Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- All Subjects: Nutrition
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to create an informational book on gluten-free living. It is our hope that by the end of the book readers will have a better understanding that living with a gluten intolerance or auto-immune disorder does not control one's life. Someone just needs to put in a bit more planning and time in order to travel or eat out. The book goes into detail on every condition on the gluten-sensitivity spectrum. It also goes in-depth on medicines, recipes, and travel.
ContributorsSnodgrass, Allison (Co-author) / Snodgrass, Amanda (Co-author) / Johnston, Carol (Thesis director) / Jacobs, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This research investigates the whether dietary and nutritional treatments will improve some of the symptoms of autism. This treatment includes a combination of 6 nutritional and dietary treatments, which are vitamins/minerals, essential fatty acids, Epsom salts, carnitine, digestive enzymes, and healthy gluten-free, casein-free diet. 55 participants were involved in this study; 28 participants are in the Treatment Group and 27 participants in the Delayed Group. Data from the PDD-BI form, the ADOS form, the CARS form and the professional SAS form will be used in this thesis project for analyses. Factors analyzed are age, gender and severity [initial professional SAS data] and then correlating these factors with data from PDD-BI (autism composite score and each subscale), ADOS and CARS. The data analyses show that changing the dietary and nutritional needs of children/adults with autism improves the symptoms of autism (as rated by the PDD-BI) by approximately 22% in the treatment group vs. 3% in the non-treatment group, p<0.001. Overall, these results also suggest that the treatment is equally beneficial for males and females of varying age (young children to adult) and of all severity levels.
ContributorsLee, Chiao May (Author) / Adams, James B. (Thesis director) / Pollard, Elena (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This creative project examines the effectiveness of several school based nutritional education and parent based programs along with multi-component interventions. Six published articles were reviewed and summarized to identify the most successful interventions to prevent childhood obesity. In addition to these studies other resources were examined to understand the developmental levels of school-aged and adolescent students. As part of this project a narrated power point covering the key aspects of the nutritional needs of the school-aged child was developed. This power point will be utilized by future nursing students whom are working with parents in the schools or in the community on nutrition strategies. The power point will provide a context for individual or group discussions with parents to offer helpful ideas on how to work effectively with their children. The topic of nutrition and obesity in school-aged children is a current topic in health care especially in environments where nutritional resources are limited. The overall outcome of this project will be to assist in decreasing the incidence of overweight and obese youth and the prevention of the development of premature chronic diseases especially in early adolescence and young adulthood.
ContributorsLopez, Leticia Marie (Author) / Hosley, Brenda (Thesis director) / Speer, Therese (Committee member) / Storto, Pamela (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Arizona State University. College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
There has long been a link tied between obesity and such pathological conditions as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and type two diabetes. Studies have shown that feeding rats a diet high in fat results in hepatic steatosis and steatohepatitis. Using a novel short term diet of six weeks with male adolescent Sprague-Dawley rats, our laboratory sought to investigate the early effects of high fat intake on the liver. Prior findings in our laboratory found that a high fat diet (HFD) leads to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease as well as other symptoms of metabolic syndrome. This study hypothesized that rats fed a 60% HFD for 6 weeks, unlike a high sucrose or standard chow diet, would have an elevated expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines associated with steatohepatitis. TNF-α, TLR4 and XBP1 were chosen for their link to hepatic inflammation. The results of this study found that contrary to the hypothesis, the high fat diet did not induce significant changes in the expression of any inflammatory marker in comparison to a high sucrose or control chow diet.
ContributorsCalhoun, Matthew (Author) / Sweazea, Karen (Thesis director) / Deviche, Pierre (Reviewer) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The aim of this paper is to investigate a few of the primary pillars of the Paleo diet for evidence to either support or refute their efficacy and safety such that a more educated decision can be made by lay-persons who are wishing to make improvements in their overall health via dieting. To accomplish this goal a basic overview of The Paleo Diet (also known to some as the Paleolithic Nutrition Movement) is given based on the writings of Dr. Loren Cordain in his book The Paleo Diet. Next, analyses of a few of the basic characteristics of the diet are presented based on an in-depth literature review that was performed using PubMed (Medline), Cochrane and Google Scholar databases until March of 2015. The findings of this investigation raise concerns with respect to the safety of some of the main principles of the diet such as its high protein, low carbohydrate content that is relies heavily on the consumption of red meat. The current literature on what the diet of the people of the Paleolithic era may have consisted of is also presented in order to shed light on the origins of the diet and see how closely the diet prescribed The Paleo Diet meshes with the most current data on the topic.
ContributorsMurphy, Daniel Jordan (Author) / Morse, Lisa (Thesis director) / Lespron, Christy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Due to persistent undernutrition in India and the increased demands placed on a woman’s body during childbearing and lactation, the Indian government has implemented a program to provide supplemental nutrition packets to women in rural India. This study examines the factors influencing uptake of nutritional packets by lactating mothers in southern, rural Rajasthan. Women were recruited from 65 villages in Rajasthan, India (n=149, minimum of 2 per village) to evaluate the relationship of nutrition packet uptake and two factors--education levels and distance to the health center.
Level of education had little impact on whether or not women received the nutrition packet. Of those women with no education, 63.1% received the packet. Of those with any education, 63.9% got the packet.
In contrast, distance was strongly correlated with whether or not women received the packet. For example, of the women living within 200 meters of the health center, 93.2% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living between 250 meters and one kilometer of the health center, 68.4% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living over one kilometer from the health center, only 25% received a nutrition packet. The relationship between uptake of packets and women’s perception of distance to the health center was also explored. Out of 50 women who did not receive the packet, all of the women who said there was no health center in their village did live more than one kilometer from a health center. Of the women who lived between 250 meters and one kilometer from the health center, 40% felt it was too far. Of the women who lived more than a kilometer from the health center, 66.7% felt it was too far and 29.6% said there was no health center in their village. Again, it does not appear that ‘too far’ is just a default reason for women, but that actual distance, more so than education, is a major contributing factor in their ability to take the nutrition packet. These findings suggest that improving access to supplemental nutrition packets at the village level may increase uptake by the women.
Level of education had little impact on whether or not women received the nutrition packet. Of those women with no education, 63.1% received the packet. Of those with any education, 63.9% got the packet.
In contrast, distance was strongly correlated with whether or not women received the packet. For example, of the women living within 200 meters of the health center, 93.2% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living between 250 meters and one kilometer of the health center, 68.4% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living over one kilometer from the health center, only 25% received a nutrition packet. The relationship between uptake of packets and women’s perception of distance to the health center was also explored. Out of 50 women who did not receive the packet, all of the women who said there was no health center in their village did live more than one kilometer from a health center. Of the women who lived between 250 meters and one kilometer from the health center, 40% felt it was too far. Of the women who lived more than a kilometer from the health center, 66.7% felt it was too far and 29.6% said there was no health center in their village. Again, it does not appear that ‘too far’ is just a default reason for women, but that actual distance, more so than education, is a major contributing factor in their ability to take the nutrition packet. These findings suggest that improving access to supplemental nutrition packets at the village level may increase uptake by the women.
ContributorsJeffers, Eva Marie (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Maupin, Jonathan (Committee member) / Cook, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Western diets, high in dietary fat and red meat, are associated with hyperglycemia and weight gain, symptoms that promote insulin resistance and diabetes. Previous studies have shown that elevated glucose promotes glycation of circulating proteins such as albumin, which is thought to lead to hyperglycemia complications. It was hypothesized that diets with no meat consumption (pesco-vegetarian and lacto-vegetarian) would reduce protein glycation, in comparison to a diet with meat. Forty six healthy adult omnivorous subjects were randomized into one of three groups and instructed to either consume red meat (i.e. meat) or poultry twice per day (control), eliminate meat and increase fish consumption (pesco-vegetarian), or adopt a vegetarian diet devoid of fish, meat or poultry (lacto-vegetarian) for four weeks. Fasting plasma samples were collected from participants at baseline and after 4 weeks of the dietary intervention. Plasma glucose concentrations were measured using a commercially available kit. Percent glycated albumin was measured on a separate aliquot of plasma by mass spectrometry. Plasma glucose concentrations were significantly increased following 4-weeks of pesco-vegetarian diet (P=0.002, paired t-test). Neither the lacto-vegetarian (P=0.898) or the control diet (P=0.233) affected plasma glucose concentrations. Despite the significant increase in plasma glucose following a pesco-vegetarian diet, no change in percent glycated albumin was observed (P>0.50, ANOVA). These findings may indicate a protective effect of the pesco-vegetarian diet on protein glycation in the presence of elevated plasma glucose and suggest the need for additional studies to examine the link between increased fish consumption and glucose regulation.
ContributorsRaad, Noor (Author) / Sweazea, Karen (Thesis director, Committee member) / Borges, Chad (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The transition from high school to college is, for many, a drastic change in lifestyle, social networks, and dietary choices. The prevalence of obesity in college students has been steadily increasing. Freshmen weight gains have been associated with a decrease in fruits and vegetables and an increase in unhealthy items such as desserts, alcohol, and late night snacking after dinner. A survey of college students was constructed to gauge students' perceptions of nutrition how these perceptions influenced dietary practices and behaviors. Survey results indicated that awareness of nutrition and health does not translate to dietary practices, aligning with results from previous studies. Several sex differences were noted in regards to dietary choices and perceptions, knowledge seeking behavior, and sources of information. While there were some similarities, it is clear from the results obtained that men and women have different approaches and thoughts with regard to nutrition. The results showed that college students who actively seek our nutritional information are more likely to do so in the form of social media or Internet sources. This study could be useful for those planning on conducting college-based nutritional programs in that the results indicate patterns and trends that should be taken into consideration in order for a successful nutrition intervention
ContributorsKeahon, Gabriela Estrada (Author) / Jehn, Megan (Thesis director) / Williams, Deborah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School for the Science of Health Care Delivery (Contributor)
Created2015-05