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: Diabetes
- Creators: College of Health Solutions
Chronic diseases place a financial burden on the United States and claim the lives of nearly 2 million Americans every year. Among the chronic diseases that plague American people, type 2 diabetes is particularly prevalent and injurious. Thus, action is warranted to improve prevention and management of this disease. Nutrition plays a significant role in prevention and management of type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases. Registered dietitians, as nutrition experts, are qualified to use medical nutrition therapy as a method of prevention and treatment for chronic diseases using a nutritional approach. However, there is no consensus as to which eating pattern is the most efficacious. The aim of this review of research was to examine how plant-based eating patterns impact chronic disease conditions, with an emphasis on type 2 diabetes mellitus, as compared to omnivorous eating patterns. A literature search was conducted through the ASU Library, PubMed, and CINAHL using terms related to plant-based diets and chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. The results revealed that a plant-based eating pattern may be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of certain chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Specifically, adults who have type 2 diabetes and consume a plant-based diet may exhibit enhanced glycemic control as evidenced by less insulin resistance, increased incretin and insulin secretion, greater insulin sensitivity, and improved HbA1c levels. There is sufficient evidence for registered dietitians to recommend a plant-based approach to patients with type 2 diabetes who would like to achieve enhanced glycemic control.
Food is one of the most universal and uniting human experiences. It is a powerful tool to bring communities together and it is a simple way to bring joy to an individual. This project is an exercise in marketing and entrepreneurship that was inspired by these ideas, which culminated in a fundraiser bake sale to benefit Creighton Community Foundation, a local nonprofit.
In January of 2022, 61 women from Afghanistan were accepted to Arizona State University and joined our campus from the Asian University of Women. Of One Heart is a Phoenix based nonprofit which aims to connect refugees with mentors to cultivate intercultural relationships, assist refugees in integrating into a new community, and to empower refugees to utilize their unique perspectives and talents in their new home. In addition to these goals, these relationships aim to connect refugees with the networks their mentor has and to assist them in understanding the new systems and norms of American culture. The relationship is reciprocal in the sharing of background and stories to facilitate trust and to recognize the value refugees have to contribute to society. The mission of this project is to implement the Of One Heart mentoring model onto ASU campus to help facilitate intercultural friendships between our new students from Afghanistan and other ASU students, faculty and staff. In doing so, we hope to create a model demonstrating refugee student success by collecting data through pre and post program surveys to track if involvement in the program improved participants utilization of existing ASU resources, cultural competency, mental health, and participation in community activities and internships/job opportunities. Ideally, we hope to create a program model which is proven to support refugee students to be replicated for future semesters as the program expands to serve not only the students from Afghanistan, but all refugee and asylum seeking students.
Objective: There were three main objectives of the study. One objective was to elucidate potential new relationships via linear regression. Another objective was to determine which factors were indicative of Type 2 DM in the population. Finally, the last objective was to compare the incidence of Type 2 DM in the dataset to trends seen elsewhere.
Methods: The dataset was uploaded from an open source site with citation onto Python. The dataset, created in 1990, was composed of 768 female patients across 9 different attributes (Number of Pregnancies, Plasma Glucose Levels, Systolic Blood Pressure, Triceps Skin Thickness, Insulin Levels, BMI, Diabetes Pedigree Function, Age and Diabetes Presence (0 or 1)). The dataset was then cleaned using mean or median imputation. Post cleaning, linear regression was done to assess the relationships between certain factors in the population and assessed via the probability statistic for significance, with the exclusion of the Diabetes Pedigree Function and Diabetes Presence. Reverse stepwise logistic regression was used to determine the most pertinent factors for Type 2 DM via the Akaike Information Criterion and through the statistical significance in the model. Finally, data from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) Diabetes Surveillance was assessed for relationships with Female DM Percenatge in Pinal County through Obesity or through Physical Inactivity via simple logistic regression for statistical significance.
Results: The majority of the relationships found were statistically significant with each other. The most pertinent factors of Type 2 DM in the dataset were the number of pregnancies, the plasma glucose levels as well as the Blood Pressure. Via the USDS Data from the CDC, the relationships between Female DM Percentage and the obesity and inactivity percentages were statistically significant.
Conclusion: The trends found in the study matched the trends found in the literature. Per the results, recommendations for better diabetes control include more medical education as well as better blood sugar monitoring.With more analysis, there can be more done for checking other factors such as genetic factors and epidemiological analysis. In conclusion, the study accomplished its main objectives.
A total of 26 human subjects were used in this study. Each subject was classified as either lean or obese, according to their BMI measurement. First, the subjects underwent an oral glucose tolerance test. Blood samples were taken to measure glucose levels in the blood. After the test subject characteristics for each subject was obtained. These included age, BMI, body fat percentage, fat free mass (FFM), height, total mass, waist circumference, hip circumference, and waist to hip ratio. After the subject characteristics and blood glucose were measured the blood samples taken previously were then centrifuged, and the blood plasma was extracted. The blood plasma was then used to undergo an Insulin ELISA test. After extensive analysis, the Matsuda Index of each subject was obtained. Subjects with a Matsuda value of 6.0 or under were considered insulin resistant while subjects with a Matsuda value higher than 6.0 were considered insulin sensitive. Subjects were also required to submit a dietary record over the course of three days. The food intake was then put into a food processing software which gave a daily average of the macro and micro nutrients for each subject. Both the subject and dietary values were put into a multiple regression with a significance factor of p < 0.5 to see which factors contributed most to the Matsuda value.
It was found that BMI, height, total mass, insulin and fat free mass, all of which were subject characteristics, were considered to be significant. Some of these factors an individual has no control over, such as height and insulin. However other factors such as BMI, total mass and fat free mass can be affected by both a healthy diet and frequent exercise. This study validated that diet and physical activity can greatly influence an individual’s susceptibility to insulin resistance and ultimately T2DM.
This thesis creative project involved the planning, preparation, and facilitation of a community-wide event targeting Diabetes Awareness. The event was hosted March 16, 2022, on ASU west campus and includes a PowerPoint presentation of the overall process. It also includes a reflection of successes, challenges, and experience gained from planning and facilitation. At the end, there is information analyzing how the event could be improved upon for the future, and a summary of key ideas discussed throughout the project. There is also a paper with the description of the presentation and an embedded link to the recorded presentation of the project during the defense.