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 38
Description
Modeling sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sALS) has been a challenge since there is no known single gene mutation that triggers disease pathogenesis. Although human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have created new opportunities in studying sALS, they do not retain important age associated phenotypic markers due to the rejuvenation stage that takes place during the reprogramming of somatic cells into hiPSCs. To overcome this obstacle, we performed an alternative method of direct neuronal conversion from patient fibroblasts that utilizes two transcription factors, Ngn2 and Ascl1. These transcription factors were sufficient to initiate direct neuronal conversion and produce induced neurons (iNeurons). Through the positive staining of neuronal markers Map2, Synapsin-1, and Human Nuclear Marker we found that induced neurons do display neuronal features that are seen in mature neurons.
ContributorsSwinford, Sarah Joan (Author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Sattler, Rita (Committee member) / Nelson, Andrew (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Drug addiction is a pervasive problem in society, as it produces major increases in health care costs, crime, and loss of productivity. With over 3 million long-term users in America alone, cocaine is one of the most identifiable and addictive drugs. Cocaine produces major neurological changes in the central nervous system, including widespread changes in gene expression. MicroRNAs are small, non-coding transcripts that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by preventing translation into function protein. Given that one miRNA can target several genes simultaneously, they have the potential to attenuate drug-induced changes in gene expression. We previously found that the microRNA miR-495 regulates several addiction-related genes (ARGs) and is highly expressed in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), an important brain region involved in reward and motivation. Furthermore, acute cocaine decreases miR-495 expression and increases ARG expression in the NAc. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to determine the effect of miR-495 overexpression in the NAc on cocaine self-administration behavior. Male Sprague Dawley rats were trained to lever press for cocaine and were then infused with a lentivirus into the NAc that either overexpressed green fluorescent protein (GFP, control) or miR-495+GFP. We then tested the rats on several doses of cocaine on both a fixed ratio (5) and progressive ratio (PR) schedule of reinforcement. We performed a follow-up experiment that included the same viral manipulation and testing, but the reinforcer was switched to food pellets. We found that NAc miR-495 overexpression reduces cocaine self-administration on a PR, but not an FR5, schedule of reinforcement. We found no effects of miR-495 overexpression on food reinforcement. These data suggest that NAc miR-495 regulates genes involved in motivation for cocaine, but not general motivation based on the data with food reinforcement. Future studies will seek to determine the specific target genes responsible for our behavioral effects.
ContributorsGalles, Nick (Author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Bastle, Ryan (Committee member) / Foster, M. (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Background: Both puberty and diets composed of high levels of saturated fats have been shown to result in central adiposity, fasting hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance. While a significantly insulinogenic phenotypic change occurs in these two incidences, glucose homeostasis does not appear to be affected. Methods: Male, Sprague-dawley rats were fed diets consisting of CHOW or low fat (LF), High Fat Diet and High Fat Diet (HFD) with supplementary Canola Oil (Monounsaturated fat). These rats were given these diets at 4-5 weeks old and given intraperitoneal and oral glucose tolerance tests(IPGTT; OGTT) at 4 and 8 weeks to further understand glucose and insulin behavior under different treatments. (IPGTT: LF-n=14, HFD-n=16, HFD+CAN-n=12; OGTT: LF-n=8, HFD-n=8, HFD+CAN-n=6). Results: When comparing LF fed rats at 8 weeks with 4 week glucose challenge test, area under the curve (AUC) of glucose was 1.2 that of 4 weeks. At 8 weeks, HFD fed rats AUCg was much greater than LF fed rats under both IPGTT and OGTT. When supplemented with Canola oil, HFD fed rats AUC returned to LF data range. Despite the alleviating glucose homeostasis affects of Canola oil the AUC of insulin curve, which was elevated by HFD, remained high. Conclusion: HFD in maturing rats elevates fasting insulin levels, increases insulin resistance and lowers glucose homeostasis. When given a monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) supplement fasting hyperinsulinemia, and late hyperinsulinemia still occur though glucose homeostasis is regained. For OGTT HFD also induced late hyper c-peptide levels and compared to LF and HFD+CAN, a higher c-peptide level over time.
ContributorsRay, Tyler John (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / Herman, Richard (Committee member) / Towner, Kali (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Research suggests that the more positive the first drug experience, the more likely addiction will develop. Since smoking is initiated in a social setting, it is surprising how little is known about social context effects on acquisition of nicotine self-administration. We investigated this issue in rats during late adolescence using conjoined self-administration chambers that had a removable shared wall. Rats were assigned to training conditions with either a solid black plexiglass or wire mesh partition in place throughout 22 subsequent 2-hour daily training sessions. Initially, 58 day-old (late-adolescent) male and female rats received 2, 30-min habituation sessions/day over 2 consecutive days, with only an inactive lever present. Sessions began with presentation of a retractable lever and thereafter each response on that lever resulted in simultaneous delivery of saline or 1 of 2 doses of nicotine (0.015 or 0.030 mg/kg, IV) and lever retraction for a 20-second time out. The findings indicate that the social context inhibits nicotine self-administration in female rats during the development of addiction, but has little effect on the initial stages of drug acquisition. Furthermore, the data suggest that in male rats the social context enhances responding independent of nicotine, but has few effects on nicotine self-administration during the development of addiction. The findings have important implications for substance use disorders.
ContributorsDufwenberg, Martin (Author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Deviche, Pierre (Committee member) / Peartree, Natalie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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
Cocaine is a powerful psychomotor stimulant that can affect serotonin (5HT), dopamine, and norepinephrine systems in the brain. Previous studies with 5HT1B receptor agonist, CP94253, have shown dose-dependent decreases in cocaine-self administration in male rats during maintenance. However, these studies do not take into consideration sex differences between male rats and female rats. Female rats introduce a new complexity because they constantly undergo an estrous cycle that consists of four phases, metestrus, diestrus, proestrus, and estrus. It was hypothesized that cocaine infusions and active lever response rates would greatly decrease during proestrus and estrus in comparison to metestrus and diestrus due to hormonal level differences of LH, FSH, progesterone, and estradiol. In this study, female rats were trained to self-administer a training dose of 0.75 mg/kg/infusion on a fixed progressive ratio (FR5). Rats were then pretreated with CP94253 to test the effects of this 5HT1B agonist on female rat cocaine self-administration during the estrous cycle. Results showed there was no three-way interaction between cycle phase, pretreatment, and cocaine dose on infusions or active lever responses. However, pretreatment with CP94253 decreased cocaine intake and active lever responses at high cocaine doses, regardless of cycle phase. Lastly, there was a two-way interaction between pretreatment and cycle phase in which active lever responses decreased during diestrus and proestrus. These results imply that CP94253 enhances cocaine's effect regardless of cycle phase. Future work can work with ovariectomized (OVX) female rats to observe cocaine self-administration during controlled cycle phases.
ContributorsNguyen, Toan Thai Tran (Author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Gipson-Reichardt, Cassandra (Committee member) / Scott, Samantha (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Microvillus Inclusion disease is a fatal disease found in the Navajo population caused by a single nucleotide polymorphism. It is characterized by intractable diarrhea and is often fatal early in life.1 The current method of diagnosis is sending duodenal biopsies for histopathological examination and confirmatory testing through genomic sequencing. The purpose of this experiment was to create a more simple and cost-effective diagnostic method for detecting Microvillus Inclusion disease. Three methods were explored (RFLP2, ARMS3,4, and Tentacle Probes5,6) and two methods were tested to determine their ability and their efficiency in detecting the SNP that causes the disease.2 Tests using the RFLP2 method and synthetic DNA resulted in 9% false-positive rate and 11% false-negative rate in a blind trial for detecting both target (mutation present) and non-target (mutation absent) DNA when gel analyzing software was used to compare Rf values after gel electrophoresis. Using the ARMS method3, a nine-sample randomized test was run that ended up with 22% false-positive rate and 19% false-negative rate from a blind trial when using a gel analyzing software to determine presence of the SNP by band intensity. Disclaimer: No DNA from human patients was used in this study. Only synthetic DNA used.
ContributorsHelmbrecht, Hawley Elizabeth (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / Carpentieri, David (Committee member) / Dubois, Courtney (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Imaging analysis of local drug delivery is important because in both studies involving chemotherapy targeted toward glioblastoma and antimicrobial addressing infection, the drug concentration and distribution are unknown. There are a variety of studies focused on the local delivery of drug to a targeted location, but we are presenting a way of quantifying the concentration of the drug and the distribution of the drug during a period of time. This study aims to do that by utilizing Materialise Mimics to analyze the MRI images of local drug delivery in glioblastoma in canines and antimicrobial gel in rabbit femurs. The focus of the technique is to register the anatomy in T1-weighted spin echo images to the drug delivery in T2 flow attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images in order to see where the drug went and did not go relative to the anatomical part. Both studies focus on addressing effective volumes of drug to a designated anatomical area, in which the delivery can be difficult as it involves bypassing the blood brain barrier in the first study and achieving effective volumes while preventing toxicity to the kidneys in the second study. The goal of this project lies in determining the drug volumes and location for the specified duration and anatomical part.
ContributorsJehng, Hope (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / Sirianni, Rachael (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The purpose of this study, which was done in conjunction with the Arizona Heart Foundation, was to evaluate whether pyridoxine accelerates ulcer wound healing in diabetic patients with ulcers in the lower extremities. In this study, 100 mg of pyridoxine per day was given to patients in the experimental group (while they receive normal wound treatment) while patients in the control group received normal treatment of wounds without the pyridoxine. Over time, wound healing was evaluated by photographing and then measuring the size of patients' ulcer wounds on the photographs. Results from the experimental group were compared with those of the control group to evaluate the efficacy of the pyridoxine treatment. In addition, comparisons of the healing rates were made with respect to whether the patients smoked, had hypertension or hypotension, and the patients' body mass indexes. It has been found that there was no statistically significant difference in the mean healing rates between the control groups and experimental groups. In addition, it has been found that smoking, BMI and blood pressure did not have a statistically appreciable effect on the difference in mean healing rates between the control and experimental groups. This is evidence that pyridoxine did not have a statistically significant effect on wound healing rates.
ContributorsHaupt, Shawn Anthony (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / Pauken, Christine (Committee member) / Pagan, Pedro (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Cocaine is a highly addictive psychostimulant that is widely used around the world. It is far more cost effective to curb this problem through treatment than by any other method as medicinal drug treatment is 15 times more effective than law enforcement at reducing the societal costs of cocaine use as determine by RAND corp. In a previous paper from our lab, it was found that via virally mediated introduction of additional 5-HT1B receptors into the nucleus accumbens there was a leftward shift in the cocaine intake dose-response curve in animals that were self-administering cocaine by pressing a lever. These findings suggest that 5-HT1B receptor action enhances the reinforcing effects of cocaine. However, when animals were given a 21-day period of prolonged abstinence and then tested for cocaine intake, it was determined that 5-HT1B receptor action had the opposite effect of decreasing cocaine intake presumably due to a decrease in the reinforcing effects of cocaine: [16]. The experiment in the current paper was devised to further test this finding via pharmacological means using the 5-HT1B agonist CP 94253 to increase stimulation of 5-HT1B receptors. Animals were trained to self-administer by pressing a lever on fixed ratio schedules of cocaine reinforcement given at 0.75 mg/kg and 0.075 mg/kg doses of cocaine. These doses allowed us to examine changes in self-administration on both the ascending and descending limbs of the inverted u-shaped cocaine dose-effect curve. Our results indicated that in animals given CP 94253 exhibited a decrease in responding on both the ascending and descending limbs of the dose response curve demonstrating a downward shift after prolonged abstinence. These exciting results suggest that the agonist decreases cocaine intake, and therefore, the agonist may be a useful treatment for cocaine dependence.
ContributorsYanamandra, Krishna Teja (Author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Goldstein, Elliott (Committee member) / Pentkowski, Nathan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2013-05