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Description
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are responsible for pollinating nearly 80\% of all pollinated plants, meaning humans depend on honey bees to pollinate many staple crops. The success or failure of a colony is vital to global food production. There are various complex factors that can contribute to a colony's failure, including pesticides. Neonicotoids are a popular pesticide that have been used in recent times. In this study we concern ourselves with pesticides and its impact on honey bee colonies. Previous investigations that we draw significant inspiration from include Khoury et Al's \emph{A Quantitative Model of Honey Bee Colony Population Dynamics}, Henry et Al's \emph{A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees}, and Brown's \emph{ Mathematical Models of Honey Bee Populations: Rapid Population Decline}. In this project we extend a mathematical model to investigate the impact of pesticides on a honey bee colony, with birth rates and death rates being dependent on pesticides, and we see how these death rates influence the growth of a colony. Our studies have found an equilibrium point that depends on pesticides. Trace amounts of pesticide are detrimental as they not only affect death rates, but birth rates as well.
ContributorsSalinas, Armando (Author) / Vaz, Paul (Thesis director) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
In large part, the great success of eusocial insects is due to efficient division of labor (Duarte et al. 2011; Dornhaus 2008). Within ant colonies, the process of dividing labor is not clearly defined, but it may be key to understanding the productivity and success of these colonies. This study analyzed data from an experiment that was conducted with the goal of examining how finely division of labor is organized in ant colonies. The experiment considered the actions of all ants from three Temnothorax rugatulus colonies. The colonies were each carefully recorded during five distinct emigrations per colony. The experiment produced such a large quantity of data that it was challenging to analyze the results, a major obstacle for many studies of collective behavior. Therefore, I designed a computer program that successfully sorted all of the data and prepared it for an initial statistical analysis that was performed in R. The preliminary results suggest that while most of the ants perform little to no work, there is an overall pattern of elitism; it seems that division of labor in ants is not more finely divided than previously shown. Future studies should provide further analysis of the data and will be useful in forming a more complete understanding of the division of labor within the emigrations of Temnothorax rugatulus colonies.
ContributorsJones, Samantha (Author) / Pratt, Stephen (Thesis director) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / Shaffer, Zachary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Learning loss occurs during academic breaks, and this can be detrimental to student success especially in sequential classes like Arizona State University’s Engineering Calculus sequence in which retention of the topics taught in a prior class is expected. The Keeping in School Shape Program (KiSS) is designed as a cost effective, efficient, and accessible way of addressing this problem. The KiSS program uses push technology to give students a way to regularly review material over academic breaks while also fostering a growth mindset.Every day, during an academic break, students are sent a link via text message or email to access a multiple-choice daily review problem which represents material from a previous course that is requisite for success in an upcoming course. Before solving the daily problem, students use a 5-point scale to indicate how confident they are that they can solve the problem. Students then complete the daily review problem and have a variety of resources to support them as they do so, as well as options after they complete it. Students are able to view a hint and try a problem again, view a solution, and attempt a challenge problem. On Tuesdays (aka 2’s-Days) students are given the opportunity to complete either an additional daily review problem or an additional challenge problem, and on Sundays (aka Trivia Days) students can decide between completing only a mathematics trivia question or trivia along with the daily review problem.
There is much to be learned from each individual student who participates in the KiSS program. Three surveys were conducted during the Winter Break 2020 KiSS program that gave insight into students’ experience in the KiSS program along with their personal background and mindset regarding mathematics. Ten students responded to all three of these surveys. This thesis will present a case study for each of these ten students based on their data from program participation and survey responses. Conclusions will be drawn regarding ways in which the KiSS program is helping students and ways in which it can be improved to help students be better prepared for their upcoming studies.
ContributorsVandenberg, Jana Elle (Author) / Van de Sande, Carla (Thesis advisor) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / Milner, Fabio (Committee member) / Verdín, Dina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021