UNT Theses and Dissertations - 21,383 Matching Results

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Self-Other Perceptions under Challenge: a Personal Construct Approach to Hostility and the Type A Behavior Pattern: The purpose of the study was to determine if exposure to a challenging interpersonal situation would have an adverse impact on intra- and interpersonal constructs. Individual difference variables including level of hostility and anger, Type A behavior, control in social situations, depression and sex were examined as "predictors" of those more likely to be adversely affected by personal challenge. Eighty subjects, 40 male and 40 female, completed questionnaires at a pretesting session including measures of hostility, the Type A behavior pattern, trait anger, exaggerated social control, depression, and self-other constructs. Twenty subjects then participated in a "supportive" role-play condition where the confederate was agreeable and friendly. Sixty subjects participated in a "challenge" role-play condition; the confederate was disagreeable, confrontive, and unpleasant. The posttesting measures were then completed.
Self-Perceived Administrative Leadership Styles of Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Deans in Public Community and Junior Colleges inTexas: The major purpose for this study was to determine the self-perceived leadership styles of the presidents, vice-presidents, and deans of public community and junior colleges in Texas in 1994. Administrators' choices of leadership style were also compared with personal characteristics of leaders, such as age, gender, title, number of years in current position, number of years in current institution, number of years in administration, degree earned, number of years in teaching, and number of full-time subordinates. The backgrounds of the administrators, particularly their previous experience, control over their respective budgets, size of their budgets (state, local, other, percentage of workers' compensation), and the ethnicity of leaders, were also examined. The Styles of Leadership Survey and a Demographic Information Form were used to collect the data.
Self-Perceived Information Seeking Skills and Self-Esteem in Adolescents by Race and Gender: The purpose of this study was to explore the correlation between self-perceived information seeking skills and self-esteem in adolescents and, further, to determine whether this correlation varied according to race and gender. Tenth-grade students from three public high schools in a Midwestern city were given two instruments. Self-perceived information seeking skills were measured using a modified version of the Information Skills Checklist from High Plains Regional Technology in Education Consortium's Profiler website. Self-esteem was measured by the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, which is designed for students 12 years of age and over. The scale has six separate measures of self-esteem: physical, moral-ethical self, personal self, family self, social self and academic self. These six measures are used to determine overall level of self-esteem. The results showed a statistically significant correlation between self-perceived information seeking skills and at least one facet of self-esteem for all groups measured, with one exception. African American males were the only adolescents to show no correlation between scores from these two instruments. It is hoped that this research will ultimately be used to develop policies regarding the development of information seeking skills in disenfranchised groups.
Self-Perception of Health: A Proposed Explanatory Model and a Test of its Clinical Significance: A multivariate model of health self-perceptions was postulated based upon a comprehensive set of health related variables suggested by previous bivariate research. Components of the model included measures of health attitudes, health practices, health locus of control, a measure of stress/ coping, and a physical health measure. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 10 8 subjects based upon the external measure of physical health which included categories ranging from disability-severe to symptom free-high energy level. All subjects completed a health questionnaire comprised of measures of the model components, two measures of health self-perceptions, and the Health Resource Task, an author designed instrument measuring a subject's ability to generate flexible health alternatives/resources. Bivariate correlational analysis revealed that the physical health, stress/coping, health practices, and locus of control measures and certain of the health attitude subscales were significantly correlated to general health self-ratings. A multivariate model including these variables accounted for almost 50 percent of the variance in one of the general health self-ratings measures and approximately 38 percent of the variance in the Health Resource Task. Suggestions for refining the proposed model were made.
Self-Perception of Objectivity in the Use of the TTAS: The purpose of this study was to determine if appraisers using the TTAS in Texas perceived themselves as being objective in the evaluation process. The population for this study was 213 appraisers, both elementary and secondary, chosen randomly from four educational service areas in four regions of Texas. Data were obtained from a 25-item questionnaire mailed to the appraisers. The organization of this study includes a statement of the problem, the research questions, a review of the literature, the methods and procedures used to collect the data, the analysis of the data, and a summary of the findings, conclusions, implications, and recommendations for additional research. Data from the 213 returned questionnaires were treated with the chi-square test of independence. The analysis of data revealed the following: 1. Regardless of the level, elementary or secondary, of the administrator, the majority of respondents held the same views. 2. Regardless of the region of Texas from which the respondents came, the majority of respondents held the same views. 3. Regardless of the number of years of experience of the appraisers, the majority of respondents held the same views. 4. The majority of respondents felt they are objective in their use of the TTAS. The implications are that the TTAS instrument is being used as was its intention, and that the appraisers feel comfortable in the use of the TTAS. Since the TTAS is effective as seen through a majority of respondents, it may be used in future revisions of the current instrument or by other districts as a model by which to begin construction of their own appraisal instruments.
Self-Portrayal in the Plays of Ben Jonson: The purpose of this study was to discover to what extent Ben Jonson revealed himself in his plays and to explain how this self-portrayal has been effected.
Self-Ratings on Traits Associated with Creativity as Related to Performance on Two Tests of Creative Ability: The first objective of this thesis was to determine the relationship between scores on the AC Test of Creative Ability and scores on the Cree Questionnaire. This task was undertaken as a response to the scarcity of comparative data among the few objective measures of creative ability which are currently available. The second objective was to construct a self-rating scale of personality traits shown by past research to be associated with creativity. The third objective was to investigate the relationship between scores on each of the two standardized measures of creative ability and scores on the self-rating scale of traits related to creativity.
Self-Rationalization and Two Aspects of the Self-Concept: The Social Self and the Private Self: The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to investigate the relationship between self-rationalization and self-concept, and (2) to investigate the relationship between two different types of self-concept, the private self or what a person thinks about himself and the social self or what a person thinks other people in his psychological group think about him.
Self-regulated Learning Characteristics of Successful Versus Unsuccessful Online Learners in Thailand: The purpose of this study was to identify the existing level of self-regulated learning (SRL) among Thai online learners, to examine the relationship between SRL and academic achievement based on a) course completion and b) course grades, and to investigate differences in SRL as they correlate to demographic factors. A mixed-methods research design with modified MSLQ online surveys and semi-structured interviews was used during the process of data collection. One hundred eighty-eight of the 580 online learners enrolled in the certificate programs of the Thailand Cyber University Project responded to the surveys; 7 of these also participated in the interview process. The findings indicated that Thai online learners reported high levels of SRL characteristics. Independent sample t-test results revealed that successful learners were higher in SRL learning strategies than those who did not succeed the course. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that critical thinking and time/study environmental management were significant predictors of academic course grade with a small effect size (R2 = .113). Comparison of mean differences revealed that some SRL characteristics were different among demographic subgroups determined by factors including gender, age range, marital status, and Internet use; female reported a significantly higher level of task value than male; younger learners had a significantly higher level of test anxiety than older learners; married learners reported a significantly higher level of self-efficacy and task value than single learners; online learners who had more Internet experience reported a significantly higher level of self-efficacy, metacognitive self-regulation, and time/study environmental management than those who had less Internet experience. In addition, the qualitative findings confirmed that participants reported the use of learning strategies in four categories, with a high number of references to metacognitive self-regulation and elaboration, and a low number of references to critical thinking and time/study environmental management. Furthermore, the qualitative …
Self-Reported Feelings of Shame and Fear of Failure among High Ability Undergraduates: Understanding how emotions influence motivation among students is critical to the talent development process. Research shows that certain emotions elicit an approach motive while other emotions elicit an avoidance motive. This study explored emotional disposition and fear of failure among undergraduates enrolled in honors college (n = 63) compared to undergraduates enrolled in regular college courses (n = 296). Results suggest that dispositional shame is positively correlated with fear of failure; however, neither gender nor enrollment in honors college predict fear of failure beyond dispositional shame. Students enrolled in honors college do not differ on measurements of shame and fear of failure compared to students not enrolled in honors college. In general, female undergraduates were more likely to report experiences of shame, guilt, fear of shame and embarrassment, and fear of devaluing one's self-estimate than their male peers. The findings are discussed in light of a need to understand high-ability college students.
Self-Structure: Relationship with the Prediction of Behavior and Life History from Thematic Projections: Slides of TAT cards 1 and 2 were shown to 87 college students asked to write stories about them. Subjects also ranked the importance of 5 attributes in understanding their personalities. Attribute scores from projections and centrality scores from rankings, for achievement and autonomy, were regressed onto college GPA, trail-making, and autonomy by life history. Predictions failed to reach suitably low significance levels. Subscaling the life history questionnaire by factor analysis and subsequently regressing toward subscales resulted in multiple correlation significant at p < .01. Important to the model was the significant (p < .02) improvement in using the attribute by centrality interaction over either variable alone. Results were discussed in terms of a cognitive model for projectives.
Self-Weighing: Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Relations to Retired Female Athletes' Disordered Eating Attitudes and Behaviors: Elite and collegiate athletes are subpopulations at increased risk for the development of disordered eating and pathogenic weight management strategies; such risks may extend beyond sport participation into sport retirement. As athletes self-weigh, whether during their time in competitive sport or in retirement, it would be expected that they also experience increases in body dissatisfaction and psychosocial distress. Results suggest both a longitudinal impact, as well as continued cross-sectional relationships between SW and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, former SW (at Time 1) is related to their levels of body satisfaction in relation to the Body factor and the Overall Body at Time 2. Particularly, athletes who weighed themselves 7+ more times a week reported significantly higher levels of body dissatisfaction on the Overall Body factor and the Body factor than retired athletes who did not self-weigh, all other groups did not differ significantly from each other. Cross-sectional relations were found between current (Time 2) SW and Body Satisfaction (Overall Body, and Body factors), Dietary Restraint, and Bulimic Symptomatology. In all cases, those who engaged in SW 7+ times per week had significantly higher scores than all other groups.
Selling Humans: the Political Economy of Contemporary Global Slavery: Human trafficking is a growing illegal crime, both in terms of numbers and profits. Thus, important to consider, as it is a human rights, political, criminal justice, national security, and economic issue. Previous studies have these examined these human trafficking factors independently, yet none have really taken into account how they work simultaneously. This study examines why human trafficker continues to occur, particularly at the domestic and transnational level, and also why some countries are better able to effectively deal with this problem in terms of criminalizing human traffickers. It is argued that at the domestic level, traffickers first must take into account the operating costs, illegal risks, bribery, and profits of the business. After considering these basic elements, they then need to consider the world, including economic, political, geographic, and cultural factors that may help facilitate human trafficking. However, human trafficking can occur across large geographic distances, though rare. This is more likely to happen based on the type of human trafficking group, available expatriate or immigrant networks, the origin-transit-destination country connection, or strength of the bilateral economic relationship between origin and destination countries. Finally, looking at why some countries are better able to criminalize traffickers helps us to better understand how human trafficking can be discouraged. In short, conformity of a country’s domestic anti-human trafficking law, as well as the degree of enforcement, should increase the probability of criminalizing a human trafficker. These three theoretical arguments help to better understand the nature of the business, and more importantly, why human trafficking continues.
SEM Predicting Success of Student Global Software Development Teams: The extensive use of global teams to develop software has prompted researchers to investigate various factors that can enhance a team’s performance. While a significant body of research exists on global software teams, previous research has not fully explored the interrelationships and collective impact of various factors on team performance. This study explored a model that added the characteristics of a team’s culture, ability, communication frequencies, response rates, and linguistic categories to a central framework of team performance. Data was collected from two student software development projects that occurred between teams located in the United States, Panama, and Turkey. The data was obtained through online surveys and recorded postings of team activities that occurred throughout the global software development projects. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) was chosen as the analytic technique to test the model and identify the most influential factors. Individual factors associated with response rates and linguistic characteristics proved to significantly affect a team’s activity related to grade on the project, group cohesion, and the number of messages received and sent. Moreover, an examination of possible latent homogeneous segments in the model supported the existence of differences among groups based on leadership style. Teams with assigned leaders tended to have stronger relationships between linguistic characteristics and team performance factors, while teams with emergent leaders had stronger. Relationships between response rates and team performance factors. The contributions in this dissertation are three fold. 1) Novel analysis techniques using PLS-PM and clustering, 2) Use of new, quantifiable variables in analyzing team activity, 3) Identification of plausible causal indicators for team performance and analysis of the same.
A Semantic Analysis of the Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Functioning of Certain Taboo Terms Used in Three Contemporary Films: This thesis examines four taboo words (Jesus, God, fuck, ass) used in the films Jaws, Shampoo, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The dominant method of research is semantic, drawing on language theories of I.A. Richards and Alfred Korzybski. Investigation led to these conclusions: (1) Symbolic use of taboo terms is accompanied by positive attitudes, while non-symbolic use, which is more frequent, is accompanied by negative or neutral attitudes. (2) Casual non-symbolic pronunciation is leading to separation of the symbol from its referent. (3) Through this methodology, it is possible to ascertain the speaker's intent and his attitude toward the audience, but not his attitude toward the referent.
Semantic Change in Biblical Translation: Tracing semantic change in various translations of The Bible.
Semantic Changes in Native English Words: This study describes meaning changes that have occurred in the native word stock of English. Since no existing studies are devoted solely to investigating semantic change in Old English words, this study tries to illustrate word histories through examples of usage in the past and by a discussion of causes for change.
The Semantic Differential as a Measure of Sexual Differences: The purpose of this research study was to determine whether the semantic differential could measure in the college population the variation in meaning of selected masculine and feminine concepts as a function of sex difference.
A Semantic Field Approach to Passive Vocabulary Acquisition for Advanced Second Language Learners: Current ESL instructors and theorists agree that university students of ESL have a need for a large passive vocabulary. This research was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of a semantic field approach to passive vocabulary acquisition in comparison to a traditional approach. A quantitative analysis of the short-term and long-range results of each approach is presented. Future research and teaching implications are discussed. The outcome of the experimentation lends tentative support to a semantic field approach.
Semantic Shift and the Link between Words and Culture.: This thesis is concerned with the correlation between cultural values and the semantic content of words over time; toward this purpose, the research focuses on Judeo-Christian religious terminology in the English language. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is of central interest to this study, and the implications of the hypothesis, including a bidirectional interpretation allowing for both the influence of language on worldview and culture on language, is of great relevance to the research findings and conclusions. The paper focuses on the etymology and sources of religious terminology in the English language, the prominent category of terms with both religious and secular applications attained through semantic shift, and the role of religious words as English taboo. The research findings imply that a bidirectional understanding of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the correct one. This is achieved both through analysis of historical events and linguistic development which emphasize the speaker's role in language development and through the study of societal values that are reinforced through linguistic practices, namely taboo.
The Semantics of the Motives and Linear Voice Leading in the First and Second Movements of Korngold's Violin Concerto, Op. 35: This dissertation aims to examine the motivic voice leading of the first two movements of Korngold's Violin Concerto, Op. 35 to illuminate the interwoven motives within the underlying structures of the movements. The analysis principally concentrates on two main motives: the motivic tritone and rising-third motives. Moreover, the analysis of Korngold's motivic writing further investigates the semantics that are evoked by the technical aspects. With his exceptional ability to interconnect music to narratives both in operas and films, Korngold never ceased to express the recurring themes of love and revival also in his instrumental music. It is noteworthy that he borrowed only the "love themes" from his film scores for the first two movements of the violin concerto. The violin concerto was the first work written after Korngold returned to absolute music after a decade of composing for films to ensure his and his family's survival during the war. After the Anschluss, during his exile in California as a Jewish refugee, Korngold's love for his homeland Austria, his philanthropic concern for humanity, and longing for peace became his primary focus; these concerns are reflected in his Violin Concerto through his use of specific motives. By researching the historical and biographical materials, as well as employing linear analysis, this study seeks to explore the meanings of the linear motives in Korngold's music; more specifically, it attempts to show how particular motivic figures and tonal structures express the composer's ideas of transcendental "love." It argues that an in-depth understanding of both the technical and semantic aspects is also the first and foremost requirement for performing this piece.
Semaphore Solutions for General Mutual Exclusion Problems: Automatic generation of starvation-free semaphore solutions to general mutual exclusion problems is discussed. A reduction approach is introduced for recognizing edge-solvable problems, together with an O(N^2) algorithm for graph reduction, where N is the number of nodes. An algorithm for the automatic generation of starvation-free edge-solvable solutions is presented. The solutions are proved to be very efficient. For general problems, there are two ways to generate efficient solutions. One associates a semaphore with every node, the other with every edge. They are both better than the standard monitor—like solutions. Besides strong semaphores, solutions using weak semaphores, weaker semaphores and generalized semaphores are also considered. Basic properties of semaphore solutions are also discussed. Tools describing the dynamic behavior of parallel systems, as well as performance criteria for evaluating semaphore solutions are elaborated.
Semi-continuity and Related Properties: The elementary notion of a function originated in the work of mathematicians of the seventeenth century, and was somewhat closely connected with investigations in the field of algebra. This paper will be concerned with an investigation of a generalized type of continuity known as semi-continuity.
Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercises: Understanding the Prevalence and Purposes within the Collegiate Voice Instructor Population: Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTEs) have been a topic of research and interest among voice specialists for over three decades. An SOVTE is "any exercise in which the vocal tract is made partially closed at or near the lips." When this kind of occlusion occurs there are numerous consequences that follow, but of primary interest is a beneficial change of impedance. These beneficial changes are still being studied, but efficiency in phonation, as well as a shift in the configuration of the vocal folds during phonation are two significant findings thus far. Efficiency in vocal production is paramount to a performer's vocal health. Therefore, a dissipating impedance or a hindering reactance would be undesirable. Research over the last three decades has largely addressed the degree of reactive inertance possible through such impedance and its health benefits on the speaking and singing voice. The performing arts health aspects of these benefits are increasingly relevant to professional voice users. Although research on SOVTEs has become plentiful and widely available to voice teachers, it is unknown how or if this population is digesting the current performing arts health research and implementing it within their vocal instruction. Understanding the extent to which SOVTE science is known and implemented by the current voice-teaching population could inform the current and future voice-science community on how to best alter the dissemination of upcoming research.
Semi-supervised and Self-evolving Learning Algorithms with Application to Anomaly Detection in Cloud Computing: Semi-supervised learning (SSL) is the most practical approach for classification among machine learning algorithms. It is similar to the humans way of learning and thus has great applications in text/image classification, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, robotics etc. Labeled data is hard to obtain in real life experiments and may need human experts with experimental equipments to mark the labels, which can be slow and expensive. But unlabeled data is easily available in terms of web pages, data logs, images, audio, video les and DNA/RNA sequences. SSL uses large unlabeled and few labeled data to build better classifying functions which acquires higher accuracy and needs lesser human efforts. Thus it is of great empirical and theoretical interest. We contribute two SSL algorithms (i) adaptive anomaly detection (AAD) (ii) hybrid anomaly detection (HAD), which are self evolving and very efficient to detect anomalies in a large scale and complex data distributions. Our algorithms are capable of modifying an existing classier by both retiring old data and adding new data. This characteristic enables the proposed algorithms to handle massive and streaming datasets where other existing algorithms fail and run out of memory. As an application to semi-supervised anomaly detection and for experimental illustration, we have implemented a prototype of the AAD and HAD systems and conducted experiments in an on-campus cloud computing environment. Experimental results show that the detection accuracy of both algorithms improves as they evolves and can achieve 92.1% detection sensitivity and 83.8% detection specificity, which makes it well suitable for anomaly detection in large and streaming datasets. We compared our algorithms with two popular SSL methods (i) subspace regularization (ii) ensemble of Bayesian sub-models and decision tree classifiers. Our contributed algorithms are easy to implement, significantly better in terms of space, time complexity and accuracy than these two methods for semi-supervised …
Semiconducting Aromatic Boron Carbide Films for Neutron Detection and Photovoltaic Applications: Semiconducting aromatic-boron carbide composite/alloyed films formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition from carborane and aromatic precursors have been demonstrated to be excellent detectors for thermal neutrons because of the large 10B cross section. The electronic properties of these films derived from XPS show that the properties of boron carbide can be tuned by co-deposition of aromatic compounds and carborane. Aromatic doping results in narrower indirect band gaps (1.1 - 1.7 eV vs ~3 eV for orthocarborane-derived boron carbide without aromatics) and average charge transport lifetimes (as long as 2.5 ms for benzene-orthocarborane and 1.5 - 2.5 ms for indole-orthocarborane) that are superior to those of boron carbide (35 µs). The films also show enhanced electron-hole separation that is also superior to those of boron carbide where the states at the top of the valence band is made of aromatic components while states at the bottom of the conduction band is a combination of aromatic and carborane moeities. These properties result in greatly enhanced (~850%) charge collection, relative to films without aromatic content, in thermal neutron exposures at zero-bias, and are gamma-blind. Such films are therefore excellent candidates for zero-bias neutron detector applications. These properties also show little variation with increasing aromatic content beyond a critical concentration, indicating that at some point, excess aromatic results in the formation of regions of polymerized aromatic within the film, rather than in additional carborane/aromatic linkages. While previous studies on these aromatic-boron carbide materials indicate the potential for neutron detection due to the narrowed band gap, enhanced electron-hole separation and charge transport lifetimes compared to the boron carbide counterpart, the mechanisms of charge transport and photoconductivity (important for photovoltaic applications) of these materials have remained unexplored. Properties such as narrowed band gap, efficient electron-hole separation and long charge transport lifetimes, are also desirable in …
Semiglobalization: Institutional Effects on Multilatina Cross-Border Acquisitions: The internationalization research domain has predominantly focused on country level antecedents of firm level decisions, with particular emphasis on why certain countries are selected over others for foreign direct investment (FDI). This approach may oversimplify what actually occurs from both practical and research perspectives. Recently, MNE strategic orientation and conduct, as an outflow of a region-based localization perspective (i.e.,semiglobalization), has gained increased scholarly attention. The tradition of considering country level institutional environments may be more robustly informed by extending a paradigm which considers region-based institutions, in addition to country. Thus, in this study I examine institutional effects, as underpinned by institutional theory, on one segment of FDI decision making, cross-border acquisitions behavior, in an understudied context, Latin American MNEs (i.e., Multilatinas). Linear and mixed regression are used to test hypotheses, by examining a sample of all Multilatina CBAs exacted over a five year period (2007-2011)in targeting host country firms within eight geographic regions. Multilevel study results provide overarching support for hypotheses, that a Multilatina's internationalization into a country and region through cross-border acquisition equity participation is influenced by both country and region institutional environments. Contributions are made to the semiglobalization, cross-border acquisitions, institutions, and Multilatina literature streams through development of a more robust, multilevel perspective which more accurately captures how MNEs consider institutional environments in their international strategy and conduct.
Semigroups: This study of semigroups discusses groups, ideals, relations on semigroups, and relation classes in semigroups. Each topic is covered in some detail; but since this is a general study of semigroups, no topic dominates the paper. The definitions, theorems, and corollaries are supplied by Dr. August Lau, and all proofs are the work of Ms. Bryant.
Semigroups: The purpose of this paper is to present some fundamental properties of algebraic semigroups. The development of the theory of semigroups has appeared for the most part in the past few years of this century. A semigroup is the result of a weakening of the axioms for a group. Thus all groups are semigroups. That the study of semigroups is very closely related to the abstract study of general transformations is, perhaps, one of the reasons for the rapid development of semigroup theory.
Semitopological Groups: This thesis is a study of semitopological groups, a similar but weaker notion than that of topological groups. It is shown that all topological groups are semitopological groups but that the converse is not true. This thesis investigates some of the conditions under which semitopological groups are, in fact, topological groups. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with basic group theory and topology.
The Senate Apprenticeship Norm: A Longitudinal and Multivariate Investigation: This study has as its central focus an investigation into the existence and nature of the apprenticeship norm in the United States Senate. Over its history, the Senate has been frequently portrayed as a body guided by rather restrictive, informal rules of behavior for its members. The apprenticeship norm has been identified by some as the most important of these rules; contributing to the Senate's centralized and conservative policy orientation. More recently, however, it has been argued that the Senate has become a more decentralized and fragmented body within which the apprenticeship norm is no longer important. The present study offers for the first time an empirical test of the existence and nature of the apprenticeship norm for selected sessions of the Senate for the time period 1940-1976. The frequency of performance of various types of floor activity by members of the Senate were correlated and regressed with years of service in the Senate as well as with other background characteristics of Senators to test both for the existence of the apprenticeship norm as well as to identify its relevance relative to other potential explanations of Senate floor behavior. Several definitions of apprenticeship were advanced and tested.
Senate Bill 351's Effect on School Finance Equity in Texas: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Senate Bill 351 on public school finance equity in Texas and to provide information to those concerned with the financing of schools in this state. Data provided by the Texas Education Agency were used to determine differences in expenditures per student and local tax rates before and after the implementation of Senate Bill 351.
Senecan and Other Influences on Six Elizabethan Revenge Plays: This thesis traces the revival of Senecan tragedy from 1570 to the end of the sixteenth century through some of the earlier translations, adaptations, and imitations, and to evaluate the significance of the final evolution of such works into the Elizabethan tragedy of revenge.
Senior Graduating Nursing Students: Career Choices in Gerontological Nursing in Response to Expanding Geriatric Population: Access to healthcare is needed and wanted by people of all ages and especially by those of the older population. The number of people in the 65 years of age and older population is rapidly growing with their needs expected to have a significant impact on the existing healthcare system and healthcare providers. The impact will be critical given the severe shortage of healthcare providers, especially of nurses and the rate of services being more often provided in non-hospital settings. The objectives of the study were to discover the plans of graduating nursing students as they choose their first place of employment, if they have future plans to pursue a nursing advance practice degree, and if they are very happy with their decision to become a nurse. Data for the study were obtained from a questionnaire presented to senior graduating nursing students. The findings were: (a) Most students prefer a hospital setting. (b) Younger students are three times as likely to seek out the hospital, and 1/3 of the students seek out the hospital setting because they were encouraged to become a nurse. (c) About 70% of the students want to work with their friends while 1/3 will seek the hospital worksite, as it is perceived as being the strongest resource in paying back loans. (d) Nearly 87% are considering the nursing advance practice role, and 52% have interest in the nurse practitioner role. The majority of students identified as very happy with their decision to become a nurse. This study provided insight for schools of nursing as they make curriculum decisions and to businesses as they learn of the preferences and plans of the new emerging nurses.
Sensible Sentiments : A Composition for Double Trio: The instrumentation is flute, B-flat clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, and cello. The individual movements last four and one-half, four, and six minutes, respectively, with a total duration of fourteen and one-half minutes. The first movement is a theme and a series of nine sections that employ the variation principle. The second movement is characterized by its slow tempo and by its texture which is almost entirely homophonic. It is primarily concerned with gradual timbral changes created by special effects. The third movement, which is rapid in tempo, employs one main theme which provides four motives. This material is developed throughout the movement by frequent changes in meter, range, texture, and dynamics.
Sensing and Decoding Brain States for Predicting and Enhancing Human Behavior, Health, and Security: The human brain acts as an intelligent sensor by helping in effective signal communication and execution of logical functions and instructions, thus, coordinating all functions of the human body. More importantly, it shows the potential to combine prior knowledge with adaptive learning, thus ensuring constant improvement. These qualities help the brain to interact efficiently with both, the body (brain-body) as well as the environment (brain-environment). This dissertation attempts to apply the brain-body-environment interactions (BBEI) to elevate human existence and enhance our day-to-day experiences. For instance, when one stepped out of the house in the past, one had to carry keys (for unlocking), money (for purchasing), and a phone (for communication). With the advent of smartphones, this scenario changed completely and today, it is often enough to carry just one's smartphone because all the above activities can be performed with a single device. In the future, with advanced research and progress in BBEI interactions, one will be able to perform many activities by dictating it in one's mind without any physical involvement. This dissertation aims to shift the paradigm of existing brain-computer-interfaces from just ‘control' to ‘monitor, control, enhance, and restore' in three main areas - healthcare, transportation safety, and cryptography. In healthcare, measures were developed for understanding brain-body interactions by correlating cerebral autoregulation with brain signals. The variation in estimated blood flow of brain (obtained through EEG) was detected with evoked change in blood pressure, thus, enabling EEG metrics to be used as a first hand screening tool to check impaired cerebral autoregulation. To enhance road safety, distracted drivers' behavior in various multitasking scenarios while driving was identified by significant changes in the time-frequency spectrum of the EEG signals. A distraction metric was calculated to rank the severity of a distraction task that can be used as an intuitive measure …
A Sensitive and Robust Machine Learning-Based Framework for Deciphering Antimicrobial Resistance: Antibiotics have transformed modern medicine in manifold ways. However, the misuse and over-consumption of antibiotics or antimicrobials have led to the rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Unfortunately, robust tools or techniques for the detection of potential loci responsible for AMR before it happens are lacking. The emergence of resistance even when a strain lacks known AMR genes has puzzled researchers for a long time. Clearly, there is a critical need for the development of novel approaches for uncovering yet unknown resistance elements in pathogens and advancing our understanding of emerging resistance mechanisms. To aid in the development of new tools for deciphering AMR, here we propose a machine learning (ML) based framework that provides ML models trained and tested on (1) genotypic AMR and phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) data, which can predict novel resistance factors in bacterial strains that lack already implicated resistance genes; and (2) complete gene set and AST phenotypic data, which can predict the most important genetic loci involved in resistance to specific antibiotics in bacterial strains. The validation of resistance loci prioritized by our ML pipeline was performed using homology modeling and in silico molecular docking.
Sensitive Microtiter Assays for NAD, NADP and Protein Quantification in Human Lymphocytes: Intracellular levels of NAD are of renewed interest in clinical and basic science research due to the new discovery of enzymes which utilize NAD as a substrate. Microtiter assays for the determination of NAD, NADP and protein were developed as modifications of previously published methods. The resulting assays are simple, cost effective and sensitive. An improved method of isolating lymphocytes was also developed. The resultant procedure requires one hour and removes greater than 99.9% of the platelets. Lymphocyte pools were stabilized with the addition of ADP-ribosyltransferase inhibitors and a modified extraction procedure. These studies have led to the development of a method for evaluation of NAD in human lymphocytes that is sensitive, selective and suitable for automation.
Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Occupancy-related Parameters in Energy Modeling of Unt Zero Energy Lab: The study focuses on the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of occupancy-related parameters using Energyplus modeling method. The model is based on a real building Zero Energy Lab in Discovery Park, at University of North Texas. Four categories of parameters are analyzed: heating/cooling setpoint, lighting, equipment and occupancy. Influence coefficient (IC) is applied in the sensitivity study, in order to compare the impact of individual parameter on the overall building energy consumption. The study is conducted under Texas weather file as well as North Dakota weather file in order to find weather’s influence of sensitivity. Probabilistic collocation method (PCM) is utilized for uncertainty analysis, with an aim of predicting future energy consumption based on history or reference data set. From the study, it is found that cooling setpoint has the largest influence on overall energy consumption in both Texas and North Dakota, and occupancy number has the least influence. The analysis also indicates schedule’s influence on energy consumption. PCM is able to accurately predict future energy consumption with limited calculation, and has great advantage over Monte Carlo Method. The polynomial equations are generated in both 3-order and 6-order, and the 6-order equation is proved to have a better result, which is around 0.1% compared with real value.
Sensitivity, Inspiration, and Rational Aesthetics: Experiencing Music in the North German Enlightenment: This dissertation examines pre-Kantian rational philosophy and the development of the discipline of aesthetics in the North German Enlightenment. With emphasis on the historical conception of the physiological and psychological experience of music, this project determines the function of music both privately and socially in the eighteenth century. As a result, I identify the era of rational aesthetics (ca.1750-1800) as a music-historical period unified by the aesthetic function and metaphysical experience of music, which inform the underlying motivation for musical styles, genres, and means of expression, leading to a more meaningful and compelling historical periodization. The philosophy of Alexander Baumgarten, Johann Georg Sulzer, and others enable definitions of the experience of beautiful objects and those concepts related to music composition, listening, and taste, and determine how rational aesthetics impacted the practice, function, and ultimately the prevailing style of music in the era. The construction, style, and performance means of the free fantasia, the most personal and expressive genre of the era, identify its function as the private act of solitude, or a musical meditation. An examination of pleasure societies establishes the role of music in performance and discussion in both social gatherings and learned musical clubs for conveying the morally good, which results in the spread of good taste. Taken together, the complimentary practices of private and social music played a significant role in eighteenth-century life for developing the self, through personal taste, and society, through a morally good culture.
The Sensitivity of Human Blood Plasma to the Coagulase Enzyme Secreted by Members of the Genus Micrococcus: The problem in this investigation consisted of, first, the isolation from human sources and identification of thirteen cultures of typical micrococci to be used as test organisms; second, the acquisition of blood plasma from thirty different human beings; and third, the determination of the possibility of individual variation in sensitivity of blood plasma to the micrococci used as test organisms as revealed by the coagulase test.
Sensitivity Training as a Method of Increasing the Therapeutic Effectiveness of Group Members: The purpose of this study was to determine if sensitivity training encouraged significantly more members to form mutually therapeutic relationships than did traditional group counseling, and to determine, if the members who formed the largest numbers of mutually therapeutic relationships increased both in self-awareness and self-actualization significantly more through sensitivity training than through the traditional form of group counseling. This study concluded from its findings that the sensitivity group members' relationships were more transitory or short-lived that were the relationships formed by the members of the traditional group. The formation of mutually therapeutic relationships, built on empathy, congruence, and positive regard, appeared to increase self-awareness, and a traditional form of group counseling may be better at achieving this than a sensitivity-training group. The sensitivity-training group appeared to deal best with material in the present, or "here-and-now," while the traditional group was more effective in dealing with intrinsic material outside the group and in the past.
Sensitization of Lanthanides and Organic-Based Phosphorescence via Energy Transfer and Heavy-Atom Effects: The major topics discussed are the phosphorescence sensitization in the lanthanides via energy transfer and in the organics by heavy atom effects. The f-f transitions in lanthanides are parity forbidden and have weak molar extinction coefficients. Upon complexation with the ligand, ttrpy (4'-p-Tolyl-[2,2':6',2"]-terpyridine) the absorption takes place through the ligand and the excitation is transferred to the lanthanides, which in turn emit. This process is known as "sensitized luminescence." Bright red emission from europium and bright green emission from terbium complexes were observed. There is ongoing work on the making of OLEDs with neutral complexes of lanthanide hexafluoroacetyl acetonate/ttrpy, studied in this dissertation. Attempts to observe analogous energy transfer from the inorganic donor complexes of Au(I) thiocyanates were unsuccessful due to poor overlap of the emissions of these systems with the absorptions of Eu(III) and Tb(III). Photophysics of silver-aromatic complexes deals with the enhancement of phosphorescence in the aromatics. The heavy atom effect of the silver is responsible for this enhancement in phosphorescence. Aromatics such as naphthalene, perylene, anthracene and pyrene were involved in this study. Stern Volmer plots were studied by performing the quenching studies. The quenchers employed were both heavy metals such as silver and thallium and lighter metal like potassium. Dynamic quenching as the predominant phenomenon was noticed.
A Sensory Tour of Cape Cod: Thoreau's Transcendental Journey to Spiritual Renewal: Predominantly darker than his other works, Cape Cod depicts Henry David Thoreau's interpretation of life as a struggle for survival and a search for salvation in a stark New England setting. Representing Thoreau's greatest test of the goodness of God and nature, the book illustrates the centrality of the subject of death to Thoreau's philosophy of life. Contending that Thoreau's journey to the Cape originated from an intensely personal transcendental impulse connected with his brother's death, this study provides the first in-depth examination of Thoreau's use of the five senses in Cape Cod to reveal both the eccentricities inherent in his relationship with nature and his method of resolving his fears of mortality. Some of the sense impressions in Cape Cod--particularly those that center around human death and those that involve tactile sensations--suggest that Thoreau sometimes tried to master his fears by subconsciously altering painful historical facts or by avoiding the type of sensual contact that aggravated the repressed guilt he suffered from his brother's death. Despite his personal idiosyncrasies, however, Thoreau persisted in his search for truth, and the written record of his journey in Cape Cod documents how his dedication to the transcendental process enabled him to surmount his inner turmoil and reconfirm his intuitive faith. In following this process to spiritual renewal, Thoreau begins with subjective impressions of nature and advances to knowledge of objective realities before ultimately reaching symbolic and universal truth. By analyzing nature's lessons as they evolve from Thoreau's use of his senses, this dissertation shows that Cape Cod, rather than invalidating Thoreau's faith, actually expands his transcendental perspective and so rightfully stands beside Walden as one of the fundamental cornerstones of his canon. In addition, the study proffers new support for previous psychoanalytical interpretations of Thoreau and his writings, reveals heretofore unrecognized historical …
Sentence Similarity Analysis with Applications in Automatic Short Answer Grading: In this dissertation, I explore unsupervised techniques for the task of automatic short answer grading. I compare a number of knowledge-based and corpus-based measures of text similarity, evaluate the effect of domain and size on the corpus-based measures, and also introduce a novel technique to improve the performance of the system by integrating automatic feedback from the student answers. I continue to combine graph alignment features with lexical semantic similarity measures and employ machine learning techniques to show that grade assignment error can be reduced compared to a system that considers only lexical semantic measures of similarity. I also detail a preliminary attempt to align the dependency graphs of student and instructor answers in order to utilize a structural component that is necessary to simulate human-level grading of student answers. I further explore the utility of these techniques to several related tasks in natural language processing including the detection of text similarity, paraphrase, and textual entailment.
Sentimentalism and the Survival of the Comedy of Manners as Reflected in the Farces of the Eighteenth Century: A farce, insofar as this study is concerned, is any afterpiece which has plot, dialogue, and characters. This embraces such widely scattered varieties as burlesque, dramatic satire, pastoral, comedy, and opera. This study embraces more than a hundred farces, the most popular ones of their day.
Separation and Characterization of Variant Forms of Phosphoglucose Isomerase: Purification and Structural Analysis of Active Site Peptides from Human and Rabbit Phosphoglucose Isomerase: A method has been developed for the rapid, quantitative separation of normal and abnormal phosphoglucose isoemrase allozymes from individuals heterozygous for genetic variant forms of the enzyme. The method utilizes a substrate gradient elution of the enzyme from carboxymethyl Biogel and is far superior in terms of resolution and recovery to methods based on electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing. Four different genetic variant forms of the enzyme were isolated and subjected to a systematic comparison of their physical, catalytic and stability properties. The physical and catalytic properties of the variants were similar; however, clear differences in the stability of the allozymes were apparent.
Separation-Individuation in Female Adult Development: This study examined separation—individuation developmental issues for young adult women, from the perspective of object-relations theory. Its purpose was to explore a woman's perception of her relationship with mother as it is affected by age and request for psychotherapy as well as the relationship between the mother-daughter bond and selfreported personality characteristics. Ninety-six women from 17 to 40 years of age volunteered to participate, and they were grouped into two age ranges. Life Stage 1 women were 17-22 years of age, while Life Stage 2 women ranged from 23-40. Within each Life Stage, the women were further categorized into clinical and non-clinical groups. All of the participants were college students and/or working women from clerical, managerial, and professional occupations who were recruited from their respective schools, jobs and outpatient clinics. Each woman completed the test packet which included a demographic data questionnare; the Identity vis-a-vis Mother Questionnaie (IVM-20) developed by Crastnopol (1980); the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ) and Rotter1s Locus of Control Scale. The IVM-20 contains four scales, each designed to measure a unique mother-daughter relationship: Individuated (Ind), Symbiosis (Syra), Practicing (Prac) and Distancing (Dist). Ind is supposed to reflect a healthy autonomy with a loving mother-daughter bond, while Prac should represent ambivalence toward mother. Sym represents an overly dependent relationship and Dist was designed to measure an angry rejection of mother.
The Separation of Rehabilitation from Production Costs in the Vocational Rehabilitation Workshop: The problem with which this study is concerned is the separation of rehabilitation from production costs in vocational rehabilitation workshops. Within workshops there are those functions and tasks—testing, counseling, and the administration thereof—which clearly are rehabilitative. The costs of these activities, therefore, are solely rehabilitation costs. In the production area of workshop operations, however, where production and rehabilitation efforts are intertwined, two kinds of costs are incurred simultaneously: (l) rehabilitation or training costs and (2) production costs. As yet, no generally accepted procedures exist for separating these joint costs.
The separation of rehabilitation from production costs in the vocational rehabilitation workshop: The problem with which this study is concerned is the separation of rehabilitation from production costs in vocational rehabilitation workshops. The problem exists within production operations of workshops where production and rehabilitation efforts are intertwined and the two kinds of costs are incurred simultaneously.

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