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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- Creators: Department of Physics
- Creators: School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies
Description
The purpose of this research is to explore Latina/o students' involvement at Arizona State University West and how it affects their sense of belonging, and thereby, their retention. I operationalize a "sense of belonging" as being able to express and feel comfortable with one's ethnic identity in the context of a higher education institution (Hurtado, 1997). I operationalize student involvement by the extent to which an individual student is devoted to their academic experience, invests time studying on campus, participates in student organizations, and interacts with faculty and their peers (Astin, 1984). I draw from Astin's theory of student involvement and Hurtado's sense of belonging as a base for this inquiry because they are critical components to understanding retention among the Latino/a community at Arizona State University West.
ContributorsGuerra, Luis D. (Author) / Cuadraz, Gloria (Thesis director) / Aska, Cassandra (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This research compares shifts in a SuperSpec titanium nitride (TiN) kinetic inductance detector's (KID's) resonant frequency with accepted models for other KIDs. SuperSpec, which is being developed at the University of Colorado Boulder, is an on-chip spectrometer designed with a multiplexed readout with multiple KIDs that is set up for a broadband transmission of these measurements. It is useful for detecting radiation in the mm and sub mm wavelengths which is significant since absorption and reemission of photons by dust causes radiation from distant objects to reach us in infrared and far-infrared bands. In preparation for testing, our team installed stages designed previously by Paul Abers and his group into our cryostat and designed and installed other parts necessary for the cryostat to be able to test devices on the 250 mK stage. This work included the design and construction of additional parts, a new setup for the wiring in the cryostat, the assembly, testing, and installation of several stainless steel coaxial cables for the measurements through the devices, and other cryogenic and low pressure considerations. The SuperSpec KID was successfully tested on this 250 mK stage thus confirming that the new setup is functional. Our results are in agreement with existing models which suggest that the breaking of cooper pairs in the detector's superconductor which occurs in response to temperature, optical load, and readout power will decrease the resonant frequencies. A negative linear relationship in our results appears, as expected, since the parameters are varied only slightly so that a linear approximation is appropriate. We compared the rate at which the resonant frequency responded to temperature and found it to be close to the expected value.
ContributorsDiaz, Heriberto Chacon (Author) / Mauskopf, Philip (Thesis director) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Supernovae are vital to supplying necessary elements to forming bodies in our solar systems. This project studies the creation of a subset of these necessary elements, called short-lived radionuclides (SLRs). SLRs are isotopes with relatively short half-lives and can serve as heat sources for forming planetary bodies, and their traces can be used to date stellar events. Computational models of asymmetric supernovae provide opportunities to study the effect of explosion geometry on the SLR yields. We are most interested in the production of \iso{Al}{26}, \iso{Fe}{60}, and \iso{Ca}{41}, whose decayed products are found in our own solar system. To study the effect of explosion asymmetries in supernovae, we use TYCHO stellar evolution code, SNSHP smooth particle hydrodynamics code for 3D explosion simulations, Burn code for nucleosythesis post-processing, and Python code written to analyze the output of the post-processing code.
ContributorsJohnson, Charlotte (Author) / Young, Patrick (Thesis director) / Lunardini, Cecilia (Committee member) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In today’s economy, advertisers understand that sex sells. The foundations of this concept, however, are influenced by patriarchal expectations that women are first and foremost sexual objects for men. Women are sold beauty and demeanor expectations for them to utilize when making themselves attractive for men and men are sold the idea of beautiful, docile women. This dynamic perpetuates strict definitions of acceptable gender displays and reinforces socially permitted gendered behavior. As a society in the 21st century, we understand the damage of sexist ideals, but where we fall short is in the monitoring of channels that perpetuate and maintain those stereotypes and how affected the public really is by the male gaze, and lack of a female gaze, in media. In this paper, I search for a female gaze, but in doing so recognize the inequalities inherent in yet another gendered practice of looking and instead steer the conversation towards personalized perspectives informed by an understanding of the dominant practice of looking and its inverse.
The primary perspective from which people are depicted in media today is shaped by the male gaze. The male gaze is comprised of patriarchal ideals and relies on the understanding that the spectator or viewer is a standard human being, which heteronormativity tells us is a man. From this perspective, the scope of visual representations of men and women in media has been molded after the hierarchized gender displays within which masculinity has primacy over femininity. By presenting a limited spectrum of behavior acceptable for men and women, the media hegemonically manipulates the social constructs of gender and gendered behavior across all levels of society.
This honors thesis applies semiotic and feminist methodologies to engage visual forms of media through art, film, and social media to challenge the social constructs of gender perpetuated and reinforced by dated stereotypes of gender and gendered behavior. First, the theoretical foundation will provide a framework for semiotic and feminist analysis of visual representations of gender in media. Then, I will present data representing the real-world impact that this social construction of gender has on adolescents in America using The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents, published by Plan International Inc. I will then bring together the explicated methodologies and evidential data alongside my own experiences as a female consumer of visual media to reveal alternative practices of looking that do not revolve around patriarchal norms, looking for a female gaze. In doing so, I hope to present recourse in the face of persistent use of sexist imagery across all levels of our culture and every medium of visual self-expression by providing tools that can be used to interrogate gendered perceptions and inform self-examination in pursuit of a feminist practice of looking.
The primary perspective from which people are depicted in media today is shaped by the male gaze. The male gaze is comprised of patriarchal ideals and relies on the understanding that the spectator or viewer is a standard human being, which heteronormativity tells us is a man. From this perspective, the scope of visual representations of men and women in media has been molded after the hierarchized gender displays within which masculinity has primacy over femininity. By presenting a limited spectrum of behavior acceptable for men and women, the media hegemonically manipulates the social constructs of gender and gendered behavior across all levels of society.
This honors thesis applies semiotic and feminist methodologies to engage visual forms of media through art, film, and social media to challenge the social constructs of gender perpetuated and reinforced by dated stereotypes of gender and gendered behavior. First, the theoretical foundation will provide a framework for semiotic and feminist analysis of visual representations of gender in media. Then, I will present data representing the real-world impact that this social construction of gender has on adolescents in America using The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents, published by Plan International Inc. I will then bring together the explicated methodologies and evidential data alongside my own experiences as a female consumer of visual media to reveal alternative practices of looking that do not revolve around patriarchal norms, looking for a female gaze. In doing so, I hope to present recourse in the face of persistent use of sexist imagery across all levels of our culture and every medium of visual self-expression by providing tools that can be used to interrogate gendered perceptions and inform self-examination in pursuit of a feminist practice of looking.
ContributorsPreston, Phoebe Jane (Author) / Gaffney, Cynthia (Thesis director) / Kirsch, Sharon (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
We hypothesized that recurrent exposure to a temporal discounting task would habitize participants, so that they become insensitive to framing effects. Temporal discounting is a behavioral trend which describes how people discount the value of a reward dependent on the time until receipt. Participants completed a temporal discounting task weekly for five weeks, to promote formation of a habitual decision strategy. Concomitant with this, we expected that people would shift their decision process from a deliberate, goal-oriented approach that is sensitive to changes in reward outcomes and environmental context, to a simplified, automatic approach that minimizes cognitive effort. We expected that this shift in decision strategy would be evident in a reduced influence of contextual effects on choice outcomes. We tested this hypothesis by leveraging two framing effects \u2014 the date/delay effect and the decimal effect. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the date/delay effect is significant on week 1, shows significant changes in week 1 to week 5, and is no longer significant on week 5. The results for the decimal effects were not significant. We discuss these results with respect to the cognitive processes that underlie temporal discounting and self-control.
ContributorsSt Amand, Jesse Dean (Author) / McClure, Samuel (Thesis director) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
A problem of interest in theoretical physics is the issue of the evaporation of black holes via Hawking radiation subject to a fixed background. We approach this problem by considering an electromagnetic analogue, where we have substituted Hawking radiation with the Schwinger effect. We treat the case of massless QED in 1+1 dimensions with the path integral approach to quantum field theory, and discuss the resulting Feynman diagrams from our analysis. The results from this thesis may be useful to find a version of the Schwinger effect that can be solved exactly and perturbatively, as this version may provide insights to the gravitational problem of Hawking radiation.
ContributorsDhumuntarao, Aditya (Author) / Parikh, Maulik (Thesis director) / Davies, Paul C. W. (Committee member) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This paper outlines the development of a software application that explores the plausibility and potential of interacting with three-dimensional sound sources within a virtual environment. The intention of the software application is to allow a user to become engaged with a collection of sound sources that can be perceived both graphically and audibly within a spatial, three-dimensional context. The three-dimensional sound perception is driven primarily by a binaural implementation of a higher order ambisonics framework while graphics and other data are processed by openFrameworks, an interactive media framework for C++. Within the application, sound sources have been given behavioral functions such as flocking or orbit patterns, animating their positions within the environment. The author will summarize the design process and rationale for creating such a system and the chosen approach to implement the software application. The paper will also provide background approaches to spatial audio, gesture and virtual reality embodiment, and future possibilities for the existing project.
ContributorsBurnett, Garrett (Author) / Paine, Garth (Thesis director) / Pavlic, Theodore (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
My thesis argues Romanticism and feminism are utopian allies, and Romanticism, understood as a philosophical movement, should be recognized as an essential aspect of critical feminist theory. I claim feminism must be understood as holding an undischarged utopian potential, liberated and inspired by a dynamic neo-Romanticism. This critical discourse gives birth to Romantic-feminism, which reinterprets Romantic works and rereads feminist theory, cultivating their shared revolutionary aspirations. While the claim that feminism buoys Romanticism—potentially creating a space for a singularly genuine kind of Romantic thought—is fairly bold, the core of this project rests upon an argument of even greater magnitude: feminism is as in need of Romanticism as Romanticism is in need of feminism. In fact, feminism is in desperate want of the revolutionary, aesthetic, and utopian vision of Romanticism, and a reinvented, reinvigorated feminism capable of confronting grave contemporary issues will not be possible without philosophical and artistic Romantic influence. A dynamic and progressive feminism not only betters Romantic texts, but provides the only possible condition for the realization of genuine revolution within Romanticism as a whole . As such, the second half of this project focuses on close readings of three poems by 19th-century women: “On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea because it was Frequented by a Lunatic” by Charlotte Smith, “The Lily” by Mary Tighe, and “Lines of Life” by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Approaching these Romantic works will necessitate an openness and welcoming of both tradition and the strange, a critical emphasis on intersectional feminist concerns, an innovative critique of modernity informed by Marxist and socialist thought, a willingness to transform (the text, the self, and the world), and revolutionary and utopian desires.
ContributorsGosse, Raelynn (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Mann, Annika (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Observations of four times ionized iron and nickel (Fe V & Ni V) in the G191-B2B white dwarf spectrum have been used to test for variations in the fine structure constant, α, in the presence of strong gravitational fields. The laboratory wavelengths for these ions were thought to be the cause of inconsistent conclusions regarding the
variation of α as observed through the white dwarf spectrum. This thesis presents 129 revised Fe V wavelengths (1200 Å to 1600 Å) and 161 revised Ni V wavelengths (1200 Å to 1400 Å) with uncertainties of approximately 3 mÅ. A systematic calibration error
is identified in the previous Ni V wavelengths and is corrected in this work. The evaluation of the fine structure variation is significantly improved with the results
found in this thesis.
variation of α as observed through the white dwarf spectrum. This thesis presents 129 revised Fe V wavelengths (1200 Å to 1600 Å) and 161 revised Ni V wavelengths (1200 Å to 1400 Å) with uncertainties of approximately 3 mÅ. A systematic calibration error
is identified in the previous Ni V wavelengths and is corrected in this work. The evaluation of the fine structure variation is significantly improved with the results
found in this thesis.
ContributorsWard, Jacob Wolfgang (Author) / Treacy, Michael (Thesis director) / Alarcon, Ricardo (Committee member) / Nave, Gillian (Committee member) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
It seems that we are incessantly scolded about the importance of the American political process and its virtue of practicality in contemporary society. Whether through the accumulation of the so-called facts about the issues that inform the veneration of the contest between candidates, the stern and noble duty of becoming an activist performing dreary tasks, or the religious fervor surrounding the sacred obligation of voting, we are assured and reassured that our system is sound and that we must only confront problems of implementation rather than structural ones. From here, the narrative goes that if we subscribe to the doctrine of exclusively employing the efficient, strictly rational, and the immediately realistic, we will almost assuredly succeed in persuading others toward producing the resolutions required to solve our shared challenges. Admittedly, these ideas serve a role in addressing the issues we face. However, when unaided by sophisticated and nuanced notions and applications of the fantastic, the beautiful, the ideal, the possible, the playful, the useless, in a word, dreaming, we foreclose the possibility of building a future that can qualitatively improve society and more meaningfully elevate our being-with-one-another in the world. Therefore, this work aims to validate the aforementioned claim by engaging in a critical, political, and hermeneutic exploration of what it means to dream against the backdrop of present-day American politics. It will honestly seek to analyze the prevailing notions of contemporary western thought and action to work on the way toward a new, yet latent, way of understanding. This understanding would fundamentally revolutionize the task of civilization as being grounded upon the appropriate channeling of our desires and dissatisfactions toward actualizing the projections of our imagination. Simply put, this project seeks to repudiate the mandate of work as toil and order as oppression to clear the way for envisioning a more suitable alternative.
ContributorsGoldsmith, Adam Jay (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05