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- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Programmed cell death plays an important role in a variety of processes that promote the survival of the host organism. Necroptosis, a form of programmed cell death, occurs through a signaling pathway involving receptor-interacting serine-threonine protein kinase 3 (RIPK3). In response to vaccinia virus infection, necroptosis is induced through DNA-induced activator of interferon (DAI), which activates RIPK3, leading to death of the cell and thereby inhibiting further viral replication in host cells. DAI also localizes into stress granules, accumulations of mRNAs that have stalled in translation due to cellular stress. The toxin arsenite, a canonical inducer of stress granule formation, was used in this project to study necroptosis. By initiating necroptosis with arsenite and vaccinia virus, this research project investigated the roles of necroptosis proteins and their potential localization into stress granules. The two aims of this research project were to determine whether stress granules are important for arsenite- and virus-induced necroptosis, and whether the proteins DAI and RIPK3 localize into stress granules. The first aim was investigated by establishing a DAI and RIPK3 expression system in U2OS cells; arsenite treatment or vaccinia virus infection was then performed on the U2OS cells as well as on U2OSΔΔG3BP1/2 cells, which are not able to form stress granules. The second aim was carried out by designing fluorescent tagging for the necroptosis proteins in order to visualize protein localization with fluorescent microscopy. The results show that arsenite induces DAI-dependent necroptosis in U2OS cells and that this arsenite-induced necroptosis likely requires stress granules. In addition, the results show that vaccinia virus induces DAI-dependent necroptosis that also likely requires stress granules in U2OS cells. Furthermore, a fluorescent RIPK3 construct was created that will allowfor future studies on protein localization during necroptosis and can be used to answer questions regarding localization of necroptosis proteins into stress granules. This project therefore contributes to a greater understanding of the roles of DAI and RIPK3 in necroptosis, as well as the roles of stress granules in necroptosis, both of which are important in research regarding viral infection and cellular stress.
ContributorsGogerty, Carolina (Author) / Jacobs, Bertram (Thesis advisor) / Langland, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Jentarra, Garilyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This study explores how a teen center within a local police department in California impacts the lives of local Latinx youth. Through a mixed methods approach of surveys, focus groups, and interviews, the study explores Mexican American youth, the most populous Latinx youth in the United States who are uniquely challenged by varying immigration statuses, mental health, and academic barriers. Theoretically, the study draws out intersections unique to the Latinx youth experiences growing up in America and engages in inter-disciplinary debates about inequities in health and education and policing practices. These intersections and debates are addressed through in-depth qualitative analysis of three participant groups: current youth participants of the teen center’s Youth Leadership Council (YLC), alumni of the YLC, and adult decision makers of the program. Pre- and post-surveys and focus groups are conducted with the youth participants over the span of a full year, while they take part in the teen center program, capturing how the teen center directly impacts their academic achievements, feelings of belonging, mental health, and attitudes towards law enforcement, over time. Interviews with alumni and key decision makers of the teen center further reveal broader patters in how the YLC program positively impacts the lives of Latinx youth and the challenges it faces when federal immigration enforcement complicates local policy relations with local communities.
ContributorsGutierrez, Courtney Amanda (Author) / Colbern, Allan (Thesis advisor) / Cuadraz, Gloria (Committee member) / Lopez, Kristina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
On a given night in 2018, over half a million people were experiencing homelessness in the United States, and of those, about 36,000 were youth under the age of 25. Music is an indispensable part of young people’s identities and cultures, and understanding the ways in which homeless youth define their own musical preferences and use of music can help music therapists intervene effectively in youth homelessness as part of an interdisciplinary care team. The purpose of this project was twofold: 1) to conduct a descriptive research project pertaining to homeless young adults’ use of music and 2) to develop recommendations for music therapists based on research findings from the descriptive project and extant literature. Thirty-one homeless young adults (ages 18-26) were recruited for interviews from two resource centers serving homeless youth in a large metropolitan city in a southwestern state. Template analysis was used to systematically analyze and code participants’ verbatim transcripts from the interviews into a codebook. Quotes from the interviews were used to illustrate themes. Findings included that homeless youth used music, especially metal and rap, for coping and mood regulation, and that youth are also engaged in creative music making, especially singing and songwriting for self-expression. For some youth, certain music can be identity-forming (for better or worse) and certain other music can be triggering. Results are integrated with a review of literature and recommendations for practicing clinicians are presented. Music therapy with this population would likely yield best outcomes by using short-term interventions and culturally competent application of clients’ preferred music.
ContributorsSample, Katherine Elizabeth (Author) / Belgrave, Melita (Thesis advisor) / Glidden-Tracey, Cynthia (Committee member) / Ferguson-Colvin, Kristin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The following thesis document entitled, "A 'Reasonable Reader of Poetry's' Briefed Introduction: A Sam Harris Application on the Lack of Authorship in Poetry and Poems" explores the concept of writing itself applied to the world of poetry. This document uses Sam Harris' critique and redefinition of free will as an illusion applied to authorship and the concept of self within poetry. This thesis upholds Sam Harris' application of the illusion of free will against and within conventions of experimental poetry to do with the persona poem, deviated syntax, memory, Confessionalist poetry, and so on. The document pulls in examples from Modernist poetry, Confessionalist poetry, prose poetry, contemporary poetry, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, and experimental poetry. This thesis ends with the conclusion that further research needs to be done with regard to how this lack of authorship applies to copyright law within the poetry field.
ContributorsBoca, Ana (Author) / Hummer, Terry (Thesis advisor) / Dubie, Norman (Committee member) / Savard, Jeannine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program provide nutritious meals to school-age children. USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is designed to extend the reach of these programs by allowing schools in low-income areas to provide free school meals to all students at no cost to families. CEP has been shown to increase school meal participation, nutritional intake, academic achievement, and attendance in previous research studies. This study aims to examine the impact of long-term CEP participation on student weight outcomes. Nurse-measured height and weight data for school years 2013-14 to 2019-20 were collected from 141 K-12 public schools in four low-income cities. School-level prevalence of obesity was calculated from students’ heights and weights using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol. CEP participation for each school year was obtained from the state Department of Education. Schools in the sample began participating in CEP at different times yielding varying numbers of years of CEP exposure over the study period. Multivariable analyses examined the relationship between school CEP exposure and the prevalence of obesity, controlling for school-level covariates. Multivariable analyses showed that for every additional year of CEP participation, the school-level prevalence of obesity was 0.4% lower (p=0.018). The regression-adjusted obesity prevalence for schools that never participated in CEP was 28.0%, while the obesity prevalence for schools with 6 years of CEP participation was 25.4%. The lower prevalence of obesity in CEP-participating schools was primarily driven by elementary schools. These results suggest that the benefits of CEP participation can cumulate over time, significantly reducing school-level obesity prevalence over time.
ContributorsDykstra, Tatum Nicole (Author) / Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam (Thesis advisor) / Acciai, Francesco (Committee member) / McCoy, Maureen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Integrating advanced materials with innovative manufacturing techniques has propelled the field of additive manufacturing into new frontiers. This study explores the rapid 3D printing of reduced graphene oxide/polymer composites using Micro-Continuous Liquid Interface Production (μCLIP), a cutting-edge technology known for its speed and precision. A printable ink is formulated with reduced graphene oxide for μCLIP-based 3D printing. The research focuses on optimizing μCLIP parameters to fabricate reduced graphene composites efficiently. The study encompasses material synthesis, ink formulation and explores the resulting material's structural and electrical properties. The marriage of graphene's unique attributes with the rapid prototyping capabilities of μCLIP opens new avenues for scalable and rapid production in applications such as energy storage, sensors, and lightweight structural components. This work contributes to the evolving landscape of advanced materials and additive manufacturing, offering insights into the synthesis, characterization, and potential applications of 3D printed reduced graphene oxide/polymercomposites.
ContributorsRavishankar, Chayaank Bangalore (Author) / Chen, Xiangfan (Thesis advisor) / Bhate, Dhruv (Committee member) / Azeredo, Bruno (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Automation is becoming more autonomous, and the application of automation as a collaborator continues to be explored. A major restriction to automation’s application as a collaborator is that people often hold inaccurate expectations of their automated collaborator. Goal alignment has been shown to be beneficial in collaborations and delegation decisions among human-human and human-automation collaborations. Few studies have investigated the difference that goal alignment has on human collaborators compared to automated collaborators. In this 2 (goal aligned or misaligned) x 2 (human or automated) between-subjects study, participants complete a simplified triage patient task and then are given the opportunity to stay with their manual task solution or to delegate their decision and go with their collaborator’s recommendation. Participants never delegated to collaborators with goals that were not aligned to theirs. Participants working with human collaborators that have similar goals to them were more often delegated to and more often associated with a better triage performance. These results can inform the design of similar systems that foster collaboration and achieve better team performance. Although goal alignment was crucial for delegation decisions, it was difficult to achieve complete agreement of goals. Future research should investigate effective methods to better communicate goals among collaborators.
ContributorsLee, Jessica Rose (Author) / Chiou, Erin K (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy J (Committee member) / Lum, Heather C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) plays a pivotal role in artificial intelligence by facilitating the learning process in complex environments inhabited by multiple entities. This thesis explores the integration of learning high-level knowledge through reward machines (RMs) with MARL to effectively manage non-Markovian reward functions in non-cooperative stochastic games. Reward machines offer a sophisticated way to model the temporal structure of rewards, thereby providing an enhanced representation of agent decision-making processes. A novel algorithm JIRP-SG is introduced, enabling agents to concurrently learn RMs and optimize their best response policies while navigating the intricate temporal dependencies present in non-cooperative settings. This approach employs automata learning to iteratively acquire RMs and utilizes the Lemke-Howson method to update the Q-functions, aiming for a Nash equilibrium. It is demonstrated that the method introduced reliably converges to accurately encode the reward functions and achieve the optimal best response policy for each agent over time. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated through case studies, including a Pacman Game scenario and a Factory Assembly scenario, illustrating its superior performance compared to baseline methods. Additionally, the impact of batch size on learning performance is examined, revealing that a diligent agent employing smaller batches can surpass the performance of an agent using larger batches, which fails to summarize experiences as effectively.
ContributorsKim, Hyohun (Author) / Xu, Zhe ZX (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Hyunglae HL (Committee member) / Berman, Spring SB (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Tracing the rich component of virtue/goodness episteme and its accompanying power systems through leadership discourse, this theoretical inquiry seeks to discover the ontological essence of the leadership phenomenon. Utilizing Foucauldian, Husserlian and Derridean theoretical lenses, the power systems of the virtue/goodness episteme begins with an inspection of how this key leadership qualifier of materializes in leadership discourse from Classical Greek to present day. Virtue’s accompanying power systems are analyzed through a Foucauldian lens of pastoral power and power/knowledge. A discussion of meaning-making within a semiotic theoretical locus follows, which leads to a phenomenological reduction and deconstruction of the leadership phenomenon, revealing a three-component leadership object that is micro-social, interdependent, and non-classical in structure. A discussion of examples from modern leadership discourse that align with the properties of the leadership object potential for further study ensues.
ContributorsHelming, Kelly J (Author) / Kirsch, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Aurora, S. R. (Committee member) / Hirshorn, Jessica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Metagenomics is the study of the structure and function of microbial communities through the application of the whole-genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing method. Providing high-resolution community profiles at species or even strain levels, metagenomics points to a new direction for microbiome research in understanding microbial gene function, microbial-microbial interactions, and host-microbe interactions. My thesis work includes innovation in metagenomic research through the application of ChatGPT in assisting beginning researchers, adopt pre-existed alpha diversity metric for metagenomic data to improve diversity calculation, and the application of metagenomic data in Alzheimer’s disease research.Since the release of ChatGPT in March 2023, the conversation regarding AI in research has promptly been debated. Through the prompted bioinformatic case study, I demonstrate the application of ChatGPT in conducting metagenomic analysis. I constructed and tested a working pipeline aimed at instructing GPT in completing shotgun metagenomic research. The pipeline includes instructions for various essential analytic steps: quality controls, host filtering, read classification, abundance estimation, diversity calculation, and data visualization. The pipeline demonstrated successful completion and reproducible results.
Alpha diversity measurement is critical to understanding microbiomes. The widely used Faith’s phylogenetic diversity (PD) metric is agnostic of feature abundance and, therefore, falls short of analyzing metagenomic data. BWPDθ, an abundance weighted variant of Faith’s PD, was implemented in scikit-bio alpha diversity metrics. My analysis shows that BWPDθ does have better performance compared to Faith’s PD, revealing more biological significance, and maintaining their robustness at a lower sampling depth.
The progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is known to be associated with alterations in the patient’s gut microbiome. Utilizing metagenomic data from the AlzBiom study, I explored the differential abundance of bacterial pncA genes among healthy and AD participants by age group. The analysis showed that there was no significant difference in pncA abundance between the healthy and AD patients. However, when stratified by age group, within the age group 64 to 69, AD was shown to have significantly lower pncA abundance than the healthy control group. The Pearson's test showed a moderate positive association between age and pncA abundance.
ContributorsXing, Zhu (Author) / Zhu, Qiyun (Thesis advisor) / Lim, Efrem (Committee member) / Snyder-Mackler, Noah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024