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Induced “motivation” (open access)

Induced “motivation”

In the avian training community, a procedure has been utilized to maintain food reinforcer efficacy at high body weights. Elements of this procedure include limited holds and closed economies. To test this procedure, a baseline performance of keypecking on an FR 15 schedule at 80% ad lib weight for two pigeons was established. By imposing limited holds and a closed economy, rates of responding were increased compared to baseline, even while the pigeons were over 90% of their ad-lib body weights.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Becker, April Melissa
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effect of Rancher’s Management Philosophy, Grazing Practices, and Personal Characteristics on Sustainability Indices for North Central Texas Rangeland (open access)

Effect of Rancher’s Management Philosophy, Grazing Practices, and Personal Characteristics on Sustainability Indices for North Central Texas Rangeland

To assess sustainability of privately owned rangeland, a questionnaire was used to gathered data from ranches in Cooke, Montague, Clay, Wise, Parker, and Jack counties in North Central Texas. Information evaluated included: management philosophy, economics, grazing practices, environmental condition, quality of life, and demographics. Sustainability indices were created based on economic and land health indicator variables meeting a minimum Cronbach‘s alpha coefficient (α = 0.7). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to create models explaining variance in respondents’ indices scores. Five predictors explained 36% of the variance in rangeland economic sustainability index when respondents: 1) recognized management inaction has opportunity costs affecting economic viability; 2) considered forbs a valuable source of forage for wildlife or livestock; 3) believed governmental assistance with brush control was beneficial; 4) were not absentee landowners and did not live in an urban area in Texas, and; 5) valued profit, productivity, tax issues, family issues, neighbor issues or weather issues above that of land health. Additionally, a model identified 5 predictors which explained 30% of the variance for respondents with index scores aligning with greater land health sustainability. Predictors indicated: 1) fencing cost was not an obstacle for increasing livestock distribution; 2) land rest was a component …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Becker, Wayne
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Miscegenated Narration: The Effects of Interracialism in Women's Popular Sentimental Romances from the Civil War Years (open access)

Miscegenated Narration: The Effects of Interracialism in Women's Popular Sentimental Romances from the Civil War Years

Critical work on popular American women's fiction still has not reckoned adequately with the themes of interracialism present in these novels and with interracialism's bearing on the sentimental. This thesis considers an often overlooked body of women's popular sentimental fiction, published from 1860-1865, which is interested in themes of interracial romance or reproduction, in order to provide a fuller picture of the impact that the intersection of interracialism and sentimentalism has had on American identity. By examining the literary strategy of "miscegenated narration," or the heteroglossic cacophony of narrative voices and ideological viewpoints that interracialism produces in a narrative, I argue that the hegemonic ideologies of the sentimental romance are both "deterritorialized" and "reterritorialized," a conflicted impulse that characterizes both nineteenth-century sentimental, interracial romances and the broader project of critiquing the dominant national narrative that these novels undertake.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Beeler, Connie
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Interactions of Plasma with Low-k Dielectrics: Fundamental Damage and Protection Mechanisms (open access)

The Interactions of Plasma with Low-k Dielectrics: Fundamental Damage and Protection Mechanisms

Nanoporous low-k dielectrics are used for integrated circuit interconnects to reduce the propagation delays, and cross talk noise between metal wires as an alternative material for SiO2. These materials, typically organosilicate glass (OSG) films, are exposed to oxygen plasmas during photoresist stripping and related processes which substantially damage the film by abstracting carbon, incorporating O and OH, eventually leading to significantly increased k values. Systematic studies have been performed to understand the oxygen plasma-induced damage mechanisms on different low-k OSG films of various porosity and pore interconnectedness. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy are used to understand the damage kinetics of O radicals, ultraviolet photons and charged species, and possible ways to control the carbon loss from the film. FTIR results demonstrate that O radical present in the plasma is primarily responsible for carbon abstraction and this is governed by diffusion mechanism involving interconnected film nanopores. The loss of carbon from the film can be controlled by closing the pore interconnections, He plasma pretreatment is an effective way to control the damage at longer exposure by closing the connections between the pores.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Behera, Swayambhu Prasad
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Organizational History of The Portal to Texas History, 2011 (open access)

Organizational History of The Portal to Texas History, 2011

This document is a brief organizational history for The Portal to Texas History for 2011. This document was used for grant submissions to state or federal funding agencies, or private foundations. This document reflects on strategic directions for the program, as well as the number of collaborative partners for the Portal, and the number of historic documents in the digital library.
Date: 2011
Creator: Belden, Dreanna
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Portal to Texas History Partner List, 2011 (open access)

The Portal to Texas History Partner List, 2011

This document lists all of the partners of The Portal to Texas History in 2011. These partners were involved in projects and collections that were a part of the Portal.
Date: 2011
Creator: Belden, Dreanna
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
The “Nigger Trinity”: Engaging the Discourse in Post Civil Rights/Post 1960s America (open access)

The “Nigger Trinity”: Engaging the Discourse in Post Civil Rights/Post 1960s America

The cultural and popular media landscape of the United States of America changed after the Civil-Rights movement of the 1960s. The word “Nigger” was changed during that same period of American history. There are several authors and a comic that helped change this word during the 1960s. The post Civil-Rights American has a different experience and understanding with this word than those born before 1970. This work triangulates the current cultural location of the word “Nigger,” “nigga,” and “the n-word” using linguistics, law, and two media case studies. The “Nigger” trinity is a model that adds value to the discourse that surrounds this one word in post civil-rights/post 1960s America.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Bell, Adrian Shane
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Teleport (open access)

Teleport

This collection consists of a critical preface exploring the similarities between serialized comic books, realist fiction and the author’s own writing. The principle discussion concerns continuity, the connecting tissue between ancillary works of fiction, chronology, the function of time in the narrative of related stories, and the function of characters beyond the stories they inhabit. The stories within the collection revolve around an eccentric ensemble of suburban youth whose demoralized and violent actions are heavily influenced by defining moments of their past.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Bell, C.F. Davis
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Religious Coping and Experience of Body Satisfaction Among College Women (open access)

Religious Coping and Experience of Body Satisfaction Among College Women

This study examined whether religious coping moderated the effects of thin-ideal images on body satisfaction among college women. Religious (N = 178) participants met for a pre-test to complete religiosity measures. A week later, the participants reconvened and were assigned to one of two conditions: before (n = 83) or after (n = 95). Within each of these two groups, participants were randomly assigned to read a list of statements: positive religious statements, positive nonreligious statements, negative religious statements, positive body neutral religious statements, and neutral statements. Each participant was exposed to a task that included 10 images of thin-ideal models, read her list of statements, and completed the Body Dissatisfaction Scale of the EDI-3. The results revealed no significant main effect of placement, type of statement and no significant Placement X Statement Type interaction. However, when religious statements were collapsed and a subsequent 2 (Placement) X 3 (Statement type) analysis was conducted the results indicated a significant main effect for type of statement. Reading religious statements resulted in less body dissatisfaction than non-religious statements. There was no main effect for placement and no Placement X Statement Type interaction. Ethnic differences in religiosity were noted (all p’s <.05). Implications and …
Date: August 2011
Creator: Bell, Keisha
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sheltered Instruction: A Case Study of Three High School English Teachers' Experiences with the SIOP Model (open access)

Sheltered Instruction: A Case Study of Three High School English Teachers' Experiences with the SIOP Model

The purpose of this study was to determine the current status of secondary teachers' implementation of the sheltered instruction operational protocol (SIOP) model and its effect on Hispanic English language learners' (ELL) English language proficiency and academic achievement. In addition, this study sought to determine whether teachers perceive the SIOP model as an effective tool for instruction of high school ELL students to increase English language content and English language proficiency. This study employed qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Data were collected from four sources: Hispanic ELLs' English language proficiency scores, students' English Language Arts scores, an oral interview with participating teachers and teacher observations. Each teacher was observed at four points during the school year with the SIOP instrument. Quantitative data on student achievement were collected employing a pre-experimental, one-group pretest-post-test design. Qualitative data were collected using a time-series design. Findings revealed that on the two student assessment measures there were increases in English proficiency and English language arts achievement among the Hispanic ELLs. On the assessment of English language proficiency, the students of the teacher with the highest level of SIOP implementation made the highest gains; the students of the teacher with the second highest SIOP implementation level made …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Bertram, Rodney L.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Student reflections as artifacts of self-regulatory behaviors for learning: A tale of two courses. (open access)

Student reflections as artifacts of self-regulatory behaviors for learning: A tale of two courses.

The rapid growth of online and blended learning environments in both higher education and K-12, along with the development of innovative game based, narrative driven, problem-based learning (PBL) systems known as Alternate Reality Games (AltRG), has led to the need to understand student’s abilities to self-regulate their learning behaviors and practices in these novel environments. This study examines student reflections and e-mails related to self-regulatory practices for learning across two different course designs for an Internet-based course in computer applications. Both designs leverage PBL but apply different levels of abstraction related to content and the need to self-regulate. The study looked specifically at how students communicated about learning across these environments, what student communications indicated about student readiness for university online learning and how instructional design and methods of instruction shaped student expressions of learning and self-regulation. The research design follows an ethnographic and case study approach as two designs and four sections are examined. Data was collected from student blog posts, email messages and semi-structured interviews. Atlas.TI was used to code the data using constant comparative analysis. A sequential analysis was applied using an a priori structure for self-regulation and post hoc analysis for emergent codes that resulted in …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Bigenho, Christopher William
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Recommended Modified zone Method Correction Factor for Determining R-values of Cold-Formed Steel Wall Assemblies (open access)

Recommended Modified zone Method Correction Factor for Determining R-values of Cold-Formed Steel Wall Assemblies

Currently, ASHRAE has determined the zone method and modified zone method are appropriate calculation methods for materials with a high difference in conductivity, such as cold-formed steel (CFS) walls. Because there is currently no standard U-Factor calculation method for CFS walls, designers and code officials alike tend to resort to the zone method. However, the zone method is restricted to larger span assemblies because the zone factor coefficient is 2.0. This tends to overestimate the amount of surface area influenced by CFS. The modified zone method is restricted to C-shaped stud, clear wall assemblies with framing factors between 9 and 15%. The objective of the research is to narrow the gap of knowledge by re-examining the modified zone method in order to more accurately determine R-Values and U-Factors for CFS wall assemblies with whole wall framing factor percentages of 22% and above.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Black, John
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Demographic Trends of College Students Today & Tomorrow: How Do We Entice Them to Use the Academic Library? (open access)

Demographic Trends of College Students Today & Tomorrow: How Do We Entice Them to Use the Academic Library?

This article discusses how libraries can use demographic trends to tailor library services to future populations.
Date: November 4, 2011
Creator: Bloechle, Marie & Brannon, Sian
Object Type: Paper
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Art-Union and Photography, 1839-1854: The First Fifteen Years of Critical Engagement between Two Cultural Icons of Nineteenth-Century Britain (open access)

The Art-Union and Photography, 1839-1854: The First Fifteen Years of Critical Engagement between Two Cultural Icons of Nineteenth-Century Britain

This study analyzes how the Art-Union, a British journal interested only in the fine arts, approached photography between 1839 and 1854. It is informed by Karl Marx’s materialism-informed commodity fetishism, Gerry Beegan’s conception of knowingness, Benedict Anderson’s imagined community, and an art critical discourse that was defined by Roger de Piles and Joshua Reynolds. The individual chapters are each sites in which to examine these multiple theoretical approaches to the journal’s and photography’s association in separate, yet sometimes overlapping, periods. One particular focus of this study concerns the method through which the journal viewed photography—as an artistic or scientific enterprise. A second important focus of this study is the commodification of both the journal and photography in Britain. Also, it determines how the journal’s critical engagement with photography fits into the structure and development of a nineteenth-century British social collectivity focused on art and the photographic enterprise.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Boetcher, Derek Nicholas
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Spatial Ability, Motivation, and Attitude of Students as Related to Science Achievement (open access)

Spatial Ability, Motivation, and Attitude of Students as Related to Science Achievement

Understanding student achievement in science is important as there is an increasing reliance of the U.S. economy on math, science, and technology-related fields despite the declining number of youth seeking college degrees and careers in math and science. A series of structural equation models were tested using the scores from a statewide science exam for 276 students from a suburban north Texas public school district at the end of their 5th grade year and the latent variables of spatial ability, motivation to learn science and science-related attitude. Spatial ability was tested as a mediating variable on motivation and attitude; however, while spatial ability had statistically significant regression coefficients with motivation and attitude, spatial ability was found to be the sole statistically significant predictor of science achievement for these students explaining 23.1% of the variance in science scores.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Bolen, Judy Ann
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Environmental Values of Texas Farmers and Ranchers Engaged in Agritourism (open access)

Environmental Values of Texas Farmers and Ranchers Engaged in Agritourism

Papers explores the ways in which Texas agritourism operators value their land and construct their relationships with the natural environment.
Date: 2011
Creator: Bonham, Mēgan S. Albaugh
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Compositional Transformation and Musical Rebirth of Leo Ornstein (open access)

The Compositional Transformation and Musical Rebirth of Leo Ornstein

This study focuses on the transformation of Leo Ornstein’s (1893-2002) musical language of his early years into the strikingly different approach found in his later years. Ornstein’s initial radical compositions from the mid-1910s were no doubt representative of the direction in which modern music was moving. Despite the intense fame and notoriety of his early works, Ornstein did not feel connected to the trends of modern music development, and by the end of the 1930s he withdrew from the public scene and turned to teaching. By the 1950s Ornstein had been almost forgotten, and in later life he became a very private person. He worked in almost total isolation composing a substantial amount of music well into his nineties, and died at the age of 109. The music of Ornstein’s “second life” is very different from the initial works of his early years, and most of it is unknown to the public and should be brought into scholarly light, especially since Ornstein has been considered by historians as a pivotal figure in twentieth-century music. This study examines selected music from different stages of Ornstein’s career: Wild Men’s Dance (1913), Suicide in an Airplane (1913), Arabesques (1918), A Long Remembered Sorrow …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Bonney, Michael
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of Training on Employee Advancement (open access)

The Impact of Training on Employee Advancement

In recent years, organizations have invested increasing financial and labor-related resources on employee training. The assumption is that training will benefit the organization through improved performance which will result in greater efficiency, greater customer satisfaction and, ultimately, increased revenue and profits. Further, employees are assumed to benefit because their improved performance should lead to career advancement and increased compensation. However, measuring the effect of training on employee performance has been problematic due to the difficulty of isolating the effect of training from other human resource management practices and environmental and organizational influences. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test a model for predicting merit pay increase, job promotion and performance ratings from measures of general and finance training, as well as employee tenure, gender, educational level and organizational level. It was found that while significant contributions (i.e., betas) were made by finance and general training for performance ratings, promotion and merit pay increase, they did not increase the variance accounted for by tenure, organizational level and gender.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Bradley, Lori
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chronic Insomnia and Healthcare Utilization in Young Adults (open access)

Chronic Insomnia and Healthcare Utilization in Young Adults

Chronic insomnia is a highly prevalent disorder in general and young adult populations, and contributes a significant economic burden on society. Previous studies have shown healthcare utilization (HCU) is significantly higher for people with insomnia than people without insomnia. One limitation with previous research is accurate measurement of HCU in people with insomnia is difficult due to a high co-morbidity of medical and mental health problems as well as varying operational definitions of insomnia. Assessing HCU in people with insomnia can be improved by applying research diagnostic criteria (RDC) for insomnia, using a population with low rates of co-morbid medical/mental health problems, and measuring HCU with subjective, objective, and predictive methods. The current study found young adults with chronic insomnia had greater HCU than normal sleepers, specifically on number of medications, and chronic disease score (CDS) estimates of total healthcare costs, outpatient costs, and predicted number of primary care visits. The presence of a medical and/or mental health problem acted as a moderating variable between chronic insomnia and HCU. Simple effects testing found young adults with chronic insomnia and a medical/mental health problem had the greatest HCU followed by normal sleepers with a medical/mental health problem, chronic insomnia, and normal …
Date: August 2011
Creator: Bramoweth, Adam Daniel
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Elements of a Succession Plan

Poster presented at the 2011 ALA Learning Roundtable Conference. This poster presents information about succession plans. It covers succession plan strategies, competencies for key positions, candidates' skills, and development plans.
Date: 2011
Creator: Brannon, Sian
Object Type: Poster
System: The UNT Digital Library

Selecting and Assessing Practicum Students

This presentation discusses selecting and assessing practicum students, the goals and competencies, learning objectives, and gives examples of necessary skills.
Date: May 27, 2011
Creator: Brannon, Sian
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Real-Time Electronic Sound Analysis System with Graphical User Interface (open access)

A Real-Time Electronic Sound Analysis System with Graphical User Interface

Noise-induced hearing loss is a serious problem common to musical environments. Current dosimetry technology is primarily designed for industrial environments and not suited for musical settings. At present, there are no government regulations that apply to the educational music environment as it relates to monitoring and prevention of hearing loss. Also, no system exists than can serve as a proactive tool in observation and reporting of sound exposure levels with the goal of hearing conservation. Newly proposed system takes a software based approach in designing a proactive dosimetry system that can assess the risk of sound noise exposure. It provides real-time feedback trough a graphical user interface that is capable of database storage for further study.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Brgulja, Amir
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Skiddy Street: Prostitution and Vice in Denison, Texas, 1872-1922 (open access)

Skiddy Street: Prostitution and Vice in Denison, Texas, 1872-1922

Prostitution was a rampant and thriving industry in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Texas. Due to the arrival of the M.K. and T. Railroad, the city of Denison became a frontier boomtown and prostitution as well as other vice elements grew alongside the town. Skiddy Street was one road south of Main Street in Denison and housed the most notorious brothels and saloons in the city. In the late nineteenth century, few national laws were present to regulate red-light districts and those that existed were largely ignored. Economically, prostitution was an important addition to the coffers of cities such as Denison, and through taxing and licensing of prostitutes, city leaders profited off of the vice industry. The early decades of the twentieth century led to changes in the toleration of prostitution and red-light districts on the national level. Progressive reform movements, temperance, World War I, and the National Railroad Shopmen’s strike, each contributed to the dissolution of Skiddy Street in Denison as toleration and open acceptance of prostitution waned. This study attempts to understand how and why prostitution thrived during Denison’s early frontier days, who some of the prostitutes were that plied their trade on Skiddy Street, and how …
Date: December 2011
Creator: Bridges, Jennifer
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mechanisms Affecting Bench Press Throw Performance while Using a Counter-Balanced Smith Machine (open access)

Mechanisms Affecting Bench Press Throw Performance while Using a Counter-Balanced Smith Machine

The use of a counter-balance weight system of a Smith machine affects measures of bench press throw performance. Twenty-four men performed bench press throws at 30% of their one-repetition maximum under four different conditions: 1) counter-balance and rebound movement (RC), 2) no counter-balance and rebound movement (RNC), 3) counter-balance and concentric only movement (CC), and 4) no counter-balance and concentric only movement (CNC). Peak power, force, and concentric and eccentric velocities were measured using a linear accelerometer; and peak ground reaction force (GRF) was measured using a forceplate. Peak measures for concentric and eccentric velocities showed that NCB> CB and RBT > CBT. Peak GRF measures showed CB > NCB and RBT > CBT. The lower performance measures for CB were likely due to an increase in the net external load when the barbell accelerates faster than the gravitational constant causing the counter-balance weight becomes ineffective.
Date: May 2011
Creator: Buddhadev, Harsh
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library