As the return to normality in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic enters its early stages, the necessity for accurate, quick, and community-wide surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 has been emphasized. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been used across the world as a tool for monitoring the pandemic, but studies of its efficacy in comparison to the best-known method for surveillance, randomly selected COVID-19 testing, has limited research. This study evaluated the trends and correlations present between SARS-CoV-2 in the effluent wastewater of a large university campus and random COVID-19 testing results published by the university. A moderately strong positive correlation was found between the random testing and WBE surveillance methods (r = 0.63), and this correlation was strengthened when accommodating for lost samples during the experiment (r = 0.74).

In this thesis paper, the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. Chapter 1 discusses what inspired me to write this thesis and follows with a discussion of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 2 takes a step back and discusses biological effects of social isolation in general. Chapter 3 discusses the psychological effects of social isolation. Finally, this thesis concludes with a discussion of what can be done to help those experiencing social isolation during the pandemic.

The ongoing Global Coronavirus Pandemic has been upheaving social norms for over a<br/>year at this point. For countless people, our lives look very different at this point in time<br/>then they did before the pandemic began. Quarantine, Shelter in Place, Work from<br/>Home, and Online classes have led global populations to become less active leading to<br/>an increase in sedentary lifestyles. The final impact of this consequence is unknown,<br/>but emerging studies have led to concrete evidence of decreased physical and mental<br/>wellbeing, particularly in children. VirusFreeSports was the brainchild of three ASU<br/>Honors students who sought to remedy these devastating consequences by creating<br/>environments where children can participate in sports and exercise safely, free of the<br/>threat COVID-19 or other transmissible illnesses. The ultimate goal for the project team<br/>was to build traction for their idea, which culminated in a video pitch sent to potential<br/>investors. Although largely created as an exercise and we did not create a full<br/>certification course, merely a prototype through a website with sample questions to<br/>gauge interest, the project was a success as a large target market for this product was<br/>identified that showed great promise. Our team believes that early entrance to the<br/>market, as well as the lack of any other competitors would give the team a tremendous<br/>advantage in creating an impactful and influential service.

Flora Vita is a digital platform that connects families to outdoor excursions, programmed activities and local events, encouraging the familial ecosystem to flourish within Arizona's vast environment. We curate unique opportunities that allow families to cultivate internal relationships with one another and form relationships with local like-minded families in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.

The ongoing Global Coronavirus Pandemic has been upheving social norms for over a year at this point. For countless people, our lives look very different at this point in time than they did before the pandemic began. Quarantine, Shelter in Place, Work from Home, and Online classes have led global populations to become less active leading to an increase in sedentary lifestyles. The final impact of this consequence is unknown, but emerging studies have led to concrete evidence of decreased physical and mental wellbeing, particularly in children. VirusFreeSports was the brainchild of three ASU Honors students who sought to remedy these devastating consequences by creating environments where children can participate in sports and exercise safely, free of the threat COVID-19 or other transmissible illnesses. The ultimate goal for the project team was to build traction for their idea, which culminated in a video pitch sent to potential investors. Although largely created as an exercise and we did not create a full certification course, merely a prototype through a website with sample questions to gauge interest, the project was a success as a large target market for this product was identified that showed great promise. Our team believes that early entrance to the market, as well as the lack of any other competitors would give the team a tremendous advantage in creating an impactful and influential service.

My project focuses on the problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic that impacted the food supply chain in the United States and how they contributed to food insecurity. I identified the three key problems, the shift in demand from the commercial to the retail market, the discarding of raw food and produce, and consumer panic buying. I used the analysis of these problems to then formulate a set of solutions that would work to solve these problems.

COVID-19 has proved that our society can be adaptable in the most unexpected situations. Chaos and fear struck the nation causing people to react in a variety of ways in an attempt to protect their own self interests. The retail space has had to adjust in large scales, making the shopping experience safer both for the customer and the employees. I was able to experience this first hand at Target, working there many years previous to and during the pandemic, getting to see the shift in consumer patterns. I noticed customers would purchase more products in one department, then the next month it would shift to another department. This paper will analyze those shifts in sales trends both departmentaly and within shopping methods at Target to help identify the largest changes and the possible reasons behind these.

Home advantage affects the game in almost all team sports across the world. Due to<br/>COVID and all of the precautions being taken to keep games played, more extensive research is able to be conducted about what factors truly go into creating a home advantage. Some common factors of home advantage include the crowd, facility familiarity, and travel. In the English Premier League, there are no fans allowed at any of the games; furthermore, in the NBA, a bubble was created at one neutral venue with no fans in attendance. Even with the NBA being at a neutral site, there was still a “home team” at every game. The sports betting industry struggled due to failing to shift betting lines in accordance with this decreased home advantage. With these leagues removing some of the factors that are frequently associated with home advantage, analysts are able to better see what the results would be of removing these variables. The purpose of this research is to determine if these adjustments made due to COVID had an impact on the home advantage in different leagues around the world, and if they did, to what extent. Individual game data from the past 10 seasons were used for analysis of both the NBA and the Premier League. The results show that there is a significant difference in win percentage between prior seasons and seasons behind closed doors. In addition to win percentage, many other game statistics see a significant shift as well. Overall, the significance of being the home team disappears in games following the COVID-19 break.