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 73
Description
This paper details the specification and implementation of a single-machine blockchain simulator. It also includes a brief introduction on the history & underlying concepts of blockchain, with explanations on features such as decentralization, openness, trustlessness, and consensus. The introduction features a brief overview of public interest and current implementations of blockchain before stating potential use cases for blockchain simulation software. The paper then gives a brief literature review of blockchain's role, both as a disruptive technology and a foundational technology. The literature review also addresses the potential and difficulties regarding the use of blockchain in Internet of Things (IoT) networks, and also describes the limitations of blockchain in general regarding computational intensity, storage capacity, and network architecture. Next, the paper gives the specification for a generic blockchain structure, with summaries on the behaviors and purposes of transactions, blocks, nodes, miners, public & private key cryptography, signature validation, and hashing. Finally, the author gives an overview of their specific implementation of the blockchain using C/C++ and OpenSSL. The overview includes a brief description of all the classes and data structures involved in the implementation, including their function and behavior. While the implementation meets the requirements set forward in the specification, the results are more qualitative and intuitive, as time constraints did not allow for quantitative measurements of the network simulation. The paper concludes by discussing potential applications for the simulator, and the possibility for future hardware implementations of blockchain.
ContributorsRauschenbach, Timothy Rex (Author) / Vrudhula, Sarma (Thesis director) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Bioscience High School, a small magnet high school located in Downtown Phoenix and a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) focused school, has been pushing to establish a computer science curriculum for all of their students from freshman to senior year. The school's Mision (Mission and Vision) is to: "..provide a rigorous, collaborative, and relevant academic program emphasizing an innovative, problem-based curriculum that develops literacy in the sciences, mathematics, and the arts, thus cultivating critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers, and compassionate citizens, who are able to thrive in our increasingly complex and technological communities." Computational thinking is an important part in developing a future problem solver Bioscience High School is looking to produce. Bioscience High School is unique in the fact that every student has a computer available for him or her to use. Therefore, it makes complete sense for the school to add computer science to their curriculum because one of the school's goals is to be able to utilize their resources to their full potential. However, the school's attempt at computer science integration falls short due to the lack of expertise amongst the math and science teachers. The lack of training and support has postponed the development of the program and they are desperately in need of someone with expertise in the field to help reboot the program. As a result, I've decided to create a course that is focused on teaching students the concepts of computational thinking and its application through Scratch and Arduino programming.
ContributorsLiu, Deming (Author) / Meuth, Ryan (Thesis director) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
We created an Android application, Impromp2, which allows users to search for and save events of interest to them in the Phoenix area. The backend, built on the Parse platform, gathers events daily using Web services and stores them in a database. Impromp2 was designed to improve upon similarly-purposed apps available for Android devices in several key ways, especially in user interface design and data interaction capability. This is a full-stack software project that explores databases and their performance considerations, Web services, user interface design, and the challenges of app development for a mobile platform.
ContributorsNorth, Joseph Robert (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Committee member) / Faucon, Philippe (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This project, which consists of a review article and an applied creative project, proposes mirror neurons as being a physiological mechanism for motor imagery. The review article highlights similarities between motor imagery research and research on mirror neurons. The research is roughly divided into three types of studies: neuroimaging studies, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electromyography (EMG) studies, and electroencephalography (EEG) studies. The review also discusses the associative hypothesis of mirror neuron origin as support for the hypothesis and concludes with an assessment of conflicting research and the limitations of the hypothesis. The applied creative project is an instructional brochure, aimed at anyone who teaches motor skills, such as dance teachers or sports coaches. The brochure takes the academic content of the review and presents it in a visually pleasing, reader-friendly fashion in an effort to educate the intended audience and make the research more accessible. The brochure also prescribes research-based suggestions for how to use motor imagery during teaching sessions and how to get the best benefits from it.
ContributorsNgai, Valerie Christina (Author) / Hoffner, Kristin (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Recent evidence suggests that youth from affluent and upper-middle-class, white collar families are at high risk for maladaptive behaviors, such as aggression, rule breaking, and substance use. A major hypothesized underlying factor is lax parental discipline that involves low repercussions for errant behaviors such as substance use—also known as perceived parents’ “containment” of such behaviors. In this study, the focus is on multiple dimensions of perceived containment among parents and school authorities, in relation to both externalizing problems and drug use behaviors. These associations are examined in four different schools: two boarding schools and two day schools. Results show much stronger links with maladjustment for perceived containment by parents as opposed to perceived containment by school. The largest significant effects within the containment indices were found to be between parent containment of drug use and the levels of substance use behaviors reported by students. These effects were found across gender and all schools, indicating robust links. Overall, the most robust index studied was the perceived parental monitoring variables; monitoring effects were stronger than effects from any containment variables. Students who perceived the highest levels of parental monitoring exhibited the least amount of externalizing behaviors across all schools and genders. A possible explanation includes students perceiving that their parents monitor their behavior due to caring on the behalf of the parent, which then leads to fewer externalizing outcomes. These results suggest that the most effective means of decreasing substance use levels seem to lie within the parents of the students and not the schools.
ContributorsHudson, Johnny (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Introduction: Depression is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the United States, and is characterized by feeling sad or empty most of the day, nearly every day (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The experience of childhood trauma is one of many factors that may lead to depression, while trauma can also yield other adverse life outcomes, such as alcohol-related consequences (Felitti et al., 2001; Neumann, 2017). One of the specific aims of this investigation was to examine the direct influences of childhood trauma on depression. We also examined selected direct and indirect influences of childhood trauma on drinking outcomes through the potential mediating mechanism of depression. We examined three distinct drinking outcomes, 1) impaired control over drinking (i.e. the inability to stop drinking when intended), 2) heavy episodic drinking (four or more drinks on one occasion for men, four or more for women), and 3) alcohol-related problems. Methods: A survey was administered to 940 (466 women, 474 men) university students. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the data. Potential two- and three-path mediated effects were examined with the bias corrected bootstrap technique in Mplus (MacKinnon, 2008). Results: Emotional abuse was found to be positively associated with depression. In contrast, having an emotionally supportive family was found to be negatively associated with depression. Congruent with the Self-Medication Hypothesis, depression was found to be positively associated with impaired control over drinking. Physical neglect was found to be positively associated with impaired control. Lastly, emotional abuse was found to be indirectly linked to increased heavy episodic drinking and alcohol-related problems through depression and impaired control.
ContributorsBobel, Emily Rebecca Leslie (Author) / Patock-Peckham, Julie (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Fast mapping is the initial link infants make between a word and its referent, and it is crucial to later processes of learning the meanings of words. Despite the importance of fast mapping, previous research has suggested that fast mapping is fragile, with infants being unable to retain words learned through fast mapping longer than five minutes. The current study tested the robustness of fast mapping by imposing task irrelevant interruptions on a fast mapping task. Forty-seven infants (14.7 \u2014 17.4 months old) were assigned to a No Interruption condition, a Posture Interruption condition, or a Visual Interruption condition, and they performed a fast mapping task in which a novel object was named in one trial. Videos of the infants were coded for accuracy of fast mapping and for attentional behaviors (looking behavior) during the task. We found that infants did not learn novel word-object pairings when interrupted, demonstrating that infants' fast mapping abilities are easily disrupted. Overall, there was no evidence that looking behaviors were affected by interruptions, or that they were correlated with accuracy. These findings suggest that fast mapping is fragile in young infants, and further research is required to determine the mechanisms for infant learning, and how infants transition from fast to slow mapping processes.
ContributorsSmith, Emily J (Author) / Benitez, Viridiana (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
For my thesis project, I have developed a cash register web application for the Arizona State University Barrett Dining Hall. I previously worked at the Barrett Dining Hall, and I would occasionally step in as a cashier. This work is how I came to be familiar with the system and all its inefficiencies. The system requires multiple user inputs to implement even the most basic of tasks, is not user-friendly, and therefore very prone to error. In the event that multiple incorrect inputs are entered, the software will freeze, and the user will have to turn off the computer and turn it back on. In theory, this application is an improvement over the software system that is currently in place in that the user interface has been specifically designed to be user-friendly. This application reduces the number of required user inputs by automating certain tasks (such as pricing and determining the meal period), thereby reducing the chance of user error. It is also an improvement in that it allows students to log in to the system to view how many meals they have left, how much M&G is in their account, and how many guest passes they have left. This functionality is extremely important because this is a feature that is not currently in place, and is something that students have actively complained about. Currently, if students want to check on their meal plan, they have to either physically go to a dining hall and ask the cashier, or call a toll-free number. The two technologies used to develop this application are C# and XML. These technologies were chosen because I wanted to learn something new for this project to broaden my knowledge. I also happened to be taking a class at the start of this project that utilized C# and XML for Web Applications, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to transfer over the skills I had been learning.
ContributorsLewis, Q. Mariha Paishance (Author) / Chen, Yinong (Thesis director) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
What characteristics do people prefer in potential mates? Previous studies have explored this question, discovering that preferred characteristics vary by people's sex and sexual strategy, but have implied that these preferences remain constant across the lifespan. We suggest, however, that systematic variation exists in individuals' mate preferences across the lifespan, as they shift their investments from mating toward parenting. We suggest that the characteristics of a potential mate can be viewed as affordances that assist or hinder an individual in achieving certain fundamental goals. Incorporating the framework of Life History Theory with this affordance-management approach to social behavior, we propose that an individual's life stage, sex, and life history strategy together serve as the basis for these goals and thereby shape the characteristics people seek in potential mates. Using data collected from participants aged 18-45 recruited on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, we tested a range of hypotheses derived from our approach. In general, results provide mixed support for a role of life stage in shaping mate preferences. For example, nurturance and social competence were viewed as more necessary characteristics in a mate by participants invested in parenting. Moreover, as their investment in mating increased, females expressed a greater preference for ambition in their potential mates, but males did not. Other predictions were not borne out, however, suggesting that there is still much to be learned from investigating the relationship between life stage and mate preferences.
ContributorsKalina, Catherine Ellen (Author) / Neuberg, Steven (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Gangestad, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Graduate College (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Alcohol use remains a large part of collegiate life and is a major public health concern. Alcohol use generally peaks during the early twenties and declines with age. These declines, referred to as "maturing out," are presumed to be the result of the acquisition of adult roles (e.g. marriage, parenthood, employment) incompatible with alcohol use. Recent empirical evidence suggests that variables other than role transitions (e.g. personality) during emerging adulthood may also be important in understanding this process. Conceptually, changes in identity that occur during emerging adulthood may also be linked to the process of maturing out of heavy drinking, though no studies have yet addressed this possibility. Utilizing data from a large sample of graduating college students during senior year and the two following years (N = 907), the current study examined relations between aspects of emerging adult identity development (identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and experimentation/possibilities) and drinking outcomes (alcohol use and problems). Using multiple regression, changes in emerging adult identity development accounted for significant variability in alcohol use over and above relationship and employment status. Decreases in experimentation/possibilities significantly predicted decreases in alcohol use. Conversely, increases in feeling in-between significantly predicted decreases in alcohol use. The findings have important implications for both theories of "maturing out" and the development of prevention and early intervention efforts targeting alcohol abuse during this high-risk developmental period.
ContributorsGates, Jonathan Ryan (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12