Self-regulation refers to a complex set of processes that control attentional, emotional, and behavioral impulses. Understandably, studies have shown that these processes have a significant impact on an individual’s success in school environments. Further, research has highlighted that self-regulation processes are developmental and dynamic, gradually shaped over time by experiences and environments. Thus, unexpected disruptions to environments and expected experiences can negatively impact the development of self-regulation and produce negative secondary consequences, such as learning loss. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unexpected disruptions to the lives of most people. Emerging research demonstrates the toll the pandemic took on individuals' physical and mental health, work, connections to others, and finances. For a generation of students, there was an additional impact of school closures, shifts to online learning, and social distancing from peer groups. In the present study, I examined how COVID-19 related stress and impacts interacted with the self-regulation of students in grades four through ten. Utilizing data from an ongoing longitudinal study, I fitted a series of multilevel models to evaluate whether COVID-19 stressors and impacts were predictive of worse student self-regulation and whether this had a negative effect on students' mathematics competence as measured by their performance on grade level assessments. Results indicated that student self-regulation was a reliable and robust predictor of performance on grade-level mathematics competence measures. COVID-19 related impacts were associated with worse self-regulation, though COVID-19 stress did not have an effect on self-regulation. We found no evidence of significant interaction effects between COVID-19 related stress and impacts on the relationship between self-regulation and mathematics outcomes. This dissertation study contributes to a growing body of research aimed at understanding the far-reaching consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for a generation of students whose learning, social, and home environments were disrupted. Future research should continue to examine self-regulation processes and learning consequences of COVID-19 as we are likely to observe ongoing effects for years to come.

High-Performance Teams (HPaTs) are vital for sustaining peak performance inhigh-stakes environments. This research investigation proposes a team model designed to sustain excellence by balancing team well-being, expertise, and interdependence. In searching for answers to understand HPaTs, this research led to the development of the Balanced Duality Model, which is a leadership tool that integrates individual behaviors into team dynamics, balancing personal contributions with collective output for optimal performance. By distinguishing the differences between diverse types of highperformance teams, by the stakes involved, expertise required, and environment, the model monitors the team as a leadership tool, to ensure excellence. The risk of failure can be catastrophic, making these teams toxic, insular, and arrogant. This attitude often leads to inefficient decision-making, compromised performance, and unethical behavior, creating an "above the law" mentality. The B-D Model addresses these challenges by emphasizing the need for continuous support from team members, leaders, and organizational resources. By focusing on psychological fitness and competencies, leaders can enhance individual performance and maintain group cohesion. This research offers a perspective on managing HPaTs with a primary focus on the delicate balance between individual well-being and sustained high performance and provides practical insights for leaders striving to build resilient, high-performing teams.

Introduction: In the United States, there is currently no universally accepted clinical assessment tool to ensure high quality orthodontic care through routine audit. In this pilot study, I aim to apply the Peer Assessment Rating (PAR) Index to the Temple graduate orthodontic clinic to provide insight on treatment outcomes and distribution of services. To date, this is the first time an established clinically objective measure of malocclusion has been applied to a graduate orthodontic health clinic for routine audit. This audit aims to further investigate: 1. If there are any differences in treatment outcome for patients who had the entirety of their treatment completed with one resident vs patients who were transferred to another resident during their care. 2. If there are any differences in treatment outcome between patients that are paying for their treatment out of pocket vs patients paying through Medicaid insurance programs.Materials and Methods: A pilot study with a retrospective chart review design that will implement a PAR Index audit to assess treatment outcomes at Temple University Graduate Orthodontic Clinic. 3-dimensional scans before and after treatment were analyzed and measured based upon the PAR index established guidelines. Patient funding and transferal status were extracted from dental EHR software and compared utilizing a difference-in-difference estimation. Results: 159 patient treatments were evaluated. Transferred patients had a mean PAR score decrease of 71.14%, and non-transferred patients had a mean PAR score decrease of 62.98%. Privately funded patients had a mean PAR score decrease of 61.29%, and insurance funded patients had a mean PAR score decrease of 72.02%. There was a significant difference in pre-treatment PAR score based on patient transfer status (P = 0.01) and funding (P = 0.01) via Students T-test. There was not a significant difference in post-treatment PAR score based on patient transfer status (P = 0.84) and funding (P = 0.70) via Students T-test. There was a significantly different reduction of PAR score by funding status (P = 0.04), but not by transferal status (P = 0.12) based upon the difference-in-difference estimation via negative binomial regression analysis. Conclusion: Overall, the PAR index can be applied to university orthodontic clinics for routine clinical audit and can provide insight on treatment outcomes and distribution of services. Transferred patient start on average with a significantly more severe malocclusion compared to patients that are not transferred, but their post-treatment PAR scores on average are not significantly different. There was no statistically significant difference treatment outcome between patients who were transferred and those who were not transferred to another resident during treatment. Insurance funded patients start on average with a significantly more severe malocclusion compared to privately funded, but their post-treatment PAR scores on average are not significantly different. There was a significantly greater decrease in PAR score treatment outcome for the insurance funded patients compared to the privately funded patients. Mean PAR score percentage reduction was similar to that of the British regional orthodontic centres in 1995.  

Introduction: Historically, in Pennsylvania, the Salzmann Evaluation Index (SEI) (Figure 2) was used to evaluate the medical necessity of orthodontic care and whether the government will cover costs for low-income patients. Approval discrepancies occur between doctor index scoring and insurance funding with the SEI, leading to questions about how indices determine funding. Each state and insurance administrator decides which, if any, medically necessary malocclusions to include that automatically qualify for treatment coverage. As of 2022, a major insurance administrator in the state of Pennsylvania added an additional qualifying criterion: the orthodontic criteria index (OCI), ten occlusal characteristics that lead to an automatic qualification (Figure 3). This leaves the possibility that a patient may qualify on one or both indices. This study is the first to evaluate the frequency of approvals between SEI and OCI in Pennsylvania. The secondary objectives for this investigation are to evaluate the OCI criteria insurance administrator approval rate compared to the doctors’ scoring and to evaluate if sex, age, race/ethnicity, and submission year impact insurance funding decisions and to evaluate the OCI criteria insurance administrator approval rate compared to the doctors’ scoring. The results of this study may promote standardization for the state of Pennsylvania to readily adopt a list of Automatic Qualifiers for all Medicaid insurance administrators. Materials and Methods: All subjects had no orthodontic treatment and underwent routine screening and record-taking through the Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry Orthodontic Screening Clinic from November 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023 (n = 171). For all orthodontic providers, scoring SEI and OCI was calibrated in September 2022. Malocclusion characteristics of 171 subjects between the ages of 9-20 were characterized for treatment need with standardized SEI and OCI criteria. SEI gives a numeric score of treatment need by accessing intra-arch and inter-arch tooth position relationships. OCI is a binary list for the presence of specific severe malocclusion criteria, which leads to automatic qualification for treatment. Approval thresholds were at least one OCI AQ or a SEI≥25. Patient data, including age, date of initial submission, sex, race and ethnicity, date of submission, insurance response, and orthodontist scoring, was recorded. Insurance submission records were analyzed, and funding decisions based on the Salzmann Evaluation Index (SEI) and the Orthodontic Criteria Index (OCI) were recorded. Malocclusion severity evaluation had an inter-examiner reliability of 90%, using the Salzmann Evaluation Index, with a score of >25 determining treatment need or one of the ten automatic qualifiers from the Orthodontic Criteria Index form was perceived regardless of the Salzmann Evaluation Index score. Both indices scored, along with intraoral and extraoral photographs, a cephalogram, a panoramic radiograph, and an intraoral impression, were sent to Insurance Administrator A, a primary Medicaid company for patients at TUKSoD. An employee of the insurance administrator received the records submitted and made a funding decision. Results: Overall insurance approval was 38.6%. Doctor approval rates were 42.7% for OCI and 24.6% for SEI. The overall doctor versus approval discrepancy was 39.7% for both SEI and OCI combined. Patients who qualified for treatment with one or more OCI had an average SEI of 18. Only 24.6% of SEI scores ≥25 were approved. The greatest agreement between insurance and doctor approvals was for the OCI category: impacted of canines or incisors. There was no statistically significant difference in the approval rate between the OCI and SEI for gender, ethnicity, or submission year. Age groups have a statistically significant discrepancy (P<0.01). Conclusion: There is a moderate level of agreement between insurance approval and doctor-determined scores. There is greater agreement between OCI doctor scores, and insurance approval compared to SEI. A significant approval rate variance occurs with age for SEI. Age group and % SEI Variance have an inversely proportional relationship, possibly due to differences in opinion about what constitutes a permanent dentition (impacted permanent or over-retained primary teeth). The newly implemented OCI criteria have less funding variance and produce greater agreement between insurance and clinician assessment than SEI.

This dissertation examines sex and violence in the Inquisition prisons in Cartagena, Lima, and Mexico City. In the early seventeenth century, maintaining control of the Spanish empire required the control of the body of the Other. Focusing on the Inquisition’s pursuit of two conspiracies, I employ a microhistorical approach to the spaces and environments of the Inquisition prisons. I use the lens of the body to discuss gender, race, sex, and violence. I examine how the Inquisition pursued people and how those people navigated trial and imprisonment despite the effects of space and environment on their bodies and emotions. Prisons isolate suspected criminals, remove their autonomy, and subject them to various tortures. The bodies of the injured and dead were left in occupied cells as a form of psychological torture and prisoners were forced to turn on each other in their cells and trials. Yet the imprisoned found ways to retain their autonomy and humanity. Women used or refused sex, pregnancy, and relationships to shorten their trials and lessen punishments. Men faced gendered, social, and economic competition and retaliated against those they perceived as traitors with violence while supporting those they saw as brethren. Families and friends collaborated to develop strategies of care and survival, using the prisons' spaces against their intended purposes. This dissertation begins with the establishment of the Holy Office in Cartagena in 1610. The largest entry port for the slave trade in South America set the stage for emerging Spanish racial fears. Here, Inquisitor Juan de Mañozca developed his strategies to pursue heretics beginning with establishing patterns of witchcraft spells among Cartagena’s women, moving to malicious brujería among the enslaved and free-Black populations, and settling on covert Judaism among wealthy Portuguese merchants. The escalation of his pursuits followed his personal ambitions, the economic needs of the Holy Office in the Americas, and the financial crisis of the Empire. I conclude with the effective elimination of the powerful elite Portuguese from the colonies in 1649, having demonstrated the ways in which prisons were used to control the colonial populations. This dissertation engages with historiographies of the Iberian Atlantic, the Inquisition, the Caribbean and South American African diaspora and slave trade, and religions and witchcraft. Its critical interventions bring together carceral studies and death and dying studies to show the critical overlap between prisons and shameful death. It builds upon existing knowledge of the construction and purpose of the prison space and its environments as unique to each location and shows how it was necessary to change that construction over time as the early modern carceral systems grew and modernized. Prisons were a space where the idea of a good death for the dominant population was built against the bad death forced upon subjugated populations. Controlling the body was critical to controlling the empire. However, the incarcerated did not willingly submit to bad death, showing that power is gradient and present at all levels of the carceral and Inquisitorial process.

The United States is, and always has been, an empire. A host of recently published works expound the inseparable link between imperialism and the development of the United States and of its global standing. This dissertation aims to further this trend by examining U.S. imperialism in its key possession—the Isthmus of Panama. Few studies have explored the connections between the U.S. presence in the Canal Zone and growing U.S. control over the ostensibly sovereign Republic of Panama. Consequently, many consider Panama an atypical example of empire. Through multinational archival research, this dissertation offers a corrective. I examine how U.S. state and nonstate actors effectively made the Republic of Panama—and not just the Canal Zone—a U.S. colonial space, and, more specifically, a space typical of settler colonialism practiced around the globe. Through a process I call “spillover,” U.S. citizens settled and meddled throughout the isthmus, yet continued to take advantage of the Americanized institutions of the Canal Zone. Missionaries, soldiers, U.S. law enforcement personnel, agriculturalists, diplomats, and pleasure seekers expanded the imperial project set in Washington yet frequently relied upon U.S. government protection and interference. In this way, my actors on the isthmus closely reflect those agents of empire who conquered the “American West” or built colonies in the British and Japanese empires. My dissertation will, ultimately, show how U.S. citizens, through their “spillover colonialism,” set the tone for U.S.-Panamanian tensions during the mid-twentieth century and ushered in a new course for U.S. hegemony in the Greater Caribbean. I focus exclusively on the years between 1912 and 1936—after the construction of the canal but while Panama was still a U.S. protectorate. During this period, the United States learned new ways to impose its will abroad as empire, with all its costs and unpopular headlines, grew ever more cumbersome. Panama became the nursery for a brand of empire, rooted in my concept of spillover, where the United States could create colonies and control territory without going to war or planting the flag. My actors in Panama carried out all the hallmarks of imperialism, from occupying provinces to undermining Panamanian sovereignty with near impunity. At times, Panamanians pushed back, opting to resist U.S. incursions through diplomacy or more informal channels. U.S. imperial agents, therefore, learned how to apply their hegemony in ways that allowed them to sell their intentions as protecting U.S. lives and investments (such as the canal) and claim to observe the sovereignty of Panama. In so doing, U.S. colonialists in Panama effectively controlled a country of immense strategic value without having to wage the same campaigns that their countrymen had done in Haiti, Nicaragua, or the Philippines. These lessons bore fruit when, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt curtailed U.S. incursions in Panama in 1936, North Americans selectively spilled their cultural, economic, military, and political influence over the Atlantic-Caribbean territories that neighbored the bases, ports, and stations acquired from Great Britain in 1940. My project, carefully crafted into six chapters, brings Panama into the scholarly conversation on the typicality of U.S. imperial power abroad—something historians often use Puerto Rico or the Philippines to argue.

This dissertation comprises three essays that explore critical aspects of defined benefit (DB) pension plans and the reinsurance market. The first two essays focus on the funding management and risk transfer activities within DB pension plans, while the third essay investigates the impact of reinsurance utilization on loss reserve errors in the property-liability insurance industry. In the first essay, we examine the increasing importance of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) premiums on the funding strategies of DB pension plans. Between 2008 and 2020, single-employer plan sponsors paid over $50 billion in PBGC premiums, with $30 billion paid in the last five years. Our empirical analysis reveals that under the variable-rate PBGC premium structure, approximately 20.34% of plan-year observations show sponsors making additional voluntary contributions to achieve fully or over-funded status. The cap mechanism on variable-rate premiums incentivizes sponsors of underfunded plans to make voluntary contributions to improve their financial health. However, these incentives diminish for plans with longer ages when premiums reach the cap, leading to potential risk-shifting behaviors. The second essay addresses the growing trend of pension risk transfers (PRTs), where sponsors transfer pension risks to third-party insurers or employees. This study investigates whether voluntary contributions by sponsors influence the likelihood of conducting PRTs. Utilizing data from the PBGC Comprehensive Premium Filings, we find that sponsors making short-term voluntary contributions are more likely to engage in PRTs, indicating these contributions serve as a preparatory measure to stabilize pension plan financial health and protect employee benefits. Conversely, long-term voluntary contributions are less likely to precede PRTs, reflecting sponsors' incentives to maintain and improve their pension plans. The impact of short-term contributions is more pronounced in underfunded plans, while overfunded plans show no significant relationship with PRT likelihood. The third essay explores the reinsurance market, focusing on how reinsurance utilization affects loss reserve errors in property-liability insurance companies. Using both traditional loss reserve errors (TRE) and Full Information Reserve Errors (FIRE) approaches, the empirical results indicate that insurers purchasing more reinsurance tend to underestimate their loss reserves under the TRE method. However, the impact on loss reserve estimations is reduced for insurers that rely less on reinsurance contracts and after the catastrophe. Additionally, the concentration of reinsurance relationships shows a positive correlation with overestimation of loss reserves and the impact is less significant under the FIRE method. Lastly, we find that the sustainability of ceding insurer-reinsurer long-term relationship has significant effects on loss reserve estimations.

The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in 2020 renewed efforts to address long-standing inequality within American society (M. Lewis et al., 2023; E. Meyer et al., 2022). Some school districts responded to these demands by increasing attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. These efforts sometimes included hiring equity directors to advance DEI priorities (M. Lewis et al., 2023; Matschiner, in press). However, districts had little information to draw from either the empirical and/or professional literatures to inform decisions regarding these roles. Superintendents set conditions for change within a district and are key players in establishing and supporting equity director positions. Yet little is known about the factors that influence superintendents’ conceptualization and decision-making involving these positions. There is also a paucity of research regarding the role that superintendents play in creating the necessary conditions (before and after hiring) for equity directors to succeed in their roles. To begin to address this limitation in the literature and profession, this study examines internal and external factors that influence superintendents’ conceptualization, establishment, and support of equity director positions within their districts. Drawing on racialized organizations theory, the study explores the impact that internal and external factors play on decision making regarding the equity director role. Qualitative analyses of interview responses from 15 superintendents and 19 equity directors showed that superintendents relied on their understanding of their community’s needs and on colleagues in and out of their districts to inform their conceptualization and operationalization of the equity director’s roles and responsibilities. Moreover, internal factors like organizational and budgetary constraints and the stance of the school board; as well as external factors like the suburban context, and political and community dynamics, influenced decisions to establish and operationalize equity director positions. Internal and external factors impacted the structure of the position and the experiences of those hired to serve in these positions. Equity directors and superintendents reported wrestling with the complexities of navigating equity work in dynamic political conditions within a racialized context. Participants reported that equity work was unlike other change work that educators engaged in and required attentiveness to the dynamics of race (McCambly and Colyvas, 2023).  

Invisible Specters: Representations of the Fantastic and the Ghost in 20th-Century Spain (1920-1946) seeks to make a significant scholarly contribution within two specific areas of theoretical interest: on the one hand, the critical discourses on the fantastic and, on the other, the relationship between these analytical approaches and the representation of spectral apparitions. Although phantasms are commonly cited as the paradigmatic example of the fantastic, the intrinsic affinity between the two ideas has not been properly addressed and should start with a consideration of their shared etymological origin in reference to fantasy. It would seem that the ghost has a privileged position inside the fantastic genre due to the tension its apparition establishes between a natural and a supernatural order. However, this dissertation argues that, while seemingly questioning any possibility to reconcile these two realms, specters may very well be considered the actual and primordial source of the fantastic. The disquiet their presence conjures implies the invocation of jurisdictions whose incompatibility is analogous to the perturbation of a religious miracle or the distress of a sovereign interruption. In this way, the coming and going of ghosts incorporates not only the transgression that characterizes the fantastic as a literary and film genre but also the religious, metaphysical, ontological, and epistemological repercussions entailed by the intrusive dynamic of otherworldly apparitions. By engaging the notions on hauntology and spectrality proposed by the French philosopher of Algerian origin Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), this dissertation reassesses the interdependence between the fantastic and ghosts within the Spanish tradition. Since there is a commonly held belief about the intrinsic realist nature of Spain’s art and culture, the selection of works to be analyzed challenges this conception. The creative corpus to be discussed includes three significant twentieth-century examples of ghostly representations while acknowledging that the fantastic is by definition a popular, although, marginal genre. In fact, several of the creators included in this project have been related not to the canonical and universally praised Generation of ’27, but to an alternative, or “other,” Generation of ’27. As some of these works cross the boundaries established by the Spanish Civil War, the project suggests that there is a chronological continuity which indicates the fantastic’s ability to endure the most traumatic historical events. In this instance, the purpose is to examine not only literary representations, but also film adaptations and other visual materials related to the selected corpus. A particularly intriguing notion to be pursued involves the relationship between technology and spectrality. Likewise, the parodic character of the fantastic as frequently noted in Spanish culture is a significant point of reflection. Besides the introduction, the project follows a structure in three chapters and, in addition to a number of visual materials, uses as backbone one play, one novel, and one collection of short stories, all of which had a film version produced in the early 1940s. This graphic component emphasizes that the cornerstone of both the fantastic and the phantasm is the notion of becoming visible and appearing.

Parents’ perceptions of how their children learn most effectively are crucial drivers in shaping both how they interact with their children and the broader educational landscape in which their children are raised. Recent shifts in educational policy reflect an increasing acceptance of playful learning principles, but methodological gaps have made it challenging to determine which principles drive parents’ attitudes, and how widely shared these perceptions may be across the globe. In the present set of studies, we surveyed parents in the United States and China – countries with purportedly very different cultural attitudes toward education – to assess parent’s perceptions of the connection between common childhood activities and playful learning. Study 1, in the United States, and Study 3, in China, used a between-subjects design to examine parents’ perceptions of 37 common childhood activities across play and learning conditions. Study 2, in the United States, and 4, in China, used a within-subjects design to dig deeper into parents’ perceptions of the overlap between play and learning in these same activities and how this overlap was associated with the characteristics of playful learning (Zosh et al., 2018). We found similarities between both cultures in their categorization of childhood activities as playful and learning. Furthermore, parents in both the United States and China positively associated most characteristics of playful learning with activities that they categorized as both play and learning and that joyful was associated with play, either alone or in conjunction with learning, while joyful was not associated with learning alone.