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Cancer rates vary between people, between cultures, and between tissue types, driven by clinically relevant distinctions in the risk factors that lead to different cancer types. Despite the importance of cancer location in human health, little is known about tissue-specific cancers in non-human animals. We can gain significant insight into how evolutionary history has shaped mechanisms of cancer suppression by examining how life history traits impact cancer susceptibility across species. Here, we perform multi-level analysis to test how species-level life history strategies are associated with differences in neoplasia prevalence, and apply this to mammary neoplasia within mammals. We propose that the same patterns of cancer prevalence that have been reported across species will be maintained at the tissue-specific level. We used a combination of factor analysis and phylogenetic regression on 13 life history traits across 90 mammalian species to determine the correlation between a life history trait and how it relates to mammary neoplasia prevalence. The factor analysis presented ways to calculate quantifiable underlying factors that contribute to covariance of entangled life history variables. A greater risk of mammary neoplasia was found to be correlated most significantly with shorter gestation length. With this analysis, a framework is provided for how different life history modalities can influence cancer vulnerability. Additionally, statistical methods developed for this project present a framework for future comparative oncology studies and have the potential for many diverse applications.
One of the largest problems facing modern medicine is drug resistance. Many classes of drugs can be rendered ineffective if their target is able to acquire beneficial mutations. While this is an excellent showcase of the power of evolution, it necessitates the development of increasingly stronger drugs to combat resistant pathogens. Not only is this strategy costly and time consuming, it is also unsustainable. To contend with this problem, many multi-drug treatment strategies are being explored. Previous studies have shown that resistance to some drug combinations is not possible, for example, resistance to a common antifungal drug, fluconazole, seems impossible in the presence of radicicol. We believe that in order to understand the viability of multi-drug strategies in combating drug resistance, we must understand the full spectrum of resistance mutations that an organism can develop, not just the most common ones. It is possible that rare mutations exist that are resistant to both drugs. Knowing the frequency of such mutations is important for making predictions about how problematic they will be when multi-drug strategies are used to treat human disease. This experiment aims to expand on previous research on the evolution of drug resistance in S. cerevisiae by using molecular barcodes to track ~100,000 evolving lineages simultaneously. The barcoded cells were evolved with serial transfers for seven weeks (200 generations) in three concentrations of the antifungal Fluconazole, three concentrations of the Hsp90 inhibitor Radicicol, and in four combinations of Fluconazole and Radicicol. Sequencing data was used to track barcode frequencies over the course of the evolution, allowing us to observe resistant lineages as they rise and quantify differences in resistance evolution across the different conditions. We were able to successfully observe over 100,000 replicates simultaneously, revealing many adaptive lineages in all conditions. Our results also show clear differences across drug concentrations and combinations, with the highest drug concentrations exhibiting distinct behaviors.
The following research questions spurred the curiosity for this knowledge. These questions are:
1. How does Arizona State University market its study abroad programs?
a) How does ASU most effectively market its study abroad programs to students—what marketing tools are needed and used?
2. How do other college and universities throughout the United States market its study abroad programs?
b) How do they best market its study abroad programs to students—what marketing tools are needed and used?
3. How has this new digital age shaped the marketing environment today?
4. How do you develop relevant marketing strategies for a specific study abroad program in order to increase participation?
Before answering the preceding questions, this thesis first examines the origin of international education and its history.
Additionally, the author of this thesis created a series of questions that was sent via SurveyMonkey.com to various college and university study abroad offices, directors, advisors and marketing specialists throughout the U.S (a total of 18 schools from various parts of the region responded to the 37 question survey). This in turn allowed the author to answer a large portion of the above research questions. See attached documents (Appendix A) for a list of all the questions asked via survey, as well as each school’s response.
After a thorough analysis of the above research questions, the author focuses on the development of marketing strategies to help promote a specific faculty-led study abroad program at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (the official name for that program: “Cronkite Euro: Social Media Across Cultures: The European Perspective”). It is the analysis of the above research questions that in turn helped the author create marketing strategies that were tailored to this specific faculty-led study abroad program.
These marketing activities included the expansion of Cronkite Euro’s social media presence, specifically by creating an Instagram account for the study abroad program (@asucronkiteuro). Another major marketing activity included the expansion of Cronkite Euro’s online presence. The author of this essay completely revamped the study abroad program’s website so as to adequately keep up with the tech-savvy, digital natives of today (www.asucronkiteuro.com). The importance of implementing these specific marketing strategies will be later discussed in part IV of the thesis.
The Body Integrity Identity Disorder Screenplay, tentatively entitled Detach, is a full-‐length feature film script. Based on a fascinating mental disorder (generally referred to as the acronym BIID) where an individual does not associate a limb with the rest of their body, the script follows a sufferer and a reporter attempting to write a story on his struggle.
As my creative sensibilities and skills have developed over the span of my undergraduate career, the most ambitious undertaking imaginable for myself at this moment is the completion of a feature script. This project was a significant test of my storytelling skills and ability to format an unusual tale into a conceivable film.
I am proud of the end result and believe that the final version of my screenplay is an accurate representation of my taste as a filmmaker. I hope to actualize this project one day and help facilitate a transformation of the script into a feature film.