This study utilized a correlational research design to investigate the relationships that may exist between teacher empathy, attitudes, and levels of self-efficacy. In particular, the study was designed to (a) determine whether attitudes towards trauma-informed care mediated the relationship between teacher empathy and teacher self-efficacy related to classroom management and (b) uncover what teachers find most challenging in their efforts to support students experiencing trauma. An online survey, completed by 146 American teachers, included items from three established measures: the Empathy Scale for Teachers (Wang et al., 2022); the Underlying Causes of Problem Behaviors and Symptoms subscale of the Attitudes Related to Trauma- Informed Care (ARTIC-35) (Baker et al., 2016); and the Classroom Management subscale of the Teacher Sense of Self-Efficacy scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Multiple regression was used to analyze the quantitative data and thematic analysis was used to uncover themes from responses to an open-ended item on the survey. The following six themes emerged from the thematic analysis of descriptions provided by teachers of the biggest challenge they face in their efforts to support students experiencing trauma: The most common response involved difficulty recognizing and responding to trauma. This study found higher levels of teacher empathy to be associated with more positiveteacher attitude towards trauma informed care, as measured by the underlying causes of problem behaviors and symptoms subscale of the ARTIC-35. Additionally, these positive attitudes (consistent with trauma-informed care) were associated with more efficacious feelings in teachers regarding their classroom management. The results indicate that attitude towards trauma-informed care serves as an indirect-only mediator to explain the impact of empathy on level of teacher self-efficacy related to classroom management. Although caution is urged when drawing causal conclusions from correlational studies, the results highlight the potential importance of cultivating teacher empathy so trauma-informed practices can flourish in creating positive, safe classroom environments that increase learning opportunities for all students while possibly reducing departures from the teaching profession.

This study examined school staff’s trauma-informed practices and experiences in an urban alternative high school that serves former high school dropouts, many of whom have experienced trauma. In light of the growing concern about trauma among students and the interest in trauma-informed education, this study offers a significant contribution by analyzing educators’ meaning-making, highlighting both what their practices look like “on the ground,” and identifying the consequences. Framed by Contemporary Trauma Theory as well as the concept of educational trauma (Sullivan, 2004), this study used ethnographic methods to examine the practices school staff used to create a schooling environment that was responsive to the needs of students with trauma histories. Observations and interviews were conducted with a total of 8 staff and 27 students over the course of one school year. The findings indicate that staff members’ trauma-informed practices centered on building relationships and using those relationships as a knowledge base in order to decipher and respond to negative student behavior. Together, these practices overlap with defining features of trauma-informed schools outlined in the literature. Staff practices had both positive and negative impacts on the school community. / Urban Education

Physics Informed Machine Learning (PIML) has emerged as the forefront of research in scientific machine learning with the key motivation of systematically coupling machine learning (ML) methods with prior domain knowledge often available in the form of physics supervision. Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is an important goal in many scientific use-cases, where the obtaining reliable ML model predictions and accessing the potential risks associated with them is crucial. In this thesis, we propose novel methodologies in three key areas for improving uncertainty quantification for PIML. First, we propose to explicitly infuse the physics prior in the form of monotonicity constraints through architectural modifications in neural networks for quantifying uncertainty. Second, we demonstrate a more general framework for quantifying uncertainty with PIML that is compatible with generic forms of physics supervision such as PDEs and closed form equations. Lastly, we study the limitations of physics-based loss in the context of Physics-informed Neural Networks (PINNs), and develop an efficient sampling strategy to mitigate the failure modes. / Doctor of Philosophy / Owing to the success of deep learning in computer vision and natural language processing there is a growing interest of using deep learning in scientific applications. In scientific applications, knowledge is available in the form of closed form equations, partial differential equations, etc. along with labeled data. My work focuses on developing deep learning methods that integrate these forms of supervision. Especially, my work focuses on building methods that can quantify uncertainty in deep learning models, which is an important goal for high-stakes applications.

Childhood trauma, often referred to as America’s hidden crisis, significantly impacts the learning and behavior of students with disabilities (SWD), in particular. SWD who experience or witness trauma face challenges related to discipline, academic achievement, absenteeism, and social and emotional well-being. According to the National Survey on Children’s Health (2021), 16.3% of children served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act have encountered two or more adverse childhood experiences by age 18, with over half of the states surpassing the national average. Addressing this urgent concern is difficult due to a shortage of qualified service providers, such as nurses, psychologists, and mental health specialists, and other limitations like lack of resources and funding. However, research indicates schools can implement trauma-informed practices to provide the necessary support for SWD to thrive. This research study explored how an urban school district utilized Advocacy Centers and coaches in elementary schools to support vulnerable students in overcoming trauma and achieving success in their learning environments. Specifically, this qualitative, focused ethnography case study investigated best practices in trauma-informed care provided by four advocacy coaches supporting trauma-impacted SWD in Title I elementary schools in the southeastern United States. The study incorporated participant questionnaires, classroom observations, field notes, semi-structured interviews, and examination of classroom artifacts. Two key themes emerged: (a) building strong relationships with students and (b) promising trauma-informed practices for classrooms. Results of the data analysis indicated that educators must first establish strong, authentic relationships with SWD before being able to effectively integrate trauma-informed practices into their classrooms. Recommendations and implications for future research are presented.

Launch vehicle development programs have experienced significant difficulties in achieving first flight. Optimism during the initiation of these complex programs, coupled with the innovative nature of the technologies they employ, has resulted in a long list of programs unable to remain within the national means. A recent example of this challenge is the Constellation program which was canceled in 2011 due to excessive cost overruns and schedule slippage. The budgetary constraints currently placed on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) highlights the need for a greater emphasis on affordability. Where affordability is defined in this research as the ability to remain under the mandated funding curve for all points in a system's life cycle while simultaneously meeting schedule goals given that performance requirements are met. The proposed research aims to address the gap between current practices and an affordability-centric design approach by capturing manufacturing technology effects on the affordability of the baseline vehicle concept. Historically, cost overruns and schedule slippages escalate once production begins and are only truly realized at the first launch of a system. These trends, based upon systems which leveraged traditional materials and processes, suggest a shortcoming in the ability of current practices to assess manufacturing implications during the early design phases. The advent of advanced materials and the new process required to fabricate parts from them, further challenges these practices, and threaten to exacerbate the already excessive overruns experience once production begins. Manufacturing technologies, such as composite materials, automated fabrication processes, and the use of stiffener concepts, can no longer be considered independently. This observation leads to the conclusion that improvements in vehicle affordability can only be realized by bringing manufacturing information forward into the Conceptual Design phase. The goal of this research is to support the development of affordable launch vehicles by quantitatively capturing the effects of manufacturing technology selection during Conceptual Design. A manufacturing influenced design methodology is combined with established techniques of time-phasing and risk propagation to evaluate the expected affordability of a launch vehicle baseline concept. The method is benchmarked against expected performance and affordability trends established in literature. The experiments used to build this methodology provide interesting insight into the excess risk typically carried into Preliminary Design due to a lack of the temporal nature of cost. Fundamental implications include the notion that the most expensive candidate (i.e. the highest total cost) does not correspond to the candidate with the highest annual cost insurance. Furthermore, the assessment of risk — within the traditional total cost domain — by overlaying vertical constraints onto uncertainty distributions results in the inclusion of many unaffordable candidates. The final chapter of this thesis applies the method to a relevant launch vehicle, the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) of the SLS Block IB, which is currently in its Conceptual Design phase. This chapter compares two viable candidate manufacturing technologies based on affordability criteria established herein. The application of this methodology provides the decision maker with a significant amount of information previously unavailable and affords her additional degrees of freedom regarding appropriate Design, Development, Testing, Evaluation, and Production (DDTE&P) planning. This will ultimately enable the selection of an affordable vehicle baseline which will be robust to uncertainty in congress-appropriated funding and thus circumvent risks associated with government program cancellation.

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

Program evaluation is a form of systematic inquiry designed to meet the needs of those who are working on or who are responsible for a program. One challenge faced by the field of evaluation is responding to the increasing complexity of social programing and diverse informational needs. Methodological innovation is a trait of the field of program evaluation that provides opportunity for responding to challenge faced by the field. Evaluation orientations that rely on qualitative methodologies, which seek to describe, to understand or to interpret complex phenomena are potential sites for arts-informed inquiry. Arts-informed inquiry draws from creative strategies in the arts, where art is produced for the sake of inquiry. Accordingly, through this research I adopt dual roles of evaluator and researcher, to gather empirical evidence about the power of integrating arts-informed inquiry into frameworks for evaluation. In this research, I document how arts-informed inquiry draws from artistic processes to broaden perceptions, make meaningful contributions, and expand evaluator skills. Specifically, the potential for arts-informed inquiry in evaluation is investigated by conducting an evaluation of one program, in one school district. Analysis of this two-phase process occurred by applying a heuristic of three groupings of key concepts within the field of evaluation: methods, values and use. In doing so, I provide a detailed description of the potential for arts-informed inquiry within one program evaluation. This study provides a transparent account of the inquiry process to document the implications for undertaking arts-informed inquiry in program evaluation. In addition, there are theoretical implications for the field of evaluation when they consider the process and representations shaped by inclusion of arts-informed inquiry. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-28 21:49:48.1

This thesis examined the evidence, policy decision-making, and implementation of HPV vaccination in Canada as a case study to explore normalization versus individualized decision making in public health programs. Mixed methods were used: a systematic review, content analyses and policy document analysis. Overall, the scientific evidence supported an effect of vaccination against HPV infection and precancerous cervical lesions, but evidence regarding cervical cancer incidence or mortality is lacking. Scientific and medical communities appeared optimistic about the vaccine, but cautious about its readiness for routine implementation. Policy decision-making was initially cautious, but shifted towards active program implementation, possibly related to the availability of federal funding. The educational materials and media coverage both sent clearly normalizing messages about HPV vaccination. The discussion suggests that HPV vaccination might be more suited to an individualized than population approach, but many factors coincided to promote its implementation, in Canada, within a traditional public health model.

United Kingdom (UK) health policy over the past thirty years has been predicated on a partnership model focusing on empowering service users to be fully involved in their care. Within maternity care partnership relationships have been conceptualised as empowering women to have continuity, choice and control (Department of Health (DoH), 1993), within a relationship of personal autonomy between the woman and her carers. In this study I sought to identify the extent to which the Government agenda for partnership working and choice is realised or desired by women during pregnancy and childbirth. In addition, I wanted to examine the level of alignment between the views of midwives with that of women accessing the maternity services. This study took a qualitative approach, drawing on the principles of grounded theory. In the first phase of the study a purposive sample of sixteen pregnant women were recruited and invited to complete a diary and to take part in two interviews. Women maintained diary entries following appointments with the midwife during pregnancy and childbirth. Semi–structured interviews were undertaken at 36 weeks of pregnancy and four weeks after the birth, based on the diary entries. In the second phase, four focus groups were undertaken with two groups of community midwives and birth centre midwives from two National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. Quotes from the diary-interviews from phase one were utilised to develop three vignettes which acted as a prompt during the focus group interviews. Following a thematic analysis of the data, I analysed women’s views on partnership working and choice. Most women in this study did not feel that they developed a partnership relationship with the midwife. This was associated with a lack of continuity of care and insufficient time to engage in meaningful discussion in an environment which was not conducive to shared decision making. Women described wide variations on the midwives role in supporting decision making. This ranged from decisions being dictated to midwives guiding choices and for some women, being facilitated to make informed choices. Many women described input of family and friends and widespread use of the internet as an information source. Women depicted their antenatal midwifery care as medicalised and felt that whilst their bio-medical needs were met their psycho-social and emotional needs were not. Women described the visits frequently as ‘in and out’ or ‘ticking the boxes’ to describe this approach to care. A small number of women (n=5) did experience a partnership relationship. Three of these women knew the midwife from a previous pregnancy; the remaining two women attended a midwifery led unit for all of their care. In relation to the choice agenda, most of the women who participated in this study were not aware that they had a choice about who provided their care or where they would have their care. The midwife focus groups concurred with the women’s findings and suggested that a lack of time was a significant factor hindering the formation of a partnership relationship. Midwives felt that this was exacerbated by the paperwork they were required to complete in order to audit care and meet the ‘payment by results’ agenda (DoH, 2003b). During the focus groups midwives identified strategies which could be implemented to enhance midwifery led care, including offering antenatal care to small groups of women and undertaking an antenatal home visit towards the end of pregnancy, to provide women with the time to discuss any issues that they wanted to explore in more depth. The findings from this study contribute to the current body of knowledge on midwifery led care particularly in providing the women’s perspective on partnership working. Women want to experience midwifery care that meets their psycho-social needs as well as bio-medical needs through a model of care that provides continuity. In contrast to previous research findings, the women in this study described community based care as mechanistic, clinically focused and time bound, more in line with an obstetric model of care than a midwifery model. However, midwifery led care offered within a birth centre was perceived by women as providing a more holistic, social model of care. Whilst continuity of care is not a new concept, what this study contributes is that despite successive administrations supporting partnership working and informed choice over the past twenty years, most of the women in this study did not experience this level of care. The findings from this study resulted in the development of a midwifery partnership model as a theoretical framework that could be utilised in future research studies to evaluate the extent to which a partnership relationship exists within a range of midwifery care settings.

Purpose: To determine which method of anesthesia risk presentation parents understand and prefer across their demographic variables Methods: As a cross-sectional study, questionnaires were distributed to 50 parents of patients (<7 years of age) in the VCU Pediatric Dental Clinic. Parents were asked of their own and their children’s demographics, previous dental and anesthesia experiences, and anesthesia understanding. Parents were then asked to rate the level of risk of several risk presentations and finally asked which method of risk presentation they most understood or preferred. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, likelihood chi square tests, and repeated measures logistic regression. Results: There was no evidence of a differential preference due to gender (P = 0.28), age (P > .9), education (P = 0.39) or whether they incorrectly answered any risk question (P > 0.7). There was some evidence that the three types were not equally preferred (likelihood ratio chi- square = 5.31, df =2, P-value = 0.0703). The best estimate is that 60% prefer charts, 34% prefer numbers, and 36% prefer activity comparisons. There was a relationship between the average relative risk of general anesthesia and age (r = –0.38, P = 0.0070). Younger individuals indicate High risk more often and older individuals indicate Low risk more often. Conclusion: There was no preference of risk presentation type due to gender, age, or education, but there was evidence that each was not equally preferred. Healthcare providers must be able to present the risk of anesthesia in multiple ways to allow for full patient understanding.