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Awareness of autism is rising, yet social determinants of health continue to impact rates, ages of diagnosis, and diagnostic load. Different psychiatric labels carry stigmas; unequal rates of diagnoses may indicate biases in the healthcare system. This study investigates six prior diagnoses (ADHD, disorders of conduct, adjustment, anxiety, mood, and intellectual disability) assigned to children who are later diagnosed with autism. The study investigates how race, sex, and geographic factors were associated with age of diagnosis and diagnostic load. This study utilized a sample of 13,850 children aged 2-10 who were diagnosed with autism on Missouri Medicaid between 2015 and 2019. The sample was 78.16% male and 14.43 % Black, with 57.95% of children living in urban regions of the state. Results indicated that being White, living urban, and having more prior diagnoses was associated with older age of autism diagnosis, F(4, 12229) = 577.25, p < 0.001. Using logistic regressions, being White was associated with a child being more likely diagnosed with all prior diagnoses aside from intellectual disability. Being male was related to a higher likelihood of ADHD, but lower likelihood of intellectual disability. Findings showed that living rural was related to a higher likelihood of ADHD, Conduct, and intellectual disability diagnosis. Overall, being White was associated with older age of diagnosis and higher likelihood of most diagnoses, even in urban-only samples, potentially reflecting more access to providers and more office visits. Living in rural areas was also associated with earlier diagnosis and more prior diagnoses such as ADHD and conduct, which may be due to types of providers or specialists seen. Future research should look at barriers to diagnosis and the advantages and disadvantages of a higher diagnostic load. [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.]

People "shopping for schools," which is paying a premium for homes that are in areas within the attendance zones of prestigious schools, routinely do not consider test scores, curriculum, or teachers when defining what is a "good school." This dissertation argues that suburban mayors use incorporation frameworks and operate out of a "my city" framework towards schools and school districts. This can lead to a desire by suburban mayors to gain more control over educational institutions like school districts in order to help make their individual city a more desirable and prestigious place to potential residents who are shopping for schools. I call this process municipal structuration. This dissertation focuses on how boundaries in suburban regions, particularly at the school district and city level, were used to bolster or exclude particular (class, racial, etc.) populations. I advance the position that the creation of smaller school districts, or municipal attempts to take more control over school districts, often described as local control, can carve out class and race divisions. This dissertation is principally focused on the use of boundaries to isolate communities and/or reify divisions and distinctions between communities. The initial context that created tensions for a school district in the suburbs south of Salt Lake City, Utah to divide and another neighboring school district to narrowly avoid dividing are discussed. A combination of qualitative individual and focus group interviews are paired with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) spatial demographic data to help understand the topic. This dissertation works to understand how the distribution and patterning of different age, class, and racial groups across suburban regions played a role in suburban school district division attempts in the Salt Lake metropolitan region. The legal maneuvering that created the new school district is discussed, with careful attention given to the political back and forth between suburban city mayors, state legislators, and community members in the policies that shaped the school district division. After that, the dissertation addresses ways that the newly created school district worked to remake advantages and inequalities through new and updated school buildings. A national example of school district division tensions with a similar sized region to Salt Lake City in Fresno, California is analyzed through GIS analysis in order to provide additional comparisons for generalizability. [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.]

This dissertation investigates the effect of linguistic and nonlinguistic variables on the use of spatial representations in bilingual speakers of Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) and Mandarin Chinese (MC) as compared to monolinguals. Linguists and psychologists are particularly interested in the factors that influence the selection among such strategies. Language, cultural factors such as education and literacy, and environmental variables such as topography and population geography have all been hypothesized to play a potential role in this process. Despite being members of the Sinitic language family, TSM and MC exhibit different features in spatial representations: TSM shows a unique polysemy pattern in its spatial relators, conflating "front" with "right" and "back" with "left"; and TSM speakers make frequent use of geocentric representations in small-scale space, whereas MC speakers strongly prefer egocentric and intrinsic frames. The migration and contact history of Taiwan offer an opportunity to explore effects of culture and environment on language, language use, and nonverbal cognition. The objectives of this research project are to document and describe the structure and use of spatial representations in bilinguals as compared to monolinguals and to explore quantitatively how language, culture and environment affect the use of spatial representations in a bi- and multi-lingual society. The dissertation reports on three studies: two referential communication studies probing the use of spatial relators and reference frames in discourse and a recall memory experiment targeting the use of reference frames in nonverbal cognition. These studies were carried out with four populations: monolinguals speakers of MC and TSM, sequential bilinguals who began the acquisition of TSM well before that of MC, and simultaneous bilinguals who were exposed to both languages from birth. It was found that the bilinguals displayed a significant difference as compared to the monolingual speakers by showing mixed patterns in both discourse and nonverbal cognition. Mixed effects regression models indicated significant effects of first and second language use, literacy, and education in predicting the use of reference frames in discourse and of language use and population density on recall memory. An effect from language use on recall memory, providing support for the Linguistic Transmission Hypothesis (LTH). This hypothesis suggests that language use can serve as a conduit for the transmission of cognitive practices (Bohnemeyer et al 2015). A topography effect across populations provides support for the Topographic Correspondence Hypothesis (Palmer, 2015), stating that absolute spatial systems are (partially) motivated by the external physical environment. Effects of education and literacy confirm the Socio-Topographic Model (Palmer et al., 2016) by providing the evidence for cultural mediation between language and environment. The current studies make valuable contributions to the research on bilingualism and spatial cognition by documenting variation of spatial reference in bilingual populations in a multilingual setting. These studies make important contributions to the investigation of the role of bilingualism in spatial cognition. The results provide a comprehensive vista of the differences and commonalities in verbal and nonverbal representations of space across monolingual and bilingual speakers of Mandarin and Taiwanese Southern Min. [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.]

The current study emerged from the need to address student behavior issues in town-gown communities and the practical need to know more about off-campus students as central actors in these behaviors. Off-campus students have long been labeled as commuter students because of limited recognition of the known diversity within the commuter population (Dugan, Garland, Jacoby, & Gasiorski, 2008) and an absence of town-gown scholarship focused on college student residents of the local community (Kemp, 2013). The current study sought to remedy the little attention given to off-campus students through the exploration of their sense of belonging to the local community, and in turn, how sense of belonging influenced behavior in the town-gown context. An American college town was the town-gown context chosen for the current study because of its capacity to showcase the unique influence the university has on the character of the town (Gumprecht, 2008). Using a stratified random sampling, the sample (n = 645) was drawn from the population of undergraduate students living off campus in the City of East Lansing, Michigan. Strata were determined based on residential density levels due to an interest in assessing how residential environments of varying densities influenced sense of belonging in off-campus students. The current study utilized sense of belonging and town-gown literature to guide the selection of exogenous and intervening predictor variables relevant in the town-gown context. These predictor variables included demographic characteristics (e.g., age, sex, race, year in school) and density categorization along with intervening variables such as environmental perceptions, social interactions, and behavior participation. Criterion variables included sense of belonging and positive and negative behavior participation. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the extent these demographic and community factors influenced sense of belonging, as well as how sense of belonging influenced participation in positive and negative behaviors in the town-gown context. The study concluded off-campus students were a unique cohort in the student population, warranting future attention from scholars and practitioners. Sense of belonging was not predicted by demographic and density characteristics, but was positively influenced by perceptions of community (e.g., reliability, friendliness) and positive behavior participation (e.g., attending community events, utilizing city services). Number of roommates, semesters lived off-campus, and residential density associated with houses were positive predictors of behavior participation, both positive and negative. Environmental and social relations constructs were positive predictors of both positive and negative behavior participation. Sense of belonging was a positive predictor of positive behavior participation, but was not a predictor of negative behaviors. The discussion offers insights and direction for town-gown administrators tasked with creating policy and practical interventions aimed at supporting off-campus students, while also addressing the unique challenges stemming from student behaviors in the local community. [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.]

This dissertation addresses two research questions: 1. Do states misrepresent their progress on their own state assessments? 2. If states do distort their progress, are their predictors to suggest why this distortion occurs? The first research question requires that distortion be defined. For the purposes of this dissertation I calculated the growth from 2003 to 2005, 2005 to 2007, and 2007 to 2009 on each state's individual state assessment and the NAEP. To calculate the growth I used a modified growth equation that subtracts the two scores and divides that by the maximum score on that test in that year, from the first score. This calculation produces a Practical Normed Growth (PNG) for the state assessment as well as the NAEP. To determine the distortion index I subtract the NAEP's PNG from the state assessment's PNG. A positive distortion index indicates the state assessment's growth was greater than the NAEP's growth and the state distorted their progress. A negative distortion index indicates the NAEP's PNG was greater than the state assessment's PNG and the state did not misrepresent their progress. This analysis was done on the elementary reading assessment. This assessment includes three growth periods to compare, creates three observations of the 50 states, or 150 data points possible for distortion. The first research question, do states distort their progress? The answer is yes. On the elementary reading assessments the states had a positive distortion index 76 times out of a possible 150, or 51%. The observed distortions came from three basic models. First, the state assessment scores went up, but the NAEP scores went down or stayed the same. Second, the state assessment scores stayed the same, but the NAEP scores went down. Third, the state assessment scores went down, but the NAEP scores went down more. In each of these possible scenarios the states have misrepresented the education progress of their state to their stakeholders. In the first scenario, if the scores on the state assessments go up while the NAEP assessment scores go down indicates a narrowed curriculum and an overemphasis on the state assessment. In the second scenario, if the scores on the state assessment stayed the same while the NAEP scores dropped indicates a less effective focus on the state assessment, at the expense of the NAEP. The third scenario, both the state assessment and NAEP scores fall, with the NAEP scores falling faster indicates a state struggling to do anything well. The second research question, are there predictors to suggest why this distortion occurs? The answer is yes. On the elementary reading assessment comparison, two predictors were statistically significant in the final model, state population and African-American status. The coefficients of each of these predictors indicate that states with lower populations and higher numbers of African-Americans distort their progress more on the elementary reading assessments. [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.]

Jeddah public health resources are struggling to meet the demand of the large populations. The city is suffering from insufficient public health resources along with other health problem, like high rates of some disease, which resulted in an amount of dissatisfaction among some of the health facilities visitors. The absence of a comprehensive Community Health Assessment study of Jeddah public health resources and the fact that health resources are not meeting the needs of the large population created the need to conduct this study. This is an exploratory study that will use the guidance of two frameworks, Mandala of Health and "Access as fit" theories, and take into account all public hospitals and primary clinics provided by the ministry of health (MOH). Availability and accessibility of MOH resources will be assessed according to the Saudi planning standards for the years 2006-2010. Furthermore, health professionals' numbers will be assessed against the demand of some prominent disease cases in each census tract for the years 2006-2010. A multidimensional exploration of the data is needed to answer the queries of this study. Thus, Spatial OLAP Visualization and Analysis Tool (SOVAT) is utilized. This tool has the capability of integrating multidimensional databases to maps. It also answers complex queries easily and rapidly and gives results in maps, spreadsheets, and graphs. The exploration resulted in determining that primary clinics are allocated in accordance with populations' densities with few exceptions. In addition, parts of the city were found to be lacking some facilities or health professionals while few parts were found to be over-served with resources. Finally, it has been found that there is a need to increase the number of hospitals. Additional patterns of the resources have been uncovered due to the multidimensional capability of SOVAT. The tool proved to be efficient and established a much better comprehensive understanding of the health resources. Additionally, it helped interpreting the interaction between the dimensions of the "Access as fit" framework. Nevertheless, some technical skills were needed for a successful data preparation and integration. It could be implemented by MOH as few requirements must be met. [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.]

In large-scale assessments, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), plausible values based on Multiple Imputations (MI) have been used to estimate population characteristics for latent constructs under complex sample designs. Mislevy (1991) derived a closed-form analytic solution for a fixed-effect model in creating plausible values assuming a classical test theory model and a stratified student sample and proposed an analogous solution for a random-effects model to be applied with a two-stage student sample design. The research reported here extends the discussion of this random-effects model under the classical test theory framework. Under the simplified assumption of known population parameters, analytical solutions are provided for multiple imputations in the case of the classical test theory measurement model and two-stage sampling and their properties are verified in reconstructing population properties for the unobservable latent variables. With the more practical assumptions of unknown population and cluster means, this study empirically examines the reconstruction of population attributes. Next, properties of sample statistics are examined. Specifically, this research explores the impact of the variance components and sample sizes on the sampling variance of the MI-based estimate for the population mean. Findings include significant predictors and influential factors. Last, the relationships between the sampling variance of the estimate of the population mean based on the imputations and those based on observations of the true score and the observed score are discussed. The sampling variance based on the imputed score is expected to be the higher boundary of that based on the observed score, which is expected to be the higher boundary of that based on the true score. [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.]

Understanding why people accept or reject e-learning technologies has become one of the most challenging issues in education research. Thus, this study set out to determine the effects of factors that influence service-learning faculty to include e-learning technologies in their curriculum. The principal study population was 134 service-learning faculty from urban, suburban, and rural two-year and four-year colleges and universities. Of these, 108 (80.6%) were female while 26 (19.4%) were male. Half of the participants (51.5%) had more than 1 year of technical experience, followed by 29.1% with less than 1 year and 19.4% had no technical experience. The study expanded upon the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior and added one construct from the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Multiple linear regression analysis was done to determine the extent to which dependent variables were predicted by independent variables followed by the path analysis of the research model. Further, analyses were conducted for the hypothesized pathways using a multiple regression framework. The results of this regression analyses showed that none of the covariates (gender, age, technology experience, teaching experience, and location) nor any of the interactions with the corresponding respective variables, had a significant effect. Thus, the covariates were excluded from the path analysis. A final multiple regression analysis was conducted with six independent variables (attitude, subjective social norm, compatibility, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived behavioral control) and one dependent variable (behavioral intention). The main effects of attitude and compatibility were statistically significant (R[superscript 2] = 0.682, F = 45.38, p less than 0.000) indicating that they are significant predictors of faculty behavioral intention to use e-learning technologies. Once these significant predictors were established, the hypothesized model was further analyzed using PLS modeling. The main finding of the path analysis was that subjective social norm and compatibility had a strong positive effect on perceived usefulness ([beta]=0.21, p less than 0.001; [beta]=0.61, p less than 0.001; respectively) as did perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on attitude ([beta]=0.72, p less than 0.001; [beta]=0.18, p less than 0.01, respectively). Attitude exhibited a strong positive effect on behavioral intention ([beta]=0.72, p less than 0.001). Further, the qualitative data confirmed that perceived usefulness played a role in understanding why people accept or reject technologies. According to the quantitative findings e-learning technologies are compatible with the service-learning faculty's workstyle. However, in the interviews all of the service-learning faculty mentioned that meaningful human interaction may suffer in the process. [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.]

Funding public schools has been an ongoing struggle since the inception of the United States. Beginning with Jefferson's "A General Diffusion of Knowledge" that charged the states with properly funding public schools, to the current day legal battles that continue in states across the Union, America struggles with finding a solution to adequate and equitable school financing of public education. Texas currently uses a weighted funding approach in that a basic allotment is used for average daily attendance that is then adjusted or increased based upon specific identification of special population subgroups such as gifted and talented, vocational, bilingual, compensatory or special education students. After Judge Dietz's 2004 ruling on "West Orange-Cove v. Neely," districts are further constrained on their school funding by the cap placed on per capita funding based on the 2005-06 maximum entitlement. This has frozen the total amount of funding received by districts on a per student basis in subsequent years based upon the 2005-06 summary of finance without regard to the changes in the students in state programs and the resulting effect on the funding of the regular education student. To further complicate the funding formula, all of the state program subgroups are being funded on a per capita basis, based upon the number of students in each particular program, except for the state compensatory program. Students in the state compensatory program are identified based upon 13 risk indicators. The state compensatory program is funded based upon the number of students receiving free and reduced-price meals, which is not one of the 13 indicators used to identify at-risk students. This study examined the amount of funding on a per capita basis between districts in the state of Texas for at-risk students. In addition, it examined the effect on the regular education student and student achievement. Findings indicated a significant correlation between socially economically disadvantaged students and the per capita funding for at-risk students in addition to a significant correlation between funding for socially economically disadvantaged students and funding for regular education students. In addition, pairwise differences were significant between accountability ratings for 2006 and 2008 for academically acceptable and recognized districts for per capita funding of regular education students. [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.]

A study was conducted to compare the College of Marin's (CM's) ethnic profile for fall 1979 credit students and for full-time tenured or tenure track faculty employed in spring 1980 with local, regional, and state census data for 1980. The number and percentage of Blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans were tabulated for the college as a whole and for six academic departments (i.e., physical education, vocational education, social science, natural science, humanities, and instructional/student services). In addition, the student population at CM was contrasted with state and Bay Area patterns of student enrollment. Study findings included the following: (1) Black faculty accounted for 3.14% of the instructors at CM, compared to a 2.46% Black representation in Marin County, a 9.01% distribution in the Bay area, and a 6.35% representation in the state; (2) Hispanic faculty accounted for 1.89% and Asian-Pacific Islanders 3.14% of the college total; (3) there were no Native American faculty members at CM, although the county representation was 0.35%, Bay Area 0.63%, and state 0.7%; (4) of the students at CM, 2.8% were Black, 3.2% were Hispanic, 3.2% were Asian-Pacific Islander, and 0.9% were Native American; (5) within Marin County, 2.46% of the population was Black, 4.14% Hispanic, 2.44% Asian-Pacific Islander, and 0.35% Native American. The study report includes a literature review and a discussion of the implications of the findings for affirmative action at CM. (HB)

In order to prevent species extinctions, conservation strategies need to incorporate the identification and mitigation of the root causes of population decline with an assessment of vulnerability to genetic and stochastic factors affecting small populations. Species or populations with small ranges, such as those on islands, are particularly vulnerable to extinction, and deficient knowledge of these species often impedes conservation efforts. The Bahama Swallow (Tachycineta cyaneoviridis) is an endangered secondary cavity-nester that only breeds on three islands in the northern Bahamas: Abaco, Grand Bahama, and Andros. I investigated questions related to population size and distribution, genetic diversity and population structure, breeding biology, and ecological interactions of the swallow, with the goal of informing the conservation and management of the species. Using several population survey methods on Abaco, I found that swallow site occupancy and density is higher in southern Abaco, especially near roads and pine snags. Future research should prioritize identifying the causes of variable and low population densities in parts of the swallow's range. I used microsatellite markers and morphometrics to assess differences between populations on Abaco and Andros. We found a lack of genetic differentiation (G'ST = 0.03) between populations, but differences in morphology suggest that gene flow might be low enough to enable traits under selection to diverge. By locating and monitoring nests, I found that swallows rely on woodpecker-excavated cavities in pine snags and utility poles, and that swallows nesting in pine snags had higher fledging success (92%) than those nesting in utility poles (50-62%). Using a cavity nest-web approach, I assessed how swallows interact with cavity-nesting birds and resources on Abaco. Hairy Woodpeckers (Dryobates villosus) primarily excavated pine snags, while West Indian Woodpeckers (Melanerpes superciliaris) excavated utility poles in non-pine habitat. Only swallows and La Sagra's Flycatchers (Myiarchus sagrae) used nest sites in the pine forest. Swallows in non-pine habitat face competition for cavities with American Kestrels (Falco sparverius), and non-native House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) and European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). These results highlight the importance of pine forest and the Hairy Woodpecker for the persistence of the swallow.