpersonal and chronic trauma should be subsumed under complex PTSD (CPTSD)(MacLean & Gallop, 2003). The primary purpose of this study was to test the validity of complex PTSD as a construct. MANOVA, ANOVA, chi- Square, and independent samples t- Tests were utilized to test hypotheses. Results revealed that women who experienced higher frequencies of trauma met more CPTSD criteria and had higher mean base rate scores on the Major Depression, Depressive, Avoidant, Masochistic, Anxiety, PTSD, and Borderline scales of the MCMI- III than women who experienced fewer traumas. Additionally, findings suggest that the Major Depression, Depressive, Anxiety, PTSD, and Borderline scales may highlight differences among women interpersonal trauma survivors who meet five of six CPTSD criteria versus those who meet full CPTSD diagnostic criteria. Lastly, the mean Borderline scale score for women who met full CPTSD diagnostic criteria was below the cutoff for personality traits. Overall, these findings provide evidence and validation for …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Marchesani, Estee Simpkins
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Schoolwide Tiered Intervention for Increasing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
Childhood obesity rates in the U.S. are increasing. Increasing intake of fruits and vegetables is one method to combat obesity. The purpose of this study was to examine a tiered approach to fruit and vegetable consumption with 26 children in an inclusive preschool. The first tier included ongoing availability and opportunity to eat fruits and vegetables (exposure). The second tier included programmed consequences (a reward system). A multiple baseline across children and classrooms was used to evaluate the effect of the interventions. The tier one intervention was effective for nine children and tier two was effective for six children. Eleven children, however, did not respond to either condition. Results are discussed in the context of previous research and tertiary interventions.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Mendoza, Blanca L.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Laser Modified Alumina: a Computational and Experimental Analysis
Laser surface modification involves rapid melting and solidification is an elegant technique used for locally tailoring the surface morphology of alumina in order to enhance its abrasive characteristics. COMSOL Multiphysics® based heat transfer modeling and experimental approaches were designed and used in this study for single and multiple laser tracks to achieve densely-packed multi-facet grains via temperature history, cooling rate, solidification, scanning electron micrographs, and wear rate. Multi-facet grains were produced at the center of laser track with primary dendrites extending toward the edge of single laser track. The multiple laser tracks study indicates the grain/dendrite size increases as the laser energy density increases resulting in multiplying the abrasive edges which in turn enhance the abrasive qualities.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Moncayo, Marco Antonio
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Identity of African American Characters in Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor Award Winning Books: a Critical Content Analysis of Books From 1991 to 2011
The purpose of this study was to conduct a critical content analysis of the African American characters found in Newbery Medal award winning books recognized between the years of 1991 and 2011. The John Newbery Medal is a highly regarded award in the United States for children's literature and esteemed worldwide. Children's and adolescents' books receive this coveted award for the quality of their writing. Though these books are recognized for their quality writing, there is no guideline in the award criteria that evaluated the race and identity of the characters. Hence, there are two overarching research questions that guided this study. The first question asked: To what extent are the African American characters in each award winning book represented? Foci in answering this question were the frequency of African American characters and the development of their ethnic identities. The second question asked: How are the African American characters' intergroup attitudes and interactions represented? Foci in answering this question examined the frequency of intergroup interactions and the characters' attitudes within the context of each book. The theoretical framework that undergirded this study is critical literacy, which encourages adults and youth to examine issues of diversity and social justice through their …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Morton, Tami Butler
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Variations in Suicidal Ideation Among Substance Users
Research suggests that substance use is a risk factor for increased suicidal ideation. This study explored the relationship between substance use, suicidal ideation, and impulsivity in a sample of college students and individuals seeking outpatient treatment. Participants were interviewed for information on severity of suicidal ideation and substance use. Participants completed the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire, the substance use section of the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, the Scale for Suicide Ideation, and the UPPS-P Impulsivity Behavior Scale. These measures were used to determine the amount of variance in suicidal ideation accounted for by substance use. Variables reflecting substance use classification, frequency, and severity were used to predict severity of suicidal ideation.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Nichols, Erica
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Shifting Paradigms, Changing Fortunes: Fundraising at Makerere University
Fundraising for higher education is a recent phenomenon in Uganda where the government has supported education for decades. Recent structural adjustment and liberalization policies mandated by the World Bank and the IMF and internal financial exigencies have necessitated funding diversification in higher education in Uganda and increased the need for private financial support. In developed countries like the United States, Canada, and increasingly, the United Kingdom, private support from alumni, individuals, corporations, and other stakeholders is a key component of higher education funding. This study used qualitative methodology and a holistic case study research design to explore the fundraising function at Makerere University. Tierney's organizational culture conceptual framework was used and data were collected through semi-structured interviews, an alumni questionnaire, document analysis, and observations. The findings include a governance and management structure that does not adequately support the fundraising function, strategies that are adapted to suit the Ugandan cultural context, perceptions of corruption and lack of transparency; and internal conflicts that limit communication and damage the image of the institution. The findings show that Makerere University is not strategically capitalizing on its position as the oldest and largest public university in Uganda and the region to mobilize private support. Reforms …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Niwagaba, Lillian Katono Butungi
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Staying Connected: Technology Use in Grandparent-grandchild Relationships
Despite the distance that often separates grandparents from their young adult grandchildren, the abundance of new technologies provides numerous means of connection for the grandparent-grandchild (GP-GC) dyad. The purpose of this study was to understand how grandparents use technology, namely text messaging and Facebook, in relationships with their young adult grandchildren. Specifically, the aim was to understand grandparents' purposes for using these technologies with their grandchildren, their motivations for using these technologies, and their perceptions of these technologies. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 23 grandparent participants and analyzed according to the procedures delineated in grounded theory analysis. Both text messaging and Facebook emerged as important tools for connection, as text messaging encourages more frequent communication and Facebook helps grandparents "fill in the gaps" about their grandchildren's lives. Furthermore, results indicated that grandparents' uses of text messaging, and to a lesser extent Facebook, are acts of accommodation to their grandchildren.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Novak, Hannah R.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Structural Determinants of Americans' Justice Perceptions Toward Inequality in the U.S.
In accordance with structural theory and distributive justice theory, this study investigates if Americans' personal encounters with the opportunity structure and their existing reward conditions will influence their perceptions toward distribution outcomes in the U.S. I argue that higher-status individuals possessing various "attributes of structural privilege" will exhibit less support for regulating income inequality in society than lower-status individuals. Upward mobility should also be negatively related to support for restoring greater equality in allocation outcomes. However, the effect of mobility on justice perceptions should vary by class status, since class has been known to be a reliable predictor of these attitudes. The study employed a sample of 438 American adults from the GSS 2000 dataset, and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was applied in the analyses of the data. Two of the three above hypotheses received partial confirmation, that is, there were class, race, and gender differences in distributive justice perceptions. Class also interacted significantly with occupational mobility in altering distributive justice perceptions.
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Ong, Corinne
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Semi-supervised and Self-evolving Learning Algorithms with Application to Anomaly Detection in Cloud Computing
Semi-supervised learning (SSL) is the most practical approach for classification among machine learning algorithms. It is similar to the humans way of learning and thus has great applications in text/image classification, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, robotics etc. Labeled data is hard to obtain in real life experiments and may need human experts with experimental equipments to mark the labels, which can be slow and expensive. But unlabeled data is easily available in terms of web pages, data logs, images, audio, video les and DNA/RNA sequences. SSL uses large unlabeled and few labeled data to build better classifying functions which acquires higher accuracy and needs lesser human efforts. Thus it is of great empirical and theoretical interest. We contribute two SSL algorithms (i) adaptive anomaly detection (AAD) (ii) hybrid anomaly detection (HAD), which are self evolving and very efficient to detect anomalies in a large scale and complex data distributions. Our algorithms are capable of modifying an existing classier by both retiring old data and adding new data. This characteristic enables the proposed algorithms to handle massive and streaming datasets where other existing algorithms fail and run out of memory. As an application to semi-supervised anomaly detection and for experimental illustration, we …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Pannu, Husanbir Singh
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Aphorismen, Capriccio, and Heptameron for Piano Solo By Jürg Baur: a Performer's Guide
The purpose of this dissertation is to give instruction regarding the performance of three important piano works by Jürg Baur (1918-2010). Aphorismen, Capriccio, and Heptameron stand out as his most significant piano works both because of their length and because of their pianistic complexity. Since Baur had a successful career as both teacher and composer during his lifetime, his acclaimed works received many honors in Germany. His works can be performed by intermediate to advanced students. Intermediate students can easily offer simpler pieces like Aphorismen in competitions, while pieces like Capriccio and Heptameron better are suited to a more advanced level. Although some of his compositions are difficult to perform compared with other modern German works, Baur's music is more accessible. In the article, "Auf der Spuren der alten Zeit" Baur is quoted to state that Paul Hindemith and Bela Bartok's music influenced his own compositional ideas. However, although Baur is a modern composer, he didn't write in a totally atonal style, but rather attempted to broaden tonality. While Heptameron is atonal, Aphorismen and Capriccio give the impression of tonality, thus they are more accessible to the audience. I was fortunate enough to study Aphorismen with Baur as well as …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Park, Esther
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Sustainable Environmental Identities for Environmental Sustainability: Remaking Environmental Identities with the Help of Indigenous Knowledge
Early literature in the field of environmental ethics suggests that environmental problems are not technological problems requiring technological solutions, but rather are problems deeply rooted in Western value systems calling for a reorientation of our values. This dissertation examines what resources are available to us in reorienting our values if this starting point is correct. Three positions can be observed in the environmental ethics literature on this issue: 1. We can go back and reinterpret our Western canonical texts and figures to determine if they can be useful in providing fresh insight on today's environmental challenges; 2. We abandon the traditional approaches, since these are what led to the crisis in the first place, and we seek to establish entirely new approaches and new environmental identities to face the environmental challenges of the 21st century; 3. We look outside of the Western tradition for guidance from other cultures to see how they inhabit and interact with the natural world. This dissertation presents and evaluates these three options and ultimately argues for an approach similar to the third option, suggesting that dialogue with indigenous cultures and traditions can help us to reorient our values and assist in developing more sustainable environmental …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Parker, Jonathan
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Fifth Humor: Ink, Texts, and the Early Modern Body
This dissertation tracks the intimate relationship between writing and the body to add new dimensions to humoral criticism and textual studies of Renaissance literature. Most humor theory focuses on the volatile, permeable nature of the body, and its vulnerability to environmental stimuli, neglecting the important role that written texts play in this economy of fluids. I apply the principles of humor theory to the study of handwritten and printed texts. This approach demonstrates that the textual economy of the period—reading, writing, publishing, exchanging letters, performing all of the above on stage—mirrors the economy of fluids that governed the humoral body. Early modern readers and writers could imagine textual activities not only as cerebral, abstract concepts, but also as sexual activities, as processes of ingestion and regurgitation. My study of ink combines humoral, historical materialist, and ecocritical modes of study. Materialist critics have examined the quill, paper, and printing press as metaphors for the body; however, the ink within them remains unexamined. This dissertation infuses the figurative body of the press with circulating passions, and brings to bear the natural, biochemical properties that ink lends to the texts it creates. Considering the influence of written and printed materials on the body …
Date:
December 2012
Creator:
Polster, Kristen Kayem
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library