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
Physical therapy patients still receive their plan of care onto a piece of paper when there are hundreds of engaging physical therapy exercise videos on the internet. These exercise videos are way more appealing to watch and physical therapists should consider delivering Home Exercise Programs (HEP) digitally. There are apps and online services such as Physioadvisor, Physprac app, Anterior Cruciate Ligament repair app, and work-out apps for people to create their own plan of care and are easily accessible with any electronic device. Most people are receiving information and learning through a lit screen anyways so it may only be a matter of time before people start using these resources instead of a physical therapist. Physical Therapists need to provide better resources for their patients and an app may be all they need. Figures of the results of the Qualtrics survey both Physical Therapists and Patient responses and were provided. A data analysis of each question and responses were interpreted to determine whether patients and physical therapists would like to use a physical therapy app as part of their rehab program. A Physiotherapy research journal with Switzerland researchers conducted a case study in a hospital and determined whether a HEP app testing was effective for patients to utilize.
ContributorsChang, Cheng H. (Author) / Holzapfel, Simon (Thesis director) / Peterson, Daniel (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The purpose of this paper is to explore and minimum wage and whether it serves its purpose of fighting poverty. After extensive research on the origin and purpose of minimum wage laws in the US via reading different studies and weighing its positive and negative effects, I have found that minimum wage is not the most effective tool to fight poverty. There exist programs that would be more beneficial in fighting poverty such as earned-income tax credit (EITC) or training programs.
ContributorsHarvey, Vanessa Nicole (Author) / Douglas, Kacey (Thesis director, Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Pathway analysis helps researchers gain insight into the biology behind gene expression-based data. By applying this data to known biological pathways, we can learn about mutations or other changes in cellular function, such as those seen in cancer. There are many tools that can be used to analyze pathways; however, it can be difficult to find and learn about the which tool is optimal for use in a certain experiment. This thesis aims to comprehensively review four tools, Cytoscape, PaxtoolsR, PathOlogist, and Reactome, and their role in pathway analysis. This is done by applying a known microarray data set to each tool and testing their different functions. The functions of these programs will then be analyzed to determine their roles in learning about biology and assisting new researchers with their experiments. It was found that each tools holds a very unique and important role in pathway analysis. Visualization pathways have the role of exploring individual pathways and interpreting genomic results. Quantification pathways use statistical tests to determine pathway significance. Together one can find pathways of interest and then explore areas of interest.
ContributorsRehling, Thomas Evan (Author) / Buetow, Kenneth (Thesis director) / Wilson, Melissa (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Refugees are a vulnerable population that are forced to conform to a life that is totally and completely different from what they are used to. Not only is the food and clothing different, but also the concepts such as handwashing, applying deodorant, and having health insurance. Although refugees are given multiple resources, most, unfortunately, do not know how to utilize them. This is why the Refugee Education and Clinic Team was founded in the Fall of 2017. The Refugee Education and Clinic Team (REACT) is a collaboration between the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and Arizona State University. REACT’s mission is to mitigate healthcare disparities. Mitigating the healthcare disparities that refugees can be as simple as holding a handwashing workshop. Educating is as crucial as providing health care. That excruciating tooth pain can be preventable with a dental hygiene workshop. Families will benefit from learning about pregnancy prevention. The stomach pain that many of the elders experience most likely will be from the gas caused by the food being consumed. Going to the communities and offering an hour of educating about health has and will positively impact refugee families. Ensuring that topics that will actually benefit these families is essential. Research is vital to inquire what health topics need to be taught and what services will be included in REACT’s scope of practice. The research conducted will be the Community Health Needs Assessment, which is a 9-page survey regarding health. My thesis will discuss this process and refugees. My thesis director is Dr. Lara Ferry and my second committee member is Dr. Erin Sellner.
ContributorsShah, Nyla (Author) / Ferry, Lara (Thesis director) / Sellner, Erin (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
In this creative project, I undertake the type of research that other responsible travelers should want to engage in before traveling to a new destination so that they can make the most well informed decisions during their time there. Selected parts of this report were used to create an informative website “The Ethical Tourist” that highlights Hawai’i’s history and current state, the tourism industry in Hawai’i, tourism’s impact on Hawai’i, and alternative forms of tourism. The website companion to this report can be accessed here:
https://theethicaltourist.godaddysites.com/
ContributorsRendon, Carla Gianne (Author) / Estrada, Emir (Thesis director) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
The effects of temperatures found commonly along the supply chain were explored when interacting with dendritic identifiers of various common materials. Regression analyses showed that there was no statistical significance in relating SIFT correspondence values to the surface temperature of the dendrites. Physical inspection helped evaluate the integrity of specific material and substrate combinations along with possibilities for improvement in key point designation within SIFT and ORB image recognition software.
ContributorsMolzen, Noah (Author) / Hedges, Craig (Thesis director) / Reeves, James (Committee member) / Trujillo, Rhett (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
SparkUp! is a solution that was created by Jose Montes and Ninad Kulkarni in September of 2021. The pair noticed a few needs that they could help solve within the ASU community. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the average students' college experience was completely uprooted and replaced with asynchronous learning and interactions which made it difficult for students to engage with other fellow students and make new friends. This also caused students to develop sedentary lifestyles since they no longer had to walk to campus, and they developed a routine of staying confined to their dorms throughout the day.
SparkUp! is a Social Media app concept that solves these issues by connecting ASU students with other fellow students by helping them engage with one another in outdoor physical activities. Members can create and host their own hiking, cycling, kayaking, or other outdoor activity and they can set them for private or open use. Users can request to join an event by RSVPing through the app, and they also can connect with their new connections by utilizing the social media aspect of the app. Lastly, the app also tracks and maintains activity metrics such as miles traveled, steps taken, and overall time spent engaging in an activity.
Through the needs discovery phase which took part from September-December 2021, the solutions that SparkUp! offers were validated. This prompted further analysis which led to an overall PESTLE analysis of SparkUp!’s overall potential ecosystem, the creation of a marketing strategy and the creation of an Alpha version of the app so that potential users could test the initial designs of the concept. This testing was done during April of 2022 which is aiding in gathering the data necessary to create a Minimal Value Product for future release.
ContributorsKulkarni, Ninad (Author) / Montes, Jose (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Satpathy, Asish (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
In the United States, the adult obesity prevalence was 42.2% from 2017-2018 and has been steadily increasing every year.¹ The estimated medical costs for people who were obese was $1,429 higher than medical costs for people with healthier weight. These statistics only give a brief insight of the so called, “obesity epidemic” plaguing the United States. Every year obesity rates continue to increase, and medical conditions related to obesity continue to affect Americans as well. Risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, or cancers are heightened when individuals are obese. This project will explore this epidemic by tracing back to its juvenile roots. As childhood obesity is a serious problem that puts children and adolescents at risk for future health problems, and leads to obesity in their adult years as well. The analysis of socioeconomic, food industry, and school influences in relation to childhood obesity will be conducted, and insight of past and current interventions will be illustrated as well.
ContributorsDuong, Jennifer (Author) / Penkrot, Tonya (Thesis director) / Essary, Allison (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
This project involved the researchers conducting interviews at the Saint Vincent de Paul homeless shelter in downtown Phoenix. Interviews were transcribed into quantifiable data that was then used for data analysis. Our goal was to see how effective, or ineffective, the shelter was at improving the lives of its clients. Ultimately, our research suggests that the shelter does improve the lives of individuals experiencing homelessness. We hope this research will be used as evidence to support the shelter's efforts to receive more funding to improve its services.
ContributorsStein, Adam (Author) / Blakeman, Alec (Co-author) / Morgan, Alaina (Co-author) / Legg, Eric (Thesis director) / Riker, Elise (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
The production and incineration of single-use micropipette tips and disposable gloves, which are heavily used within laboratory facilities, generate large amounts of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and accelerate climate change. Plastic waste that is not incinerated often is lost in the environment. The long degradation times associated with this waste exacerbates a variety of environmental problems such as substance runoff and ocean pollution. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of possible solutions for minimizing micropipette tip and disposable glove waste within laboratory spaces. It was hypothesized that simultaneously implementing the use of micropipette tip washers (MTWs) and energy-from-glove-waste programs (EGWs) would significantly reduce (p < 0.05) the average combined annual single-use plastic micropipette tip and nitrile glove waste (in kg) per square meter of laboratory space in the United States. ASU’s Biodesign Institute (BDI) was used as a case study to inform on the thousands of different laboratory facilities that exist all across the United States. Four separate research laboratories within the largest public university of the U.S. were sampled to assess the volume of plastic waste from single-use micropipette tips and gloves. Resultant data were used to represent the totality of single-use waste from the case study location and then extrapolated to all laboratory space in the United States. With the implementation of EGWs, annual BDI glove waste is reduced by 100% (0.47 ± 0.26 kg/m2; 35.5 ± 19.3 metric tons total) and annual BDI glove-related carbon emissions are reduced by ~5.01% (0.165 ± 0.09 kg/m2; 1.24 ± 0.68 metric tons total). With the implementation of MTWs, annual BDI micropipette tip waste is reduced by 92% (0.117 ± 0.03 kg/m2; 0.88 ± 0.25 metric tons total) and annual BDI tip-related carbon emissions are reduced by ~83.6% (4.04 ± 1.25 kg/m2; 30.5 ± 9.43 metric tons total). There was no significant difference (p = 0.06) observed between the mass of single-use waste (kg) in the sampled laboratory spaces before (x̄ = 47.1; σ = 43.3) and after (x̄ =0.070; σ = 0.033) the implementation of the solutions. When examining both solutions (MTWs & EGWs) implemented in conjunction with one another, the annual BDI financial savings (in regard to both purchasing and disposal costs) after the first year were determined to be ~$7.92 ± $9.31/m2 (7,500 m2 of total wet laboratory space) or ~$60,000 ± $70,000 total. These savings represent ~15.77% of annual BDI spending on micropipette tips and nitrile gloves. The large error margins in these financial estimates create high uncertainty for whether or not BDI would see net savings from implementing both solutions simultaneously. However, when examining the implementation of only MTWs, the annual BDI financial savings (in regard to both purchasing and disposal costs) after the first year were determined to be ~$12.01 ± $6.79 kg/m2 or ~$91,000 ± $51,200 total. These savings represent ~23.92% of annual BDI spending on micropipette tips and nitrile gloves. The lower error margins for this estimate create a much higher likelihood of net savings for BDI. Extrapolating to all laboratory space in the United States, the total annual amount of plastic waste avoided with the implementation of the MTWs was identified as 8,130 ± 2,290 tons or 0.023% of all solid plastic waste produced in the United States in 2018. The total amount of nitrile waste avoided with the implementation of the EGWs was identified as 32,800 ± 17,900 tons or 0.36% of all rubber solid waste produced in the United States in 2018. The total amount of carbon emissions avoided with the implementation of the MTWs was identified as 281,000 ± 87,000 tons CO2eq or 5.4*10-4 % of all CO2eq GHG emissions produced in the United States in 2020. Both the micropipette tip washer and the glove waste avoidance program solutions can be easily integrated into existing laboratories without compromising the integrity of the activities taking place. Implemented on larger scales, these solutions hold the potential for significant single-use waste reduction.
ContributorsZdrale, Gabriel (Author) / Mahant, Akhil (Co-author) / Halden, Rolf (Thesis director) / Biyani, Nivedita (Committee member) / Driver, Erin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2022-05