States

Language

Physical Gesture, Spatialization, Form and Transformation in Watershed I/IV, for Solo Percussion and Real-time Computer Spatialization, by Roger Reynolds (open access)

Physical Gesture, Spatialization, Form and Transformation in Watershed I/IV, for Solo Percussion and Real-time Computer Spatialization, by Roger Reynolds

Watershed I/IV, for Solo Percussion and Real-time Computer Spatialization was composed in 1995 by Pulitzer prize-winning composer Roger Reynolds. This work is a 25-minute choreographed music drama for one multiple-percussionist, in which Reynolds incorporates the musical transformation of percussion instrument families, the physical gestures of the performer, and the spatialization of processed sounds around the audience. This dissertation addresses several aspects of Watershed, which include: the expressive intent and extra-musical concepts; the formal organization, and several non-musical tools that Reynolds utilized in designing the piece (e.g. logarithmically derived sequences); the primary musical motives; the instrument setup and how the resulting physical gestures contribute to the musical intent; and the real-time computer spatialization. Throughout the document, specific musical passages are demonstrated with notated musical examples and embedded video/audio clips. In addition, transcripts of my interviews with composer Roger Reynolds, percussionist Steven Schick (premiere performer of Watershed) and engineer/technician Greg Dixon (engineer for my performances of Watershed IV) are also included.
Date: December 2009
Creator: Licata, Julie M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Monitoring or moral hazard? Evidence from real activities manipulation by venture-backed companies. (open access)

Monitoring or moral hazard? Evidence from real activities manipulation by venture-backed companies.

Prior literature suggests two competing theories regarding the role of venture capitalists (VCs) in their portfolio companies. The VC monitoring hypothesis argues that VCs effectively resolve the managerial agency problem through close monitoring and restraining managers' earnings management behavior. The VC moral hazard hypothesis argues that VCs aggravate the private benefits agency problem by exerting influence over managers to artificially inflate exit stock price through earnings management. Using a sample of IPO firms between 1987 and 2002, after controlling for the magnitude of accruals manipulation (AM), I compare the magnitude of real activities manipulation (RM) between venture-backed and non-venture-backed companies. I find that relative to non-venture-backed companies, venture-backed companies show significantly less RM in the first post-IPO fiscal year. The results are robust after controlling for the VC selection endogeneity. The finding supports the VC monitoring hypothesis that VCs restrain managers' RM behavior. Furthermore, I document that venture-backed companies exhibit a significant difference from non-venture-backed companies only in the first post-IPO fiscal year. The difference between the two groups in either the IPO year or the second post-IPO fiscal year is not significant, or at best, is weak. This finding is consistent with the argument that VCs tighten their control …
Date: December 2009
Creator: Liu, Xiang
System: The UNT Digital Library
Study of Silver Deposition on Silicon (100) by IR Spectroscopy and Patina Formation Study of Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Ruthenium or Platinum (open access)

Study of Silver Deposition on Silicon (100) by IR Spectroscopy and Patina Formation Study of Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Ruthenium or Platinum

To investigate conditions of silver electroless deposition on silicon (100), optical microscope, atomic force microscope (AFM) and attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy were used. Twenty second dipping in 0.8mM AgNO3/4.9% solution coats a silicon (100) wafer with a thin film of silver nanoparticles very well. According to AFM results, the diameter of silver particles is from 50 to 100nm. After deposition, arithmetic average of absolute values roughness (Ra) increased from ~0.7nm to ~1.2nm and the root mean square roughness (Rq) is from ~0.8nm to ~1.5nm. SCN- ions were applied to detect the existence of silver on silicon surface by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and IR spectra demonstrate SCN- is a good adsorbent for silver metal. Patina is the general name of copper basic salts which forms green-blue film on the surface of ancient bronze architectures. Patina formation has been found on the surface of platinum or ruthenium after several scans of cyclic voltammetry in 2mM CuSO4/0.1M K2SO4, pH5 solution. Evidence implies that oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) triggers the patina formation. ORR is an important step of fuel cell process and only few sorts of noble metals like platinum can be worked as the catalyst of ORR. Mechanisms of patination involving …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Yang, Fan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Risk factors for piano-related pain among college students and piano teachers: Possible solutions for reducing pain by using the ergonomically modified keyboard. (open access)

Risk factors for piano-related pain among college students and piano teachers: Possible solutions for reducing pain by using the ergonomically modified keyboard.

Playing‐related pain is a common and serious problem among pianists. Information on cause and prevention is extremely limited due to a lack of scientific research. The purpose of this study was to (1) review and describe risk factors for piano‐related pain among college students and piano teachers that were reported in my previous two research studies, (2) justify the use of an ergonomically modified keyboard as a potential solution for reducing playing‐related pain, and (3) test and evaluate the effectiveness of an ergonomically modified keyboard for alleviating pianists' pain. Both study populations reported high prevalence rates for playing‐related pain: 86 % for college students (n = 35), 91 % for piano teachers (n = 47). For both populations, statistical analyses confirmed that pianists with small physical size (hand size) were more prone to pain. This finding helped rationalize the use of an ergonomically modified keyboard (the key width is 1/16 narrower than the standard) for small‐handed pianists as an ergonomic intervention. To test the effectiveness of an ergonomically modified keyboard, 35 college students played identical music on both the reduced-sized keyboard and the standard keyboard. Observations of video‐recorded performances revealed that small-handed pianists can avoid extreme stretching of their hands …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Yoshimura, Eri
System: The UNT Digital Library
Identity Issues in Asian-American Children's and Adolescent Literature (1999-2007) (open access)

Identity Issues in Asian-American Children's and Adolescent Literature (1999-2007)

Published research suggests that literature should transmit ethnic and societal values as well as reassure one's own confidence and self-respect. This study provides a model for examining Asian-American children's and adolescent literature critically from the perspective of identity issues. It examines fifteen award-winning Asian-American children's and adolescent titles written by writers of that culture and published in the United States from 1999 to 2007, with a focus on Chinese (Taiwanese) American, Korean American, and Japanese American books. As published studies indicate, self, social, and ethnic identities are significantly intertwined. Hence, a content analysis was conducted based on these three major groups of categories. The findings of the study demonstrate that even though the selected books cover all three aspects of the identity issues to a certain degree, a considerably greater number of depictions of ethnic identities are made over those of internal identities and social identities. Moreover, less than half of the main characters assume an active role in improving the difficult situation. Two major voids regarding the presentation of social identities are successful social integration and positive social interactions. Recommendations for teaching, writing, illustrating, publishing, and future research are suggested, including publishing more Asian-American books which present an optimistic …
Date: December 2009
Creator: Liu, Yi-chen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Maternal employment: Factors related to role strain. (open access)

Maternal employment: Factors related to role strain.

Past literature suggests that working mothers are at an increased risk for experiencing role strain compared to other employed adults. The current study investigated attitudes and beliefs of 783 working mothers of 15-month-old children using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Working mothers' levels of role strain was associated with perceived social support, attitudes toward maternal employment, job and parental role quality, financial stress, and depression. Negative attitudes toward maternal employment predicted maternal separation anxiety, while positive attitudes toward employment did not affect separation anxiety. These findings have implications for the importance of decreasing role strain in working mothers.
Date: August 2009
Creator: LoCascio, Stephanie
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cross Language Information Retrieval for Languages with Scarce Resources (open access)

Cross Language Information Retrieval for Languages with Scarce Resources

Our generation has experienced one of the most dramatic changes in how society communicates. Today, we have online information on almost any imaginable topic. However, most of this information is available in only a few dozen languages. In this thesis, I explore the use of parallel texts to enable cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) for languages with scarce resources. To build the parallel text I use the Bible. I evaluate different variables and their impact on the resulting CLIR system, specifically: (1) the CLIR results when using different amounts of parallel text; (2) the role of paraphrasing on the quality of the CLIR output; (3) the impact on accuracy when translating the query versus translating the collection of documents; and finally (4) how the results are affected by the use of different dialects. The results show that all these variables have a direct impact on the quality of the CLIR system.
Date: May 2009
Creator: Loza, Christian
System: The UNT Digital Library
Psychological Stress Reactivity and Recovery: The Role of Cognitive Appraisals, Ethnicity and Sex (open access)

Psychological Stress Reactivity and Recovery: The Role of Cognitive Appraisals, Ethnicity and Sex

The aim of this research was to investigate the role of sex, ethnicity and cognitive appraisals, separately and in combination, on the physiological stress response. One hundred and eight undergraduate students from two North Texas universities participated in the study. They were subjected to a laboratory stressor and heart rate, peripheral temperature and cortisol levels were measured pre-, during-, and post- stressor. Perceived stress and cognitive appraisals were measured via self-report. Multivariate analysis of variance tests were conducted to analyze the main and interaction effects during baseline, reactivity and post-stress recovery. Results indicated some significant main effects for sex and ethnicity but no consistent pattern of results or interactions among variables were revealed. The study's implications and areas of future research are discussed.
Date: December 2009
Creator: Malhotra, Damini
System: The UNT Digital Library
Selected Songs of Dan Beaty: Background, Analysis, and Performance Guide (open access)

Selected Songs of Dan Beaty: Background, Analysis, and Performance Guide

Dan Beaty (1937-2002) was a prolific composer, pianist, researcher, educator, and writer. His large compositional output included chamber works, choral works, songs, orchestral pieces, electronic music, and keyboard works. Beaty was well versed in traditional Western music as well as the more avant-garde and perplexing idioms of the twentieth century. Beaty's compositions reflect the many fascinating, if not always popular, musical trends of his time. His music encompasses styles from serial to jazz, shows compositional influences from Arnold Schoenberg to Indonesian music, and demonstrates thought-provoking and highly intellectual craftsmanship. This document explores several of Beaty's songs through a discussion of the composer's life and compositional process. Songs included in this document are Three Weeks Songs, October, November, A Sappho Lyric, Love Song, That Night When Joy Began, and War Lyrics. This document was written to accompany the author's DMA Lecture-Recital at the University of North Texas. Unfortunately, Beaty's vocal music was never published and is mostly unknown. One goal of the project was to initiate interest in Beaty's songs. Through this document, Lecture-Recital, and additional performances, considerable strides have been made to bring Beaty's songs to new audiences throughout the United States. In addition, the author has received permission from …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Novak, Richard A., II
System: The UNT Digital Library
Stimuli-responsive microgels for self-assembled crystalline structures and controlled drug release. (open access)

Stimuli-responsive microgels for self-assembled crystalline structures and controlled drug release.

Tissue response to PNIPAM and HPC nanoparticles has been studied by implantation method. The results suggest that both PNIAPM and HPC nanoparticles possess good biocompatibility and they may serve as a good carrier for the applications of controlled delivery. Rheological properties of dispersions of IPN microgels composed of PNIPAM and PAAc have been studied. It is found that the IPN microgel dispersion can undergo a sol-gel transition at temperature above 33°C. In vivo drug release experiments suggest that the gelation procedure creates a diffusion barrier and thus leads to slow release. An emulsion method has been used to grow columnar crystals by mixing PNIPAM microgel dispersions with organic solvents. Effect of both temperature and microgel concentration on formation of columnar crystals has been studied. PNIPAM-co-NMA microgels have been used for the fabrication of crystalline hydrogel films by self-crosslinking microgels. The hydrogel film exhibits an iridescent. The thermally responsive properties and mechanical properties of this film have been studied. Melting temperature (Tm) of colloidal crystals self-assembled with PNIPAM-co-AAc microgels has been investigated as a function of pH, salt concentration and microgel concentration. It is revealed that Tm increases as pH value increases; Tm decreases with increase of salt concentration; Tm increases …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Zhou, Jun
System: The UNT Digital Library
FPGA Implementation of Low Density Party Check Codes Decoder (open access)

FPGA Implementation of Low Density Party Check Codes Decoder

Reliable communication over the noisy channel has become one of the major concerns in the field of digital wireless communications. The low density parity check codes (LDPC) has gained lot of attention recently because of their excellent error-correcting capacity. It was first proposed by Robert G. Gallager in 1960. LDPC codes belong to the class of linear block codes. Near capacity performance is achievable on a large collection of data transmission and storage.In my thesis I have focused on hardware implementation of (3, 6) - regular LDPC codes. A fully parallel decoder will require too high complexity of hardware realization. Partly parallel decoder has the advantage of effective compromise between decoding throughput and high hardware complexity. The decoding of the codeword follows the belief propagation alias probability propagation algorithm in log domain. A 9216 bit, (3, 6) regular LDPC code with code rate ½ was implemented on FPGA targeting Xilinx Virtex 4 XC4VLX80 device with package FF1148. This decoder achieves a maximum throughput of 82 Mbps. The entire model was designed in VHDL in the Xilinx ISE 9.2 environment.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Vijayakumar, Suresh
System: The UNT Digital Library
Immediate and Subsequent Effects of Fixed-Time Delivery of Therapist Attention on Problem Behavior Maintained by Attention (open access)

Immediate and Subsequent Effects of Fixed-Time Delivery of Therapist Attention on Problem Behavior Maintained by Attention

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the immediate and subsequent effects of fixed-time attention on problem behavior maintained by therapist attention utilizing a three-component multiple-schedule design. The treatment analysis indicated that fixed-time attention produced a significant immediate decrease in the frequency of physically disruptive behavior (PDB), represented by low frequencies of PDB in Component 2, as well as a continued subsequent effect, represented by lower frequencies of problem behavior in Component 3 when compared to Component 1. The possible behavioral mechanisms responsible for the observed suppression in Component 2 of the treatment analysis are discussed. Evidence of behavioral contrast was observed in Components 1 and 3 of the treatment analysis in conditions in which Component 2 contained a fixed-time schedule of stimulus delivery. In addition, limitations and future research are outlined.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Walker, Stephen Frank
System: The UNT Digital Library
Metabolic Syndrome and Psychosocial Factors (open access)

Metabolic Syndrome and Psychosocial Factors

Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of risk factors, including abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high fasting glucose, that commonly cluster together and can result in cardiovascular disease. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome and the components that comprise the syndrome vary by age and by racial/ethnic group. In addition, previous research has indicated that the risk factors contributing to metabolic syndrome may be exacerbated by exposure to perceived stress. This study utilized data from the 2002, 2004, and 2006 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data sets. It was hypothesized that depression and anxiety (conceptualized as stress in this study) increase the risk of presenting with metabolic syndrome while social support decreases the risk of metabolic syndrome. While results of cross-sectional analysis do not indicate a significant relationship between depression and metabolic syndrome (t = -.84, ns), longitudinal analysis does indicate a significant relationship between depression and metabolic syndrome over time (t = -5.20, p <.001). However, anxiety is not significantly related to metabolic syndrome when the relationship is examined through cross-sectional analysis (t = -1.51, ns) and longitudinal analysis (&#967;² = 13.83, ns). Similarly, social support is not …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Tweedy, Maureen P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Assimilation of Baroque Elements in Ferruccio Busoni's Compositions as Exemplified by the Fantasia nach Bach and the Toccata (open access)

The Assimilation of Baroque Elements in Ferruccio Busoni's Compositions as Exemplified by the Fantasia nach Bach and the Toccata

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) has a firmly established reputation as one of the giant pianists of his age, yet his compositions are largely neglected both in musicological circles and on the concert stage. A better understanding of his thought processes might lead to a greater appreciation of his art, and the acknowledgement of his reverence for the music of Bach is an important key to such an understanding. Busoni's Fantasia nach Bach and Toccata, although two decidedly dissimilar compositions in terms of purpose and conception, represent two manifestations of Busoni's respect for Bach, whether it be in the form of assimilating Bach's compositions into one of his own, or by creating an original work to the same mold as some of Bach's works.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Van Schalkwyk, Willem Andreas Stefanus
System: The UNT Digital Library
Deliberative Democracy, Divided Societies, and the Case of Appalachia (open access)

Deliberative Democracy, Divided Societies, and the Case of Appalachia

Theories of deliberative democracy, which emphasize open-mindedness and cooperative dialogue, confront serious challenges in deeply divided political populations constituted by polarized citizens unwilling to work together on issues they collectively face. The case of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia makes this clear. In my thesis, I argue that such empirical challenges are serious, yet do not compromise the normative desirability of deliberative democracy because communicative mechanisms can help transform adversarial perspectives into workable, deliberative ones. To realize this potential in divided societies, mechanisms must focus on healing and reconciliation, a point under-theorized by deliberativists who do not take seriously enough the feminist critique of public-private dualisms that illuminates political dimensions of such embodied processes. Ultimately, only a distinctly two-stage process of public deliberation in divided populations, beginning with mechanisms for healing and trust building, will give rise to the self-transformation necessary for second-stage deliberation aimed at collectively binding decisions.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Tidrick, Charlee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Using Diffusion of Innovations to Explore Digital Gaming in Undergraduate Library Instruction (open access)

Using Diffusion of Innovations to Explore Digital Gaming in Undergraduate Library Instruction

Digital games and simulations are receiving considerable notice within the Library and Information Science (LIS) community. This study adds to the depth of knowledge in this area by providing research on the likelihood a hypothetical digital game delivery method for library instruction achieves sufficient adoption to justify its development. Furthermore, this knowledge will assist decision making processes for individuals debating the current or potential role of digital gaming at their institutions. In this mixed methods study, over 300 undergraduates were surveyed about their technology preferences, including digital gaming, for delivery of two forms of academic library instruction. The two forms of library instruction were (a) providing users with spatial information on physical library layout, and (b) educating users on information literacy topics and skills. Observational data was collected during the survey sessions, occurring at face-to-face library instruction sessions. Self-selected survey participants were also interviewed to further probe their survey responses. Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations was the theoretical foundation to this research. The primary innovation of study was the digital game delivery method. Detailed analysis of the survey-based data set included three nonparametric scaling methods: 1) rank-sum scaling; 2) circular triad analysis; and 3) multidimensional preference mapping. Content analysis of the …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Robertson, Michael James
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Performance Guide to Luigi Nono's Post-Prae-Ludium No. 1 "Per Donau" (open access)

A Performance Guide to Luigi Nono's Post-Prae-Ludium No. 1 "Per Donau"

Luigi Nono's work Post-Prae-Ludium No.1 "per Donau" represents a model for the emerging genre of electroacoustic tuba music. It is important to preserve this electroacoustic work because of its value to the tuba literature. Not only is it one of the first electroacoustic works for the tuba, but it also was composed by a man who is highly regarded in the field of music composition. Its preservation will be difficult because of the rapid advancement in technology. Within the last three decades of existence, the technology has evolved three times. An examination of the performance practice in Post-Prae-Ludium was undertaken to understand the demand on the performer required to play this work. This study will look at both non-traditional performance practices, as well as an inherent problem of how the advancement of technology can actually threaten the survival of a work dependent upon a specific version of electronic technology. Nono worked in collaboration with Giancarlo Schiaffini to compose a work for tuba and live electronics. Correspondence with Schiaffini has provided his thoughts on the collaboration of Post-Prae-Ludium with Nono and given a better understanding of how to perform the work. Technology will change, and these current adaptations of Post-Prae-Ludium may …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Tignor, Scott Edward
System: The UNT Digital Library
Disturbing Nature's Beauty: Environmental Aesthetics in a New Ecological Paradigm (open access)

Disturbing Nature's Beauty: Environmental Aesthetics in a New Ecological Paradigm

An ecological paradigm shift from the "balance of nature" to the "flux of nature" will change the way we aesthetically appreciate nature if we adopt scientific cognitivism-the view that aesthetic appreciation of nature must be informed by scientific knowledge. Aesthetic judgments are subjective, though we talk about aesthetic qualities as if they were objectively inherent in objects, events, or environments. Aesthetic judgments regarding nature are correct insofar as they are part of a community consensus regarding the currently dominant scientific paradigm. Ecological science is grounded in metaphors: nature is a divine order, a machine, an organism, a community, or a cybernetic system. These metaphors stimulate and guide scientific practice, but do not exist independent of a conceptual framework. They are at most useful fictions in terms of how they reflect the values underlying a paradigm. Contemporary ecology is a science driven more by aesthetic than metaphysical considerations. I review concepts in the history of nature aesthetics such as the picturesque, the sublime, disinterestedness, and formalism. I propose an analogy: just as knowledge of art history and theory should inform aesthetic appreciation of art, knowledge of natural history and ecological theory should inform aesthetic appreciation of nature. The "framing problem," is …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Simus, Jason Boaz
System: The UNT Digital Library
Accident versus Essence:  Investigating the Relationship Among Information Systems Development and Requirements Capabilities and Perceptions of Enterprise Architecture (open access)

Accident versus Essence: Investigating the Relationship Among Information Systems Development and Requirements Capabilities and Perceptions of Enterprise Architecture

Information systems (IS) are indelibly linked to the global economy and are indispensable to society and organizations. Despite the decisive function of IS in organizations today, IS development problems continue to plague organizations. The failure to get the system requirements right is considered to be one of the primary, if not the most significant, reasons for this high IS failure rate. Getting requirements right is most notably identified with Frederick Brooks' contention that requirements are the essence of what IT professionals do, all the rest being accidents or risk management. However, enterprise architecture (EA) may also provide the discipline to bridge the gap between effective requirements, organizational objectives, and the actual IS implementations. The intent of this research is to examine the relationship between IS development capabilities and requirements analysis and design capabilities within the context of enterprise architecture. To accomplish this, a survey of IT professionals within the Society for Information Management (SIM) was conducted. Results indicate support for the hypothesized relationship between IS development and requirements capabilities. The hypothesized relationships with the organizational demographics were not supported nor was the hypothesized positive relationship between requirements capabilities and EA perceptions. However, the nature of the relationship of requirements and …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Salmans, Brian R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
On the density of minimal free subflows of general symbolic flows. (open access)

On the density of minimal free subflows of general symbolic flows.

This paper studies symbolic dynamical systems {0, 1}G, where G is a countably infinite group, {0, 1}G has the product topology, and G acts on {0, 1}G by shifts. It is proven that for every countably infinite group G the union of the minimal free subflows of {0, 1}G is dense. In fact, a stronger result is obtained which states that if G is a countably infinite group and U is an open subset of {0, 1}G, then there is a collection of size continuum consisting of pairwise disjoint minimal free subflows intersecting U.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Seward, Brandon Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
Rete Mirabile: An Installation (open access)

Rete Mirabile: An Installation

Rete Mirabile is my new installation piece combining scientific principles with live computer generated music. The title is a Latin term meaning "Wonderful Net," which I use to refer to the highly convoluted network of biological data that drives my installation. The sonification of data, computer modeling of biological processes, kinetic sculptures, and user interactivity are central parts of the installation. The paper is organized as follows: First, brief history of the forerunners that inspired my work is given. This includes a short discussion on how John Cage and David Tudor influenced current artists works, and how those works have influenced my own work. Then I review current installation works that share similarities with my own. Finally, a detailed discussion and analysis of the construction and function concludes the paper.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Rivera, Philip Andrew
System: The UNT Digital Library
Links among perceived service quality, patient satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the urgent care industry: Empirical evidence from college students. (open access)

Links among perceived service quality, patient satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the urgent care industry: Empirical evidence from college students.

Patient perceptions of health care quality are critical to a health care service provider's long-term success because of the significant influence perceptions have on customer satisfaction and consequently organization financial performance. Patient satisfaction affects not only the outcome of the health care process such as patient compliance with physician advice and treatment, but also patient retention and favorable word-of-mouth. Accordingly, it is a critical strategy for health care organizations to provide quality service and address patient satisfaction. The urgent care (UC) industry is an integral part of the health care system in the United States that has been experiencing a rapid growth. UC provides a wide range of medical services for a large group of patients and now serves an increasing population. UC is becoming popular because of the convenient locations, extended hours, walk-in policy, short waiting times, and accessibility. A closer examination of the current health care research, however, indicates that there is a paucity of research on urgent care providers. Confronted with the emergence of the urgent care industry and the increasing demand for urgent care, it is necessary to understand how patients perceive urgent care providers and what influences patient satisfaction and retention. This dissertation addresses four …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Qin, Hong
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Verilog 8051 Soft Core for FPGA Applications (open access)

A Verilog 8051 Soft Core for FPGA Applications

The objective of this thesis was to develop an 8051 microcontroller soft core in the Verilog hardware description language (HDL). Each functional unit of the 8051 microcontroller was developed as a separate module, and tested for functionality using the open-source VHDL Dalton model as benchmark. These modules were then integrated to operate as concurrent processes in the 8051 soft core. The Verilog 8051 soft core was then synthesized in Quartus® II simulation and synthesis environment (Altera Corp., San Jose, CA, www.altera.com) and yielded the expected behavioral response to test programs written in 8051 assembler residing in the v8051 ROM. The design can operate at speeds up to 41 MHz and used only 16% of the FPGA fabric, thus allowing complex systems to be designed on a single chip. Further research and development can be performed on v8051 to enhance performance and functionality.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Rangoonwala, Sakina
System: The UNT Digital Library
Finding the perfect blend: A comparative study of online, face-to-face, and blended instruction. (open access)

Finding the perfect blend: A comparative study of online, face-to-face, and blended instruction.

As distance learning evolved, course designers and teachers quickly recognized the value of integrating online features into the classroom. The result was blended learning, a combination of online and face-to-face components. This complex and dynamic new form of education has raised many questions about the role of computer-mediated communication in education and has provided new opportunities for extending research in learning and communication. The purpose of the study was to determine whether a blended class will produce different (and possibly better) results in terms of student perceptions of the overall learning experience and student satisfaction than traditional lecture-based face-to-face instruction or learning that is delivered entirely online. The main goals of this study were to compare the effectiveness of face-to-face, online, and blended instruction, and to examine the role of interactions in the effectiveness of each educational method. While each form of instruction received very positive feedback from both students and instructors and the newly introduced blended courses proved very successful in terms of overall satisfaction with the learning experience, the traditional lecture-based courses produced more positive attitudes toward the subject matter. The possible causes of these discrepancies between some of the quantitative and qualitative results point toward the role …
Date: August 2009
Creator: Pearcy, Agnes Goz
System: The UNT Digital Library