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 32
Description
Breast microcalcifications are a potential indicator of cancerous tumors. Current visualization methods are either uncomfortable or impractical. Impedance measurement studies have been performed, but not in a clinical setting due to a low sensitivity and specificity. We are hoping to overcome this challenge with the development of a highly accurate impedance probe on a biopsy needle. With this technique, microcalcifications and the surrounding tissue could be differentiated in an efficient and comfortable manner than current techniques for biopsy procedures. We have developed and tested a functioning prototype for a biopsy needle using bioimpedance sensors to detect microcalcifications in the human body. In the final prototype a waveform generator sends a sin wave at a relatively low frequency(<1KHz) into the pre-amplifier, which both stabilizes and amplifies the signal. A modified howland bridge is then used to achieve a steady AC current through the electrodes. The voltage difference across the electrodes is then used to calculate the impedance being experienced between the electrodes. In our testing, the microcalcifications we are looking for have a noticeably higher impedance than the surrounding breast tissue, this spike in impedance is used to signal the presence of the calcifications, which are then sampled for examination by radiology.
ContributorsWen, Robert Bobby (Co-author) / Grula, Adam (Co-author) / Vergara, Marvin (Co-author) / Ramkumar, Shreya (Co-author) / Kozicki, Michael (Thesis director) / Ranjani, Kumaran (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In competitive Taekwondo, Electronic Body Protectors (EBPs) are used to register hits made by players during sparring. EBPs are comprised of three main components: chest guard, foot sock, and headgear. This equipment interacts with each other through the use of magnets, electric sensors, transmitters, and a receiver. The receiver is connected to a computer programmed with software to process signals from the transmitter and determine whether or not a competitor scored a point. The current design of EBPs, however, have numerous shortcomings, including sensing false positives, failing to register hits, costing too much, and relying on human judgment. This thesis will thoroughly delineate the operation of the current EBPs used and discuss research performed in order to eliminate these weaknesses.
ContributorsSpell, Valerie Anne (Author) / Kozicki, Michael (Thesis director) / Kitchen, Jennifer (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The relationship between parent and child is one that has been studied intensively for years. Much of the previous research in this field has quantified the parent-child relationship through self-report measures, with a subsample coding behavior from videotape and averaging individual scores across the entire parent-child interaction. Using a dynamic systems approach, we attempted to gain a deeper understanding of the parent-child relationship by quantifying the relationship in terms of dyadic patterns using the software Gridware. We then used these dyadic patterns to predict internalizing and externalizing behaviors in eight-year-old twin children. Dyadic relationship patterns predicted externalizing behaviors such as aggression and conduct disorder (i.e., frequency and stability within negative attractor states, and infrequency and low stability in positive attractor states), but not internalizing behaviors. Findings provide a method for capturing variance in parent-child interactions that is important for children's externalizing behaviors. Future studies should utilize these patterns in understanding risk and resilience family processes for children's mental health and well being.
ContributorsEccles, Jenna Christine (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Spinrad, Tracy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
We examined the relations between maternal depression, discipline practices, and toddler mental health outcomes, specifically competence and total problem behavior. Ethnicity was considered as a moderator in all analyses. For the first time, ethnicity was considered as a moderator of the heritability of toddler competence and total problem behavior. The data came from the Arizona Twin Project. A subsample containing only Caucasian (66%) and Hispanic (34%; 87% of Mexican descent) participants was used. Primary caregivers (>95% mothers) reported on levels of maternal depression, discipline practices, and their twins' competency and problem behaviors. It was hypothesized that maternal depression would be associated with less competency and more problem behaviors in toddlers; inductive discipline practices would be associated with higher competency and fewer problem behaviors; and punitive discipline practices would be associated with lower competency and more problem behaviors. Ethnicity was predicted to moderate only the relation between discipline practices and toddler mental health. Consistent with predictions, maternal depression predicted less competency and more problem behaviors, and inductive discipline predicted higher competency and fewer problem behaviors, while punitive discipline predicted lower competency and more problem behaviors. Ethnicity moderated the relation between maternal depression at 12 months and total problem behaviors. The heritability of competence and total problem behavior varied across the Caucasian and Hispanic samples.
ContributorsChon, Sarah Maria (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The relations between prenatal risk factors and postnatal risk and protective factors and infant outcomes were examined. Mothers, primarily of low-income background and Latina ethnicity, were interviewed within 24 hours of giving birth, and then again when their infants were five and nine months of age. The relations between prenatal stress, postnatal environment, and infant maturity and temperament were analyzedusing a multiple regression model. We controlled for the covariates: mother's education level and infant's birth weight. Maternal prenatal risk factors predicted lower infant Regulation and lower Developmental Maturity at nine months. Maternal postnatal risks did not predict infant outcomes, but maternal expectations for their child provided a significant association for three of the four infant outcomes: Regulation, Surgency, and Infant Developmental Maturity. The results underscore the importance of prenatal stress holding its significance with the addition of postnatal measures. Future studies would need to explore deeper into a multitude of postnatal factors, in order to accurately portray associations between maternal prenatal stress and infant health.
ContributorsTran, Melissa (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Luecken, Linda (Committee member) / McDonald, Kristy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-05
Description
While previous research has investigated the influence parenting styles have on child behavior, there has not been consistent findings on how child behavior in return influences parenting. This study goes beyond the literature by examining bidirectional influences of combined dyad for emotional availability and early problem behaviors (composited across 12 and 30 months) predicting parental warmth, authoritarian parenting, internalizing, externalizing and ADHD symptoms at age eight. This study also examined whether genetic or environmental factors were driving these behaviors. Participants were from the ongoing Arizona Twin Project (N=340 twin children). 25% of the twins were monozygotic, 35% were same-sex dizygotic, and 35% were opposite-sex dizygotic twins. Preliminary correlations showed bidirectional effects between early emotional availability, problem behaviors and parental warmth, authoritarian parenting, internalizing, externalizing and ADHD symptoms at age eight; however, once twin dependence and covariates were controlled for, the bidirectional effects were no longer significant. One important finding emerged: early problem behaviors were predictive of later problem behaviors at eight years. The study also found that externalizing and ADHD symptoms were more heritable than emotional availability, early problem behaviors, and internalizing symptoms. Therefore, interventions should be developed addressing the environmental influences that contribute to early problem behaviors.
ContributorsKaur, Navneet (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Miadich, Samantha (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Approximately 95% of Americans have at least one sibling (Weaver, Coleman, & Ganong, 2003), making it more likely that children grow up with a sibling than with a father (Lyon, 2009). It is therefore somewhat surprising to learn that sibling relationships have not been a central focus of psychological research, especially considering the fact that parent-child and peer relationships have been studied so extensively. There is no doubt that parents and peers have profound effects on children's emotional, psychological and social wellbeing, but siblings have important effects as well. By middle childhood, children spend more time with their siblings than they do with their parents (Pike, Coldwell, & Dunn, 2005). The sibling relationship is one of the longest and most lasting relationships that we as humans have. Approximately 78% of Americans over the age of sixty still have contact with at least one sibling (Cicirelli, 1995). Unlike parents, siblings are often in our lives until the end of our lifespan and, unlike friends, we do not choose them. They act as teachers, friends, and critics, just to name a few, and they are often a sounding board off of which we can test our ideas and behaviors. The focus of the current study is on the twin sibling relationship quality in middle childhood and in adolescence and its implications for individual adjustment, specifically in the realm of prosocial and aggressive behaviors. I evaluated twin sibling cooperation and conflict at both age 7-8 years and age 12-14 years and then examined prosocial and aggressive tendencies concurrently and longitudinally to study the strength of the association between the two. This study also aimed to better understand the extent to which prosocial behavior and aggression are influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
ContributorsDitto, Kayla Rhiannon Loretta Cam (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Valiente, Carlos (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Communication between the physical and digital world via software, embedded sensors and network connectivity is referred to by the term, the "Internet of Things" (IoT) [1]. The IoT transforms natural objects into "smart devices" to improve accuracy, reduce human intervention, and provide real-time data [1]. Smart weather stations that upload information, including temperature and humidity, to the Internet are already available. However, these products are often expensive and programmed only for single-purpose use. The LoRa Weather Station is a low cost, low power and low maintenance IoT solution that combines Microchip Technology's LoRa RN2903 module along with Mikroelektronika's Weather Click sensor. This report discusses how the LoRa Weather Station was created, primarily focusing on the LoRa gateway setup by a Raspberry Pi local web server. This project was completed by four electrical engineering students in the EEE 488 and 489 Senior Design courses at Arizona State University from Fall 2016 to Spring 2017. Total expenses for the project were $717.84, including the LoRa gateway which amounted to $104 (see Appendix C for the Bill of Materials).
ContributorsLeon, Miranda Cristina (Author) / Kozicki, Michael (Thesis director) / Balaban, Mehmet (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Sibling interactions are natural contexts for learning about the appropriate expression of emotions. The emotionally charged nature of sibling interactions creates a convenient context to explore emotional reactivity and regulation. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among parent-reported sibling relationship quality, observed sibling prosocial and antisocial behaviors displayed when playing a competitive marble game, and children's emotions coded from videotape. The sample consisted of 58 twin children who are currently participating in the longitudinal Arizona Twin Project. Parents completed the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire online at 5 and 8 years. Additionally, a competitive marble game interaction between the siblings took place in the home at 8 years and was videotaped for objective coding of prosocial, antisocial, and control behavior. Facial expressions were also coded from videotape using Emotient FACET software across the marble game interaction. Three mean composites of emotion were created, including positive and negative emotional facial expressions. Results showed that parent reported warmth did not predict the occurrence of positive emotions during the sibling interaction. However, siblings with high conflict showed less fear during the interaction. Parent reports of warmth predicted the extent to which siblings differed on emotion expression, however conflict did not. Parent ratings of conflict and warmth did not predict the extent to which the sibling dyad was emotionally intense. Findings regarding genetic and environmental effects were in line with previous reports of genetic influence on prosocial behavior and negative emotion, and expressions of joy being influenced by the environment. This study investigated noteworthy aspects of the sibling relationship that appear to promote children's adaptive development.
ContributorsGanase, Anaelle Shelina (Co-author) / Oro, Veronica (Co-author) / Roth, Winter (Co-author) / Doane, Leah (Co-author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Co-author, Thesis director) / Miadich, Samantha (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In this project, an existing waveform generator designed by the vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) technology firm Hoolest Performance Technologies was modified and characterized. Voltage feedback and current feedback systems were designed in order to improve output voltage and current regulation. A wireless communication system was implemented onboard the newly designed waveform generator in order to improve user experience and allow the system to be controlled remotely. Finally, a custom printed circuit board was designed according to the established circuit schematics for the above components, and the layout was miniaturized to a total board footprint area of 1.5 square inches. The completed device was characterized according to several figures of merit including current consumption, voltage and current regulation, and short-circuit behavior.
ContributorsPatterson, John Michael (Author) / Kozicki, Michael (Thesis director) / Mian, Sami (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05