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.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5
Description
Climate change presents a significant threat to human health, both mental and physical; as a result, it has become one of the most commonly discussed phenomena of the 21st century. As many people are aware, a wide range of social and physical factors affects mental health. However, many people fail to realize that these increases global temperatures also have a significant impact on mental health as a result of increased vulnerability that is often manifested through one's emotions. By analyzing perceptions of people across the globe, in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Fiji, we were able to pinpoint these emotions and trace them individual's feelings of worry, distress, and hope that resulted from their perceived impacts on climate change. Overall, we found that people tend to have overall more negative emotional reaction when it comes to the perceived effects of climate change. Of the respondents, more men than women expressed concern regarding the various negative implications. Finally, those in the United Kingdom exhibited a stronger emotional response, followed by those in New Zealand and Fiji, respectively.
ContributorsSmith, Austin Lee (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / du Bray, Margaret (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Buried under ice and snow in Greenland, the abandoned Camp Century holds the remnants of a Danish-American Cold War-era operation left to achieve final disposal beneath a tomb of ice. Nearly 50 years later, climate projections hypothesize that snowmelt will exceed snowfall in 2090—releasing the trapped hazardous wastes at Camp Century. This thesis examines the mechanisms through which the international community is able to remediate climate change impacts on Camp Century wastes. The wastes are characterized and examined as either a problem of transboundary pollution, as an issue of military accountability, or as an issue of climate change policy. As revealed, the wastes are unable to be classified as transboundary pollutants. Though classified as a point-source transboundary risk, they are neither a traded or public risk. Furthermore, no international or domestic transboundary pollution agreements incorporate provisions encompassing the specific attributes of Camp Century’s waste. Camp Century is also not an issue of military accountability as U.S. base cleanup laws and environmental regulations do not apply abroad and as the original bilateral agreement governing the site is insufficient in addressing potential ice melt. Finally, as examined through institutions such as the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, Camp Century is, again, unable to be incorporated in current frameworks such as adaptation as adaption efforts are concentrated on developing nations. This thesis reveals the inability of current frameworks, institutions, and agreements to effectively remediate Camp Century wastes which is a case utilized as a microcosm through which to examine international capacity in addressing climate-change induced impacts.
ContributorsKilker, Natalie Angelina (Author) / Klinsky, Sonja (Thesis director) / Bodansky, Daniel (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Chronic restraint stress leads to apical dendritic retraction in CA3 pyramidal neurons and often no quantifiable changes in CA1 dendritic complexity. When chronic stress ends, a post-stress recovery period results in an enhancement in CA3 dendritic complexity. We investigated the relationship between CA3 and CA1 pyramidal neurons to determine whether dendritic restructuring in CA3 neurons leads to region-specific changes in the dendritic complexity of CA1 neurons. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were restrained (wire mesh, 6h/d/21d) and brains were removed soon after restraint ended (Str-Imm) or after a 21d post-stress recovery period (Str-Rec). In addition, BDNF downregulation targeting the CA3 region prevents enhancement in dendritic complexity following recovery in chronically stressed rats, providing robust conditions to investigate the CA3-CA1 relationship. Consequently, rats were infused into the CA3 area with either an AAV vector with a coding sequence against BDNF (shRNA) or a sequence with no known mRNA complements (Scr). Apical and basal dendritic complexity of CA3 and CA1 was quantified by counting total dendritic bifurcations and dendritic intersections using the Sholl analysis (20 µm distances from soma). Please note that the quantification of the CA3 dendritic arbors was not part of this thesis project. The outcome of that investigation revealed that apical CA3 dendritic retraction was found in Str-Imm-Scr and Str-Rec-shRNA. For the CA1 apical area, gross dendritic bifurcation differences were not detected, but the Sholl quantification revealed regionally-enhanced dendritic complexity that varied by distance from the soma at the distal apical dendrites (Str-Imm-Scr) and proximal basal dendrites (Str-Rec-shRNA). For the latter, significant increases in basal branch points were detected with total branch point quantification method. Moreover, a correlation using all groups revealed a significant inverse relationship between CA3 apical dendritic complexity and CA1 basal dendritic complexity. The results demonstrate that chronic stress-induced CA3 apical dendritic retraction may relate to region-specific changes in CA1 dendritic complexity. The inability of past studies to detect changes in CA1 dendritic complexity may be due to the shortcoming of gross dendritic arbor measures in accounting for subtle region-specific alterations. To address this, the current study included a cohort with BDNF downregulated in the CA3 region. Overall, this suggests that decreased levels of BDNF in the hippocampus provide robust conditions in which changes to CA1 dendritic complexity can be detected.
ContributorsDaas, Eshaan Jatin (Author) / Conrad, Cheryl (Thesis director) / Orchinik, Miles (Committee member) / Ortiz, J. Bryce (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
There has been much work done predicting the effects of climate change on transportation systems, this research parallels that past work and focuses on the effect of changes in precipitation on roadway drainage systems. On a macro level, this work addresses the process that should be taken to make predictions about the vulnerability of this system due to changes in precipitation. This work also addresses the mechanisms of failure of these drainage systems and how they may be affected by changes in precipitation due to climate change. These changes may entail more frequent failure by certain mechanisms, or a shift in the mechanisms for particular infrastructure. A sample water basin in the urban environment of Phoenix, Arizona is given as a case study. This study looks at the mechanisms of failure of the infrastructure therein, as well as provides a process of analyzing the effects of increases in precipitation to the vulnerability of this infrastructure. It was found that drainage structures at roadways being currently designed will see increases from 20-30% in peak discharge, which will lead to increased frequency of failure.
ContributorsHolt, Nathan Thomas (Author) / Chester, Mikhail V (Thesis director) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Underwood, Benjamin S. (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Polysubstance abuse is far more common than single substance abuse. One of the most widely abused, yet greatly understudied combination of drugs is the simultaneous use of methamphetamine (meth) and alcohol. Because little research has been conducted on the co-abuse of meth and alcohol, it is important to study the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying the use of both to combat addiction and come closer to finding an effective treatment of this form of drug abuse. This study uses a rodent model to attempt to identify the mechanisms underlying this co-abuse through the stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) and thus the activation of the mesocorticolimbic pathway, the brain's pleasure circuit. First, self-stimulation thresholds (the lowest electrical current the rats are willing to respond for) were determined using a process called Discrete Trials Training. This threshold was later used as a baseline measure to reference when the rats were administered the drugs of abuse: meth and alcohol, both alone and in combination. Our overall results did not show any significant effects of combining alcohol and meth relative to the effects of either drug alone, although subject attrition may have resulted in sample sizes that were statistically underpowered. The results of this and future studies will help provide a clearer understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the polyabuse of meth and alcohol and can potentially lead to more successfully combating and treating this addiction.
ContributorsDrafton, Kaitlyn Marie (Author) / Olive, Foster (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12