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Asynchronous Level Crossing ADC for Biomedical Recording Applications (open access)

Asynchronous Level Crossing ADC for Biomedical Recording Applications

This thesis focuses on the recording challenges faced in biomedical systems. More specifically, the challenges in neural signal recording are explored. Instead of the typical synchronous ADC system, a level crossing ADC is detailed as it has gained recent interest for low-power biomedical systems. These systems take advantage of the time-sparse nature of the signals found in this application. A 10-bit design is presented to help capture the lower amplitude action potentials (APs) in neural signals. The design also achieves a full-scale bandwidth of 1.2 kHz, an ENOB of 9.81, a power consumption of 13.5 microwatts, operating at a supply voltage of 1.8 V. This design was simulated in Cadence using 180 nm CMOS technology.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Pae, Kieren
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

"I Love This Land": A Performance Guide for Six Chinese Art Songs by Zaiyi Lu

English, Italian, French, German, and Russian songs often appear in the repertoire of Western singers, but only a few singers try to sing Chinese songs. Chinese songs have a wealth of musical material uninterrupted for nearly 10,000 years. However, the lack of clear and correct International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) makes non-Chinese singers confused and unable to pronounce Chinese accurately. In this study, I have used the IPA that singers are familiar with to change the old version of Chinese IPA, which applied many phonetic transcriptions that are not included in the Western phonetic alphabet and even wrong phonetics. The new version Chinese IPA I created solves the problem of the old version. To demonstrate the practicality of this new IPA version, I have then used this revised IPA in six songs by Zaiyi Lu, who is one of the most outstanding contemporary Chinese composers. His vocal music works are among the finest works of contemporary Chinese art songs. I added Chinese pinyin to the song translation, given a performance guide to introduce the songs' background, IPA with word-by-word translation, poetic translation, singing skills, and emotional expression for both singers and pianists. This study developed a useful tool (new version of …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Han, Yixuan
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Studies on the Fibrinolytic Pathway in Zebrafish

Fibrinolysis pathway is an important mechanism for dissolution of fibrin clot by the action of plasmin which is formed from plasminogen, a zymogen via the action of plasminogen activators, i.e. tissue plasminogen activator and urinary plasminogen activator. The regulation of fibrinolysis system in vivo is maintained by plasminogen activators and natural inhibitors i.e. α2-antiplasmin, α2-macroglobulin, Thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 and 2 (PAI-1and PAI-2). There are several fibrinolytic assays developed for human plasma but there are no reports describing fibrinolytic assay using zebrafish plasma. In this study, a fibrinolytic assay via using small amount of zebrafish plasma was developed. This assay was performed under different conditions; one by the addition of exogenous tissue plasminogen activator alone to the pooled zebrafish plasma along with calcium chloride and thromboplastin, second Dade ACTIN was used instead of tissue plasminogen activator and third Dade ACTIN along with thromboplastin was used. Epsilon amino caproic acid (EACA), a synthetic antifibrinolytic agent was used at different concentrations to inhibit fibrinolysis successfully. Similar experiments were performed on human plasma as well to check the applicability of the assay to humans and positive results were obtained. Furthermore, knockdown of tissue plasminogen activator and plasminogen genes …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Gill, Jaspreet Kaur
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Life and Death in the Field: Farmer Suicide and the Necessity to Feed (open access)

Life and Death in the Field: Farmer Suicide and the Necessity to Feed

Farmer suicide is at crisis levels in the United States and India. This crisis is both a problem of experiential knowledge within infrastructure as well as a problem of discourse power. I argue that the logical abstraction required to conceptualize and evaluate farmer suicide cannot be separated from the overall experience of farmer suicide. Rather than existing as distinctly separate phenomena, these elements are co-constitutive. Despite the Centers' for Disease Control identification and designation of farmer suicide as complex, statistically relevant, and elevated, nearly all the policy efforts addressing farmer suicide focus on narrow economic impact and narrow economic relief. While these economic vectors are important, the problem is multifaceted and requires a broadening of policy discourse to include additional factors (e.g. philosophical, existential, psychological, etc.). Using Hannah Arendt's work on politics and the human condition, I connect the conditionality of homo faber (human fabricator/maker), animal laborans (laboring animal), and vita activa (active life) with farmer struggle and suicide. Through the work of Georges Canguilhem and Achille Mbembe, I critique and analyze the predominant discourse and framing of suicide as a disease. Last, but not least, I propose decolonial theory and degrowth theory as viable critical pathways to shift the …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Opoien, Jared Wesley
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Editor's Foreword [Spring 2021]

Editorial statement introducing the contents of the journal issue and providing other relevant notes.
Date: Spring 2021
Creator: Holden, Janice Miner
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library

Letter to the Editor: Response to "A New Scale to Assess Near-Death Experiences"

Letter written to the editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies discussing a proposed scale for assessing near-death experiences (NDEs), which was proposed by the authors of the letter, and also comments on a previous letter in which others reviewed the original proposal.
Date: Spring 2021
Creator: Martial, Charlotte; Greyson, Bruce; Simon, Jessica; Puttaert, Ninon; Gosseries, Olivia; Charland-Verville, Vanessa et al.
Object Type: Letter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 8, April 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 8, April 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: April 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Texas Digital Newspaper Program: Reading Through the Eyes of Time

Presentation introducing the Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) on The Portal to Texas History. It provides examples on different ways to explore the collection and includes other, similar resources that might be of interest. It was presented at the RootsTech 2021 virtual conference.
Date: February 26, 2021
Creator: Krahmer, Ana & Phillips, Mark Edward
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 7, March 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 7, March 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: March 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Understanding the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) of Data Professionals in United States Academic Libraries (open access)

Understanding the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) of Data Professionals in United States Academic Libraries

This study applies the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) framework for eScience professionals to data service positions in academic libraries. Understanding the KSAs needed to provide data services is of crucial concern. The current study looks at KSAs of data professionals working in the United States academic libraries. An exploratory sequential mixed method design was adopted to discover the KSAs. The study was divided into two phases, a qualitative content analysis of 260 job advertisements for data professionals for Phase 1, and distribution of a self-administered online survey to data professionals working in academic libraries research data services (RDS) for Phase 2. The discovery of the KSAs from the content analysis of 260 job ads and the survey results from 167 data professionals were analyzed separately, and then Spearman rank order correlation was conducted in order to triangulate the data and compare results. The results from the study provide evidence on what hiring managers seek through job advertisements in terms of KSAs and which KSAs data professionals find to be important for working in RDS. The Spearman rank order correlation found strong agreement between job advertisement KSAs and data professionals perceptions of the KSAs.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Khan, Hammad Rauf
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

A Multi-Site Case Study of Middle School Reading Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of Response to Intervention

Early reading intervention has not eradicated reading deficiencies at the middle school level. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), adolescents continue to read below grade level in middle grades. Response to intervention (RTI) is one method of combating this educational concern. This study examined the impact of implementation of a RTI program within one district across multiple middle school campuses. Using individual structured online questionnaires, focus groups, and document analysis, the researcher employed a qualitative, multi-site case study design to evaluate the perceptions of impact of RTI through the lens of middle school reading teachers. Participants included a convenient purposive sample of middle school reading teachers in a suburban school district of about 24,000 students in North Central Texas. I present a review of relevant research at the middle school level to provide a framework for the current study. Additionally, an outline of methodology, research questions, and the proposed data analysis plan are provided. I discuss the intended use of constant comparative analysis to report findings in themes. Particularly, facilitators, hindrances, and impact are a priori themes for reporting.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Norris, Frankie L
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Optical Emission Spectroscopy Monitoring Method for Additively Manufactured Iron-Nickel and Other Complex Alloy Samples

The method of optical emission spectroscopy has been used with Fe-Ni and other complex alloys to investigate in-situ compositional control for additive manufacturing. Although additive manufacturing of metallic alloys is an emerging technology, compositional control will be a challenge that needs to be addressed for a multitude of industries going forward for next-gen applications. This current scope of work includes analysis of ionized species generated from laser and metal powder interaction that is inherent to the laser engineered net shaping (LENS) process of additive manufacturing. By quantifying the amount of a given element's presence in the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, this amount can be compared to the actual amount present in the sample via post-processing and elemental dispersive x-ray (EDX) data analysis. For this work a commercially available linear silicon CCD camera captured metallic ion peaks found within the ultraviolet (UV) region to avoid background contamination from blackbody radiation. Although the additive manufacturing environment can prove difficult to measure in-situ due to time dependent phenomena, extreme temperatures, and defect generation, OEM was able to capture multiple data points over a time series that showed a positive correlation between an element's peak intensity and the amount of that element found in the …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Flannery, David A. (David Andrew)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Saudi Mothers' Experiences Maintaining Their Young Children's Arabic Language and Islamic-Saudi Identity

As more Saudi individuals temporarily settle in the United States to pursue higher education, it becomes increasingly important to understand the impact this experience has on their families. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to examine Saudi mothers' experiences and motivations after transitioning to life in the United States. The main research question was: What are Saudi mothers' experiences of supporting their children maintaining and developing Arabic language skills and Islamic-Saudi identities while they are learning English and Western culture in U.S. schools? The sub-questions of the study were: Why do Saudi mothers in this study want their children to learn the Arabic language and culture? What are their concerns? What are the challenges Saudi mothers face in socializing their children to develop their Islamic-Saudi identity? What practices do mothers use to help their children preserve their Arabic language and develop the Islamic Saudi-identity while growing up in the United States? This study was conceptually framed within the theories of parenting style and acculturation. Participants in the study were five Saudi mothers pursuing higher education in Texas. Data were collected through three semi-structured interviews and four audio journals with each participant, and a focus group with the …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Albakr, Ashwaq Mohammed
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Using Student Response Systems to Increase Academic Engagement for Secondary Students with Specific Learning Disability in General Education Settings (open access)

Using Student Response Systems to Increase Academic Engagement for Secondary Students with Specific Learning Disability in General Education Settings

Secondary students with specific learning disabilities often have challenges with academic engagement and performance within the general education setting. Opportunity to respond strategies, such as student response systems, have shown promise in supporting academic engagement for students without disabilities. However, there are few studies examining the relationship between student response systems and academic engagement for older students with specific learning disabilities. The purpose of this study was to pilot the use of Google classroom as a student response system on academic participation and disruptive behavior for high school students with specific learning disability. While the study began as a multiple baseline across participants single-subject research design, the design was changed due to school closures as a result of COVID-19. A high-school student with specific learning disability participated in a study using an AB non-experimental design. The student response system resulted in an abrupt change in academic participation for the participant. The student and teacher perceived the intervention to be effective and appropriate for increasing participation and decreasing disruptive behavior. This study contributes to a limited body of research on student response systems for secondary students with specific learning disabilities.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Triplett, Patrick C
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Speech-in-Noise Processing in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often experience difficulty during speech-in-noise (SIN) processing tasks. However, it remains unclear how behavioral and cortical mechanisms of auditory processing explain variability in SIN performance in adults with ASD and their neurotypical counterparts. The proposed research explored variability in SIN as it relates to behavioral, perceptual, and objective measures of auditory processing. Results showed significant differences between groups in SIN thresholds. In addition, neurotypicals outperformed the ASD group on measures of sustained auditory attention characterized by reduced impulsivity, increased inhibition, and increased selective auditory attention. Individuals with ASD showed decreased acceptance of noise as compared to neurotypical peers. Overall, results highlighted auditory processing deficits in individuals with ASD that contribute to SIN performance.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Anderson, Chelsea D
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Three Essays on Vintage Products and Second-Hand Retail

Now more than ever, consumers are deciding to forgo modern products and are buying vintage instead. Yet, despite the growing importance of vintage products in the consumer marketplace, research investigating why consumers buy old, often outdated products remains limited. Research that examines customer shopping behavior in second-hand retail markets, were vintage products are bought and sold, is similarly rare. What drives consumers to buy vintage products? What factors influence customer-shopping behavior at second-hand retailers? This three-paper dissertation addresses these gaps by developing better and more actionable insights into why some consumers purchase vintage items. Furthermore, this three-paper dissertation looks to explain customer-shopping behavior and drives consumers to make a purchase at second-hand retail establishments.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Schibik, Aaron J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Defect-Engineered Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for High-Efficient Piezoelectric Sensor

Piezoelectricity in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has attracted significant attention due to their unique crystal structure and the lack of inversion centers when the bulk TMDs thin down to monolayer. Although the piezoelectricity effect in atomic-thickness TMDs has been demonstrated, they are not scalable. Herein, we demonstrate a piezoelectric effect from large-scale, sputtered MoS2 and WS2 using a robust defect-engineering based on the thermal-solvent annealing and solvent immersion process. This yields a higher piezoelectric output over 20 times after annealing or solvent immersion. Indeed, the piezoelectric responses are strengthened with the increases of defect density. Moreover, the MoS2 or WS2 piezoelectric device array shows an exceptional piezoelectric sensitivity with a high-level uniformity and excellent environmental stability under ambient conditions. A detailed study of the sulfur vacancy-dependent property and its resultant asymmetric structure-induced piezoelectricity is reported. The proposed approach is scalable and can produce advanced materials for flexible piezoelectric devices to be used in emerging bioinspired robotics and biomedical applications.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Kim, Junyoung
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Procurement of Smart City Technologies: Smart City or Smart Governance?

This dissertation argues that the core of building smart cities is through the procurement and implementation of smart city technologies (SCTs) by either individual (i.e., smart city) or collaborative endeavors (i.e., smart governance). Given that urbanization problems (e.g., air pollution) usually spill over city boundaries, building smart cities as silos may not solve these problems. Therefore, utilizing smart governance in SCT procurement and implementation should be a better approach. Considering the potential benefits of smart governance, this dissertation addresses three overarching questions: (1) What is a smart city? (2) What is smart governance? and (3) Why do some cities choose to participate in smart governance while others do not? By developing a typology of smart governance, this dissertation categorizes three levels of smart governance based on cities' participation in cooperative procurement and implementation of SCTs. Data collected from the 2019 Smart Governance Survey confirm that the level of smart governance does vary among Texas cities. Applying transaction costs and institutional collective action (ICA) frameworks, the dissertation finds that public managers' perceptions on transaction costs and joint gains as well as cities' extant ICA mechanisms affect cities' participation in smart governance.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Tao, Jie
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Francis Bacon's New Atlantis: The Quiet Revolution of Science, Religion, and Politics

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is recognized as a founder of the modern scientific project and a forerunner of the modern era of political thought. He advocated the development of an active science that would enable human beings to control nature in order to relieve man's estate. To accomplish this, Bacon argues that we must reconstruct all arts and sciences upon a more solid foundation. In reconstructing the arts and sciences, Bacon subtly changes the meaning of foundational religious, political, and scientific notions in order to better suit his project of progress. As the inheritors of his vision, turning to Bacon helps recover foundational considerations that have been forgotten as a result of his success. This dissertation approaches Bacon's thought through an analysis of his New Atlantis, a fable that envisions the completion of his project. I also turn to his other political, scientific, and religious works as appropriate to supply what is omitted in the fable. I find that although his revision of religious, scientific, and political foundations is conducted subtly they are nevertheless revolutionary, and essential for preparing the various outlooks that characterize the modern world.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Lowe, Evan M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Engineering the Uniform Lying Helical Structure in Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystal Phase: From Morphology Transition to Dimension Control (open access)

Engineering the Uniform Lying Helical Structure in Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystal Phase: From Morphology Transition to Dimension Control

Chiral nematic liquid crystals or cholesteric liquid crystals (CLC) can be obtained by adding a chiral dopant into a nematic liquid crystal. Liquid crystal molecules spontaneously rotate along a long axis to form helical structures in CLC system. Both pitch size and orientation of the helical structure is determined by the boundary conditions and can be further tuned by external stimuli. Particularly, the uniform lying helical structure of CLC has attracted intensive attention due to its beam steering and diffraction abilities. Up to now, studies have worked on controlling the in-plane orientation of lying helix through surface rubbing and external stimuli. However, it remains challenging to achieve steady and uniform lying helical structure due to its higher energy, comparing with other helical configurations. Here, by varying the surface anchoring, uniform lying helical structure with long-range order is achieved as thermodynamically stable state without external support. Poly (6-(4-methoxy-azobenzene-4'-oxy) hexyl methacrylate) (PMMAZO), a liquid crystalline polymer, is deposited onto the silicon substrate to fine-tune the surface anchoring. By changing the grafting density of PMMAZO, both pitch size and orientation of lying helical structure are precisely controlled. As the grafting density increases, the enhanced titled deformation of helical structure suppresses the pitch size …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Jia, Zhixuan
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Near-Death Experiencers' Beliefs and Aftereffects: Problems for the Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin Naturalist Explanation (open access)

Near-Death Experiencers' Beliefs and Aftereffects: Problems for the Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin Naturalist Explanation

Article arguing against the naturalist theory put forth by John Martin Fisher and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin that near-death experiences (NDEs) could be metaphorical, compared to the supernaturalist theory that NDEs are real experiences.
Date: Summer 2021
Creator: Brissey, Patrick
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Studio Arts Collection Evaluation Report (open access)

Studio Arts Collection Evaluation Report

This report summarizes an evaluation of the UNT Libraries' Studio Arts collection to determine if the collection is adequately serving patron needs. It was determined that the collection was currently meeting patrons' needs, and some recommendations for future collection maintenance were included.
Date: November 15, 2021
Creator: Harker, Karen
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library

Trans Accessible Libraries Initiative

Presentation with speakers' notes describing the Trans Accessible Libraries Initiative at the University of North Texas Libraries. This initiative uses findings documented in recent studies addressing information seeking behaviors of transgender persons and their perceptions of the library to provide more equitable access to their services and collections. The presentation shares the needs assessment, collection development process, promotion and outreach, and next steps related to this initiative in hopes that other libraries can modify them to serve marginalized populations in their communities.
Date: July 23, 2021
Creator: Condrey, Coby & Leuzinger, Julie
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Public Health and Health Communications Collection Evaluation Report (open access)

Public Health and Health Communications Collection Evaluation Report

This report summarizes an evaluation of the UNT Libraries' Public Health and Health Communications collection to determine if the collection is adequately serving patron needs. It was determined that the collection was currently meeting patrons' needs, and some recommendations for future collection maintenance were included.
Date: December 10, 2021
Creator: Harker, Karen
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library