In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement which urged physicians to conduct surveillance at every well-child visit and screen for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) at 18 and 24 months, and at any other time when parents raised a concern about a possible ASD. The purpose of this study was to identify the screening practices of pediatricians and primary care physicians (PCPs) in following the AAP guidelines specifically related to ASD in Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa. A survey was mailed to 1,500 pediatricians and PCPs registered to practice in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa. The survey was designed to obtain the following information: demographic information, ASD screening, diagnostic and referral practices, physician’s knowledge of AAP guidelines, and their pre-professional training. A total of 481 participants returned the surveys, rendering an overall response rate of 32%. 396 surveys were included for the analysis. The analysis of the data indicated that 66 (17%) respondents routinely screened for ASD according to AAP guidelines. An additional 162 (41%) respondents routinely screened for ASD, but did not follow AAP guidelines. It was also found that the respondents’ pre-professional education in the area of ASD correlated with their confidence levels for identifying the early warning signs of ASD and their ASD screening and diagnostic practices. The data indicated that pediatricians were more likely to screen for ASD and PCPs were more likely not to screen for ASD. Also, only 19% of physicians were aware of the current AAP guidelines for ASD screening. The data also highlighted the important role of parents and multidisciplinary team in the ASD screening and diagnostic process. These results highlighted the fact that efforts should be made to address ASD screening, diagnostic, and treatment practices in the pre-professional education of these physicians. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Achievement of boys in school is falling behind girls nationally and internationally. Fewer boys are enrolling in honors and advanced placement classes and fewer of them are going on to college. In fact when compared to girls, boys earn lower grades, are suspended and expelled more often, and more of them drop out. Research is inconclusive on attempts to correct the problem through the use of single-sex schools or recruitment of more male teachers. This participatory action research project created an opportunity for pre-k--12 collaboration to study the phenomenon of boys’ underachievement to consider how Noddings (1984) care theory and relationships might be used to close the gap. Six themes came from the research: differences between boys and girls, care through responsive teaching, care through building relationships, power of parents, stress and pressure in education, and taking action and trust. Each of the first five themes was seen by teachers to positively or negatively influence the degree to which boys succeed in school. Teachers understand the need to take time to be seen as a person and to also take time to learn something about the student. Teachers understand the need to build and maintain relationships over time. Teachers’ understanding of how they care for boys shapes their role as a teacher as they focus on building relationships in which the teacher is present or in the moment with the student and maintains high standards for academics and conduct. The sixth theme taking action and trust revealed a challenge within the district involving trust and the nature of participatory action research. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Leadership

Distributed resources (DR), such as residential small wind turbines and solar cells, generate electrical energy in the form of a direct current (DC). An inverter is needed to convert this DC power into an alternating current (AC) for regular usage. The main purpose of this dissertation was to determine the performance of the inverter under steady-state and transient-state conditions, and then develop a power flow model that would be useful for power system operators and planners to determine how much high penetration of distributed photovoltaic energy would affect their power systems. These test results are useful for analyzing the inverter behavior in order for power system operators and planners to regulate the active power and reactive power flow if 5% to 10% of renewable energy penetrates into their neighborhoods in the near future. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

The research presented in this dissertation discusses the mimicry of primary events in natural photosynthesis via artificial molecular constructs. Photosynthesis involves two major steps, absorption of light by antenna pigments and transfer of the excitation energy to the reaction center where charge separated entities are formed via photoinduced electron transfer (PET). The synthesized artificial molecular systems are comprisedof porphyrin-fullerene, donor-acceptor entities due to their well studied photophysical properties which are essential to yield long-lived charge-separated states. Covalent and non covalent binding strategies have been employed in the design and synthesis of these novel artificial antenna-reaction centers. The synthesized molecular systems are characterized using standard spectroscopic techniques. Their properties and performances in terms of an artificial photosynthetic model are evaluated by electrochemical, computational, time resolved emission, and transient absorption spectral studies. The systems studied reveal their potential in transferring excitation energy and yielding long-lived charge separated states with fast charge separation and slow charge recombination. The photoelectrochemistry of some of the compounds reveal their ability to convert light into electricity. Some triads show better performance as dyes in dye sensitized solar cells giving around 12% IPCE, incident photon-to-photocurrent conversion efficiency. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Chemistry

This dissertation proposes improvements in the numerical algorithm for the dynamics of flows that involve discontinuities and broadband fluctuations simultaneously. These two flow features suggest numerical strategies of a paradoxical nature because the discontinuities demand large dissipation and the small-scale smooth features require the opposite. There may be several ways to approach such a complicated issue, such as combining a shock-capturing scheme with a low dissipative method using a shock detector, but the natural choice, to avoid the redundancy of using the shock detector and the stability issue as a result of coupling, is a numerical technique that can adjust adaptively with flow regimes. The weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme may be this choice. However, there are two sources of dissipation associated with the WENO procedure: upwind optimal stencil and nonlinear adaption mechanism. The current work suggests a robust and comprehensive treatment for the minimization of dissipation error from these two sources. The optimization technique is used to delay the dissipation of the upwind optimal stencil to those wavenumbers for which the dispersion error is large. However, optimization decreases the formal order of accuracy of the optimal stencil from fifth order to third order. Using the WENO procedure, the third-order accuracy is verified in the smooth region, except the critical point of order two, where the order of accuracy reduces to at least second order. The lost accuracy at the second-order critical point is restored in an attempt to reduce the dissipation induced by the nonlinear adaptive weights. The modification of the nonlinear weights to reduce the dissipation is introduced by redefining them with an additional smoothness indicator. Other suggestions regarding the issues to minimize the dissipation of the nonlinear weights are also reviewed. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

In the last decade, social media platforms have emerged to provide individuals and organizations with unprecedented access to each other and the rest of the world. The potential for influencing positive community change through the use of these platforms is great. However, despite this potential for change, the process of persuasion and behavior change through social media is complex. The purpose of this research was to provide a broad overview of how success in influencing behavior change might be achieved. This was done through an analysis of intensive interviews with individuals who have had extensive experience working with social media platforms and success at creating positive community change through these platforms. Results were combined into eight categories which were broken down in to more specific themes and sub themes to provide a better understanding of success in using social media to generate positive community change. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

The present study investigated convergent and divergent parenting antecedents and the unique and interactive effects of child verbal ability and impulsivity--‐inattention on the growth of relational and physical aggression. In an effort to eliminate sources of discrepant findings in the current relational aggression research, the present study employed the use of multiple methods of assessment, and simultaneously measured relational and physical aggression during the kindergarten school year, which represents a key point in development. Results suggest that child gender, verbal ability, and inattention--‐impulsivity all moderated the association of parenting with growth in aggression. Child characteristics moderated the relationship between parenting and aggression in a rather complex manner, and did so somewhat differently depending on the topography of the aggressive behavior. The findings of this study suggest that parenting interventions with both parent and child components may be more effective at reducing rates of child aggression than interventions focused on one of these components alone. While not assessed in this study, growth in relational aggression also appears to be influenced by the peer environment in addition to parent and child factors. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

A high-order finite difference solver was written to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes (NS) equations and was applied to analyze the blood flow. First, a computer code was written to solve incompressible Navier- Stokes equations using the exact projection method/fractional step scheme. A fifth-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) spatial operator was applied to the convective terms of Navier-Stokes equations. The diffusion term was solved by using a sixth-order compact central difference scheme. A fractional step scheme in conjunction with the third-order Runge-Kutta total variation diminishing (RK TVD) scheme was used for the time discretization. At this stage, non-Newtonian effects and the pulsatile nature of the flow were not included. The developed Newtonian flow code was tested using benchmark problems for incompressible flow, namely, the driven cavity flow, Couette flow, Taylor-Green vortex problem, double shear layer problem, and skewed cavity flow. The results were compared with existing published experimental data in order to build confidence that the computer code was working properly in the simple blood flow conditions, i.e., as a Newtonian fluid. In the second stage, the backward-facing step was analyzed for Newtonian steady and pulsatile flow, and for non-Newtonian steady and pulsatile flow. The results were compared with experimental data and found to be in agreement. In the third stage, the computer program was extended to three dimensions. Flow through an infinite long pipe and through a 90-degree bend was carried out. The velocity profile in the pipe and at different locations of the bend was obtained, and the numerical values indicate good agreement with analytical and experimental values. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

Peer bullying and victimization involving youth in out of home placement (OOH) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth were investigated in this study, as well as how parenting, peer relationships, and school support affect a youth’s bully or victim status. Participants were high school students enrolled in Dane County schools during the 2008-2009 school year. Total sample size was 16,766 with 560 (3%) identifying as OOH, 1539 (9%) identifying as LGBT, and 113 (1%) identifying as both OOH+LGBT. Results indicated higher levels of 30 day victimization and 30 day bullying for OOH youth as compared to non-OOH youth, LGBT youth as compared to non-LGBT youth, and OOH+LGBT youth as compared to OOH only or LGBT only youth. The impact of parenting, peer relationships, and school support on bullying and victimization was similar for all youth; however, OOH, LGBT, and OOH+LGBT youth reported significantly lower mean levels of positive support from each of these sources compared to their non-OOH and non-LGBT counterparts. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

Parental monitoring, child social competence, and child academic success were examined as mediators explaining the relationship between Oregon's Model of Parent Management Training (PMTO) and long-term changes in deviant peer association for an at-risk sample of divorced mothers of 6-10 year old boys. Participants included a community sample of 238 boys and mothers. Mother's mean age was 34.7 years at the start of data collection, and boys mean age was 7.8 years. Multi-method, multi-informant methods were used to examine skilled parenting and parental monitoring, as well as child factors, including social competence, academic success, and deviant peer association. Intervention was found to positively impact average levels in deviant peer association across time. Parental monitoring did not mediate the relationship between intervention and changes in deviant peer association. Parenting skill induced changes in social competence and academic success were not found to mediate the relationship between PMTO and future deviant peer association. However, children who were ranked higher on social competence and had stronger academic skills demonstrated lower levels of deviant peer association and reduced risk for persistent affiliation with antisocial peers. These results support the need to ascertain other mediating factors contributing to the increasing, long-term benefits of PMTO. Further implications for prevention and intervention are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology