Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

This thesis discusses the options of keeping or relocating the Arizona Coyotes to Quebec City. The Coyotes recently were not able to renew their lease with the city of Glendale for their current arena, Gila River Arena. For the next three years the Coyotes will play in a 5,000 seat capacity arena at Arizona State University. Quebec City has been rumored to want to bring a NHL team back and already has a 18,259 capacity arena. In order to assess the highest valued future location for the team, this thesis provides an analysis of 3 different options: (1) move the team to Quebec City Canada, (2) build a new arena in Tempe, or (3) continue to play at the ASU arena. First, an overview of the Coyotes as well as the original Quebec City NHL team, the Nordiques, is provided. Next, a financial analysis of the 3 options is provided. The final section makes conclusions based on the analysis provided.

This research project dives deep into the current aluminum can shortage in the craft beer industry. More specifically, this paper will explore how aluminum cans became the dominant beer package compared to glass bottles, give a brief comparison of the environmental and taste benefits of aluminum cans and glass bottles, determine what caused the current excess in demand for aluminum cans, and show how this shortage is currently affecting the brewing industry. Due to the unprecedented increase in demand for packaged beer and supply chain issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic, projections indicate that can manufacturers will not be able to meet industry demand for another three to four years. Although it may seem like an easy option for breweries to switch to packaging their beer in glass bottles until aluminum cans become more readily available, many breweries do not have this ability because they do not own a bottling machine. Cans are better for the environment and the taste of the beer than glass bottles, so most breweries bought only a canning machine to package their products. Because of this, however, many small breweries recently have been unable to package their products due to their inability to purchase cans from large can manufacturers. Considering this, this paper will also investigate potential beer packaging substitutes for aluminum and glass that could be implemented both now and in the coming years so breweries can still produce products during the current shortage and any that may occur in the future. However, a shortage caused by a worldwide pandemic, and the policy response that led to an excess in consumer demand that cannot be met by the current supply chain infrastructure, is not unique to the brewing industry. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand how supply chain induced shortages created by the coronavirus pandemic can affect an industry and how firms can work creatively to analyze options and overcome these obstacles.

In 1757 Edmund Burke published A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. I will be extending his analysis of the sublime and beautiful, and using it to dissect quantum mechanics. Using Burke’s template on the sublime and beautiful, I can evaluate experiments in quantum mechanics, and explore a new side of Burke’s aesthetic theory. For the reader, I have outlined Burke’s aesthetic theory on the sublime and beautiful. I then used this analysis to explore quantum mechanics and assess the components of quantum mechanics that are beautiful and sublime.

Mitigation banks are a tool created to mitigate and compensate for negative impacts on the environment resulting from man made activities, especially damage caused to endangered wildlife, plants, and wetland ecosystems. The main objective of creating the system of mitigation banks is to achieve environmental equilibrium, meaning “No Net Loss” to all environmental functions. This means damage to one area is compensated for in another area of like-kind through restoration. There is great controversy surrounding this claim. There is a system of debits and credits to ensure ecological loss from development is preceded by restoration of a similar ecology and function. Wetland mitigation banks are the focus for the purpose of research. Background and benefits will be given first, followed by threats, issues, solutions and a personal experience with mitigation banks.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the main advantages and disadvantages of various working structures. This paper specifically evaluates the pros and cons of working fully online, fully in the office, and a hybrid model. This paper also assesses factors that will influence individual companies’ decision for how to organize their workspaces, as well as macroeconomic trends that have emerged from remote work during the pandemic. This paper shows that optimal work setup is a hybrid environment. Although there are distinct advantages to fully online and fully in-person office environments, the hybrid setup stands as the most efficient and practical. It is important to note that every company must consider how their resources can support a hybrid setup, and if they can support a hybrid model at all. Companies that adopt a hybrid setup will capture most of the benefits from both online and in-person work, while limiting the disadvantages caused by each work style. Additionally, hybrid modality will become even more practical as technology continues to progress, and virtual work continues to become more efficient. The main advantages to online work are that it makes employees more efficient, eliminates unnecessary commuting to work, and expands companies’ talent pools for hiring. The main disadvantages to online work are also the main advantage to office work, and that is the knowledge spillovers from having workers physically together. Although knowledge spillovers increase the value of a company’s workforce, virtual work has made in-person work seem inefficient. The hybrid model combines the benefits of both online and in-person work, allowing workers to still be partially together in the office while allowing for better technological integration.