Degree Level

The Effects of Raising Grandchildren on the Marital Satisfaction, Life Satisfaction, and Parenting Stress of Grandparents (open access)

The Effects of Raising Grandchildren on the Marital Satisfaction, Life Satisfaction, and Parenting Stress of Grandparents

This study examined the relationship among the variables of marital satisfaction, life satisfaction, and parenting stress of grandparents raising grandchildren and whether the sources and levels of marital satisfaction, life satisfaction, and parenting stress differed among grandparents raising grandchildren and grandparents not raising grandchildren.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Aaron, Larry M. (Larry Marion)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Culture and Anxiety: a Cross-Cultural Study (open access)

Culture and Anxiety: a Cross-Cultural Study

By measuring interactions among and between anxiety and the independent variables of country of origin, gender, level of education, and age, this study attempted to gain insight into how students from different countries experience anxiety on a U.S. college campus. Results of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and the univariate test(ANOVA) indicated that the gender and level of education of the subjects made no significant difference. However, when it came to country of origin, there were significant differences between two of the cultural groups and respective anxiety level. Findings also support a positive correlation between age and anxiety levels, with the youngest participants having the lowest anxiety levels.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Abbassi, Amir
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of Computer Instruction on the Near Transfer and Far Transfer of a General Problem Solving Strategy (open access)

The Impact of Computer Instruction on the Near Transfer and Far Transfer of a General Problem Solving Strategy

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of computer instruction on the near transfer and far transfer of a means-end analysis problem solving strategy.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Abbey, Beverly G. (Beverly Gene)
System: The UNT Digital Library
First-Time Parenthood: Attachment, Family Variables, Emotional Reactions, and Task Responsibilities as Predictors Of Stress (open access)

First-Time Parenthood: Attachment, Family Variables, Emotional Reactions, and Task Responsibilities as Predictors Of Stress

The purpose of this study was to explore factors which are predictive of parenting stress for first-time parents. Based on attachment theory and empirical research, the factors investigated were the responsibility for child care and housework, the current and retrospective relationship with the family of origin, the change in emotions related to parenthood, the marital relationship, and attachment and individuation.
Date: December 1990
Creator: Abbott, Donna Christine
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biodiversity of Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata) of the South-Central Nearctic and Adjacent Neotropical Biotic Provinces (open access)

Biodiversity of Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata) of the South-Central Nearctic and Adjacent Neotropical Biotic Provinces

The south-central United States serves as an important biogeographical link and dispersal corridor between Nearctic and Neotropical elements of western hemisphere odonate faunas. Its species are reasonably well known because of substantial collections, but there has been no concerted effort to document the extent of biodiversity and possible geographic affinities of dragonflies and damselflies of this region. The recent discoveries of Argia leonorae Garrison, Gomphus gonzalezi Dunkle and Erpetogomphus heterodon Garrison from southern and western Texas and northern Mexico suggest that Odonata species remain to be discovered in this area, particularly from far south Texas and northern Mexico. I have documented a total of 12,515 records of Odonata found in 408 counties within the south-central U.S. A total of 73 species of damselflies and 160 species of dragonflies was revealed in the region. The 233 (197 in Texas) Odonata species are distributed among 10 families and 66 genera. Illustrated family, generic, and species-level keys are provided. Since the beginning of this work in the Fall of 1993, one species has been added each to the Louisiana and Oklahoma faunas, and 12 species have been added, previously unreported from Texas, including four new to the U.S. The area of highest Odonata …
Date: May 1999
Creator: Abbott, John C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of Corporate Accounting and Reporting Practices in Bahrain (open access)

An Analysis of Corporate Accounting and Reporting Practices in Bahrain

The primary objective of this dissertation is to determine the factors that have shaped the corporate financial reporting practices in Bahrain. Prior researchers have offered two explanations, environmental factors and cultural importation, for the emergence of financial reporting practices in developing countries. The environmental explanation suggests that a nation's financial reporting practices will be shaped by its socioeconomic structure. The cultural importation explanation states that the desire for international legitimacy creates incentives for developing nation to adopt Western financial reporting practices. Bahrain provided an excellent environment in which to examine the two explanations since its public and closed corporations have similar economic characteristics. Only public corporations are legally required to publish financial reports. I posited that public corporations would try to gain legitimacy for their published reports by adopting Western standards, while closed corporations would not have a similar incentive. I used an interpretive framework to analyze the Bahrain socioeconomic environment and to examine the general financial reporting practices of Bahraini corporations. I found that closed corporations provided data responsive to the Bahraini environment. Public corporations, however, adopted International Accounting Standards. My analysis supported prior researchers7 findings that colonialism, the need for international legitimacy, and international audit firms were important …
Date: December 1993
Creator: Abdul-Rahim, Hassan M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
University-industry Alliances : A Study of Faculty Attitudes Toward the Effects of Alliances on the Governance and Operations of Institutions of Higher Education (open access)

University-industry Alliances : A Study of Faculty Attitudes Toward the Effects of Alliances on the Governance and Operations of Institutions of Higher Education

The central purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes of faculty in applied sciences to the attitudes of faculty in liberal arts and other selected fields to determine if they differ significantly from each other in their perceptions of the effects of university-industry alliances on campus governance and operations. Secondary purposes were (a) to appraise the debate on alliances and the effects of alliances on academic values and (b) to contribute to the literature concerning alliances and their potential for improving higher education.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Abegunde, Olufemi
System: The UNT Digital Library
Forest Landscape Dynamics: a Semi-Markov Modeling Approach (open access)

Forest Landscape Dynamics: a Semi-Markov Modeling Approach

A transition model (MOSAIC) is used to describe forest dynamics at the landscape scale. The model uses a semi-Markov framework by considering transition probabilities and Erlang distributed holding times in each transition. Parameters for the transition model are derived from a gap model (ZELIG). This procedure ensures conceptual consistency of the landscape model with the fine scale ecological detail represented by the forest gap model. Spatial heterogeneity in the transition model is driven by maps of terrain with characteristics contained in a Geographic Information System (GIS) database. The results of the transition model simulations, percent cover forest type maps, are exported to grid-maps in the GIS. These cover type maps can be classified and used to describe forest dynamics using landscape statistics metrics. The linkage model-GIS enhances the transition model spatial analytical capabilities. A parameterization algorithm was developed that takes as input gap model tracer files which contain the percent occupation of each cover type through time. As output, the algorithm produces a file that contains the parameter values needed for MOSAIC for each one of the possible transitions. Parameters for the holding time distribution were found by calculating an empirical estimate of the cumulative probability function and using a …
Date: August 1997
Creator: Ablan, Magdiel
System: The UNT Digital Library
Application of Synthetic Peptides as Substrates for Reversible Phosphorylation (open access)

Application of Synthetic Peptides as Substrates for Reversible Phosphorylation

Two highly homologous synthetic peptides MLC(3-13) (K-R-A-K-A-K-T-TK-K-R-G) and MLC(5-13) (A-K-A-K-T-T-K-K-R-G) corresponding to the amino terminal amino acid sequence of smooth muscle myosin light chain were utilized as substrates for protein kinase C purified from murine lymphosarcoma tumors to determine the role of the primary amino acid sequence of protein kinase C substrates in defining the lipid (phosphatidyl serine and diacylglycerol) requirements for the activation of the enzyme. Removal of the basic residues lysine and arginine from the amino terminus of MLC(3-13) did not have a significant effect on the Ka value of diacylglycerol. The binding of effector to calcium-protein kinase C appears to be random since binding of one effector did not block the binding of the other.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Abukhalaf, Imad Kazem
System: The UNT Digital Library
Studies on the Mechanism of Protection by Carotenoids Against Photodynamic Killing in Curtobacterium Flaccumfaciens Pathover Poinsettiae (open access)

Studies on the Mechanism of Protection by Carotenoids Against Photodynamic Killing in Curtobacterium Flaccumfaciens Pathover Poinsettiae

The mechanism of protection by carotenoids against photodynamic killing in Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pathover poinsettiae (C. poinsettiae) was studied using pigment mutants isolated by treatment with nitrosoguanidine and DNA gyrase inhibitors. Growth rates, pigment composition, pigment levels and the ultrastructure of the wild-type streptomycin resistant strain of G. poinsettiae (wt-str) and all mutants were compared. One mutant, NTG-1, lacked colored carotenoids, and another, NTG-2, was a slow growing mutant containing low levels (14%) of wild-type carotenoid pigments. Except for NTG-1, the other pigment mutants had different proportions of the same pigments found in the wild type as determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Only NTG-2 was morphologically distinct at the ultrastructural level.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Abusada, Gabi M. (Gabi Michael)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Female Inheritors of Hawthorne's New England Literary Tradition (open access)

Female Inheritors of Hawthorne's New England Literary Tradition

Nineteenth-century women were a mainstay in the New England literary tradition, both as readers and authors. Indeed, women were a large part of a growing reading public, a public that distanced itself from Puritanism and developed an appetite for novels and magazine short stories. It was a culture that survived in spite of patriarchal domination of the female in social and literary status. This dissertation is a study of selected works from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman that show their fiction as a protest against a patriarchal society. The premise of this study is based on analyzing these works from a protest (not necessarily a feminist) view, which leads to these conclusions: rejection of the male suitor and of marriage was a protest against patriarchal institutions that purposely restricted females from realizing their potential. Furthermore, it is often the case that industrialism and abuses of male authority in selected works by Jewett and Freeman are symbols of male-driven forces that oppose the autonomy of the female. Thus my argument is that protest fiction of the nineteenth century quietly promulgates an agenda of independence for the female. It is an agenda that encourages the woman to …
Date: August 1994
Creator: Adams, Dana W. (Dana Wills)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bias in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Gay Males (open access)

Bias in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Gay Males

The purpose of this study was to explore heterosexual bias in the diagnosis and treatment of gay males. Two hundred-fifty (134 males and 116 females) mental health professionals from the Division of Psychotherapy (29) of the American Psychological Association participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two case history conditions, which presented a 35-year-old male seeking therapy. Both conditions were equivalent with regards to the presenting problem (i.e., diagnostic symptoms) with the exception of his significant other (i.e., gay vs. non-gay condition). Potential bias was measured through a diagnostic rating Likert scale and a treatment plan questionnaire. Other independent variables that could potentially have an effect on diagnostic ratings were explored, such as gender, year of graduation, and theoretical orientation of the respondents. Results of the statistical analyses failed to confirm evidence of heterosexual bias. Implications for further research and training are discussed.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Adams, Pamela (Pamela Ann)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Ethnographic Study of Outstanding, Veteran Elementary Teachers (open access)

An Ethnographic Study of Outstanding, Veteran Elementary Teachers

The purpose of this study was to describe outstanding, veteran elementary teachers using an ethnographic approach. This qualitative study was conducted in a suburban independent school district in northeast Texas serving approximately 17,000 students. The data collected focused on five outstanding, veteran elementary teachers who had at least twenty years of uninterrupted teaching service. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and the administration of the Mind Styles (Gregorc,1982) inventory. The findings of this research were as follows. This study found that many factors were responsible for retaining outstanding, veteran elementary teachers in the work force. These included adequate preparation, a strong personal commitment, a successful initial teaching assignment, a development of skills and abilities inside and outside the teaching field, and professional accomplishments throughout the teaching career.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Adams, Sandra K. (Sandra Kay)
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence": The Rule of Desire in T.S. Eliot's Poetry (open access)

"Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence": The Rule of Desire in T.S. Eliot's Poetry

The poetry of T. S. Eliot represents intense yet discriminate expressions of desire. His poetry is a poetry of desire that extenuates the long tradition of love poetry in Occidental culture. The unique and paradoxical element of love in Occidental culture is that it is based on an ideal of the unconsummated love relationship between man and woman. The struggle to express desire, yet remain true to ideals that have deep sacred and secular significance is the key animating factor of Eliot's poetry. To conceal and reveal desire, Eliot made use of four core elements of modernism: the apocalyptic vision, Pound's Imagism, the conflict between organic and mechanic sources of sublimity, and precisionism. Together, all four elements form a critical and philosophical matrix that allows for the discreet expression of desire in what Foucault calls the silences of Victorianism, yet Eliot still manages to reveal it in his major poetry. In Prufrock, Eliot uses precisionism to conceal and reveal desire with conflicting patterns of sound, syntax, and image. In The Waste Land, desire is expressed as negation, primarily as shame, sadness, and violence. The negation of desire occurred only after Pound had excised explicit references to desire, indicating Eliot's struggle …
Date: August 1995
Creator: Adams, Stephen D. (Stephen Duane)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Identification of College Freshmen According to Scholastic and Persistence Potential (open access)

Identification of College Freshmen According to Scholastic and Persistence Potential

This study was designed to develop a procedure for the identification of freshman students at risk in the academic and social integration process at Texas Christian University. The data for the study were collected from the Student Information Form (SIF) and student records system at Texas Christian University. The data included demographic, attitudinal, educational background and one-year persistence indicators (retain and drop) as well as one-year cumulative grade point averages for the fall 1990 entering freshman class.
Date: December 1992
Creator: Adams, William F. (William Franklin)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chronic Ventricular Sympathectomy : Effects on Myocardial Metabolism (open access)

Chronic Ventricular Sympathectomy : Effects on Myocardial Metabolism

Chronic ventricular sympathectomy elicits changes in the coronary circulation, myocardial oxygen consumption and size of infarction resulting fromcoronary occlusion. These changes indicate a change occurring in the basic metabolism of the heart in response to the removal of its sympathetic nervous input. This hypothesis was tested using two groups of dogs, a shamoperated control and a ventricular sympathectomized group. The sympathectomy procedure was an intrapericardial surgical technique which selectively removes ventricular sympathetic input. Four weeks after surgery, left ventricular tissue samples were obtained and rapidly frozen to -80°C. Selected metabolic variables were then compared between the two groups.
Date: August 1993
Creator: Adix Longlet, Nancy J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effect of Task Appropriateness, Social Comparison, and Feedback on Female Goals, Performance, and Self-Confidence with a Motor Task (open access)

Effect of Task Appropriateness, Social Comparison, and Feedback on Female Goals, Performance, and Self-Confidence with a Motor Task

Lenney (1977) concluded that achievement gender differences were predicted by females' lower self confidence and expectancies in competitive situations, identifying three variables that mediated female self confidence in achievement situations, (1) task appropriateness. (2) social comparison, and (3) feedback. The present study manipulated all three mediating variables with 240 undergraduate 18-25 year old female subjects with the pursuit rotor task that requires tracking a moving (40 rpm's) white light with a hand-held stylus for 60 seconds. Response measurement was based upon time on target. Subjects were tested over five trials while setting goals for each trial. Females were randomly assigned to a male appropriate, female appropriate, or gender neutral task condition, a competition or alone condition, and to one of four feedback conditions (no feedback, feedback about own performance only, feedback about own performance that provided the perception that subject was performing better than an opponent and/or average on each trial, or feedback about own performance that provided the perception that subject was performing poorer than an opponent and/or average on each of the five trials). Results from the 2 (social comparison) X 3 (task appropriateness) X 4 (feedback) ANOVA were contradictory to previous findings (Corbin, 1981; Petruzzello & Corbin, …
Date: May 1990
Creator: Adler, William P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nesting Ecology and Reproductive Correlates in the Desert-nesting Gray Gull Larus Modestus (open access)

Nesting Ecology and Reproductive Correlates in the Desert-nesting Gray Gull Larus Modestus

General objectives of my study were to describe the reproductive ecology of gray gulls in the large Lealtad colony, with emphasis on demographic parameters and physiological adaptations of eggs and chicks, which would complete some original objectives established in the early 1980's by Guerra and Fitzpatrick. Specifically, my study focused on describing, then comparing with other desert and non-desert nesting larids, interactive effects of ambient physical conditions and nest-site predation on eggs and chicks.
Date: May 1993
Creator: Aguilar Pulido, Roberto E. (Roberto Eric)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Strategic Planning in Higher Education : A Study of Application in Arkansas Senior Colleges and Universities (open access)

Strategic Planning in Higher Education : A Study of Application in Arkansas Senior Colleges and Universities

This empirical study focused on the level of application of strategic planning by senior colleges and universities in Arkansas. The study was designed to examine, analyze, and describe the extent of strategic planning practices by Arkansas higher education institutions, as reflected in the opinions and perceptions of the institutions' chief executive officers and based on the profile of characteristics validated by twenty experts in the strategic planning literature.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Agwu, Patrick A. (Patrick Agbai)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Parental Cultural Mistrust, Background Variables, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services for Their Children (open access)

Parental Cultural Mistrust, Background Variables, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services for Their Children

Attitudes toward mental illness and the willingness to seek psychological treatment for their children among ethnic minority group parents were investigated. Participants consisted of black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian parents. All parents were given the Terrell and Terrell Cultural Mistrust Inventory, Cohen and Struening Opinions About Mental Illness Scale, Reid-Gundlach Social Services Satisfaction Scale, Fischer-Turner Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help Scale, and Ahluwalia Parents' Psychological Help-Seeking Inventory. A multiple regression model was used to explore the purpose of this study. Parental mistrust level, ethnicity, education, income level, and opinions about mental illness served as predictor variables. The criterion variables consisted of scores on the Social Services Satisfaction Scale and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. The results indicated that the most significant predictor of psychological help-seeking was parental cultural mistrust level. Parents with higher cultural mistrust levels were less likely to seek help. Education was also predictive of black and Native American parents' help-seeking attitude and willingness to seek psychological help for their children. Black and Native Americans with lower levels of education were less willing to seek treatment for their children than members of those ethnic groups with higher levels of education. Ethnicity was also related to …
Date: August 1990
Creator: Ahluwalia, Ekta
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Beowulf": Myth as a Structural and Thematic Key (open access)

"Beowulf": Myth as a Structural and Thematic Key

Very little of the huge corpus of Beowulf criticism has been directed at discovering the function and meaning of myth in the poem. Scholars have noted many mythological elements, but there has never been a satisfactory explanation of the poet's use of this material. A close analysis of Beowulf reveals that myth does, in fact, inform its structure, plot, characters and even imagery. More significant than the poet's use of myth, however, is the way he interlaces the historical and Christian elements with the mythological story to reflect his understanding of the cyclic nature of human existence. The examination in Chapter II of the religious component in eighth-century Anglo-Saxon culture demonstrates that the traditional Germanic religion or mythology was still very much alive. Thus the Beowulf poet was certainly aware of pre-Christian beliefs. Furthermore, he seems to have perceived basic similarities between the old and new religions, and this understanding is reflected in the poem. Chapter III discusses the way in which the characterization of the monsters is enriched by their mythological connotations. Chapter IV demonstrates that the poet also imbued the hero Beowulf with mythological significance. The discussion in Chapter V of themes and type-scenes reveals the origins of …
Date: May 1990
Creator: Aitches, Marian A. (Marian Annette)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Characteristics of Administrative Leadership Behavior : A Comparative Study of Municipal and University Administrators (open access)

Characteristics of Administrative Leadership Behavior : A Comparative Study of Municipal and University Administrators

The problem with which this study is concerned is comparative administrative leadership behavior between municipal and university administrators. The specially designed survey instrument elicited respondents' perceptions of their administrative leadership behavior based on the 12 dimensions of the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire- XII.
Date: August 1993
Creator: Akidi, Valentine E. (Valentine Emeka)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Perceptions of Student Affairs Services by Students and Student Affairs Personnel at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan (open access)

Perceptions of Student Affairs Services by Students and Student Affairs Personnel at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of students and student affairs personnel of student affairs services at Andrews University's main campus in Berrien Springs, Michigan. A modified questionnaire, based on the work of Selgas and Blocker (1974) and Glenister (1977), was developed for this study. Eleven student services found in the Council for the Advancement of Standards for Student Services/Development Program's guidelines were included. A random sample of 280 students at Andrews University received surveys, with 165 (59%) responding. The 30 full-time student affairs personnel also received surveys, with 20 (67%) responding. Students and student affairs personnel rated their perceptions of student services, using 77 statements associated with these services. Services were rated on a 6-point scale in the categories of status of knowledge, relative importance, and effectiveness. Respondents were asked to include additional comments concerning the services and to provide biographical data. The following are some of the main findings: Significant differences between students' and student affairs personnel's status of knowledge of student services were found in career planning/employment, commuter programs/services, counseling services/substance abuse education, religious programs/services, student activities, and wellness/health. Significant differences between the two groups' perceptions of relative importance of student services were …
Date: December 1995
Creator: Akos, Hosea Dodo
System: The UNT Digital Library
Structural and Photoelectron Emission Properties of Chemical Vapor Deposition Grown Diamond Films (open access)

Structural and Photoelectron Emission Properties of Chemical Vapor Deposition Grown Diamond Films

The effects of methane (CH4), diborone (B2H6) and nitrogen (N2) concentrations on the structure and photoelectron emission properties of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) polycrystalline diamond films were studied. The diamond films were grown on single-crystal Si substrates using the hot-tungsten filament CVD technique. Raman spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize the different forms of carbon in the films, and the fraction of sp3 carbon to sp3 plus sp2 carbon at the surface of the films, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the surface morphology of the films. The photoelectron emission properties were determined by measuring the energy distributions of photoemitted electrons using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), and by measuring the photoelectric current as a function of incident photon energy.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Akwani, Ikerionwu Asiegbu
System: The UNT Digital Library