Partner
Collection
Texas Digital Newspaper Program
653
UNT Theses and Dissertations
460
Denton County Newspapers Collection
345
Denton Record-Chronicle
345
UNT Scholarly Works
151
The Suburbia News
53
Texas Jewish Post
52
The Monitor
48
Copperas Cove Leader Press
47
Texas Jewish Herald /Jewish Herald /Jewish Herald-Voice
42
23 More
Degree Department
Libraries
100
Digital Projects Unit
55
College of Music
44
Department of Psychology
41
Department of Teacher Education and Administration
29
Department of Counseling and Higher Education
24
Department of Electrical Engineering
18
Department of English
18
Department of Biological Sciences
17
Department of History
17
61 More
Degree Discipline
Degree Level
Country
States
Year
Month
Language
Fundamental Issues in Support Vector Machines
This dissertation considers certain issues in support vector machines (SVMs), including a description of their construction, aspects of certain exponential kernels used in some SVMs, and a presentation of an algorithm that computes the necessary elements of their operation with proof of convergence. In its first section, this dissertation provides a reasonably complete description of SVMs and their theoretical basis, along with a few motivating examples and counterexamples. This section may be used as an accessible, stand-alone introduction to the subject of SVMs for the advanced undergraduate. Its second section provides a proof of the positive-definiteness of a certain useful function here called E and dened as follows: Let V be a complex inner product space. Let N be a function that maps a vector from V to its norm. Let p be a real number between 0 and 2 inclusive and for any in V , let ( be N() raised to the p-th power. Finally, let a be a positive real number. Then E() is exp(()). Although the result is not new (other proofs are known but involve deep properties of stochastic processes) this proof is accessible to advanced undergraduates with a decent grasp of linear algebra. Its …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
McWhorter, Samuel P.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Opening Doors for Excellent Maternal Health Services: Perceptions Regarding Maternal Health in Rural Tanzania
The worldwide maternal mortality rate is excessive. Developing countries such as Tanzania experience the highest maternal mortality rates. The continued exploration of issues to create ease of access for women to quality maternal health care is a significant concern. A central strategy for reducing maternal mortality is that every birth be attended by a skilled birth attendant, therefore special attention was placed on motivations and factors that might lead to an increased utilization of health facilities. This qualitative study assessed the perceptions of local population concerning maternal health services and their recommendations for improved quality of care. The study was conducted in the Karatu District of Tanzania and gathered data through 66 in-depth interviews with participants from 20 villages. The following components were identified as essential for perceived quality care: medical professionals that demonstrate a caring attitude and share information about procedures; a supportive and nurturing environment during labor and delivery; meaningful and informative maternal health education for the entire community; promotion of men’s involvement as an essential part of the system of maternal health; knowledgeable, skilled medical staff with supplies and equipment needed for a safe delivery. By providing these elements, the community will gain trust in health facilities …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
McLendon, Pamela Ann
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Shall We Dance? Teaching Parents the Communication Dance to Enhance Generalized Communication in Their Children
Children diagnosed with autism exhibit deficits in communication that impact their ability to control their immediate environment. Recent research on mand training has been criticized for producing a limited number of mand topographies over a long span of time with limited generalization to novel environments. There is a body of research, however, that successfully establishes larger repertoires. Training parents as change agents may mediate generalization by teaching under naturally maintaining contingencies. Additional effects of parent training may reduce parent reports of stress, increase favorable quality of parent-child interactions, and increase reports of parental self-efficacy. The current study evaluated the effects of a generalized training framework to teach parents how to target generalized mands and expand their child’s communicative topographies. The effects of the training were evaluated using a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants and skills. Results indicated that parents were able to effectively teach their child to mand for a variety of items and events and to substantially increase the number of different mand topographies and expand the topographies the child emitted. Parents were observed to have higher overall confidence and lower overall stress following intervention. The current study builds on previous research on generalized teaching strategies for parents that …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Baker, Jacqueline R.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Factors Related to Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines in College Students: a Social Cognitive Perspective
Engaging in regular physical activity is important for maintaining and improving health. Unfortunately, most college students fail to meet the recommendations for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity guidelines (PAGs). Psychosocial factors described within the social cognitive theory are related to the acquisition and retention of physical activity behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of gender, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and social support with college students meeting aerobic, muscle-strengthening and both PAGs. Participants (N = 396) completed online questionnaires assessing their physical activity behaviors, exercise self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and social support. Self-reported physical activity was classified as meeting / not meeting PAGs. Using gender, exercise self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and social support as predictors, separate logistic regressions were used to examine their relations with the three PAG classifications. Analyses revealed that being male and level of social support increased the odds of meeting muscle-strengthening PAGs, but students’ level of self-efficacy and outcome expectations increased the odds of meeting all three PAG classifications. These findings indicate that interventions designed to increase self-efficacy and outcome expectancy may be beneficial for increasing college students’ physical activity for meeting the PAGs. Promotion of muscle-strengthening activities targeted at young women is also …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Farren, Gene L.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
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
Creating a Heterotopic Space: Reflections on Pre-service Art Educators’ Narratives
My autobiographical research focuses on creating digital heterotopias through social media platforms, providing safe spaces which allow art teacher candidates the opportunity to reflect upon their practicum experiences and question the status quo of institutional myths and inherited discourses in teacher fieldwork. Functions of heterotopic space link together and reflect other pedagogical sites, including institutional spaces. Heterotopias are often designed to be temporal and hidden from public view but are necessary enclaves for exploring non-hierarchical paradigms. Such temporary communal spaces can lead one to a personal praxis in uncovering what sometimes is never fully explored, our own autobiographical narrative of teaching. By creating a digital space utilized by art education student teachers in the midst of their practicum, I recalled my forgotten autobiography of student teaching, where memories of inequities and suppression of difference emerged. Through the lenses of critical theory and resistance theory, this study examines possibilities of crafting digital spaces as forms of artistic resistance and identity reconstruction zones. As such, the goal of examining the student teaching practicum concerning; power inequities, evaluation methods, standardization of teaching, evolving teacher identities, and the social environment of teaching, is to illustrate hegemonic processes and visualize spaces of possibility to deconstruct …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Hyatt, Joana S.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Monitoring Dengue Outbreaks Using Online Data
Internet technology has affected humans' lives in many disciplines. The search engine is one of the most important Internet tools in that it allows people to search for what they want. Search queries entered in a web search engine can be used to predict dengue incidence. This vector borne disease causes severe illness and kills a large number of people every year. This dissertation utilizes the capabilities of search queries related to dengue and climate to forecast the number of dengue cases. Several machine learning techniques are applied for data analysis, including Multiple Linear Regression, Artificial Neural Networks, and the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average. Predictive models produced from these machine learning methods are measured for their performance to find which technique generates the best model for dengue prediction. The results of experiments presented in this dissertation indicate that search query data related to dengue and climate can be used to forecast the number of dengue cases. The performance measurement of predictive models shows that Artificial Neural Networks outperform the others. These results will help public health officials in planning to deal with the outbreaks.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Chartree, Jedsada
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Culture Interrupted: Assessing the Effects of the Shining Path Internal Armed Conflict in the Peruvian Highlands
This study was a qualitative examination of social, economic, political, and cultural dilemmas that face Peruvian survivors of the Communist Shining Path Revolution, an internal armed conflict that cut a swath of terror and destruction during the years 1980-2000, with a reported loss of 69,000 residents either killed or considered “disappeared.” The conflict affected primarily poor, uneducated Andean campesinos and townspeople in the highland areas of the Ayacucho District. In this study, I looked closely at the responsibilities of both government and NGOs in the facilitation of readjustment during and after times of instability. In addition, specific challenges the elderly, women and campesinos face in a post-conflict world are analyzed and possible social policies are discerned that might be developed to better implement the transition to a new form of community. Ideas that emerged from this research may assist policy shapers in other less developed countries involved in similar conflicts by examining how Peru dealt with its own issues. Methodology included participant observation and interviews with long-term Ayacuchan residents who stayed-in-place during war time, along with migrants who went to live in shantytowns in more urban areas. The government-mandated Truth and Reconciliation Commission report serves as a framework as it …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Van Wye, Kalynn Hicks
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
El Cine De Terror Español Como Espejo De La Cultura Española
This study traces the history and culture of Spain as seen through the lens of the nation´s production of horror cinema. Starting from the boom of Spanish horror film in the early 1960s, the thesis compares and contrasts the political and social aspects of Spanish society throughout three distinct eras of the 20th century: 1962 – 1975 (the boom of Spanish horror film through the Franco dictatorship), 1975 – 1999 (the transition to democracy through the end of the 20th century) and 2000 – present (the 21st century). Movies as diverse as Gritos en la noche (1962, Jesús Franco), ¿Quién puede matar a un niño? (1976, Narciso Ibáñez Serrador) and Angustia (1987, Bigas Luna) are framed by culturally-related anectodes as well as correlations to their respective social environments. Special attention has been paid to the production and release of each film, especially in regards to censorship during the Franco dictatorship. The results show that Spanish horror cinema has acted as a true mirror to culture, society and politics in its native country throughout the 20th century and that this trend will likely extend in to the future.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Donahue, Tyler
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Information Politics Assessment Scale (Ipas): Developing and Testing an Instrument to Measure and Identify the Information Politics of Organizations
Information politics is a concept widely acknowledged in several disciplines. However, scant empirical evidence exists in the literature that codifies or measures information politics as a construct. This exploratory study developed and tested the Information Politics Assessment Scale (IPAS), a survey instrument that measured individual perceptions of organizational information artifacts as indictors of its information politics. Data collected with the IPAS was examined to investigate the latent structure of the information politics variable, determine information politics models, and explore the relationship between information politics, strategy, and organization effectiveness. A purposive sample of 240 participants from a cross-section of organizations completed the IPAS in an online administration. Exploratory factor analysis generated three factors, labeled Behavioral Flexibility (BF), Environmental Sensitivity (ES), and Structural Autonomy (SA), suggesting three dimensions of the information politics variable. Cluster analysis of aggregate scores on the BF, ES, and SA factors together resulted in determining four distinct information politics models. Crosstab and ANOVA, respectively, enabled explaining the relationship between strategy and information politics, and how it influenced organization effectiveness. This study breaks ground by broadening the theoretical and empirical understanding of information politics in confirming the proposition that an organization’s information artifacts are measureable and reliable indicators of …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Reed, Richard
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Development and Validation of an Instrument to Operationalize Information System Requirements Capabilities
As a discipline, information systems (IS) has struggled with the challenge of alignment of product (primarily software and the infrastructure needed to run it) with the needs of the organization it supports. This has been characterized as the pursuit of alignment of information technology (IT) with the business or organization, which begins with the gathering of the requirements of the organization, which then guide the creation of the IS requirements, which in turn guide the creation of the IT solution itself. This research is primarily focused on developing and validating an instrument to operationalize such requirements capabilities. Requirements capabilities at the development of software or the implementation of a specific IT solution are referred to as capabilities for software requirements or more commonly systems analysis and design (SA&D) capabilities. This research describes and validates an instrument for SA&D capabilities for content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, and an exploratory factor analysis. SA&D capabilities were expected to coalesce strongly around a single dimension. Yet in validating the SA&D capabilities instrument, it became apparent that SA&D capabilities are not the unidimensional construct traditionally perceived. Instead it appears that four dimensions underlie SA&D capabilities, and these are associated with alignment maturity (governance, partnership, …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Pettit, Alex Z.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Consumer Shopping Motivations with Facebook Retailers: Utilitarian Versus Hedonic
Retailers increasingly are connecting with consumers using social media. This two-way, networked communication method facilitates word-of-mouth that may ultimately impact retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study was to examine motivations of consumers’ purchase intention from apparel Facebook retailers, and the relationship between purchase intention and loyalty. Consumer motivations were examined in terms of the utilitarian values of cost, convenience, and information and the hedonic values of experiential shopping, bargain perception, sociability, and curiosity. The relationship of purchase intention and loyalty also was investigated. The instrument was developed from existing scales drawn from literature. A consumer panel (N = 250) of Facebook users that connect to apparel retailers was used to collect data through an online Qualtrics survey. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics of frequency and crosstab distributions, factor analysis, and regression analysis. Factor analysis resulted in four dimensions including convenience, information, experience, and bargains. All motivators were found to be significantly related to both purchase intention and loyalty for this consumer group. The variable with the strongest relationship to both purchase intention and loyalty was experience. Additionally, a strong relationship was found between purchase intention and loyalty. Lastly, practical business implications are reviewed, in addition to limitations of the …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Anderson, Kelley B.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Longitudinal Study Describing the Career Identity Development of Low Income and First Generation College Bound Students
This mixed methods study investigated the influence of a career development program attended by low income, first generation, college bound students. Phase I took place in 2006 and 2007 when the students participated in the Upward Bound summer Bridge program. During Phase II in 2009, follow up interviews were conducted. Phase III was completed in 2014 and also included follow-up interviews. Career Identity (CI) scores from My Vocational Situation and Holland codes from the Self Directed Search were obtained during each phase. Changes in measured career identity scores and codes were interpreted by taking into account the students’ experiences. Interviews examined common themes demonstrating the career development of the participants.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Estrada-Hamby, Lisa S.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
“True Image Pictur’d”: Metaphor, Epistemology, and Shakespeare’s Sonnets
In this dissertation, I examine the influence of Pyrrhonist skepticism over Shakespeare’s sonnets. Unlike academic skepticism, which begins from a position of doubt, Pyrrhonist skepticism encourages an embrace of multiple perspectives that, according to Sextus Empiricus, leads first to a suspension of judgment and ultimately to a state of tranquility. The Pyrrhonian inflection of Shakespeare’s sonnets accounts for the pleasure and uncertainty they cultivate in readers. By offering readers multiple perspectives on a given issue, such as love or infidelity, Shakespeare’s sonnets demonstrate the instability of information, suggesting that such instability can be a source for pleasure. One essential tool for the uncertainty in the sonnets, I argue, is the figurative language they draw from a variety of fields and discourses. When these metaphors contradict one another, creating fragmented images in the minds of readers, they generate a unique aesthetic experience, which creates meaning that transcends the significance of any of the individual metaphors. In the first two chapters, I identify important contexts for Shakespeare’s sensitivity to the pliability of figurative language: Reformation-era religious tracts and pamphleteers’ debates about the value and function of the theater. In Chapter 3, I examine Shakespeare’s response to the Petrarchan tradition, arguing that he …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Kellogg, Amanda O.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Geostatistical Inspired Metamodeling and Optimization of Nanoscale Analog Circuits
The current trend towards miniaturization of modern consumer electronic devices significantly affects their design. The demand for efficient all-in-one appliances leads to smaller, yet more complex and powerful nanoelectronic devices. The increasing complexity in the design of such nanoscale Analog/Mixed-Signal Systems-on-Chip (AMS-SoCs) presents difficult challenges to designers. One promising design method used to mitigate the burden of this design effort is the use of metamodeling (surrogate) modeling techniques. Their use significantly reduces the time for computer simulation and design space exploration and optimization. This dissertation addresses several issues of metamodeling based nanoelectronic based AMS design exploration. A surrogate modeling technique which uses geostatistical based Kriging prediction methods in creating metamodels is proposed. Kriging prediction techniques take into account the correlation effects between input parameters for performance point prediction. We propose the use of Kriging to utilize this property for the accurate modeling of process variation effects of designs in the deep nanometer region. Different Kriging methods have been explored for this work such as simple and ordinary Kriging. We also propose another metamodeling technique Kriging-Bootstrapped Neural Network that combines the accuracy and process variation awareness of Kriging with artificial neural network models for ultra-fast and accurate process aware metamodeling design. …
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Okobiah, Oghenekarho
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Kicking All Odds
The Middle East conflicts between Palestine and Israel are long-term, ongoing and wide-ranging. Kicking All Odds is an observational documentary that explores women football players from Palestine – both Christian and Muslim girls – who play together and forge a team despite all the hardships they face.
Date:
May 2014
Creator:
Lee, Hanny
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
University of North Texas Libraries: Willis Library Second Floor Renovation
Report for the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries. At the request of Dean of Libraries, Dr. Martin Halbert, consultant Charles Forrest conducted a one-day site visit to the UNT Libraries on April 18, 2014. The site visit encompassed a brief tour of facilities, meeting with staff, a workshop with library staff, and a second workshop with a more broadly-based group of library staff, students, and other UNT stakeholders. The results of this site visit and recommendations are summarized in this report.
Date:
May 22, 2014
Creator:
Forrest, Charles
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Search Query Analysis, Catalog and Summon, 2012-2014
This dataset contains search queries and analysis discussed in the UNT Libraries' Resource Discovery Systems Usage Report.
Date:
September 2014
Creator:
Thomale, Jason
Object Type:
Dataset
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Search Statistics, Catalog and Summon, 2012-2014
This dataset contains raw search statistics and charts discussed in the UNT Libraries' Resource Discovery System Usage Report.
Date:
September 2014
Creator:
Thomale, Jason
Object Type:
Dataset
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Resource Discovery System Usage Report: February 2012-August 2014
Report on the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries resource discovery system usage between February 1, 2012 and August 25, 2014.
Date:
September 2014
Creator:
Thomale, Jason
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Customer Service in the Library
Presentation to the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries Access Services student assistants. This presentation discusses customer service in the library.
Date:
December 2014
Creator:
Keshmiripour, Setareh & Peebles, Emily
Object Type:
Presentation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Portal to Texas History, a DPLA Service Hub
Presentation at the University of Texas at Austin. This presentation discusses The Portal to Texas History as a Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
Date:
December 10, 2014
Creator:
Phillips, Mark Edward
Object Type:
Presentation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Access to Geographical Information in Library Catalogs: a Case Study
Presentation for the Pioneer America Society Annual Conference. This presentation discusses a case study on access to geographical information in library catalogs.
Date:
October 10, 2014
Creator:
Hartsock, Ralph & Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw
Object Type:
Presentation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Investment and Growth from Climate Action A Briefing by CDP to Support the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Package
CDP has created this briefing confident that it will provide a useful further contribution to these policy debates.The briefing is launched alongside its global report ‘The A List: The CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index 2014’. CDP’s Climate Performance Leadership Index (CPLI) is an index highlighting companies that exhibit leadership through their actions to mitigate climate change.
Date:
October 15, 2014
Creator:
CDP - Driving sustainable economies
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library