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Children's Experiences in Child-Centered Play Therapy: An Artwork-Based Phenomenological Investigation (open access)

Children's Experiences in Child-Centered Play Therapy: An Artwork-Based Phenomenological Investigation

Child-centered play therapy (CCPT) is an empirically endorsed approach for children facing specific clinical concerns and life circumstances alike. The majority of research to date has accrued data about clients from secondary sources, such as adult report and observation. The purpose of this study was to explore children's perceptions of participating in CCPT by implementing a developmentally accessible interview medium, allowing children to share their experiences directly. Ten children between the ages of 4 and 7 who had completed at least eight sessions of CCPT were invited to create a drawing and respond to an interview protocol with their counselor. Data sources included the picture produced, a transcript of the interview between the child and counselor, and observation notes of the interview process. Using a phenomenological approach, three themes were identified to describe children's awareness and experience of the intervention: expressions of relationship, experiences in the playroom, and reluctance to engage in counselor-directed activity. The first two themes reflect children's report of the intervention and the third represents reactions to the research activity. Findings from this study support conclusions that children are aware of relationship between themselves and their counselor and recognize the uniquely unstructured features of play therapy and …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Quinn, Carol
System: The UNT Digital Library

Implementing the Difference in Differences (Dd) Estimator in Observational Education Studies: Evaluating the Effects of Small, Guided Reading Instruction for English Language Learners

The present study provides an example of implementing the difference in differences (DD) estimator for a two-group, pretest-posttest design with K-12 educational intervention data. The goal is to explore the basis for causal inference via Rubin's potential outcomes framework. The DD method is introduced to educational researchers, as it is seldom implemented in educational research. DD analytic methods' mathematical formulae and assumptions are explored to understand the opportunity and the challenges of using the DD estimator for causal inference in educational research. For this example, the teacher intervention effect is estimated with multi-cohort student outcome data. First, the DD method is used to detect the average treatment effect (ATE) with linear regression as a baseline model. Second, the analysis is repeated using linear regression with cluster robust standard errors. Finally, a linear mixed effects analysis is provided with a random intercept model. Resulting standard errors, parameter estimates, and inferential statistics are compared among these three analyses to explore the best holistic analytic method for this context.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Sebastian, Princy
System: The UNT Digital Library
β, β'-π-Extended Porphyrins: Exploration of Functionalization and Aromatic Character (open access)

β, β'-π-Extended Porphyrins: Exploration of Functionalization and Aromatic Character

Seventeen new dithiophenyl- and napthodithiophenyl- fused porphyrins were synthesized; from these an additional 7 porphyrin oligomers were also synthesized. Additionally freebase 2,7-dimethoxytriphenylene fused porphyrin was also synthesized from a freebase precursor. Aromatic indices NICS and AICD were used to evaluate these new molecules.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Cooper, Courtney Taylor
System: The UNT Digital Library
Accessibility and Pedagogical Value in Virtuosic American Trombone Solo Literature: A Performance Guide to "Divertimento for Trombone and Band" (2012) by Jack Stamp (open access)

Accessibility and Pedagogical Value in Virtuosic American Trombone Solo Literature: A Performance Guide to "Divertimento for Trombone and Band" (2012) by Jack Stamp

This dissertation is an examination of Divertimento for Solo Trombone and Wind Band by renowned wind band composer and conductor Jack Stamp. The result of this study is the illumination of a 21st-century composition for solo trombone and band that is made accessible for future performers, accomplished by constructing original musical exercises that are influenced by current trombone pedagogical materials that have either been edited, annotated or created by current performers and pedagogues such as Joseph Alessi, Brad Edwards and Michael Mulcahy. The piece also incorporates 20th -century American wind band influences. The careful selection of pedagogical materials serves the purpose of making this challenging solo accessible for the advanced academic trombonist and can serve as a template for surveying advanced literature of the present and future. Additionally, the pedagogical materials selected for use in this dissertation were considered based on their value in the present academic trombone repertory. Thus, this performance guide reflects on the validity of the modern trombone pedagogical literature to guide a performer's study, interpretation, and performance of a 21st-century work for solo trombone.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Umholtz, Jeremiah L.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Blockchain for AI: Smarter Contracts to Secure Artificial Intelligence Algorithms

In this dissertation, I investigate the existing smart contract problems that limit cognitive abilities. I use Taylor's serious expansion, polynomial equation, and fraction-based computations to overcome the limitations of calculations in smart contracts. To prove the hypothesis, I use these mathematical models to compute complex operations of naive Bayes, linear regression, decision trees, and neural network algorithms on Ethereum public test networks. The smart contracts achieve 95\% prediction accuracy compared to traditional programming language models, proving the soundness of the numerical derivations. Many non-real-time applications can use our solution for trusted and secure prediction services.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Badruddoja, Syed
System: The UNT Digital Library
The University for Who? Student Narratives of Native Identity, Belonging, and Navigating a Racialized Organization (open access)

The University for Who? Student Narratives of Native Identity, Belonging, and Navigating a Racialized Organization

This qualitative case study aims to understand the ways in which students identifying as Native American, American Indian, and Indigenous navigate attending a university informed by their identities. Through semi-structured interviews with Indigenous students and participant observation with a Native American student organization, this study identified how this demographic of students navigate and conceptualize their identities as Native and Indigenous peoples, the benefits of joining a Native American student organization on their university campus, and how they experience the university as a racialized organization. One overarching and three nuanced research questions were examined to illustrate how students' identities inform how they experience university life with themes surrounding Native and Indigenous identity construction informed by federal policy and Indigenous community practices, collective identity and student involvement, sense of belonging at college, and understanding universities as racial organizations that participate in racial capitalism. The study findings indicated that students' identities are regularly negotiated, engaged with, and leveraged throughout their college experiences and recommendations were made for how colleges and universities can more adequately and equitably serve this student demographic.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Gaston, Emilia Morgan
System: The UNT Digital Library

Small Scale Fracture Mechanisms in Alloys with Varying Microstructural Complexity

Small-scale fracture behavior of four model alloy systems were investigated in the order of increasing microstructural complexity, namely: (i) a Ni-based Bulk Metallic Glass (Ni-BMG) with an isotropic amorphous microstructure; (ii) a single-phase high entropy alloy, HfTaTiVZr, with body centered cubic (BCC) microstructure; (iii) a dual-phase high entropy alloy, AlCoCrFeNi2.1, with eutectic FCC (L12) -BCC (B2) microstructure; and (iv) a Medium-Mn steel with hierarchical microstructure. The micro-mechanical response of these model alloys was investigated using nano-indentation, micro-pillar compression, and micro-cantilever bending. The relaxed Ni-BMG showed 6% higher hardness, 22% higher yield strength, and 26% higher bending strength compared to its as-cast counterpart. Both the as-cast and corresponding relaxed BMGs showed stable notch opening and blunting during micro-cantilever bending tests rather than unstable crack propagation. However, pronounced notch weakening was observed for both the structural states, with the bending strength lower by ~ 25% for the notched samples compared to the un-notched samples. Deformation behavior of HfTaTiVZr was evaluated by micropillar compression and micro-cantilever bending as a function of two different grain orientations, namely [101] and [111]. The [111] oriented micropillars demonstrated higher strength and strain hardening rate compared to [101] oriented micropillars. The [111] oriented micropillars showed transformation induced plasticity …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Jha, Shristy
System: The UNT Digital Library

Three Essays on Collective Privacy and Information Security

In Essay 1, we seek to expand the insights on an individual's decision to share group content. Social networking sites (SNS) have become a ubiquitous means of socializing in the digital age. Using a survey, we collected data from 520 respondents with corporate work experience to test our research model. Our analysis highlights the complex interplay between individual and group factors that shape users' risk-benefit analysis of sharing group content on social networking sites. Furthermore, the results of this study have important implications for social networking site design and policy, particularly with regard to providing granular control over the privacy settings of group content and clear and concise information about the potential risks and benefits of sharing group content. Essay 2 aims to extend the knowledge of information security policy (ISP) compliance. Using a comprehensive approach, we extended the perspective of control mechanisms in the context of ISPs. It is evident that maintaining information security is an important concern for organizations of all sizes and industries. Organizations can establish policies and procedures to regulate and ensure compliance with information security policies, and various control mechanisms can be employed to ensure compliance. Among these control mechanisms, enforcement, punishment, evaluation, and recognition …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Memarian Esfahani, Sara
System: The UNT Digital Library

Ready for Primetime: The American First Army at St. Mihiel, 1918

The American's battle of St. Mihiel in September 1918 has long been a marginalized battle in an almost forgotten war. In the historiography of American World War I involvement, the battle is relegated to a side-show that was little more than a distraction from the Meuse-Argonne. This stance needs to be re-evaluated as St. Mihiel proved an essential training ground for the US Army. The army rapidly expanded and participated in a major offensive, completed the complicated planning process, undertook a significant deception and intelligence-gathering campaign, and led coalition forces to reduce a salient that existed for years, in only a few short months. While not a perfect operation, the Americans overcame several obstacles to form the US First Army and achieve victory. St. Mihiel is a turning point in military training and doctrine as students studied the tactics after the war into the modern day. The memory of the battle was affixed in the minds of those who fought it and those on the home front who eagerly read the news stories coming from the Western Front. Modern audiences should also recognize the significance of the Battle of St. Mihiel.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Jameson, Sarah
System: The UNT Digital Library

An Assessment and Intervention Model for Establishing Observational Learning During Tact Trials

Observational learning (OL) allows an individual to acquire novel responses by observing others' behavior and the corresponding consequences. The complexity of skills involved with OL may vary with the learning context. A learner may observe modeled responses to both trained (known) and untrained (unknown) stimuli or they may observe both reinforced (correct) and nonreinforced (incorrect) responses. The purpose of this study was to develop assessment and training procedures for OL component skills when the learner observes a combination of learning contexts: reinforced and nonreinforced responses to both trained and untrained stimuli. Two children with autism, Tom and David, participated. We assessed the following component skills in the context of tact trials: (1) Discriminating trained and untrained stimuli, (2) attending to the modeled performance, (3) discriminating consequences, and (4) conditionally responding based upon a name call. Next, we trained the component skill(s) for which the learner's performance did not meet criterion and then reassessed for OL. For both participants, immediate increases in OL were observed; however, modifications to the post-assessment (differential observing response for consequences and/or differential reinforcement) were required to produce (Tom) or maintain (David) criterion levels of responding. Interpretations of these outcomes, as well as limitations and directions for …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Sansing, Elizabeth McKay
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Governor and the Gangster: Dewey, Luciano, Commutation, and Controversy

Thomas E. Dewey and Charles "Lucky" Luciano became household names during a 1936 vice trial in which Dewey successfully prosecuted Luciano, a prominent Mafioso, who received a thirty-to-fifty-year prison sentence. Later, Dewey became the Governor of New York and a perennial Republican presidential candidate while Luciano, still in prison, took part in a joint Navy-Mafia intelligence operation in World War II. In 1946, Governor Dewey commuted Luciano's sentence on the condition that he be deported to his native Italy. The commutation led to years of controversy fomented by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), which downplayed Luciano's wartime services, spread rumors that he had bribed his way out of prison, and claimed that he was smuggling drugs into America from Italy. The FBN's narrative was echoed by muckraking journalists and Dewey's political opponents, finally prompting Dewey in 1954 to order an investigation that thoroughly debunked FBN assertions. However, the records of that investigation were quarantined until the mid-1970s. Since then, most scholars have used those records to explore the Navy-Mafia wartime alliance, but this dissertation exhaustively mines them and other documents in Dewey's papers, along with federal records, to disprove the FBN's narrative that there was something untoward about Dewey's …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Rzeppa, Joseph
System: The UNT Digital Library

Design and Synthesis of Gold (I) Acyclic Diamino Carbene Complexes as Metallodrugs for Cancer and for Asymmetric Catalysis

Many previous studies have demonstrated that gold compounds possess successful results in catalysis and in medicinal chemistry. The central aim of this dissertation is the design and synthesis of novel gold (I) acyclic diamino carbene complexes as a chemotherapeutic agent for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and for catalysis. In this study, a series of chiral neutral and cationic gold (I) acyclic diamino carbene (ADC) complexes and neutral gold (I) bis- ADC complexes have been synthesized. As the chiral neutral gold (I) ADCs, four diastereomers of S binaphthyl L proline tertiary butyl ester gold (I) chloride, S binaphthyl D proline tertiary butyl ester gold (I) chloride, R binaphthyl L proline tertiary butyl ester gold (I) chloride, and R binaphthyl D proline tertiary butyl ester gold (I) chloride have been synthesized and characterized. Different chiral gold (I) ADC complexes with bulky chiral binaphthyl group and with different amine groups of morpholine, chiral proline methyl ester, and benzyl ester have been synthesized and characterized. After that four diastereomers of the nitrile adduct of cationic binaphthyl proline tertiary butyl ester nitrile and four diastereomers of the isonitrile versions of it have been synthesized and characterized. A series of gold (I) cationic bis ADC complexes …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Asuramana Pedi Durayalage, Roshani
System: The UNT Digital Library

Ambient Darkness and Consumer Behavior

Ambient lighting has emerged as a key atmospheric factor influencing how consumers process environmental cues and their behaviors. However, surprisingly little research has examined how people think and feel in the dark (lower than 15 lux). This is particularly relevant given that consumers routinely work, pay bills, relax, consume and make purchases in settings with little or no light. My dissertation addresses this gap by examining how consumers regulate their goals and process information when the light is off, and how that impacts their decision making in three substantive domains: risk-taking behavior, decision quality, and persuasion. In Essay 1, I propose darkness enables risk-taking behavior, and this effect happens through the calmness and relaxation induced in the dark. One caveat is that the decisions have to be made in a familiar setting. The effect was reflected in participants' decisions to invest in riskier yet lucrative stocks, to gamble with the riskier choice, to eat at a foreign restaurant, and to choose a supplement that has potential side effects in a field experiment and three lab experiments (pre-registered). In Essay 2, I propose that when the light is off, consumers are indeed induced to adopt an effortful processing mode. Across four …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Vo, Khue Ho Thuc
System: The UNT Digital Library
Community College Presidents and Their Role in American Democracy: A Narrative Inquiry (open access)

Community College Presidents and Their Role in American Democracy: A Narrative Inquiry

The American democracy is experiencing strain from the erosion of democratic norms and its political, judicial, social, and economic institutions. In short, the American democracy shows signs of democratic deconsolidation. Community colleges are higher education institutions that help consolidate the U.S. democracy by representing democratic values such as equality and opportunity. The purpose of my study was to explore how selected community college presidents understand and articulate the responsibility of their institutions to prepare students for a meaningful role in the American democracy. Qualitative narrative inquiry methods, including in-depth semistructured interviews and document analysis, were used to collect data for the study. Three primary themes emerged from the data that addressed the purpose of this study: 1) community college philosophy: blueprint for a vision, 2) consolidating local democracies, and 3) citizens as students, students as citizens. These three themes supported further interpretation of the data that was organized under these headings, 1) the community college democratic mission, 2) community colleges help deepen democracy, and 3) the role of community colleges in the American democracy: public goods, private goods. In summary, my research found that first, my participants believed that community colleges have a responsibility to the American democracy and this …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Sanders, Jonathon Mark
System: The UNT Digital Library

Supply Chain Transparency from a Stakeholder's Perspective: Analyzing the Risks and Benefits of Supply Chain Information Disclosure

Supply chain transparency is principally focused on a company's efforts toward disclosing information about their products, and their supply chain operations to the public. Essay 1 is a conceptual paper that examines the risks of disclosing supply chain mapping information to consumers and proposes an approach to developing risk mitigation strategies. This essay also develops a set of supply chain mapping conventions that support the development of an agility-focused supply chain map. Essay 2 employs an experimental design methodology to examine the impact of disclosing the ethnicity of a supplier on consumers' behaviors, while also capturing the extent to which a consumers' ethnic identity and prosocial disposition influence their behaviors. Finally, also using an experimental design, Essay 3 analyzes consumer outcomes based on disclosing no, partial, and full supply chain transparency information, and accounts for heterogenous consumer traits such as the importance of information to a consumer and their perceived quality of information. Collectively, these essays advance the body of knowledge that seeks to understand the risks and benefits of supply chain transparency, by conceptually identifying risks and proposing an approach to minimize the risks associated with supply chain transparency, and by illuminating the conditions that prompt favorable consumer outcomes.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Porchia, Jamie Montyl
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adoption of Innovation in a Community College Environment: User Perceptions of Virtual Reality (VR) Technology among Students Studying Emergency Medical Service (EMS) (open access)

Adoption of Innovation in a Community College Environment: User Perceptions of Virtual Reality (VR) Technology among Students Studying Emergency Medical Service (EMS)

This research study examined the implementation of an extended reality (XR) lab on a community college campus to facilitate student and faculty access to immersive learning resources. The study, conducted during one skills day, involved 46 students and was designed to understand if integrating immersive VR into emergency medical technician (EMT) education could enhance learner confidence and motivation, develop problem-solving and analytical thinking skills, and thus connecting the classroom learning with real-world application. The majority of participants reported increased motivation and engagement, alongside improvements in learning outcomes like knowledge retention and skill development. Applying the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model revealed performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions as key determinants of VR adoption in EMT education. While no significant overall performance enhancement was observed, VR training showed potential to boost motivation, confidence, and specific performance aspects. Furthermore, student perceptions towards VR in EMT education were largely positive, thereby suggesting its utility in immersive scenario training, skill acquisition in a risk-free environment, enhancing learner engagement, and real-world situational preparedness. VR demonstrated promise as a transformative tool in EMT education, necessitating further research to fully exploit its potential in diverse learning environments.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Das, Anila
System: The UNT Digital Library
Paradigm Shift from Vague Legal Contracts to Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts (open access)

Paradigm Shift from Vague Legal Contracts to Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts

In this dissertation, we address the problem of vagueness in traditional legal contracts by presenting novel methodologies that aid in the paradigm shift from traditional legal contracts to smart contracts. We discuss key enabling technologies that assist in converting the traditional natural language legal contract, which is full of vague words, phrases, and sentences to the blockchain-based precise smart contract, including metrics evaluation during our conversion experiment. To address the challenge of this contract-transformation process, we propose four novel proof-of-concept approaches that take vagueness and different possible interpretations into significant consideration, where we experiment with popular vendors' existing vague legal contracts. We show through experiments that our proposed methodologies are able to study the degree of vagueness in every interpretation and demonstrate which vendor's translated-smart contract can be more accurate, optimized, and have a lesser degree of vagueness. We also incorporated the method of fuzzy logic inside the blockchain-based smart contract, to successfully model the semantics of linguistic expressions. Our experiments and results show that the smart contract with the higher degrees of truth can be very complex technically but more accurate at the same time. By using fuzzy logic inside a smart contract, it becomes easier to solve the …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Upadhyay, Kritagya Raj
System: The UNT Digital Library

Behavioral Transportation: The Role of Psychological, Cognitive, and Social Factors in Distracted Driving Behavior

Logistics 4.0 suggests that increased automation can enhance performance, while Logistics 5.0 emphasizes the advantages of a modern workforce that combines humans and emerging technologies. However, the logistics industry needs a deeper understanding of human factors, an area that has been overlooked so far. To bridge this research gap, this dissertation investigated distracted driving behavior among individuals involved in transportation and logistics-based applications. This investigation employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Essay 1 focuses on a systematic literature review (SLR) that comprehensively analyzes published research on self-response studies regarding distracted driving behavior. The study identifies five overarching categories of distractions: (a) cell phone-related, (b) technology-related, (c) nontechnology-related, (d) psychological, and (e) personality. The findings underscore the substantial research conducted on self-reported distractions associated with cell phones and technology. Essay 2 employs the protection motivation theory (PMT) to develop hypotheses that predict the engagement of young drivers in texting while driving (TWD). In addition to TWD, the survey also included cognitive failure to examine the indirect effects of PMT on TWD within a mediation framework. The results, obtained through structural equation modeling with 674 respondents aged 18-25, indicate that several factors including response cost, threat vulnerability, cognitive failure, self-efficacy, and …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Gabaldon, Janeth
System: The UNT Digital Library
Reinforcement Learning-Based Test Case Generation with Test Suite Prioritization for Android Application Testing (open access)

Reinforcement Learning-Based Test Case Generation with Test Suite Prioritization for Android Application Testing

This dissertation introduces a hybrid strategy for automated testing of Android applications that combines reinforcement learning and test suite prioritization. These approaches aim to improve the effectiveness of the testing process by employing reinforcement learning algorithms, namely Q-learning and SARSA (State-Action-Reward-State-Action), for automated test case generation. The studies provide compelling evidence that reinforcement learning techniques hold great potential in generating test cases that consistently achieve high code coverage; however, the generated test cases may not always be in the optimal order. In this study, novel test case prioritization methods are developed, leveraging pairwise event interactions coverage, application state coverage, and application activity coverage, so as to optimize the rates of code coverage specifically for SARSA-generated test cases. Additionally, test suite prioritization techniques are introduced based on UI element coverage, test case cost, and test case complexity to further enhance the ordering of SARSA-generated test cases. Empirical investigations demonstrate that applying the proposed test suite prioritization techniques to the test suites generated by the reinforcement learning algorithm SARSA improved the rates of code coverage over original orderings and random orderings of test cases.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Khan, Md Khorrom
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Multigenerational Development of Oklahoma City's African American Community as an Urban Ethnic Enclave

This dissertation examines the history and importance of Oklahoma City's Black Ethnic Enclave. It focuses on how this community developed over generations and the role of its leaders in shaping its identity, despite facing segregation. The settlement in this region began in 1889 when unassigned lands in central Indian Territory were opened for homesteaders by the US government. As a result, Oklahoma City became one of the major towns and eventually the state's capital. Most historical accounts primarily focus on the viewpoint of the white founders of the city, ignoring the experiences of minority residents and the urban aspects of the city. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining historical analysis, urban studies, and sociocultural perspectives. It aims to understand the complex relationship between racial dynamics, urban development, and identity formation. By thoroughly examining primary and secondary sources like archival records, oral histories, and scholarly literature, the research uncovers the struggles, achievements, and cultural contributions of the community builders who overcame systemic barriers to create a thriving enclave within Oklahoma City. By highlighting their stories, this research enriches our understanding of the city's history and the diverse urban experiences it encompasses.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Ritt-Coulter, Edith Mae
System: The UNT Digital Library
Detection and Classification of Cancer and Other Noncommunicable Diseases Using Neural Network Models (open access)

Detection and Classification of Cancer and Other Noncommunicable Diseases Using Neural Network Models

Here, we show that training with multiple noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) is both feasible and beneficial to modeling this class of diseases. We first use data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to train a pan cancer model, and then characterize the information the model has learned about the cancers. In doing this we show that the model has learned concepts that are relevant to the task of cancer classification. We also test the model on datasets derived independently of the TCGA cohort and show that the model is robust to data outside of its training distribution such as precancerous legions and metastatic samples. We then utilize the cancer model as the basis of a transfer learning study where we retrain it on other, non-cancer NCDs. In doing so we show that NCDs with very differing underlying biology contain extractible information relevant to each other allowing for a broader model of NCDs to be developed with existing datasets. We then test the importance of the samples source tissue in the model and find that the NCD class and tissue source may not be independent in our model. To address this, we use the tissue encodings to create augmented samples. We test …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Gore, Steven Lee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Anti-S2 Peptides and Antibodies Binding Effect on Myosin S2 and Anti-S2 Peptide's Ability to Reach the Cardiomyocytes in vivo and Interfere in Muscle Contraction (open access)

Anti-S2 Peptides and Antibodies Binding Effect on Myosin S2 and Anti-S2 Peptide's Ability to Reach the Cardiomyocytes in vivo and Interfere in Muscle Contraction

The anti-S2 peptides, the stabilizer and destabilizer, were designed to target myosin sub-fragment 2 (S2) in muscle. When the peptides are coupled to a heart-targeting molecule, they can reach the cardiomyocytes and interfere with cardiac muscle contraction. Monoclonal antibodies, MF20 and MF30, are also known to interact with light meromyosin and S2 respectively. The MF30 antibody compared to anti-S2 peptides and the MF20 antibody is used as a control to test the central hypothesis that: Both the anti-S2 peptides and antibodies bind to myosin S2 with high affinity, compete with MyBPC, and possibly interact with titin, in which case the anti-S2 peptides have further impact on myosin helicity and reach the heart with the aid of tannic acid to modulate cardiomyocytes' contraction in live mice. In this research, the effects of anti-S2 peptides and antibodies on myosin S2 were studied at the molecular and tissue levels. The anti-myosin binding mechanism to whole myosin was determined based on total internal reflectance fluorescence spectroscopy (TIRFS), and a modified cuvette was utilized to accommodate this experiment. The binding graphs indicated the cooperative binding of the peptides and antibodies with high affinity to myosin. Anti-myosin peptides and antibodies competition with Myosin Binding Protein C …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Quedan, Duaa Mohamad Alhaj Mahmoud
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Assessment of Digital Stimulus Prompts to Teach Conditional Discriminations to Children with Autism (open access)

An Assessment of Digital Stimulus Prompts to Teach Conditional Discriminations to Children with Autism

Effective and efficient skill-acquisition procedures must be identified to support individualized behavioral programming for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To do this, practitioners and researchers may use assessment-based instruction. Prompts are a common teaching strategy to promote skill acquisition. The purpose of this applied study was to use assessment-based instruction to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of within- and extra-stimulus prompts to teach conditional discriminations to two children with ASD. We identified stimulus prompts using a survey of popular children's games and conducted a tablet-based instruction readiness assessment. Stimulus prompts involved motion (within-stimulus) and pointing (extra-stimulus) to evoke correct responses in the presence of a discriminative stimulus. We used an adapted alternating treatments design with a no-treatment control condition to evaluate the effects of both prompt types across multiple sets of stimuli. Both stimulus prompt types were efficacious in facilitating skill acquisition for two of three participants. Little difference was observed in the time to mastery with either prompt. Neither stimulus prompt was efficacious for the third participant. Assessment results will be used to inform clinical programming to teach conditional discriminations to participants and contribute to research on designing and implementing assessments of skill-acquisition procedures.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Niland, Haven Sierra
System: The UNT Digital Library

Identification and Characterization of Genes Required for Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation in Medicago truncatula Tnt1 Insertion Mutants

In this dissertation I am using M. truncatula as a model legume that forms indeterminate nodules with rhizobia under limited nitrogen conditions. I take advantage of an M. truncatula Tnt1 mutant population that provides a useful resource to uncover and characterize novel genes. Here, I focused on several objectives. First, I carried out forward and reverse genetic screening of M. truncatula Tnt1 mutant populations to uncover novel genes involved in symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Second, I focused on reverse genetic screening of two genes, identified as encoding blue copper proteins, and characterization of their mutants' potential phenotypes. Third, I further characterized a nodule essential gene, M. truncatula vacuolar iron transporter like 8 (MtVTL8), which encodes a nodule specific iron transporter. I characterized the expression pattern, expression localization and function of MtVTL8. Additionally, I characterized several residues predicted to be essential to function using a model based on the known crystal structure of Eucalyptus grandis vacuolar iron transporter 1 (EgVIT1), a homologous protein to MtVTL8. I identified several potential essential residues of the MtVTL8 protein, mutagenized them, and through complementation experiments in planta and in yeast assessed functionality of the resulting protein. This helped us to better understand the potential mechanism by …
Date: July 2023
Creator: Cai, Jingya
System: The UNT Digital Library