Loving Empire: Intimacy and Expansion in U.S. Women's Historical Writing, 1880-1900

“Loving Empire: Intimacy and Expansion in U.S. Women’s Historical Fiction, 1880 - 1900,” works to expand our understanding of nineteenth-century U.S. historiography by analyzing texts authored by women from and about sites of colonial violence. This project endeavors to repopulate the archive of U.S. historiography using a much less restrictive set of criteria to determine what constitutes “history.” I draw from novels, memoirs, didactic literature, journalism, and second-hand accounts of performances and lecture tours to reveal crucial discourses and counter-discourses that sought to explain, criticize, and justify continental expansion during a period when the national memory of these events had not yet crystallized. In each chapter, I aggregate literary texts about different sites of U.S. imperial conquest. I starting with the writing of Paiute advocate, Sarah Winnemucca, her autobiographical history Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883) and the popular response to her advocacy. I then turn my focus to the ways in which manifest domesticity operated in conjunction with the material project of colonial violence, looking at the work of Elizabeth Custer, writings by other army wives, and adaptations of these works leading to broader pop cultural dissemination. Collectively, these texts produced, and failed to produce, historical truth effects (regimes of truth), whose existence, let alone lasting influence, has not yet been accounted for by either historical or literary studies. The function and impact of these texts can best be understood by approaching them not as single books but as constellations, dense collections of memoir, book reviews, interviews, and mass circulated excerpts that in turn fueled the production of popular representations of the west, like David Belasco and Franklin Fyles’ The Girl I Left Behind Me, a frontier melodrama that toured internationally at the end of the century. Ultimately I argue that these narratives, and the popular response to them, constitute multiple, fractious histories that competed for authority as the era of continental expansion drew to a close. These texts offer critical insight into the means by which white Americans wrote themselves, and others out of, the emerging United States. Each of the works under study narrates differently the interweaving of “domestic” issues - love, marriage, family - with “world historical” markers of progress - advances in technology ranging from the telegraph to the train. These narratives tell contending “strictly true” stories about the process by which Native land was transformed into American soil, and relate the grandiose narratives of imperial expansion as well as the unspeakable violences upon which they rested. They describe the advance of armies not only by reference to battles but through the proliferation of “objective” units – dates, increasingly specific and uniform time measurement, and the mapping and measuring of space and land. By demonstrating the common historical impulse at the heart of generically and stylistically diverse texts, I aim to reveal a broader and more capacious archive of historical fiction in the nineteenth century, and examine the methodological principles that condition literary histories, and their place in a rapidly developing nineteenth-century historical imaginary.PHDEnglish and Women's StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145966/1/akhealy_1.pd

The Rising Rates of Pediatric Health Conditions due to Lack of Nutrition Education

Statistics show that there is an increase in childhood health conditions related to nutrition. Throughout the United States, the rates of childhood obesity have drastically increased along with the rates of type two diabetes. There is correlation between these two chronic problems in pediatric patients, but not all pediatrics diagnosed with DM2 are obese. Furthermore, there is a correlation between this increase of obesity/DM2 and the lack of nutrition education in schools. The public school system in the United States does not have the funding to provide adequate nutrition education to the children which is leading to substantial health consequences. The goal of this paper is to show the correlation between the lack of nutrition education and the increase of obesity/DM2. The study focuses on the pediatric population in the public school system. The administration of surveys before and after proper nutrition education is typically used. The study used a control group of students who have not been given nutrition education, and the survey compared to those who have received education.https://scholar.dominican.edu/nursing-student-research-posters/1036/thumbnail.jp

A long and winding road: The hard graft of scaling social change in complex systems

Advice abounds on how to implement large-scale social change, much of which emphasizes a simplistic linear process, led by a heroic central actor. Rigorous case studies have shown that social change is far more complex: it is a reciprocal, iterative, and adaptive process, with multiple stakeholders who work backstage in networked, committed teams. Despite this, the myth of the social entrepreneur as a transformative change maker capable of scaling innovations to a societal level, still holds sway over social innovation support programmes and business school curricula. Using illustrative examples of successful efforts of large-scale social change across three of the most pressing international social challenges: access to medicines, the integration of migrant populations, and reorganizing social care models, we illustrate how conceptualizing social change as driven by iconic individuals is often counter-productive in terms of achieving impact at a societal level. Based on these analyses, we present five insights which illustrate how the mythology of social entrepreneurship and simplistic scaling concepts are often contrary to the practices employed within successful efforts to bring about social impact. Three counteracting principles for those leading, evaluating and funding innovative change efforts within complex systems are discussed and contrasted with the pervasive mythology of social entrepreneurship and linear scaling processes

Extending the Path Analysis Technique to Obtain a Soft WCET

This paper discusses an efficient approach to statically compute a WCET that is "soft" rather than "hard". The goal of most timing analysis is to determine a guaranteed WCET; however this execution time may be far above the actual distribution of observed execution times. A WCET estimate that bounds the execution time 99% of the time may be more useful for a designer in a soft real-time environment. This paper discusses an approach to measure the execution time distribution by a hardware simulator, and a path-based timing analysis approach to derive a static estimation of this same distribution. The technique can find a soft WCET for loops having any number of paths

Staff Training in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Settings: a Scoping Review

© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Frontline staff are a valuable asset within an intellectual and developmental disability service. Their work dictates the overall standard of care delivered by the organization. However, there is evidence that the research relating to effective practice is having little impact on the competencies displayed by staff in the real-world setting. Therefore, a scoping review of published literature was conducted to investigate potential explanations for the inadequate dissemination of evidence-based practice in this sector. Systematic searches of relevant databases identified 156 papers for inclusion in the review. Practices in which staff were trained were categorized as either behavioral interventions or “other” interventions. The behavioral category was sub-divided into: a) assessment; b) antecedent; c) consequence and, d) “mixed” practices. Although the studies reviewed provided staff training across a range of practices, many empirically supported interventions were not utilized. Despite rigorous scientific support for strategies such as functional communication training and noncontingent reinforcement, the literature did not robustly evaluate effective protocols to disseminate these practices to frontline staff. The review also highlighted a continued reliance on individualized training packages, rather than the implementation of empirically supported training models. Finally, results showed that a relatively small number of included studies examined the impact of staff training on service user outcomes and adult service users were underrepresented across all intervention categories. Findings provide a potential explanation for the apparent disconnect between theoretical advancements and practice in the applied setting and are discussed in relation to approaches to staff training

Exploring Community-Based Nutrition Education Programs on Children’s Knowledge of Effective Budgeting and Nutritional Analysis

Children from low-income areas, ages 5-18, are at high risk for obesity and other related nutritional issues, partially due to lack of knowledge about effective budgeting and nutritional content analysis. Little information is known about the education provided by current community programs in Hampton Roads for teaching children to 1) shop smart, 2) read nutrition labels, and 3) the importance of eating healthier. We propose a longitudinal (12-week) observational study to determine what community-based education is provided to children on how and why to shop smart and read nutritional content; and to determine whether or not the education is effective. The data will be collected via researcher-developed questionnaires on nutritional education and attendance at community programs, then analyzed using the Pearson’s product-moment correlation technique

Evidence for variable selective pressures at MC1R

It is widely assumed that genes that influence variation in skin and hair pigmentation are under selection. To date,the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) is the only gene identified that explains substantial phenotypic variance inhuman pigmentation. Here we investigate MC1R polymorphism in several populations, for evidence of selection.We conclude that MC1R is under strong functional constraint in Africa, where any diversion from eumelanin production (black pigmentation) appears to be evolutionarily deleterious. Although many of the MC1R amino acid variants observed in non-African populations do affect MC1R function and contribute to high levels of MC1R diversity in Europeans, we found no evidence, in either the magnitude or the patterns of diversity, for its enhancement by selection; rather, our analyses show that levels of MC1R polymorphism simply reflect neutral expectations underrelaxation of strong functional constraint outside Africa

Evaluating Java Applets for Teaching on the Internet

The Web Interface for Statistics Education (http://wise.cgu.edu) is a website built around interactive tutorials designed to teach introductory and advanced statistical concepts. The tutorials use Java applets that dynamically illustrate the statistical concepts being taught. By using Java applets, we teach statistics in a manner not possible in a traditional classroom environment. In this paper, we provide examples of the applets, illustrate how students use them, and we report the outcome of a study that examined tutorial effectiveness as a learning tool

Piloting Eyes on the Baby: A Multiagency Training and Implementation Intervention Linking Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Prevention and Safeguarding

We describe the coproduction, pilot implementation, and user evaluation of an evidence-based training intervention addressing prevention of Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Infancy (SUDI) for the multiagency workforce supporting vulnerable families with babies in a northern English county. We aimed in this pilot study to improve knowledge, skills, and engagement of professionals and support staff providing services for vulnerable families with increased risk of SUDI. The training intervention was co-produced by the academic team and the project Steering Committee which comprised senior leaders from the local authority, health and care sectors, and third-sector organisations, and rolled out to multiagency teams between November 2022 and March 2023. Evaluation data were collected using a post-training questionnaire, followed up by the Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) NoMAD survey issued at two time-points post-training, and interviews with stakeholders. The evaluation, conducted from January to May 2023, aimed to assess how well the multiagency workforce accepted SUDI prevention as part of their remit and incorporated SUDI prevention activities into their everyday work. Most multiagency professionals and support staff were enthusiastic about the training and their role in SUDI prevention. Fewer health professionals completed the training than expected. Forty percent (397/993) of invited staff completed the training. Our results revealed initial lack of knowledge and confidence around SUDI prevention and targeted provision for vulnerable families which improved following the Eyes on the Baby training. The proportion of nonhealth professionals rating their knowledge of SUDI prevention as good or excellent increased significantly from 28% before training to 57% afterwards. Self-rated confidence in discussing SUDI prevention with families increased significantly from 71% to 97%. Health professionals’ ratings increased significantly for knowledge from 62% to 96%, and confidence from 85% to 100%. Use of NPT allowed us to identify that by the time of evaluation, the earliest adopters were cognitively involved with the programme and engaged in collective action, while later adopters had not yet reached this stage. We conclude that effective implementation of multiagency working for SUDI prevention can be accomplished by providing clear training and guidance for all staff who have regular or opportunistic contact with vulnerable families. Our next step is to evaluate the sustainability of MAW SUDI prevention over the medium to long term and assess the responses of recipient families to this approach

Conceptualising a model to guide nursing and midwifery in the community guided by an evidence review

Background: Successful models of nursing and midwifery in the community delivering healthcare throughout the lifespan and across a health and illness continuum are limited, yet necessary to guide global health services. Primary and community health services are the typical points of access for most people and the location where most care is delivered. The scope of primary healthcare is complex and multifaceted and therefore requires a practice framework with sound conceptual and theoretical underpinnings. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual model informed by a scoping evidence review of the literature. Methods: A scoping evidence review of the literature was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. Databases included CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and SocINDEX using the EBSCO platform and the Cochrane Library using the keywords: model, nursing, midwifery, community, primary care. Grey literature for selected countries was searched using the Google ‘advanced’ search interface. Data extraction and quality appraisal for both empirical and grey literature were conducted independently by two reviewers. From 127 empirical and 24 non-empirical papers, data extraction parameters, in addition to the usual methodological features, included: the nature of nursing and midwifery; the population group; interventions and main outcomes; components of effective nursing and midwifery outcomes. Results: The evidence was categorised into six broad areas and subsequently synthesised into four themes. These were not mutually exclusive: (1) Integrated and Collaborative Care; (2) Organisation and Delivery of Nursing and Midwifery Care in the Community; (3) Adjuncts to Nursing Care and (4) Overarching Conceptual Model. It is the latter theme that is the focus of this paper. In essence, the model depicts a person/client on a lifespan and preventative-curative trajectory. The health related needs of the client, commensurate with their point position, relative to both trajectories, determines the nurse or midwife intervention. Consequently, it is this need, that determines the discipline or speciality of the nurse or midwife with the most appropriate competencies. Conclusion: Use of a conceptual model of nursing and midwifery to inform decision-making in primary/community based care ensures clinical outcomes are meaningful and more sustainable. Operationalising this model for nursing and midwifery in the community demands strong leadership and effective clinical governance