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- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Genre: Art
Description
This study applies Relational Dialectic Theory to analyze the stepparent and stepchild relationship of one family. The data is documented in an autoethnography. Autoethnography is an approach to data collection in which the researcher’s own experience is the source of data, and the experience is studied to deepen understandings of social reality. This study highlights the complexity of the stepparent-stepchild relationship, the uncertainty surrounding the stepparent role, and identifies the dialectic tensions that exist within the stepparent-stepchild relationship. The dialectics identified by this study include: emotional-closeness-distance, past-present, autonomy connection, and parent-friend. The findings related to how these dialectic tensions emerge and are managed within stepparent-stepchild relationships have implications for stepparents and spouses of stepparents and for new parents and parents in traditional family structures.
ContributorsRoush, Krysti (Author) / Mean, Lindsay A (Thesis advisor) / Gaffney, Cynthia (Committee member) / Waldron, Vincent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Intelligence, consisting of critical products that facilitate law enforcement decision-making, is a crucial component and tool in the criminal justice system. However, the ways in which intelligence is gathered and used has gone largely unevaluated, particularly at the local level of law enforcement. This thesis begins to address the sparsity of literature by investigating the Intelligence Officer function in the Phoenix Police Department. More specifically, this study explores their roles; perceptions on information they are gathering, namely reliability and validity; and their effectiveness in terms of both intelligence and case successes. Different aspects of roles and perceptions are also examined in terms of their ability to predict these outcomes. Data reflect a 22-month sample of officer reports from the Phoenix Police Department Intelligence Officer Program. Descriptive analyses suggest that Intelligence Officers typically work specific cases with varied and different natures of crime. Generally, officers seem to be confident in the information they collect in terms of reliability and validity, and also appear to be relatively successful in achieving both broad intelligence successes and more tangible case successes. However, the relationships between role and perception variables and results vary in terms of both impact and significance for each type of success. Future research is required to better understand these relationships and to continue building a foundation of knowledge on Intelligence Officer effectiveness, so their impact can be optimized.
ContributorsBottema, A. Johannes (Author) / Telep, Cody (Thesis advisor) / Terrill, William (Committee member) / Young, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
To ensure system integrity, robots need to proactively avoid any unwanted physical perturbation that may cause damage to the underlying hardware. In this thesis work, we investigate a machine learning approach that allows robots to anticipate impending physical perturbations from perceptual cues. In contrast to other approaches that require knowledge about sources of perturbation to be encoded before deployment, our method is based on experiential learning. Robots learn to associate visual cues with subsequent physical perturbations and contacts. In turn, these extracted visual cues are then used to predict potential future perturbations acting on the robot. To this end, we introduce a novel deep network architecture which combines multiple sub- networks for dealing with robot dynamics and perceptual input from the environment. We present a self-supervised approach for training the system that does not require any labeling of training data. Extensive experiments in a human-robot interaction task show that a robot can learn to predict physical contact by a human interaction partner without any prior information or labeling. Furthermore, the network is able to successfully predict physical contact from either depth stream input or traditional video input or using both modalities as input.
ContributorsSur, Indranil (Author) / Amor, Heni B (Thesis advisor) / Fainekos, Georgios (Committee member) / Yang, Yezhou (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Visual Question Answering (VQA) is an increasingly important multi-modal task where models must answer textual questions based on visual image inputs. Numerous VQA datasets have been proposed to train and evaluate models. However, existing benchmarks exhibit a unilateral focus on textual distribution shifts rather than joint shifts across modalities. This is suboptimal for properly assessing model robustness and generalization. To address this gap, a novel multi-modal VQA benchmark dataset is introduced for the first time. This dataset combines both visual and textual distribution shifts across training and test sets. Using this challenging benchmark exposes vulnerabilities in existing models relying on spurious correlations and overfitting to dataset biases. The novel dataset advances the field by enabling more robust model training and rigorous evaluation of multi-modal distribution shift generalization. In addition, a new few-shot multi-modal prompt fusion model is proposed to better adapt models for downstream VQA tasks. The model incorporates a prompt encoder module and dual-path design to align and fuse image and text prompts. This represents a novel prompt learning approach tailored for multi-modal learning across vision and language. Together, the introduced benchmark dataset and prompt fusion model address key limitations around evaluating and improving VQA model robustness. The work expands the methodology for training models resilient to multi-modal distribution shifts.
ContributorsJyothi Unni, Suraj (Author) / Liu, Huan (Thesis advisor) / Davalcu, Hasan (Committee member) / Bryan, Chris (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This thesis explores the historical development of the criminal justice system across four eras. The system has been utilized to control and exploit Black people for economic gain. After the American Revolution, and the rise of the penitentiary, many argued that imprisoning individuals for labor was reminiscent of the institution of slavery itself, which highlights the criminal justice system's potential to target and control Black people. During the pre-Civil War era, white slave owners established slave patrols to prevent enslaved Black people from leaving their plantation, and to control the movement of Blacks more broadly. These early slave patrols provided an institutional foundation for the later development of the modern police force. During Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan adopted the methods of slave patrols to maintain white supremacy and control over Blacks with lynching becoming everyday occurrences. During the Jim Crow era, Black communities faced widespread discrimination, and the system was used to enforce racial segregation and maintain white dominance. The Civil Rights Movement marked a turning point against Jim Crow. However, the post-Civil Rights era was met with the War on Drugs and the rise of mass incarceration, which disproportionately affected Black communities. To gain equality, Black people have consistently been met with backlash, often supported by the criminal justice system. While reforming the system is necessary, it is unlikely to eliminate racism and white supremacy. A more comprehensive approach is needed to address the root causes of these issues and ensure equality and justice for all.Keywords: white supremacy, racism, color-blind, police violence, slave patrol, slavery, convict leasing system
ContributorsMoore, Antonio Lamont (Author) / Keahey, Jennifer (Thesis advisor) / Kim, Linda (Committee member) / Hepner, Tricia R (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Quantifying ecological relationships by gathering and sifting through large stores of data and applying statistical models to them is a substantial first step in identifying
optimal habitat for the dispersal of threatened species, but the implementation of the
result requires coordination between political, economic, and environmental actors that
are further complicated by the margin of error in modeling a wildlife corridor. That is
why the partnership between Arizona State University (ASU), the Phoenix Zoo: Arizona
Center for Nature Conservation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) DEVELOP, and Osa Conservation needed a framework for identifying and
analyzing the forest patches that constituted the least cost path (LCP) modelled to
connect the Talamanca Mountains of La Amistad International Peace Park and the Osa
Peninsula of Corcovado National Park and allow for the dispersal of jaguars (Panthera
onca). A framework for selection of forest patches of adequate size was established in
ArcMap and data were extracted to further analyze their characteristics and select targets
to be ground-truthed. Forest patches were successfully identified and selected using data
used for the modelling of the LCP. Patches were selected by the desired size of three
hectares or greater, the home range of prey species paca (Cuniculus paca). Patches were
characterized by patch area, resistance value or cost, distance from LCP, and distance
from nearest neighbor across multiple forest density thresholds.
ContributorsSerna, Patrick Karey Samuel (Author) / Schipper, Jan (Thesis advisor) / Watanade-Sailor, Karen (Committee member) / Frazier, Amy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most commonly transmitted STI and isresponsible for an estimated 5% of cancer cases worldwide. HPV infection is implicated
in 70% of cervical cancer incidence and is also responsible for a variety of oropharyngeal
and anogenital cancers. While vaccination has greatly reduced the cervical cancer
burden in developed countries, HPV infection remains high in developing countries due
to high cost and poor access to healthcare. Several studies have highlighted the
presence of anti-HPV antibodies following infection and their potential use as
biomarkers for developing novel screening methods. Progression from initial infection to
cancer is slow, thus presenting an opportunity for effective screening programs.
Biomarker screening is an important area of cancer detection and Lateral Flow Assays
(LFA) are a low cost, easy to use alternative to other screening methods that require
extensive training and laboratory space. Therefore, this project proposes as a hypothesis
that the development of an LFA screening for HPV specific IgG can provide clinically
relevant data for the early detection of cervical dysplasia. This project adapts an LFA in a
multiplexed format for fluorescence-based serologic detection of HPV specific IgG in
patient plasma.
ContributorsJohns, William (Author) / Anderson, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Lake, Douglas (Committee member) / Hogue, Brenda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Frameworks of Many into the Creation of One [FMOC] is a choreographic work that delves into the concept of identity: Who am I? Who are you? Who are we? What is the narrative that binds us? This piece offers an exploration of our interactions with the world around us as we navigate the ongoing process of self-discovery. FMCO illuminates the intersectionality of the individual within a community, examining the diverse ways in which we express ourselves in relation to our environment. IDENTITY: Individual Differences Expressed and Negotiated through Environmental Information. The work delves into the idea that identity is shaped by the transfer of information within one's environment. Through the mediums of storytelling, dance, and multimedia, FMCO offers the audience an immersive experience of frameworks and concepts that influence both their own identities and the identity of Alecea Housworth. The piece invites viewers to contemplate the dynamic interplay between individualism and the influences of one's surroundings. This paper delves into the intricate interplay between individuality and community, shedding light on the complexity inherent in the human experience. Exploring the frameworks being race, gender, religion, and gender, which impact experiences that shape the development of one's sense of self. Through the lens of dance, this study examines how individuals construct and embody their identities, offering a nuanced understanding of self-conception through communal engagement.
ContributorsHousworth, Alecea Raquel (Author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Barnes, LaTasha (Thesis advisor) / Bernard, Daniel R (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
The study of hyperbolic manifolds, and more generally hyperbolic orbifolds, is inti-mately bound to the study of discrete subgroups of the isometry group of hyperbolic
n-space. In the wake of certain rigidity theorems due to Mostow et al., a new program
of study has developed in recent decades for the characterization of hyperbolic mani-
folds by investigating certain invariants arising from the theory of numbers. Critical
to the arithmetic study of hyperbolic manifolds are those discrete subgroups of the
isometry group which have finite co-volume under the Haar metric, sometimes called
lattices. These correlate to a particular tiling of hyperbolic space with a certain fun-
damental domain. The simplest non-trivial example of these for hyperbolic orbifolds
are triangle groups. These triangle groups, or more properly arithmetic Fuchsian tri-
angle groups, were first classified by Takeuchi in 1983. In the proceeding manuscript,
a concise introduction to the geometry of hyperbolic manifolds and orbifolds is put
forth. The two primary invariants used in the study of the hyperbolic lattices, the
invariant trace field and the invariant quaternion algebra, are then defined. There-
after, a hyperbolic triangle group is constructed from the tessellation of the hyperbolic
plane by hyperbolic triangles. A version of the classification theorem of arithmetic
Fuchsian triangle groups is stated and proved. The paper concludes with a brief
discussion regarding non-arithmetic lattices.
ContributorsMagaña, Jerry Paul (Author) / Pauper, Julien (Thesis advisor) / Kotschwar, Brett (Thesis advisor) / Crook, Sharon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024