Puberty is a critical stage in the human life course. Specifically, puberty is the physiological transitionary period that marks the beginning of human reproduction capability. These physiological changes are markedly different in boys and girls and accordingly typically occur on different timelines. Furthermore, these timelines are not a set guideline for every child as some may develop earlier and others later. This age of onset is a general range that has been observed and considered to be the normal age of onset. The normal age of onset of puberty is typically between ages 8 and 13 for girls or 9 and 14 for boys (Brito & Latronico, 2015, 93). Any development seen before these ages is typically defined as early onset and development seen after is late development. Professionals have further defined different stages of puberty in both boys and girls. In girls, this involves breast development, body hair growth, changes in height and weight, and menarche (Wheeler, 1991, pg. 2). In boys, pubertal development often involves genital growth, body hair growth, deepening of voice, and growth spurts (6). Puberty onset has been a popular topic of study in the health sciences as the age of onset can indicate the impact of biological and environmental factors. In particular, inequality in research of pubertal onset, the effects of early/delayed onset, and race/ethnicity is of special interest. For instance, there is a lack of existing literature on the role that culture plays on pubertal onset in Latino youth. This analysis intends to investigate the relationship between the integration of Hispanic culture in children’s lives and pubertal onset.

The food-insecure population in the United States is significant, with a disproportionately large food insecure population being college students. Food insecurity is an issue of great concern not only because of the presence of malnourishment, but especially because of the many negative effects on health it can have on individuals that come as a result of malnourishment. In addition to the many health issues that can arise, food insecurity has also been found to be correlated with poor academic performance in school which is especially important when it comes to the food insecure college student population. Among the many reasons that college students might be food insecure, one issue that is explored is that college students do not have the capabilities to prepare adequate meals for themselves, so their lack of ability to do so contributes to their food insecurity. One way to combat this issue is to encourage college students to take the initiative to learn how to cook meals. A survey evaluated the food insecurity status of undergraduate ASU students and explored various food habits such as meal preparation, fresh produce consumption, and various influencing factors and obstacles of eating healthy, among others. Results found that those who identified as food insecure were less likely to cook meals for themselves as often as those who are not food insecure, nor were they as likely to consume fresh produce as those who are not food insecure. Additionally, all students have reported improved academic performance and/or physical/mental wellbeing. With the support that eating healthy meals is important for college students’ academics and physical and mental wellbeing, as is having the knowledge on how to prepare healthy meals, a fresh produce resource guide was created with the purpose of encouraging ASU students to learn the basic skills of cooking and meal preparation.

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) are on the rise in the United States as an alternative to heavily-polluting Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEV). However, BEV greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are influenced by the electricity mix that the vehicle is produced in and operated in. This study uses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to model the variability of BEV emissions across eleven different U.S. regions to determine which energy resources contribute the most to BEV lifetime emissions and in which lifecycle stages these emissions are most prevalent. Results suggest that BEV emissions are correlated with the share of highly emission-intensive resources (coal and residual oil), meaning that regions with the highest shares of coal and residual oil have the highest BEV emissions. With the Biden Administration’s aggressive BEV adoption goals and implementation of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, it is crucial that government resources are allocated to regions with higher emissions-intense resources to encourage the reduction of GHG emissions nationwide.

For my thesis, I worked on creating an undergraduate club with the mission to empower not only business law majors but the entire business community with the knowledge necessary to succeed within the compliance industry. The Compliance Society would be modeled after the successful undergraduate clubs that are profession-specific and work to collaborate with them to establish themselves as the compliance profession club, a first of its kind. With that, my director and I set out to establish the Compliance Society to be an undergraduate club that offers students the opportunity to learn from industry leaders, grow professionally, and gain practical leadership to empower them to be leaders within the compliance industry. Throughout this process, I have compiled a list of best practices for almost every facet of the organization to be utilized for the future generation of the organization. I not only recruited 60 new members to join the organization but also established an executive body of diverse students to lead the Compliance Society into the future. In addition, I created the organizational framework of Compliance Society by collaborating with my director and writing the Compliance Society Constitution. The organization is poised to add value to a multitude of students within ASU and ultimately create the next generation of compliance professionals.

A genome wide association study (GWAS) of treatment outcomes for citalopram and escitalopram, two frontline SSRI treatments for Major Depressive Disorder, was conducted with 529 subjects on an imputed dataset. While no variants of genome-wide significance were identified, various potentially interesting variants were identified that warrant further exploration. These findings have the potential to elucidate novel mechanisms underlying drug response for SSRIs. This work will be continued further, with machine learning and deep learning analyses to perform non-linear analyses and employing a biologist or geneticist to provide more specialized knowledge for interpretation of results.