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Bioconcentration and Morphological Effects of Triclosan on Three Species of Wetland Plants (open access)

Bioconcentration and Morphological Effects of Triclosan on Three Species of Wetland Plants

Triclosan (TCS) is an antimicrobial compound found in several types of common household products. After being washed down the drain, TCS will then end up in the local watershed. Although numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the fate and effects of TCS in aquatic environments, there have been no studies evaluating the role arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) play in a plants response to TCS exposure. Three species of wetland plants native North Texas were inoculated with AM spores and exposed to 0, 0.4 g/L and 4.0 g/L TCS concentrations. Root morphology of E. prostrata and S. herbacea showed AM and exposure responses. S. herbacea produced the greatest amounts biomass and TCS bioaccumulation, in all but one treatment. It also displayed opposing results to E. prostrata in measures of root length, root surface area, relative root mass, relative shoot mass and shoot:root ratio. TCS root tissue concentrations increased with increased exposures for both E. prostrata and S. herbacea. Even though E. prostrata had the lowest levels in each measure of biomass production, it had the highest amount of root TCS bioaccumulation in the AM inoculated 4.0 g/L treatment. H. laevis was between the other two species in terms of biomass …
Date: May 2013
Creator: Smith, Caleb M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

BI's via LibGuides: All your eggs in one basket

Presentation for the 2013 Texas Library Association (TLA) Library Instruction Round Table. This presentation discusses BIs via LibGuides.
Date: September 2013
Creator: Whitmer, Susan
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Blood and Earth: Indivisible Territory and Terrorist Group Longevity (open access)

Blood and Earth: Indivisible Territory and Terrorist Group Longevity

The study of terrorism has been both broad in scope and varied in approach. Little work has been done, however, on the territorial aspects of terrorist groups. Most terrorist groups are revolutionary to one degree or another, seeking the control of a piece of territory; but for the supportive population of a terrorist group, how important is the issue of territory? Are the intangible qualities of territory more salient to a given population than other factors? Are territorially based terrorist groups more durable than their ideologically or religiously motivated cohorts? This paper aims to propose the validity of the territorial argument for the study of political terrorism.
Date: May 2013
Creator: Glass, Richard A.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Blueline Concerto: Critical Essay (open access)

Blueline Concerto: Critical Essay

The purpose of this critical essay is two-fold. First, the essay presents a detailed critical analysis of my original composition, Blueline Concerto for bass trombone and wind ensemble. Second, using Blueline Concerto, the essay presents preliminary findings of my study to develop an approach to composing that takes into account the musicians' health, specifically regarding noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). Through various hypothesized composition- and orchestral-based approaches, I test effectiveness on changes in NIHL risk while also noting that artistic merit and compositional integrity is preserved.
Date: August 2013
Creator: Lamb, Christopher
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Book Review: Divine Moments: Ordinary People Having Spiritually Transformative Experiences (open access)

Book Review: Divine Moments: Ordinary People Having Spiritually Transformative Experiences

Review of a book titled "Divine Moments: Ordinary People Having Spiritually Transformative Experiences" written by Nancy Clark.
Date: Autumn 2013
Creator: Wood, Andrew
Object Type: Review
System: The UNT Digital Library
Book Review: The Last Frontier: Exploring the Afterlife and Transforming Our Fear of Death (open access)

Book Review: The Last Frontier: Exploring the Afterlife and Transforming Our Fear of Death

Review of a book titled "The Last Frontier: Exploring the Afterlife and Transforming Our Fear of Death" written by Julia Assante.
Date: Summer 2013
Creator: Brennan, Cecile
Object Type: Review
System: The UNT Digital Library
Boosting for Learning From Imbalanced, Multiclass Data Sets (open access)

Boosting for Learning From Imbalanced, Multiclass Data Sets

In many real-world applications, it is common to have uneven number of examples among multiple classes. The data imbalance, however, usually complicates the learning process, especially for the minority classes, and results in deteriorated performance. Boosting methods were proposed to handle the imbalance problem. These methods need elongated training time and require diversity among the classifiers of the ensemble to achieve improved performance. Additionally, extending the boosting method to handle multi-class data sets is not straightforward. Examples of applications that suffer from imbalanced multi-class data can be found in face recognition, where tens of classes exist, and in capsule endoscopy, which suffers massive imbalance between the classes. This dissertation introduces RegBoost, a new boosting framework to address the imbalanced, multi-class problems. This method applies a weighted stratified sampling technique and incorporates a regularization term that accommodates multi-class data sets and automatically determines the error bound of each base classifier. The regularization parameter penalizes the classifier when it misclassifies instances that were correctly classified in the previous iteration. The parameter additionally reduces the bias towards majority classes. Experiments are conducted using 12 diverse data sets with moderate to high imbalance ratios. The results demonstrate superior performance of the proposed method compared …
Date: December 2013
Creator: Abouelenien, Mohamed
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Borger News-Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 38, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 13, 2013 (open access)

Borger News-Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 38, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Daily newspaper from Borger, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.
Date: February 13, 2013
Creator: Berry, Michelle
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Borger News-Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 90, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 17, 2013 (open access)

Borger News-Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 90, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Daily newspaper from Borger, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.
Date: April 17, 2013
Creator: Berry, Michelle
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Born Digital: Guidance for Donors, Dealers, and Archival Repositories (open access)

Born Digital: Guidance for Donors, Dealers, and Archival Repositories

The report provides recommendations to help ensure the physical and intellectual well-being of materials created and managed in digital form ("born digital") that are transferred from donors to archival repositories. The report is presented in four sections, each of which provides an overview of a key area of concern: initial collection review, privacy and intellectual property, key stages in acquiring digital materials, and post-acquisition review by the repository. Each section concludes with two lists of recommendations: one for donors and dealers, and a second for repository staff. Appendixes provide more specific information about possible staffing activities, as well as a list of resources and ready-to-use checklists that incorporate recommendations from throughout the report. Ten archivists and curators from institutions in the United States and United Kingdom collaborated on the report.
Date: October 2013
Creator: Redwine, Gabriela; Barnard, Megan; Donovan, Kate; Farr, Erika; Forstrom, Michael; Hansen, Will et al.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brass Band History and Idiomatic Writing in Brass Music (open access)

Brass Band History and Idiomatic Writing in Brass Music

The purpose of this research was to explore historical perspective of brass music. There is a brief history of brass bands in Britain. Furthermore, the paper examines the differences between two brass band pieces in the repertoire, A Western Fanfare by Eric Ewazen and Brass Symphony by Jan Koetsier. Both of these pieces were compared and contrasted against the author's newly composed work for brass, Two Companion Pieces for Brass Ensemble. The paper covers different techniques commonly used in brass writing and points these techniques out in all three pieces.
Date: May 2013
Creator: Kahler, Elyse T.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Breaking Outside: Narratives of Art and Hawaii (open access)

Breaking Outside: Narratives of Art and Hawaii

This research examines the personal narratives of two contemporary non-native artists living and working on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Issues related to narratives, power structures, artistic processes, insider/outsider dynamics, Hawaiian culture, island life, surfing, and the researcher's own experiences are woven together to formulate realizations surrounding alternative knowledge systems and the power of multiple or hidden narratives to the practice of art education.
Date: May 2013
Creator: Davidson, Allison B.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bridging the Theory-to-practice Gap: a Multivariate Correlational Study Exploring the Effects of a Graduate Online Learning Environment As a Community of Practice Framework (open access)

Bridging the Theory-to-practice Gap: a Multivariate Correlational Study Exploring the Effects of a Graduate Online Learning Environment As a Community of Practice Framework

In this multivariate correlational study, the researcher examined the course culture of an online graduate course whose environment exhibited characteristics of a Community of practice (CoP). An online survey captured data used to explore the relationships among variables shown to describe a CoP in field environments and among student perceptions of their experience in the course culture. A canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and commonality analysis (CA) were conducted using five predictor variables and three criterion variables to evaluate the degree and direction of the relationships. The CCA revealed that the full model was significant, explaining approximately 74% of the variance among the two synthetic variates. Impact, faculty leadership, and connection were the largest contributors to the predictor variate. The criterion variate was primarily explained by value and perceived CoP, with exposure to the profession providing a smaller contribution. The CA confirmed these findings. Results from this study indicate that a CoP could be fostered in an online graduate course. The overall significance of the model indicates teachers can nurture an environment wherein graduate students will take the initiative to work with others to create and acquire knowledge that creates a sense of professional connection with each other and with the …
Date: December 2013
Creator: Bone, Tonda Jenean
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brief Report: A Near-Death Experience with Veridical Perception Described by a Famous Heart Surgeon and Confirmed by his Assistant Surgeon (open access)

Brief Report: A Near-Death Experience with Veridical Perception Described by a Famous Heart Surgeon and Confirmed by his Assistant Surgeon

Abstract: The professional near-death literature contains cases in which near-death experiencers reported that during their experiences (NDEs), they perceived phenomena in the material world that, based on the condition and position of their physical bodies, they should not have been able to perceive, and yet these perceptions were subsequently verified as accurate. Only a few of these cases of apparently non-physical veridical perception during NDEs have been carefully researched. In this article, we report a case described originally by cardiac surgeon Lloyd Rudy in a YouTube Internet video. We describe pour process of following up exhaustively on all avenues of investigation available to us and our conclusion that this case is among the most evidential in which perceptions during an NDE were confirmed as completely accurate by objective observers.
Date: Spring 2013
Creator: Rivas, Titus & Smit, Rudolf H.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brief Report: Induced After-Death Communication: An Update (open access)

Brief Report: Induced After-Death Communication: An Update

Abstract: Seventy-one clients (50 females, 21 males) who were treated with Induced After-Death Communication (IADC) therapy completed the author-developed Grief Symptom Questionnaire (GSQ) before and after the two-session treatment protocol and at six months post-treatment. Factor analyses revealed three factors - Depression, Anger, and Positive Coping - underlying nine GSQ items. Seventy-nine percent of the sample reported experiencing an IADC during treatment - an experience of communication with a deceased loved one they were grieving. In comparison with pre-treatment, at post-treatment participants reported statistically significant improvements in their grief symptoms, an increase in belief in an afterlife, an improvement in Positive Coping, and decreased Anger and Depression. Implications of the findings and methodological limitations are discussed.
Date: Summer 2013
Creator: Hannah, Mo Therese; Botkin, Allan L.; Marrone, Joseph G. & Streit-Horn, Jenny
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brief Report: Phenomenology of Near-Death Experiences: An Analysis of a Maori Case Study (open access)

Brief Report: Phenomenology of Near-Death Experiences: An Analysis of a Maori Case Study

Abstract: Near-death experiences (NDEs) have been recorded in the oral and written histories of virtually every culture since antiquity. Based on some of theses accounts, attempts have been made to investigate whether the phenomenology of the NDE is cross-culturally variable or similar. The present article contributes to this literature by analyzing the only known historical account of an NDE reported by a Maori individual. Although this account has been previously analyzed for its association with features typically reported in Western NDE accounts, it has been analyzed for its conformity to prevailing Maori beliefs about the afterlife. The analysis of this single case study suggests the NDE was influenced by cultural beliefs, which supports two converging viewpoint: that NDE phenomenology is universal but expressed in culturally-relative ways and that NDE phenomenology is culture-bound.
Date: Winter 2013
Creator: Tassell-Matamua, Natasha
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brief Report: Psychotherapeutic Outcomes Reported by Therapists Trained in Induced After-Death Communication (open access)

Brief Report: Psychotherapeutic Outcomes Reported by Therapists Trained in Induced After-Death Communication

Abstract: Induced after-death communication (IADC) is a new psychotherapeutic procedure based on a variation of eye-movement desensitization and re-processing (EMDR). Psychologist Allan Botkin discovered it accidentally in 1995 while he was conducting therapy with combat veterans suffering from grief and post-traumatic stress disorder. During the course of the IADC treatment, Botkin's patients reported experiencing what they believed to be communications from a deceased person. The psychological healing associated with these experiences seemed remarkable. The following report presents the results of a survey Botkin conducted with other therapists he personally trained to conduct IADC. The results indicate that other IADC therapists achieved successful results nearly identical to those of Botkin and that the results were consistent across trained therapists.
Date: Summer 2013
Creator: Botkin, Allan L. & Hannah, Mo Therese
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Britten’s Op 47, Five Flower Songs: Breaking Trends in Analysis (open access)

Britten’s Op 47, Five Flower Songs: Breaking Trends in Analysis

Benjamin Britten’s life and music have been the subject of study from early in his musical career. Current trends in psychological analysis of Britten’s music tend to focus on common themes, such as homosexuality, pacifism, the sense of the outsider, and the loss of innocence. Similarly, theoretical analyses tend either to provide general categorizations of the technical elements in Britten’s music or to apply a singular preconceived concept as a tool for understanding his compositions. These approaches have yielded significant information but leave aspects of Britten’s personality and music unilluminated. Britten’s Op. 47, Five Flower Songs, are a collection of five part songs for a cappella chorus that are often included within the canon of 20th century choral literature. This paper examines a new perspective on Britten’s music by examining the relationship between Britten’s friendships and their influence on his compositions. Through the examination of these relationships information is revealed that allows for a new method of analysis that is particularly relevant to the Five Flower Songs. The opus was dedicated to two botanists for the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary. Contained within specific movements are extra-musical references to scientific characteristics of the flowers that are the subjects of …
Date: August 2013
Creator: Jackson, Christopher Michael
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Brown bag on iConference - 2013

This presentation was created for a brown bag luncheon about the 2013 iConference. It includes discussion on participants, the venues, programs, the role of the UNT Libraries, and reflections on the event.
Date: March 5, 2013
Creator: Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Building Institutional Capacity in Digital Preservation (open access)

Building Institutional Capacity in Digital Preservation

Paper for the IPRES Annual Conference on building institutional capacity in digital preservation.
Date: September 2013
Creator: Schultz, Matt; Phillips, Mark Edward; Eisenhauer, Stephen & Krabbenhoeft, Nick
Object Type: Paper
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carbon Nanostructure Based Donor-acceptor Systems for Solar Energy Harvesting (open access)

Carbon Nanostructure Based Donor-acceptor Systems for Solar Energy Harvesting

Carbon nanostructure based functional hybrid molecules hold promise in solarenergy harvesting. Research presented in this dissertation systematically investigates building of various donor-acceptor nanohybrid systems utilizing enriched single walled carbon nanotube and graphene with redox and photoactive molecules such as fullerene, porphyrin, and phthalocyanine. Design, synthesis, and characterization of the donor-acceptor hybrid systems have been carefully performed via supramolecular binding strategies. Various spectroscopic studies have provided ample information in terms of establishment of the formation of donor-acceptor hybrids and their extent of interaction in solution and eventual rate of photoinduced electron and/or energy transfer. Electrochemical studies enabled construction of energy level diagram revealing energetic details of the possible different photochemical events supported by computational studies carried out to establish the HOMO-LUMO levels in the donor acceptor systems. Transient absorption studies confirmed formation of charge separated species in the donor-acceptor systems which have been supported by electron mediation experiments. Based on the photoelectrochemical studies, IPCE of 8% was reported for enriched SWCNT(7,6)-ZnP donor-acceptor systems. In summary, the present investigation on the various nanocarbon sensitized donor-acceptor hybrids substantiates tremendous prospect, that could very well become the next generation of materials in building efficient solar energy harvesting devices andphotocatalyst.
Date: December 2013
Creator: Das, Sushanta Kumar
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Case Study of 1:1 Technology Policies in Four Texas High Schools and Their Relationship to Practice (open access)

A Case Study of 1:1 Technology Policies in Four Texas High Schools and Their Relationship to Practice

With increasing emphasis on technology in schools, the importance of technology policies is great. This study investigated policies for four 1:1 secondary schools in Texas (schools with a ratio of one computing device per student), particularly with respect to the relationship of those policies to practice. The purpose of the study was to determine the current status of the National Education Technology Standards (NETS) essential conditions as reflected in policy and the relationship of those conditions to practice as measured through levels of technology usage and teaching innovation. Schools were selected through purposive, criterion sampling. Open-ended interviews were conducted with twelve participants (principals, technology directors, and superintendents). Policies were rated by campus principals and the researcher using a rubric based on the NETS essential conditions. Finally, surveys of proficiency and readiness measures were collected from 156 teachers using the School Technology and Readiness (STaR) instrument and the Levels of Teaching Innovation (LoTI) instrument. Interviews were transcribed and coded using structural and frequency coding. Policies were analyzed using magnitude coding and policy ratings. A qualitative analysis determined patterns between policy and practice. Quantitative data collected from surveys were measured against policy ratings and magnitude coding using bivariate correlation methods in SPSS. …
Date: December 2013
Creator: Bauter, Cynthia
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Catered Learning: an Anthropological Approach to Understanding How Learning Styles of Participants and Teaching Styles of Instructors Affect Participants’ Perception, Motivation, and Performance (open access)

Catered Learning: an Anthropological Approach to Understanding How Learning Styles of Participants and Teaching Styles of Instructors Affect Participants’ Perception, Motivation, and Performance

Organizations rely on their training departments to deliver adequate training for effective use of knowledge on the job to new and tenured employees. The transfer of learned knowledge and skills yields many positive outcomes for the employees, the trainers, and the organization as a whole. Such outcomes include improved productivity and efficiency, increased morale, work enjoyment, improved customer service, and improved shareholder satisfaction. In order to achieve these outcomes, training departments must employ skilled training personnel knowledgeable about curriculum design and creative with training delivery and learning environments. These requirements implementation will depends heavily on the experience level of training professionals. Training professionals need to understand their own learning styles and how to appropriately utilize strategies to target the various learning styles that exist in the classroom. Instructors must constantly monitor the learning environment and be able to make immediate changes to meet the needs of the participants when necessary. Participants themselves play an integral role in the effective transfer of learning from the classroom to the job. Learners’ backgrounds, life experiences, and motivation to learn are important considerations for designing a positive learning experience. When training programs cater to learners’ preferred learning styles with an appropriate learning environment in …
Date: December 2013
Creator: Woodson-Mayfield, La Tonya R.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Centers of Invariant Differential Operator Algebras for Jacobi Groups of Higher Rank (open access)

Centers of Invariant Differential Operator Algebras for Jacobi Groups of Higher Rank

Let G be a Lie group acting on a homogeneous space G/K. The center of the universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra of G maps homomorphically into the center of the algebra of differential operators on G/K invariant under the action of G. In the case that G is a Jacobi Lie group of rank 2, we prove that this homomorphism is surjective and hence that the center of the invariant differential operator algebra is the image of the center of the universal enveloping algebra. This is an extension of work of Bringmann, Conley, and Richter in the rank 1case.
Date: August 2013
Creator: Dahal, Rabin
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library