Improving the screening and management of childhood obesity among Native American children is critical in addressing the significant health disparities in this population. This quality improvement project implemented a pediatric obesity screening reminder and provided targeted education to healthcare providers. Childhood obesity is a significant public health concern, with the Native American population being disproportionately affected. The quality improvement project measured the impact of the two interventions through pre- and post- intervention self-administered questionnaires and chart audits. The findings showed a slight increase in the detection rate of obesity at well-child visits and increased referral to the registered dietitian (RD). However, there were issues, such as culture, practicality, and patients’ involvement. The outcomes of the project demonstrated that the interventions were effective in increasing the rate of obesity screening and RD referral, but highlighted the need for another PDSA cycle with modifications. The results of the project revealed that childhood obesity is not easily manageable, especially where the community is culturally diverse. A higher rate of declined RD referrals further necessitates enhanced engagement strategies such as improved patient education, motivational interviewing, and family involvement. Subsequent endeavors should include collaborating with obesity specialists and community resources. Providing walk-in or same day access to the RD and increased telehealth services can also assist in navigating logistical challenges that may hinder families from receiving initial and ongoing nutritional education.

Undergraduate Research (UR) is a high-impact practice that results in positive outcomes for participants, such as improved academic skills and intellectual development as well as higher graduation rates and graduate school attendance. This research project compares the UR participation patterns of students with learning disabilities (LD) and their experiences engaging in UR settings to the signals displayed on UR websites. The project utilizes a mixed-methods design comprising four data sources and several analytical methods: content analysis of UR websites, quantitative analysis of institutional UR course data, and quantitative and qualitative analysis of survey data from 50 LD students and interview data from 4 LD students. UR websites feature text and imagery associated with prestige (achievement and competition), personal investment (commitment and unique benefits), and STEM fields. Students’ perceptions of UR participants and their course taking patterns mirrored those signals in some ways but not others. Students viewed UR as an activity for smart students who are involved and good at school, and the majority of actual participants were high achieving. Survey and interview respondents corroborated the benefits listed on UR websites. While participants with LD were underrepresented as UR participants, they reported positive experiences in UR settings, Their LD impacted their work to some extent, yet none disclosed their disability status or requested accommodations to avoid the stigma associated with learning disabilities. Non-participants with LD reported a lack of awareness, time, and confidence as the main reasons for not participating. These findings indicate the need to revise and expand the signals about UR to define it as an active learning process for students in all fields of study, not just STEM. Website content and outreach should specifically include representation of students who do not fit the traditional, high achieving norm. Additionally, faculty and staff should receive training on bias related to disability, Universal Design for Learning to create a more inclusive experience for LD students. Lastly, other university personnel and peer ambassadors should be trained to promote UR experience to a wider range of students.

The hippocampus is known to help in the recall of associations and episodes from the past. This is a form of mental representation, and other forms of mental representation may be associated with the hippocampus as well. Five candidate complex cognitive functions involving suspected hippocampal involvement are discussed in the theoretical part of this dissertation, and a case is made for integration of the hippocampus into developmental theory. As the hippocampus is a gradually developing structure, we must consider how its slow course affects the development of cognitive functions that seem to involve it, at various stages. Following on this call to update developmental theory with integration of the hippocampus to account for a broad range of representational cognitive processes in Chapter 2, I introduce preliminary models in Chapter 3 in which I seek to test this for the case of creativity. Forty-three youth participated in cognitive data collection (21 with Down syndrome), and 38 of these participants (18 with Down syndrome) also underwent MR imaging. In modeling creativity as a function of memory and executive control, I seek to discover the extent to which memory contributes to creativity. Significant results were found for the group with Down syndrome, with associative memory and executive function emerging as predictors of creative performance. Surprisingly, these associations were absent in the typically developing group, for which the model and the variables were not significant. I also predicted that creativity and adaptive behavior would be positively correlated as representational functions that seem to have mnemonic contributions. Results included a positive correlation for creativity and adaptive behavior in the group with Down syndrome, while these functions were negatively correlated in the typically developing sample. In Chapter 4 I turn to examining the hippocampus itself. Previous studies have examined the hippocampus at the level of its subfields in adults with Down syndrome but not in youth, and while automated segmentation studies have been done with typically developing youth, there is little information on whether automated and manual methods agree for this age group. In the current study, subfield segmentations were made for youth with Down syndrome and typically developing youth using both methods in order to determine what group differences characterize the development of subfields, how well the methods concur with typical and atypical samples, and whether specific subfields relate to specific cognitive functions. The two methods showed small to moderate correlations across the subfields tested. The anterior hippocampus was correlated with associative memory in both groups and the CA1 subfield with adaptive behavior in both groups. Creativity did not show a correlation with hippocampal subfield volumes. Altogether group differences were more profound than expected in the studies described in chapters 3 and 4. Creativity, putatively linked to the hippocampus in Chapter 3, was well described by memory and executive control in the DS sample only. Possible explanations for this difference and the directionality difference between groups in the creativity to adaptive behavior study are offered. In Chapter 4, volumetric results largely supported hypotheses, but the methods produced less similar segmentations than anticipated, suggesting that continued caution is warranted in using automated methods with youth and special populations. Memory was similarly correlated with anterior hippocampus in both groups, but CA1 was only significantly related to CA1 in the DS group after correction, and creativity as a whole bore no significant relationships to subfields, although the creativity domain of flexibility was significantly related to CA and DG subfields in typically developing youth. In total, this dissertation explored hippocampal development and the concurrent development of “hippocampal” representational skills. More work is needed in order to understand how the developing hippocampal subfields interact with other brain regions and networks, how this changes across developmental time and how it may differ in various models of hippocampal impairment.

The impact of climate on winter wheat yields is analyzed across the United States, using county level data spanning from 1974 to 2023 for 25 states. Using county and time fixed effect models, we studied the effect of temperature and precipitation for the planting, growing and harvesting phases of winter wheat. By using standardized z-scores, the study measures the impact of extreme climate deviations on crop yield variability. Findings highlight that moderate temperatures and precipitation are beneficial for winter wheat growth. The extreme climatic conditions, especially extreme heat, cold and rainfall have a significant effect on yields. Warmer conditions during the planting season increase the yields but excessive heat during the planting and harvesting seasons reduces yield. Moderate rainfall increases crop production in all stages but extreme rainfall results in yield reductions. The analysis also found that excluding outlier counties in California and Washington did not significantly alter the signs of the estimated coefficients.Key words: extreme climate, winter wheat yield, Z-score

National literature has long been considered a reflection of a state’s significance andlegitimacy; indeed, fiction participates in and contributes to the myth of the nation. As Benedict Anderson has shown, national literature helps shape the nation. In his scholarship, he defines the nation as an imagined community of people who seem to represent a homogenous group despite the actual inequality and diversity of the population. In line with Anderson, Sarah Corse remarks that a nation is “marked by a distinctive set of values, tensions, myths, and psychological foci, that produces in turn a certain readily identifiable national character.” Julia Wright argues that national literature becomes one of the most effective spreaders of such images. However, instead of portraying a nation as a heterogeneous and diverse community of various social classes, religions, and cultures, national literature deprives the population of its diversity and its complexities. The Russian writers of the 1830s onward struggled to define “Russianness” and Russian identity, and their debates on the subject took place through the medium of their fiction. Preoccupied with probing the essence of “Russianness,” literary elites began to examine national “types,” giving particular attention to the nation’s nascent middle classes: merchants, governesses, teachers, and seminarians. The lattermost, seminarians, would come to constitute a complex source of Russianness. Though eventually ascended to a place among the Russian intelligentsia, their origins were of the middle classes. Reflecting the tensions and social upheaval inherent in the rise of Russia’s new middle-class estate, the portrayal of seminarians in the literature of the day was often of a disparaging tone. In spite of this, the significance of the marginalized estate continued to its rise to prominence in the nineteenth century. The evolution in depictions of seminarians in Russian literature throughout the period reflects the course of public opinion, with some significant exceptions. This thesis analyzes selected works by two influential writers of the period, Gogolʹ’s Vii (1835) and Khvoshchinskaia’s The Baritone (1859). These works were chosen due to their extensive and opposing descriptions of seminarians. Close reading of these selected works allows one to scrutinize the shift in image of seminarians in Russian literature and culture between 1830 and 1860. Chapter I of this thesis delves into Nikolai Gogolʹ’s novella and explores how the writer depicted seminarians in demeaning and derogatory terms and examines the characteristics he ascribes to these students. Accordingly, this thesis posits that Gogolʹ illustrated a perceived clash between the seminarians’ expected religiosity and their failure to meet these expectations via their personal behavior. Chapter II will then investigate a depiction of the estate as portrayed by Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia (pseudonym V. Krestovskii) in The Baritone, written two decades later. In her work, the estate is portrayed in an arguably idealized manner, reflecting the shift in seminarians’ image as they increasingly came to be viewed as a reflection of potential futures for a changing Russian society. Thus, it becomes possible to trace certain changes in the portrayal of the seminarians against the backdrop of the historical events.

Chinese violin music experienced significant development in the 20th century, mirroring the nation's cultural, political, and social transformations. My aim is to explore and highlight this evolution through four representative works: Sicong Ma's Rondo No. 1, Yongcheng Qin's Tone Poem at the Seashore, Gang Chen's Sunshine on Tashkurgan, and Pei Lu's Flute and Drum at Sunset. The study of these works provides insight into how Chinese composers adapted and transformed Western musical influences to create a distinctive Chinese violin repertoire. By analyzing these works, one can gain a deeper understanding of the impact of historical events and cultural changes on Chinese composers and their music

This paper estimates the impact of extreme weather on mortality rates associated with 5 specific causes and total mortality across the counties in the United States, period of 1979-2002. Using the county-level panel data I explored how significantly the deviations in the temperatures and precipitation impact mortality rates specifically cardiovascular, respiratory, neoplasms, transport injuries, self-harm and interpersonal mortalities. By using a comprehensive methodological framework that points to the standardized z-scores to identify the significant weather anomalies, uses average temperature bins to explore the non-linear effects and sets the temperature thresholds to see the consequences of extreme heat and cold. This study enhances our understanding of climate health. Key findings show that average temperature ranges between <0◦F -60◦F have a significant impact on total and cardiovascular mortalities. The extreme maximum and minimum temperatures are significantly associated with motor vehicle accidents, likely due to tire blowouts and wet ice road conditions. This research contributes to the understanding of how extreme weather affects health, offering important insights into how such conditions impact mortality. .