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 - 10 of 12
Description
My thesis is a practice in Italian writing and Italian-English translation. During my semester abroad in Italy, I kept a journal of my experiences in Italian as a way to improve my proficiency and explore another facet of my identity. The entries included here range in topic from language acquisition, relationships, the experience of living in a foreign country, and self-exploration. Upon returning to the US, I translated each entry into English to see the different ways each language functions, as well as how my voice as a writer and individual comes through in both.
ContributorsGrasso, Olivia (Author) / Ferrando, Serena (Thesis director) / Dell'Anna, Antonella (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The cerebellum is recognized for its role in motor movement, balance, and more recently, social behavior. Cerebellar injury at birth and during critical periods reduces social preference in animal models and increases the risk of autism in humans. Social behavior is commonly assessed with the three-chamber test, where a mouse travels between chambers that contain a conspecific and an object confined under a wire cup. However, this test is unable to quantify interactive behaviors between pairs of mice, which could not be tracked until the recent development of machine learning programs that track animal behavior. In this study, both the three-chamber test and a novel freely-moving social interaction test assessed social behavior in untreated male and female mice, as well as in male mice injected with hM3Dq (excitatory) DREADDs. In the three-chamber test, significant differences were found in the time spent (female: p < 0.05, male: p < 0.001) and distance traveled (female: p < 0.05, male: p < 0.001) in the chamber with the familiar conspecific, compared to the chamber with the object, for untreated male, untreated female, and mice with activated hM3Dq DREADDs. A social memory test was added, where the object was replaced with a novel mouse. Untreated male mice spent significantly more time (p < 0.05) and traveled a greater distance (p < 0.05) in the chamber with the novel mouse, while male mice with activated hM3Dq DREADDs spent more time (p<0.05) in the chamber with the familiar conspecific. Data from the freely-moving social interaction test was used to calculate freely-moving interactive behaviors between pairs of mice and interactions with an object. No sex differences were found, but mice with excited hM3Dq DREADDs engaged in significantly more anogenital sniffing (p < 0.05) and side-side contact (p < 0.05) behaviors. All these results indicate how machine learning allows for nuanced insights into how both sex and chemogenetic excitation impact social behavior in freely-moving mice.
ContributorsNelson, Megan (Author) / Verpeut, Jessica (Thesis director) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
High-grade gliomas are highly aggressive central nervous system (CNS) malignancies with high fatality rates if left untreated. There is currently a lack of reliable diagnostic tools to characterize the diffuse cell populations commonly found in these tumors. Here, we report that electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) can be used in an in vitro system to analyze changes in the impedance contributed by the extracellular matrix (ECM) of two glioblastoma cell lines: GBM 22 and GBM 115. EIS was more effective at resolving differences in impedance from GBM 115 cells than GBM 22 cells, which depended on both cell confluency and frequency. However, differences in impedance were more apparent from the supernatant when the cells were removed in both cell lines. Analysis of the PC12 and either of the GBM cell line co-cultures yielded highly statistically significant differences between all comparisons of cell confluencies and frequency steps. These results illustrate that EIS can be an effective instrument for characterizing the ECM surrounding glioblastoma cells, providing insight into the cellular behavior of these oncogenic cells.
ContributorsPham, Brian (Author) / Sadleir, Rosalind (Thesis director) / Hu, Leland (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease characterized primarily by physical impairments such as tremors, poor balance, and bradykinesia; however, some individuals with PD will additionally experience numerous nonmotor symptoms such as dementia, depression, and sleep disturbances amongst various other life-altering ailments. Two of the key pathological hallmarks of PD include the death of melanated dopaminergic neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway and the accumulation of Lewy bodies, which are primarily composed of aggregates of the protein α-synuclein (α-syn). Interestingly, members of the chitinase protein family, namely chitinase-3-like protein-1 (L1), have heightened concentrations in a number of neurodegenerative diseases other than PD. To investigate the specific role L1 plays in PD etiology, we evaluated if astrocytic L1 expression was elevated in postmortem brain tissue of PD patients as well as in an α-syn overexpression rat model, and further tested if manipulating astrocytic-specific L1 expression correlated with neuroinflammation and nigral neuronal degeneration in the model. Preliminary histological analysis has shown increased levels of L1 expression in the α-syn model before neuronal loss occurs, and in human tissue, L1 was found to be significantly increased in the postmortem tissue of individuals with PD versus non-diseased controls. Investigations in identifying an astrocytic-specific virus capsid and manipulating L1 expression in the α-syn model are ongoing. This preliminary data thus far supports that increased astrocytic expression of L1 is associated with PD pathology.
ContributorsPettigrew, Tiffany (Author) / Manfredsson, Fredric (Thesis director) / Sandoval, Ivette (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2023-12
Description
This paper explores political indifference in Arizona State University undergraduate students. Indifference is growing at an alarming rate, and as of the last 50 years, young voters between the ages of 18 and 29 have the lowest voter turnout rate. This analysis into ASU students finds that a combination of identity, media, and uncertainty play a large role in political indifference through the lens of communication theory.
ContributorsAhmad, Fajr (Author) / Edson, Belle (Thesis director) / Bryant, George (Committee member) / Symonds, Adam (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2023-12
ContributorsOsman, Yara (Author) / Ali, Souad (Thesis director) / Bristol, Rachel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The field of neuroscience continues to grow in findings and opportunity. Similarly, this Honor’s Thesis aims to increase the diversity within the field. This children's book, Making Sense of Your Senses seeks to foster an early interest in the wonders of the brain by making neuroscience accessible to young readers through comprehensible text and entertaining illustrations.
ContributorsOsman, Yara (Author) / Ali, Souad (Thesis director) / Bristol, Rachel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2024-05
ContributorsOsman, Yara (Author) / Ali, Souad (Thesis director) / Bristol, Rachel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2024-05
ContributorsYao, Michelle (Author) / Wang, Sherry (Co-author) / Takada, Emy (Thesis director) / Kuo, Karen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
In this thesis, we identify and analyze several chosen themes of Asian American identity that we feel are touched on in interesting ways within the body of films and media we’ve chosen to focus on. We do not argue that these themes are the most important for all Asian Americans, but we do believe that these themes reflect some of the commonly discussed questions of Asian American identity, particularly within the mainstream middle class. In one vein, these themes underline desires and longing present within Asian America and parallel competing notions of exclusion and integration: dreams of success, belonging, and connection.
ContributorsYao, Michelle (Author) / Wang, Sherry (Co-author) / Takada, Emy (Thesis director) / Kuo, Karen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2024-05