Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
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Serial killers have had a profound impact on the United States' most powerful law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Through a brief history of the FBI, the birth of the Behavioral Analysis Unit is highlighted and criminal profiling is realized as a tool to apprehend these serial killers. Four serial killer cases are presented as important representations to illustrate the contributions that were made to the FBI's investigatory procedure. As serial killings make up only one percent of the murders in the U.S. each year, it is still evident that these cases have had a profound impact on the U.S.'s top law enforcement agency. The FBI has been able to react to each case more effectively than the last. Constant learning on the job, as each impactful case happens within a short time span from the last, has been a necessity for investigators and has been a prime strength of the FBI. There is no way to tell when an individual will begin to commit serial murder, so while the FBI's methods are not perfect, the Bureau has been able to respond in full to each challenge a new serial killer case has presented and arrest the guilty party. Through an analysis of the criminal profile, stereotypes attributed to serial killers, and the application of forensic evidence to serial killer investigations, the impact of the investigations of these cases by the FBI is examined. A real world application of the FBI's recommended procedure for a serial killer investigation is spotlighted and analyzed to determine its practicality in modern-day investigations.
ContributorsMuzupappa, Joseph Raymond (Author) / Kobojek, Kimberly (Thesis director) / De Alcaraz Fossoul, Josep (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
There are several challenges to accurately inferring levels of transcription using RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data, including detecting and correcting for reference genome mapping bias. One potential confounder of RNA-seq analysis results from the application of a standardized pipeline to samples of different sexes in species with chromosomal sex determination. The homology between the human X and Y chromosomes will routinely cause mismapping to occur, artificially biasing estimates of sex-biased gene transcription. For this reason we tested sex-specific mapping scenarios in humans on RNA-seq samples from the brains of 5 genetic females and 5 genetic males to assess how inferences of differential gene expression patterns change depending on the reference genome. We first applied a mapping protocol where we mapped all individuals to the entire human reference genome (complete), including the X and Y chromosomes, and computed differential expression between the set of genetic male and genetic female samples. We next mapped the genetic female samples (46,XX) to the human reference genome with the Y chromosome removed (Y-excluded) and the genetic male samples (46, XY) to the human reference genome (including the Y chromosome), but with the pseudoautosomal regions of the Y chromosome hard-masked (YPARs-masked) for the two sex-specific mappings. Using the complete and sex-specific mapping protocols, we compared the differential expression measurements of genetic males and genetic females from cuffDiff outputs. The second strategy called 33 additional genes as being differentially expressed between the two sexes when compared to the complete mapping protocol. This research provides a framework for a new standard of reference genome mappings to correct for sex-biased gene expression estimates that can be used in future studies.
ContributorsBrotman, Sarah Marie (Author) / Wilson Sayres, Melissa (Thesis director) / Crook, Sharon (Committee member) / Webster, Timothy (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05