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Inappropriate behavior among students has long been a point of great concern and contention for public schools in the United States. Our national school discipline rates have reached an all-time high. As suspension and expulsion rates continue to grow at schools across the country, so do racial disparities. Over the past 4 decades, the K, "12 suspension rates have doubled for White students but tripled for Black students. In Arlington County Public Schools (ACPS), inappropriate student behavior that may result in suspension is classified as either "zero-tolerance" (for which the student must be suspended) or "nonzero-tolerance" (for which the school administrator can choose between suspension and other forms of discipline). Suspension is assumed to be one of the more severe forms of discipline. This study analyzes the impact that student ethnicity had on suspensions in ACPS during school years 2006 to 2011. The results indicate that Hispanic and Black students are suspended more than White and Asian students. However, when the administrator has the option to suspend, results suggest that Blacks and Whites are given the benefit of the doubt but Hispanics are not. Possible causes of the relationship between ethnicity and inappropriate behavior are provided. Reasoning for school administrators' possible leniency with Blacks and their possible lack of leniency with Hispanics is also provided. Areas of future study are recommended. / Ed. D.

Let X be a real Banach space and G1, G2 two nonempty, open and bounded subsets of X such that 0 ∈ G2 and G2 ⊂ G1. The problem (∗) T x + Cx = 0 is considered, where T : X ⊃ D(T) → X is an accretive or monotone operator with 0 ∈ D(T) and T(0) = 0, while C : X ⊃ D(C) → X can be, e.g., one of the following types: (a) compact; (b) continuous and bounded with the resolvents of T compact; (c) demicontinuous, bounded and of type (S+) with T positively homogeneous of degree one; (d) quasi-bounded and satisfies a generalized (S+)-condition w.r.t. the operator T, while T is positively homogeneous of degree one. Solutions are sought for the problem (∗) lying in the set D(T + C) ∩ (G1 \ G2). Nontrivial solutions of (∗) exist even when C(0) = 0. The degree theories of Leray and Schauder, Browder, and Skrypnik as well as the degree theory by Kartsatos and Skrypnik for densely defined operators T, C are used. The last three degree theories do not assume any compactness conditions on the operator C. The excision and additivity properties of these degree theories are employed, and the main results are significant extensions or generalizations of previous results by Krasnoselskii, Guo, Ding and Kartsatos involving the relaxation of compactness conditions and/or conditions on the boundedness of the operator T. Moreover, a new degree theory developed by Kartsatos and Skrypnik has been used to prove a similar result for operators of type T + C, where T : X ⊃ D(T) → 2 X∗ is a multi-valued maximal monotone operator, with 0 ∈ D(T) and 0 ∈ T(0), and C : X ⊃ D(C) → X∗ is a densely defined quasi-bounded and finitely continuous operator of type (S˜+). The problem of existence of nonzero solutions for T x + Cx + Gx 3 0 is also considered. Here, T is maximal monotone, C is bounded demicontinuous of type (S+), and G is of class (P). Eigenvalue and invariance of domain results have also been established for the sum L + T + C : G ∩ D(L) → 2 X∗ , where G ⊂ X is open and bounded, L : X ⊃ D(L) → X∗ densely defined linear maximal monotone, T : X → 2X∗ bounded maximal monotone, and C : G → X∗ bounded demicontinuous of type (S+) w. r. t. D(L).

Let F be a field, let G be an undirected graph on n vertices, and let SF(G) be the set of all F-valued symmetric n x n matrices whose nonzero off-diagonal entries occur in exactly the positions corresponding to the edges of G. Let MRF(G) be defined as the set of matrices in SF(G) whose rank achieves the minimum of the ranks of matrices in SF(G). We develop techniques involving Z-hat, a process termed nil forcing, and induced subgraphs, that can determine when diagonal entries corresponding to specific vertices of G must be zero or nonzero for all matrices in MRF(G). We call these vertices nil or nonzero vertices, respectively. If a vertex is not a nil or nonzero vertex, we call it a neutral vertex. In addition, we completely classify the vertices of trees in terms of the classifications: nil, nonzero and neutral. Next we give an example of how nil vertices can help solve the inverse inertia problem. Lastly we give results about the inverse eigenvalue problem and solve a more complex variation of the problem (the λ, µ problem) for the path on 4 vertices. We also obtain a general result for the λ, µ problem concerning the number of λ’s and µ’s that can be equal.

Cette thèse traite les jeux différentiels stochastiques de somme non nulle (JDSNN) dans le cadre de Markovien et de leurs liens avec les équations différentielles stochastiques rétrogrades (EDSR) multidimensionnelles. Nous étudions trois problèmes différents. Tout d'abord, nous considérons un JDSNN où le coefficient de dérive n'est pas borné, mais supposé uniquement à croissance linéaire. Ensuite certains cas particuliers de coefficients de diffusion non bornés sont aussi considérés. Nous montrons que le jeu admet un point d'équilibre de Nash via la preuve de l'existence de la solution de l'EDSR associée et lorsque la condition d'Isaacs généralisée est satisfaite. La nouveauté est que le générateur de l'EDSR, qui est multidimensionnelle, est de croissance linéaire stochastique par rapport au processus de volatilité. Le deuxième problème est aussi relatif au JDSNN mais les payoffs ont des fonctions d'utilité exponentielles. Les EDSRs associées à ce jeu sont de type multidimensionnelles et quadratiques en la volatilité. Nous montrons de nouveau l'existence d’un équilibre de Nash. Le dernier problème que nous traitons, est un jeu bang-bang qui conduit à des hamiltoniens discontinus. Dans ce cas, nous reformulons le théorème de vérification et nous montrons l’existence d’un équilibre de Nash qui est du type bang-bang, i.e., prenant ses valeurs sur le bord du domaine en fonction du signe de la dérivée de la fonction valeur ou du processus de volatilité. L'EDSR dans ce cas est un système multidimensionnel couplé, dont le générateur est discontinu par rapport au processus de volatilité. / This dissertation studies the multiple players nonzero-sum stochastic differential games (NZSDG) in the Markovian framework and their connections with multiple dimensional backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs). There are three problems that we are focused on. Firstly, we consider a NZSDG where the drift coefficient is not bound but is of linear growth. Some particular cases of unbounded diffusion coefficient of the diffusion process are also considered. The existence of Nash equilibrium point is proved under the generalized Isaacs condition via the existence of the solution of the associated BSDE. The novelty is that the generator of the BSDE is multiple dimensional, continuous and of stochastic linear growth with respect to the volatility process. The second problem is of risk-sensitive type, i.e. the payoffs integrate utility exponential functions, and the drift of the diffusion is unbounded. The associated BSDE is of multi-dimension whose generator is quadratic on the volatility. Once again we show the existence of Nash equilibria via the solution of the BSDE. The last problem that we treat is a bang-bang game which leads to discontinuous Hamiltonians. We reformulate the verification theorem and we show the existence of a Nash point for the game which is of bang-bang type, i.e., it takes its values in the border of the domain according to the sign of the derivatives of the value function. The BSDE in this case is a coupled multi-dimensional system, whose generator is discontinuous on the volatility process.

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