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: Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Description
In recent years, sex trafficking awareness and intervention have skyrocketed in the United States. The 2016 Polaris Hotline Statistics Sheet reports a drastic increase of reported sex trafficking cases over the span of four years, with only 3,409 cases of human trafficking in 2012 and 8,042 in 2016, 73% of which were specifically sex trafficking cases (Polaris Project, 2016). The incidence of sex trafficking has not increased, but rather, attention to sex trafficking and implementation of legislation has increased awareness and reporting (Farrell et al., 2012). While this rise in public awareness of sex trafficking has positively impacted victim identification, there has not been an increase in convicting sex traffickers (Polaris Project, 2016). According to the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, 3,000 federal investigations that involved human trafficking, the majority of which specifically involved sex trafficking, were opened in 2015. Of these federal investigations, only 10% led to case prosecutions. Analyzing the relationship of law enforcement, specifically vice units, and victims of sex trafficking is just one of the many ways to address this complex issue. This study consisted of a qualitative analysis of the makeup, training, and policing methods of vice units nationwide. It further aimed to determine the vice officer perceptions regarding the elements that make sex trafficking cases convictable.
ContributorsPradhan, Krishnaa (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Kinzig, Ann (Committee member) / Kim, Grace (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The goal of our project was to determine how to create the most marketable hockey team. To do this, consumer needs, team psychology, and financing were all researched and evaluated. With this information, a business plan was designed around the next NHL expansion team. Two surveys, one for marketing distributed to the general public, and one for team psychology distributed to current and former hockey players were created and sent out, while data for the financing aspect was collected by comparing data from other NHL teams and franchises from different sports. In terms of financials, this comes in lower than average ticket prices, a nice and expensive stadium, the ideal city to generate capital, and sufficient money spent on advertising. Our ticket prices of $140 is based on having a low enough price to generate lots of demand while high enough to make a profit. The $600 million stadium (which will be fully funded) will surely draw a significant crowd. Choosing Seattle as a city is the most ideal to meet these goals and lastly, in meeting with an NHL GM, we determined $4 million in yearly advertising costs as sufficient in creating the most marketable team. Throughout this whole process, we remained data focus. We focused on data from a customized marketing survey, organizational structures, salary cap, and attendance. What our marketing survey results showed us is that our potential fans wanted three characteristics in a hockey team: speed, intensity, and scoring. In looking at organizational structures teams that exemplified these characteristics had a heavy emphasis on development and scouting. So we built our organizational tree around those two ideals. We hired GM Mike Futa, a current director of player personnel for the L.A. Kings, and Head Coach Adam Oates, a current skills development coach for top players to bring those ideals to fruition. In constructing our team we replicated the rules set forth for the Vegas Knights' expansion draft and hypothesized a likely protected list based off of last years lists. As a result we were able to construct a team that statistically out performed the Vegas Knights draft numbers by double, in goals, assists, and points, while also beating them in PIM. Based off of these numbers and an analysis of how goals translate into game attendance we are confident that we have constructed a team that has the highest potential for marketability. For the team psychology area, when creating a roster and scouting players, some of our main findings were that it is important to pursue players who get along well with their teammates and coaching staff, are aggressive, are leaders on the team, and are vocal players who communicate effectively. We also recommended avoiding players who significantly portrayed any "pet-peeve" traits, with the most emphasis placed on "disrespectful toward teammates," and the least emphasis placed on "over-aggression." By following all of these recommendations, we believe the most marketable hockey team possible can be created.
ContributorsQuinn, Colin Christopher (Co-author) / Spigel, Carlos (Co-author) / Meyer, Matt (Co-author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / McIntosh, Daniel (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The inherent risk in testing drugs has been hotly debated since the government first started regulating the drug industry in the early 1900s. Who can assume the risks associated with trying new pharmaceuticals is unclear when looked at through society's lens. In the mid twentieth century, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published several guidance documents encouraging researchers to exclude women from early clinical drug research. The motivation to publish those documents and the subsequent guidance documents in which the FDA and other regulatory offices established their standpoints on women in drug research may have been connected to current events at the time. The problem of whether women should be involved in drug research is a question of who can assume risk and who is responsible for disseminating what specific kinds of information. The problem tends to be framed as one that juxtaposes the health of women and fetuses and sets their health as in opposition. That opposition, coupled with the inherent uncertainty in testing drugs, provides for a complex set of issues surrounding consent and access to information.
ContributorsMeek, Caroline Jane (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
As of 2019, 30 US states have adopted abortion-specific informed consent laws that require state health departments to develop and disseminate written informational materials to patients seeking an abortion. Abortion is the only medical procedure for which states dictate the content of informed consent counseling. State abortion counseling materials have been criticized for containing inaccurate and misleading information, but overall, informed consent laws for abortion do not often receive national attention. The objective of this project was to determine the importance of informed consent laws to achieving the larger goal of dismantling the right to abortion. I found that informed consent counseling materials in most states contain a full timeline of fetal development, along with information about the risks of abortion, the risks of childbirth, and alternatives to abortion. In addition, informed consent laws for abortion are based on model legislation called the “Women’s Right to Know Act” developed by Americans United for Life (AUL). AUL calls itself the legal architect of the pro-life movement and works to pass laws at the state level that incrementally restrict abortion access so that it gradually becomes more difficult to exercise the right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade. The “Women’s Right to Know Act” is part of a larger package of model legislation called the “Women’s Protection Project,” a cluster of laws that place restrictions on abortion providers, purportedly to protect women, but actually to decrease abortion access. “Women’s Right to Know” counseling laws do not directly deny access to abortion, but they do reinforce key ideas important to the anti-abortion movement, like the concept of fetal personhood, distrust in medical professionals, the belief that pregnant people cannot be fully autonomous individuals, and the belief that abortion is not an ordinary medical procedure and requires special government oversight. “Women’s Right to Know” laws use the language of informed consent and the purported goal of protecting women to legitimize those ideas, and in doing so, they significantly undermine the right to abortion. The threat to abortion rights posed by laws like the “Women’s Right to Know” laws indicates the need to reevaluate and strengthen our ethical defense of the right to abortion.
ContributorsVenkatraman, Richa (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Abboud, Carolina (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
While developing and maintaining a connection between a brand and a customer has always been in the forefront of marketers' agendas, it has become an even more pressing goal as digital trends in marketing surface. Although the idea of using rewards to foster consumer-brand connection has been around for decades, marketers are still struggling to optimize the benefits. How can marketers use rewards to better connect with their customers? Are there certain types of rewards that are more effective than others? Are certain rewards more effective when being implemented under brands of a certain personality type? In a society that values connection and relationship, marketers cannot lose their ability to appreciate customers under digital constraints and to marketplace competition. Through a field study and scenario-based experiment, we explore how and why low conditional vs. high conditional rewards influence consumer-brand connection and the role brand personality plays.
ContributorsBauer, Madelaine Anne (Co-author) / Bryant, Kelly (Co-author) / Lisjak, Monika (Thesis director) / Samper, Adriana (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Over the past three decades, medical anthropology research, published within both public health and anthropological journals, demonstrates both the prevalence of traditional folk medicine in Latino populations in the United States and the potential difficulty of negotiating these beliefs and practices with clinical, western biomedicine. I bring attention to what might be a narrative of divergent values that occurs in Latino communities in the United States. A well-documented source (Pachter, 1994) of this clash is the culturally pervasive use of folk medicine in Latino layperson populations seeking biomedical care in the Unites States (U.S.). Numerous studies (Padilla, 2001; Koss 1972) suggest that a significant portion of Latinos in the continental United States call upon folk knowledge to diagnose, reinterpret, and treat illness. The Puerto Rican population seems to be no exception, though few studies are specific to native-born Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico, where the issue of access to quality public health care becomes increasingly problematic. In this honors undergraduate thesis project, I conduct a review of the literature that bridges anthropology and public health research and proceed to describe a study I conducted on Culebra Island, Puerto Rico in May of 2015. The study aims to determine whether patient satisfaction can be linked to being treated by a physician hailing from a similar cultural background, or if an irredeemable disparity between patient and provider present a roadblock to health outcomes. I found that the Puerto Rican physicians are receptive to folk illness (symptoms) and consider folk therapy as part of the treatment regimen. The physicians make patients feel understood, which might improve treatment adherence and thus health outcomes. Still, respondents demonstrated that there is high patient trust in the biomedical model by emphasizing the use of conventional medications in tandem with the folk therapy. Nevertheless, the health care provider's disposition in regards to folk knowledge and modalities are important but does not present a roadblock to optimal care and health outcomes as much as access, available services or clinic resources.
ContributorsVanasse-Torres, Elena Georgina (Author) / Maupin, Jonathan (Thesis director) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / MartÃÂnez, AirÃÂn (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Twilight Sleep was a technique originally developed by physicians in Germany in the early 20th century as a novel way to address parturient women’s fear and aversion to pain endured during labor and childbirth. Using a combination of amnestic and analgesic agents such as scopolamine and morphine to synergistically suppress pregnant women’s memories, physicians Carl Gauss and Bernhard Krönig enabled women to give birth free of pain, or more accurately any memories of pain.
Despite widespread use throughout Europe, Twilight Sleep initially experienced less popularity and more resistance in the United States where doctors were wary of the potential health risks that Twilight Sleep brought upon women and infants. Some adverse effects caused by incorrect doses of scopolamine and morphine included hallucinations and uncontrolled thrashing in women and depressed respiration in infants. Thus, Twilight Sleep’s status as a vogue topic in obstetrics during the first half of the 20th century came about due to the work of affluent and educated American women. While lacking formal medical training, a subset of women became experts in the matter of Twilight Sleep by traveling to Germany to experience and investigate Twilight Sleep firsthand then disseminating their findings through published books and articles.
This thesis explores the impact of Twilight Sleep on women and physicians and their perceptions of childbirth. Twilight Sleep empowered women to take on a more active role in shaping the medical care they received rather than accepting that childbirth as a natural event associated with physical and mental trauma and high risk of mortality. For doctors, the debate regarding Twilight Sleep’s safety and efficacy affirmed a ubiquitous notion that childbirth ought to be seen as a pathological rather than natural event. By considering childbirth a medical condition that necessitated treatment, physicians had to evaluate their duties to their patients. In empowering women to be involved in making medical decisions and forcing physicians to balance their medical training with their patients’ needs, Twilight Sleep helped to establishing more reciprocal doctor-patient relationships.
Despite widespread use throughout Europe, Twilight Sleep initially experienced less popularity and more resistance in the United States where doctors were wary of the potential health risks that Twilight Sleep brought upon women and infants. Some adverse effects caused by incorrect doses of scopolamine and morphine included hallucinations and uncontrolled thrashing in women and depressed respiration in infants. Thus, Twilight Sleep’s status as a vogue topic in obstetrics during the first half of the 20th century came about due to the work of affluent and educated American women. While lacking formal medical training, a subset of women became experts in the matter of Twilight Sleep by traveling to Germany to experience and investigate Twilight Sleep firsthand then disseminating their findings through published books and articles.
This thesis explores the impact of Twilight Sleep on women and physicians and their perceptions of childbirth. Twilight Sleep empowered women to take on a more active role in shaping the medical care they received rather than accepting that childbirth as a natural event associated with physical and mental trauma and high risk of mortality. For doctors, the debate regarding Twilight Sleep’s safety and efficacy affirmed a ubiquitous notion that childbirth ought to be seen as a pathological rather than natural event. By considering childbirth a medical condition that necessitated treatment, physicians had to evaluate their duties to their patients. In empowering women to be involved in making medical decisions and forcing physicians to balance their medical training with their patients’ needs, Twilight Sleep helped to establishing more reciprocal doctor-patient relationships.
ContributorsTran, Yvette Ho (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / O'Neil, Erica (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
There is a disconnect between the way people are taught to find success and happiness, and the results observed. Society teaches us that success will lead to happiness. Instead, it is argued that success is engrained in happiness. Case studies of four, established, successful people: Jack Ma, Elon Musk, Ricardo Semler, and William Gore, have been conducted in order to observe an apparent pattern. This data, coupled with the data from Michael Boehringer's story, is used to formulate a solution to the proposed problem. Each case study is designed to observe characteristics of the individuals that allow them to be successful and exhibit traits of happiness. Happiness will be analyzed in terms of passion and desire to perform consistently. Someone who does what they love, paired with the ability to perform on a regular basis, is considered to be a happy person. The data indicates that there is an observable pattern within the results. From this pattern, certain traits have been highlighted and used to formulate guidelines that will aid someone falling short of success and happiness in their lives. The results indicate that there are simple questions that can guide people to a happier life. Three basic questions are defined: is it something you love, can you see yourself doing this every day and does it add value? If someone can answer yes to all three requirements, the person will be able to find happiness, with success following. These guidelines can be taken and applied to those struggling with unhappiness and failure. By creating such a formula, the youth can be taught a new way of thinking that will help to eliminate these issues, that many people are facing.
ContributorsBoehringer, Michael Alexander (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Science fiction works can reflect the relationship between science and society by telling a story set in the future of ethical implications or social consequences of scientific advancement. This thesis investigated how the concept of reproduction is depicted in popular science fiction works. I reviewed and analyzed four popular science fiction works that all showed fear over the government controlling our choices in reproductive technology. The analysis of my thesis can be used as a way to understand how we view the ideas and the consequences of reproductive technology through concepts of reproduction. These perspectives and ideas as a reflection of society's concerns as we discuss the future of the ethics and politics of reproductive technology and reproductive issues.
ContributorsKim, Grace Dayoung (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Targeting Tumors: Inclusion of Functional Groups on Ion-Containing Block Copolymers to Combat Cancer
Description
This research attempts to determine the most effective method of synthesizing a peptide such that it can be utilized as a targeting moiety for polymeric micelles. Two melanoma-associated peptides with high in vitro and in vivo binding affinity for TNF receptors have been identified and synthesized. Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-ToF) was used to help verify the structure of both peptides, which were purified using Reversed-Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC). The next steps in the research are to attach the peptides to a micelle and determine their impact on micelle stability.
ContributorsMoe, Anna Marguerite (Author) / Green, Matthew (Thesis director) / Jones, Anne (Committee member) / Sullivan, Millicent (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05