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A Structural and Psychometric Evaluation of a Situational Judgment Test: The Workplace Skills Survey
Some basic but desirable employability skills are antecedents of job performance. The Workplace Skills Survey (WSS) is a 48-item situational judgment test (SJT) used to assess non-technical workplace skills for both entry-level and experienced workers. Unfortunately, the psychometric evidence for use of its scores is far from adequate. The purpose of current study was two-fold: (a) to examine the proposed structure of WSS scores using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and (b) to explore the WSS item functioning and performance using item response theory (IRT). A sample of 1,018 Jamaican unattached youth completed the WSS instrument as part of a longitudinal study on the efficacy of a youth development program in Jamaica. Three CFA models were tested for the construct validity of WSS scores. Parameter estimations of item difficulty, item discrimination, and examinee’s proficiency estimations were obtained with item response theory (IRT) and plotted in item characteristics curves (ICCs) and item information curves (IICs). Results showed that the WSS performed quite well as a whole and provided precise measurement especially for respondents at latent trait levels of -0.5 and +1.5. However, some modifications of some items were recommended. CFA analyses showed supportive evidence of the one-factor construct model, while the six-factor …
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Wei, Min
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Would You Do Your Homework for a Chance to Improve Your Quiz Score?
Students who complete homework generally do better on measures of academic performance such as quizzes, exams, and overall course grades. We examined the effects of contingent access to second quiz attempts on the percentage of undergraduate students completing homework to mastery. The study was conducted in an Introduction to Behavior Analysis course that, historically, had only 70% of students on average completing homework. An adapted multiple baseline design across sections was used for four sections of the course. Students could access a second quiz attempt contingent by meeting the following criteria: the student received a 16 out of 20 on the first quiz attempt or by meeting the mastery criterion of the homework (45 out of 50). We also examined the relation between homework accuracy and scores on first quiz attempts. Two sections did not show a difference in homework completion with and without the second quiz attempt contingency. One section showed more sensitivity toward the contingency once it was withdrawn, and one section never had the removal of the contingency and had the highest percentages of students completing their homework. When analyzing the relation of homework accuracy to the corresponding first quiz attempts, homework accuracy appeared to be related …
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Zimmerman, Karl J.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
On the Fence
Living the vast majority of my life in an area that celebrates diversity but thrives because of illegal cross-border activities (undocumented workers, drug imports) at times the distance between the United States and Mexico is in fact as thin as the width of a fence. Though it is typical for a filmmaker to hope to present a unique take on a subject, given how I have seen the topics of immigration and the perspective of the purpose of homeland security portray, I am confident that there is an opportunity to show these issues in a more personal, less aggressive light with the use of first person accounts instead of a dependence on the most violent aspects of these topics. The main subject will give character to this agency by blurring the lines of his life as an agent and as a citizen.
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Medrano, Estevan
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Space in Space: Privacy Needs for Long-Duration Spaceflight
Space exploration is a uniquely human activity. As humans continue to push the limits of exploring the unknown, they have sought knowledge supporting the sustenance of life in outer space. New technologies, advancements in medicine, and rethinking what it means to be a “community” will need to emerge to support life among the stars. Crews traveling beyond the Moon will rely on the development of new technologies to support the technological aspects of their missions as well as their quality of life while away from Earth. Likewise, through advancements in medicine, scientists will need to address remaining questions regarding the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body and crew performance. Space explorers must learn to utilize these new technologies and medical advancements while learning to adapt to their new environment in space and as a space community. It is important that researchers address these issues so that human survival beyond Earth is not only achievable but so that life among the stars is worth living and sustaining. This thesis addressed these issues in an attempt to extend the trajectory of space exploration to new horizons.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Aiken, Jo
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Heart Rate Variability as an Indicator of Stress and Resilience in HIV+ Adults: An Analysis of a Stigma Related Stress Induction
Learning of a positive diagnosis of HIV may be one of the most challenging and stressful events in life. The memory of this event is emotionally laden, and even years later evokes an emotional response. Similarly, many people living with HIV (PLH) have memories of the first time they were treated differently because of their diagnosis. While research frequently examines the subjective of stress, few studies have examined biological markers of stress in people living with HIV. Heart Rate Variability offers a non-invasive measure of stress. Beyond serving as a biological marker for stress, changes in HRV are also associated with emotional functioning. Research demonstrates decreased HRV levels in patients with Depression, Anxiety, and PTSD. We conducted a repeated measures MANOVA to examine effects of stress induction on HRV in individuals with high and low levels of HIV-related stigma. We found that the high stigma group was significantly different from the low stigma group in regard to changes in participants’ HRV, Wilks’ λ = .50, F (1, 51) = 11.63, p < .001. A hierarchical linear regression examined the relationship between HRV and other measures of stress (Heart Rate and Blood Pressure). We found that systolic blood pressure and heart …
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Lewis, Kimberly
System:
The UNT Digital Library
An Interactive Framework for Teaching Fundamentals of Digital Logic Design and VLSI Design
Integrated Circuits (ICs) have a broad range of applications in healthcare, military, consumer electronics etc. The acronym VLSI stands for Very Large Scale Integration and is a process of making ICs by placing millions of transistors on a single chip. Because of advancements in VLSI design technologies, ICs are getting smaller, faster in speed and more efficient, making personal devices handy, and with more features. In this thesis work an interactive framework is designed in which the fundamental concepts of digital logic design and VLSI design such as logic gates, MOS transistors, combinational and sequential logic circuits, and memory are presented in a simple, interactive and user friendly way to create interest in students towards engineering fields, especially Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. Most of the concepts are explained in this framework by taking the examples which we see in our daily lives. Some of the critical design concerns such as power and performance are presented in an interactive way to make sure that students can understand these significant concepts in an easy and user friendly way.
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Battina, Brahmasree
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Electromagnetically Modulated Sonic Structures
Phononic crystals are structures composed of periodically arranged scatterers in a background medium that affect the transmission of elastic waves. They have garnered much interest in recent years for their macro-scale properties that can be modulated by the micro-scale components. The elastic properties of the composite materials, the contrast in the elastic properties of the composite materials, and the material arrangement all directly affect how an elastic wave will behave as it propagates through the sonic structure. The behavior of an elastic wave in a periodic structure is revealed in its transmission bandstructure, and modification of any the elastic parameters will result in tuning of the band structure. In this dissertation, a phononic crystal with properties that can be modulated using electromagnetic radiation, and more specifically, radio-frequency (RF) light will be presented.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Walker, Ezekiel Lee
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Not All Truth Commissions Are Alike: Understanding Their Limitations and Impact
This dissertation project develops a theoretical understanding of how truth commissions achieve legitimacy and thus contribute to peace and stability in the aftermath of major traumatic events (e.g. civil war, mass killings, regime changes). I identify three components of truth commission legitimacy---authority, fairness, and transparency---that facilitate beneficial outcomes for societies emerging from a period of severe human rights repression or civil war. I theorize and test how institutions with these legitimacy characteristics contribute to an increase in respect for human rights and decrease political violence in transitioning societies, thus contributing to peace and stability. In order to test the hypothesized relationships, I create a truth commission characteristic dataset that provides greater detail than existing datasets. This project is a contribution to our understanding of the relationships between human rights, institutions, conflict, and international law. It provides one explanation for the inconsistent findings of extant work concerning the impact of transitional justice, generally and truth commissions, specifically. I provide evidence that there are identifiable "best practices" that truth commissions should consider adopting. This information can assist states, intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations alike in making difficult decisions regarding the transitional justice process, which is expensive and time consuming further necessitating an …
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Nichols, Angela D.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Development and Test of High-Temperature Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring
High-temperature piezoelectric wafer active sensors (HT-PWAS) have been developed for structure health monitoring at hazard environments for decades. Different candidates have previously been tested under 270 °C and a new piezoelectric material langasite (LGS) was chosen here for a pilot study up to 700 °C. A preliminary study was performed to develop a high temperature sensor that utilizes langasite material. The Electromechanical impedance (E/M) method was chosen to detect the piezoelectric property. Experiments that verify the basic piezoelectric property of LGS at high temperature environments were carried out. Further validations were conducted by testing structures with attached LGS sensors at elevated temperature. Additionally, a detection system simulating the working process of LGS monitoring system was developed with PZT material at room temperature. This thesis, for the first time, (to the best of author’s knowledge) presents that langasite is ideal for making piezoelectric wafer active sensors for high temperature structure health monitoring applications.
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Bao, Yuanye
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Assessing Workplace Design: Applying Anthropology to Assess an Architecture Firm’s Own Headquarters Design
Corporations, design firms, technology, and furniture companies are rethinking the concept of the ‘workplace’ environment and built ‘office’ in an effort to respond to changing characteristics of the workplace. The following report presents a case study, post-occupancy assessment of an architecture firm’s relocation of their corporate headquarters in Dallas, TX. This ethnographic research transpired from September 2013 to February 2014 and included participant observation, employee interviews, and an office-wide employee survey. Applying a user-centered approach, this study sought to identify and understand: 1) the most and least effective design elements, 2) unanticipated user-generated (“un-designed”) elements, 3) how the workplace operates as an environment and system of design elements, and 4) opportunities for continued improvement of their work environment. This study found that HKS ODC successfully increased access to collaborative spaces by increasing the size (i.e. number of square feet, number of rooms), variety of styles (i.e. enclosed rooms, open work surfaces), and distribution of spaces throughout the office environment. An increase in reported public transit commuting from 6.5% at their previous location to 24% at HKS ODC compares to almost five times the national public transit average (5%) and fifteen times the rate of Texas workers (1.6%) and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, …
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Ramer, S. Angela
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A History of the Phenomenon of the Maras of El Salvador, 1971- 1992
This thesis grounds its examination of the maras of El Salvador in the historical past (1971-1992) rather than the present, which constitutes a departure from current scholarship on the subject. This thesis revises our current understanding of the emergence and development of maras in El Salvador through the recovery, insertion and examination of key local events, conditions, and historical actors of the 1970s and 1980s. From signifying friendship and camaraderie prior to the late 1980s, the maras increasingly became the target of public concern and Salvadoran security forces over the course of the 1980. By the late 1980s the maras increasingly became associated with criminal activity in Salvadoran society and popular culture. To document these changed conditions, this thesis relies extensively on previously untapped and ignored primary sources: newspapers and oral history interviews.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Castillo, Vogel Vladimir
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Surface Topography and Aesthetics of Recycled Cross-Linked Polyethylene Wire and Cable Coatings
Our research focuses on re-using a waste a material, cross-linked polyethylene abbreviated XLPE, which is a widely used coating for wires. XLPE is strong and has excellent thermal properties due to its chemical structure - what leads to the significance of recycling this valuable polymer. Properties of XLPE include good resistance to heat, resistance to chemical corrosion, and high impact strength. A wire is usually composed of a metal core conductor and polymeric coating layers. One creates a new coating, including little pieces of recycled XLPE in the lower layer adjacent to the wire, and virgin XLPE only in the upper layer. Industries are often wasting materials which might be useful. Mostly, some returned or excess products could be recycled to create a new type of product or enable the original use. This method helps cleaning the waste, lowers the costs, and enhances the income of the manufacturing company. With the changing of the thickness of the outer layer, the roughness changes significantly. Moreover, different processing methods result in surfaces that look differently.
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Xie, Wa
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Networks of Social Debt in Early Modern Literature and Culture
This thesis argues that social debt profoundly transformed the environment in which literature was produced and experienced in the early modern period. In each chapter, I examine the various ways in which social debt affected Renaissance writers and the literature they produced. While considering the cultural changes regarding patronage, love, friendship, and debt, I will analyze the poetry and drama of Ben Jonson, Lady Mary Wroth, William Shakespeare, and Thomas Middleton. Each of these writers experiences social debt in a unique and revealing way. Ben Jonson's participation in networks of social debt via poetry allowed him to secure both a livelihood and a place in the Jacobean court through exchanges of poetry and patronage. The issue of social debt pervades both Wroth's life and her writing. Love and debt are intertwined in the actions of her father, the death of her husband, and the themes of her sonnets and pastoral tragicomedy. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596), Antonio and Bassanio’s friendship is tested by a burdensome interpersonal debt, which can only be alleviated by an outsider. This indicated the transition from honor-based credit system to an impersonal system of commercial exchange. Middleton’s A Trick to Catch the Old …
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Criswell, Christopher C.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
My Brother’s Keeper
My Brother’s Keeper is a Documentary Film developed to explore the life of John Dillinger. It examines the legendary criminal through the memories of Frances Dillinger Thompson, his last remaining sibling. The film attempts to understand John Dillinger by exposing his intimate childhood relationship with his sister, and the burdens his actions left on her.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Greenthaner, Sean
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Penumbra
This thesis consists of a collection of poems. The poems entail a discussion of the weight of human decisions with regards to gender, sexuality, music, religion, and environment. A great deal of these pieces are in conversation with a type of death or an eclipsed ending in order to examine the outcome of each varied individual response to mortality.
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Brizendine, Elizabeth Katherine
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Dismantling the Psychiatric Ghetto: Evaluating a Blended-Clinic Approach to Supportive Housing in Houston, Texas
Locational decisions based on stigma and low funding have handicapped the efficiency of community based mental healthcare in the United States since 1963. However, the pattern of services in the 21st century American South remains largely unknown. This thesis addresses this gap in knowledge by using a mixed methodology including location allocation, descriptive statistics, and qualitative site visits to explore the geography of community clinics offering both physical and mental health services. The City of Houston has proposed using these facilities to anchor new supportive housing, but introducing more fixed costs to a mismatched system could create more problems than solutions. The findings of this study suggest the presence of an unnecessary concentration of services in the central city and a spatial mismatch between accessible clinics and the poor, sick people in need. Furthermore, this research reveals a new suburban pattern of vulnerability, calling into question long-held assumptions about the vulnerability of the inner city. Building supportive housing around existing community clinics, especially in the central city, may further concentrate vulnerable people thereby contributing to intensifying patterns of service-seeking drift and the continued traumatization of mentally ill homeless persons in Houston.
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Lester, Katherine Ann
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Providing a Brief Training Package to Daycare Teachers to Teach a Child a Sign for Social Attention
Behavioral skills training (BST) packages have been successful in increasing change agents’ correct implementation of various procedures. The current study evaluated the effects of a brief BST package to train daycare teachers to implement incidental teaching procedures with toddlers. The brief BST consisted of a set of written instructions, a two-minute video model, rehearsal, and feedback during session. Results demonstrated that teachers increased their correct implementation of incidental teaching procedures following training. In addition, two of the three toddlers increased the frequency of signs to request attention.
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Zimmerman, Valerie L. V.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The State of the Field of Critical Information Literacy in Higher Education
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the state of critical information literacy (CIL) in higher education as it is enacted and understood by academic librarians. This qualitative study investigated the institutional support, nonsupport, and barriers to CIL programs and the effectiveness of experiential critical pedagogy for information literacy (IL) learning as taught and studied by 19 CIL specialists. Purposeful sampling was used to gather a sample of 17 academic librarians and two professors of library and information science who had previously worked as academic librarians. The sample included 11 females and eight males; 18 participants were Caucasian and one was African American. Data were collected through 40-60 minute semi-structured interviews and a brief demographic survey. Experiential education served as the broad theoretical framework for this study, which stems from the tradition of critical theory. This study was guided by the work of two major experiential learning theorists and theories: Paulo Freire and critical pedagogy and Jack Mezirow and transformative learning. Mezirow and Freire focused their work on adult education and grounded their approaches in critical theory and focused on power relationships, reflection, and the emancipatory potential of education. The findings were framed through a lens of Freire’s conception …
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Downey, Annie L.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Highly Efficient Single Frequency Blue Laser Generation by Second Harmonic Generation of Infrared Lasers Using Quasi Phase Matching in Periodically Poled Ferroelectric Crystals
Performance and reliability of solid state laser diodes in the IR region exceeds those in the visible and UV part of the light spectrum. Single frequency visible and UV laser diodes with higher than 500 mW power are not available commercially. However we successfully stabilized a multi-longitudinal mode IR laser to 860 mW single frequency. This means high efficiency harmonic generation using this laser can produce visible and UV laser light not available otherwise. In this study we examined three major leading nonlinear crystals: PPMgO:SLN, PPKTP and PPMgO:SLT to generate blue light by second harmonic generation. We achieved record high net conversion efficiencies 81.3% using PPMgO:SLT (~500 mW out), and 81.1% using PPKTP (~700 mW out). In both these cases an external resonance buildup cavity was used. We also studied a less complicated single pass waveguide configuration (guided waist size of ~ 5 um compared to ~60 um) to generate blue. With PPMgO:SLN we obtained net 40.4% and using PPKT net 6.8% (110mW and 10.1 mW respectively).
Date:
August 2014
Creator:
Khademian, Ali
System:
The UNT Digital Library
“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.
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Using Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicators to Predict High School Student Performance in an Educational Video Game
Educational video games have proven a useful tool for educators, offering experiential pedagogy in a variety of fields. Predicting the success of a video game in engaging students and motivating them to work with relevant material is problematic. One approach was attempted through administering the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator to 42 high school students and observing subsequent voluntary performance on a popular mathematics video game throughout one semester. Game dynamics matching certain personality elements of the students generally correlated between learning preferences in the classroom and in the online gaming environment. Students who enjoyed group dynamics in classroom settings likewise indicated enthusiasm for the group dynamics in game play. Those students preferring structured learning environments may prefer less open ended virtual learning gaming environments. Since the game incorporated multiple choice questions and rewarded correct choices made quickly, those students with personality styles in which questions are carefully considered before answering suffered in points scored compared to those used to making fast intuitive choices in exam settings. Additional studies, including those with larger populations and different types of video games, are needed for more definite conclusions.
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Rice, John W., 1967-
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Interaction of Plasmons and Excitons for Low-Dimension Semiconductors
The effects of surface plasmon for InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells and ZnO nanoparticles optical linear and nonlinear emission efficiency had been experimentally studied. Due to the critical design for InGaN MQWs with inverted hexagonal pits based on GaN, both contribution of surface plasmon effect and image charge effect at resonant and off resonant frequencies were experimentally and theoretically investigated. With off- resonant condition, the InGaN MQWs emission significantly enhanced by metal nanoparticles. This enhancement was caused by the image charge effect, due to the accumulation of carriers to NPs region. When InGaN emission resonated with metal particles SP modes, surface Plasmon effect dominated the emission process. We also studied the surface plasmon effect for ZnO nanoparticles nonlinear optical processes, SHG and TPE. Defect level emission had more contribution at high incident intensity. Emissions are different for pumping deep into the bulk and near surface. A new assumption to increase the TPE efficiency was studied. We thought by using Au nanorods localized surface plasmon mode to couple the ZnO virtual state, the virtual state’s life time would be longer and experimentally lead the emission enhancement. We studied the TPE phenomena at high and near band gap energy. Both emission intensity and decay …
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Lin, Jie (physicist)
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Considering Canine Companionship: An Examination of Dog Owner Travel Desires Using the Model of Goal-Directed Behavior
The purpose of this study is to investigate how internal and external sources influence dog owners’ desire and intent to travel with their dogs, using the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB). Specifically, this study investigates 1) the demographic profile of participating dog owners, 2) the relationship between dog owners’ Anticipated Emotions (AE) and their desire to travel with their dogs, 3) dog owners’ Attitudes toward the act (Aact) of traveling with their dogs and its relationship with their desire to travel with dogs, 4) the relationship between Subjective Norms (SN) and dog owners desire to travel with dogs, 5) owners’ Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) over their dog-accompanied travel situation, 6) the relationship between desire for dog-accompanied travel and Behavioral Intent (BI), and 7) the relationship between Past Behavior (PB) and the desire and BI regarding future travel with dogs.
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Krier, J. Leia
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Needs Assessment for Parent Literacy Program
Latina/o students do not perform at the same level of achievement as their peers, and often lack of parent presence is mistaken for apathy towards their children’s educational success. This research examines the strategies Latina/o parents take in navigating the school system and advocating for their students. A local nonprofit organization with the goal of achieving educational equity for Latina/o parents will utilize these findings and recommendations to develop curricula for a parent literacy program.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
González, Miranda Andrade
System:
The UNT Digital Library