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.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 30
Description
The purpose of this thesis study was to examine whether the "war on cancer" metaphor influences cancer perception and treatment decision. A total of 249 undergraduates (152 females) from a large southwestern university participated in an online survey experiment and were either randomly assigned to the control condition (N=123) or to the war prime condition (N=126). Participants in the control condition did not receive the metaphor manipulation while participants in the war prime condition received the subtle "war on cancer" metaphor prime. After the prime was given, participants read a scenario, answered questions related to the situation, and responded to demographic questions. The results suggested that, compared to participants in the no-prime condition, participants exposed to the war metaphor were more likely to (a) view melanoma as an acute disease, (b) choose chemotherapy over molecular tests, and (c) prefer more aggressive treatment. These findings illustrated the unintended consequences of the "war on cancer" slogan. The results were encouraging and in the predicted direction, but the effect size was small. The discussion section described possible future directions for research.
ContributorsShangraw, Ann Mariah (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The central goal of this thesis is to develop a practical approach to validating the correctness of SSA forms. Since achieving this goal is very involved for a general program, we restrict our attention to simple programs. In particular, the programs we consider are loop-free and are comprised of simple assignments to scalar variables, as well as input and output statements. Even for such a simple program, a full formal treatment would be very involved, extending beyond the scope of an undergraduate honors thesis.
ContributorsLusi, Dylan Patrick (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Fainekos, Georgios (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Dynamic languages like Java enjoy robust and powerful testing tools like JUnit and Cobertura. On the other hand, while there is no shortage of unit testing frameworks for C, the nature of C makes it difficult to make frameworks as powerful as those for other languages. In this paper, we describe ZTest, a testing framework that addresses some of these shortcomings in the C unit testing landscape. We also discuss results of its application to a medium-sized C project.
ContributorsIadicicco, Alexander (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Shrivastava, Aviral (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The media often portrays professional basketball players as narcissistic, entitled and selfish, but are these portrayals accurate? After all, basketball is a team sport and team sport research indicates that players are more altruistic and selfless. This study proposes a way to assess narcissism and altruism through observable behaviors from all the active players in the NBA.
ContributorsPappas, Carissa Anne (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Mae, Lynda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Agent Based modeling has been used in computer science to simulate complex phenomena. The introduction of Agent Based Models into the field of economics (Agent Based Computational Economics ACE) is not new, however work on making model environments simpler to design for individuals without a background in computer science or computer engineering is a constantly evolving topic. The issue is a trade off of how much is handled by the framework and how much control the modeler has, as well as what tools exist to allow the user to develop insights from the behavior of the model. The solutions looked at in this thesis are the construction of a simplified grammar for model construction, the design of an economic based library to assist in ACE modeling, and examples of how to construct interactive models.
ContributorsAnderson, Brandon David (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Kuminoff, Nicolai (Committee member) / Roberts, Nancy (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
A recent controversy has surrounded service dogs in public environments. Use of service dogs may trigger discrimination against individuals with non-visible disabilities. Major goals of this thesis study are to examine if significant differences exist in personality perceptions and attitude towards service dog owners with visible disabilities versus those with non-visible disabilities, and whether these perceptions and attitude predict how they would be treated in a public setting. The study employed a mixed 2 x2 factorial experiment design. The first independent variable was visibility of the disability, with the two levels being visible vs non-visible, and this factor was non-repeated in nature. The second independent variable was the target of evaluation, with the owner and the dog being the two levels, and this was a repeated measure. Specifically, this study assessed personality perceptions using the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness to Experience) and operationalized attitude in terms of the positivity of personality perceptions. Additionally, this study examined whether an owner of a service dog with a non-visible disability would be treated differently from their counterpart who has a visible disability. In the study, participants were given a scenario and picture where they encounter an individual who either had a visible or non-visible disability with a service dog at a restaurant. Then, participants rated the owner and the dog individually on the Big Five personality traits, and indicated whether and how likely they would seat the individual and their service dog at the restaurant. When considering the visibility of a disability alone, an individual with a non-visible disability was perceived as less conscientious. When considering how the owner and the dog were perceived regardless of visibility of disability, owners were rated significantly lower than their dog on agreeableness and extraversion, but significantly higher on openness to experience. There was also a significant difference in treatment of the dog owners based on the visibility of their disability, service dog owners with non-visible disabilities have a higher likelihood of experiencing unlawful treatment. Furthermore, personality perceptions and attitude were significantly correlated with treatment for both individuals with non-visible and visible disabilities. Together, findings of this study inform the design of future research. Future research on this topic may help inform policy makers the challenges and unfair treatment facing individuals who have non-visible disabilities.
ContributorsSanta Cruz, Alyssa Ann (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
There are potential risks when individuals choose to share information on social media platforms such as Facebook. With over 2.20 billion active monthly users, Facebook has the largest collection of user information compared to other social media sites. Due to their large collection of data, Facebook has constantly received criticism for their data privacy policies. Facebook has constantly changed its privacy policies in the effort to protect itself and end users. However, the changes in privacy policy may not translate into users changing their privacy controls. The goal of Facebook privacy controls is to allow Facebook users to be in charge of their data privacy. The goal of this study was to determine if a gap between user perceived privacy and reality existed. If this gap existed we investigated to see if certain information about the user would have a relationship to their ability to implement their settings successfully. We gathered information of ASU college students such as: gender, field of study, political affiliations, leadership involvement, privacy settings and online behaviors. After collecting the data, we reviewed each participants' Facebook profiles to examine the existence of the gap between their privacy settings and information available as a stranger. We found that there existed a difference between their settings and reality and it was not related to any of the users' background information.
ContributorsPascua, Raphael Matthew Bustos (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Dasgupta, Partha (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
As computers become a more embedded aspect of daily life, the importance of communicating ideas in computing and technology to the general public has become increasingly apparent. One such growing technology is electronic voting. The feasibility of explaining electronic voting protocols was directly investigated through the generation of a presentation based on journal articles and papers identified by the investigator. Extensive use of analogy and visual aids were used to explain various cryptographic concepts. The presentation was then given to a classroom of ASU freshmen, followed by a feedback survey. A self-evaluation on the presentation methods is conducted, and a procedure for explaining subjects in computer science is proposed based on the researcher's personal process.
ContributorsReniewicki, Peter Josef (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Childress, Nancy (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This thesis study aimed to (1) test whether first-year college students' perceived future self-connectedness predicts their interest in continuing premedical studies, (2) assess whether the presence of academic role models predicts their future self-connectedness and (3) pilot-test an experimental manipulation to increase future self-connectedness and interest in premedical studies. The study included two parts. First, students completed the pre-manipulation measures including future self-connectedness and interest in premed studies. Second, students were randomly assigned to an experimental or a control condition. In the experimental condition, students were asked to imagine that they were licensed doctors and write words of advice to their current selves. In the control condition students were asked to reflect and write about their daily routine. The results from this study showed a significant positive correlation of interest in remaining in premedical studies with both future self-connectedness and the presence of role models and future self-connectedness. Additionally, students in the experimental condition showed a significant increase in future self-connectedness after completing the manipulation. However, their interest in remaining in premedical studies did not change after the manipulation. Together, these findings suggest a method for keeping Freshman undergraduates from dropping out hastily from the premedical track.
ContributorsSosa, Jonathan Mercado (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Implementing a distributed algorithm is more complicated than implementing a non-distributed algorithm. This is because distributed systems involve coordination of different processes each of which has a partial view of the global system state. The only way to share information in a distributed system is by message passing. Task that are straightforward in a non-distributed system, like deciding on the value of a global system state, can be quite complicated to achieve in a distributed system [1]. On top of the difficulties caused by the distributed nature of the computations, distributed systems typically need to be able to operate normally even if some of the nodes in the system are faulty which further adds to the uncertainty that processes have about the global state. Many factors make the implementation of a distributed algorithms difficult. Design patterns [2] are useful in simplifying the development of general algorithms. A design pattern describes a high level solution to a common, abstract problem that many systems may face. Common structural, creational, and behavioral problems are identified and elegantly solved by design patterns. By identifying features that an algorithm uses, and framing each feature as one of the common problems that a specific design pattern solves, designing a robust implementation of an algorithm becomes more manageable. In this way, design patterns can aid the implementation of algorithms. Unfortunately, design patterns are typically not discussed when developing distributed algorithms. Because correctly developing a distributed algorithm is difficult, many papers (eg. [1], [3], [4]) focus on verifying the correctness of the developed algorithm. Papers that are more practical ([5], [6]) establish the correctness of their algorithm and that their algorithm is efficient enough to be practical. However, papers on distributed algorithms usually make little mention of design patterns. The goal of this work was to gain experience implementing distributed systems including learning the application of design patterns and the application of related technical topics. This was achieved by implementing a currently unpublished algorithm that is tentatively called Bakery Consensus. Bakery Consensus is a replicated state-machine protocol that can tolerate servers with Byzantine faults, but assumes non-faulty clients. The algorithm also establishes non-skipping timestamps for each operation completed by the replicated state-machine. The design of the structure, communication, and creation of the different system parts depended heavily upon the book Design Patterns [2]. After implementing the system, the success of the in implementing its various parts was based upon their ability to satisfy the SOLID [7] principles as well as their ability to establish low coupling and high cohesion [8]. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. We begin by providing background information about distributed algorithms, including replicated state-machine protocols and the Bakery Consensus algorithm. Section 3 gives a background on several design patterns and software engineering principles that were used in the development process. Section 4 discusses the well designed parts of the system that used design patterns, and how these design patterns were chosen. Section 5 discusses well designed system parts that relied upon other technical topics. Section 6 discusses system parts that need redesign. The conclusion summarizes what was accomplished by the implementation process and the lessons learned about design patterns for distributed algorithms.
ContributorsStoutenburg, Tristan Kaleb (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Richa, Andrea (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05