Barrett

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 - 4 of 4

Learning Continuous 2D Diffusion Maps from Particle Trajectories without Data Binning

Description
Diffusion coefficients often vary across regions, such as cellular membranes, and quantifying their variation can provide valuable insight into local membrane properties such as composition and stiffness. Toward quantifying diffusion coefficient spatial maps and uncertainties from particle tracks, we use a Bayesian method and place Gaussian Process (GP) Priors on…

Diffusion coefficients often vary across regions, such as cellular membranes, and quantifying their variation can provide valuable insight into local membrane properties such as composition and stiffness. Toward quantifying diffusion coefficient spatial maps and uncertainties from particle tracks, we use a Bayesian method and place Gaussian Process (GP) Priors on the maps. For the sake of computational efficiency, we leverage inducing point methods on GPs arising from the mathematical structure of the data giving rise to non-conjugate likelihood-prior pairs. We analyze both synthetic data, where ground truth is known, as well as data drawn from live-cell single-molecule imaging of membrane proteins. The resulting tool provides an unsupervised method to rigorously map diffusion coefficients continuously across membranes without data binning.
ContributorsKumar, Vishesh (Author) / Presse, Steve (Thesis director) / Bryan IV, J. Shep (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2024-05

Predicting Help-Seeking Behaviors in Adult ADHD

DescriptionA proposal for the investigation of help-seeking and help-seeking behaviors in adults with ADHD. Analyzes pre-existing literature in adults and children and adapts model for children that can be generalized to college students. Proposes a statistical moderation effect between predictors and help-seeking behaviors.
ContributorsPlatacz, Jack (Author) / Munguia, Jacob (Co-author) / Loewy, David (Co-author) / Friedman, Lauren (Thesis director) / Kim, Joanna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05

Understanding Base Thrust of Highly Truncated Aerospike Nozzles

Description
This thesis examines how a recently proposed concept for a highly-truncated aerospike nozzle can be expected to perform at altitudes corresponding to ambient pressures from sea-level to full vacuum conditions, as would occur during second-stage ascent and during second-stage descent and return to Earth. Of particular importance is how the base pressure varies…

This thesis examines how a recently proposed concept for a highly-truncated aerospike nozzle can be expected to perform at altitudes corresponding to ambient pressures from sea-level to full vacuum conditions, as would occur during second-stage ascent and during second-stage descent and return to Earth. Of particular importance is how the base pressure varies with ambient pressure, especially at low ambient pressures for which the resulting highly underexpanded flows exiting from discrete thrust chambers around the truncated aerospike merge to create a closed (unventilated) base flow. The objective was to develop an approximate but usefully accurate and technically rooted way of estimating conditions for which the jets issuing from adjacent thrust chambers will merge before the end of the truncated aerospike is reached. Three main factors that determine the merging distance are the chamber pressure, the altitude, and the spacing between adjacent thrust chambers. The Prandtl-Meyer expansion angle was used to approximate the initial expansion of the jet flow issuing from each thrust chamber. From this an approximate criterion was developed for the downstream distance at which the jet flows from adjacent thrust chambers merge. Variations in atmospheric gas composition, specific heat ratio, temperature, and pressure with altitude from sea-level to 600 km were accounted for. Results showed that with decreasing atmospheric pressure during vehicle ascent, the merging distance decreases as the jet flows become increasingly under-expanded. Increasing the number of thrust chambers decreases the merging distance exponentially, and increasing chamber pressure results in a decrease of the merging distance as well.
ContributorsHerrington, Katie (Author) / Dahm, Werner (Thesis director) / Takahashi, Timothy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2024-05

Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Bone Health in Mice

Description
Time restricted eating (TRE) is an increasingly popular diet strategy that has shown promise for weight loss and improving metabolic health. The impact of TRE on bone health has not been extensively studied, and the goal of this experiment is to provide more insight into this subject. 32 10-week old…

Time restricted eating (TRE) is an increasingly popular diet strategy that has shown promise for weight loss and improving metabolic health. The impact of TRE on bone health has not been extensively studied, and the goal of this experiment is to provide more insight into this subject. 32 10-week old female mice were randomly assigned to 4 groups (n = 8). These included low fat diet fed ad-libitum, low fat time restricted feeding (TRF), high fat diet fed ad-libitum, and high fat TRF. The mice adhered to these diets for 9 weeks, with the TRF groups having access to food for 8 hours per day until the sacrifice. At nine weeks, the TRF mice had significantly lowered body weight, improved body composition, and a lower fasting blood glucose. The TRF groups also experienced significant improvements in the trabecular bone density of the tibia, femur, and L3 vertebral body. This was found alongside reductions in osteoclast count and activity in the TRF mice. When compared to a baseline group of 10-week old mice, it was found that the TRF group had significantly less bone loss relative to the ad-libitum fed mice. Improvements in metabolic health, gut barrier function, and inflammation may have all contributed to the observed improvements in bone health. These results reveal a promising and previously unrecognized dietary tool to improve bone health and counteract age-related bone loss.
ContributorsJakiche, Michael (Author) / Collis, Graham (Co-author) / Roberts, Joseph (Thesis director) / Johnston, Carol (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2024-05