Search Results

Sources of Household Resilience during the 2018/2019 Saudi Floods

Description: This research studied the relationship between social capital and household resilience. In particular, how bonding and bridging relationships affect household resilience was the question selected to illustrate this relationship between social capital and household resilience. Moreover, how the vulnerability of household impacts household resilience was also empirically examined. Social capital theory and vulnerability paradigm studies were used to discover explanations for why and how social co… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Alshammari, Abdullah Fahad
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Consequences of Early Life Stage Thyroid Suppression on Immune Function in the Fathead Minnow (Pimephales promelas)

Description: Current evidence suggests that thyroid hormones (THs) may impact development of the immune system. However, studies that explore the role of THs in immune development are limited, and the mechanisms leading to alterations in immune function are poorly understood. It is important to elucidate the role of THs in immune development given that many environmental contaminants have been shown to disrupt TH homeostasis and may also have negative impacts on the immune system. As such, the main goal of … more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Thornton Hampton, Leah Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries

A Top-Down Policy Engineering Framework for Attribute-Based Access Control

Description: The purpose of this study is to propose a top-down policy engineering framework for attribute-based access control (ABAC) that aims to automatically extract ACPs from requirement specifications documents, and then, using the extracted policies, build or update an ABAC model. We specify a procedure that consists of three main components: 1) ACP sentence identification, 2) policy element extraction, and 3) ABAC model creation and update. ACP sentence identification processes unrestricted natural … more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Narouei, Masoud
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Performance Guide to George Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 25, Emphasizing Its Use of Romanian Lăutari Violin Techniques and Style

Description: In Romanian, the word lăutari refers to highly skilled professional Romani (Gypsy) musicians. By interacting with Romanian culture and tradition, the lăutari settled down in the country and developed a unique musical tradition. Their music is characterized by intricate, elaborate, and refined ornamentation; its execution requires a highly level of technique. George Enescu, regarded as Romania's most influential musician, was affected by lăutari music. He created a unique musical language that r… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Noh, Yuri
Partner: UNT Libraries

Perception of Falls and Confidence in Self-Management of Falls among Older Adults

Description: Mobility safety, especially fall prevention, plays a significant role in successful aging for older adults. Fall preventive programs aim to reduce risks for mortality from fall-related injuries among older adults. However, the covariation between personal perceptions of falls and factors and confidence of self-management in falls (CSMoF) is still under-studied despite its importance to fall prevention. Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) model, th… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Li, Qiwei
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Interlocal Competition and Local Fiscal Health

Description: A sizeable literature documents patterns of competition between local governments in metropolitan regions, while also exploring variation in such local government financial attributes as efficiency, budget size, fiscal disparity, and service equity, which are frequently bound together under the concept of fiscal health. However, the concept of fiscal health is broader and more sophisticated than any one fiscal measure, and empirical studies tend to focus only on multi-purpose governments. This … more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Park, Hyunggun
Partner: UNT Libraries

Fabrication of Nano-Channel Templates and a Study of the Electrical and Magnetic Properties of Nanowires Grown in Template Pores

Description: This thesis is a study of the structural, electrical and magnetic properties of indium antimonide (InSb) nanowires (NWs), that were synthesized by a template-assisted ordered growth technique via electrochemical deposition. InSb was chosen for this study because of its intrinsic properties that make it a material of choice for applications in high channel mobility, infrared (IR) sensing, thermoelectrics, and magnetoresistive sensing martials. This work has four main components: (i) Growth in co… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Singh, Abhay Pratap
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Charlotte Bray's "Here Everything Shines": Interview, Analysis and Performance Guide

Description: This dissertation examines a recent work for flute and piano, Here Everything Shines, by a living composer, Charlotte Bray, including a study, analysis and performance guide. The composition was largely inspired by the late Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora and her song Petit Pays. My research explores the influence of Évora's song on Here Everything Shines, including the melodic development, tonal center, style and freedom of her singing and the impact the song has on a performer's interpretat… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Kuscer, Lana
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Determinants and Consequences of Having a Chief Operating Officer

Description: This study examines the determinant and consequences of having a chief operating officer (COO). Specifically, we investigate chief executive officer (CEO) related factors that affect the choice to employ a COO and look into the impact of having a COO on firm operational efficiency using a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based measure. Although prior literature has extensively investigated the role of CEOs and chief finance officers (CFOs) on firm outcomes, few studies focus on the impact of CO… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Le, Linh
Partner: UNT Libraries

Resurrection Attempts: Essays

Description: This dissertation is composed of a critical preface, "Reconciling Art and Account in the Creative Essay," and the essay collection Resurrection Attempts: Essays. The preface situates the following essay collection within the genre of contemporary creative nonfiction. Specifically, it argues that genre-bending or genre hybridity are inherent and unavoidable features of creative nonfiction writing and should be celebrated, rather than denied or lamented. It points to other writers who deliberatel… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Al-Qasem, Ruby
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Inkjet Printed Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and Organohalide Perovskites for Photodetectors and Solar Cells

Description: This dissertation is devoted to the development of novel devices for optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications using the promise of inkjet printing with two-dimensional (2D) materials. A systematic approach toward the characterization of the liquid exfoliated 2D inks comprising of graphene, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), tungsten diselenide (WSe2), and 2D perovskites is discussed at depth. In the first study, the biocompatibility of 2D materials -- graphene and MoS2 -- that were drop cast onto… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Hossain, Ridwan Fayaz
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Privacy Preserving Machine Learning as a Service

Description: Machine learning algorithms based on neural networks have achieved remarkable results and are being extensively used in different domains. However, the machine learning algorithms requires access to raw data which is often privacy sensitive. To address this issue, we develop new techniques to provide solutions for running deep neural networks over encrypted data. In this paper, we develop new techniques to adopt deep neural networks within the practical limitation of current homomorphic encrypt… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Hesamifard, Ehsan
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Effective Leadership Practices in Improvement-Required Schools

Description: This mixed-methods study identified the effective practices of the principal and leadership team in an Improvement-Required (IR) high school that significantly influenced student achievement and guided their school from IR to a rating of Met Standard in one year. IR or F schools under the new system are schools that failed to meet the state accountability target goals. The high school in this study had a large culturally and economically diverse student population with a high percentage of En… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Kimm, Linda L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Mixed Method Inquiry into Student Academic Optimism: Validation of the Construct and Its Use to Give Voice to Latinx Student Experiences

Description: This study examined student academic optimism in four diverse North Texas school districts. This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to analyze results of an online administration of the survey, and Latinx student responses to a focus group protocol derived from the survey. Quantitative results indicate the individual scales making up the construct align with previous research results. The three scales were found to be strongly and significantly correlated, indicating the p… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Viamontes Quintero, Jesika
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Computational Study of Intermolecular Interactions in Complex Chemical Systems

Description: This work discusses applications of computational simulations to a wide variety of chemical systems, to investigate intermolecular interactions to develop force field parameters and gain new insights into chemical reactivity and structure stability. First, we cover the characterization of hydrogen-bonding interactions in pyrazine tetracarboxamide complexes employing quantum topological analyses. Second we describe the use of quantum mechanical energy decomposition analysis (EDA) and non-covalen… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Vazquez Montelongo, Erik Antonio
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Survey of 21st Century Gay-Themed American Art Songs for Baritone

Description: The majority of repertoire catalogs for singers, printed and digital, often list works by voice type, language, and/or genre. The 21st century has seen an emergence of online classical music catalogs where the user can seek repertoire by searching composers from underrepresented communities (i.e., women, Black, LGBTQ, Latinx). What does not currently exist is a resource that catalogs songs for solo voice dealing specifically with gay subject matter. This dissertation surveys seventeen 21st cent… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Cardwell, Robert Ewell
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Principal Leadership Behaviors that Affect Teacher Collective Efficacy

Description: Research continues to support the positive link between teacher collective efficacy and student achievement. The purpose of this study was to better understand how principal leadership behaviors affect teacher collective efficacy beliefs. The study was designed around Goddard, Hoy, and Hoy's construct of teacher collective efficacy, which is grounded on Bandura's efficacy constructs. The sequential mixed-methods study was designed to examine the perceptions of teacher participants from one T… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Prusak, Kyla J
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Conductor's Guide to Lionel Daunais's Figures de danse

Description: Lionel Daunais was an eminent and beloved 20th-century Québécois musician who contributed greatly to the performing arts in Canada. Through his work with the Trio Lyrique, Les Variétés Lyriques, and his numerous compositions, he wielded a potent sphere of influence on the Canadian musical landscape. Lionel Daunais's compositions constitute a significant oeuvre, comprising solo vocal works, song cycles, folksong arrangements, individual choral works, and multi-movement choral works. Marked by ir… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Murray, Brian C. (Brian Clark)
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

What do They Know about Science? Initial Certification Testing of Elementary Preservice Teacher Candidates

Description: Literature indicates that science content knowledge has long presented difficulties for preservice elementary teachers. Analyses of 473 scores from participants' attempts on an elementary certification exam, the TExES EC-6 Core Subjects, Science (804), were analyzed for this study to determine the impact of a physical science intervention that included demonstration lessons, microteaching, and reflection as part of a science methods course on science content knowledge. Analyses of scores for p… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Pope, Elisabeth
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Beyond Fourths and Pentatonics: A Critical Analysis of Selected Recordings of McCoy Tyner from 1962 to 1963

Description: In this paper, I explore the early musical language of McCoy Tyner. Today, Tyner is recognized mostly for his use of quartal harmony and pentatonic scales despite having made recordings in his early career that reflect a more mainstream approach. In an effort to expand how Tyner is represented, I argue that Tyner's early style was characterized by a graceful balance of tradition and innovation, a masterful blend of bebop syntax with pentatonic melodies and quartal harmonies. The recordings that… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Satterthwaite, Gregory
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Traffic Forecasting Applications Using Crowdsourced Traffic Reports and Deep Learning

Description: Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are essential tools for traffic planning, analysis, and forecasting that can utilize the huge amount of traffic data available nowadays. In this work, we aggregated detailed traffic flow sensor data, Waze reports, OpenStreetMap (OSM) features, and weather data, from California Bay Area for 6 months. Using that data, we studied three novel ITS applications using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs). The first experimen… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Alammari, Ali
Partner: UNT Libraries

Institutionalizing Atrocity: An Analysis of Civil War Legacy, Post-Conflict Governance, and State Behavior

Description: This dissertation examines the behavior of post-civil war governments and explores how the aftermath of civil war not only influences state behavior but how the previous conflict becomes institutionalized through a state's governance decisions. While post-civil war states will each have different governance needs as they endure the post-conflict environment, this dissertation contends that the governance decisions a state chooses are key to understanding, and potentially predicting, future gove… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Yates, Tyler
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Effect of Accelerated Instruction on Summer Regression

Description: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefit accrued to fifth-grade students who participated in a summer school accelerated instruction program utilizing accelerated instructional practices in a Texas school district. The secondary intent was to determine the program's effect on student regression or retention as measured by Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) scores and State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests in reading and mathematics. The district provided su… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Voss, Pamela J
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Key Factors in Developing a Successful Bond Referendum in Texas School Districts

Description: In May of 2002, Wichita Falls ISD, a district in Texas with a stagnate enrollment of 14,000 students for multiple years, asked for the community to support a $120 million bond to help cover the cost of four new elementary campuses and to maintain and upgrade aging facilities. The bond failed. Additionally, a 2004 bond failed again. Finally, in 2006, the district is finally able to pass a $60 million bond and only includes two new elementary campuses and no funding to address the aging facilitie… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Griffiths, Peter Edward
Partner: UNT Libraries
Back to Top of Screen