The Abraham solvation model (ABSM) is an experimentally derived predictive model used to help predict various solute properties. This work covers various uses for the ABSM including predicting molar enthalpies of vaporization, predicting solvent coefficients for two new solvents (2,2,5,5-tetramethyloxolane and diethyl carbonate), predicting values for multiple new ionic liquids (ILs). This work also introduces a novel method for updating IL ABSM parameters by updating cation- and anion-specific values using linear algebra and binary matrices.

Children with disabilities are three to four times more likely to be abused than their non-disabled peers due to the impact of challenges related to behavior, cognition, language, social skills, and communication skills. In September of 2018, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) specifically noted the need to establish maltreatment prevention and response curricula and promote research and advocacy surrounding maltreatment of children with disabilities. One common curriculum recommended is Kidpower®. While Kidpower® shows promise in increasing people safety skills and offers some basic accommodations for use with disabled populations, a complete accommodation plan for deaf or hard of hearing students has not been developed. The purpose of this study was to explore how Kidpower® curriculum could be accommodated to meet the unique needs of deaf and hard of hearing students from the perspective of the deaf education community, including deaf adults, deaf education teachers, deaf education teacher preparation faculty, and parents with deaf or hard of hearing children. A combination of focus groups and interviews were utilized to review lessons and homework from the Kidpower® curriculum. Participants gave feedback on obstacles and ideas for accommodations and modifications that would mediate the challenges. Data were inductively coded and analyzed for …

This document examines current practices and opportunities in the music performance field related to artistic citizenship, community engagement, and the field of teaching artistry. The relationship of musicians to their audiences and communities has shifted significantly in the twenty-first century, and there is an increasing need to redefine the essential skills of the professional musician. Derived from the field of teaching artistry, the concept of "activating artistry" suggests that our greatest strength and power as artists lies in drawing out individual artistic expression in other people, and it is with this power that artists as a workforce can create meaningful change in society. This intention could be manifested in many different contexts during the course of a given music career, however, developing the tool kit necessary for engaging in such work is not widely emphasized in the training of musicians. What tools can be provided for students and professionals to help them navigate both traditional and evolving career paths in music? How are bassoonists doing as a field in addressing the imperative of community engagement and artistic citizenship? How might we explore more collaborative ways to engage with our diverse communities – ways that value their perspectives? These questions guide …

Adult attachment has been found to play an important role for romantic relationship satisfaction. Specifically, the existent literature generally suggests that attachment anxiety is negatively related to relationship satisfaction. However, the underlying mechanism for this link still needs further exploration. The present study examined the direct and indirect effect of attachment anxiety on relationship satisfaction via two distinct relationship commitment variables: constraint commitment and dedication commitment. The final sample included 146 unmarried participants who were in a romantic relationship for at least three months. Results of multiple regression analyses on the indirect effect model indicated that attachment anxiety had a significant direct effect on relationship satisfaction as well as a significant indirect effect on relationship satisfaction via constraint commitment. However, the hypothesized indirect effect through dedication commitment was not supported. Findings are discussed from the adult attachment perspective. Counseling implications, limitations, and future research directions are outlined.

This dissertation presents an assortment of research aimed at understanding the composition-dependence of deformation behavior and the response to thermomechanical processing, to enable efficient design and processing of low stacking fault energy (SFE) high entropy alloy (HEAs). The deformation behavior and SFE of four low SFE HEAs were predicted and experimentally verified using electron microscopy and in-situ neutron diffraction. A new approach of employing a minimization function to refine and improve the accuracy of a semi-empirically derived expression relating composition with SFE is demonstrated. Ultimately, by employing the minimization function, the average difference between experimental and predicted SFE was found to be 2.64 mJ m-2. Benchmarking with currently available approaches suggests that integrating minimization functions can substantially improve prediction accuracy and promote efficient HEA design with expansion of databases. Additionally, in-situ neutron diffraction was used to present the first in-situ measurement of the interspacing between stacking faults (SFs) which were correlated with work hardening behavior. Electron transparent specimens (< ~100 nm thick) were used in order to resolve nanoscale planar faults instead of the thicker sub-sized specimens (on the order of millimeters in thickness) which exhibit the classical stages III work hardening behavior characteristic of low SFE metals and alloys. …

This thesis demonstrates a queer perspective stemming from a qualitative analysis of data gathered in interviews with LGBTQ+ people to analyze a transforming ethos of gayborhoods and queer desires. In particular, the research focuses on the interactive relationship between self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) participants; the cyberspace(s) of LGBTQ+ mobile-dating applications (apps); and tangible urban places. The topic of gayborhood demise and whether such places are worth saving has been debated by scholars and journalists for the last decade. The demise of gayborhoods is often thought to be a symptom of neoliberal urban processes such as gentrification within the context of the post-gay era and broader societal acceptance of homosexuality. This means the question of "if the gayborhood is worth saving" is inherently imbedded in an assumption that homosexuality is not viewed or treated as different or lesser than heterosexuality. In this imagined post-gay era, gayborhoods are declining because the dangers posed to the LGBTQ+ population are purported to no longer exist, so there is no longer a need for designated queer and/or safe places. This research destabilizes the assumptions embedded within the conception of the post-gay era by asking whether the gayborhood meets the needs and …

With the advent of autonomous systems and deep learning systems, safety pertaining to these systems has become a major concern. The existing failure analysis techniques are not enough to thoroughly analyze the safety in these systems. Moreover, because these systems are created to operate in various conditions, they are susceptible to unknown safety issues. Hence, we need mechanisms which can take into account the complexity of operational design domains, identify safety issues other than failures, and expose unknown safety issues. Moreover, existing safety analysis approaches require a lot of effort and time for analysis and do not consider machine learning (ML) safety. To address these limitations, in this dissertation, we discuss an artificial-intelligence driven model-based methodology that aids in identifying unknown safety issues and analyzing ML safety. Our methodology consists of 4 major tasks: 1) automated model generation, 2) automated analysis of component state transition model specification, 3) undesired states analysis, and 4) causal factor analysis. In our methodology we identify unknown safety issues by finding undesired combinations of components' states and environmental entities' states as well as causes resulting in these undesired combinations. In our methodology, we refer to the behaviors that occur because of undesired combinations as off-nominal …

Research in scholarly communication is usually limited to the use and dissemination of scientific material by scholars. This excludes the transfer of knowledge from research producers to service providers. Some may argue the primary function of science is to investigate the conditions in the lab so everyday interactions with the environment are more effective and efficient. This is the underlying philosophy of the science of behavior analysis. Comprised of a basic science, an applied science and a philosophy the field of behavior analysis relies on research developments to inform effective practice. Guided by dissemination processes studied in information science, this investigation revealed the content layer in behavior analysis is primarily comprised of journal articles. Ninety four percent of the research artifacts cited in the current content layer are from journal articles. Other dissemination channels used to develop the behavior analytic content layer included scientific magazine articles, oral reports, dissertations and theses, and unpublished manuscripts. The information use environment for professionals in this field is very different than that of the scholars; most professionals do not have access to a university library. Therefore, the research producers are disseminating developments via communication channels some service providers cannot access. This investigation reveals the …

The New Yorker recently referred to Pat Metheny as “possibly the most influential jazz guitarist of the past five decades.” A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, just southeast of Kansas City, Metheny started playing in pizza parlors at age fourteen. By the time he graduated from high school he was the first-call guitarist for Kansas City jazz clubs, private clubs, and jazz festivals. Now 66, he attributes his early success to the local musical environment he was brought up in and the players and teachers who nurtured his talent and welcomed him into the jazz community. Metheny’s twenty Grammys in ten categories speak to his versatility and popularity. Despite five decades of interviews, none have conveyed in detail his stories about his teenage years. Beneath Missouri Skies also reveals important details about jazz in Kansas City during the sixties and early seventies, often overlooked in histories of Kansas City jazz. Yet this time of cultural change was characterized by an outstanding level of musicianship.

Results from the present study found for the first time that the use of bacterial strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium thermophilum, and Enterococcus faecium from the commercial product PrimaLac® had the potential to act as a possible probiotic for juvenile red drum. The addition of PrimaLac® probiotics [whether as a water-soluble probiotic (WSP) or in a probiotic enhanced starter feed (PESF)] reduced mortality (%M), enhanced growth rates (MW, LT, SGR, and DGR), improved feed conversion efficiencies (FCEs), and physical condition factors in the juvenile red drum. Improvement was quantified using external morphological condition indices (MCIs) and blood physiological condition indices (PCIs). Results showed a strong positive relationship between MCIs and PCIs, which suggested that probiotics treated fish were in better health (lower MCIs) with lower fasting blood glucose and lactate levels than control fish. Addition of probiotics also resulted in improved water quality (lower nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia) in the treatment tanks compared to controls. Application of PrimaLac® probiotics on the morphology and histology of three different regions of the intestine (proximal, mid-and distal) improved intestinal length (Li), mass (Mi), and digesta mass (Md). In 5μm histological sections examined for differences among treatments (probiotics vs. controls), five variables …

In the extensive and remote sub-Antarctic forests of South America, birds are the dominant terrestrial vertebrates. Despite considerable efforts to understand the ecology of birds breeding in these forests, our current knowledge for many species is still incomplete. During three breeding seasons (2014 – 2017), I studied the breeding ecology of the five most abundant open-cup forest-dwelling passerines in the sub-Antarctic forest of Navarino Island, Chile (55°04′S, 67°40′W). There were differences in some of the breeding strategies used by birds breeding on Navarino Island versus conspecific populations breeding at lower latitudes. Milvago chimango was the main nest predator of open-cup nesting forest passerines, and the main cause of nest failure. In addition, I found that species built their nests in sites with higher density and taller understory; however, these two factors decreased their nest survival. This mismatch could be due to a change in depredation risk on Navarino Island, and thus, passerines breeding there may be in an ecological trap. In addition, using light-level geolocators, I determined that the migratory connectivity of Elaenia albiceps is weak as a result of the large spatial spread of individuals on the wintering ground, and that the distances among individuals on the breeding grounds …

The progressive metal style "djent" emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s with bands that modeled their use of extended range instruments and complex rhythmic cycles after that of Swedish metal band Meshuggah. The addition of a new vocabulary of melody and harmony by bands such as Periphery, Tesseract, and Animals as Leaders has come to define djent in a new way and provided fruitful ground for voice-leading and metrical analysis. In this dissertation, I approach analysis in two steps. The first step is the production of detailed transcriptions of four djent songs. The process of transcription has allowed for the development of Transcription Preference Rules, modeled after Lerdahl and Jackendoff's preference rule approach in their Generative Theory of Tonal Music. The Transcription Preference Rules account for the selection of key signatures, time signatures, and other features of the scores that may affect analysis. Second, using these scores, I examine the connection between the textual topic of change and the voice-leading and metrical structures in Periphery's "Insomnia" and Tesseract's "Of Matter." I show how this topic is reflected by techniques such as change melodic direction, multidimensional metrical dissonance, and auxiliary cadential events. Finally, I apply voice-leading and metrical analysis to Animals as …

The Age of Trump witnessed the visible rise of intense culture wars and polarization in the United States. While culture wars are not new phenomena, the current iteration has digital media acting as new discursive structures and mediating battlegrounds for all sides of the cultural conflict. This project chronicles these online culture wars, demonstrating how within a neoliberal and postmodern socio-cultural condition, the rise of ambivalent, profit-driven digital technologies and platforms structure affect and mediate newly networked neo-reactionary populist (sub)cultural ideologies and discourses. The resulting online ecosystems afforded the digital formations of obscure reactionary subcultures (trolls, antifeminists, the alt-right, etc.) with particular personalized and affectively driven memetic communicative logics. These reactionary affective publics eventually began converging under perceived common ideological and social interests as online actions and reactionary discursive (re)formations and (re)networkings were catalyzed by (sub/cross)cultural conflicts and moments of sentimental activation. This led to the emergence of affectively charged and informally networked reactionary publics which began spilling out into the offline world alongside Trump's ascendancy to the White House. The increasing progressive reactions during the Trump Era also faced limitations in combatting reactionary politics due to structural dynamics of digital media and the larger culture war filtering of politics. …

Contentious interactions may arise between a tax professional and client upon a disagreement over a tax position. In an increasingly competitive tax return preparation market, these contentious interactions represent a significant threat to tax practitioners' client satisfaction and retention objectives. I conduct an experiment in which I examine the effect of three factors on tax clients' (1) likelihood to accept the advice of the tax accountant and (2) likelihood to switch tax accountants upon receiving professional advice counter to their preferred tax position. The three factors are: (1) clients' antagonistic narcissism; (2) clients' relationship with the accountant; and (3) how the advice is framed by the tax accountant. The results are based on a sample of 93 taxpayers. First, this study examines how clients' measured levels of narcissistic antagonism (hereafter, antagonism) impacts their reaction to "being told no" by their tax professional. Results indicate that upon the receipt of advice contrary to their preferences, highly antagonistic clients are more likely to (1) engage in a contentious interaction with their professional and (2) switch to a new tax professional. Supplemental path analyses document that individuals with high levels of antagonism cognitively react to instances of "being told no" by simultaneously devaluing …

In a civil war, conflict management practitioners are concerned with bringing the conflict to an end and providing security for civilians. Similarly, human rights advocacy groups are also concerned with minimizing civilian harm. Given the similar intentions of these actors in civil war states, this dissertation explores under what circumstances conflict management practitioners and human rights advocacy groups collaborate. First, I compare to what extent mediation and peacekeeping cases differ with regards to showing signs of interaction; second, I compare how the level of interaction changes depending on whether peacekeeping missions are deployed by the United Nations or regional intergovernmental organizations. I find that human rights groups are more likely to interact with peacekeeping missions, especially when the missions are deployed by the United Nations. Moreover, I analyze to what extent the interaction between human rights groups and peacekeeping operations impacts how human rights groups carry out their advocacy efforts. The findings reveal that the way human rights groups use their advocacy efforts depend on whether the third parties providing peacekeeping operations respond to their requests.

This work describes ethnographic research completed in order to understand how local community members in Denton, Texas define, conceptualize, and speak about sustainability. The goal of this research is to encourage a more representative approach to sustainability initiatives within the City of Denton by uniting community ideas with local governance. Data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews with residents, participant observation at community meetings, and quantitative survey analysis. Through the use of a Foucauldian framework for analysis, in conjunction with David Harvey's "entrepreneurial city," and work done in the field of environmental justice, this study highlights a potential link between neoliberal approaches to city governance and community perceptions of sustainability. This research concludes by calling for more representation of all community members within local sustainability initiatives, and provides several suggestions for how this can be achieved.

While he was composing his important orchestral tone poem Finlandia in 1899–1900, Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) made his own piano arrangement of it. The purpose of this study is to compare the piano arrangement and orchestral version and to see further the similarities with Sibelius's other piano compositions from the same time period (1899-1904). Through this study I have found compositional patterns, which are typical for the composer and defined his composition style for piano during his "Kalevala-Romantic" phase. Sibelius's piano style was characterized as unpianistic and bulky by some. However, through my research I can show that with an analysis of certain harmonic structures, subtle use of pedal and correct voicings, his piano texture is indeed very thoughtful and transparent with a clear focus on counterpoint while remaining pianistic and comfortable to play. In order to fully understand the idiosyncrasies of the two versions of Finlandia, a detailed comparative analysis of the piano and orchestral scores is necessary. For this purpose, I primarily used the printed scores of both the piano and orchestral versions. In addition, the manuscript of the piano version of Finlandia was consulted as an important resource. From the orchestra manuscript, only one page has been found. …

The link between trumpet playing and emulation of the human voice has been acknowledged by a number of prominent teachers, authors, and composers since the inception of the trumpet as a melodic instrument. This dissertation is a pedagogical guide to lyrical trumpet performance based on the verismo style of singing consistent with the authentic interpretations of operatic soprano arias by Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Giacomo Puccini. Included are chapters that examine various aspects of the verismo style, as well as comparison and application of late 19th-century voice pedagogy to trumpet practice and performance. This resource examines six recordings of sopranos who created or popularized operatic roles during the verismo period. Included are transcriptions of the six arias for trumpet and piano, with performance notes based on dramatic and textual contexts, as well as interpretive aspects, namely tempo, dynamics, and vibrato.

Jonathan Leshnoff is one today's foremost contemporary American composers. His percussion compositions are significant compositions to the percussion solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire. This study is a tonal analysis on his marimba solo, Run (2003), with comparative analyses on his percussion chamber work, …without a chance (2002), and Concerto for Two Percussionists and Orchestra (2011).

Computational chemistry employs mathematical algorithms, statistics, and large databases to integrate chemical theory with experimental observations. Computational modeling allows us to make predictions concerning molecular properties and reactivity that ultimately lead to accurate assessment of the most important fundamental properties of chemical systems. Advances in theoretical techniques and computer power have dramatically increased the usefulness and importance of computational chemistry as a complement to experimental studies. This is especially relevant to catalytic reactions of industrial importance as well as the analysis of structural properties and the resulting spectroscopic phenomena in what are often otherwise counterintuitive models. This dissertation is a representation of the research I performed during my years as a graduate student in the Chemistry Department at the University of North Texas. My research has examined novel carbenes as efficient organocatalysts, structure-based design and optimization of small molecule drugs, and surveying methods to accurately describe structure and bonding and catalytic abilities of inorganic and organometallic systems. The works presented herein have been published or are awaiting submission to peer-reviewed scientific journals. A variety of computational techniques were employed in studying metal-mediated catalysis and organocatalysis as well as the structural and photophysical properties of systems containing closed-shell transition metal ions.

Using Black feminist thought and BlackCrit/critical race theory frameworks, this qualitative study examined Black educators' practices in addressing the behavior of their students in an urban school district. It utilized counternarratives and storytelling to explore the cultural dynamics at play between Black educators and their Black students. The Black educators in this study operated under several behavior systems, including positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), socio-emotional learning (SEL), restorative practices (RPs), and zero tolerance policies (ZTPs). Such systems have been implemented based on research that they have the capacity to train Black students to make appropriate decisions regarding their behavior. These systems are also reinforced under the notion that they create learning spaces which promote academic achievement. Due to their own experiences and understanding about how institutional practices and disciplinary interventions result disproportionately in oppression and violence against Black students, these educators disrupted these practices and utilized cultural approaches that centered Black-ness. In doing so, they were able to address behavior and affirm Black students' well-being. The cultural approaches conceptualized as disruptive pedagogies include aspects of othermothering, otherfathering, critical caring, sermonizing, womanist caring, and Black masculine caring. An analysis of the stories and counternarratives illustrated that Black principals, counselors, and …

NASCION-type lithium-aluminum-germanium-phosphate (LAGP) glass-ceramic is one of the most promising solid electrolyte (SEs) material for the next generation Li-ion battery. Based on the crystallization of glass-ceramic material, the two-step heat treatment was designed to control the crystallization of Li-ion conducting crystal in the glass matrix. The results show that the LAGP crystal is preferred to internally crystalize, Tg + 60%∆T is the nucleation temperature that provides the highest ion conductivity. The compositional investigation also found that, pure LAGP crystal phase can be synthesized by lowering the amount of GeO2. To fill gap of atomic structure in LAGP glass-ceramic, molecular dynamic (MD) simulation was used to build the crystal, glass, and interfacial structure LAGP. The aliovalent ion substitution induced an simultaneously redistribution of Li to the 36f interstitial site, and the rapid cooperative motion between the Li-ions at 36f can drop the activation energy of LAGP crystal by decreasing the relaxation energy; furthermore, an energy model was built based on the time-based analysis of Li-ion diffusion to articulate the behavior. The glass and interfacial structure show and accumulation of AlO4, GeO4 and Li at the interface, which explains the Li-trapping on the intergranular glass phase. An in-situ synchrotron X-ray study found …

This anthology of late 19th- and early 20th-century Czech opera arias for soprano focuses on works that lack existing scholarship, bridging the language gap through translations and pronunciation materials for English-speaking singers. Its 24 arias supplement the works of Smetana, Dvořák, and Janáček with those of contemporaneous composers Karel Bendl, Zdeněk Fibich, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Karel Kovařovic, Vítězslav Novák, and Otakar Ostrčil. Its musicological scope provides vignettes of the musical-cultural landscape of Czech opera around the turn of the 20th century, the transformation of Czech declamation during that period, and the language knowledge needed to sing the works thereof. Chapter 2 elucidates the methodology used in the anthology's phonetic transcriptions and discusses the unique articulatory demands of singing in Czech. Chapter 3 grounds contemporaneous discussion of Czech declamation as late 19th- and early 20th-century composers and librettists sought to shape a musical voice suited to the features of their language. The following chapter is a look at Janáček's unique solution to this challenge. In Chapter 5, the relationship between criticism and composition is examined for these two faces of Czech modernism. Finally, Chapter 6 includes new performance editions of the arias curated for the anthology. Each aria is accompanied by …

Like many institutions of high education throughout the United States, the University of North Texas requires all students to pass introductory United States History courses. While the purpose of these courses should be to create a population well versed in U.S. history and sociopolitical and economic context, the foundational textbooks utilized in these courses promote American exceptionalism and U.S. supremacy. Their omission of the complex and controversial history of the United States creates a false master narrative based on an idealized version of U.S. history. Even textbooks that include diversity continue to uphold a progressive master narrative that ignores issues of systemic racism, sexism, and homophobia. My theoretical analysis of the required textbooks, Exploring American Histories: A Survey with Sources, is applicable to all introductory U.S. history textbooks. Decolonialism, critical race, and intersectional feminism are theoretical lenses that disentangle and highlight otherwise invisible aspects of American exceptionalism and the serious consequences of the subjugation of subaltern historical narratives. This thesis applies theory with examples of how textbooks or supplemental teaching can expose foundational oppression, violence, and discrimination to teach students critical thinking and help them see connections between the past and their present.