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: LaBelle, Jeffrey
DescriptionMy main goal for my thesis is in conjunction with the research I started in the summer of 2010 regarding the creation of a TBI continuous-time sensor. Such goals include: characterizing the proteins in sensing targets while immobilized, while free in solution, and while in free solution in the blood.
ContributorsHaselwood, Brittney (Author) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Pizziconi, Vincent (Committee member) / Cook, Curtiss (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2011-12
Description
Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is the standard of care in diabetes management. Current technologies for SMBG are based upon enzymatic electrochemical (amperometric) sensing. To increase the sensitivity and specificity of current devices, a novel method of detecting glucose using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technology is explored. To test the ability of EIS methods to detect glucose, the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) was fixed to gold electrodes through the means of a specific immobilization process. Once GOx was fixed to the gold electrode surface, a 5 mV sine wave sweeping frequencies from 100 kHz to 1 Hz was induced at a glucose range 0-500 mg/dL mixed with a ferricyanide redox mediator. Each frequency in the impedance sweep was analyzed for highest response and R-squared value. The frequency with both factors optimized is specific for the glucose-GOx binding interaction, and was determined to be 1.17 kHz in purified solutions. Four separate electrodes were constructed and date from each were averaged. The correlation between the impedance response and concentration at the low range of detection (0-100 mg/dL of gluose) was determined to be 3.19 ohm/ln (mg/dL) with an R-squared value of 0.86. Its associated lower limit of detection was found to be 41 mg/dL. The same frequency of 1.17 kHz was then verified in whole blood under the glucose range of 0-100 mg/dL while diluting the blood to observe effect. As the blood concentration increased, the response of the sensor decreased logarithmically. The maximized blood detection volume was determined to be 25% whole blood suggesting dilution, coatings, or filtration is required for future adaptation. The above data confirms that EIS offers a new method of glucose detection as an alternative technology for SMBG and offers improved detection at lower concentrations of glucose. The unique frequency response of individual markers allows for modulation of signals so that several markers could be measured with a single sensor. Future work includes assessment of other diabetes associated biomarkers that can be measured on a single sensor, integration testing and tuning of the biomarkers, impedance-time sensing development, and finally, testing on control subjects.
ContributorsAdamson, Teagan (Author) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Pizziconi, Vincent (Committee member) / Cook, Curtiss (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-05
Description
Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder that can cause substantial helath problems. It is the result of a mutation in the DNA coding for hemoglobin. As a result of changes in two important amino acids, a person suffering from sickle cell disease will have erythrocytes that do not maintain the typical biconcave shape and instead for a crescent shape. Individuals with sickle cell disease may have many health problems tied to their irregular hemoglobin. The unusual shape of the erythrocytes leads to a much shorter cell life, which means that even though bone marrow remains active long past childhood to try to keep up with the loss of erythrocytes, the body is still unable to accommodate the rapid death of erythrocytes. The malformed erythrocytes can also cause vascular occlusion, blocking blood vessels and slowing blood flow. While sickle cell disease has the potential to spread worldwide, it is particularly common in Africa. This may be because people with the sickle cell trait have a high resistance to malaria, making them more likely to survive that ubiquitous disease and pass on their traits to their offspring. However, the mortality rate in young children with sickle cell disease is very high, in part because the spleen, already stressed by filtering out dead erythrocytes, has difficulties filtering out bacteria. One of the keys to stopping the spread of the disease is neonatal screening, but this requires specialized equipment that is fairly uncommon in rural areas, as can be seen in Kenya. Therefore, it would be highly beneficial to develop a more cost-effective and widely available method for testing for sickle cell disease.
ContributorsWold, John (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Snyder, Jan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-05
Description
Chronic stress has been linked as a probable contributor to a number of health problems that plague the world today. Obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, and osteoporosis are all common health risks believed to be exacerbated by stress. While it is nether realistic nor desirable to completely eliminate stress in an individual, proper stress management is important to a healthy lifestyle. Homeostasis is the primary mechanism by which stress, and the stress response, should be analyzed. Environmental factors known as stressors elicit responses from the body, which can be measured in terms of duration and magnitude. These two factors determine the homeostatic response from the body. This thesis proposes the study of heart rate variability (HRV) to measure the response of the autonomic nervous system through time domain analysis (the length of interbeat intervals) and frequency domain analysis (the differences between the lengths of consecutive interbeat intervals). Even with many possible problems, this data still represents valuable proof of concept that HRV analysis may be of use in identifying stress.
ContributorsUchimura, Kevin (Author) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Pizziconi, Vincent (Committee member) / Stabenfeldt, Sarah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-05