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Conceptual Framework for the Development of an Air Quality Monitoring Station in Denton, Texas (open access)

Conceptual Framework for the Development of an Air Quality Monitoring Station in Denton, Texas

Denton, Texas consistently reaches ozone nonattainment levels. This has led to a large focus of air pollution monitoring efforts in the region, with long-range transport being explored as a key contributor. For this study, the University of North Texas Discovery Park campus was chosen as a prospective location for an extensive air quality monitoring station. Sixteen years of ozone and meteorological data for five state-run monitoring sites within a 25 mile radius, including the nearest Denton Airport site, was gathered from TCEQ online database for the month of April for the years 2000 to 2015. The data was analyzed to show a historical, regional perspective of ozone near the proposed site. The maximum ozone concentration measured at the Denton Airport location over the 16 year period was measured at 96 ppb in 2001. Experimental ozone and meteorological measurements were collected at the Discovery Park location from March 26 to April 3 and April 8 to April, 2016 and compared to the Denton Airport monitoring site. A time lag in ozone trends and an increase in peak ozone concentrations at the proposed location were observed at the proposed site in comparison to the Denton Airport site. Historical and experimental meteorological data …
Date: August 2016
Creator: Boling, Robyn
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
From the Outside In: A Multivariate Correlational Analysis of Effectiveness in Communities of Practice (open access)

From the Outside In: A Multivariate Correlational Analysis of Effectiveness in Communities of Practice

Online communities of practice (CoPs) provide social spaces for people to connect, learn, and engage with one another around shared interests and passions. CoPs are innovatively employed within industry and education for their inherent knowledge management characteristics and as a means of improving professional practice. Measuring the success of a CoP is a challenge researchers are examining through various strategies. Recent literature supports measuring community effectiveness through the perceptions of its members; however, evaluating a community by means of member perception introduces complicating factors from outside the community. In order to gain insight into the importance of external factors, this quantitative study examined the influence of factors in the professional lives of educators on their perceptions of their CoP experience. Through an empirical examination of CoPs employed to connect educators and advance their professional learning, canonical correlation analysis was used to examine correlations between factors believed to be influential on the experiences of community members.
Date: August 2016
Creator: Bomar, Shannon Hulbert
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Parents’ Reported Utilization, Accessibility, and Effectiveness of Academic Support Resources for Military Adolescents at Fort Hood Military Base (open access)

Parents’ Reported Utilization, Accessibility, and Effectiveness of Academic Support Resources for Military Adolescents at Fort Hood Military Base

Academic support resources are increasingly available to military-connected youth; however, the military community, in general, tends to under-utilize available resources. The research literature has not clearly identified accessibility to military academic support resources or perceived effectiveness of resources as explanations for under-utilization of adolescent support services. The current research study examines military parents' perceptions of academic resource programs looking at how parents' perception of resource accessibility and resource effectiveness were related to program utilization. Based on qualitative analysis of military parent interviews, utilization was related to both accessibility and effectiveness. This research adds to the literature by identifying the relationship to between accessibility and utilization and reported effectiveness and utilization of academic support resources.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Booker, Dana Dean
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Scholarly Publishing Literacy: Reaching our Researchers captions transcript

Scholarly Publishing Literacy: Reaching our Researchers

Video recording of a presentation at the 2016 Library Publishing Forum. In this session, presenters discuss scholarly publishing literacy and outreach in terms of education new and experienced researchers.
Date: May 18, 2016
Creator: Borchert, Carol Ann & Boczar, Jason
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Project Reformation" (open access)

"Project Reformation"

"Project Reformation" presents the process of change Amanda and Robert Bowen went through as they came to recognize Holy Spirit, the part of Trinity that was sent after the death of Jesus (John 15:26). The documentary combines various filming techniques such as observational footage, reenactments, interviews, and CGI to convey the story. This film captures the walk Robert and Amanda took as they re-examine their past, progressing through a series of supernatural encounters into a recognition of purpose and plan behind the events and experiences. While looking back on this journey, the director seeks to reveal the truth that Holy Spirit is in fact "alive and well," and walks with individuals in their daily lives by sharing how the "gifts" of miracles, healing, visions and prophecy are active even in today's age. In addition, the director desires to reveal the specific message this couple has received through this process: Not to only recognize Holy Spirit, but to reveal the "why" He is now making Himself known in these ways when many would say He has been silent for at least a generation: For reconciliation and restoration, leading to Reformation through Spiritual Healing in Family Ties (Reformation.SHIFT).
Date: August 2016
Creator: Bowen, Robert G
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Intraoral Pressure and Sound Pressure During Woodwind Performance (open access)

Intraoral Pressure and Sound Pressure During Woodwind Performance

For woodwind and brass performers, intraoral pressure is the measure of force exerted on the surface area of the oral cavity by the air transmitted from the lungs. This pressure is the combined effect of the volume of air forced into the oral cavity by the breathing apparatus and the resistance of the embouchure, reed opening, and instrument’s back pressure. Recent research by Michael Adduci shows that intraoral pressures during oboe performance can exceed capabilities for corresponding increases in sound output, suggesting a potentially hazardous situation for the development of soft tissue disorders in the throat and velopharyngeal insufficiencies. However, considering that oboe back pressure is perhaps the highest among the woodwind instruments, this problem may or may not occur in other woodwinds. There has been no research of this type for the other woodwind instruments. My study was completed to expand the current research by comparing intraoral pressure (IOP) and sound pressure when performing with a characteristic tone on oboe, clarinet, flute, bassoon, and saxophone. The expected results should show that, as sound pressure levels increase, intraoral pressure will also increase. The subjects, undergraduate and graduate music majors at the University of North Texas, performed a series of musical …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Bowling, Micah
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Lipidomic Analysis of Single Cells and Organelles Using Nanomanipulation Coupled to Mass Spectrometry (open access)

Lipidomic Analysis of Single Cells and Organelles Using Nanomanipulation Coupled to Mass Spectrometry

The capability to characterize disease states by way of determining novel biomarkers has led to a high demand of single cell and organelle analytical methodologies due to the unexpected heterogeneity present in cells of the same type. Lipids are of particular interest in the search for biomarkers due to their active roles in cellular metabolism and energy storage. Analyzing localized lipid chemistry from individual cells and organelles is challenging however, due to low analyte volume, limited discriminate instrumentation, and common requirements of separation procedures and expenditure of cell sample. Using nanomanipulation in combination with mass spectrometry, individual cells and organelles can be extracted from tissues and cultures in vitro to determine if heterogeneity at the cellular level is present. The discriminate extraction of a single cell or organelle allows the remainder of cell culture or tissue to remain intact, while the high sensitivity and chemical specificity of mass spectrometry provides structural information for limited volumes without the need for chromatographic separation. Mass analysis of lipids extracted from individual cells can be carried out in multiple mass spectrometry platforms through direct-inject mass spectrometry using nanoelectrospray-ionization and through matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionization.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Bowman, Amanda
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Power of the Servant Teacher (open access)

The Power of the Servant Teacher

An instructor's power in the classroom is constructed and sustained through communication. The aim here is to examine how a teacher's power can be negotiated through a lens of servant leadership in hopes of furthering modes in which communication scholars can train future teachers to utilize their power in the classroom. I hypothesize that a teacher utilizing a servant leadership framework employs more pro-social behavioral alteration techniques (BATs). Participants were asked to answer an online survey with questions regarding a chosen instructor's attributes of servant leadership and behavioral alteration messages (BAMs). My hypothesis was partially supported in that that are perceived to use persuasive mapping a specific dimension of servant leadership engage in significantly more pro-social BATs; however, instructors with higher levels of emotional healing engage in significantly more anti-social BATs. Additionally, the gender of the participant and rank of the instructor evaluated influenced students' perceptions of compliance-gaining strategies. The discussion examines the specific dimensions of servant leadership as they relate to power and explores future directions for research examining professional development and training for future faculty and the need to examine gender of participant and instructors with an experimental research design.
Date: August 2016
Creator: Brandon, Joshua R.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

From Acceptance to Assessment: Academic Librarians CAN Card-Swipe

This poster describes the results of longitudinal research of academic librarians using card-swiping technologies to improve collaborative assessment efforts on a large public university campus.
Date: July 22, 2016
Creator: Brannon, Sian & Smith, Susan
Object Type: Poster
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Mystery of the Chalumeau and Its Historical Significance as Revealed Through Selected Works for Chalumeau or Early Clarinet by Antonio Vivaldi: A Lecture (open access)

The Mystery of the Chalumeau and Its Historical Significance as Revealed Through Selected Works for Chalumeau or Early Clarinet by Antonio Vivaldi: A Lecture

Factual evidence concerning the ancestry of the clarinet has been a perpetual topic of debate among musicologists and organologists. Scholars have widely agreed that the clarinet, first documented in 1710, emerged from the baroque invention of the chalumeau (invented circa 1690), which in itself was an improvement upon the recorder. Considering the chalumeau's short lifespan as the predominant single reed instrument in the early eighteenth century, the chalumeau inspired a monumental amount of literature that includes vocal and instrumental genres written by distinguished composers. Vivaldi is considered to be the most significant composer that wrote for both clarinet and chalumeau; he wrote for both instruments simultaneously throughout his life whereas his contemporaries seemingly replaced the chalumeau with the clarinet. This project will discuss Vivaldi's proximity to the chalumeau and the clarinet and will provide an in-depth analysis of relevant works by the composer to determine how he, unlike his contemporaries, treated the chalumeau and the clarinet as separate and equally viable instruments. Following a brief history of the chalumeau and clarinet in Italy and a relevant biography of Vivaldi (Ch. 2), this document will discuss the integral Vivaldi compositions that include clarinet and chalumeau and the role of the clarinet …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Braun, Lindsay Taylor
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Modeling and Simulation of the Vector-Borne Dengue Disease and the Effects of Regional Variation of Temperature in  the Disease Prevalence in Homogenous and Heterogeneous Human Populations (open access)

Modeling and Simulation of the Vector-Borne Dengue Disease and the Effects of Regional Variation of Temperature in the Disease Prevalence in Homogenous and Heterogeneous Human Populations

The history of mitigation programs to contain vector-borne diseases is a story of successes and failures. Due to the complex interplay among multiple factors that determine disease dynamics, the general principles for timely and specific intervention for incidence reduction or eradication of life-threatening diseases has yet to be determined. This research discusses computational methods developed to assist in the understanding of complex relationships affecting vector-borne disease dynamics. A computational framework to assist public health practitioners with exploring the dynamics of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue in homogenous and heterogeneous populations, has been conceived, designed, and implemented. The framework integrates a stochastic computational model of interactions to simulate horizontal disease transmission. The intent of the computational modeling has been the integration of stochasticity during simulation of the disease progression while reducing the number of necessary interactions to simulate a disease outbreak. While there are improvements in the computational time reducing the number of interactions needed for simulating disease dynamics, the realization of interactions can remain computationally expensive. Using multi-threading technology to improve performance upon the original computational model, multi-threading experimental results have been tested and reported. In addition, to the contact model, the modeling of biological processes specific to …
Date: August 2016
Creator: Bravo-Salgado, Angel D
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Maternal Transfer of Dietary Methylmercury and Implications for Embryotoxicity in Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas) (open access)

Maternal Transfer of Dietary Methylmercury and Implications for Embryotoxicity in Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas)

Mercury (Hg) is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant, which is capable of global atmospheric transport. As a result, even the most pristine aquatic ecosystems are affected by atmospheric Hg deposition, following which microbial transformation yield organic Hg forms, the most concerning of which is methylmercury (MeHg). Methylmercury is capable of bioaccumulation and biomagnification in food webs, resulting in potentially toxic body burdens due to regular dietary exposure in long-lived organisms at higher trophic levels. It is also a molecular mimic of some endogenous amino acids, providing a route of transfer from mother to offspring via large amino acid transporters. Exposure during neurodevelopment can lead to serious, irreversible neurological dysfunction, associated with a variety of cognitive and motor abnormalities across species. The present studies evaluate the effects of maternally-transferred dietary MeHg, at environmentally relevant concentrations on early life stage fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). Embryos were collected from adult fatheads exposed to one of three diets with varying concentrations of MeHg for 30 days. Adult reproductive metrics were also monitored over the course of the study, with results indicating no effects on spawning frequency, clutch size, or total egg output. In embryos, Hg concentration was a function of female diet and the duration …
Date: December 2016
Creator: Bridges, Kristin N.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Looking Outward from the Village: The Contingencies of Soil Moisture on the Prehistoric Farmed Landscape near Goodman Point Pueblo (open access)

Looking Outward from the Village: The Contingencies of Soil Moisture on the Prehistoric Farmed Landscape near Goodman Point Pueblo

Ancestral Pueblo communities of the central Mesa Verde region (CMVR) became increasingly reliant on agriculture for their subsistence needs during Basketmaker III (BMIII) through Terminal Pueblo III (TPIII) (AD 600–1300) periods. Researchers have been studying the Ancestral Pueblo people for over a century using a variety of methods to understand the relationships between climate, agriculture, population, and settlement patterns. While these methods and research have produced a well-developed cultural history of the region, studies at a smaller scale are still needed to understand the changes in farming behavior and the distribution of individual sites across the CMVR. Soil moisture is the limiting factor for crop growth in the semi-arid region of the Goodman Watershed in the CMVR. Thus, I constructed the soil moisture proxy model (SMPM) that is on a local scale and focuses on variables relevant to soil moisture – soil particle-size, soil depth, slope, and aspect. From the SMPM output, the areas of very high soil moisture are assumed to represent desirable farmland locations. I describe the relationship between very high soil moisture and site locations, then I infer the relevance of that relationship to settlement patterns and how those patterns changed over time (BMIII – TPIII). The …
Date: August 2016
Creator: Brown, Andrew D
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Characterization of Aprotic Solutes and Solvents Using Abraham Model Correlations (open access)

Characterization of Aprotic Solutes and Solvents Using Abraham Model Correlations

Experimental data were obtained for the computation of mole fraction solubilities of three dichloronitrobenzenes in organic solvents at 25oC, and solubility ratios were obtained from this data. Abraham model equations were developed for solutes in tributyl phosphate that describe experimental values to within 0.15 log units, and correlations were made to describe solute partitioning in systems that contain either "wet" or "dry" tributyl phosphate. Abraham model correlations have also been developed for solute transfer into anhydrous diisopropyl ether, and these correlations fit in well with those for other ethers. Abraham correlations for the solvation of enthalpy have been derived from experimental and literature data for mesitylene, p-xylene, chlorobenzene, and 1,2-dichlorobenzene at 298.15 K. In addition, the enthalpy contribution of hydrogen bonding between these solutes and acidic solvents were predicted by these correlations and were in agreement with an established method. Residual plots corresponding to Abraham models developed in all of these studies were analyzed for trends in error between experimental and calculated values.
Date: December 2016
Creator: Brumfield, Michéla L.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information Structures in Notated Music: Statistical Explorations of Composers' Performance Marks in Solo Piano Scores (open access)

Information Structures in Notated Music: Statistical Explorations of Composers' Performance Marks in Solo Piano Scores

Written notation has a long history in many musical traditions and has been particularly important in the composition and performance of Western art music. This study adopted the conceptual view that a musical score consists of two coordinated but separate communication channels: the musical text and a collection of composer-selected performance marks that serve as an interpretive gloss on that text. Structurally, these channels are defined by largely disjoint vocabularies of symbols and words. While the sound structures represented by musical texts are well studied in music theory and analysis, the stylistic patterns of performance marks and how they acquire contextual meaning in performance is an area with fewer theoretical foundations. This quantitative research explored the possibility that composers exhibit recurring patterns in their use of performance marks. Seventeen solo piano sonatas written between 1798 and 1913 by five major composers were analyzed from modern editions by tokenizing and tabulating the types and usage frequencies of their individual performance marks without regard to the associated musical texts. Using analytic methods common in information science, the results demonstrated persistent statistical similarities among the works of each composer and differences among the work groups of different composers. Although based on a small …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Buchanan, J. Paul
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commercial Diplomacy: The Berlin-Baghdad Railway and Its Peaceful Effects on Pre-World War I Anglo-German Relations (open access)

Commercial Diplomacy: The Berlin-Baghdad Railway and Its Peaceful Effects on Pre-World War I Anglo-German Relations

Slated as an economic outlet for Germany, the Baghdad Railway was designed to funnel political influence into the strategically viable regions of the Near East. The Railway was also designed to enrich Germany's coffers with natural resources with natural resources and trade with the Ottomans, their subjects, and their port cities... Over time, the Railway became the only significant route for Germany to reach its "place in the sun," and what began as an international enterprise escalated into a bid for diplomatic influence in the waning Ottoman Empire.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Bukaty, Ryan Michael
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Evaluation of Online-Only Journal Quality from Analysis of Email Solicitations

This presentation contains an analysis of ~600 solicitation emails related to 317 scholarly journals received within a one-year period to assess the quality of publishing venues available.
Date: May 20, 2016
Creator: Burggren, Warren W.
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Perceptions of Open Access captions transcript

Perceptions of Open Access

Video of the panel session "Perceptions of Open Access," discussing perceptions of open access through an analysis of journal solicitation emails, a study of library science open access journals, and a discussion of the future of open access.
Date: May 20, 2016
Creator: Burggren, Warren W.; Baker, Sarah & Sandlin, Joslyn
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library

Envisioning a Geospatial Data Portal and Curation Network

This presentation is part of the panel "Envisioning a Geospatial Data Portal and Curation Network" from the 2016 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries and contains a brief overview on the GIS data and services provided by the University of North Texas.
Date: May 25, 2016
Creator: Burns, Douglas
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Importance of GIS Repositories

This presentation highlights the importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data repositories, including issues and challenges.
Date: October 8, 2016
Creator: Burns, Douglas
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library

GIS Trends and Open Access

Presentation for the 2016 Open Access Symposium discussing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and data in relation to open access initiatives.
Date: May 20, 2016
Creator: Burns, Douglas & Rodriguez, Allyson
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Art + Recovery in the Digital Humanities captions transcript

Art + Recovery in the Digital Humanities

Presentation for the 2016 Digital Frontiers Annual Conference. In this presentation, xtine burrough and Sabrina Starnaman discuss their participatory installation, a creative recovery effort focusing on the 1861 short story Life in the Iron Mills.
Date: September 22, 2016
Creator: Burrough, Xtine & Starnaman, Sabrina
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library
Attitudes about Caregiving: An Ethnicity by Generation Approach (open access)

Attitudes about Caregiving: An Ethnicity by Generation Approach

The goal of this project was to understand ethnic and generational differences in attitudes towards caregiving and expected burden while taking into consideration factors such as gender, generation, familism, and acculturation. One hundred and sixteen young adults (ages 18-25) and 93 middle-age adults (ages 38-62) were enrolled in the study. Participants included European Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics. Using moderation analysis, two hypotheses were investigated: 1) Ethnicity relates to attitudes towards caregiving, moderated by gender, generation, familism, and acculturation. 2) Ethnicity and expected burden relate to each other, moderated by gender, generation, familism, and acculturation. Familism emerged as a moderator in the relationship between ethnicity and expected burden. Results suggested that the strength of the relationship between being African American and expecting burden was less for those with moderate familism (R =.078), slightly higher for low familism (R = .176), and the highest for high familism (R= .261). Additional results indicated that the strength of the relationship between being Hispanic, as opposed to being European American, and expected burden, was higher for middle-aged adults (R =.23) when compared to young adults (R =.19). The current findings lend support to the recently established idea that familism is not protective against burden …
Date: August 2016
Creator: Caballero, Daniela M
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tempered Confetti: Defining Instrumental Collage Music in Tempered Confetti and Venni, Viddi, -- (open access)

Tempered Confetti: Defining Instrumental Collage Music in Tempered Confetti and Venni, Viddi, --

This thesis explores collage music's formal elements in an attempt to better understand its various themes and apply them in a workable format. I explore the work of John Zorn; how time is perceived in acoustic collage music and the concept of "super tempo"; musical quotation and appropriation in acoustic collage music; the definition of acoustic collage music in relation to other acoustic collage works; and musical montages addressing the works of Charles Ives, Lucciano Berio, George Rochberg, and DJ Orange. The last part of this paper discusses the compositional process used in the works Tempered Confetti and Venni, Viddi, – and how all issues of composing acoustic collage music are addressed therein.
Date: August 2016
Creator: Campbell, Andrew (Andrew S.)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library