Doctoral recital performance given at UNT's Recital Hall

Using data from the Chicago Homicide Dataset for years 1988-1992 and the Chicago Community Area Demographics, multiple regression and mediation analysis are used to examine various community level factors’ impact on Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) rates per Chicago community area. The relationship between the percentage of non-white and IPH rate per Chicago community area is significant and positive, but disappears once economic strain is taken into account, as well as when family disruption is included in the model. There is a weak, but positive relationship between population density and IPH rates, but neither economic strain nor family disruption mediates the relationship between population density and IPH rates. Economic deprivation is positively related to IPH rates, but economic strain and family disruption partially mediate the relationship between economic deprivation and IPH rates. Finally, the relationship between the percentage of males aged 30-59 and IPH rates per community area in Chicago is moderately negative, but this relationship disappears once economic strain is accounted for in the model. However, family disruption does not mediate the relationship between the percentage of males aged 30-59 and IPH rates. These results indicate that some structural covariates impact IPH rates and that some relationships are mediated by …

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) were three of the most important avant-garde Russian composers of the twentieth century. Even though their music shares a number of important traits, their work also reflects very individualized and distinct compositional styles. This study illustrates the similarities in their approach and the contrasting elements present in three selected pieces: Stravinsky´s Suite Italienne for Violin and Piano (1933), Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 134 (1968), and Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style for Violin and Piano (Harpsichord) (1972). The study disseminates Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Schnittke’s musical influences in these works, focusing particularly in the use of baroque elements by tracing a number of important aspects from their backgrounds. In addition, a chronological outline of compositions containing baroque elements is provided. Finally, this research examines stylistic traits of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the three selected compositions: Suite Italienne, Violin Sonata, Op. 134, and Suite in the Old Style.

In 2001, composer Jon Magnussen met the unusual challenge of unifying his new score for Psalm, an already-existing dance work from 1967, with the original artistic conceit of the choreographer, José Limón, who died in 1972. Limón was inspired directly by his reading of André Schwartz-Bart’s Holocaust novel, The Last of the Just, and had initially desired to use Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms as the score for the dance. Faced with cost-preclusive licensing fees for the Stravinksy, Limón engaged Eugene Lester to compose a score for Psalm. The Lester score, now lost, served the work for only a brief time, when the piece fell out of the repertory. When approached to create a new score for the extant dance work, Magnussen chose to draw his own influence from three works: the dance itself, Schwartz-Bart’s novel, and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. In addition, Limón Company Artistic Director Carla Maxwell served as Magnussen’s collaborator in reworking Psalm to resemble the work she believed Limón had desired all along. Magnussen’s influence from Stravinsky and Schwartz-Bart are revealed in the choices of text, the scored forces, and melodic ideas generated by the composer by mapping the names of significant Holocaust sites onto scalar patterns. …

Companies’ new primary source for sustainable revenue growth comes from creating new innovations, rather than from mergers and acquisitions. Companies are finding it difficult to align internal support for the innovative creativity of teams with standard operating procedures. This research aims to discover how innovative teams contribute to forming development strategies that CPG firms use to create new products. Dimensions of the Theory of Team Climate in Innovation (TTCI) offer insight on the dimensions of development strategy. Specifically, by integrating the theories, a proposed model identifies the innovation team’s impact on the firm’s development strategies. Such understanding has the potential to increase firm profits, lower innovation costs, increase innovation speed, and support innovation training. To empirically test this model, employees responsible for product development in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries were surveyed. Structural modeling techniques were used to analyze the data. Findings indicate support for using TTCI to explain the compressed development strategy. Theoretical contributions include: 1) extending TTCI and its associated measures into tangible products industries, 2) refining and adding to TTCI measures, 3) extending the development strategies theory into tangible products industries, and 4) adding to the measures for development strategy. Future research appears fertile for methods …

I used singlecase A-B-A experimental design to examine the effectiveness of Adlerian play therapy (AdPT) for children identified with clinical levels of perfectionism on the Conners Parent Rating Scale-Revised and Conners Teacher Rating Scale-Revised. Participants were 2 children, a 10 year-old Hispanic male and a 7 year-old Caucasian female. To examine the effect of AdPT on maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety, the Child-Adolescent Perfectionism Scale and the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale were administered to the children twice weekly over 3 phases of the study: baseline (6 administrations), intervention (12-16 administrations), and maintenance (6 administrations) for a total of 24 to 29 data points. Additionally, parents and teachers completed the Conners Rating Scales-Revised5 times: (1) prior to study, (2) following baseline/prior to treatment, (3) midpoint of treatment, (4) following treatment, and (5) following maintenance phase.During the intervention phase, the male and female participants attended 21 and 16 play therapy sessions, their mothers attended 6 and 5 parent consultations, and their teachers attended 6 and 3 teacher consultations, respectively. Analysis of the child self-report assessments indicated mixed and inconclusive results regarding the effects of AdPT on target behaviors. However, results of the parent and teacher reports indicated clinically significant reductionsin maladaptive perfectionism …

This study examined the impact that a stress inoculation training (SIT) program had on a small-sized city police department in the southwestern U.S. Specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate how a SIT program impacted police officer self-reported levels of organizational stress, operational stress, perceived life stress, and mood states. All 24 participants were recruited from a population of 132 sworn, active duty police officers and were pre-tested through administration of a questionnaire packet containing a host of measures related to demographics, organizational stressors, operational stressors, general life stressors, and mood states. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the following treatment conditions: (1) delayed training; (2) SIT program; and (3) SIT plus booster program. On completion of the SIT program, members of each of the treatment conditions were re-assessed through the administration of the aforementioned questionnaire packet. Subsequent to conducting the booster sessions, participants from each treatment condition took part in a second, and final, follow-up assessment. Results suggested that organizational stress was decreased for participants in the SIT program, particularly at follow-up. Results also suggested that energy (i.e., vigor) was increased for participants in the SIT plus booster program at both post-test and follow-up. Furthermore, …

Prior research has reported that individual differences influence both placebo and nocebo responses. The present study examined how individual personality, as well as trust, influence placebo/nocebo belief and symptom reporting after receiving an inert capsule that for some was described as an active “cognitively-enhancing” trial medication. Individuals (N = 104) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: condition A participants were told they’d received the medication, condition B participants were told they’d received a placebo, and condition C participants were told, via random assignment, each would receive either the medication or placebo (after the experiment this condition listed the group – medication or placebo - each believed s/he was in). The study was completed in the UNT Student Health and Wellness Center to provide context in a medical setting. Of the 104 participants, 46 (44.2%) were either placed by experimental design or self-report in the medication group. Participants with a belief in medication ingestion, regardless of condition (i.e., A or C), reported significantly more symptoms (M = 16.65, SD = 3.178), than participants who believed they had ingested a placebo (M = 14.21, SD = 2.58), t (102) = 4.32, p = .001. Aspects of Neuroticism and Extroversion, as …

Jean Balissat’s Kaleidoscope for trumpet and percussion is an important yet widely unknown piece within the trumpet repertoire. A comprehensive performance guide is necessary in order to overcome the musical and technical demands that this piece presents to the trumpeter. The first section of this document provides historical and contextual information about Jean Balissat, his compositional style, and relevant information regarding Kaleidoscope. The second section of this document includes a performance guide to the work. The third and final section provides the trumpet player with a pedagogical guide to performing this work. This guide includes background, contextual, and pedagogical information necessary for an informed and high-level performance.

Duet literature remains largely untapped as a pedagogical tool in the undergraduate voice studio. This dissertation examines the ways in which eight duets for female voices, although not written primarily for pedagogical use, may be used to teach four main areas of voice technique: intonation, vocal agility, legato singing, and dramatic skills. Duets are chosen primarily from the standard repertoire and are in English, German, French, Italian and Latin. The compositional styles range from the Baroque period through the 20th century. Genres include art song, oratorio, and opera. Each chapter focuses on one of the four vocal skills listed above, and includes examinations of two duets whose vocal writing (rhythm, tessitura, intervals, tempi, and text) make them appropriate candidates for pedagogical use in the improvement of that specific skill. Both male and female teachers of singing may utilize this project as a practical resource and model in how to use other duets, including those for other voice types, for similar purposes in their teaching studio. This project also demonstrates how the experience of singing duets helps students develop ensemble singing as they listen and respond to each other. Finally, this project offers voice teachers an additional pedagogical tool to help …

In today’s economy, organizational knowledge is a fundamental factor for remaining competitive and managing intellectual capital. Knowledge Management aims to improve organizational performance by designing the work environment with necessary tools. Yet, significant amount of knowledge resides within the people in different forms such as experience or abilities. Transferring individual knowledge within members or into organizational repositories is so difficult. Knowledge sharing only occurs under certain circumstances: People share knowledge when they believe it is beneficial for them, when they feel safe and secure, and when they trust. Since knowledge is power, and brings respect to its bearer, knowledge sharing needs suitable environment. In this context, this study investigates intention to knowledge sharing among forensics in the Turkish National Police (TNP) and the factors -such as perceived organizational justice, organizational citizenship behaviors, subjective norms, and attitudes toward knowledge sharing- affecting their intentions. The researcher utilized a model developed from Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1975; 1980) theory of reasoned action (TRA). To test this model, a self-administered questionnaire survey was administered in Turkey In order to analyze the quantitative data; SPSS version 19 was used for all preliminary analyses and LISREL 8.8 was used for Regression Analysis and Path Analysis The fit …

A study was undertaken to identify the effect of head flexion/extension on singing voice quality. The amplitude of the fundamental frequency (F0), and the singing power ratio (SPR), an indirect measure of singer’s formant activity, were measured. F0 and SPR scores at four experimental head positions were compared with the subjects’ scores at their habitual positions. Three vowels and three pitch levels were tested. F0 amplitudes and low frequency partials in general were greater with more extended head positions, while SPR increased with neck flexion. No effect of pitch or vowel was found. Gains in SPR appear to be the result of damping low frequency partials rather than amplifying those in the singer’s formant region. Raising the amplitude of F0 is an important resonance tool for female voices in the high range, and may be of benefit to other voice types in resonance, loudness, and laryngeal function.

Learning community literature supports the use of student cohorts to enhance learning through increased peer interaction and common course work. Researchers employed the qualitative method of phenomenography to identify various ways doctoral counseling students conceptualize and experience learning in a cohort over the course of a single academic year. Participants were all 10 members of a single southwestern U.S. university counseling program doctoral cohort of full-time students between 20 and 59 years of age with 5 members 20-29, 4 members 30-39, 1 member 50-59; 8 female, 2 male; 9 White non-Hispanic, 1 African-American. Data were transcripts from 30 one-hour interviews, three for each participant over the course of their first year of study. The research team that analyzed the data consisted of three advanced counseling program doctoral students, each with research methods coursework. Results revealed nine dynamic structural aspects of learning: dialogue, diversity, knowledge, motivation, support, shared experience, relationship development, interpersonal awareness, and conflict. Findings support the use of learning communities in doctoral level counselor education programs. Cohort members demonstrated increasing awareness of the potential learning benefits of cohort interaction and developed more in depth strategies over time to utilize the cohort to enhance learning. Future counselor educators may now …

Micro-Images for Solo Flute, Genera for Flute/Alto Flute/Bass Flute and Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, and Poème exotique for Flute and Piano by American composer Daniel Kessner (b. 1946) utilize a hybrid compositional approach in which microtones are incorporated with more traditional chromatic writing. Through representative musical examples from each piece, this document highlights the timbral, dynamic and pacing complexities associated with the microtonal fingerings and prompts flutists to forgo idiosyncratic tendencies in favor of contextually based choices. In order to help guide musicians toward effective performances of these three pieces and similar works, a new tone color spectrum and description of relative dynamics are provided along with a discussion of the relationships between tone colors, relative dynamics and temporal pacing. Appendices include transcripts of email interviews with composer Daniel Kessner and Carla Rees, British contemporary flutist, as well as an updated list of Kessner’s flute works.

The ability to transfer what you know to new and different contexts is a sign of successful learning. While students often graduate from college with the required number of courses many lack the skills necessary to apply appropriate strategies to solve problems in different contexts, to reason, and think critically. More than a decade ago the Boyer Report (1995) pointed to this fact as a sign that Universities were falling short in adequately supporting their undergraduate populations. As a result, it is not uncommon to see educational institutions introducing new courses and programs geared towards helping students learn better. This study explores learner experiences and the impact on self-regulated learning within a distributed learning setting when motivated by problem-based learning, game play, and computer-based instruction. In this study the instructional design of the course introduced undergraduate students to authentic learning experiences in which students engaged in collaborative problem solving and learning activities framed within the narrative of an alternate reality game. Fifteen self-regulated learning constructs were examined. The comparison group engaged with problem solving tasks and computer-based instruction. Additionally, the study used the theory Learning and Teaching as Communicative Action and its four communicative actions as a lens to understand …

Johann Gottfried Eckard was a self-trained composer and keyboardist studying with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Versuch while he lived in Augsburg. Eckard traveled to Paris with the keyboard instrument builder, Johann Andreas Stein, in 1758 and settled in France for the rest of his life. Eckard only composed eight keyboard sonatas and a set of variations on the Menuet d’Exaudet. He published his works during the transitional period from harpsichord to fortepiano. The eight keyboard sonatas incorporated variations of musical styles which included Italian sonata, galant, and empfindsamer stil. His keyboard sonatas influenced his contemporaries including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Schobert. Eckard was one of the early fortepiano composers in France and tried to promote the new instrument, but wrote in the Foreword of six sonatas (op.1), that they were suitable for the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the fortepiano. The six sonatas of op.1 were published in 1763, two years after fortepiano was advertised for sale in the local newspaper. In 1768, the fortepiano was used in a public concert for the first time in Paris. In the aspect of performance practice, both harpsichord and fortepiano used juxtapose during the transitional period, even though the music would sound better …

Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD) is among the most common diseases in the Geriatric population, and its prevalence is expected to quadruple by 2047.Vascular Dementia (VaD) is the second most frequent cause of dementia, with studies indicating VaD accounts for 10-20% of dementia cases across the globe. A diagnostic model differentiating AD and VaD would be clinically and scientifically valuable, considering the treatment approaches for these conditions are different. Although there are differences between AD and VaD on their neuropsychological profiles, a diagnostic model that successfully differentiates AD and VaD on neuropsychological testing has not been developed, despite previous attempts. Our study addresses this gap in the literature by examining two diagnostic models used to predict the conversion of AD from mild cognitive impairment, and a third model was proposed to differentiate AD from VaD. We conducted ROC Analyses using the variables LM II Standard Score, Animals Total, and CDRS Sum based on a previous diagnostic model. The sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of mild VaD were calculated for all possible scores of each test measure. The Animals Total cutoff score of 7 achieved excellent sensitivity and specificity, receiving 96% and 92%, respectively. In this sample, patients who could name at …

This research investigated issues related to normalizing punctuation marks from a text retrieval perspective. A punctuated-centric approach was undertaken by exploring changes in meanings, whitespaces, words retrievability, and other issues related to normalizing punctuation marks. To investigate punctuation normalization issues, various frequency counts of punctuation marks and punctuation patterns were conducted using the text drawn from the Gutenberg Project archive and the Usenet Newsgroup archive. A number of useful punctuation mark types that could aid in analyzing punctuation marks were discovered. This study identified two types of punctuation normalization procedures: (1) lexical independent (LI) punctuation normalization and (2) lexical oriented (LO) punctuation normalization. Using these two types of punctuation normalization procedures, this study discovered various effects of punctuation normalization in terms of different search query types. By analyzing the punctuation normalization problem in this manner, a wide range of issues were discovered such as: the need to define different types of searching, to disambiguate the role of punctuation marks, to normalize whitespaces, and indexing of punctuated terms. This study concluded that to achieve the most positive effect in a text retrieval environment, normalizing punctuation marks should be based on an extensive systematic analysis of punctuation marks and punctuation patterns and …

Yoichi Hiraoka was an amazing Japanese xylophone player who had significant influence on the development of the xylophone as a solo instrument. The purpose of this dissertation is to collect and record evidence of Mr. Hiraoka, to examine his distinguished efforts to promote the xylophone, to investigate his influences on keyboard percussion literature, and to contribute to the development of the art of keyboard percussion performance as a whole. This dissertation addresses Yoichi Hiraoka’s artistic life, his commissioned pieces, and his influence on the art of xylophone performance. Analyses of two of his most influential commissioned works, Alan Hovhaness’ Fantasy on Japanese Wood Prints and Toshiro Mayuzumi’s Concertino for Xylophone Solo and Orchestra, are also included to illustrate the art of the xylophone, and to explain why Hiraoka did not play all of his commissioned works.

Computational chemistry has led to the greater understanding of the molecular world, from the interaction of molecules, to the composition of molecular species and materials. Of the families of computational chemistry approaches available, the main families of electronic structure methods that are capable of accurate and/or reliable predictions of energetic, structural, and spectroscopic properties are ab initio methods and density functional theory (DFT). The focus of this dissertation is to improve the accuracy of predictions and computational efficiency (with respect to memory, disk space, and computer processing time) of some computational chemistry methods, which, in turn, can extend the size of molecule that can be addressed, and, for other methods, DFT, in particular, gain greater insight into which DFT methods are more reliable than others. Much, though not all, of the focus of this dissertation is upon transition metal species – species for which much less method development has been targeted or insight about method performance has been well established. The ab initio approach that has been targeted in this work is the correlation consistent composite approach (ccCA), which has proven to be a robust, ab initio computational method for main group and first row transition metal-containing molecules yielding, on …

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, colonizing over 80% of all plants, were long thought absent in wetlands; however, recent studies have shown many wetland plants harbor arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and dark septate endophytes (DSE). Wetland services such as biodiversity, shoreline stabilization, water purification, flood control, etc. have been estimated to have a global value of $14.9 trillion. Recognition of these vital services is accompanied by growing concern for their vulnerability and continued loss, which has resulted in an increased need to understand wetland plant communities and mycorrhizal symbiosis. Factors regulating AM and DSE colonization need to be better understood to predict plant community response and ultimately wetland functioning when confronting natural and human induced stressors. This study focused on the effects of water quality, hydrology, sedimentation, and hurricanes on AM and DSE colonization in three wetland species (Taxodium distichum, Panicum hemitomon, and Typhal domingensis) and plant communities of coastal wetlands in Southeast Louisiana and effects of an antimicrobial biocide, triclosan (TCS), on AM (Glomus intraradices) spore germination, hyphal growth, hyphal branching, and colonization in fresh water wetland plants (Eclipta prostrata, Hibiscus laevis, and Sesbania herbacea) from bottom land hardwood forest in north central Texas. The former, mesocosm studies simulating coastal marsh vegetation …

The purpose of this study was to confirm the four-factor model of the Child Interpersonal Relationship and Attitudes Assessment (CIRAA) in order to establish the instrument’s factor/structure validity using a sample different than that used in instrument development. The CIRAA was the first parent-report instrument based on child-centered theory and designed to measure play therapy outcomes. Its four factors are Self-Regulation (formerly Self-Control), Interpersonal Relationships, Coping Skills, and Internal Locus of Evaluation. For this study, the CIRAA was administered to 206 parents; their children were 75 females and 131 males aged 3 to 10 years old. The distributions of children’s genders and ages in this study were similar to the distributions of the sample used to develop the CIRAA. Based on confirmatory factor analysis results of overall goodness-of-fit indices; localized areas of strain; and interpretability, size, and statistical significance (p < .001) of the model's parameter estimate, the four-factor model of the CIRAA was confirmed with both theoretical and empirical support. Internal consistency reliability for the subscales and total score were acceptable, with an overall reliability coefficient of .928. A medium negative correlation (r = -.417, n = 47, p < .01) was found between the CIRAA total scores and …

The purpose of this study was to explore how the therapist-provided conditions of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding were experienced and conveyed in child-centered play therapy (CCPT). Although the therapist-provided conditions are considered essential to the therapeutic process in CCPT, a gap exists between child-centered theory and empirical exploration of the process and dynamics of these relational variables in CCPT. Due to the limited research in this area, a grounded theory approach was utilized to explore how the three variables emerge in CCPT. Participants included four advanced doctoral students, all Caucasian females with extensive training in CCPT, and 12 children ranging from 4 to 8 years of age receiving weekly, individual CCPT. One individual CCPT session was observed and video-recorded for each therapist-child dyad (n = 12). Following each observation, play therapists were interviewed regarding the observed play session (n = 12). During each interview, the researcher and therapist watched the recorded play session in its entirety and discussed noteworthy interactions between the child and therapist. The video-recorded play therapy sessions and therapist interviews were analyzed using a multiphasic, constant comparative method. Results of the analysis included a process-model of the therapist-provided conditions in CCPT, examples of play …

The purpose of this study was to determine what relationships exist between the age, rank, and gender of university faculty in teacher education and their technological pedagogical content knowledge. The survey instrument used was the Survey of Teacher Educators’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) which is an adaptation of the Survey of Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge of Teaching and Technology developed by Schmidt. A total of 347 public Texas university teacher education faculty members participated in the study. Multiple regressions were utilized and the effect size was considered to determine the strength of the relationship between the variables. A statistical significance was found relating to the age, rank, and gender of the university teacher educator faculty member and their technological knowledge (TK). Based on the information provided for the b weights, age was found to be the best predictor of their technological knowledge (TK). The discriminant analysis identified what relationship exists between the ages of university teacher education faculty technology knowledge. The results of the discriminant analysis indicate the range 20-30 and 60+ contribute equally to teacher educators’ technological knowledge. Although no statistically significant results were determined with respect to the correlations between gender, age, and rank and technological content knowledge, …