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Design, Fabrication and Testing of a Novel Dual-Axis Automatic Solar Tracker System Using a Fresnel-Lens Solar Concentrator

This thesis project investigates, analyzes, designs, simulates, constructs and tests a dual-axis solar tracker system to track the sun and concentrates the heat of the sunlight, using a Fresnel lens, into a small area, which is above of an evaporator, to increase the temperature of the seawater to convert it into freshwater. The dual-axis solar tracker was designed with the main objectives that the structure was portable, dismountable, lightweight, low cost, corrosion resistant, wires inside pipes, accurate, small size, follow the sun automatically, off-grid (electrical), use green energy (solar powered), and has an empty area right below of the lens. First, a 500 mm diameter flat Fresnel lens was selected and simulated based on an algorithmic method achieved by a previous PhD student at UNT using MATLAB®, to give the optimization lens dimensions. The lens profile was drawn with AutoCAD®, then output profile lens was simulated in COMSOL Multiphysics®. The objective was to provide the high efficiency, optimum and high precision of the focal rays and heat to the receiver of the evaporator. A novel dual-axis solar tracker system was then designed that is portable, dismountable, lightweight and corrosion resistant. The solar tracker tracks the sun in two axis of …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Almara, Laura Mabel
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Freight Forwarder Satisfaction: A Conceptualization and an Empirical Test of Effect on Airport Customer Loyalty and Competitiveness

In 2018, global gross domestic product (GDP) was US$86.3 trillion, and almost a quarter of that value was due to international trade with a value of US$19.6 trillion. Air cargo accounts for about 35 percent of that trade value (approximately US$6.86 trillion). Moreover, from the perspective of the airport sector, air cargo revenue contributes between 20 to 70 percent of airport revenue. The global airport revenue for freight in 2018 was US$250 billion. Despite the interest and research activities surrounding competition and competitiveness of airports and specifically among airlines and passengers, it appears scholars have overlooked research concerning the competitiveness of airports when it comes to air cargo. This study attempts to fill the gap in the supply chain and logistics literature by putting forward a framework and ultimately operationalizing the framework highlighting the pivotal role of air cargo in the supply chain domain and within the global economy. Specifically, the framework is operationalized within the freight forwarding air cargo supply chain domain – providing insight into this important yet understudied phenomenon. The population of interest is freight forwarders from the Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates. The Middle East represents 18 percent of the world's air cargo volume and …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Almofeez, Sarah Ibraheem
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Modeling Email Phishing Attacks (open access)

Modeling Email Phishing Attacks

Cheating, beguiling, and misleading information exist all around us; understanding deception and its consequences is crucial in our information environment. This study investigates deception in phishing emails that successfully bypassed Microsoft 365 filtering system. We devised a model that explains why some people are deceived and how targeted individuals and organizations can prevent or counter attacks. The theoretical framework used in this study is Anderson's functional ontology construction (FOC). The methodology involves quantitative and qualitative descriptive design, where the data source is the set of phishing emails archived from a Tier 1 University. We looked for term frequency-inverse document frequency (Tf-idf) and the distribution of words over documents (topic modeling) and found the subjects of phishing emails that targeted educational organizations are related to finances, jobs, and technologies. Also, our analysis shows the phishing emails in the dataset come under six categories; reward, urgency, curiosity, fear, job, and entertainment. Results indicate that staff and students were primarily targeted, and a list of the most used verbs for deception was compiled. We uncovered the stimuli being used by scammers and types of reinforcements used to misinform the target to ensure successful trapping via phishing emails. We identified how scammers pick their …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Almoqbil, Abdullah
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Exploring Factors Affecting Public Service Motivation: An Investigation of Public Service Motivation in Saudi Arabia

This research builds on social exchange theory and self-determination theory to better understand the relationships between employee engagement, demographic and personal attributes, and public service motivation (PSM). It hypothesizes that employee engagement and demographic and personal characteristics (education, income, gender, and parents working in civil service) will directly affect PSM. I also hypothesize that education, income, and gender will have an indirect effect and moderate the relationship between employee engagement and PSM. This dissertation uses a quantitative approach to investigate the hypotheses introduced with the conceptual model. This research uses structural equation modeling as a data analysis technique. Based on 704 valid questionnaires distributed to Saudi public employees in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Assir, the analysis shows that a higher level of employee engagement will lead to a higher level of public service motivation. It also reveals that a higher level of education will lead to a higher level of PSM.; the hypothesis that income positively affects PSM is not supported. Thus, this study finds that there is no significant relationship between income and PSM. Being female is found to be negatively associated with PSM. Therefore, the hypothesis that females are lower PSM than males is supported. Parents of public …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Alotaibi, Saud G.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Deep Minima and Vortices for Positronium Formation in Positron-Hydrogen and Positron-Helium Collisions (open access)

Deep Minima and Vortices for Positronium Formation in Positron-Hydrogen and Positron-Helium Collisions

This dissertation work is a study of positronium formation for positron-hydrogen and positron-helium collisions in the Ore gap (the energy region between the threshold for ground-state positronium formation and the first excitation level of the target atom) using variational K-matrices. We have fitted the K-matrices using multichannel effective range theories and using polynomials. Using the variational K-matrices and their fits, we have located zeros in the positronium-formation scattering amplitude and corresponding deep minima in the positronium-formation differential cross section. The zeros are related to the vortices in the extended velocity field associated with the positronium-formation scattering amplitude. For positron-hydrogen collisions, we have found two zeros in the positronium-formation scattering amplitude, and corresponding deep minima in the positronium-formation differential cross section, while we have obtained a zero in the positronium-formation scattering amplitude for positron-helium collisions. We have connected the zeros in the positronium-formation scattering amplitude to vortices in the extended velocity fields. Our work shows that vortices can occur for charge exchange in atomic collisions.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Alrowaily, Albandari Wanes
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Quantifying the Effects of Single Nucleotide Changes in the TATA Box of the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S Promoter on Gene Expression in Arabidopsis thaliana

Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing field that aims to treat cellular biological networks in an analogous way to electrical circuits. However, the field of plant synthetic biology has not grown at the same pace as bacterial and yeast synthetic biology, leaving a dearth of characterized tools for the community. Due to the need for tools for the synthetic plant biologist, I have endeavored to create a library of well-characterized TATA box variants in the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter using the standardized assembly method Golden Braid 2.0. I introduced single nucleotide changes in the TATA box of the CaMV 35S promoter, a genetic part widely used in plant gene expression studies and agricultural biotechnology. Using a dual-luciferase reporter system, I quantified the transcriptional strength of the altered TATA box sequences and compared to the wild-type sequence, both in transient protoplast assays and stable transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants. The library of TATA-box modified CaMV 35S promoters with varying transcriptional strengths created here can provide the plant synthetic biology community with a series of modular Golden Braid-adapted genetic parts that can be used dependably and reproducibly by researchers to fine-tune gene expression levels in complex, yet predictable, synthetic genetic circuits.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Amack, Stephanie Carolina
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 5, January 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 5, January 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: January 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 7, March 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 7, March 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: March 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 8, April 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 8, April 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: April 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 9, May 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 73, Number 9, May 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: May 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 74, Number 1, September 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 74, Number 1, September 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: September 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 74, Number 2, October 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 74, Number 2, October 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: October 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southwest Retort, Volume 74, Number 3, November 2021 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 74, Number 3, November 2021

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.
Date: November 2021
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Behavior Analytic Account of Humor Responses: Taking a Joke Way Too Seriously (open access)

A Behavior Analytic Account of Humor Responses: Taking a Joke Way Too Seriously

Compared to other examples of human behavior, humor responses have received relatively little attention from the scientific community and by the behavior analytic community in particular. This study investigated what some of the controlling variables for humans to emit a humor response may be. Participants were randomly presented two types of word sequences/jokes: one with a matching punchline and one without a matching punchline. Participants rated whether the jokes were funny or not funny, and reaction time was measured for all stimuli presented. Generally, the results showed that reaction times to punchlines rated as not funny were shorter than punchlines that were rated funny. These differences in reaction time were interpreted with priming, intraverbal control, and multiple control as an experimental foundation. Limitations include the absence of physiological measures due to COVID-19 restrictions and the forced choice of two rating responses. The implications of this research reveal opportunities for future research of humor responses.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Amezquita IV, Edward Brandon
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

3D Printing of Zinc Anode for Zinc Ion Batteries

Recently, 3D printing has received increasing attention for the fabrication and assembly of electrodes for batteries due to the freedom of creating structures in any shape or size, porosity, flexibility, stretchability, and chemistry. Particularly, zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) are favored due to high safety, cheap materials cost, and high volumetric capacity (5,849 mAh/cm3), however, rapid evaporation of Zn due to low melting temperature has limited its 3D printability via conventional laser-based additive manufacturing technique. Here, we develop a printable ink for the fabrication of flexible and 3D printed Zn anode with varied surface areas using the direct ink writing (DIW) method. Our 3D printed porous and high surface area Zn anode structures effectively suppressed the dendrite growth while providing high Zn ion diffusion towards the cathode to significantly enhance the performance of ZIB. By varying filament distancing and path, we 3D printed zinc anode structures with different active surface areas, surface area to volume ratio, porosity, flexible and multiple layer structures that can be incorporated on any device. Carbon in the composite improved conductivity, and mechanical stability of 3D printed zinc anode. Our 3D printed composite anodes allowed flexible designing of batteries surpassing conventional battery designs such as coin cells …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Amoko, Stephen Adot Oyo
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Speech-in-Noise Processing in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often experience difficulty during speech-in-noise (SIN) processing tasks. However, it remains unclear how behavioral and cortical mechanisms of auditory processing explain variability in SIN performance in adults with ASD and their neurotypical counterparts. The proposed research explored variability in SIN as it relates to behavioral, perceptual, and objective measures of auditory processing. Results showed significant differences between groups in SIN thresholds. In addition, neurotypicals outperformed the ASD group on measures of sustained auditory attention characterized by reduced impulsivity, increased inhibition, and increased selective auditory attention. Individuals with ASD showed decreased acceptance of noise as compared to neurotypical peers. Overall, results highlighted auditory processing deficits in individuals with ASD that contribute to SIN performance.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Anderson, Chelsea D
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

A Proposal for a Training Program to Support Culturally Responsive Professional-Family Interactions

Behavior analysts often work with families from diverse cultural backgrounds. Ideally, behavior analysts and families interact in ways that are responsive to the family's culture and valued outcomes. The data indicate that most behavior analysts, however, come from one dominant cultural group. This is a proposal for training program and evaluation method to support culturally responsive professional-family interactions. This proposed study is designed to be conducted via Zoom-- a cloud-based video conferencing service. A pre-post treatment design is proposed to assess the effects of the training. Hypothetical data were generated to consider the range of effects such a program might have on trainee responses to written/live scenarios. Responses in the observation protocol included written descriptions, empathetic statements, perspective taking statements, and non-verbal behaviors. Overall, the program was designed using evidence-based procedures and is likely to support behavior analysts in training and in practice to improve their interactions with families and become more culturally responsive to groups of people that are from the non-dominant culture.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Anegbeh, Cynthia Momoh
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Instrumental Development and Implementation of Portable Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry for Homeland Security and Environmental Applications (open access)

Instrumental Development and Implementation of Portable Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry for Homeland Security and Environmental Applications

A rapidly growing topic of great interest is the adaptation of benchtop analytical instrumentation for use in outdoor harsh environments. Some of the areas that stand to benefit from field instrumentation development include government agencies involved with the preservation of the environment and institutions responsible for the safety of the general public. Detection systems are at the forefront of the miniaturization movement as the interest in analyte identification and quantitation appears to only be accessible through the use of analytical instrumentation. Mass spectrometry is a distinguished analytical technique known for its ability to detect the mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios of gas-phase ions of interest. Although these systems have been routinely limited to research lab-based analysis, there has been considerable development of miniaturized and portable mass spectrometry systems. Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) is becoming a common method of sample introduction that is subject to significant development. MIMS allows for minimal sample preparation, continuous sampling, and excludes complicated analyte introduction techniques. Sampling is accomplished using a semipermeable membrane that allows selective analyte passage into the vacuum of the mass spectrometer. MIMS is becoming the preeminent choice of homeland security and environmental monitoring applications with increasing opportunities for the future development of specialized …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Anguiano Virgen, Camila
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Behind the Curtain of Public Space: Revealing the Narratives of Corporate Street Hawking in Globalizing Accra

All street hawkers are not the same in many Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) of the global south as often portrayed by the media and documented in extant literature. This perception has created a gap in knowledge as researchers explore street hawking activities in NICs. In this study, I investigated a new informality trend of street hawking is coming into being within the capital city of Accra, Ghana. As governance is increasingly becoming entrepreneurial, informal activities are gradually becoming formal. Formal and registered businesses are increasingly capitalizing on hawking activities to occupy public spaces. The advent of the informality trend, I term corporate street hawking opens up new issues for the political economy, labor, and urban studies. By employing semi-structured interviews with 47 street hawkers in Accra, this paper sought to investigate three broadly interrelated questions. First, how do neoliberal policies impact the production of public space in Accra? Second, is corporate street hawking a form of creative destruction? Finally, how do corporate street hawkers practice agency within Accra?
Date: December 2021
Creator: Ansah, Hilary Ama
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Three Essays on Harmony in Intrapersonal Identity Networks

Drawing attention to an under-examined process during organizational socialization, we develop theory to explain how newcomers' new organizational roles and social identities become embedded. The process of identities becoming embedded is influenced by how an individual's preexisting identities interact with new organizational identities during socialization. Perceived harmony relationships among identities indicate if newcomers experience identities interacting in a positive or negative manner generally. Using a network perspective, we suggest that the identity embeddedness of new roles and identities are indicated by: degree centrality in an intrapersonal identity harmony network, perceived harmony with the network itself, and the perceived cost of lacking harmony with a focal identity. Newcomers are likely to be more satisfied and engaged with identities with greater embeddedness as well as find such identities more salient. Organizations can work to embed their employees' new identities through initiating identity work directed towards increasing harmony perceptions among the newcomers' new organizational identities and preexisting identities. Through helping individuals create harmony relationships among identities, organizations can improve socialization outcomes.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Anzollitto, Peter
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Ends of Smaller Worlds

The Ends of Smaller Worlds is a collection of short stories set in Indiana. The preface is about the representation of the information age using elements of dirty realism and Gothic fiction.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Armes, Brett
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Corrosion Mechanism and Prevention of Wire Bonded Device in Microelectronic Manufacturing and Spectroscopic Investigation of Copper Etch Chemical Equilibria for High Density Interconnect Application

In the first part of this dissertation work, Al bond pad corrosion behavior was investigated in the presence of common industrial contaminants such as chloride (Cl-) and fluoride (F-). Al corrosion while in direct contact with Cu displayed rapid hydrogen (H2) gas evolution and dendrite propagation. In contrast, Al without bimetallic contact showed only minor surface roughening. This observed difference in the corrosion mechanism between Cl- and F- is attributed to the solubility of the corrosion products (AlCl3 vs. AlF3) formed on the Al surface. Our subsequent work explored corrosion prevention inhibition of wire-bonded devices (WBD) in the Cl- environment. Our research shows that the Al bond pad was protected against corrosion by chemically modifying the surface of the Cu wires, thereby preventing the H2 evolution. The inhibitor was observed to be highly selective, thermally stable, hydrophobic, and cost-effective, making it viable for industrial application of this coating for Al bond pad corrosion prevention. In the second part of the dissertation work, we utilized a novel approach of using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) as a chemical-sensitive monitoring tool of the chemical environment in Cu etch bath. The UV-Vis technique illuminates the roles of H+, Cl-, Cu+, and Cu2+ to the etch …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Ashok Kumar, Goutham Issac
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Digital Readiness Assessment of Countries in Africa: A Case Study Research (open access)

Digital Readiness Assessment of Countries in Africa: A Case Study Research

Conference paper seeking to answer these questions: What is the current state of digital readiness in African countries? Do existing digital readiness assessment tools, indicators, or metrics, help to assess the digital readiness of countries in Africa?
Date: October 13, 2021
Creator: Assefa, Shimelis; Rorissa, Abebe & Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw
Object Type: Paper
System: The UNT Digital Library

Exploring the Impacts of Social Media Use on Young Adults' Self-Esteem and Perceived Impact on Psychological Diagnoses or Emotional Disturbance Eligibility

The impacts of emerging adults' social media use have been shown as generally negative, especially in decreasing their self-esteem and self-concept and increasing anxiety, depression, and more. Although there is research on social media's impact on various communities of adolescents and young adults, limited research has focused on this effect for young adults with mental health diagnoses or served under IDEA's emotional disturbance eligibility criteria. Additionally, no research has studied this topic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to examine how various types of social media use impact young adults' self-esteem, including those who are psychologically vulnerable. Participants included 119 individuals, 18 to 19-years of age, with and without mental health diagnoses or Emotional Disturbance special education eligibility recruited utilizing social media pages and social media hashtags. Participating individuals answered demographic and social media use questions and completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to provide information about self-esteem. Additionally, participants responded to questions regarding what role they feel social media use has had on their mental health, including contribution to or exacerbating their symptoms. Univariate statistics were run to control demographic factors and determine the percentage of participants who believe social media has negatively affected …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Atkinson, Rebecca Lynn
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library