Public education is a cornerstone of our democracy and social advancement. However, current Vermont graduation rates would indicate that public education at the high school level does not address the needs of all twenty-first century learners. Research has revealed that personalization and creating a connected environment are promising innovations for improving education for all students. One structure that supports personalization, high school advisory, provides each student with an adult advisor that knows them well through their high school years. This research on high school advisory in Vermont was divided in two phases: 1) an assessment of the current state of advisory in all Vermont public high schools, and 2) a qualitative study that focused on the perceptions of students, advisors and administrators in 4 Vermont high schools with established advisory programs. In the second phase, a phenomenological framework was used to examine the perceptions of how advisory impacted academics, connectedness and the personalization of the high school experience. Document review, focus forum groups and interviews with the sixteen students, eight advisors and four administrators were conducted over a six-month period. Findings demonstrated that 53 out of 62 high schools in Vermont had some form of advisory program. In the study of four schools, over two-thirds of the students perceived that their high school advisory positively impacted their academic achievement. Advisors and administrators were less clear about the impact, however. Furthermore student-to-student connectedness was described positively by three-quarters of the students. The connection between advisory and personalization of education was the least clear both among students and advisors. All administrators and three-quarters of the advisors felt that in the future, personalization would become an integral part of the advisory program with the advent of Vermont Act 77, the 2013 legislation that mandates personalized learning plans and multiple pathways to graduation. Finally, there was considerable agreement in three schools that a significant roadblock to implementing effective advisories was a lack of support for advisory in the following areas: purpose, time, training and materials.

This work combines discrete and continuous methods while modeling connect- edness of financial tick data. As discrete method we are using vector autore- gression. For continuous domain Hawkes process is used, which is special case of point process. We found out that financial assets are connected in non- symmetrical fashion. By using two methodologies we were able to model bet- ter how are the series connected. We confirmed existence of price leader in our three stock portfolio and modeled connectedness of jumps between stocks. As conclusion we state that both methods yields important results about price nature on the market and should be used together or at least with awareness of second approach. JEL Classification C32, G11, G14 Keywords Vector Autoregression, Hawkes process, High- frequency analysis, Connectedness Author's e-mail petr.petras@email.cz Supervisor's e-mail krehlik@utia.cas.cz

This paper analyzes the return connectedness between the biotechnology sector and other financial assets for 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2018, using an empirical approach from both time- and frequency-domain. The results reveal that the connectedness between the biotechnology sector and other financial assets are decreasing with time, entailing high diversification opportunities in the long-run. Our results also suggest that the spillover effect from the biotechnology sector is higher than the spillover effect to the biotechnology sector, proposing that the sector affects other financial assets to a greater extent than they affect the biotechnology sector. Concurrently, we found that the net directional connectedness is negative for the sector, which means that it does not transmit shocks to others since it is not subject to significant return or volatility shocks. This implies that the systematic risk connected to the biotechnology sector is lower than previous studies argue for. Thus, our main finding is that investments in the sector has safe haven properties, indicating that they are independent towards other sectors. By investing in the biotechnology sector, investors contribute to society and supports the R&D, leading to development of vital drugs. In light of this, we argue that investments in the sector are socially beneficial. Building on these insights, investments in the biotechnology sector are of importance when investing in a prosperous world.

In this thesis we analyse the impact of uncertainty shocks in the Scandinavian banking sector. We apply the spillover approach developed by Diebold and Yilmaz (2009; 2012; 2014), followed by network analysis. Furthermore, the dynamics of uncertainty shocks are examined by applying a quantile regression approach. We study the effects of financial uncertainty, economic policy uncertainty, geopolitical risk and housing market uncertainty on the seven banks Swedbank, Nordea, SEB, Svenska Handelsbanken, DNB, Danske Bank and Jyske Bank. We study these uncertainties on global, regional and local level between 2005 and 2018. We find that the Swedish banks are greater emitters of contagion, compared to the Norwegian and Danish banks, where SEB and Nordea are the banks emitting and receiving the most spillovers. Moreover, the connectedness within the banking sector tend to increase in times of heightened uncertainty, such as during the Global Financial Crisis and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Global financial uncertainty is shown to affect the Scandinavian banks the most, followed by regional and local financial uncertainty. The same pattern can be seen for economic policy uncertainty, although at lower levels of spillovers. Reversely, housing market uncertainty is seen to increase going from global, regional to local, where the impact of local housing market uncertainty has a considerable amount of spillovers to the Scandinavian banks. Geopolitical risk is shown to have limited spillovers to the Scandinavian banks. The result of the quantile regressions suggests that financial uncertainty is affecting the banks’ returns negatively during bearish market conditions, whilst the relationship is positive during bullish market conditions. Moreover, we find that financial uncertainty is a quicker transmitter of spillovers than housing market uncertainty. Finally, we conclude that uncertainty shocks affecting the Scandinavian banks negatively tend to take effect instantaneously, while the effects of positive shocks are delayed.

A sense of school belonging has a powerful effect on students' emotional, motivational and academic functioning. This phenomenological research synthesized qualitative literature presenting pupil voice on school belonging, investigated how secondary school-aged students who have undergone a 'managed move' experience belonging, and sought their views on the role stakeholders might play in promoting school belonging for managed move students. The author discusses policy and practice implications and outlines a dissemination strategy. The first paper is an interpretative meta-synthesis involving a process of reciprocal translation and synthesis of seven qualitative studies was used to examine secondary school students' experiences of school belonging. The second paper is an empirical study investigating how secondary school students who have undergone a managed move experience school belonging, and what they feel would promote a sense of school belonging for other managed move students. This research employed purposive sampling, an interpretative case study design and semi-structured phenomenological interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data. The meta-synthesis (Paper 1) generated four main concepts: school belonging and intersubjectivity; school belonging and knowledge, understanding and acceptance of individual identity; school belonging and experiences of in-group membership and school belonging and safety/security, and the 'higher-order concept' of school belonging as 'feeling safe to be yourself in and through relationships with others in the school setting'. Superordinate themes identified in the empirical study (Paper 2) were 'making friends and feeling safe'; 'feeling known, understood and accepted as a person in receiver school'; 'identification of and support for SEN/D' and 'supportive/unsupportive school practices/protocols'. Findings indicated that a sense of school belonging for these students resulted from positive social relationships with peers and an attendant sense of safety, security and acceptance. Managed move participants expressed the desirability but also the perceived difficulty of forging relationships in a new school and acknowledged the value of sensitive and subtle support.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivos verificar as propriedades psicométricas da Escala de Atitudes Ambientais para Crianças (EAAC; adaptada de Leeming, Dwyer, Porter & Bracker, 1995) e da Escala Infantil de Satisfação com o Ambiente (EISA; criada pelo Grupo de Pesquisa em Psicologia Comunitária); verificar a associação entre bem-estar pessoal (mensurado através da Personal Wellbeing Index) e variáveis ambientais e analisar as atitudes ambientais das crianças da amostra. Foram realizados três estudos, com 1746 crianças (53,5% meninas) com idades entre 8 e 13 anos (M = 10.17; DP = 1.492) residentes de Porto Alegre (54.9%) e do interior do Rio Grande do Sul (45.1%). Os resultados do primeiro estudo indicaram que os instrumentos analisados, EAAC e EISA, apresentam bons índices de ajuste para a amostra pesquisada quando da realização na análise fatorial (exploratória e confirmatória). Com relação ao segundo estudo, as análises de regressão multivariadas indicaram que o PWI é explicado pelos itens da EAAC em 11.5% e pelos itens da EISA em 14.4%. Estão associoados ao bem-estar pessoal: a satisfação com o ambiente residencial e escolar, as atitudes ambientais que envolvem a família, o contato com a natureza e o contato com animais. O terceiro estudo buscou verificar se existem diferenças entre grupos para as atitudes ambientais e os resultados indicaram que as crianças que estudam em escolas públicas, assim como as crianças que vivem em cidades do interior e as crianças mais novas, tendem a desenvolver mais atitudes favoráveis ao ambiente. Em uma etapa qualitativa do terceiro estudo, as crianças mencionaram preocupar-se com a crise ambiental e apresentaram atitudes ambientais voltadas a ações cotidianas e de ativismo. / This dissertation aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Children’s Environmental Attitudes Scale (EACC; adjusted from Leeming, Dwyer, Porter & Bracker, 1995) and of the Children’s Environment Satisfaction Scale (EISA; developed by the Grupo de Pesquisa em Psicologia Comunitária); to verify the association between personal wellbeing (measured by the Personal Wellbeing Index School Children) and environmental variables; and to analyze the environmental attitudes of the children in the sample. There were conducted three studies with 1746 children (53.5% girls) aged between 8 and 13 years old (M = 10.17; SE = 1.492) residents on Porto Alegre (54%) and on inner cities of Rio Grande do Sul State (45.1%). The results of the first study indicated that EAAC and EISA scales had good overall fit rates when exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses were performed. In the second study, multivariate regression analysis showed that the Personal Wellbeing Index is predicted in 11.5% by the EACC items and in 14.4% by the EISA. The personal wellbeing is associated to: satisfaction with school and residence environment; family environmental attitudes; contact with animals and contact with nature. The third study aimed to check if there are differences of environmental attitudes between the groups. Outcomes indicated that children of public schools, children of inner cities and younger children tend to develop more favorable environmental attitudes. During the qualitative stage of the third study, children mentioned that they worry about the environmental crisis and presented environmental attitudes related to daily actions and activism behaviors.

The thesis presents a network model, where financial institutions form linkages at various investment horizons through their interdependence measured by volatility connectedness. Applying the novel framework of frequency connectedness mea- sures Baruník & Křehlík (2018), based on spectral representation of variance de- composition, we show fundamental properties of connectedness that originate in heterogeneous frequency responses to shocks. The newly proposed network mod- els characterize financial connections and systemic risk at the short-, medium- and long-term frequency. The empirical focus of this thesis is on the interde- pendence structure of US financial system, specifically, major U.S. banks in the period 2000 - 2016. In the light of frequency volatility connectedness measures, we argue that stocks with high levels of long-term connectedness represent greater systemic risk, because they are subject to persistent shocks transmitted for longer periods. When we assess institutions' risk premiums in asset pricing model, the model confirms the significance of volatility connectedness factor for asset prices. JEL Classification C18, C58, C58, G10, G15, Keywords connectedness, frequency, spectral analysis, sys- temic risk, financial network Author's e-mail 93539385@fsv.cuni.cz Supervisor's e-mail...

The present study was aimed at exploring the issues faced by previously incarcerated fathers and their children. A qualitative design utilizing face to face interviews was used to answer the question: according to previously incarcerate fathers, what are the differences between the reciprocal connectedness of fathers and their children prior to, during, and following incarceration? Interviews were conducted with 10 previously incarcerated fathers. Researchers found that all participants had positive relationships with their children at some point prior to incarceration. Furthermore, during incarceration the reciprocal connectedness of these relationships severely decreased due to limited or no contact. Following incarceration, fathers continued to have difficulty rebuilding the connection they once had with their children due to continued limited or nonexistent contact and mistrust by their children. Incarcerated fathers and their children are an underserved population in need of additional resources. The findings of the study add to the literature about the relationship between previously incarcerated fathers and their children, in hopes that further research and services will be developed.

In recent years attention has been concentrated on the experiences of traditional college students, with very little research or attention on the experiences of transfer students. The purpose of this causal comparative mixed-methods study was to describe the experiences of transfer students who engage in the experiential learning activities of service learning and/or internship activities at a four-year public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the Inland Empire. Relationships were found between transfer students who participated in service learning and/or internship activities and those transfer students who did not participate in those activities on the following: level of satisfaction with their educational experience, current job/career, and sense of connectedness to the university, and beliefs about how much the university contributed to their acquisition of job- or work-related knowledge and skills. Predominant concepts regarding transfer students' beliefs about what the university could do to help them be successful, were the implementation of a transfer student orientation and creating a transfer student center.

Defining Moments / A Life Portrait In his MFA Thesis Exhibition, Defining Moments / A Life Portrait, Timothy Haerens explores and celebrates our connectedness to one another as members of the human race. “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” Haerens chose this quote from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh, as the inspiration for his show because it affirms his belief that we are linked to one another by virtue of our humanness. Through his abstract paintings on canvas and plexiglass, as well as through his prints and collagraphs, Haerens reflects on many facets of life – the sweet and sour moments we experience as part of the human condition. His art elicits an internal dialogue in an attempt to better understand himself and the world around him.