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Bayesian Probabilistic Reasoning Applied to Mathematical Epidemiology for Predictive Spatiotemporal Analysis of Infectious Diseases (open access)

Bayesian Probabilistic Reasoning Applied to Mathematical Epidemiology for Predictive Spatiotemporal Analysis of Infectious Diseases

Abstract Probabilistic reasoning under uncertainty suits well to analysis of disease dynamics. The stochastic nature of disease progression is modeled by applying the principles of Bayesian learning. Bayesian learning predicts the disease progression, including prevalence and incidence, for a geographic region and demographic composition. Public health resources, prioritized by the order of risk levels of the population, will efficiently minimize the disease spread and curtail the epidemic at the earliest. A Bayesian network representing the outbreak of influenza and pneumonia in a geographic region is ported to a newer region with different demographic composition. Upon analysis for the newer region, the corresponding prevalence of influenza and pneumonia among the different demographic subgroups is inferred for the newer region. Bayesian reasoning coupled with disease timeline is used to reverse engineer an influenza outbreak for a given geographic and demographic setting. The temporal flow of the epidemic among the different sections of the population is analyzed to identify the corresponding risk levels. In comparison to spread vaccination, prioritizing the limited vaccination resources to the higher risk groups results in relatively lower influenza prevalence. HIV incidence in Texas from 1989-2002 is analyzed using demographic based epidemic curves. Dynamic Bayesian networks are integrated with …
Date: May 2006
Creator: Abbas, Kaja Moinudeen
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

An analysis of the Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Peter Maxwell Davies, identifying the use of historical forms, and the implications for performance.

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Peter Maxwell Davies is one of his earliest works, and a notoriously difficult work to perform. While using serialism and other twentieth-century compositional techniques, this work also uses older historical forms, including sonata-allegro and sonata-rondo forms. An analysis of the work is presented, identifying the older historical forms, and considerations for performers when making decisions on how to perform the work are provided.
Date: August 2006
Creator: Adduci, Kathryn James
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Athletic Trainers and Psychological Disorders Among Athletes: An Examination of Their Abilities to Recognize, Diagnose and Intervene. (open access)

Athletic Trainers and Psychological Disorders Among Athletes: An Examination of Their Abilities to Recognize, Diagnose and Intervene.

Utilizing an analogue research design conducted via the Internet, this study assessed athletic trainers' abilities to recognize, diagnose, and intervene with a hypothetical athlete experiencing depression, and examined the impact of their gender, athlete gender, and athlete's presenting problem on their decisions. Athletic trainers' perceived competency in using psychosocial interventions with athletes, history of referring athletes to psychology professionals, and training backgrounds in psychology also were examined. Participants (270 male and 370 female certified athletic trainers) were randomly assigned to one of six conditions (Athlete Gender X Presenting Problem). After reading the appropriate vignette, they completed questions related to the athlete's psychological symptoms and diagnosis, referral recommendations, and use of psychosocial interventions if working with the athlete. The vignettes were identical except for the athlete's gender and problem. Overall, athletic trainers accurately identified the athlete's depressive symptoms/diagnosis and need for psychological referral. They rated the athlete significantly higher in Depressive Symptoms than in Anger/Agitation Symptoms and Compulsive Behavioral Symptoms, and as more likely to be experiencing a depressive disorder compared to an adjustment disorder, anxiety disorder, sleep disorder, or substance abuse disorder. Female athletic trainers provided significantly higher ratings of Depressive Symptoms than males and the injured athlete was rated …
Date: December 2006
Creator: Albinson, Courtney Brooks
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Generic Algebras and Kazhdan-Lusztig Theory for Monomial Groups

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The Iwahori-Hecke algebras of Coxeter groups play a central role in the study of representations of semisimple Lie-type groups. An important tool is the combinatorial approach to representations of Iwahori-Hecke algebras introduced by Kazhdan and Lusztig in 1979. In this dissertation, I discuss a generalization of the Iwahori-Hecke algebra of the symmetric group that is instead based on the complex reflection group G(r,1,n). Using the analogues of Kazhdan and Lusztig's R-polynomials, I show that this algebra determines a partial order on G(r,1,n) that generalizes the Chevalley-Bruhat order on the symmetric group. I also consider possible analogues of Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Alhaddad, Shemsi I.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-03-20 – Anthony Allgeier, clarinet

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: March 20, 2006
Creator: Allgeier, Anthony
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Adoption and Use of Electronic Information Resources by a Non-Traditional User Group: Automotive Service Technicians. (open access)

The Adoption and Use of Electronic Information Resources by a Non-Traditional User Group: Automotive Service Technicians.

The growing complexity of machines has led to a concomitant increase in the amount and complexity of the information needed by those charged with servicing them. This, in turn, has led to a need for more robust methods for storing and distributing information and for a workforce more sophisticated in its use of information resources. As a result, the service trades have "professionalized," adopting more rigorous academic standards and developing ongoing certification programs. The current paper deals with the acceptance of advanced electronic information technology by skilled service personnel, specifically, automotive service technicians. The theoretical basis of the study is Davis' technology acceptance model. The purpose of the study is to determine the effects of three external factors on the operation of the model: age, work experience, and education/certification level. The research design is in two parts, beginning with an onsite observation and interviews to establish the environment. During the second part of the research process a survey was administered to a sample of automotive service technicians. Results indicated significant inverse relationships between age and acceptance and between experience and acceptance. A significant positive relationship was shown between education, particularly certification, and acceptance.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Almquist, Arne J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-04-10 – Nicholas Althouse, trumpet

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: April 10, 2006
Creator: Althouse, Nicholas
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-06-26 – Nicholas Althouse, trumpet and baroque trumpet

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: June 26, 2006
Creator: Althouse, Nicholas
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Integrated Architecture for Ad Hoc Grids (open access)

An Integrated Architecture for Ad Hoc Grids

Extensive research has been conducted by the grid community to enable large-scale collaborations in pre-configured environments. grid collaborations can vary in scale and motivation resulting in a coarse classification of grids: national grid, project grid, enterprise grid, and volunteer grid. Despite the differences in scope and scale, all the traditional grids in practice share some common assumptions. They support mutually collaborative communities, adopt a centralized control for membership, and assume a well-defined non-changing collaboration. To support grid applications that do not confirm to these assumptions, we propose the concept of ad hoc grids. In the context of this research, we propose a novel architecture for ad hoc grids that integrates a suite of component frameworks. Specifically, our architecture combines the community management framework, security framework, abstraction framework, quality of service framework, and reputation framework. The overarching objective of our integrated architecture is to support a variety of grid applications in a self-controlled fashion with the help of a self-organizing ad hoc community. We introduce mechanisms in our architecture that successfully isolates malicious elements from the community, inherently improving the quality of grid services and extracting deterministic quality assurances from the underlying infrastructure. We also emphasize on the technology-independence of our …
Date: May 2006
Creator: Amin, Kaizar Abdul Husain
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-01-30 – George Amorim, double bass

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: January 30, 2006
Creator: Amorim, George
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
Functional Ontology Construction: A Pragmatic Approach to Addressing Problems Concerning the Individual and the Informing Environment (open access)

Functional Ontology Construction: A Pragmatic Approach to Addressing Problems Concerning the Individual and the Informing Environment

Functional ontology construction (FOC) is an approach for modeling the relationships between a user and the informing environment by means of analysis of the user's behavior and the elements of the environment that have behavioral function. The FOC approach is an application of behavior analytic techniques and concepts to problems within information science. The FOC approach is both an alternative and a compliment to the cognitive viewpoint commonly found in models of behavior in information science. The basis for the synthesis of behavior analysis and information science is a shared tradition of pragmatism between the fields. The application of behavior analytic concepts brings with it the notion of selection by consequence. Selection is examined on the biological, behavioral, and cultural levels. Two perspicuous examples of the application of the FOC modeling approach are included. The first example looks at the document functioning as a reinforcer in a human operant experimental setting. The second example is an examination of the verbal behavior of expert film analyst, Raymond Bellour, the structure of a film he analyzed, and the elements of the film's structure that had behavioral function for Bellour. The FOC approach is examined within the ontological space of information science.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Anderson, Richard L.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-11-27 - Alfredo Arjona, piano

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: November 27, 2006
Creator: Arjona, Alfredo
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Current Practices in Working With Special Education Paraeducators.

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
With so many paraeducators working in special education, it is important for teachers, administrators, and researchers to know how paraeducators are being utilized, supervised, and managed in order to create the most effective programs for students with special needs. Research is needed regarding current practices in supervising paraeducators. The purposes of this study were to (a) delineate the current practices being utilized by special education teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) who supervise paraeducators that work with students with EBD in the general education classroom and (b) determine how effective the supervised paraeducators perceive those practices to be. Current practices were revealed by answering the following questions: (1) According to special education teachers and paraeducators, what procedures and practices are being utilized to supervise paraeducators who work in the general education environment with students with EBD? (2) In what ways do teachers and paraeducators see these supervision practices as being effective? (3) What is the relationship between actual supervision practices and accepted best practices? There were 60 participants in all, 30 professional teachers and 30 paraeducators. All 60 participants completed a survey; of these 60, 5 teachers and 5 paraeducators were individually interviewed Findings from the study …
Date: December 2006
Creator: Asel, Crystal S.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Regulation of pyrimidine biosynthesis and virulence factor production in wild type, Pyr- and Crc- mutants in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. (open access)

Regulation of pyrimidine biosynthesis and virulence factor production in wild type, Pyr- and Crc- mutants in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Previous research in our laboratory established that pyrB, pyrC or pyrD knock-out mutants in Pseudomonas aeruginosa required pyrimidines for growth. Each mutant was also discovered to be defective in the production of virulence factors. Moreover, the addition of exogenous uracil did not restore the mutant to wild type virulence levels. In an earlier study using non-pathogenic P. putida, mutants blocked in one of the first three enzymes of the pyrimidine pathway produced no pyoverdine pigment while mutants blocked in the fourth, fifth or sixth steps produced copious quantities of pigment, just like wild type P. putida. The present study explored the correlation between pyrimidine auxotrophy and pigment production in P. aeruginosa. Since the pigment pyoverdine is a siderophore it may also be considered a virulence factor. Other virulence factors tested included casein protease, elastase, hemolysin, swimming, swarming and twitching motilities, and iron binding capacity. In all cases, these virulence factors were significantly decreased in the pyrB, pyrC or pyrD mutants and even in the presence of uracil did not attain wild type levels. In order to complete this comprehensive study, pyrimidine mutants blocked in the fifth (pyrE) and sixth (pyrF) steps of the biosynthetic pathway were examined in P. aeruginosa. …
Date: May 2006
Creator: Asfour, Hani
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-02-27 – Christopher Astilla, piano

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: February 27, 2006
Creator: Astilla, Christopher
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-09-25 – Christopher Astilla, piano

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: September 25, 2006
Creator: Astilla, Christopher
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Studies of spin alignment in ferrocenylsilane compounds and in regiospecific oxidation reactions of 1,9-dimethylpentacyclo [5.4.0.02,6.03,10.05,9]undecane-8,11-dione.

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Part I. The syntheses of a series of stable ferrocenylsilane compounds and their corresponding polyradical cations are reported. Electron spin properties of these molecules were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, ESR, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. All the compounds presented, showed significant electronic communication (>100 mV) between the redox centers by CV. Part II. Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of (1,9-dimethyl-PCU-8,11-dione) was performed using m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid in 1:2 molar ratios. The product obtained was the corresponding dilactone 113. The structure of the reaction products was established unequivocally via single crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The reaction of the 1,9-dimethyl-PCU-8,11-dione with 1:1 molar ratio of m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid produced again the dilactone 113, and not the expected monolactone 114. Ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) promoted oxidation reaction of 1,9-dimethyl-PCU-8,11-dione afforded a mixture of dimethylated lactones, which indicated unique reaction mechanism pathways. These individual isomers, 115 and 116, have been isolated from these mixtures via column chromatography by using silica gel as adsorbent followed by fractional recrystallization of individual chromatography fractions. Structures of these pure products have been established unequivocally by application of single crystal X-ray crystallographic methods.
Date: August 2006
Creator: Atim, Silvia
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Social Self-Concept and Positive Illusory Bias in Boys and Girls With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (open access)

Social Self-Concept and Positive Illusory Bias in Boys and Girls With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study examined differences in social self-concept, as measured by the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), between boys and girls with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while controlling for internalizing symptoms. Ninety-six children between the ages of 8 and 13 participated in the study as part of a larger project. Teacher reports of social competence were collected using the Teacher Rating Scale (TRS). The results indicated ADHD children experienced more peer rejection than control children. ADHD girls appeared to be more susceptible to low social self-concept and competence than control children or ADHD boys. Inattentive symptoms were most predictive of teacher reports of competence. Positive illusory bias was not found to serve a protective function in children regardless of ADHD status. The implications of the current study and directions for future research are presented.
Date: August 2006
Creator: Barton, Kimberly A.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-02-20 – Kristan Blaylock, flute

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: February 20, 2006
Creator: Baylock, Kristan
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Democratic Pantheism in the Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
According to Alexis de Tocqueville, humanity is entering a new age of political and social equality, a new epoch in which the human race has no historical example or experience. As a result, he holds humanity's future will be largely determined by the political and moral choices made in this transitional time. For Tocqueville, the new egalitarian era is a forgone conclusion, but for him, the pressing question is whether humanity will choose a future in which it enchains itself to new forms of tyranny, or, whether the human race can establish the political and moral institutions designed to assure human freedom and dignity. In Tocqueville's view, liberty or slavery are the two choices modern men and women have in front of them, and it is the intent of this dissertation to explore Tocqueville's warning in regard to the latter choice. Tocqueville warns us that modern democratic peoples must beware of the moral and political effects of a new type of political philosophy, a political theory he terms democratic pantheism. Democratic pantheism is a philosophic doctrine that treats egalitarianism as a "religion" in which all social and political striving is directed toward realizing a providentially ordained strict equality of conditions. …
Date: May 2006
Creator: Bearry, Brian Anthony
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-04-10 – David Begnoche, trombone

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: April 10, 2006
Creator: Begnoche, David
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Using Children's Literature with Adolescents in the English As a Foreign Language Classroom. (open access)

The Effects of Using Children's Literature with Adolescents in the English As a Foreign Language Classroom.

This study provides quantitative and qualitative data about the effects of using children's literature with adolescents in a language classroom and the role of children's literature in students' second/foreign language development, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The study presents qualitative data about the role of children's literature in developing more positive attitudes toward reading in the second/foreign language and toward reading in general. With literature being a model of a culture, presenting linguistic benefits for language learners, teaching communication, and being a motivator in language learning, this study presents empirical data that show that inclusion of children's literature in adolescents' second/foreign language classroom promotes appreciation and enjoyment of literature, enhances the development of language skills, stimulates more advanced learning, and promotes students' personal growth.
Date: December 2006
Creator: Belsky, Stella
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploring the relationship between continuing professional education and job satisfaction for information technology professionals in higher education. (open access)

Exploring the relationship between continuing professional education and job satisfaction for information technology professionals in higher education.

The study had four main hypotheses that examined the relationships between job satisfaction and the reasons for attending continuing professional education (CPE). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between training and job satisfaction with the objective of adding to the body of knowledge related to both job satisfaction and training and development. Participation Reasons Scale was used to measure the reasons for attending CPE activities, and the Job in General Scale and Job Descriptive Index was used to measure job satisfaction. The surveys were administered over the Internet to information technology professionals working in higher education. The participants were contacted by email with a message explaining the purpose of the research and a Web link that took the participants directly to the survey. After collecting the data, it was exported into SPSS and analyzed using Spearman Rho and Mann Whitney U statistics and a simple structure exploratory factor to determine any underlying structures between the job satisfaction and CPE.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Bennett, Sandra M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2006-03-06 – Brad Bennight, harpsichord

Recital presented at UNT College of Music Organ Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree
Date: March 6, 2006
Creator: Bennight, Brad
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library