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The Impact of Commuting on Mental Health (open access)

The Impact of Commuting on Mental Health

The purpose of this research is to explicate the relationship between commuting behavior, stress, and mental health. The overall results from the regression analysis turned out to be inconclusive given the researcher's initial hypothesis. The commute time reported by respondents did not have a statistically significant bearing on mental health outcomes. This was true for both the normal sample, and the sample that was split by gender.
Date: August 2017
Creator: Malek-Ahmadi, John
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
African American Soldiers in the Philippine War: An Examination of the Contributions of Buffalo Soldiers during the Spanish American War and Its Aftermath, 1898-1902 (open access)

African American Soldiers in the Philippine War: An Examination of the Contributions of Buffalo Soldiers during the Spanish American War and Its Aftermath, 1898-1902

During the Philippine War, 1899 – 1902, America attempted to quell an uprising from the Filipino people. Four regular army regiments of black soldiers, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Infantry served in this conflict. Alongside the regular army regiments, two volunteer regiments of black soldiers, the Forty-Eighth and Forty-Ninth, also served. During and after the war these regiments received little attention from the press, public, or even historians. These black regiments served in a variety of duties in the Philippines, primarily these regiments served on the islands of Luzon and Samar. The main role of these regiments focused on garrisoning sections of the Philippines and helping to end the insurrection. To carry out this mission, the regiments undertook a variety of duties including scouting, fighting insurgents and ladrones (bandits), creating local civil governments, and improving infrastructure. The regiments challenged racist notions in America in three ways. They undertook the same duties as white soldiers. They interacted with local "brown" Filipino populations without fraternizing, particularly with women, as whites assumed they would. And, they served effectively at the company and platoon level under black officers. Despite the important contributions of these soldiers, both socially and militarily, …
Date: August 2017
Creator: Redgraves, Christopher M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Extracting Possessions and Their Attributes (open access)

Extracting Possessions and Their Attributes

Possession is an asymmetric semantic relation between two entities, where one entity (the possessee) belongs to the other entity (the possessor). Automatically extracting possessions are useful in identifying skills, recommender systems and in natural language understanding. Possessions can be found in different communication modalities including text, images, videos, and audios. In this dissertation, I elaborate on the techniques I used to extract possessions. I begin with extracting possessions at the sentence level including the type and temporal anchors. Then, I extract the duration of possession and co-possessions (if multiple possessors possess the same entity). Next, I extract possessions from an entire Wikipedia article capturing the change of possessors over time. I extract possessions from social media including both text and images. Finally, I also present dense annotations generating possession timelines. I present separate datasets, detailed corpus analysis, and machine learning models for each task described above.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Chinnappa, Dhivya Infant
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Effects of the Use of Natural Language Processing and Task Complexity on Jurors' Assessments of Auditor Negligence

The purpose of my dissertation is to examine jurors' evaluation of auditor negligence in response to auditors' use of natural language processing (NLP). To test my research objective, I conducted a 2x2 between-subjects experiment with 175 jury-eligible individuals. In the online experiment, I manipulated whether the audit team analyzes contracts with NLP software or by having human auditors read the contracts. I also manipulated task complexity as complex or simple. The dependent variables include a binary verdict variable and a scaled assessment of negligence. This dissertation makes several contributions to the accounting literature and practice. First, it contributes to the recent juror literature on emerging technologies by providing evidence that jurors attribute higher negligence assessments to auditors when auditors use NLP to examine contracts than when human auditors examine contracts. I also find that auditors' use of NLP leads to jurors' higher perceived causation, which, in turn, increases jurors' assessments of auditor liability. Second, this study answers the call of other researchers to examine the relationship between task complexity and negligence in different settings. I also find a marginally significant interaction effect of the use of NLP compared to human auditors to perform audit testing that is greater for complex …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Cui, Junnan
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

A Multi-Site Case Study of Middle School Reading Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of Response to Intervention

Early reading intervention has not eradicated reading deficiencies at the middle school level. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), adolescents continue to read below grade level in middle grades. Response to intervention (RTI) is one method of combating this educational concern. This study examined the impact of implementation of a RTI program within one district across multiple middle school campuses. Using individual structured online questionnaires, focus groups, and document analysis, the researcher employed a qualitative, multi-site case study design to evaluate the perceptions of impact of RTI through the lens of middle school reading teachers. Participants included a convenient purposive sample of middle school reading teachers in a suburban school district of about 24,000 students in North Central Texas. I present a review of relevant research at the middle school level to provide a framework for the current study. Additionally, an outline of methodology, research questions, and the proposed data analysis plan are provided. I discuss the intended use of constant comparative analysis to report findings in themes. Particularly, facilitators, hindrances, and impact are a priori themes for reporting.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Norris, Frankie
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Mixed Methods Approach to Exploring Social Support and Resilience in Coping with Stigma and Psychological Distress among HIV-Positive Adults (open access)

A Mixed Methods Approach to Exploring Social Support and Resilience in Coping with Stigma and Psychological Distress among HIV-Positive Adults

Since its emergence in the U.S., HIV has been a stigmatized illness. People living with HIV (PLH) are a minority and prone to psychological distress and poor mental health outcomes due to HIV-related stigma. PLH who identify with another minority group in addition to being HIV-positive (e.g., gay, African-American) experience multiple forms of oppression or layered stigma. Affirmative social support and resilience are negatively associated with HIV-stigma and are important coping resources for PLH. We used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design study involving a quantitative survey phase and a qualitative interview phase. We explored whether social support and resilience (Positive Psychological Resources) mediate or moderate the relationship between HIV Stigma and Psychological Distress among HIV-positive adults using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling and multiple regressions. Via PLS, we found Positive Psychological Resources partially mediated the relationship between HIV Stigma and Psychological Distress: the path between HIV Stigma and Psychological distress reduced (from t = 5.49, p = .000 to t = 2.39, p = .000) but remained statistically significant. Similarly, via regression, the Sobel test was significant (Sobel = .26, SE = .07, z = 3.63, p = .000). However, moderation was not found (HIV Stigma x Positive …
Date: August 2017
Creator: Fritz, Sarah-mee Hesse
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Forging Pathways: A Multi-Case Study of Individuals with Intellectual Disability Pursuing Postsecondary Education at the Community College

This multi-case study sought to better understand how students with intellectual disability (ID) are forging pathways to higher education via the community college. Five individuals with ID who accessed higher education via the community college and their parents/guardians were interviewed. Each case provided insight into personal pathways with results given in case descriptions and individual case themes. Cross-case analysis revealed four themes positively impacting the college-going pathway for students with ID: value-driven grit, pathway knowledge, community support, and accessibility. Based on findings from this study, families appear to be the primary systems forging pathways to the community college for individuals with ID. Local education agencies and community colleges can assist these families by engaging in interagency collaboration, evaluating their systems, and aligning practices to the goal of students with ID accessing and engaging in higher education.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Jackson, Amanda O.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Advanced Cathodes for High Energy Density Lithium Sulfur Battery

A systematic development of 2D alloy catalyst with synergistic performance of high lithium polysulfide (LiPS) binding energy and efficient Li+ ion/electron conduction is presented. The first section of work found that Li+ ions can flow through the percolated ion transport pathway in polycrystalline MoS2, while Na+ and K+ ions can easily flow through the percolated 1D ion channel near the grain boundaries. An unusually high ionic conductivity of extrinsic Li+, Na+, and K+ ions in 2D MoS2 film exceeding 1 S/cm was measured that is more than two orders of magnitude higher than those of conventional solid ionic materials, including 2D ionic materials. The second section of this dissertation focus on catalyzing the transformation of LiPSs to prevent the shuttle effect during the battery cycling by synthesizing 2H (semiconducting) – 1T (metallic) mixed phase 2D Mo0.5W0.5S2 alloy on CNF paper, using two step sputtering and sulfurization method. The lithium sulfur (Li-S) battery cell assembled with the 2D Mo0.5W0.5S2/CNF/S cathode shows a high specific capacity of 1228 mAh g-1 at 0.1C and much higher cyclic stability over 4 times as compared to the pristine cathodes. The high LiPSs binding energy of catalyst efficiently prevents the shuttling effect and corrosion of Li …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Bhoyate, Sanket
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Reliability Characterization and Performance Analysis of Solid State Drives in Data Centers

NAND flash-based solid state drives (SSDs) have been widely adopted in data centers and high performance computing (HPC) systems due to their better performance compared with hard disk drives. However, little is known about the reliability characteristics of SSDs in production systems. Existing works that study the statistical distributions of SSD failures in the field lack insights into distinct characteristics of SSDs. In this dissertation, I explore the SSD-specific SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) attributes and conduct in-depth analysis of SSD reliability in a production environment with a focus on the unique error types and health dynamics. QLC SSD delivers better performance in a cost-effective way. I study QLC SSDs in terms of their architecture and performance. In addition, I apply thermal stress tests to QLC SSDs and quantify their performance degradation processes. Various types of big data and machine learning workloads have been executed on SSDs under varying temperatures. The SSD throughput and application performance are analyzed and characterized.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Liang, Shuwen (Computer science and engineering researcher)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Unraveling the Effect of Atomic Configurations and Structural Statistics on Mechanical Behavior of Multicomponent and Amorphous Alloys (open access)

Unraveling the Effect of Atomic Configurations and Structural Statistics on Mechanical Behavior of Multicomponent and Amorphous Alloys

Multicomponent high-entropy and amorphous alloys represent relatively new classes of structural materials with complex atomic configurations and exceptional mechanical properties. However, there are several knowledge gaps in the relationships between their atomic structure and mechanical properties. Understanding these critical relationships will enable novel alloy design and tailoring of their mechanical properties for desired engineering applications. In this dissertation, first-principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulations are applied to investigate the local atomic configurations and ordering in high-entropy and amorphous alloys. Our findings suggest that fluctuations in local atomic configurations for high- entropy alloys result in significant changes in stacking fault energy, twin energy, dislocation behavior, dislocation-twin interactions, and critical shear stress. For amorphous alloys or metallic glasses, the short-range order (SRO) and medium-range order (MRO) were found to play decisive roles in determination of their mechanical properties. Structural relaxation was found to lead to shear localization, which was attributed to free volume change and evolution of SRO and MRO to more brittle nature. In contrast, rejuvenated metallic glasses had relatively large and uniform free volume distribution giving rise to homogeneous flow and increased plasticity.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Yang, Yu Chia
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Examination of Black and Latino/a/x Students' and Responsive STEM Teachers' Perceptions of Teacher Cultural Consciousness and Culturally Responsive Instructional Practices (open access)

The Examination of Black and Latino/a/x Students' and Responsive STEM Teachers' Perceptions of Teacher Cultural Consciousness and Culturally Responsive Instructional Practices

School cultures, curriculum, and instruction are too often created through a monocultural lens, which excludes Black and Latino/a/x students both socially and academically, and perpetuates the false notion that these students are inherently less capable of achieving academic success when compared to their White counterparts. This is visible across all content areas, but especially in secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classes, which means that our Black and Latino/a/x students are continually denied preparation for the critical, high demand careers in the STEM field. Just as critical, with the dominance of White teachers in the classroom, out Black and Latino/a/x students often do not have access to teachers who share their lived experiences or who understand the nuances of their home cultures. However, teachers and school instructional leaders can change course by focusing their efforts to develop a rich cultural consciousness, and by focusing on the utilization of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) and related instructional strategies with great intentionality in the classroom. This mixed method, single site, exploratory case study was conducted to examine Black and Latino/a/x students' perceptions of their culturally responsive STEM teachers' cultural consciousness, and culturally responsive STEM teachers' perceptions of culturally responsive practices and their …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Norris, Margaret Louise
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Domain Specific Cognitive Effects of Sickle Cell Disease in Children (open access)

Domain Specific Cognitive Effects of Sickle Cell Disease in Children

Multiple contributors to neurocognitive impairment in individuals with sickle cell disease have been identified. Research indicates that a history of cerebrovascular accidents, such as silent infarcts and strokes are associated with greater cognitive decline among children with sickle cell disease. Additionally, disease effects such as hemoglobin and hematocrit levels significantly effect cognitive performance among this population and should be taken into consideration when examining neurocognitive impairment. Further, previous studies show a significant relationship between child behavior problems, family functioning, and cognitive performance in children with sickle cell, marking those as important targets for intervention among this population. While cognitive decline with increased age is not typically examined in healthy child populations, some research indicates the presence of age effects in those with SCD. A majority of the literature addresses cognitive impairment from a broad perspective, while a limited number of studies have begun to address effects among specific cognitive domains. Using archival data from the National Institutes of Health's Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease, results revealed that disease severity was negatively correlated with some aspects of cognitive functioning, including visual-spatial domains. Additionally, some measures of cognitive performance were inversely correlated with age. Consistent with hypothesized outcomes, family functioning was …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Carroll, Bridgette
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Air Corridors: Concept, Design, Simulation, and Rules of Engagement (open access)

Air Corridors: Concept, Design, Simulation, and Rules of Engagement

Air corridors are an integral part of the advanced air mobility infrastructure. They are the virtual highways in the sky for transportation of people and cargo in the controlled airspace at an altitude of around 1000 ft. to 2000 ft. above the ground level. This paper presents fundamental insights into the design of air corridors with high operational efficiency as well as zero collisions. It begins with the definitions of air cube, skylane or track, intersection, vertiport, gate, and air corridor. Then, a multi-layered air corridor model is proposed. Traffic at intersections is analyzed in detail with examples of vehicles turning in different directions. The concept of capacity of an air corridor is introduced along with the nature of distribution of locations of vehicles in the air corridor and collision probability inside the corridor are discussed. Finally, the results of simulations of traffic flows are presented.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Muna, Sabrina Islam
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
Multicultural Training and Program Climate in Masters Sport Psychology Programs (open access)

Multicultural Training and Program Climate in Masters Sport Psychology Programs

Little is known about the current state of multicultural training within sport psychology master's programs. The study explored students' perceptions of their multicultural training and program climate. Importantly, differences in perceptions were investigated based on students' demographic factors, given that students with marginalized identities tend to report less favorable perceptions of and experiences in graduate training. Participants (N = 107) consisted of students and recent graduates of master's level sport psychology programs. Participants reported moderate levels of feeling safe, valued, and comfortable within their master's program, low to moderate levels of multicultural training integration within their curriculum and supervision, and low to moderate satisfaction with their multicultural training. Asian, Asian American, bi/multiracial, Black, African American, Hispanic, and Latino/a/e students, compared to their White peers, reported less satisfaction with their multicultural training, felt less safe, comfortable, and valued within their programs, and perceived less integration of multiculturalism into curriculum and supervision. A multiple regression analysis revealed that, for all students, perceptions of multicultural training integration and reports of feeling safe, comfortable, and valued was significantly related to students' satisfaction with their multicultural training. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for these findings, training implications, and future research directions.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Arnold, Macey L.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Homoleptic and Heteroleptic Platinum(II) Complexes for Organic Light Emitting Diodes and Humidity Sensors: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications

This dissertation focuses on the design, synthesis, characterization of platinum (II) pyridylazolate complexes and develop high performance organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and design and execute high-sensitivity humidity sensors based on the luminescent metal-organic complexes of platinum. A majority of existing platinum compounds do not dissolve in organic solvents, making it difficult to analyze the photophysical characteristics of complexes in solution, a key part of understanding chemical photophysical properties. Furthermore, due to the poor quantum yield, it is inefficient for use in devices such as OLEDs. Chapter 2 reports the synthesis and characterization of a novel heteroleptic platinum(II) pyridylazolate complex with high solubility and quantum yield. The photochemistry of the complex is studied, including efficiency, emission profiles, and lifetimes at different temperatures. Chapter 3 reports the power efficiency (lm/W), current efficiency (cd/A), external quantum efficiency (EQE), luminance and operating voltage (V) of OLED devices made with the heteroleptic platinum(II) pyridylazolate complex. The relation between thickness of hole transport layer and electron transport layer on performance of devices has been studied through building a variety of devices. Chapter 4 includes application of a homoleptic platinum(II) pyridylazolate complex in humidity sensor. In many environments, the relationship between moisture content and emissive wavelength …
Date: December 2023
Creator: Farvid, Seyedmajid
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Promoting Women? Causes and Effects of Gender-Informed Transitional Justice

Quantitative research investigating the causes and subsequent impact of transitional justice practices has further developed thanks to the production of cross-national data on justice practices, namely by the Justice Data Project and the Transitional Justice Research Collaborative. Current work, however, does not consider the role of justice from a feminist perspective. For example, with respect to causes, we know little about whether and how justice processes are gender inclusive, and what the factors lead to gendered inclusion within justice practices. There is also a need for further inquiry to explain how gendered conflict violence, e.g., sexual violence directed at women, influences justice adoption, and if so, whether these justice processes are more likely to be inclusive of women and gendered issues. Regarding justice impact (its post-hoc effects), there is much to know about the implications gendered justice pose for post-violence societies. Moving away from essentialist notions that position men as protectors and women as inherently peaceful and mere victims of abuse, feminist scholars advocate for research to showcase women's agency as security providers in peacebuilding and peacemaking. I introduce a framework to explain how women and gendered issues become integrated into justice practices and evaluate implications that result from these …
Date: December 2023
Creator: Roark, Polly DeAnne
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Local Organization of Refugee Service Provision: A Qualitative Comparison of Two Resettlement Cities in Texas (open access)

The Local Organization of Refugee Service Provision: A Qualitative Comparison of Two Resettlement Cities in Texas

This comparative case study examines the organizational variations in refugee services in Dallas and Amarillo, Texas. Engaging sociological theories of organizations, migration, and the state, this study conceptualizes immigrant-serving organizations as brokers that operate within fields of similar entities that channel resources and services to refugees. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews and over two hundred hours of participant observation, this study finds two distinct models of resource brokerage. In Dallas, immigrant-serving organizations operated as networked resource brokers, characterized by high levels of collaboration, robust local political support, and community engagement through consistent volunteer labor. These characteristics facilitated the sharing of resources and knowledge, resulting in the establishment of more professionalized services for immigrants and refugees. In contrast, immigrant-serving organizations in Amarillo operated as atomized resource brokers, characterized by fragmented collaborations, inter-organizational competition, limited volunteer labor, and varying levels of political support from local representatives. This atomized brokerage model hindered the efficient allocation of resources and support, leading to fragmented and less comprehensive services for refugees. In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the variations within the organizational fields of ISOs in Texas. The comparative analysis of Dallas and Amarillo offers a nuanced understanding of the impact of local context …
Date: December 2023
Creator: Fessenden, Deborah June
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Grand Canyons: Authoritative Knowledge and Patient-Provider Connection (open access)

Grand Canyons: Authoritative Knowledge and Patient-Provider Connection

In 2011, African Americans in Tarrant County, Texas experienced an infant mortality rate of 14.3 per 1,000 live births. The leading cause of infant mortality in Tarrant County is prematurity and maternal nutritional status. Both maternal under-nutrition and over-nutrition are known risk factors for premature birth. Improving maternal nutrition, by reducing rates of gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, and by increasing consumption of essential prenatal vitamins and nutrients, is a road to decreasing preterm birth in African Americans. This qualitative study, based on both anthropology and public health theory, of the nutrition behavior of a group of African American expectant mothers and the experience of their health care providers and co-facilitators had a goal to provide a foundation for future development of nutrition behavior research and education for this specific population. The main finding of this study was the substantial gap of lived experience and education between the patients and their providers and co-facilitators, which hinders delivery of care and the patients’ acquiescence to nutrition recommendations. The discrepancies between the authoritative knowledge of the providers and the bodily knowledge of expectant mothers were responsible for the ineffectiveness of nutrition recommendations.
Date: May 2015
Creator: Fowler, Rebecca (Public health researcher)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Understanding the RCS Way: A Study of Organizational Culture

The quality of workplace morale can positively and negatively affect employee engagement. Engaged employees are more likely to participate in active communication with one another. They are also more likely to adopt the organizational goals and work towards creating a productive work environment. Communication and engagement build trust. Established trust between employees and executive leadership is a delicate relationship to maintain, though it is necessary when contending with periods of stress. The organization profiled below experienced the stressor of needing to grow without alienating those afraid of change or used to operating in one predictable direction. There was a desire to generate engagement, build trust and make room for employee-directed change. This desire left the organization open to exploring its culture and its impact on employee engagement.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Terry, Vanessa S.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Effect of Online Consumer Reviews and Brand Equity on the Consumer Decision Making Process

This research aims to investigate the (1) review effects on consumer decision making process, (2) effects of negative reviews on brand equity, and (3) consumers' likely response to a brand's request for reviews. The objective of the first essay is to investigate the nature of the relationship between skepticism and consumer decision making in an online behavior context. Its second objective is to know whether people's belief on their abilities or their hedonic principle moderates the relationship between a person's skepticism toward online reviews and their reliance on online reviews. The objective of the second essay is to explore whether negative online reviews that focus on service quality specific dimensions have a different effect on a service organization's perceived brand equity. Its second objective is to analyze the role of emotional contagion in the relationship between negative reviews related to various service quality dimensions and its effect on perceived brand equity. The main objective of the third essay is to know whether consumers are more likely to write an online review for a brand when the request comes from a higher equity brand. This essay also investigates how message trust and persuasion knowledge influence the relationship between a brand's request …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Ahmad, Fayez
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