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Open Access and Scholarly Communication: The Current Landscape, Future Direction, and the Influence on Global Scholarship (open access)

Open Access and Scholarly Communication: The Current Landscape, Future Direction, and the Influence on Global Scholarship

Document proposal for a panel discussion at the Special Interest Group for International Information Issues (SIG/III), part of ASIS&T. There are five panelists listed with brief descriptions of their topics.
Date: October 2011
Creator: Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library

Information Literacy and YouTube: A Winning Combination for Users and Librarians

This presentation discusses information literacy and YouTube. The authors describe how they integrate YouTube videos into their basic information literacy instruction sessions.
Date: March 31, 2011
Creator: May, Frances A.; Byerly, Gayla & Tharp, Julie
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Introduction to the UNT Digital Collections

Presentation on the University of North Texas (UNT) Digital Library and The Portal to Texas History. The topics include featured collections in The Portal to Texas History and in the UNT Digital Library, and the special collections of maps and their features and usage.
Date: October 1, 2011
Creator: Tarver, Hannah
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Data Desiccation: Facilitating Long-Term Access, Use, and Reuse of ETDs [Presentation]

Presentation for the 2011 International Symposium on ETDs. This presentation discusses data desiccation and facilitating long-term access, use and reuse of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).
Date: September 2011
Creator: Phillips, Mark Edward & Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Data Desiccation: Facilitating Long-Term Access, Use, and Reuse of ETDs (open access)

Data Desiccation: Facilitating Long-Term Access, Use, and Reuse of ETDs

This paper discusses data desiccation and facilitating the long-term access, use, and reuse of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).
Date: September 2011
Creator: Phillips, Mark Edward & Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw
Object Type: Paper
System: The UNT Digital Library

Networking and Getting Involved Professionally

This presentation discusses networking and career development. It includes information about becoming involved in professional organizations, attending conferences, creating business cards, and staying in contact with others in the profession.
Date: June 9, 2011
Creator: Hoffman, Starr
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library

No Child Left Behind

This poster introduces the faculty lecture series UNT Speaks Out on No Child Left Behind. This series features Dr. Jeanne Turks, associate professor for teacher education and administration, Dr. D. Jack Davis, professor emeritus of art education and art history, and Dr. Troy Johnson, UNT's vice provost for enrollment.
Date: October 2011
Creator: Mondragon-Becker, Antonio
Object Type: Poster
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Food We Eat

This poster introduces the faculty lecture series UNT Speaks Out on the Food We Eat. This series features Dr. James Veteto, director of the Laboratory of Environmental Anthropology, and the Southern Seed Legacy project, Dr. David Kaplan, assistant professor of philosophy and director of the Philosophy of Food Project, and Dr. Priscilla Connors, associate professor of hospitality management.
Date: October 24, 2011
Creator: Mondragon-Becker, Antonio
Object Type: Poster
System: The UNT Digital Library
Meta-Analysis of the Impact of After-School Programs on Students Reading and Mathematics Performance (open access)

Meta-Analysis of the Impact of After-School Programs on Students Reading and Mathematics Performance

The purpose of this study employing meta-analysis was to assess the impact that after-school programs have on reading and mathematics outcomes. The participants in the primary studies were students in Grades K through 8; years 200 through 2009. The study utilized the theory of change as its theoretical basis. This meta-analysis used the effect size as the standard measure. It began with an overall Cohen's d of .40 for the impact that after-school programs have on reading and mathematics outcomes, and then proceeded to analyze three moderator variables: subject, time periods, and grade level.The findings of the meta-analysis, both overall and sub analyses, show that the independent variable, after-school programs, has an impact on the dependent variable, reading and mathematics. The overall results indicated that after-school programs are educationally significant in the areas of reading and mathematics combined. As for the moderator variable, the results for the areas of (a) subject (reading and mathematics), (b) time period (2000-2002, 2003-2005 and 2006-2009), and (c) grade (middle, and middle plus elementary combined), all indicated educationally significant results. The notable exception was the grade moderator, elementary.This study provides more information for researchers, practitioners and policy makers upon which to make practical research based …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Crawford, Stanley T.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Functions of Quotations in Steven Stucky's Oratorio August 4, 1964 and Their Placements within the Context of a Quotation Continuum:  Cultural, Commentary, Remembrance, and Unity (open access)

Functions of Quotations in Steven Stucky's Oratorio August 4, 1964 and Their Placements within the Context of a Quotation Continuum: Cultural, Commentary, Remembrance, and Unity

The oratorio August 4, 1964 is a twelve-movement work for orchestra, chorus, and four soloists written by Steven Stucky. The premise for the libretto, adapted by Gene Scheer, is the confluence of two events during one day (August 4, 1964) in the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Although the main idea of the libretto focuses on these two events of this one day, many cultural references of the 1960's in general can be found as well, such as quotations from the well-known song "We Shall Overcome." Stucky borrows from a motet he wrote in 2005 for another quotation source utilized in this oratorio, "O Vos Omnes." My goal in this thesis is to reveal and analyze the many different levels of quotations that exist within August 4, 1964, to explore each quotation's individual function within the oratorio (as a cultural gesture, commentary or remembrance), and to examine the structural coherence that emerges as a result of their use within the oratorio.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Davenport, Jennifer Tish
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Integrating Online Discussion Forums into the Foreign Language Curriculum: A Case Study of Advanced Learners of French (open access)

Integrating Online Discussion Forums into the Foreign Language Curriculum: A Case Study of Advanced Learners of French

This exploratory case study aims to develop a set of best practices for integrating online discussion forums into the foreign language curriculum, focusing specifically on a group of learners in an advanced French grammar course at a large, public U.S. university. During a period of two months, 26 participants completed a series of tasks designed to provide three different types of data: 1) exploration and analysis of interactional, linguistic, and social features of Web forum discourse; 2) participation in Web forums; and 3) feedback from students. Since the feedback received from two questionnaires was ultimately the most consistent and reliable type of data collected, this study focuses on students' participation patterns and their perceptions of Web forums as a communication space having the potential to provide opportunities for learning French. Although some students indicated that they would neither consider visiting a French-language Web forum nor actually visit one, in both cases, more than half of the participants who completed these questionnaires indicated that they would both consider visiting a French-language Web forum and might actually visit one. Since encouraging students to use French beyond the classroom and to engage in the lifelong use of French for personal enrichment (following the …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Mbuye, Kanku Lisette
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Biopsychosocial Approach to Understanding, Subtyping, and Treating Depression: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey - Replication. (open access)

The Biopsychosocial Approach to Understanding, Subtyping, and Treating Depression: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey - Replication.

The most effective and useful way to diagnose and subtype depression has been a long debated topic which even now does not have a definite answer. The biopsychosocial approach to diagnosis may be a solution to this problem by linking various etiologies to symptom presentation. The biopsychosocial model, in regard to depression, takes into account biological risk factors/contributors, psychological or cognitive risk factors/contributors, and social risk factors/contributors to depression when making diagnosis and subtyping determinations. However, the most effective way to use this model in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of depression is not yet clear. In this study, the utility of the biopsychosocial model as an effective approach to conceptualizing and treating depression was assessed by testing hypotheses that showed that etiological contributors are related to the presence and differential presentation of depression, and that these etiologically-based subtypes of depression respond differently to different forms of treatment. These hypotheses were tested using data from the National Comorbidity Survey - Replication (NCS-R). Results showed that the biopsychosocial model can effectively predict the presence, severity and chronicity of depression, and may inform specific biopsychosocially-based subtypes. No conclusions could be drawn regarding success in treatment based on the biopsychosocial model. Future directions …
Date: May 2011
Creator: McGill, Brittney C.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Structural Validity and Item Functioning of the LoTi Digital-Age Survey. (open access)

Structural Validity and Item Functioning of the LoTi Digital-Age Survey.

The present study examined the structural construct validity of the LoTi Digital-Age Survey, a measure of teacher instructional practices with technology in the classroom. Teacher responses (N = 2840) from across the United States were used to assess factor structure of the instrument using both exploratory and confirmatory analyses. Parallel analysis suggests retaining a five-factor solution compared to the MAP test that suggests retaining a three-factor solution. Both analyses (EFA and CFA) indicate that changes need to be made to the current factor structure of the survey. The last two factors were composed of items that did not cover or accurately measure the content of the latent trait. Problematic items, such as items with crossloadings, were discussed. Suggestions were provided to improve the factor structure, items, and scale of the survey.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Mehta, Vandhana
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Perceptions of Control and Social Support: Correlates of HIV-Related Self-Efficacy (open access)

Perceptions of Control and Social Support: Correlates of HIV-Related Self-Efficacy

This study examines the extent to which locus of control and social support are linked to self-efficacy with regard to disease management in HIV-positive adults. Perceived ability to effectively manage illness was measured with the Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease Scale. Scores from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and the Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale were used as predictors. The gender-balanced sample (N = 69) of HIV+ adults was primarily African-American (65.3%) and European American (30.5%), with a mean age of 47 years (SD = 8.37). Correlational analyses suggested significant positive relationships between self-efficacy, social support, and locus of control due to powerful others. A regression analysis found that the model accounted for 23% of the variance in self-efficacy (adj. R-squared =.23, F (5, 63) = 4.81, p < .01), with social support (&#946; = .37, t = 3.28, p < .01) and locus of control (&#946; = .25, t = 2.26, p < .05) both significant predictors. Results suggest that social support and locus of control contribute to the belief that HIV can be managed. Interestingly, an external locus of control contributed to this belief, perhaps due to the perception of a physician, religious icon, or partner …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Lopez, Eliot Jay
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Lexicographer's Daughter: A Memoir (open access)

The Lexicographer's Daughter: A Memoir

This creative nonfiction dissertation is a memoir of the author's search for the somewhat mysterious hidden past of her father, the lexicographer Charles J. Lovell, who died in 1960, when the author was nine. Her father's early death left the author with many unanswered questions about his past and his family and so she undertakes a search to answer, if possible, some of those questions. Her search takes her to Portland, Maine; New Bedford, Massachusetts; and Pasadena, California, where she tries to discover the facts and uncover the forces that shaped her father's life. Along the way, she realizes how profoundly his death affected and shaped her own life, contributing to the theme of loss that pervades the memoir. In addition, she begins to realize how much her mother, Dixie Hefley Lovell, whose significance she previously overlooked, shaped her life. Ultimately, she comes to understand and accept that some of her questions are unanswerable.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Lovell, Bonnie Alice
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Wireless Traffic Surveillance System Using Video Analytics (open access)

A Wireless Traffic Surveillance System Using Video Analytics

Video surveillance systems have been commonly used in transportation systems to support traffic monitoring, speed estimation, and incident detection. However, there are several challenges in developing and deploying such systems, including high development and maintenance costs, bandwidth bottleneck for long range link, and lack of advanced analytics. In this thesis, I leverage current wireless, video camera, and analytics technologies, and present a wireless traffic monitoring system. I first present an overview of the system. Then I describe the site investigation and several test links with different hardware/software configurations to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system. The system development process was documented to provide guidelines for future development. Furthermore, I propose a novel speed-estimation analytics algorithm that takes into consideration roads with slope angles. I prove the correctness of the algorithm theoretically, and validate the effectiveness of the algorithm experimentally. The experimental results on both synthetic and real dataset show that the algorithm is more accurate than the baseline algorithm 80% of the time. On average the accuracy improvement of speed estimation is over 3.7% even for very small slope angles.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Luo, Ning
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparative Study of Two Single-Subject Keyboard Ricercare by Johann Jacob Froberger: Projections of Sixteenth-Century Practice Combined with Features that Forecast Baroque Practice (open access)

A Comparative Study of Two Single-Subject Keyboard Ricercare by Johann Jacob Froberger: Projections of Sixteenth-Century Practice Combined with Features that Forecast Baroque Practice

This study is focused on an analysis of two single-subject ricercare in the keyboard music of Johann Jacob Froberger and examines possible pathways to the development of the Baroque fugue. This dissertation is divided into three parts. Chapter I contains the purpose, significance of this study and composer, as well as characteristics of the seventeenth-century single-subject ricercar. Chapter II details and examines Froberger's two ricercare. Finally, a conclusion of this study is presented in Chapter III. Two appendixes are included in this dissertation: a list of the single-subject ricercare of Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Johann Jacob Froberger; and an analysis of the two single-subject ricercare, FbWV 407 and FbWV 409, by Johann Jacob Froberger.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Lee, WoongHee
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Contemporary Research on Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) Modalities: A Meta-Analytic Review of Controlled Outcome Studies (open access)

Contemporary Research on Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) Modalities: A Meta-Analytic Review of Controlled Outcome Studies

The present meta-analytic study estimated the overall effectiveness of child therapy interventions using CCPT methodology and explored the relationships between study characteristics and treatment effects. Fifty-two studies between 1995 and the present were included based on the following criteria: (a) the use of CCPT methodology, (b) the use of control or comparison repeated measure design, (c) the use of standardized psychometric assessment, and (d) clear reports of effect sizes or sufficient information for effect size calculation. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) techniques were utilized to estimate the overall effect size for the collected studies and explore relationships between effect sizes and study characteristics. Dependent variable included 239 effect sizes, and independent variables included 22 study characteristics. The mean age of all child participants in the collected studies was 6.7. In 15 studies, the majority of participants were Caucasian. An equal number of studies were made up of non-Caucasian participants, including 3 with majority African American, 4 with majority Hispanic/Latino participants, 5 with majority Asian/Asian American participants, and 3 with other ethnic populations. Study collection included 33 studies with majority of boys and 11 studies with majority of girls. HLM analysis estimated a statistically significant overall effect size of 0.47 for the …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Lin, Yung-Wei (Dennis)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Pattern Oriented Data Structure for Interactive Computer Music (open access)

A Pattern Oriented Data Structure for Interactive Computer Music

This essay describes a pattern oriented data structure, or PODS, as a system for storing computer music data. It organizes input by sequences or patterns that recur, while extensively interlinking the data. The interlinking process emulates cognitive models, while the pattern processing draws specifically from music cognition. The project aims at creating open source external objects for the Max/MSP software environment. The computer code for this project is in the C and Objective-C computer programming languages.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Lockhart, Adam
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Ecological Understanding of Teacher Quality in Early Childhood Programs: Implications and Recommendations (open access)

An Ecological Understanding of Teacher Quality in Early Childhood Programs: Implications and Recommendations

This research examined whether or not relationships exist between preschool teacher quality and parent involvement as indicated by the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler Model of Parent Involvement Survey. Additionally, the study also considered family income and child membership in special education as predictors of parent involvement. The survey instruments included the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale, Revised (ECERS-R) and the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler Parent Involvement Survey. A total of 306 parents across 35 preschool classrooms participated in the study. Effect sizes, beta weights and structure coefficients from a series of multiple regression analyses measured the relationship between variables. A regression equation comprised of teacher quality, family income and child membership in special education was statistically significant in predicting parent school-based involvement. In the school-based involvement model the predictors teacher quality and child membership in special education accounted for a greater percentage of variance than did family income. Teacher quality demonstrated a small, negative beta weight but accounted for the greatest amount of variance among the three predictors within the school-based parent involvement model. A negative relationship between teacher quality and school-based parent involvement suggested that as teacher quality improved, parents reported less involvement in school-based activities and events. Findings for special …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Macias-Brown, Armandina A.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploring Critical Factors in Predicting Post-Adoptive Use of Facebook (open access)

Exploring Critical Factors in Predicting Post-Adoptive Use of Facebook

Social networking applications (SNAs) have experienced a boom in popularity in recent years. Sites like Facebook and MySpace continuously draw new users, and are successful in organizing groups of users around topics of common interest. Among SNAs, Facebook has demonstrably outgrown its rivals growing an estimated 157 percent from 2008 to 2009. Facebook is now estimated to be the fourth largest Internet site in the world, trailing only Google, Microsoft and Yahoo (Schonfeld 2009). This dissertation posits and tests a theoretical model composed of key factors that contribute to post-adoptive use of social networking applications and the relationship of those factors to one another. This study also identifies and clarifies new constructs that were not previously used to measure usage, and further refines the constructs that were previously used so that they better fit social networking applications. The results of this dissertation show that the critical factors of social capital, hedonic enjoyment, perceived usefulness, social influence, satisfaction and attitude have a positive influence on a post-adoptive user's intention to continue using Facebook. The results of this study yielded a structural model for predicting the post-adoptive use of Facebook. This work also developed an instrument for measuring constructs relevant to social …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Magro, Michael J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bioresorbable Polymer Blend Scaffold for Tissue Engineering (open access)

Bioresorbable Polymer Blend Scaffold for Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering merges the disciplines of study like cell biology, materials science, engineering and surgery to enable growth of new living tissues on scaffolding constructed from implanted polymeric materials. One of the most important aspects of tissue engineering related to material science is design of the polymer scaffolds. The polymer scaffolds needs to have some specific mechanical strength over certain period of time. In this work bioresorbable aliphatic polymers (PCL and PLLA) were blended using extrusion and solution methods. These blends were then extruded and electrospun into fibers. The fibers were then subjected to FDA standard in vitro immersion degradation tests where its mechanical strength, water absorption, weight loss were observed during the eight weeks. The results indicate that the mechanical strength and rate of degradation can be tailored by changing the ratio of PCL and PLLA in the blend. Processing influences these parameters, with the loss of mechanical strength and rate of degradation being higher in electrospun fibers compared to those extruded. A second effort in this thesis addressed the potential separation of the scaffold from the tissue (loss of apposition) due to the differences in their low strain responses. This hypothesis that using knit with low tension will …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Manandhar, Sandeep
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Influence of Ohmic Metals and Oxide Deposition on the Structure and Electrical Properties of Multilayer Epitaxial Graphene on Silicon Carbide Substrates (open access)

The Influence of Ohmic Metals and Oxide Deposition on the Structure and Electrical Properties of Multilayer Epitaxial Graphene on Silicon Carbide Substrates

Graphene has attracted significant research attention for next generation of semiconductor devices due to its high electron mobility and compatibility with planar semiconductor processing. In this dissertation, the influences of Ohmic metals and high dielectric (high-k) constant aluminum oxide (Al2O3) deposition on the structural and electrical properties of multi-layer epitaxial graphene (MLG) grown by graphitization of silicon carbide (SiC) substrates have been investigated. Uniform MLG was successfully grown by sublimation of silicon from epitaxy-ready, Si and C terminated, 6H-SiC wafers in high-vacuum and argon atmosphere. The graphene formation was accompanied by a significant enhancement of Ohmic behavior, and, was found to be sensitive to the temperature ramp-up rate and annealing time. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) showed that the interface between the metal and SiC remained sharp and free of macroscopic defects even after 30 min, 1430 °C anneals. The impact of high dielectric constant Al2O3 and its deposition by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering on the structural and electrical properties of MLG is discussed. HRTEM analysis confirms that the Al2O3/MLG interface is relatively sharp and that thickness approximation of the MLG using angle resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) as well as variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) is accurate. The totality …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Maneshian, Mohammad Hassan
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
School Governance and Student Achievement: Revealing Factors Beyond the McCarty-Ramsey Model (open access)

School Governance and Student Achievement: Revealing Factors Beyond the McCarty-Ramsey Model

The purpose of this study was to identify and investigate the specific superintendent leadership type and underlying factors that support significant student achievement gains in communities where misalignment with the McCarty-Ramsey model exists. Utilizing a mixedmethod research strategy, contributing school districts were identified through a survey developed by McCarty and Ramsey. This survey indicated that districts could show positive student achievement gains while exhibiting misalignment among these factors. While all four types of superintendent leadership style were revealed in the survey, a prevalent superintendent leadership types was associated with the misaligned districts showing significant academic growth. This study indicated the professional advisor or the professional advisor/decision maker superintendent had the greatest achievement results in misaligned districts. The second investigation phase involved school districts that met two criteria: misalignment with the McCarty-Ramsey model, and three years of significant student achievement gains, as measured by the California Academic Performance Indicator. Interviews were conducted with identified school board presidents and superintendents to reveal practices or initiatives promoting these results. The interview protocol consisted of a series of open-ended questions regarding effective leadership and programs. The second finding revealed the effective superintendent focuses efforts on five specific district leadership actions identified by researchers such …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Kemp, Stella Maria
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library