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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Description
Background:
Pediatric obesity is associated with lower quality of life (QOL) and populations with high obesity rates, such as Latinos, are especially vulnerable. We examined the effects of a 12-week diabetes prevention program on changes in weight-specific QOL in Latino youth.
Method:
Fifteen obese Latino adolescents (BMI%=96.3±1.1;age=15.0±1.0) completed a 12-week intervention. Youth completed weight-specific QOL measures at baseline, post intervention, and 1-year follow-up. For comparison purposes, intervention youth were matched for age and gender with lean controls.
Results:
At baseline, obese youth exhibited significantly lower weight-specific QOL compared with lean youth (70.8±5.4 to 91.2±2.2, p<0.005). The intervention did not significantly impact weight (90.6±6.8 to 89.9±7.2kg, p=0.44). However, significant increases in weight-specific QOL were observed (70.8±20.9 to 86.2±16.9, p<0.001). Post-intervention QOL scores were no longer significantly different than lean controls (P=0.692). Data from nine youth who returned for follow-up indicated that increases in weight-specific QOL were maintained over time (90.5±4.5 to 85.8±5.9, p=0.74).
Conclusion:
These results indicate that a community-based diabetes prevention program can result in sustained improvements in weight-specific QOL among obese Latino youth. Lifestyle interventions that focus on social interaction and physical activity, rather than weight-loss per se, may help improve the psychosocial health of obese Latino youth.
Pediatric obesity is associated with lower quality of life (QOL) and populations with high obesity rates, such as Latinos, are especially vulnerable. We examined the effects of a 12-week diabetes prevention program on changes in weight-specific QOL in Latino youth.
Method:
Fifteen obese Latino adolescents (BMI%=96.3±1.1;age=15.0±1.0) completed a 12-week intervention. Youth completed weight-specific QOL measures at baseline, post intervention, and 1-year follow-up. For comparison purposes, intervention youth were matched for age and gender with lean controls.
Results:
At baseline, obese youth exhibited significantly lower weight-specific QOL compared with lean youth (70.8±5.4 to 91.2±2.2, p<0.005). The intervention did not significantly impact weight (90.6±6.8 to 89.9±7.2kg, p=0.44). However, significant increases in weight-specific QOL were observed (70.8±20.9 to 86.2±16.9, p<0.001). Post-intervention QOL scores were no longer significantly different than lean controls (P=0.692). Data from nine youth who returned for follow-up indicated that increases in weight-specific QOL were maintained over time (90.5±4.5 to 85.8±5.9, p=0.74).
Conclusion:
These results indicate that a community-based diabetes prevention program can result in sustained improvements in weight-specific QOL among obese Latino youth. Lifestyle interventions that focus on social interaction and physical activity, rather than weight-loss per se, may help improve the psychosocial health of obese Latino youth.
ContributorsBrito, Elizabeth (Author) / Shaibi, Gabriel (Thesis director) / Barroso, Cristina (Committee member) / Patrick, Donald (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Journalism, by its very nature, is limited, often adhering to a repetitive format and narration style. Consequently, the depth of journalistic stories will always hit a barrier. Fiction, on the other hand, provides an elegant solution by exploring the world through a myriad point of views including complete omniscience. This thesis explores the link between journalism and fiction by taking real-world scenarios and exploring them without journalism's limitations. It includes three novellas totaling 25,000 words drawn from true-to-life research papers, news stories and manifestos to paint a realistic picture of a technological reality in the near future, a style of writing one might call futurecasting. The thesis also contains an analysis of the techniques used in contemporary fiction and an analysis of their implementation within the novellas. The goal of the novellas is to let researchers to explore the impact of their work before its mass dissemination in order to shape societal, national and international policy responsibly. Similarly, novellas like this and others similar allow society to discover the beauty of science through fiction. These are some of fiction's greatest roles in science and society.
ContributorsPacini, Jason Daniel (Author) / Zachary, Gregg (Thesis director) / Russell, Dennis (Committee member) / Giarrusso, Theresa Walsh (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
In 2004, the South Korean geneticist Woo-Suk Hwang published what was widely regarded as the most important research result in biotechnology of the year. In the prestigious American journal Science, he claimed that he had succeeded in cloning a human blastocyst, an embryo in its early stages (Hwang et al. 2004). A year later, in a second Science article, he made the earth-shattering announcement that he had derived eleven embryonic stem cell lines using his cloning technique (Hwang et al. 2005). The international scientific community was stunned. American scientists publicly fretted that President George W. Bush‘s 2001 executive order limiting federal funding for stem-cell research in the United States had put American bioscience behind the Koreans‘ (Paarlberg 2005). These breakthroughs offered potential solutions to immune system rejection of transplanted organs and possible cures for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson‘s, Down‘s syndrome, and paralysis (Svenaeus 2007). However, within a year, Hwang was exposed as a fraud who had faked his results and pressured his female colleagues to donate eggs without informed consent. Despite protests against his methods from Korean religious and nongovernmental organizations, Hwang had used his prestige to ignore his ethical obligations. The Korean government, too, was slow to investigate Hwang and to subject his work to appropriate regulation.
ContributorsClay, Anne (Author) / Hurlbut, James (Thesis director) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Marchant, Gary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The Community Action Research Experiences (CARE) Program collaborated with Maricopa Association of Government to assess the needs of domestic violence victim advocates in Maricopa County to determine how their work could be enhanced through additional advocacy training and support services. Data were collected from 87 participants over a one-month period by distribution of an electronic survey. Sixty participants completed the survey, and 27 partially completed the survey. Only the data received from the 60 participants who completed the survey were used in reporting the results. The results indicated a perceived need for more training for advocates, specifically for advocates during their first year on the job. The results also indicated that while domestic violence victim advocates work in different agencies, they expressed significant interest in working collaboratively with advocates from other fields to increase cooperation and coordination among agencies to ensure that victims receive the best possible services.
ContributorsSilva, Nathalea (Author) / Bodman, Denise (Thesis director) / Dumka, Larry (Committee member) / Tenney, Renae (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The Phoenix-Metro area currently has problems with its transportation systems. Over-crowded and congested freeways have slowed travel times within the area. Express bus transportation and the existence of "High Occupancy" lanes have failed to solve the congestion problem. The light rail system is limited to those within a certain distance from the line, and even the light rail is either too slow or too infrequent for a commuter to utilize it effectively. To add to the issue, Phoenix is continuing to expand outward instead of increasing population density within the city, therefore increasing the time it takes to travel to downtown Phoenix, which is the center of economic activity. The people of Phoenix and its surrounding areas are finding that driving themselves to work is just as cost-effective and less time consuming than taking public transportation. Phoenix needs a cost-effective solution to work in co- existence with improvements in local public transportation that will allow citizens to travel to their destination in just as much time, or less time, than travelling by personal vehicle.
ContributorsSerfilippi, Jon (Author) / Ariaratnam, Samuel (Thesis director) / Pendyala, Ram (Committee member) / Pembroke, Jim (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The lonely, empty face panhandling on the street corner has a story to tell. At first glance, most people write the homeless off as less than worthy. However, there is a deeper connection and understanding of relationships and a sense of community unseen by the majority of passer-byers. Amidst the humdrum beat of every day life, there is toil to find basic necessities such as food, water, sanitation, and a place to rest. At the same time, there is laughter and friendship as they help one another through the hostilities of their circumstances. Combining the creative elements of photojournalism and qualitative interviewing, the basic daily needs and struggles of the homeless will be delved into to answer how friendship is pertinent to survival on the streets.
ContributorsFisher, Meghan (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Hita, Liza (Committee member) / Newland, Judy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Many high school students demonstrate an overall lack of interest in science. Traditional teaching methodologies seem to be unsuccessful at engaging students \u2014 one explanation is that students often interpret what they learn in school as irrelevant to their personal lives. Active learning and case based learning methodologies seem to be more effective at promoting interest and understanding of scientific principles. The purpose of our research was to implement a lab with updated teaching methodologies that included an active learning and case based curriculum. The lab was implemented in two high school honors biology classes with the specific goals of: significantly increasing students' interest in science and its related fields; increasing students' self-efficacy in their ability to understand and interpret the traditional process of the scientific method; and increasing this traditional process of objectively understanding the scientific method. Our results indicated that interest in science and its related fields (p = .011), students' self-efficacy in understanding the scientific method (p = .000), and students' objective understanding of the scientific method (p = .000) statistically significantly increased after the lab was administered; however, our results may not be as meaningful as the p-values imply due to the scale of our assessment.
ContributorsCotten, Kathryn (Author) / Hoffner, Kristin (Thesis director) / Stout, Valerie (Committee member) / Lynskey, Jim (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2012-12
DescriptionDiscusses the reading experience and writing strategies in relation to four prominent novels from the genre
ContributorsO'Malley, Erik Andrew (Author) / Cook, Paul (Thesis director) / Mallot, Edward (Committee member) / Broglio, Ronald (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2013-05