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Interfacial Characterization of Chemical Vapor Deposition (Cvd) Grown Graphene and Electrodeposited Bismuth on Ruthenium Surface (open access)

Interfacial Characterization of Chemical Vapor Deposition (Cvd) Grown Graphene and Electrodeposited Bismuth on Ruthenium Surface

Graphene receives enormous attention owing to its distinctive physical and chemical prosperities. Growing and transferring graphene to different substrates have been investigated. The graphene growing on the copper substrate has an advantage of low solubility of carbon on the copper which allow us to grow mostly monolayer graphene. Graphene sheet of few centimeters can be transferred to 300nm silicon oxide and quartz crystal pre-deposited with metal like Cu and Ru. Characterization of the graphene has been done with Raman and contact angle measurement and recently quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has been employed. The underpotential deposition (UPD) process of Bi on Ru metal surface is studied using electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) and XPS techniques. Both Bi UPD and Bi bulk deposition are clearly observed on Ru in 1mM Bi (NO3)3/0.5M H2SO4. Bi monolayer coverage calculated from mass (MLMass) and from charge (MLCharge) were compared with respect to the potential scanning rates, anions and ambient controls. EQCM results indicate that Bi UPD on Ru is mostly scan rate independent but exhibits interesting difference at the slower scan. Bi UPD monolayer coverage calculated from cathodic frequency change (ΔfCathodic) is significantly smaller than the monolayer coverage derived from integrated charge under the cathodic …
Date: May 2014
Creator: Abdelghani, Jafar
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2014-04-07 - Shoko Abe, collaborative piano

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: April 7, 2014
Creator: Abe, Shoko
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, Comte De Guibert: Father of the Grande Armée (open access)

Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, Comte De Guibert: Father of the Grande Armée

Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert (1743-1790) dedicated his life and career to creating a new doctrine for the French army. Little about this doctrine was revolutionary. Indeed, Guibert openly decried the anarchy of popular participation in government and looked askance at the early days of the Revolution. Rather, Guibert’s doctrine marked the culmination of an evolutionary process that commenced decades before his time and reached fruition in the Réglement of 1791, which remained in force until the 1830s. Not content with military reform, Guibert demanded a political and social constitution to match. His reforms required these changes, demanding a disciplined, service-oriented society and a functional, rational government to assist his reformed military. He delved deeply, like no other contemporary writer, into the linkages between society, politics, and the military throughout his career and his writings. Guibert exerted an overwhelming influence on military thought across Europe for the next fifty years. His military theories provided the foundation for military reform during the twilight of the Old Regime. The Revolution, which adopted most of Guibert’s doctrine in 1791, continued his work. A new army and way of war based on Guibert’s reforms emerged to defeat France’s major enemies. In Napoleon’s hands, Guibert’s army …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Abel, Jonathan, 1985-
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploratory Analysis of Social E-health Behavior (open access)

Exploratory Analysis of Social E-health Behavior

Extant literature has documented well that people seek health information via the internet as patients and consumers. Much less, however, is known about interaction and creation behaviors in the development of new online health information and knowledge. More specifically, generalizable sociodemographic data on who engages in this online health behavior via social media is lacking in the sociological literature. The term “social e-health” is introduced to emphasize the difference between seeking behaviors and interaction and creation behaviors. A 2010 dataset of a large nationally representative and randomly sampled telephone survey made freely available from the Pew Research Center is used to examine social e-health behavior according to respondents’ sociodemographics. The dependent variable of social e-health behavior is measured by 13 survey questions from the survey. Gender, race, ethnicity, age, education, and income are used as independent variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the odds of engagement in social e-health behavior based on the sociodemographic predictors. The social determinants of health and digital divide frameworks are used to help explain why socioeconomic variances exist in social e-health behavior. The findings of the current study suggest that predictable sociodemographic patterns along the dimensions of gender, race, age, education, and income …
Date: May 2014
Creator: Acadia, Spencer
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2014-04-25 - Daniel Adamson, trumpet

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: April 25, 2014
Creator: Adamson, Daniel
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2014-11-17 - Daniel Adamson, trumpet

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: November 17, 2014
Creator: Adamson, Daniel
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
Processing, Structure and Tribological Property Relations of Ternary Zn-Ti-O and Quaternary Zn-Ti-Zr-O Nanocrystalline Coatings (open access)

Processing, Structure and Tribological Property Relations of Ternary Zn-Ti-O and Quaternary Zn-Ti-Zr-O Nanocrystalline Coatings

Conventional liquid lubricants are faced with limitations under extreme cyclic operating conditions, such as in applications that require lubrication when changing from atmospheric pressure to ultrahigh vacuum and ambient air to dry nitrogen (e.g., satellite components), and room to elevated (>500°C) temperatures (e.g., aerospace bearings). Alternatively, solid lubricant coatings can be used in conditions where synthetic liquid lubricants and greases are not applicable; however, individual solid lubricant phases usually perform best only for a limited range of operating conditions. Therefore, solid lubricants that can adequately perform over a wider range of environmental conditions are needed, especially during thermal cycling with temperatures exceeding 500°C. One potential material class investigated in this dissertation is lubricious oxides, because unlike other solid lubricant coatings they are typically thermodynamically stable in air and at elevated temperatures. While past studies have been focused on binary metal oxide coatings, such as ZnO, there have been very few ternary oxide and no reported quaternary oxide investigations. The premise behind the addition of the third and fourth refractory metals Ti and Zr is to increase the number of hard and wear resistant phases while maintaining solid lubrication with ZnO. Therefore, the major focus of this dissertation is to investigate …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Ageh, Victor
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Use of Social Media in Informal Scientific Communication Among Scholars: Modeling the Modern Invisible College (open access)

The Use of Social Media in Informal Scientific Communication Among Scholars: Modeling the Modern Invisible College

The concept of the invisible college is a key focus of scientific communication research with many studies on this topic in the literature. However, while such studies have contributed to an understanding of the invisible college, they have not adequately explained the interaction of social and structural processes in this phenomenon. As a consequence, past research has described the invisible college differently based on researchers’ perspectives, resulting in misinterpretations or inconsistent definitions of the relevant social and structural processes. Information science and related disciplines have focused on the structural processes that lead to scholarly products or works while placing less emphasis on the social processes. To advance understanding of the invisible college and its dimensions (including both social processes and structural processes), a proposed model (Modern Invisible College Model, MICM) has been built based on the history of the invisible college and Lievrouw’s (1989) distinction between social and structural processes. The present study focuses on the social processes of informal communication between scholars via social media, rather than on the structural processes that lead to scholarly products or works. A developed survey and an employed quantitative research method were applied for data collection. The research population involved 77 scholars from …
Date: May 2014
Creator: Algarni, Mohammed Ayedh
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Necessity of Movement (open access)

The Necessity of Movement

This dissertation is a collection of poems preceded by a critical preface. The preface considers emotional immediacy—or the idea of enacting in readers an emotional drama that appears genuine and simultaneous with the speaker's experience—and furthermore argues against the common criticism that accessibility means simplicity, ultimately reifying the importance of accessibility in contemporary poetry. The preface is divided into an introduction and three sections, each of which explores a different technique for creating immediacy, exemplified by Robert Lowell’s "Waking in the Blue,” Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus,” and Louise Gluck's "Eros." The first section examines "Waking in the Blue,” and the poem's systematic inflation and deflation of persona as a means of revealing complexity a ambiguity. The second section engages in a close reading of "Lady Lazarus,” arguing that the poem's initially deliberately false erodes into sincerity, creating immediacy. The third section considers the continued importance of persona beyond confessionalism, and argues that in "Eros," it is the apparent lack of drama, and the focus on the cognitive process, that facilitates emotional immediacy.
Date: August 2014
Creator: Allen, Emily
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Thematic and Formal Narrative in Respighi’s Sinfonia Drammatica (open access)

Thematic and Formal Narrative in Respighi’s Sinfonia Drammatica

Respighi’s scarcely-known orchestral work Sinfonia Drammatica lives up to its title by evoking a narrative throughout the course of its three movements. In this dissertation, I argue how the work’s surface, subsurface, and formal elements suggest this narrative which emerges as a cycle of rising and falling dramatic tension. I explain how Respighi constructs the work’s narrative in the musical surface through a diverse body of themes that employ three motives of contour. The disposition and manipulation of these motives within the themes suggest frequent fluctuations of the level of conflict throughout the symphony as a whole. To show the involvement of musical forms in the work’s narrative, I employ an approach which integrates harmony and thematic behavior. I utilize analytical methods from the current Formenlehre, including terms from James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy’s sonata deformation theory and William Caplin’s theories of formal functions to elucidate ties between the forms of the Sinfonia Drammatica’s movements and those of conventional sonata forms of the late-eighteenth century. This dissertation also employs Heinrich Schenker’s theories of structures, voice leading, and reduction to illustrate large-scale aspects of the Sinfonia Drammatica’s narrative. The resulting analyses show Respighi’s elaborations of common structural paradigms which serve to …
Date: May 2014
Creator: Amato, Alexander G.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Investigation of Strategies for Improving STR Typing of Degraded and Low Copy DNA from Human Skeletal Remains and Bloodstains (open access)

Investigation of Strategies for Improving STR Typing of Degraded and Low Copy DNA from Human Skeletal Remains and Bloodstains

Forensic STR analysis is limited by the quality and quantity of DNA. Significant damage or alteration to the molecular structure of DNA by depurination, crosslinking, base modification, and strand breakage can impact typing success. Two methods that could potentially improve STR typing of challenged samples were explored: an in vitro DNA repair assay (PreCR™ Repair Mix) and whole genome amplification. Results with the repair assay showed trends of improved performance of STR profiling of bleach-damaged DNA. However, the repair assay did not improve DNA profiles from environmentally-damaged bloodstains or bone, and in some cases resulted in lower RFU values for STR alleles. The extensive spectrum of DNA damage and myriad combinations of lesions that can be present in forensic samples appears to pose a challenge for the in vitro PreCR™ assay. The data suggest that the use of PreCR™ in casework should be considered with caution due to the assay’s varied results. As an alternative to repair, whole genome amplification (WGA) was pursued. The DOP-PCR method was selected for WGA because of initial primer design and greater efficacy for amplifying degraded samples. Several modifications of the original DOP-PCR primer were evaluated. These modifications allowed for an overall more robust amplification …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Ambers, Angie D.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Engineered Microbial Consortium for the Efficient Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels (open access)

Engineered Microbial Consortium for the Efficient Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels

Current energy and environmental challenges are driving the use of cellulosic materials for biofuel production. A major obstacle in this pursuit is poor ethanol tolerance among cellulolytic Clostridium species. The first objective of this work was to establish a potential upper boundary of ethanol tolerance for the cellulosome itself. The hydrolytic function of crude cellulosome extracts from C. cellulolyticum on carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% (v/v) ethanol was determined. Results indicated that the endoglucanase activity of the cellulosome incubated in 5% and 10% ethanol was significantly different from a control without ethanol addition. Furthermore a significant difference was observed in endoglucanase activity for cellulosome incubated in 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% ethanol in a standalone experiment. Endoglucanase activity continued to be observed for up to 25% ethanol, indicating that cellulosome function in ethanol will not be an impediment to future efforts towards engineering increasing production titers to levels at least as high as the current physiological limits of the most tolerant ethanologenic microbes. The second objective of this work was to study bioethanol production by a microbial co-culture involving Clostridium cellulolyticum and a recombinant Zymomonas mobilis engineered for the utilization of oligodextrans. The …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Anieto, Ugochukwu Obiakornobi
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2014-04-18 - Song Eun Baek, violin

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music (MM) degree.
Date: April 18, 2014
Creator: Baek, Song Eun
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Philosophy and an Approach to Teaching Non-professional-track Violin Students (open access)

A Philosophy and an Approach to Teaching Non-professional-track Violin Students

The aim of this dissertation is to lay the groundwork for an integrated approach to violin instruction for children who are not being groomed explicitly for professional careers as instrumentalists. The study presents a particular focus on the age of middle school children, in order to showcase a more specialized and definitive result of research without, however, distinguishing between advantages and limitations of different age groups of children who study music and learn to play the violin. My first goal is to craft a sample method of teaching with a premise that not all students studying music must or need to become professional musicians in their future. I promote an approach based on the premise that music has universal value available to all and that any kind of music education encourages the growth, personality development, and imagination of children. My second goal is to explore how music education functions in 21st century western culture. Research is based on teachings and methods established by Suzuki, Kodaly, Jaques-Dalcroze, and Orff, among others.
Date: May 2014
Creator: Bard-Schwarz, Anna Ewa
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Doctoral Lecture Recital: 2014-10-07 – Stephen Beall, viola and conductor transcript

Doctoral Lecture Recital: 2014-10-07 – Stephen Beall, viola and conductor

Lecture recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: October 7, 2014
Creator: Beall, Stephen
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Performance Edition of the Alessandro Rolla Concerto in F for Viola and Orchestra, Op 4 (Bi 549) (open access)

A Performance Edition of the Alessandro Rolla Concerto in F for Viola and Orchestra, Op 4 (Bi 549)

The Concerto in F, Op. 4 (BI 549) by Alessandro Rolla (1757-1841) is a relatively unknown work that can serve as a complement for existing standard Classical repertoire for the viola, thus providing the means for greater stylistic education and technical foundation for viola study from this time period. In order to make the music from this lesser-known composer more readily available for future performers, a performance edition has been created from uncirculated sources using the notation software “Finale,” combining separate parts into a conductor’s full score, which did not exist before. This performance edition will provide greater access to Rolla’s music for viola performance and study. In addition to addressing the challenges to creating a performance edition, this lecture secondarily addresses Rolla’s biographical details relevant to the concerto and his stylistic influences.
Date: December 2014
Creator: Beall, Stephen J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2014-11-23 - Nathan Beaty, clarinet

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: November 23, 2014
Creator: Beaty, Nathan
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Relations Between Perceived Parent, Coach, and Peer Created Motivational Climates, Goal Orientations, and Mental Toughness in High School Varsity Athletes (open access)

The Relations Between Perceived Parent, Coach, and Peer Created Motivational Climates, Goal Orientations, and Mental Toughness in High School Varsity Athletes

Determining the factors that contribute to mental toughness development in athletes has become a focus for researchers as coaches, athletes, and others extol its influence on performance success. In this study we examined a model of mental toughness development based on achievement goal theory, assessing the relations between motivational climates, goal orientations, and mental toughness. Five hundred ninety-nine varsity athletes, representing 13 different sports from six different high schools in a southwestern United States school district, participated in the study. Athletes completed self-report measures assessing parent, peer, and coach motivational climates, goal orientations, and their mental toughness. Initially, I examined the measurement model and found it fit the data well both in the exploratory (SRMR = .06; CFI = .94) and confirmatory (SRMR = .06; CFI = .95) samples. Second, the structural model was examined and found to fit the data well in both the exploratory (SRMR = .08; CFI = .93) and confirmatory samples (SRMR = .07, CFI = .95). Parent task-involving climate, (β = .55; p < .05) and coach task-involving climate (β = .32; p < .05), but not peer task-involving climate (β = .05), were associated with task goal orientation (R2 = .57). Ego goal orientation …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Beck, Nicholas M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Doctoral Lecture Recital: 2014-05-12 – David J. Begnoche, trombone transcript

Doctoral Lecture Recital: 2014-05-12 – David J. Begnoche, trombone

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: May 12, 2014
Creator: Begnoche, David J.
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
“The Scherzo for Trombone Quartet” by John La Montaine: A Performer’s Edition (open access)

“The Scherzo for Trombone Quartet” by John La Montaine: A Performer’s Edition

In 1939, during his studies at the Eastman School of Music, John La Montaine (1920-2013) composed a Scherzo for four trombones. The Scherzo was revised more than 60 years later, becoming the third movement of a three-movement trombone quartet completed in 2001. Interestingly, the same Scherzo subsequently appeared in two of his later works: first the final movement of his Piano Concerto No. 4 Op. 59 (1989) and 12 years later as the final movement of a three-movement Trombone Quartet. The thesis presents a detailed account of the compositional history of the Scherzo, its connection to the first two movements, and a performance edition of the Scherzo based on my collaboration with the composer between for five years from 2003 to 2007.
Date: August 2014
Creator: Begnoche, David J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Examination of Text Reflection and Imagery in Zoltán Gárdonyi’s Fünf Lieder Nach Gedichten Von Rainer Maria Rilke (open access)

An Examination of Text Reflection and Imagery in Zoltán Gárdonyi’s Fünf Lieder Nach Gedichten Von Rainer Maria Rilke

Zoltán Gárdonyi is described as having exemplified “the continuation of the Liszt tradition” in his music; however, since for so much of his compositional life he was forbidden to publish by the Communist government in Hungary due to his connection to the Christian church, he has been largely forgotten. Shortly after the composer’s death in 1986, Gárdonyi’s son, Zsolt (b.1946) began publishing his father’s music in addition to his own. However, the elder Gárdonyi’s works are still not widely known outside Hungary and Germany. Gárdonyi’s ability to support and reflect text musically makes his songs excellent teaching tools and recital repertoire. A characteristic example of this may be found in his Fünf Lieder nach Gedichten von Rainer Maria Rilke. According to his son, Zoltán wrote these songs “in the German romantic tradition (e.g. Brahms) like a mirror for the romantic influenced lyrics.” Examination of the Rilke-Lieder, and of the poems which make up the cycle, demonstrates the composer’s ability to “mirror” text in both general tone and specific idea. Discussion of imagery, textures and sonorities, and elements of harmony, melody and rhythm as they relate to interpretation of the poetry, reveal the depth to which the poetry is embedded in …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Beloncik Schantz, Anne
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Role Importance, Affectional Solidarity, and Depression Among Familial Caregivers for Older Adults (open access)

Role Importance, Affectional Solidarity, and Depression Among Familial Caregivers for Older Adults

In the United States, familial caregivers provide approximately 80% of the long term elderly care and are at risk for mental health problems. As family members provide care, relationships shift from mutual support to increasing dependency on the caregivers, who in turn often experience a shift in self-concept from their prior relational role to include identification as caregiver for the care recipient. Affectional solidarity, or emotional relationship quality, can influence how caregivers experience their shifting role in relationship to a loved one. The study examined whether role importance is associated with caregiver depression over time, and tested the moderating role of affectional solidarity in this association. A subset of caregivers (N = 57) from the Longitudinal Study of Generations constituted the sample from which role importance, affectional solidarity, and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression reports were analyzed using longitudinal hierarchical regression. Findings did not support hypotheses. Results suggested that affectional solidarity may be important to consider among familial caregivers as a potential protective factor for depression. Implications for future research and practitioners are discussed.
Date: August 2014
Creator: Benson, Karen M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Acceptor-sensitizers for Nanostructured Oxide Semiconductor in Excitonic Solar Cells (open access)

Acceptor-sensitizers for Nanostructured Oxide Semiconductor in Excitonic Solar Cells

Organic dyes are examined in photoelectrochemical systems wherein they engage in thermal (rather than photoexcited) electron donation into metal oxide semiconductors. These studies are intended to elucidate fundamental parameters of electron transfer in photoelectrochemical cells. Development of novel methods for the structure/property tuning of electroactive dyes and the preparation of nanostructured semiconductors have also been discovered in the course of the presented work. Acceptor sensitized polymer oxide solar cell devices were assembled and the impact of the acceptor dyes were studied. The optoelectronic tuning of boron-chelated azadipyrromethene dyes has been explored by the substitution of carbon substituents in place of fluoride atoms at boron. Stability of singlet exited state and level of reduction potential of these series of aza-BODIPY coumpounds were studied in order to employ them as electron-accepting sensitizers in solid state dye sensitized solar cells.
Date: August 2014
Creator: Berhe, Seare Ahferom
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Influence of Indigenous Bushmen Musical Elements and Significant Compositional Traits on Niel Van Der Watt’s Song Cycle, Die Wind Dreun Soos ‘N Ghoera, ‘N Siklus Boesman-mites (open access)

The Influence of Indigenous Bushmen Musical Elements and Significant Compositional Traits on Niel Van Der Watt’s Song Cycle, Die Wind Dreun Soos ‘N Ghoera, ‘N Siklus Boesman-mites

In Ghoera, Afrika-verse vir kinders, poet Hennie Aucamp demonstrates an affiliation with and reflection of his surroundings, such as the tribal communities he experienced as a child. This group of African children’s poems, published by Protea Boekhuis in 2011, became the source of inspiration for composer Niel van der Watt’s song cycle Die wind dreun soos ‘n ghoera, ‘n Siklus Boesman-mites. This study investigates and identifies significant compositional traits that contributed to van der Watt’s song cycle. To explore and understand the nature of such influences, the second chapter considers the composer’s early childhood; religious world views; student life; social, environmental, and political ideas; personal tonal language; and western musical elements. To ascertain possible indigenous Bushmen musical elements in van der Watt’s song cycle, the third chapter traces the history of the Bushmen and their marginalization, followed by a brief survey of historical writings on Bushmen music, and an identification process utilizing musicologist Percival R. Kirby’s research on Bushmen music as a foundation. The fourth chapter explores the origins of the cycle and other significant compositional influences. This study suggests that Hennie Aucamp’s poetry and Niel van der Watt’s song cycle represent a reconciling vehicle for cross-cultural understanding generating awareness …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Bester, Christiaan
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library