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The Lower Rio Grande Valley: Are Education and Job Training Opportunities Shrinking the Labor Force?

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The purpose of this research project is to examine the educational and job-training opportunities offered in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and how the skills acquired from these programs assimilate with the job opportunities available in the area. Specifically, we will look at the counties of Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy. The central hypothesis of this project is that the Rio Grande Valley in its efforts for a more highly trained workforce may actually be enabling its workforce to seek better employment opportunities in other areas.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Foster, Jodie Randall
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Macroinvertebrate Community Structure as an Indicator of Watershed Health in the Upper Trinity River Basin, North Central Texas

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This study describes macroinvertebrate community structure and assesses its potential in detecting point and non-point sources of disturbance associated with rural and urban areas in the Upper Trinity River Basin. Geospatial techniques were used to quantify landuse within the watershed in a GIS. At rural sites near the headwaters of the Trinity River, collector-gathering burrowers that are adapted to minimal flow comprised the majority of taxa. Destinies of taxa compositions at downstream sites increased and shifted toward psammophilic and rheophilic invertebrates, including primarily collector-filtering clingers, that are characteristic of shifting sand habitats in large prairie rivers. Benthic community structure generally benefited from point source impacts including wastewater treatment plant effluents that maintained higher flow. Community indices were negatively associated with forest landuse and positively associated with urban landuse. Partial CCA determined that flow and landuse contributed equally to species dispersions. Comparisons with historical biomonitoring studies in upper Trinity River Basin indicate improved watershed health.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Stephenson, Jaynie M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Meaning of Elder Abuse

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Elder abuse first received national attention in 1980, as the subject of a congressional investigation. Now, 20 years later, establishing successful strategies of identification, subsequent intervention, and prevention of abuse is of paramount importance; but progress toward this goal is hindered by lack of consensus as to the definition of elder abuse, and the use of vague, confusing, and sometimes contradictory terms in its discussion. In this paper, both social research and professional approaches and legal approaches to the definition of elder abuse are surveyed, as are definitions formulated for the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study conducted by the National Center on Elder Abuse. The continuing need for a universal or standard definition is emphasized.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Achilli, Raye
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Microstructure and Electronic Structures of Er-Doped Si Nano-particles Synthesized by Vapor Phase Pyrolysis

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Si nanoparticles are new prospective optoelectronic materials. Unlike bulk Si cry-stals, Si nanoparticles display intriguing room-temperature photoluminescence. A major challenge in the fabrication of Si nanoparticles is the control of their size distribution. The rare-earth element Er has unique photo emission properties, including low pumping power, and a temperature independent, sharp spectrum. The emission wavelength matches the transmission window of optical fibers used in the telecommunications industry. Therefore, the study of Er-doped Si nanoparticles may have practical significance. The goals of the research described in this dissertation are to investigate vapor phase pyrolysis methods and to characterize the microstructure and associated defects, particles size distributions and photoluminescence efficiencies of doped and undoped Si nanoparticles using analytical transmission electron microscopy, high resolution electron microscopy, and optical spectroscopy. Er-doped and undoped Si nanoparticles were synthesized via vapor-phase pyrolysis of disilane at Texas Christian University. To achieve monodisperse size distributions, a process with fast nucleation and slow growth was employed. Disilane was diluted to 0.48% with helium. A horizontal pyrolysis oven was maintained at a temperature of 1000 °C. The oven length was varied from 1.5 cm to 6.0 cm to investigate the influence of oven length on the properties of the nanoparticles. …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Chen, Yandong
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

An Online Academic Support Model for Students Enrolled in Internet-Based Classes

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This doctoral dissertation describes a research study that examined the effectiveness of an experimental Supplemental Instruction (SI) program that utilized computer-mediated communication (CMC) rather than traditional SI review sessions. During the Spring 1999 semester, six sections of an introductory computer course were offered via the Internet by a suburban community college district in Texas. Using Campbell and Stanley's Nonequivalent Control Group model, the online SI program was randomly assigned to four of the course sections with the two remaining sections serving as the control group. The students hired to lead the online review sessions participated in the traditional SI training programs at their colleges, and received training conducted by the researcher related to their roles as online discussion moderators. Following recommendations from Congos and Schoeps, the internal validity of the groups was confirmed by conducting independent t-tests comparing the students' cumulative credit hours, grade point averages, college entrance test scores, and first exam scores. The study's four null hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression equations with alpha levels set at .01. Results indicated that the SI participants earned better course grades even though they had acquired fewer academic credits and had, on average, scored lower on their first course …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Rockefeller, Debra J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Parents' Beliefs and Knowledge Regarding Child Development and Appropriate Early Childhood Classroom Practices

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The intent of this study was to assess low-income parents knowledge and beliefs regarding child development and appropriate classroom practice and to compare their responses with those obtained from a previous survey of upper-income parents (Grebe, 1998). This study group (N=21) consisted of parents or guardians with children in a federally subsidized child-care center. Results indicated a high level of knowledge regarding developmentally appropriate practice and child development. Overall, there were no significant differences in the knowledge between the two income-levels, however, responses to several questions revealed slight differences in beliefs.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Hughes, Tina M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Playing Jaques in As You Like It

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Abstract not available
Date: May 2000
Creator: Thomas, Chad
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Playing Jonah's Hand: Poems

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Playing Jonah's Hand: Poems is a collection of poems with a critical introduction. The introduction consists of two independent essays, both of which examine intersections between poetry and Christian theology. In the first essay I identify the imaginative faculty as the primary source of agency for the speaker in John Donne's "Holy Sonnets." Working upon Barbara Lewalski's assertion that these sonnets represent "the Protestant paradigm of salvation in its stark, dramatic, Pauline terms," I consider the role of the imagination in the spiritual transformation represented within the sequence. Donne foregrounds a Calvinistic theology that posits both humanity's total depravity and God's grace and mercy as the only avenue of transcendence. Whatever agency the speaker exhibits is generated by the exercise of his imagination, which leads him to a recognition of his sinfulness and the necessity of God's grace. In the second essay I investigate the presence of a negative theology within "Lachrimae, or Seven Tears Figured in Seven Passionate Pavans," a sonnet sequence by Geoffrey Hill. In this sequence, Hill demonstrates the possibilities that surface through an integration of negative theology with postmodern theories of language, both of which have been influenced by the philosophical writings of Martin Heidegger. The …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Dyer, Gregory A.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Reformation-Era Church Courts of England: A Study of the Acta of the Archidiaconal and Consistory Court at Chester, 1540-1542

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Much work has been done over the last fifty years in the study of the English ecclesiastical courts. One court that thus far has escaped much significant scholarly attention, however, is the one located in Chester, England. The author analyzes the acta of that court in order to determine what types of cases were being heard during the years 1540-42. His analysis shows that the Chester court did not deviate significantly from the general legal and theological structure and function of Tudor church courts of the period.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Mitchener, Donald Keith
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Resident Profile and Considerations for the Development of a Strategic Plan

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The graying of America will have implications for all areas of society, especially the delivery of long-term care services. Many older individuals are aging in place, a phenomenon that is apparent at Dickinson Place, a church-sponsored low-income housing property for the elderly in Dallas, Texas, where the average age of residents has risen from 65 in the early 1970s to 78 in 1999. This change has prompted the board of directors to review the facility's mission, its physical plant, and the services it provides for strategic planning purposes, to ensure that Dickinson Place can continue to meet the needs of its residents both now and in the future.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Burgos, Dalila
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Homo-Epitaxial Chemical Vapor Deposited Diamond (100) Films

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Atomic resolution images of hot-tungsten filament chemical-vapor-deposition (CVD) grown epitaxial diamond (100) films obtained in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) are reported. A (2x1) dimer surface reconstruction and amorphous atomic regions were observed on the hydrogen terminated (100) surface. The (2x1) unit cell was measured to be 0.51"0.01 x 0.25"0.01 nm2. The amorphous regions were identified as amorphous carbon. After CVD growth, the surface of the epitaxial films was amorphous at the atomic scale. After 2 minutes of exposure to atomic hydrogen at 30 Torr and the sample temperature at 500° C, the surface was observed to consist of amorphous regions and (2x1) dimer reconstructed regions. After 5 minutes of exposure to atomic hydrogen, the surface was observed to consist mostly of (2x1) dimer reconstructed regions. These observations support a recent model for CVD diamond growth that is based on an amorphous carbon layer that is etched or converted to diamond by atomic hydrogen. With further exposure to atomic hydrogen at 500° C, etch pits were observed in the shape of inverted pyramids with {111} oriented sides. The temperature dependence of atomic hydrogen etching of the diamond (100) surface was also investigated using UHV STM, and …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Stallcup, Richard E.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Sorry Guard

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Sorry Guard is a collection of poems with a critical introduction on poetic form. Form in poetry can be revealed vocally (how the poem sounds), temporally (how the poem makes use of time), and spatially (how the poem is visualized, both physically on the page due to typography and imagistically due to the shape and movement of its subject matter). In this preface, I will address these three aspects of form in relation to three distinct twentieth century poets: Robert Hass, W.S. Merwin, and W.H. Auden. I am most interested in how particular formal decisions shape meaning and value in poetry. My aesthetic approach here primarily dwells on what Helen Vendler calls, "the music of what happens." The urgency of Robert Hass's spoken word is important to me because I wish to make poems that should be spoken aloud and remembered. While W.S. Merwin's rejection of punctuation is not my own aesthetic outlook, I strive to achieve through close attention to temporal form the mythic voice of his poemsthe immediacy of his lines and images, especially in his second four books. And Auden's deft use of spatial form is only a small aspect of his remarkable verse. All three poets …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Poch, John
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

A Study of Graphically Chosen Features for Representation of TREC Topic-Document Sets

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Document representation is important for computer-based text processing. Good document representations must include at least the most salient concepts of the document. Documents exist in a multidimensional space that difficult the identification of what concepts to include. A current problem is to measure the effectiveness of the different strategies that have been proposed to accomplish this task. As a contribution towards this goal, this dissertation studied the visual inter-document relationship in a dimensionally reduced space. The same treatment was done on full text and on three document representations. Two of the representations were based on the assumption that the salient features in a document set follow the chi-distribution in the whole document set. The third document representation identified features through a novel method. A Coefficient of Variability was calculated by normalizing the Cartesian distance of the discriminating value in the relevant and the non-relevant document subsets. Also, the local dictionary method was used. Cosine similarity values measured the inter-document distance in the information space and formed a matrix to serve as input to the Multi-Dimensional Scale (MDS) procedure. A Precision-Recall procedure was averaged across all treatments to statistically compare them. Treatments were not found to be statistically the same and …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Oyarce, Guillermo Alfredo
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Teamwork in the Nursing Home: The Art of Caring for Long-Term Care Residents

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The effects of teamwork in a long-term care setting were explored, and four key elements of teamwork in the long-term care facility were discovered. These elements--clarity of purpose, clear communication, well-defined decision-making procedures, and participative leadership--are presented in detail. The literature reviewed as well as observations from personal participation in a case study show that employing the teamwork concept in a nursing home environment significantly enhances the quality of life for the residents of such facilities.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Saxon, Juliane M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Tuberculosis in the Nursing Home: A Policy and Procedure Manual

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Tuberculosis in the nursing home is an ever-growing problem for the health care community. The incidence of tuberculosis in the United States has risen alarmingly since 1982, and high-population environments such as nursing homes are among the places where it is most prevalent. The first part of this document is an introduction to the current concerns faced by nursing home infection control personnel. It includes information about the history, symptoms, and epidemiology of the disease, as well as other topics. The second part is a policy and procedure manual that contains a basic guide to methodical testing for tuberculosis, steps for dealing with active cases of the disease, and suggestions for education of nursing home health care workers.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Mounts, Camilla M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Utilization of the family medical leave act: A case study

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American businesses have confronted a changing world economy marked by increasing competition , technological innovation, and instability. Many more women have entered the labor force. Many families' caregiving needs are now being met by family members who also are holding down jobs. This, in turn, has fueled the rising need among employees for workplace policies that enable them to meet the often competing demands of job and home. In 1993, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA of the Act) to provide a national policy that supports families in their efforts to strike a workable balance between the competing demands of the workplace and the home. The objective of this study is to examine the amount of FMLA lost time at one particular company in order to determine a demographic and job characteristic profile of employees who take time away from their jobs for reasons that are protected by the Act.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Mahdi, Taalib-Din N.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Validity of Health Claims on the World Wide Web: A Case Study of the Herbal Remedy Opuntia

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The World Wide Web has become a significant source of medical information for the public, but there is concern that much of the information is inaccurate, misleading, and unsupported by scientific evidence. This study analyzes the validity of health claims on the World Wide Web for the herbal Opuntia using an evidence-based approach, and supports the observation that individuals must critically assess health information in this relatively new medium of communication. A systematic search by means of nine search engines and online resources of Web sites relating to herbal remedies was conducted and specific sites providing information on the cactus herbal remedy from the genus Opuntia were retrieved. Validity of therapeutic health claims on the Web sites was checked by comparison with reports in the scientific literature subjected to two established quality assessment rating instruments. 184 Web sites from a variety of sources were retrieved and evaluated, and 98 distinct health claims were identified. 53 scientific reports were retrieved to validate claims. 25 involved human subjects, and 28 involved animal or laboratory models. Only 33 (34%) of the claims were addressed in the scientific literature. For 3% of the claims, evidence from the scientific reports was conflicting or contradictory. Of …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Veronin, Michael A.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Virginia Carter Smith: Her Career and Contributions to Advancement in Higher Education

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Most research studies of women in the college and university advancement profession measure the number of women in advancement positions, report their corresponding salaries and reflect on the differences between male and female employees in the same position. Little research explores how women achieve high ranking advancement positions and very few provide an analysis of the characteristics, influences and careers of successful female advancement professionals. This dissertation describes the life and work of Virginia Carter Smith, founding editor of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education's award winning publication CURRENTS. The career and contributions of Virginia Carter Smith are relevant and helpful to advancement professionals in colleges, universities and K-12 institutions. This study explores Smith's formative years as a child, describes her educational and extra-curricular preparation and identifies individuals who influenced her life and provided direction for her future. It also examines Smith's role in the formation and direction of CASE and CURRENTS. Smith successfully launched CURRENTS in 1975 when few women held senior-level positions in advancement-related fields. With Smith's contributions, CASE became the dominate professional organization for advancement professionals working in educational institutions, and CURRENTS continues to be an exemplary professional development periodical for individuals working in advancement. …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Russell, Kimberly A.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Wayward Women, Virtuous Violence: Feminine Violence in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature by Women

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This dissertation examines the role of "acceptable" feminine violence in Restoration and eighteenth-century drama and fiction. Scenes such as Lady Davers's physical assault on Pamela in Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) have understandably troubled recent scholars of gender and literature. But critics, for the most part, have been more inclined to discuss women as victims of violence than as agents of violence. I argue that women in the Restoration and eighteenth century often used violence in order to maintain social boundaries, particularly sexual and economic ones, and that writers of the period drew upon this tradition of acceptable feminine violence in order to create the figure of the violent woman as a necessary agent of social control. One such figure is Violenta, the heroine of Delarivier Manley's novella The Wife's Resentment (1720), who murders and dismembers her bigamous husband. At her trial, Violenta is condemned to death "notwithstanding the Pity of the People" and "the Intercession of the Ladies," who believe that although the "unexampled Cruelty [Violenta] committed afterwards on the dead Body" was excessive, the murder itself is not inexcusable given her husband's bigamy. My research draws upon diverse archival materials, such as conduct manuals, criminal biographies, and legal records, …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Collins, Margo
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Work-family responsiveness in organizations: The influence of resource dependence and institutionalization on program adaptation

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Changes in workforce demographics, employee sentiments, and working conditions have increased attention on employees' needs to balance the demands of work life and family life. Despite apparent growing interest among companies to be responsive to these needs, the number of companies demonstrating high levels of work-family responsiveness is relatively small. The frameworks of resource dependence theory and institutional theory were used to develop a model to explain differences in work-family responsiveness among for-profit companies. The theoretical models were tested on survey data collected through a stratified random sample of 692 for-profit companies. The data were further enhanced with secondary data sources. While the institutional model explained more variance in work-family responsiveness than the resource dependence model, a model combining both theories best explains work-family responsiveness among for-profit companies. High industry-region diffusion of family-friendly benefits was one of several strong predictors of work-family responsiveness. Also, the greater the proportion of professionals in a company's industry, the greater was the level of work-family responsiveness. Companies that measured effectiveness outcomes were more likely to offer family-friendly benefits. The same was true for companies with more positive assessments regarding the impact of their family-friendly benefits. Organizations that were large, publicly traded, or had human …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Ruggiere, Paul
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Young-Jo Lee's Variations on the theme of Baugogae: In search of his own language, a lecture recital, together with three recitals of selected works of J. Haydn, S. Rachmaninoff, R. Schumann, O. Messiaen, and F. Liszt

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The objective of the dissertation is to examine Young-Jo Lee's (b. 1943) musical language as exhibited in his piano composition, Variations on the theme of Baugogae. Subjects of discussion include Lee's use of direct and indirect musical borrowings from past European composers and traditional Korean folk idioms. Also included are a biographical sketch of the composer and historical overview of modern Korean composers. This dissertation investigates Lee's effort to synthesize traditional Korean music and Western music in one art form and ultimately, to create his own musical language.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Kwon, Suk-Rahn
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Analysis of the Impact of CACREP Accreditation of Counselor Education Programs on Student Knowledge Outcomes

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The principal investigator (PI) for this study analyzed mean scores on the National Counselor Examination (NCE) of students from CACREP accredited and non- CACREP accredited programs. Data was provided by the National Board of Certified Counselors, Inc., for a total of ten examination administrations across six years. The fourteen variables examined in the study consisted of the eight common-core knowledge domains identified in CACREP standards, the five counselor work behavior areas identified by NBCC via periodic job analysis of counseling practice, and one overall or total score on the NCE. NCE mean scores of students from CACREP accredited programs were higher than NCE mean scores of students from non-CACREP accredited programs on all variables across all ten NCE administrations. Data seem to indicate that students from CACREP accredited programs perform significantly better on the NCE than students from non-CACREP accredited programs, in all fourteen variables. Sample size was large, totaling 9707, so the PI calculated effect sizes using Cohen's d for each variable to aid interpretation of statistical significance. Five variables had large effect sizes of .70 or higher. The higher effect size statistics were associated with the counselor work behavior areas, with the highest effect size (.85) associated with …
Date: May 2001
Creator: Scott, Susan W.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Animal Contribution to Human Medicine

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The use of animal models in research has led to a fierce debate between animal rights activists and scientists. The former claim that little useful information is gained from animal studies and the suffering of animals does not preclude any treatments which may be used to treat human illnesses. Yet, research scientists claim that in vivo animal models are of absolute necessity to developing treatments and cures to disease. To determine the necessity of animal use, one must examine the models currently in research. Have the animal models for disorders such as cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy given scientists enough information to develop effective treatments? This paper will examine the role of animal subjects in several disease research protocols, as well as the applicability of the research.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Kvernes, Kayce
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Break-up of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Army, 1865

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Unlike other Confederate armies at the conclusion of the Civil War, General Edmund Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi Army disbanded, often without orders, rather than surrender formally. Despite entreaties from military and civilian leaders to fight on, for Confederate soldiers west of the Mississippi River, the surrender of armies led by Generals Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston ended the war. After a significant decline in morale and discipline throughout the spring of 1865, soldiers of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department chose to break-up and return home. As compensation for months of unpaid service, soldiers seized both public and private property. Civilians joined the soldiers to create disorder that swept many Texas communities until the arrival of Federal troops in late June.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Clampitt, Brad R.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library