University of North Texas

About: University of North Texas is a education organization based out in Denton, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 11866 authors who have published 26984 publications receiving 705376 citations. The organization is also known as: Fight, North Texas & UNT.

Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling

Abstract: An Introduction to Animal Assisted Therapy. Research in Animal Assisted Counseling and Related Areas. Selecting an Animal for Therapy Work. Training a Pet for Therapy Work. Evaluation of a Pet for Therapy Work. Risk Management and Ethical and Legal Considerations in Animal Assisted Counseling. Animal Assisted Interventions and Counseling Theories. Animal Assisted Counseling Practices. Equine Assisted Counseling. A Variety of AAT Applications. Sensitivity to Cultural Differences and Populations with Special Needs. Crisis and Disaster Response Counseling with Therapy Animals. Establishing a School-based Program for Animal Assisted Therapy and Education. International Considerations and Applications of Animal Assisted Therapy. Appendices: College and University Programs in Animal Assisted Therapy and Related Areas. Client Screening Form for Animal Assisted Therapy. Psychosocial Session Form. Animal Assisted Therapy Animal Illustrations: Instructions and Activities. Sample Course Syllabus for Counselor Training in Animal Assisted Therapy. Educational Resources for Animal Assisted Therapy and Animal Assisted Activities. Sample Policy and Procedures for the Practice of Animal Assisted Therapy in a Counselor Training Program. Recommended Competency Areas and Accompanying Performance Guidelines for the Practice of Animal Assisted Therapy in Mental Health Counseling. Several Hospitals with AAA/AAT Programs. Sample Policies and Procedures for the Practice of Animal Assisted Therapy in an Agency or Private Practice.

Oxidative stress and role of antioxidant and ω-3 essential fatty acid supplementation in schizophrenia

Abstract: 1. Schizophrenia is a major mental disorder that has a lifetime risk of 1% and affects at young age (average age at the onset 24 +/- 4.6 years) in many cultures around the world. The etiology is unknown, the pathophysiology is complex, and most of the patients need treatment and care for the rest of their lives. 2. Cellular oxidative stress is inferred from higher tissue levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS, e.g., O2*-, OH*, OH-, NO* and ONOO--) than its antioxidant defense that cause peroxidative cell injury, i.e., peroxidation of membrane phospholipids, particularly esterified essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (EPUFAS), proteins and DNA. 3. Oxidative stress can lead to global cellular with predominantly neuronal peroxidation, since neurons are enriched in highly susceptible EPUFAs and proteins, and damages DNA is not repaired effectively. 4. Such neuronal peroxidation may affect its function (i.e., membrane transport, loss of mitochondrial energy production, gene expression and therefore receptor-mediated phospholipid-dependent signal transduction) that may explain the altered information processing in schizophrenia. 5. It is possible that the oxidative neuronal injury can be prevented by dietary supplementation of antioxidants (e.g., vitamins E, C and A; beta-carotene, Q-enzyme, flavons, etc.) and that membrane phospholipids can be corrected by dietary supplementation of EPUFAs. 6. It may be that the oxidative stress is lower in populations consuming a low caloric diet rich in antioxidants and EPUFAs, and minimizing smoking and drinking. 7. Oxidative stress exists in schizophrenia based on altered antioxidant enzyme defense, increased lipid peroxidation and reduced levels of EPUFAs. The life style of schizophrenic patients is also prooxidative stress, i.e., heavy smoking, drinking, high caloric intake with no physical activity and treatment with pro-oxidant drugs. 8. The patients in developed countries show higher levels of lipid peroxidation and lower levels of membrane phospholipids as compared to patients in the developing countries. 9. Initial observations on the improved outcome of schizophrenia in patients supplemented with EPUFAs and antioxidants suggest the possible beneficial effects of dietary supplementation. 10. Since the oxidative stress exists at or before the onset of psychosis the use of antioxidants from the very onset of psychosis may reduce the oxidative injury and dramatically improve the outcome of illness.

Considering hierarchical models for research on inmate behavior: Predicting misconduct with multilevel data

Abstract: Penologists recognize that both inmate- and prison-level characteristics are relevant to an understanding of individual inmates' behaviors; yet extant studies have focused only on unilevel models with either individual- or aggregate-level predictors and outcomes. To explore the potential of multilevel modeling for related research, we examine empirical relationships predicting the likelihood of inmate misconduct with individual-level (inmate) variables and aggregate levels of prison population crowding. The framework for the model borrows from both individual- and aggregate-level theories of informal social control. We examine three secondary data sets, using information common to each set. We compare results from hierarchical logistic models with those from stepwise pooled logistic regression models to see whether results differ significantly by method of estimation. The pooled models reveal inconsistency in the significance of inmate predictors (social demographics and criminal histories) across the thr...

High-throughput computational screening of thermal conductivity, Debye temperature, and Grüneisen parameter using a quasiharmonic Debye model

Abstract: The quasiharmonic Debye approximation has been implemented within the aflow and Materials Project frameworks for high-throughput computational materials science (Automatic Gibbs Library, agl), in order to calculate thermal properties such as the Debye temperature and the thermal conductivity of materials. We demonstrate that the agl method, which is significantly cheaper computationally compared to the fully ab initio approach, can reliably predict the ordinal ranking of the thermal conductivity for several different classes of semiconductor materials. In particular, a high Pearson (i.e., linear) correlation is obtained between the experimental and agl computed values of the lattice thermal conductivity for a set of 75 compounds including materials with cubic, hexagonal, rhombohedral, and tetragonal symmetry.

A serum protein-based algorithm for the detection of Alzheimer disease.

Abstract: Objective To develop an algorithm that separates patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) from controls. Design Longitudinal case-control study. Setting The Texas Alzheimer's Research Consortium project. Patients We analyzed serum protein–based multiplex biomarker data from 197 patients diagnosed with AD and 203 controls. Main Outcome Measure The total sample was randomized equally into training and test sets and random forest methods were applied to the training set to create a biomarker risk score. Results The biomarker risk score had a sensitivity and specificity of 0.80 and 0.91, respectively, and an area under the curve of 0.91 in detecting AD. When age, sex, education, and APOE status were added to the algorithm, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve were 0.94, 0.84, and 0.95, respectively. Conclusions These initial data suggest that serum protein-based biomarkers can be combined with clinical information to accurately classify AD. A disproportionate number of inflammatory and vascular markers were weighted most heavily in the analyses. Additionally, these markers consistently distinguished cases from controls in significant analysis of microarray, logistic regression, and Wilcoxon analyses, suggesting the existence of an inflammatory-related endophenotype of AD that may provide targeted therapeutic opportunities for this subset of patients.