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open access

Facilitating Positive Relationships between Patients and Foreign Born Providers in South Central Pennsylvania

Description: Foreign-born providers make up over a quarter of the physician workforce nationally. Patients in south central Pennsylvania are primarily white with limited interaction with foreigners which can produce barriers to communication and trust. This study proposes practical steps for building positive relationships between patients and their foreign-born providers. Ethnographic methods were used to interview and survey patients and providers about the relationships between foreign-born providers an… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Long, Janel Elaine Lehman
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Investigating the Impact of Patient-Provider Communication on HIV Treatment Adherence

Description: Today over 1.1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in the United States; over the last 4 decades mortality rates have decreased largely made in part because of advancement in awareness and treatment options. Treatment adherence has long been considered a vital component in decreasing HIV/AIDS related mortality and has proven to reduce the risk of transmission. However not all patients take their medicine as prescribed. This research study, sponsored by The North Central Texas HIV Planning C… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Barnes, Shelly Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Why Breastfeed? Understanding the Factors that Influence Women to Breastfeed in Southeast Fort Worth

Description: Today breastfeeding is a common conversation with the ever-growing holistic movement and the effort to 'go green' as demonstrated by the proliferation of the organic food industry in recent years within the United States. Breastfeeding may reduce poor health outcomes including infant morbidity and mortality. Infant mortality is a priority in Tarrant County within southeast Fort Worth as defined by this project’s client Healthy Moms – Healthy Babies – Healthy Community. The purpose of this resea… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Jimenez, Lesley S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Developing Policy for a Tech Program Based on Understanding Organizational Practices

Description: This thesis contributes to research that informs the studies of organizational management and organizational anthropology. It examines the internal hierarchy and organizational practices of a Tech Company and describes how findings contributed to policy recommendations aimed towards supporting a “guild” model for organizational success. The data collecting and research were undertaken while working as an employee of the Tech Program and subsequent analysis continued past the end of that phase o… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Machado Perez, Luis Daniel
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Understanding Road Use and Road User Interaction: An Exploratory Ethnographic Study Toward the Design of Autonomous Vehicles

Description: This thesis contributes to research that informs the design of autonomous vehicles (AVs). It examines interactions among various types of road users, such as pedestrians and drivers, and describes how findings can contribute to the design of AVs. The work was undertaken as part of a research internship at Nissan Research Center-Silicon Valley on the Human Understanding in Design team. Methods included video ethnography “travel-alongs” which captured the experience of travel from the point of vi… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: McLaughlin, Logan M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Identifying Breast Cancer Disparities in the African-American Community Using a Mixed Methods Approach

Description: Utilizing a mixed methods approach in assessing cities and metropolitan areas with the highest rates of breast cancer disparities in African-American communities, this study presents the Affiliate perspective of the Susan G. Komen non-profit organization in combination with available socioeconomic data and academic literature. Analyzed through an anthropological lens, qualitative and quantitative data illuminate the lived experiences and dynamic circumstances in which breast cancer disparities … more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Morrissey, Natalie Noel
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Understanding the Culture of Giving among Utility Fuel Fund Donors in Southern California

Description: The Energy Assistance Fund (EAF) is a voluntary, nonprofit fuel fund that provides grants to income qualified utility customers in an effort to help those customers avoid electricity service disconnection. The administering utility and the energy industry as a whole is undergoing transformative change, resulting in a projected decrease of fundraising capacity for EAF among its most substantial donor pool - utility shareholders and employees. Utility customers represent a small percentage of EA… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Sauer, Ashley
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Addressing Social Elements of Wildfire: Risk, Response, and Recovery in Highland Village, TX

Description: Representatives of the City of Highland Village expressed concern over the risk of wildfires for their community. Anthropology provides many tools for and examples of disaster assessment of preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. These tools combined with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can provide a holistic, cultural ecological look at how such a disaster may take place in the city. The project's methods included a detailed survey of preparedness steps which was analyzed usin… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: MacKinnon, Jessica
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Teacher Leadership Implementation: Change Agents in a Large Urban School District

Description: Education reform initiatives continue to push schools to improve methods of measuring accountability intended to improve student achievement in the United States. Federal programs like the Teacher Incentive Find (TIF) provide school districts with funds to develop and implement school accountability and leadership programs. Teacher leadership is one of the concepts being formally developed amongst these initiatives. My applied thesis project focused on work I conducted with a team of researcher… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Hickling, Alexandra K
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Exploration of College Attitudes among Sioux Falls High School Students

Description: Since the recession of 2008, there has been an increased scrutiny of higher education, with little research done on how this affects high school students' college search process. This study seeks to understand how college perceptions are formed and how they affect the college decision process of high school students in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In order to gain a holistic perspective of this process, this study utilized a mixed method approach of analyzing public data, conducting interviews wi… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Duesterhoeft, Kristin
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Sustainable Education: An Interfaith Climate Change Initiative

Description: This thesis is a study of religion and the environment in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and how participants define and interpret their religious duty toward nature. The literature is focused on the field of Christianity and Ecology from its historical development, culminating with a discussion of contemporary religious environmental activism. Utilizing a participatory action research framework, a sustainable education program was developed, focusing on the environmental ethics of Christianit… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Banis, Joshua Paul
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Aging Texas Well: An Assessment of Denton's Aging-Friendliness

Description: The purpose of this research was to conduct a needs assessment for the city of Denton, Texas to learn how residents view Denton's aging-friendliness. The research design was based on the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services' Aging Texas Well Toolkit and was funded by a two year grant from that agency. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to gather data on six community indicators: demographics, housing, transportation, health care (including mental health and substan… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Wolfe, Julia Rachel Weinstein
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Exploratory User Research for a Website that Provides Resources for Educators of American Indian Students in Higher Education

Description: Several studies have indicated that American Indian students in the United States higher education system confront unique challenges that derive from a legacy of colonialism and assimilationist policies (Huff 1997). Several scholars, American Indian and non-Native alike, have explored the effects of this history upon students in higher education (Brayboy 2004; Guillory and Wolverton 2008; Waterman and Lindley 2013). Very few, however, have explored the role of the educators of American Indian s… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Roth, Heather S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Negotiated Living: An Ethno-Historical Perspective of Punta Allen

Description: Situated within the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Tulum and within the Sian Ka'an Biosphere gives the village of Punta Allen a distinctive agency in determining their role in the on-going development of tourism in the region that is not given to other communities in the state. This unique circumstance facilitates a dialogue between the reserve, the municipality, and the business cooperatives of Punta Allen that produce a negotiated living. Through the negotiations with the reserve and Tul… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: McRae, David Thomas
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Ethiopian Coffee Stories: Applied Research with Sidama Coffee Farmers Combining Visual and Ethnographic Methods

Description: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the value of visual research methods to applied anthropology in the context of exploratory research with farmers in Ethiopia. The three methods of photo-elicitation, participatory photography, and ethnographic film, enrich and expand ethnographic methods to support the client's objective of supporting farmers. The applied project constructs a narrative from the local perspective to help consumers learn more about farmers' lives. The research focuses o… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Suter, Paula J.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Exploring Ahope Client Satisfaction and Attitudes

Description: I led a participatory action research (PAR) project with the staff and homeless clients of Ahope Day Center in Asheville, North Carolina, which was meant to evaluate client satisfaction with services and attitudes about certain issues. Project is led by an inquiry group consisting of members of Ahope staff and Ahope clients. The project is a co-designed, co-implemented, and co-interpreted mixed-method evaluation of Ahope's services, client attitudes about education and the environment, client a… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Johnston, Josiah Ramsay
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

High Driver Turnover among Large Long-Haul Motor Carriers: Causes and Consequences

Description: My thesis provides evidence supporting a theory asserting that the high level of competition that exists between motor carriers operating within long-haul trucking is the most significant factor contributing to the continuously high driver turnover rates affecting the entire logistics industry. I explore how long-haul truck drivers internalize the conflict between their identity and the aggressively competitive environment within which they work. Social science authors, industry reports, and tr… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Ferrell, Christopher Lee
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Giving Voice to Multiple Sclerosis: A Patient and Provider Investigation

Description: With the advent of the telephonic and technological healthcare revolution, pharmaceutical corporations seek to improve patient compliance and quality of life by contracting with services providers. As an employee of one such provider, working for more than three years on a medication for the neurologically degenerative disease, multiple sclerosis, this investigation utilizes a mixed methodological approach. In order to improve and diversify the clinical services provided to patients, I was cont… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Cutler, Alexander
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Universally Designed Playground Needs Assessment for Flag Pole Hill in White Rock Lake Park, Dallas, Texas

Description: There is limited anthropological research on inclusive play and universally designed playgrounds and this study aims to make some contribution in this field. This was a qualitative research study guided by anthropological theory and methods, conducted for For the Love of the Lake (FTLOTL) Foundation. FTLOTL is a non-profit organization located in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to White Rock Lake Park's maintenance. In 2014, FTLOTL became of the view that the park's current playgrounds lacked accessib… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Hasan, Hira
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Story of Pathfinders [Family Pathfinders]: Investigating the Impact, Experiences, and Context of Re-Entry Mentoring

Description: The United States has the largest population of imprisoned persons in the world. The vast majority of these individuals eventually leave prison and re-enter society, facing a number of challenges in the process. Those who are unable to successfully re-enter society run the risk of recidivating back into the prison system. Mentoring has the potential to promote successful re-entry and help offenders to get their lives back on track. Pathfinders of Tarrant County is a unique organization. It… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Hanich, Kristen Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

“Just Tell Me the Truth”: Understanding Health Risks and Community Perspectives in Karnes County, Texas, an Oil and Gas Community

Description: Using ethnographic research methods, I collaborated with the organization Earthworks to conduct a community assessment on the health issues related to the air quality in Karnes County, Texas, an oil and gas community. The research consisted of in-depth interviews with residents on their experiences and knowledge on the health issues associated to air quality. This research is going to be used to inform the community and develop strategies to empower community members in improving their environm… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Villa, Priscilla
Partner: UNT Libraries
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