The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce and provide a pedagogical guide for two etude works by Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961): Four Etudes on Songs of Brahms, Op. 88 (2004) and Four Etudes on Songs of Robert Franz, Op. 91 (2005). It includes a brief biography and observations on the compositional style of the composer; a history and development of the etude from the eighteenth century to Liebermann's time; research on Liebermann's works based on songs of other composers; and a pedagogical guide on how to approach each piece, covering four types of technical issues: articulation, phrasing, voicing of the melodic lines, and fingerings.

In 1895, Emil Georg Conrad Sauer (1862-1942), a world-renowned German pianist and former student of Franz Liszt wrote his first piano concerto, which was published five years later in 1900. Sauer performed it extensively to enthusiastic crowds in Europe and the United States while on tour during the next several years. Then it vanished from the concert repertoire. It is no longer performed and has only been commercially recorded once. The purpose of this dissertation is to establish why it might have disappeared, and why there is value in bringing it back to the standard piano repertoire.

Improvisation is an art form which has arguably been present since the existence of music itself. Inventing music on the spot, like spontaneous speech, is a common expression of artistry throughout history and across musical boundaries. While improvisation has maintained its importance in jazz, classical organ music and the music of many eastern cultures, this dissertation will focus on the presence of improvisation as acceptable performance practice within the tradition of western classical music. At several points in history, this musical tradition was encouraged and even expected to be a regular part of a musician's life, and yet in the classical music tradition of the twenty-first century, improvisation is rarely, if ever, heard from the concert stage, nor is it regularly included in the general education of the conservatory student.

Alberto Nepomuceno was one of the leading figures in developing Brazilian art music at the turn of the twentieth century. He became widely known for his Brazilian art songs and kept promoting Brazilian music and the use of Portuguese as an "art language" throughout his life. Nepomuceno has widely been seen as a nationalist composer, yet some of his works adopt a more European style. In this study, I argue that Nepomuceno incorporates European musical languages in his Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 9. I display the rich interaction of Brazilian national identity and European influence within Nepomuceno's musical life. I also provide a thorough formal analysis of this piano sonata to argue that in some of his music he adopted a distinctively European musical language, including baroque and classical elements. In addition to analyzing the sonata-form and rondo-form elements, this dissertation discusses the use of several important topics in the work, including the Siciliano rhythm, contrapuntal writing, pedal points with organ effects, and impact of Brahms on Nepomuceno's piano writing. Moreover, I analyze how Nepomuceno assimilated European musical styles as the basis for his own compositions, as well as the innovations with which he augmented those styles. An …

William Mason (1829–1908) was a well-known American composer, pianist, and pedagogue. Researchers have mainly focused on Mason's career as a pedagogue in the United States and his pedagogical treatises, which are widely considered and used as the conceptual core of teaching materials on the nineteenth century. However, there has been only an annotated catalogue of Mason's music works, and no performance guide to his piano compositions. This dissertation is designed to be the first performance guide to his solo piano repertoire and act as an introduction to his music through an examination of selected works suitable for the intermediate student. This study provides instruction for students on how to practice these works through the analysis of the elements of practice – pedaling, phrasing, technique practice, touch, and musical expression – which were all considered as essential by Mason himself for a good performance. The five piano works selected are: Three Preludes, Op. 8, No. 1; Ballade et Barcarole, Op. 15; Valse Caprice, Op.17; Spring-Dawn, Mazurka–Caprice, Op. 20; and Spring Flower–Impromptu, Op. 21.

Biweekly student newspaper from the University of Texas at El Paso that includes campus news and information along with advertising.

Video recording of Spring 2021 G. Brint Ryan College of Business recognition ceremony. The ceremony was aired virtually on Saturday, May 1 at 1 p.m. The in-person commencement ceremony for the G. Brint Ryan College of Business was held at Apogee Stadium on Saturday, May 1 at 7 p.m. The ceremony includes opening and closing remarks by the Dean of the G. Brint Ryan College of Business, Dr. Marilyn K. Wiley. Graduates of the Bachelor's program are recognized with their names shown on-screen individually in the order of degree earned.

Video of the College of Engineering Spring 2023 undergraduate commencement ceremony held on May 13, 2023, at the University of North Texas Coliseum. The video begins with an introduction to the University of North Texas with a short history segment and photographs and videos of various unidentified graduates. Welcoming remarks are given by an unnamed faculty member. Faculty and graduates process into the coliseum. Natasha Becker sings the national anthem, accompanied by the UNT wind orchestra. Additional remarks are given by Dean of the College of Engineering Hanchen Huang. Provost Michael McPherson gives a speech congratulating the graduates and acknowledging the academic accomplishments of the students. The keynote speaker is Sarah Wagner, chair of the UNT Alumni Association Board of Directors. The ceremony concludes with Natasha Becker singing the UNT alma mater and the graduates leaving the coliseum.

Triweekly newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Elgin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Newsletter of the Texas Medical Board describing news and events as well as updates about medical licenses, disciplinary actions, and other regulatory information.

Multicultural (MC) counseling and social justice (SJ) are foundational parts of counselors' professional identity, and they are fostered through a developmental process that counselor educators facilitate. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between counselor educators' ethnic/racial identity development (ERI), their social justice orientation (SJO) and their multicultural teaching competence (MCTC). MCTC was examined using the constructs of knowledge and sensitivity. Data was collected from a nationally distributed online survey. Data were analyzed using four hierarchical regression models in order to control for socially desirable responding. Results indicated that ERI was a significant predictor of MCTC-Knowledge (p < .001) and that SJO was a significant predictor of MCTC-Sensitivity (p < .001). Socially desirable responding was not significantly related to MCTC. Results suggest the importance of attending to ERI and SJO as separate processes in training future counselor educators.

With increasing data and technology, multiple types of data from the same set of nodes have been generated. Since each data modality contains a unique aspect of the underlying mechanisms, multiple datatypes are integrated. In addition to multiple datatypes, networks are important to store information representing associations between entities such as genes of a protein-protein interaction network and authors of a citation network. Recently, some advanced approaches to graph-structured data leverage node associations and features simultaneously, called Graph Neural Network (GNN), but they have limitations for integrative approaches. The overall aim of this dissertation is to integrate multiple data modalities on graph-structured data to infer some context-specific gene regulation and predict outcomes of interest. To this end, first, we introduce a computational tool named CRINET to infer genome-wide competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks. By integrating multiple data properly, we had a better understanding of gene regulatory circuitry addressing important drawbacks pertaining to ceRNA regulation. We tested CRINET on breast cancer data and found that ceRNA interactions and groups were significantly enriched in the cancer-related genes and processes. CRINET-inferred ceRNA groups supported the studies claiming the relation between immunotherapy and cancer. Second, we present SUPREME, a node classification framework, by comprehensively …

The Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph - Distant Quasar Survey (GNIRS-DQS) is the largest uniform, homogeneous survey of its kind, covering 260 quasars at 1.5 ≤ z ≤ 3.5. This unique survey, coupled with data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), enables new investigations into redshifts, supermassive black hole masses (MBH), and accretion rates at high redshift through spectroscopic coverage of important rest-frame UV-optical emission lines. The importance of this survey is highlighted in the fact that the optical emission lines provide more reliable measurements of these quasar parameters than their UV counterpart. With such a unique sample compiled here, I construct prescriptions to calibrate these quasar parameters derived from rest-frame UV emission lines to those derived from rest-frame optical emission lines. These prescriptions provide important insight into how these parameters depend on redshift and are potentially biased as we look out further into the universe. Additionally, all the work completed with this sample will help shape our understanding of how these quasars and their host galaxies co-evolve over cosmic time.

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 flexible PET and polyimide substrates using mouse embryonic fibroblast (STO) and human esophageal fibroblast (HEF) cell lines, was explored. The polyimide samples for both STO and HEF showed high biocompatibility with a cell survival rate of up to ~ 98% and a confluence rate of 70-98%. An inkjet printed, biocompatible, heterostructure photodetector was constructed using inks of photo-active MoS2 and electrically conducting graphene, which facilitated charge collection of the photocarriers. The importance of such devices stems from their potential utility in age-related-macular degeneration (AMD), which is a condition where the photosensitive retinal tissue degrades with aging, eventually compromising vision. The biocompatible inkjet printed 2D heterojunction devices were photoresponsive to broadband incoming radiation in the visible regime, and the photocurrent scaled proportionally with the incident light intensity, exhibiting a …

I present spectroscopic measurements for 260 sources from the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph–Distant Quasar Survey (GNIRS-DQS). Being the largest uniform, homogeneous survey of its kind, it represents a flux-limited sample of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars at 1.5 < z < 3.5. A combination of the GNIRS and SDSS spectra covers principal quasar diagnostic features, chiefly the C IV λ1549, Mg II λλ2798, 2803, Hβ λ4861, and [O III] λλ4959, 5007 emission lines, in each source. The spectral inventory is utilized primarily to develop prescriptions for obtaining more accurate and precise redshifts, black hole masses, and accretion rates for all quasars. Additionally, the measurements facilitate an understanding of the dependence of rest-frame ultraviolet–optical spectral properties of quasars on redshift, luminosity, and Eddington ratio, and test whether the physical properties of the quasar central engine evolve over cosmic time.