Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Collective human attitudes influenced by macro-forces that impact environmental issues are partially correlated to our behaviors for the good and the harm of the planet. In this thesis, I will explore how collective human attitudes contribute to pro-environmental behaviors, common and pre-existing frames of mind on major conservation dilemmas, and finally suggest future directions on how humans could be inclined to take on more environmental responsibility through an increase in human-environmental connectivity. It is found that humans are largely driven by institution structures, education, and social influence. In conclusion, more efforts should be placed to further analyze these structural incentives for pro-environmental behaviors and use them to make environmental stewardship more accessible for all people and diverse circumstances. This can be done by evaluating the human dimensions of what influences human attitudes and behaviors, how to use these forces to systematically influence pro-environmental choices, applying these structural forces to main conservation issues, and further incorporating moral discourse into the environmental research in order to appeal correctly to all aspects and perspectives. Only when human connectivity is understood in relation to the natural sciences will we be able to make positive change in the direction of a healthier Earth.

Automated vehicles are becoming more prevalent in the modern world. Using platoons of automated vehicles can have numerous benefits including increasing the safety of drivers as well as streamlining roadway operations. How individual automated vehicles within a platoon react to each other is essential to creating an efficient method of travel. This paper looks at two individual vehicles forming a platoon and tracks the time headway between the two. Several speed profiles are explored for the following vehicle including a triangular and trapezoidal speed profile. It is discovered that a safety violation occurs during platoon formation where the desired time headway between the vehicles is violated. The aim of this research is to explore if this violation can be eliminated or reduced through utilization of different speed profiles.

Enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) is a biocementation technique that produces comparatively fewer carbon dioxide emissions than traditional cementation. However, the use of synthetic reagents for EICP is costly, and the process produces an ammonium byproduct which is a harmful pollutant. This study utilizes fresh urine as a source of urea and calcium-rich zeolites as an ammonium adsorbent and a source of calcium ions for the EICP cementation technique. Batch hydrolysis and adsorption experiments were conducted to determine the effects of zeolite type, zeolite form, and solution composition on ammonium adsorption and calcium release. Cementation experiments were then conducted to determine the effects of different hydrolysis and adsorption times on ammonium adsorption and calcium carbonate precipitation. The results showed that calcium-rich chabazite could be used as a source of calcium ions and as an effective adsorbent of ammonium for EICP. Additionally, synthetic, fresh urine and real, fresh urine had comparable ammonium adsorption and calcium release trends. Finally, inclusion of a pre-hydrolysis step reduced the ammonium adsorption and calcium release, but longer adsorption times lead to calcium carbonate precipitation outside of the sand column, which is an undesirable outcome for soil biocementation; even with this limitation, the calcium carbonate content of sand columns ranged from 0.48% to 0.92%, which signifies the potential of the proposed process for cementation, given a higher initial concentration of urea.

Is there a mismatch between urban farmers’ perceptions of their farm’s environmental sustainability and its actual environmental impact? Focusing on the use of water and nutrients on each farm as described by the farmers through interviews, it is evident that there is some level of disconnect between ideals and practices. This project may aid in bridging the gap between the two in regard to the farmers’ sustainability goals. This project will move forward by continuing interviews with farmers as well as collecting soil and water from the farms in order to more accurately quantify the sustainability of the farms’ practices. This project demonstrates that there is some degree of misalignment between perception and reality. Two farms claimed they were sustainable when their practices did not reflect that, while 2 farms said they were not sure if they were sustainable when their practices indicated otherwise. Samples from two farms showed high concentrations of nutrients and salts, supporting the idea that there may be a mismatch between perceived and actual sustainability.

This study investigated the difference in biofilm growth between pristine polypropylene microplastics and aged polypropylene microplastics. The microplastics were added to Tempe Town Lake water for 4 weeks. Each week the microplastic biofilms were quantified. Comparing the total biofilm counts, the results showed that the aged microplastic biofilms were larger than the pristine each week. By week 3 the aged microplastic counts had almost doubled in size increasing from 324 to 626 Colony Forming Units per gram in just one week. There was a significant difference in the diversity found from week 1 to week 4. About 40% of the diversity for the pristine microplastic biofilm was seen as light-yellow dots and about 60% of these dots were seen on the aged microplastic biofilms in both weeks. As the microplastics were submerged in the lake water, new phenotypes emerged varying from week 1 to week 4 and from pristine to aged microplastic biofilms. Generally, it was found that as the microplastics stay in the environment there is more biofilm on the particles. The aged microplastics have a larger amount of biofouling, and the pristine microplastic biofilms were found to have more diversity of phenotypes.

This qualitative project was done as a way to learn more about the personal experiences of Asian American participants surrounding education and how it has impacted their identities, and questions how and if the model minority stereotype has impacted the Asian American student particiapnts. 14 participants were interviewed one-on-one to see if there were any patterns in values that their parents had pushed, and revealed that cultural expectations influence the participants’s educational choices, leading to self-regulation in regards to education. Because the shared trait of these participants are being current Asian American students in university at the time of their interviews, experiences range with how acculturated their parents are, the ethnic background of their families, and prior expectations with education.

As technological advancement increases and becomes more accessible to everyone around the world, many communities and support groups have begun to offer online options for their programs, whether it be a fitness program, online therapy group, or doctor’s appointment. With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting every country around the world, online and virtual communities have become more necessary than ever. Using personal experience from an online fitness community formed as a response to social isolation called“Barrett Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies,” research was conducted to determine if online communities had the same effectiveness as in-person communities in reaching and maintaining individual health goals. Peer-reviewed scientific articles and research papers from many countries around the world were analyzed for demonstration and quantification of the efficacy of other online communities compared to in- person groups. In addition, the benefits and limitations of online communities were identified. Using all of the research and data collected, a novel fitness program was designed for implementation with an online synchronous group (OSG) and an online asynchronous option serving as a control to observe any differential adherence of participants to fitness goals. The proposed OSG consists of meetings and workouts through Zoom and is more interactive, even virtually. The control group had no interaction with others and completed the workouts alone. While this program was not distributed to the public and tested as part of this project, it was designed to be an optimized pilot program to test the impact of remote community engagement on goal attainment. It is predicted that the OSG would demonstrate improvement over control in better reaching goals and increased satisfaction with results. Scientific literature from a variety of disciplines discussed here informs this prediction.