This randomized, controlled study examined the effectiveness of two mentoring programs, child mentor relationship training (CMRT) and peer assistance and leadership (PAL®), on high school mentor empathic behaviors and child mentee behavior problems. Participants were 60 young, at-risk students (61.7% male; 38.3% Hispanic/Latino/a, 31.7% Caucasian, 21.7% African American, 8.3% biracial) and 30 high school students (53.3% male; 66.7% Caucasian, 26.7% Hispanic/Latino/a, 0.03% African American, 0.03% Asian). Mentors and mentees were randomly assigned to CMRT or PAL®, which was treatment as usual in the participating school district. Results from 2 (group) by 2 (time) repeated measures ANOVAs indicated compared to the PAL® treatment group over time, mentors in the CMRT group demonstrated statistically significant improvement in empathic behaviors with a large treatment effect, as rated by independent observers. Analysis revealed a moderate treatment effect with CMRT group mentee behavior problems, but the difference was not statistically significant between treatment groups over time. Further analysis revealed the CMRT group demonstrated statistically significant reductions in behavior problems from pre- to post-test with a very large treatment effect. Overall, findings support CMRT as a promising school-based intervention for at-risk young children that potentially increases school counselor efficiency.

Plant architecture is an important agronomic trait driven by meristematic activities. Indeterminate meristems set repeating phytomers while determinate meristems produce terminal structures. The centroradialis/terminal flower1/self pruning (CETS) gene family modulates architecture by controlling determinate and indeterminate growth. Cotton (G. hirsutum) is naturally a photoperiodic perennial cultivated as a day-neutral annual. Management of this fiber crop is complicated by continued vegetative growth and asynchronous fruit set. Here, cotton CETS genes are phylogenetically and functionally characterized. We identified eight CETS genes in diploid cotton (G. raimondii and G. arboreum) and sixteen in tetraploid G. hirsutum that grouped within the three generally accepted CETS clades: flowering locus T (FT)-like, terminal flower1/self pruning (TFL1/SP)-like, and mother of FT and TFL1 (MFT)-like. Over-expression of single flower truss (GhSFT), the ortholog to Arabidopsis FT, accelerates the onset of flowering in Arabidopsis Col-0. In mutant rescue analysis, this gene driven by its native promoter rescues the ft-10 late flowering phenotype. GhSFT upstream sequence was used to drive expression of the uidA reporter gene. As anticipated, GUS accumulated in the vasculature of Arabidopsis leaves. Cotton has five TFL1-like genes, all of which delay flowering when ectopically expressed in Arabidopsis; the strongest phenotypes fail to produce functional flowers. Three …

Keep Denton Beautiful (KDB) is inspired by Keep America Beautiful's model of community engagement to create a clean, beautiful, and vibrant city. The community mural initiative, Artscapes, aims to enliven public spaces, abate graffiti, and inspire community members to keep Denton, Texas, clean and beautiful. The goals of this research project are to understand the impact of Artscapes initiative, community perceptions of public art, and find ways KDB can better align future mural projects with the needs and desires of community members. By talking to artists that have worked with KDB, members of the mural art committee, and community members from the neighborhoods that have existing murals, this research provides input from these three populations to continue creating public art for the Denton community. I discuss the context of my work through Lefebvre's concept of "Right to the City," Rafael Schacter's opposition between sanctioned and non-sanctioned murals, Bourdieu's concept of symbolic and social capital, and David Harvey's work on neoliberalism and the entrepreneurial city.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the compositional techniques in Choses en soi op.45, by Sergey Prokofiev, and to explore the new aesthetic concepts he claimed to include in this composition. Through the examination of the compositional elements and discussion of its salient characteristics.

As the world becomes more connected, issues surrounding sustainable development are coming to the fore of global discussions. This is exemplified in strategies such as the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), released in 2015, which created a framework for global development that defines specific goals for issues like poverty, climate change, and social justice. To complement the analysis that went into defining the SDGs, capital allocations around the world are becoming more impact focused so that the paradigm of development is shifting from donations to impact investments. The push for impact, however, has led to a homogenization of global challenges like reproductive health and poverty. This, in turn, has led to a standardization of information resulting in agencies designing interventions based on data and information that is misguided because of incorrect assumptions about a specific context. This paper explores how the decision-making mechanisms of global development agencies and investors could apply more anthropological processes to mitigate negative impact. As the development sector becomes more and more standardized, anthropologists can act as translators between affected communities and the institutions deciding how best to help them.

This study examines the use of True Fit® technology by millennial consumers and its impact on consumer confidence and satisfaction with respect to online sizing. In the apparel industry, there is a lack of size standards among retailers, and as a result consumers will encounter frequent size variations in their clothing size. Difference sizing technology has been developed to address the sizing issue. One is True Fit® which unlike other sizing technologies, uses mathematical algorithms to compile large amounts of data from designers. The purpose of this study was to analyze consumer confidence and satisfaction after True Fit® has been used to make a sizing decision while online shopping. The technology acceptance model (TAM) was used as the basis for the theoretical framework for this study. TAM explores how current advances in technology are influencing consumers' behaviors and attitudes. The variables studies included perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude, intent to use True Fit®, confidence and satisfaction. The methodology used in the study is a quantitative method consisting of an online survey and a True Fit® task, where consumers were exposed to True Fit® prior to answering questions about the use of sizing technology. The results of the study …

We manipulated delay and magnitude of reinforcers in two concurrent schedules of reinforcement to decrease a prevalent behavior while increasing another behavior already in the participant's repertoire. The first experiment manipulated delay, implementing a five second delay between the behavior and delivery of reinforcement for a behavior targeted for decrease while no delay was implemented after the behavior targeted for increase. The second experiment manipulated magnitude, providing one piece of food for the behavior targeted for decrease while two pieces of food were provided for the behavior targeted for increase. The experiments used an ABAB reversal design. Results suggest that behavior can be decreased without the use of extinction when contingencies favor the desirable behavior.

There exists heightened research attention afforded to the pivotal demands - both internal and external - that exist within the salesperson role set. Unprecedented pressures on salespersons to acquire, retain, and build enduring customer relationships to enhance the firm's bottom-line performance coincides with increasing complexities within the work environment. This relevant and timely research introduces an original construct derived from the long-standing attention afforded to relationship selling, relational incongruity that exists within the buyer-seller exchange. Relational incongruity, defined, is the relational tension spawned between the salesperson, the customer, and the firm when situational psychological incongruity exists within the buyer-seller exchange itself. Framed in resource-advantage theory, this research investigates divergent demands and the increasing complexity of sales relationships through the lens of relational incongruity. A research program based on minimizing relational incongruity will augment the sales management and B2B literature by looking at how he salesperson and the customer build strong relationships as well as the antecedents that can undermine these relationships by generating realtional incongruity.

This work reports the outdoor weathering performance of ultraviolet (UV)-stabilized polypropylene (PP) products (using PP resins from Encore Wire). Different hindered amine light stabilizers (HALSs) and nano-ZnO were used to stabilize PP-film-based formulations that were exposed under UV light for 6 weeks simulating for in harsh outdoor weather of Dallas, Texas, USA in 2016. Characterization of the exposed PP film products was done in terms of mechanical and friction spectroscopic properties. The PP film formulations were divided into 15 categories based on the type of HALS and nano-ZnO incorporated. This was done to derive meaningful comparison of the various film formulations. Following exposure under UV light, the lifetimes of certain formulations were determined. On the basis of the mechanical and friction properties, it was determined that generally, the HALS or nano-ZnO stabilized PP film give better properties and if those two kinds of UV stabilizers can work together.

The objective of this study is to examine core-shell type plasmonic metamaterials aimed at the development of materials with unique electromagnetic properties. The building blocks of metamaterials under study consist of gold as a metal component, and silica and precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) as the dielectric media. The results of this study demonstrate important applications of the core-shells including scattering suppression, airborne obscurants made of fractal gold shells, photomodification of the fractal structure providing windows of transparency, and plasmonics core-shell with a gain shell as an active device. Plasmonic resonances of the metallic shells depend on their nanostructure and geometry of the core, which can be optimized for the broadband extinction. Significant extinction from the visible to mid-infrared makes fractal shells very attractive as bandpass filters and aerosolized obscurants. In contrast to the planar fractal films, where the absorption and reflection equally contribute to the extinction, the shells' extinction is caused mainly by the absorption. This work shows that the Mie scattering resonance of a silica core with 780 nm diameter at 560 nm is suppressed by 75% and only partially substituted by the absorption in the shell so that the total transmission is noticeably increased. Effective medium theory supports …

Plant microtubules play essential roles in cell processes such as cell division, cell elongation, and organelle organization. Microtubules are arranged in highly dynamic and ordered arrays, but unlike animal cells, plant cells lack centrosomes. Therefore, microtubule nucleation and organization are governed by microtubule-associated proteins, including a microtubule-severing protein, katanin. Mutant analysis and in vitro characterization has shown that the highly conserved katanin is needed for the organization of the microtubule arrays in Arabidopsis and rice as well as in a variety of animal models. Katanin is a protein complex that is part of the AAA+ family of ATPases. Katanin is composed of two subunits, katanin-p60, a catalytic subunit and katanin-p80, a regulatory subunit. Spastin is another MT-severing protein that was identified on the basis of its homology to katanin. In animal cells, spastin is also needed for microtubule organization, but its functionality has not yet been investigated in plants. To initiate an exploration of the function of katanin-p60 and spastin in Zea mays, my research goal was to generate tools for the expression and purification of maize katanin-p60 and spastin proteins in vitro. Plasmids that express katanin-p60 and spastin with N-terminal GST tags were designed and constructed via In-Fusion® cloning …

The shortage of bilingual counselors is one barrier to young Latina/o children receiving mental health services. Child-centered play therapy (CCPT) is a developmentally responsive intervention based on the premise that play is children's natural means of communication across cultures. This randomized controlled study examined the effects of CCPT with young Spanish-speaking Latina/o children exhibiting clinical levels of school behavior problems. Participants were 57 pre-K to kindergarten Latina/o children (72% male; mean age = 4.0) randomly assigned to three treatment groups: CCPT with Spanish-speaking, bilingual counselors; CCPT with English-speaking, monolingual counselors; or active control (bilingual mentoring). Monolingual counselors participated in cultural competency training and supervision with bilingual counselors and supervisors. According to independent observers and teachers blinded to children's group assignment, both the bilingual CCPT group and the monolingual CCPT group demonstrated moderate treatment effects over bilingual mentoring, yet between-group differences were not statistically significant. Analysis of within-group change over time indicated that children in both CCPT interventions demonstrated statistically significant improvement, while the mentoring group did not. The percentage of children in each treatment group who improved from clinical to normal behavioral functioning suggests the clinical significance of the findings: 80% bilingual CCPT, 70% monolingual CCPT, 15% bilingual mentoring. Overall, …

This Master thesis proposes a human-computer interface for individual with limited hand movements that incorporate the use of facial gesture as a means of communication. The system recognizes faces and extracts facial gestures to map them into Morse code that would be translated in English in real time. The system is implemented on a MACBOOK computer using Python software, OpenCV library, and Dlib library. The system is tested by 6 students. Five of the testers were not familiar with Morse code. They performed the experiments in an average of 90 seconds. One of the tester was familiar with Morse code and performed the experiment in 53 seconds. It is concluded that errors occurred due to variations in features of the testers, lighting conditions, and unfamiliarity with the system. Implementing an auto correction and auto prediction system will decrease typing time considerably and make the system more robust.

The world is becoming progressively interconnected through technology, politics, culture, economics, and education. As educators we strive to provide instruction that prepares students to become active members of both their local and global communities. This dissertation presents one possible avenue for engaging students with art and multifaceted ideas about culture, community, and politics as it explores the possibilities for creating a community-based, art education curriculum that seeks a merger of global and local, or "glocal" thinking. Through curriculum action research, I explored the process of writing site-specific curriculum that focuses on publicly available, local works of art and encourages a connection between global experiences and local application. I have completed this research for two communities, one in Ohio and one in Texas, and investigated the similarities and differences that exist in the process and resulting curriculum for each location. Through textual analysis, interviews, curriculum writing, and personal reflections, I identified five essential components of a community-based, glocal art education curriculum: flexibility, authenticity, connectedness, glocal understandings, and publicly available art. Additionally, I developed a template for writing glocally focused, community-based art education curriculum and produced completed curricular units for each of the communities. Finally, I have made suggestions for the future …

Texas leads the nation in the number of executions carried out since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. Race was a key factor in the 1972 moratorium, and though the Supreme Court allowed for its return under new statutes, race continues to plague the capital punishment legal system. In this study, I examine the influence of race on case clearances in capital and non-capital homicides in Texas, using the extra-legal and non-discretionary theories from existing clearance literature. I find that race influences the probability of cases being cleared in non-capital cases but has no statistically significant effect in clearing capital cases.

Child centered play therapy (CCPT) is a therapeutic intervention that provides the environment for children to work through and heal from difficult experiences through expression of play and therapeutic relationship. It has been demonstrated effective with multiple types of disruptive behaviors. I conducted single-case research to explore CCPT's influence on children who had four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and provided analysis of data collected from one assessment administered weekly and one assessment at pre-, mid-, and post-intervention: the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Young Children. The two participants (one 8-year-old White American male and one 9-year-old White American female) demonstrated significant improvement in total difficulties and prosocial behaviors. The study revealed potential therapeutic benefits for utilizing CCPT with children who had four or more ACEs. Encompassed in discussion of study results are implications for practice, suggestions for future research, and limitations.

Little is known about the mechanisms by which extracurricular participation in high school influences educational attainment in young adulthood. Also limited is an understanding of the different types of extracurricular participation and how various activities may manifest within the relationship. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between high school extracurricular participation and educational attainment, with social capital, parental expectations, and academic achievement presented as mediators. Additionally, the present study will explore socioeconomic differences in the proposed relationships. The sample consisted of 5,239 ninth through twelfth graders from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple-group SEM were used to test pathways. Extracurricular participation was categorized into sports participation, non-sport participation, mixed participation (including both sport and non-sport), and no participation. Social capital, a latent factor, was measured by the latent variables of family and school capital. Various indicators of family closeness and inclusion of school culture from survey items operationalize social capital. Parental expectations, another latent factor, was measured by one survey indicator using the question of how disappointed would your resident father and mother be if you did not graduate from college. Academic achievement was measured by grade …

In an attempt to shed light on the further sophistication of opinion leadership in online communities, this study examined the forces and structures that affect their formation in the League of Legends subreddit. By investigating what users thought about the various types of individuals with which the communicate, the researcher hoped to begin to understand and record how those forces work bother on this particular subreddit and in mass media beyond. Opinion leadership continues to be an integral force in deciding what information is consumed by a public and under what frames and agendas it is contextualized. If researchers can operationalize formal definitions for the influences and structures that occur online, they can better navigate the deep waters that are global communication on the internet.

This dissertation presents a categorization of existing methodologies of upper register development for euphoniumists with evaluation of effectiveness and current use of these methodologies. The purpose of this study is to provide euphonium musicians as well as educators with essential references and guides to applicable methods for developing the upper register more effectively with greater efficacy. The assessments of current methodologies include three steps: categorization, summarization, and evaluation. To support the significance why it could be more beneficial than the methodology alone, the dissertation will include the examination of the aspect of biomechanics and ergonomics, suggestions, and discussion of particular issues of the upper register.

Myosin subfragment-2 (S2) is a coiled coil linker between myosin subfragment-1 and light meromyosin (LMM). This dissertation examines whether the myosin S2 coiled coil could regulate the amount of myosin S1 heads available to bind actin thin filaments by modulating the stability of its coiled coil. A stable myosin S2 coiled coil would have less active myosin S1 heads compared to a more flexible myosin S2 coiled coil, thus causing increased force production through acto-myosin interaction. The stability of the myosin S2 coiled coil was modulated by the binding of a natural myosin S2 binding protein, myosin binding protein C (MyBPC), and synthetic myosin S2 binding proteins, stabilizer and destabilizer peptide, to myosin S2. Competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) experiments revealed the cross specificity and high binding affinity of the synthetic peptides to the myosin S2 of human cardiac and rabbit skeletal origins. Gravitational force spectroscopy (GFS) was performed to test the stability of myosin S2 coiled coil in the presence of these myosin S2 binding proteins. GFS experiments demonstrated the stabilization of the myosin S2 coiled coil by the binding of MyBPC and stabilizer peptide to myosin S2, while the binding of destabilizer peptide to the same resulted …

We are facing an energy crisis because of the limitation of the fossil fuel and the pollution caused by burning it. Clean energy technologies, such as fuel cells and metal-air batteries, are studied extensively because of this high efficiency and less pollution. Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are essential in the process of energy storage and conversion, and noble metals (e.g. Pt) are needed to catalyze the critical chemical reactions in these devices. Functionalized carbon nanomaterials such as heteroatom-doped and molecule-adsorbed graphene can be used as metal-free catalysts to replace the expensive and scarce platinum-based catalysts for the energy storage and conversion. Traditionally, experimental studies on the catalytic performance of carbon nanomaterials have been conducted extensively, however, there is a lack of computational studies to guide the experiments for rapid search for the best catalysts. In addition, theoretical mechanism and the rational design principle towards ORR and OER also need to be fully understood. In this dissertation, density functional theory calculations are performed to calculate the thermodynamic and electrochemical properties of heteroatom-doped graphene and molecule-adsorbed graphene for ORR and OER. Gibb's free energy, overpotential, charge transfer and edge effect are evaluated. The charge transfer analysis show …

The penchant towards development of high performance materials for light weighting engineering systems through various thermomechanical processing routes has been soaring vigorously. Friction stir processing (FSP) - a relatively new thermomechanical processing route had shown an excellent promise towards microstructural modification in many Al and Mg alloy systems. Nevertheless, the expansion of this process to high temperature materials like titanium alloys and steels is restricted by the limited availability of tool materials. Despite it challenges, the current thesis sets a tone for the usage of FSP to tailor the mechanical properties in titanium alloys and steels. FSP was carried out on three near beta titanium alloys, namely Ti6246, Ti185 and Tiβc with increasing β stability index, using various tool rotation rates and at a constant tool traverse speed. Microstructure and mechanical property relationship was studied using experimental techniques such as SEM, TEM, mini tensile testing and synchrotron x-ray diffraction. Two step aging on Ti6246 had resulted in an UTS of 2.2GPa and a specific strength around 500 MPa m3/mg, which is about 40% greater than any commercially available metallic material. Similarly, FSP on an ultra-high strength steel―Eglin steel had resulted in a strength greater than 2GPa with a ductility close …

The 1980s is a formative decade in American history. America sought to reestablish itself as a global power and to reassert the dominant ideology of white, patriarchal capitalism. Likewise, media producers in the 1980s sought to reassert the dominance of the white, male, muscled body in filmic representations. The identity politics of the 1980s and the depictions of the white, muscled body once prominent in the 1980s have been the site of conservative nostalgia for a young, male-dominated, cult audience that is a subset of a larger cultural trend known as retro film culture. This thesis provides historical context behind the populist 1980s B-action films from Cannon Group, Inc that celebrate violent masculinity in filmic representations with white, male action heroes. Equally important is the revival of VHS collecting and how this 1980s-inspired subculture reinforces white, patriarchal capitalism through the cult films they valorize and their capitalistic trading practices despite their claims of oppositionality against mainstream taste and Hollywood films. Lastly, this thesis reveals how a new cycle of contemporary films primarily produced outside of Hollywood reasserts and celebrates the dominance of the white, male, muscled body in filmic representations despite a postmodern and hyperconscious exterior. Overall, I argue how …

The objective of this research was to investigate the performance of two-phase spray cooling with HFC-134a and HFO-1234yf refrigerants using practical enhanced heat transfer surfaces. Results of the study were expected to provide a quantitative spray cooling performance comparison with working fluids representing the current and next-generation mobile air conditioning refrigerants, and demonstrate the feasibility of this approach as an alternative active cooling technology for the thermal management of high heat flux power electronics (i.e., IGBTs) in electric-drive vehicles. Potential benefits of two-phase spray cooling include achieving more efficient and reliable operation, as well as compact and lightweight system design that would lead to cost reduction. The experimental work involved testing of four different enhanced boiling surfaces in comparison to a plain reference surface, using a commercial pressure-atomizing spray nozzle at a range of liquid flow rates for each refrigerant to determine the spray cooling performance with respect to heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and critical heat flux (CHF). The heater surfaces were prepared using dual-stage electroplating, brush coating, sanding, and particle blasting, all featuring "practical" room temperature processes that do not require specialized equipment. Based on the obtained results, HFC-134a provided a better heat transfer performance through higher HTC and …