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.
Filtering by
- All Subjects: public health
- Creators: School of International Letters and Cultures
Melanoma is one of the most severe forms of skin cancer and can be life-threatening due to metastasis if not caught early on in its development. Over the past decade, the U.S. Government added a Healthy People 2020 objective to reduce the melanoma skin cancer rate in the U.S. population. Now that the decade has come to a close, this research investigates possible large-scale risk factors that could lead to incidence of melanoma in the population using logistic regression and propensity score matching. Logistic regression results showed that Caucasians are 14.765 times more likely to get melanoma compared to non-Caucasians; however, after adjustment using propensity scoring, this value was adjusted to 11.605 times more likely for Caucasians than non-Caucasians. Cholesterol, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and Hypertension predictors also showed significance in the initial logistic regression. By using the results found in this experiment, the door has been opened for further analysis of larger-scale predictors and gives public health programs the initial information needed to create successful skin safety advocacy plans.
The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed interest in the importance of indoor air quality for health. The spread of respiratory aerosols is the primary mechanism for COVID-19 transmission, making it crucial to understand the role of effective ventilation in managing the risk of disease transmission. The concentration of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) in indoor spaces can be used as a proxy measure of ventilation efficiency. Poor indoor air quality has been associated with a range of acute and chronic health problems, including respiratory issues, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Poor air quality may also impair cognitive performance and productivity. Social and economic inequalities exacerbate the impact of indoor air quality issues, making it crucial to address these problems in an equitable manner. Public libraries have been identified as an effective intermediary for providing education and free air quality monitoring technology to communities, with the ultimate goal of promoting awareness and increasing access to tools to promote accountability for maintaining high indoor air quality standards. The primary objectives of this initiative are to: 1) develop a citizen science toolkit for assessing indoor air quality in public spaces and deploy the toolkit to public libraries in Arizona; and 2) to conduct a program evaluation to determine whether this kit can be effectively deployed through public libraries to promote citizen science efforts and engage community members in promoting healthier indoor air quality, identify areas where improvements can be made, and prepare the program to be scaled to a larger audience.
Synthetic plastics are ubiquitously used in a broad range of applications, including food and drink packaging. Plastics often contain chemical additives, including bisphenols, phthalates, and terephthalic acid, which can degrade under thermal stress. The environmental presence of these chemicals is cause for public concern, especially in consumer products that utilize plastic packaging, as many have been identified as endocrine disruptors. This study sought to determine exposure to phthalates, bisphenols, and terephthalic acid by quantifying a broad spectrum of these analytes within three bottled water brands at varying temperature exposure levels using the combination of solid phase extraction followed by isotope dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Monobenzyl phthalate was detected in two of the three brands after bottles were heated to ~100 °C, ranging from 98 – 107 ng/L, and bisphenol A was detected in one brand at ~100 °C at an average concentration of 748 ± 36 ng/L. Subsequent mass loading calculations demonstrated that bioaccumulation of BPA from Brand C after high levels of temperature exposure well exceeded the tolerable daily intake (TDI). Findings in this study indicate that consumers should not be expected to incur harmful exposures to the target compounds under normal conditions as analytes were not measured in water bottle samples at 25 °C or 60 °C. Further studies should explore a more nuisance approach to heating over long durations, including that of ultraviolet exposure.