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Equine Assisted Activities And Therapies, Carol C. Petitto

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation is composed of three essays in which each carefully examines an important aspect of the field of equine assisted activities and therapies (EAAT). In the first essay, I review how equine assisted activities and therapies should be considered as an early intervention to help facilitate communication skills in children with autism. The majority of participants in NARHA programs have autism, and therefore it is critical to appraise the validity of EAAT as a positive intervention. Respondents of NARHA centers to a survey on their use of assessments in tracking the progress of their participants indicated that only 7% …

Cfd Applications In Airship Design, Kevin Shields

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis examines the aerodynamic characteristics and flight dynamics of a lighter-than-air airship using analytical and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Modern airships have frequently been proposed for military operations; one of which, designated YEZ-2A, was a prototype whose design was initiated during the 1980's. Designs were evaluated through the wind tunnel tests of a 1:75 scaled model performed by Gomes. His tests relied on surface roughening techniques to compensate for the inability to maintain Reynolds number similarity among scales.;Later, the scaled prototype would receive further attention during a CFD study at WVU. This study was undertaken to numerically simulate the …

Hardware, Software, And Low-Level Control Scheme Development For A Real-Time Autonomous Rover, Brenton K. Wilburn

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this research is to develop a low-cost autonomous rover platform for experiments in autonomous navigation. This thesis describes the design, development, and testing of an autonomous rover platform, based on the commercial, off-the-shelf Tamiya TXT-1 radio controlled vehicle. This vehicle is outfitted with an onboard computer based on the Mini-ITX architecture and an array of sensors for localization and obstacle avoidance, and programmed with Matlab/SimulinkRTM Real-Time Workshop (RTW) utilizing the Linux Real-Time Application Interface (RTAI) operating system.;First, a kinematic model is developed and verified for the rover. Then a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) feedback controller is developed for translational …

Four Trinity Sunday Cantatas By J. S. Bach: An Examination And Comparison, Jeffry Blake Johnson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While the four cantatas presented on Trinity Sunday during Bach's Leipzig years -- BWV 194, 176, 165, and 129 -- were all intended for the same liturgical day, a significant diversity exists among the four compositions. This diversity results from the variety of source material on which the cantatas were based, including material composed during the Leipzig years as well as material re-worked from previous Bach cantatas. The diversity also results from the different librettos and librettists that were utilized for the cantatas. Other factors include the variety of the cantatas' movement structures, performing forces, and the theological/philosophical themes that …

Time Tracking System, Varun Ambati

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Time Tracking System is a powerful, yet extremely easy-to-use time management and customer billing application. Time Tracking is an ideal solution for the Organization who needs to know how much time they spent on certain projects and how many hours they need to bill their clients for. Time tracking benefits organization as it maintains detailed statistics on whom and how spends the time on one or several projects, know how profitable the projects were for a certain client. The people who will benefit greatly from using Time Tracking are Software Developers, Web Designers, Project Managers, QA Specialist, Technical Support Specialists, …

The Fantasy Focus: A Content Analysis Of Sports Magazines Examining The Rise In Popularity Of Fantasy Games, Michael Conti

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Fantasy sports (FS) have become a mass phenomenon; it has been estimated that close to thirty million people play some form of fantasy sports, creating a multi-billion dollar market whose popularity and visibility have grown exponentially since its inception. This research examined the rise in popularity of FS with the Diffusion of Innovations theory used as a framework. A content analysis was conducted to gain insight on FS and various topics linked with the games, including social dynamics, gambling associations, and gender issues. Two coders examined fantasy content taken from issues of ESPN magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Sporting News from …

The Association Of Religiosity, Sexual Education, And Parental Factors With Risky Sexual Behaviors Among Adolescents And Young Adults, Kristin Haglund, Richard J. Fehring

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

This study examined the association of religiosity, sexual education and family structure with risky sexual behaviors among adolescents and young adults. The nationally representative sample, from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, included 3,168 women and men ages 15–21 years. Those who viewed religion as very important, had frequent church attendance, and held religious sexual attitudes were 27–54% less likely to have had sex and had significantly fewer sex partners than peers. Participants whose formal and parental sexual education included abstinence and those from two-parent families were 15% less likely to have had sex and had fewer partners.

Avid Through Student Perspectives: A Qualitative Study On Avid Students' Experiences In The Program, Aidee Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this research was to examine how Hispanic high school students represent their experiences in one college readiness program, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), which is designed to prepare students in the academic middle for four-year college. Utilizing social and cultural capital theories, I examined student perspectives on the supports AVID provided for them to gain the social and cultural capital needed for success in school and entry to college. I conducted eight forty-five minute semistructured interviews grounded in an ethnographic perspective. Eight participating AVID students came from low socioeconomic backgrounds, were Hispanics in the academic middle (GPA …

Photolithographic Fabrication Of 3d Penrose-Like Quasi-Photonic Crystal Polymeric Templates Utilizing Lab-Made Phasemask, Faraon Torres-Lazos

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Photonic crystals (PhC) have recently become of great interest because of their potential as replacement of electronics and/or supplement to semiconductors technology. The PhC’s capability to make compact integrated optical circuits has already made possible the laboratory manufacture of an array of different types of optical waveguides, cavities and filters. The work presented here aimed to simultaneously fabricate a 3D-PhC templates employing six-beam holographic lithography. The basic procedures included recording gratings using interference field of laser sources in a photoresist coating on a glass substrate. The manufacturing method utilized only one optical element, a phasemask, drastically reducing the complexity of …

A Critical Analysis Of The Identification, Placement, And Assessment Policies For Achieving Educational Parity Of Bilingual Learners, Lilia Rocio Estrada

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study analyzed the process of proper identification, placement, and assessment of Bilingual Learners (BLs) by investigating the perceptions of members in the Texas Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC). The findings focused on LPAC perceptions of their decisions to identify, place, and assess BLs as well as how these compared among members with different positions. Also, the LPAC members’ perceptions from schools that followed a dual language education program were compared to those schools that followed a transitional bilingual education program. It was found that majority of LPAC members lacked the confidence in assessing BLs, LPAC members holding higher positions …

Surface Optimization Of High Density Polyethylene And Carbon Nanofiber Composites For The Improvement Of Electromagnetic Shielding Effectiveness, Brandon C. Jarvis

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Nanoreinforced composites of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Carbon Nanofibers (CNF) of varying nanofiber concentration were fabricated via melt mixing. Following fabrication, various metal and metal-nitride thin films were sputter deposited upon the substrates. Volume resistivity measurements of the composite substrates, as well as four point probe analysis of the composites and the deposited films were performed and are reported. Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shielding Effectiveness (SE) measurements were performed upon all samples in order to gauge the effects of percolation and the presence of the deposited film(s) upon overall SE. Comparisons of experimental measurements with analytical models available in the …

False Positive Rates In The Neuropsychological Assessment Of Neurologically Intact Bilingual Hispanic American Adults, Cassandra Dayanira Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Hispanic Americans perform more poorly than White Americans on neuropsychological tests, leading to a higher misclassification rate of brain injury (false positives) among Hispanics when using the 50th percentile of published norms as the estimate of preexisting neuropsychological skill. This study aimed to determine if using an individual comparison standard to estimate preexisting skill levels would reduce the number of false positives in a sample of 20 bilingual Hispanic American adults. Two individual comparison standards were used: (a) WMLS-R Picture Vocabulary scores, and (b) WMLS-R Picture Vocabulary scores and WAIS-III Matrix Reasoning scores combined. Both individual comparison standards were found …

Estampas De Mi Tierra- Vignettes Of My Land, Angel Berrios

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

With the intention of expressing my heritage, I have recalled all of my artistic knowledge in order to create this series of art works. I am very much in agreement with the route of artistic expression that I have followed in order to capture these images. I have given form to my message by following a technique involving the application of a combination of strokes and dots of color. I do not have, nor did I use photographs or any other visual resource to aid me in the creation of these paintings. I am solely inspired by my ideals as …

Context Versus Rote Learning In The Martial Arts, Pearson F. Klein

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Research has shown that when learning martial arts katas, adults retained the information better “when the katas were taught with the context method than when the katas were taught with the no context method.” (Tovar, M.) It is imperative more experimentation be performed in this area because the findings do not relate to the population of children. Children between ages seven and twelve were instructed in two original katas utilizing two methods of instruction. First the katas with context were taught and then the other taught was purely based on rote completion of the sequential movements. Every subject was tested …

Experimental Evaluation Of Select Servers And Firewalls Under Denial Of Service Security Attacks, Raja Sekhar Reddy Gade

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Internet security requires newer prevention mechanisms to be implemented on web-servers and routers. Firewall/Intrusion Prevention mechanisms (IPS) can be deployed on host servers or routers as an added line of defense against Internet attacks. In this thesis, we evaluate performance of security mechanisms provided by these devices against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. The host based firewalls on Windows servers-2003 and 2008 were evaluated. In this thesis, we also evaluated Juniper Networks Netscreen-5GT firewall/IPS, and Cisco ASA-5510/IPS that are used in protecting web-servers against DDoS attacks. It was found that the host based firewalls and protection mechanisms on the …

Testing The Neutralizing Effects Of Nonverbal Teacher Immediacy Cues On Offensive Teacher Misbehaviors In Higher Education Classrooms, Claudia Esther Martinez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of nonverbal teacher immediacy cues can neutralize the negative impact that offensive teacher misbehaviors have on student perceptions of teacher credibility, affective learning, and motivation. The sample included a total of 140 participants enrolled in various undergraduate communication and theater courses from a southwestern university. Three one-way ANOVA tests were conducted to test the three hypotheses which proposed that nonverbal teacher immediacy cues may neutralize the negative impact that offensive teacher misbehaviors have on students’ perception of teacher credibility, affective learning, and motivation. Ultimately, findings revealed that teacher immediacy …

Worker Cooperatives And Revolution: History And Possibilities In The United States, Christopher Wright

Graduate Masters Theses

Worker cooperatives have a long and tortured history, but recently they have been advancing globally on a more stable foundation than before. In this essay I provide a theoretical context for the current growth of cooperatives, drawing on Marxist theory to illuminate their potential. I also consider the sociology and economics of worker cooperatives, in addition to expounding and evaluating their history in the United States.

A case-study of a cooperative printing press in Jamaica Plain gives a more intimate portrayal of worker co-ops, and hopefully provides lessons for future cooperators. I interpret society as on the cusp of a …

Gentility And Gender Roles Within The 18th-Century Merchant Class Of Newport, Rhode Island, Nicki Hise

Graduate Masters Theses

The Capt. Thomas Richardson household rose to prominence in Newport, Rhode Island during the community’s golden age of prosperity in the 18th century when Newport quickly became one of the leading seaports in the New World. However, all prosperity halted due to the hardships and damage Newport suffered during the American Revolutionary War. Much of the city’s property and economic success was destroyed at the hands of occupying British troops, and the Rhode Island community was never able to fully recover. Like others in colonial Newport, Capt. Thomas Richardson achieved genteel status as a merchant, distiller, and slave ship owner …

The Prairie Naturalist, Vol. 42, Issue 3/4, December 2010, The Great Plains Natural Science Society

The Prairie Naturalist

EDITOR'S NOTE: REPORTING RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS, PREPARING SCIENTIFIC MANUSCRIPTS, AND WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS • Christopher N. Jacques

Current Distribution of Rare Fishes in Eastern Wyoming Prairie Streams • Christina E. Barrineau, Elizabeth A. Bear, and Anna C. Senecal

Diets of Nesting Swainson's Hawks in Relation to Land Cover in Northwestern North Dakota • Robert K. Murphy

Resource Selection of Greater Prairie-Chicken and and Sharp-Tailed Grouse Broods in Central South Dakota • Mark A. Norton, Kent C. Jensen, Anthony P. Leif, Thomas R. Kirschenmann, and Gregory A. Wolbrink

Population Characteristics of Central Stonerollers in Iowa Streams • Scott M Bisping, …

Online Reproducible Research: An Application To Multivariate Analysis Of Bacterial Dna Fingerprint Data, Jean Thioulouse, Claire Valiente-Moro, Lionel Zenner

The R Journal

This paper presents an example of online reproducible multivariate data analysis. This example is based on a web page providing an online computing facility on a server. HTML forms contain editable R code snippets that can be executed in any web browser thanks to the Rweb software. The example is based on the multivariate analysis of DNA fingerprints of the internal bacterial flora of the poultry red mite Dermanyssus gallinae. Several multivariate data analysis methods from the ade4 package are used to compare the fingerprints of mite pools coming from various poultry farms. All the computations and graphical displays …

Staphylococcus Aureus Virulence Factors Synthesis Is Controlled By Central Metabolism, Yefei Zhu

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen that can survive in diverse host environments. This versatility depends on its ability to sense nutrients and respond by modulating gene expression, including the synthesis of virulence determinants. In addition to its ability to synthesize virulence factors, the capacity of S. aureus to form biofilms is an important mediator of virulence in certain infections. Biofilms are a complex aggregation of bacteria commonly encapsulated by an adhesive exopolysaccharide matrix (polysaccharide intercellular adhesin; PIA). To study S. aureus biofilm formation, we assessed the metabolic requirements of S. aureus growing in a biofilm and …

The Preservation Of Archaeological Records And Photographs, Kelli Bacon

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Substantive and organized research about archaeological records and photograph preservation, especially those written by and for archaeologists, are few. Although the Society for American Archaeology has a code of ethics regarding archaeological records preservation, and the federal government has regulations regarding the care and preservation of federally owned archaeological collections, there is a lack of resources. This is detrimental to archaeology because not all archaeologists, given the maturity of the discipline, understand how important it is to preserve archaeological records and photographs. Without documents and photographs from projects, irreplaceable information is lost. This thesis adds to the existing body of …

How The World Turns Quietly, Dana N. Boyer

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis is composed of original poems written while studying both writing and literature at the University of Nebraska. The introduction partially discusses the role that women have played in writing in the past century. It discusses the poetry of Elizabeth Spires, and the prose of Virginia Woolf and Tillie Olsen. More specifically, it focuses on the work that these authors have done on the subject of silence, focusing on whom and what have conspired to work against authors, specifically female ones. These obstacles include economic standing, gender, and emotional issues. The introduction then branches out to discuss the specific …

The Post-Nuclear Family And The Depoliticization Of Unplanned Pregnancy In Knocked Up, Juno, And Waitress, Kristen Hoerl, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women’s unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women’s reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women’s decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuclear family for single pregnant women, these films represent new iterations of post-feminism that ultimately restore conservative ideas that valorize pregnancy and motherhood as women’s imperatives. We conclude by addressing how these movies present a distorted and …

Factors Affecting Undergraduate Female Transfer Student Degree Completion Rates, Kristi A. Robey

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to explore what factors affect the degree completion rates of undergraduate female transfer students, ages 19 and older, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Five sub-research questions explored the areas of (a) common factors among the issues faced by the participants; (b) monetary issues’ affect on degree completion; (c) the affect of family responsibilities on persistence; (d) age as a possible factor in degree completion rates; and (e) the number of hours worked and the affect it has on degree completion rates. The study explored the reasons undergraduate female transfer students had for transferring …

An Investigation Of Sustainable Environmental Practices And Consumer Attitudes & Behaviors Toward Hotel Bathroom Amenities, Edward James Bobbett

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the 1980s hotel operators became concerned with greening and sustainability. It was at this time the hospitality industry began focusing on energy efficiency and the sustainable development of tourism (Chan & Lam, 2001; Welford, Ytterhus, & Eligh, 1999). Since then, a global trend has emerged as hotels introduce programs to reduce the amount of resources used and the overall environmental impact they have on the planet, or their carbon footprint. The hospitality industry has introduced programs such as recycling in both the front and back of the house, energy-efficient lighting, towel re-use programs, linen exchange programs, Green Certifications, and …

"For Such Is A Friend Now": Reflection And Revision In Shakespeare's Comic Friendships, Leah Rainell Boudreaux

Master's Theses

In early modem England, "friendship" was a term both flexible and deeply fraught. It could apply to a wide range of relationships, including, for example, those between family members, lords and tenants, or male members of the aristocracy. The ideals associated with friendship at that time had a profound impact on the way that the relationship was represented both in a historical and literary sense. During that time, William Shakespeare crafted remarkable and resonating depictions of friendship which have endured the through the ages. The distinction between Shakespeare's work and the work of other early modem writers lies in the …

Renewable Source Thermoplastics, Travis Palmer Ball

Master's Theses

This thesis is concerned with developing renewable resource thermoplastic materials to replace existing non-renewable or possibly hazardous industry standard products.

Cerenol TPU Incorporation

Dupont has recently developed a renewable source Polyol (Cerenol) which is derived from 1,3 propane diol processed from corn feeds. This material, which is a three carbon ether repeat unit, is in the pre-commercial stage and is meant to directly compete with petroleum based polyols as a drop-in replacement in thermoplastic polyurethanes. A model kinetic study was performed to compare relative reactivity of the Cerenol polyol to standard four carbon repeat unit petroleum-based polyol ether (PTMEG). A …

Neuroeconomics: Constructing Identity, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

The paper asks whether neuroeconomics will make instrumental use of neuroscience to adjudicate existing disputes in economics or be more seriously transformed by neuroscience in ways that might transform economics. The paper pursues the question by asking how neuroscience constructs an understanding of individuals as whole persons. The body of the paper is devoted to examining two approaches: Don Ross's neurocellular approach to neuroeconomics and Joseph Dumit's cultural anthropological science organization approach. The accounts are used to identify boundaries on single individual explanations. Within that space Andy Clark's external scaffolding view and Nathaniel Wilcox's socially distributed cognition view are employed.

Resilience In Family Members Of Persons With Serious Mental Illness, Jaclene Zauszniewski, Abir K. Bekhet, M. Jane Suresky

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

This integrative review summarizes current research on resilience in adult family members who have a relative with a diagnosed mental disorder that is considered serious. Within the context of resilience theory, studies identifying risk/vulnerability and positive/protective factors in family members are summarized, and studies examining seven indicators of resilience, including acceptance, hardiness, hope, mastery, self-efficacy, sense of coherence, and resourcefulness, are described. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research are presented.