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The purpose of the study was to investigate how English language proficiency is related to teacher judgments of students' academic and interpersonal competence. It was hypothesized that English Language Learner (ELL) students would generally be perceived as having weaker academic and interpersonal skills than their non-ELL counterparts regardless of race/ethnicity. Additionally, it was proposed that teachers' ratings would be more predictive of the performance of non-ELL versus ELL students. Data were obtained from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K). Participants were 260 third-grade students whose academic and interpersonal skills were rated by their teachers on the Academic Rating Scale (ARS; Atkins-Burnett, Meisels, & Correnti, 2000) and Social Rating Scale (SRS; Atkins-Burnett, Meisels, & Correnti, 2000), respectively. Teachers' academic ratings were compared to students' actual performance on the reading and math sections of the ECLS-K direct cognitive assessment and teachers' interpersonal ratings were compared to students' self-ratings on the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ; Marsh, 1990). Multiple regression analyses were used to assess the effects of language status and race/ethnicity on teacher ratings. Additional regression analyses were conducted to investigate whether teacher ratings were predictive of students' academic performance and students' self-ratings of interpersonal skills. Results showed that, in contrast to what was hypothesized, teacher ratings were not significantly related to language status, but race/ethnicity was found to be a significant predictor of both academic and social ratings. Specifically, teachers rated African American students as having weaker reading and interpersonal skills than their Hispanic counterparts. As hypothesized, teacher ratings were found to be more predictive for non-ELL students on math and reading skills than ELL students. These findings suggest that race/ethnicity may be more of an influential factor than language status when teachers make academic and interpersonal judgments and support previous research (e.g., Hodson, Dovidio, & Gaertner, 2002; Jussim & Eccles, 1995) that teachers may have pre-existing biases towards students of different races or ethnicities. Additionally, given the lower predictive accuracy of teacher ratings of ELL than non-ELL students, teachers may need more training to work with and to ensure a fair assessment of ELL students' academic capabilities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

What is the impact of geographical barriers to immigration court on court attendance? Building on Herd and Moynihan’s (2018) theory of administrative burdens, I examine the role of compliance costs in attending immigration court hearings, arguing that a reduction in geographical compliance costs can lead to more equitable outcomes in immigration court hearings. I utilize Executive Office for Immigration Review individual level case data and leverage both logistic regression and an interrupted time series to predict the impact of drive time to the court, driver’s license access, and virtual court access on the likelihood that an immigrant is present at court. My results suggest that geographical burdens limit immigrants’ abilities to comply with the court’s administrative burdens. Increasing virtual court access may lead to fewer in absentia deportations as a result of missed court hearings.

Surfactant aerosol delivery in conjunction with a noninvasive respiratory support holds the potential to treat neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in a safe manner. The objective of the present study was to gain knowledge in order to optimize the geometry of an intracorporeal inhalation catheter and improve surfactant aerosol delivery effectiveness in neonates. Initially, a mathematical model capable of predicting the aerosol flow generated by this inhalation catheter within a physical model of the neonatal trachea was implemented and validated. Subsequently, a numerical study was performed to analyze the effect of the aerosol liquid droplet size and mass flow rate on surfactant delivery and on the required aerosolization time period. Experimental validation of the mathematical model showed a close prediction of the air axial velocity at the distal end of the physical model, with an absolute error between 0.01 and 0.15 m/s. Furthermore, an admissible absolute error between 0.2 and 2 mm was attained in the prediction of the aerosol mean aerodynamic diameter and mass median aerodynamic diameter in this region. The numerical study highlighted the beneficial effects of generating an intracorporeal aerosol with a mass median aerodynamic diameter higher than 4 mm and a surfactant mass flow rate above 8.93 mg/s in order to obtain effective surfactant delivery in neonates with minimal airway manipulation.

El tratamiento que se utiliza en la actualidad para curar el Síndrome de Distrés Respiratorio (SDR) que se da en bebés prematuros conlleva riesgos que pueden causar daños permanentes en el bebé. Este tratamiento consiste en intubar al neonato para someterlo a ventilación mecánica y en administrarle surfactante pulmonar mediante instilación intratraqueal. Para evitar los riesgos de este tratamiento se están investigando métodos alternativos más seguros. En esta línea, una posible alternativa que permite manipular lo menos posible las vías respiratorias del neonato es la administración del surfactante en forma de aerosol simultaneándolo con un método de ventilación no-invasivo. La presente tesis se ha desarrollado en el campo experimental y el campo numérico. Primero, se ha realizado el estudio experimental in vitro de una técnica de nebulización para generar aerosoles de surfactante de forma menos invasiva en neonatos. También, se ha definido un modelo matemático basado en técnicas de CFD para su aplicación en la mejora del diseño de este dispositivo nebulizador. Por último, se han establecido las pautas a seguir para realizar este nuevo diseño. Para la evaluación del dispositivo de nebulización, concretamente un catéter de inhalación, se han realizado medidas experimentales mediante diversos equipos, entre ellos una cámara de alta velocidad, un neumotacógrafo, un equipo de medición de tamaño de las partículas, una balanza de precisión y un anemómetro de hilo caliente. Para complementar el estudio se han fabricado dos tipos de modelos de las vías respiratorias superiores neonatales mediante la tecnología de prototipado rápido, uno de ellos representa la tráquea neonatal mientras que el otro representa las vías desde la tráquea hasta la tercera generación. Se ha llevado a cabo un estudio de deposición generando el aerosol de surfactante a la entrada del modelo. Los resultados experimentales han demostrado que es viable utilizar este catéter de inhalación para una nebulización eficiente de surfactante en neonatos. En la parte de modelado, se ha construido un modelo matemático para predecir mediante técnicas de CFD el comportamiento del aerosol producido por el catéter de inhalación a la entrada del modelo neonatal de la tráquea. Este modelo matemático ha sido validado comparando los resultados numéricos con los resultados experimentales. Como conclusión se ha obtenido un modelo matemático validado que predice el comportamiento a través del modelo neonatal del flujo de aire y de las partículas del aerosol ya generadas. Este modelo matemático ha permitido realizar un estudio numérico de la influencia de los principales parámetros del aerosol, como el flujo másico o el tamaño de las partículas, en la eficiencia de la deposición de las partículas de surfactante. Tras analizar los resultados tanto experimentales como numéricos se han determinado las pautas a seguir para realizar un nuevo diseño del dispositivo y mejorar la eficiencia de la administración de surfactante nebulizado en neonatos manipulando lo menos posible sus vías respiratorias.

This dissertation examines problems with anger and violence among United States Military Service Members. In the first chapter, I review the literature on anger and aggression among veterans. Several studies have found associations between anger and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Vietnam veterans. Little research has been done with veterans of recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only one study examined anger problems among women veterans.In the second chapter, I use a qualitative approach to explore how veterans themselves experience anger and how anger affects their lives. I show that veterans report experiencing problems with anger in multiple social contexts, including with family, friends, at work and school, and in the community. For most veterans, these problems dissipate over time as the veteran adjusts to civilian life. However, for some veterans, anger problems persist and can lead to adverse consequences, such as marital strife, dropping out of school, or being fired from a job.In the third chapter, I use epidemiologic methods to assess quantitatively the prevalence of anger and violence in a population-based sample of current National Guard and Reserve service members. I examine the relations of problems with anger and violence with deployment history and PTSD status. Half of service members reported problems with anger. These problems are significantly more common among those who experienced traumas during deployment and those had PTSD. Only about 2% of service members reported problems with violence; however, these problems are much more common among those with deployment traumas and/or PTSD.In sum, this dissertation shows that anger is a common problem among United States service members and that anger negatively affects service members in a variety of ways. Several new directions for research are indicated to more fully understand these problems.