ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 226
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- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
Coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever, is a disease caused by the dimorphic soil-dwelling fungus, Coccidioides sp. Coccidioidomycosis is difficult to diagnose because symptoms are similar to community-acquired pneumonia. Current diagnostic tests rely on antibody responses, but immune responses can be delayed and aberrant, resulting in false negative diagnoses. Unlike serology, detection of coccidioidal proteins or other fungal components in blood could distinguish valley fever from other pulmonary infections and provide a definitive diagnosis. Using mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) we examined the plasma peptidome from patients with serologically confirmed coccidioidomycosis. Mass spectra were searched using the protein database from the Coccidioides species, generated and annotated by the Broad Institute. 15 of 20 patients with serologically confirmed coccidioidomycosis demonstrated the presence of a peptide in plasma, "PGLDSKSLACTFSQV" (PGLD). The peptide is derived from an open reading frame from a "conserved hypothetical protein" annotated with 2 exons, and to date, found only in the C. posadasii strain Silviera RMSCC 3488 genomic sequence. In this thesis work, cDNA sequence analysis from polyadenylated RNA confirms the peptide sequence and genomic location of the peptide, but does not indicate that the intron in the gene prediction of C. posadasii strain Silviera RMSCC 3488 is present. A monoclonal antibody generated against the peptide bound to a 16kDa protein in T27K coccidioidal lysate. Detecting components of the fungus plasma could be a useful diagnostic tool, especially when serology does not provide a definitive diagnosis.
ContributorsDuffy, Stacy Leigh (Author) / Lake, Douglas (Thesis advisor) / Magee, Dewey Mitch (Committee member) / Antwi, Kwasi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Modified and artificial water sources can be used as a management tool for game and non-game wildlife species. State, federal, and private agencies allocate significant resources to install and maintain artificial water sources (AWS) annually. Capture mark recapture methods were used to sample small mammal communities in the vicinity of five AWS and five paired control sites (treatments) in the surrounding Sonoran desert from October 2011 to May 2012. I measured plant species richness, density, and percent cover in the spring of 2012. A Multi-response Permutation Procedure was used to identify differences in small mammal community abundance, biomass, and species richness by season and treatment. I used Principle Component Analysis to reduce 11 habitat characteristics to five habitat factors. I related rodent occurrence to habitat characteristics using multiple and logistic regression. A total of 370 individual mammals representing three genera and eight species of rodents were captured across 4800 trap nights. Desert pocket mouse (Chaetodipus penicillatus) was the most common species in both seasons and treatments. Whereas rodent community abundance, biomass, and richness were similar between seasons, community variables of AWS were greater than CS. Rodent diversity was similar between treatments. Desert pocket mouse abundance and biomass were twice as high at AWS when compared to controls. Biomass of white-throated woodrat (Neotoma albigula) was five times greater at AWS. Habitat characteristics were similar between treatments. Neither presence of water nor distance to water explained substantial habitat variation. Occurrence of rodent species was associated with habitat characteristics. Desert rodent communities are adapted for arid environments (i.e. Heteromyids) and are not dependent on "free water". Higher abundances of desert pocket mouse at AWS were most likely related to increased disturbance and debris and not the presence of water. The results of this study and previous studies suggest that more investigation is needed and that short term studies may not be able to detect interactions (if any) between AWS and desert small mammal communities.
ContributorsSwitalski, Aaron (Author) / Bateman, Heather L (Thesis advisor) / Miller, William (Committee member) / Alford, Eddie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
In order to adapt to a new culture and new language, children of immigrant families are faced daily with the responsibility of being the intermediaries between the family and the host culture through their language proficiency (Weisskirch & Alva, 2002). This thesis looks into the experiences of English-Spanish bilingual children as they bridge the gap between the family and the non-Spanish speaking community through their interpreting/translating skills. With an emphasis on children of Mexican-origin, the goal is to further understand and illuminate how these children manage this communication in an adult society, their feelings and thoughts about their experiences, and the child's perceptions about the influence that this experience may or may not have on their future. A sample of seventeen children agreed to participate in a semi-structured face-to-face interview to share their experiences. The data from these interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006). A priori themes of circumstantial bilingual and adaptive parentification were the initial focus of the research while being open to emerging themes. The children's accounts of their experiences indicated primarily that the Mexican-origin values of familism and respeto (respect) were a significant influence on them when they interpreted/translated for their family. With these traditional cultural values and norms as the groundwork, the sub-themes of normalcy and stress emerged as supportive elements of the circumstantial bilingual experience. Furthermore, the theme of adaptive parentification and the sub-themes of choice, expectation/responsibility to assist, and equality to parents offered further insight on how adaptive parentification can result as the roles of these children change. There was an emergent theme, identity negotiation, which increases our understanding of what the circumstantial bilingual child encounters as the attempt is made to negotiate his identity as an individual who has to mediate language between two opposing cultures. Due to the language brokering responsibility that are bestowed upon these children, it is concluded that communicative support by the parents is a necessary component of the parent-child relationship in order to nurture and develop these children as they negotiate and create their identity to become the successful leaders of tomorrow.
ContributorsCayetano, Catalina (Author) / Mean, Lindsey (Thesis advisor) / Waldron, Vincent (Committee member) / Gaffney, Cynthia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
ABSTRACT 1. Aposematic signals advertise prey distastefulness or metabolic unprofitability to potential predators and have evolved independently in many prey groups over the course of evolutionary history as a means of protection from predation. Most aposematic signals investigated to date exhibit highly chromatic patterning; however, relatives in these toxic groups with patterns of very low chroma have been largely overlooked. 2. We propose that bright displays with low chroma arose in toxic prey species because they were more effective at deterring predation than were their chromatic counterparts, especially when viewed in relatively low light environments such as forest understories. 3. We analyzed the reflectance and radiance of color patches on the wings of 90 tropical butterfly species that belong to groups with documented toxicity that vary in their habitat preferences to test this prediction: Warning signal chroma and perceived chromaticity are expected to be higher and brightness lower in species that fly in open environments when compared to those that fly in forested environments. 4. Analyses of the reflectance and radiance of warning color patches and predator visual modeling support this prediction. Moreover, phylogenetic tests, which correct for statistical non-independence due to phylogenetic relatedness of test species, also support the hypothesis of an evolutionary correlation between perceived chromaticity of aposematic signals and the flight habits of the butterflies that exhibit these signals.
ContributorsDouglas, Jonathan Marion (Author) / Rutowski, Ronald L (Thesis advisor) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / McGraw, Kevin J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Random peptide microarrays are a powerful tool for both the treatment and diagnostics of infectious diseases. On the treatment side, selected random peptides on the microarray have either binding or lytic potency against certain pathogens cells, thus they can be synthesized into new antimicrobial agents, denoted as synbodies (synthetic antibodies). On the diagnostic side, serum containing specific infection-related antibodies create unique and distinct "pathogen-immunosignatures" on the random peptide microarray distinct from the healthy control serum, and this different mode of binding can be used as a more precise measurement than traditional ELISA tests. My thesis project is separated into these two parts: the first part falls into the treatment side and the second one focuses on the diagnostic side. My first chapter shows that a substitution amino acid peptide library helps to improve the activity of a recently reported synthetic antimicrobial peptide selected by the random peptide microarray. By substituting one or two amino acids of the original lead peptide, the new substitutes show changed hemolytic effects against mouse red blood cells and changed potency against two pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Two new substitutes are then combined together to form the synbody, which shows a significantly antimicrobial potency against Staphylococcus aureus (<0.5uM). In the second chapter, I explore the possibility of using the 10K Ver.2 random peptide microarray to monitor the humoral immune response of dengue. Over 2.5 billion people (40% of the world's population) live in dengue transmitting areas. However, currently there is no efficient dengue treatment or vaccine. Here, with limited dengue patient serum samples, we show that the immunosignature has the potential to not only distinguish the dengue infection from non-infected people, but also the primary dengue infection from the secondary dengue infections, dengue infection from West Nile Virus (WNV) infection, and even between different dengue serotypes. By further bioinformatic analysis, we demonstrate that the significant peptides selected to distinguish dengue infected and normal samples may indicate the epitopes responsible for the immune response.
ContributorsWang, Xiao (Author) / Johnston, Stephen Albert (Thesis advisor) / Blattman, Joseph (Committee member) / Arntzen, Charles (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Biological diversity is threatened by increasing anthropogenic modification of natural environments and increasing demands on natural resources. Sonoran desert tortoises (Gopherus morafkai) currently have Candidate status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) based on health and habitat threats. To ensure this animal persists in the midst of multiple threats requires an understanding of the life history and ecology of each population. I looked at one physiological and one behavioral aspect of a population of tortoises at the Sugarloaf Mountain (SL) study site in central Arizona, USA. I used 21 years of capture-recapture records to estimate growth parameters of the entire population. I investigated habitat selection of juvenile tortoises by selecting 117 locations of 11 tortoises that had been tracked by radio-telemetry one to three times weekly for two years, selecting locations from both summer active season and during winter hibernation. I compared 22 microhabitat variables of tortoise locations to random SL locations to determine habitat use and availability. Male tortoises at SL reach a greater asymptotic length than females, and males and females appear to grow at the same rate. Juvenile tortoises at the SL site use steep rocky hillsides with high proportions of sand and annual vegetation, few succulents, and enclosed shelters in summer. They use enclosed shelters on steep slopes for winter hibernation. An understanding of these features can allow managers to quantify Sonoran desert tortoise habitat needs and life history characteristics and to understand the impact of land use policies.
ContributorsBridges, Andrew (Author) / Bateman, Heather L (Thesis advisor) / Miller, William (Committee member) / Ulrich, Jon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Law enforcement, schools and universities, health service agencies, as well as social service agencies, each acquire information from individuals that receive their services. That information gets recorded into the respective application system of each organization. The information, however, gets recorded only in the context of each service rendered and within each system used to record it. Information that is recorded by the police department for one individual is entirely different from the information that is recorded by the hospital for that same individual. What if all the organizations used the same system to record information? What if all the organizations followed the same protocols to record information as well as access it? The goal of this research was to analyze a system that allows for all organizations within a community to share information with each other. Technically, this system is feasible. However, public opinion says sharing personal information is unethical, and Federal regulation says it is unlawful. To accomplish an information-sharing system of this type, both regulation and public opinion need to be addressed.
ContributorsPullin, Britton Scott (Author) / Schildgen, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Prewitt, Deborah (Committee member) / Ralston, Laurel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method of dividing wireless communication (such as the 802.11a/b/g
and cellular UMTS MAC protocols) across multiple unreliable communication links (such as Ethernet). The purpose is to introduce the appropriate hardware, software, and system architecture required to provide the basis for a wireless system (using a 802.11a/b/g
and cellular protocols as a model) that can scale to support thousands of users simultaneously (say in a large office building, super chain store, etc.) or in a small, but very dense communication RF region. Elements of communication between a base station and a Mobile Station will be analyzed statistically to demonstrate higher throughput, fewer collisions and lower bit error rates (BER) with the given bandwidth defined by the 802.11n wireless specification (use of MIMO channels will be evaluated). A new network nodal paradigm will be presented. Alternative link layer communication techniques will be recommended and analyzed for the affect on mobile devices. The analysis will describe how the algorithms used by state machines implemented on Mobile Stations and Wi-Fi client devices will be influenced by new base station transmission behavior. New hardware design techniques that can be used to optimize this architecture as well as hardware design principles in regard to the minimal hardware functional blocks required to support such a system design will be described. Hardware design and verification simulation techniques to prove the hardware design will accommodate an acceptable level of performance to meet the strict timing as it relates to this new system architecture.
and cellular UMTS MAC protocols) across multiple unreliable communication links (such as Ethernet). The purpose is to introduce the appropriate hardware, software, and system architecture required to provide the basis for a wireless system (using a 802.11a/b/g
and cellular protocols as a model) that can scale to support thousands of users simultaneously (say in a large office building, super chain store, etc.) or in a small, but very dense communication RF region. Elements of communication between a base station and a Mobile Station will be analyzed statistically to demonstrate higher throughput, fewer collisions and lower bit error rates (BER) with the given bandwidth defined by the 802.11n wireless specification (use of MIMO channels will be evaluated). A new network nodal paradigm will be presented. Alternative link layer communication techniques will be recommended and analyzed for the affect on mobile devices. The analysis will describe how the algorithms used by state machines implemented on Mobile Stations and Wi-Fi client devices will be influenced by new base station transmission behavior. New hardware design techniques that can be used to optimize this architecture as well as hardware design principles in regard to the minimal hardware functional blocks required to support such a system design will be described. Hardware design and verification simulation techniques to prove the hardware design will accommodate an acceptable level of performance to meet the strict timing as it relates to this new system architecture.
ContributorsJames, Frank (Author) / Reisslein, Martin (Thesis advisor) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Zhang, Yanchao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The &ldquoMormon; Colonies” in Chihuahua, northern Mexico, boast a sizable population of women originally from the United States who have immigrated to these small Mexican towns. This ethnographic study of the immigrant women in the area focuses on questions of citizenship and belonging, and bolsters the scholarship on U.S. American immigrants in Mexico. Using data from 15 unstructured interviews, the women&rsquos; experiences of migration provide a portrait of U.S. American immigrants in a Mexican religious community. Analysis of this data using grounded theory has revealed that these U.S. American women have created a third social space for themselves, to a large degree retaining their original culture, language, and political loyalty. Their stories contribute to the literature on transnational migration, providing an account of the way migrants of privilege interact with their society of settlement.
ContributorsNielsen, Vanessa (Author) / Mean, Lindsey (Thesis advisor) / Téllez, Michelle (Committee member) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of building a storytelling system for older adults to tell and share their life stories based on email. It is measured by the level of participation and people's acceptance of the system. The central goals were to empower people over 60 years old by providing a platform for them to share their wonderful life experience and perspectives on life and lead social services into the digital age by bridging traditional roundtable interaction and modern digital communication. A prototype was built to test the level of participation of the system and follow-up interviews were conducted in order to deeply understand people's acceptance. Content analysis was used to analyze the stories to ascertain what common themes were present. Key design considerations and key factors that affect the feasibility of storytelling system were discussed. This research expands on current research and implementation of Internet-based storytelling system and shed light on the future of combining storytelling with older adults' existing Internet knowledge. Key findings of this research are :(1) Frequency of reminiscence trigger and the number of active participants affect the level of participation collectively. Frequency is considered to be a key determinant. High frequency indicates high level of participation. (2) Categories of topics do not affect the level of participation significantly but serve as key attractions that enhance people's acceptance of the system. (3) Older adults highly accept and get involved in the new email storytelling system. This storytelling program helps them recall their memories and have a profound effect on their own introspection.
ContributorsLi, Yuanyi (Author) / Giard, Jacques R (Thesis advisor) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Larkin, Kyle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014