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- Language: English
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- Creators: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Description
Meteorology is an uncommon term rarely resonating through elementary classrooms. However, it is a concept found in both fourth and sixth grade Arizona science standards. As issues involving the environment are becoming more pertinent, it is important to study and understand atmospheric processes along with fulfilling the standards for each grade level. This thesis project teaches the practical skills of weather map reading and weather forecasting through the creation and execution of an after school lesson with the aide of seven teen assistants.
ContributorsChoulet, Shayna (Author) / Walters, Debra (Thesis director) / Oliver, Jill (Committee member) / Balling, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Plants are essential to human life. They release oxygen into the atmosphere for us to breathe. They also provide shelter, medicine, clothing, tools, and food. For many people, the food that is on their tables and in their supermarkets isn't given much thought. Where did it come from? What part of the plant is it? How does it relate to others in the plant kingdom? How do other cultures use this plant? The most many of us know about them is that they are at the supermarket when we need them for dinner (Nabhan, 2009) (Vileisis, 2008).
ContributorsBarron, Kara (Author) / Landrum, Leslie (Thesis director) / Swanson, Tod (Committee member) / Pigg, Kathleen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
DescriptionBased on previous research and findings it is proven that a non-profit class to create awareness will be beneficial in the prevention of eating disorders. This analysis will provide significant research to defend the proposed class.
ContributorsAllen, Brittany (Author) / Chung, Deborah (Author) / Fey, Richard (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Mazurkiewicz, Milena (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Restraint stress is the most commonly used laboratory stressor. It is difficult to characterize as psychological or physical, because past studies show psychological features, but the nature of confinement adds a physical dimension. This was the first study to investigate how experience with restraint stress affects brain response to the next stress without a physical burden. Pair-housed adult male rats were transported to a novel context and restrained or left undisturbed (6hr). The next day, rats were returned to the same context and were either restrained or left undisturbed in the context (n=8/group). After 90min, rats were euthanized to determine functional activation in limbic structures using Fos immunohistochemistry and to measure HPA axis reactivity through blood serum corticosterone levels. Regardless of day 1 experience, context exposure on day 2 enhanced Fos expression in CA1 and CA3 of the hippocampus, basolateral amygdala, and central amygdala. Conversely, other regions and corticosterone levels demonstrated modulation from the previous day's experience. Specifically, rats that were placed back into the restraint context but not restrained on day 2 showed enhanced Fos expression in the dentate gyrus suprapyramidal blade (DGSup), and infralimbic cortex (IL). Also Fos expression was attenuated in rats that received two restraint exposures in the IL and medial amygdala (MEA), suggesting habituation. Only the DG infrapyramidal blade (DGInf) showed enhanced Fos expression to restraint on day 2 without influence of the previous day. While context predominately directed Fos activation, prior experience with restraint influenced Fos expression in the DGSup, IL, MEA and corticosterone levels to support restraint having psychological components.
ContributorsAnouti, P. Danya (Author) / Conrad, D. Cheryl (Thesis director) / Hammer, Ronald (Committee member) / Hoffman, N. Ann (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Food system and health characteristics were evaluated across the last Waorani hunter-gatherer group in Amazonian Ecuador and a remote neighboring Kichwa indigenous subsistence agriculture community. Hunter-gatherer food systems like the Waorani foragers may not only be nutritionally, but also pharmaceutically beneficial because of high dietary intake of varied plant phytochemical compounds. A modern diet that reduces these dietary plant defense phytochemicals below levels typical in human evolutionary history may leave humans vulnerable to diseases that were controlled through a foraging diet. Few studies consider the health impact of the recent drastic reduction of plant phytochemical content in the modern global food system, which has eliminated essential components of food because they are not considered "nutrients". The antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory nature of the food system may not only regulate infectious pathogens and inflammatory disease, but also support beneficial microbes in human hosts, reducing vulnerability to chronic diseases. Waorani foragers seem immune to certain infections with very low rates of chronic disease. Does returning to certain characteristics of a foraging food system begin to restore the human body microbe balance and inflammatory response to evolutionary norms, and if so, what implication does this have for the treatment of disease? Several years of data on dietary and health differences across the foragers and the farmers was gathered. There were major differences in health outcomes across the board. In the Waorani forager group there were no signs of infection in serious wounds such as 3rd degree burns and spear wounds. The foragers had one-degree lower body temperature than the farmers. The Waorani had an absence of signs of chronic diseases including vision and blood pressure that did not change markedly with age while Kichwa farmers suffered from both chronic diseases and physiological indicators of aging. In the Waorani forager population, there was an absence of many common regional infectious diseases, from helminthes to staphylococcus. Study design helped control for confounders (exercise, environment, genetic factors, non-phytochemical dietary intake). This study provides evidence of the major role total phytochemical dietary intake plays in human health, often not considered by policymakers and nutritional and agricultural scientists.
ContributorsLondon, Douglas (Author) / Tsuda, Takeyuki (Thesis advisor) / Beezhold, Bonnie L (Committee member) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Eder, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation is intended to tie together a body of work which utilizes a variety of methods to study applied mathematical models involving heterogeneity often omitted with classical modeling techniques. I posit three cogent classifications of heterogeneity: physiological, behavioral, and local (specifically connectivity in this work). I consider physiological heterogeneity using the method of transport equations to study heterogeneous susceptibility to diseases in open populations (those with births and deaths). I then present three separate models of behavioral heterogeneity. An SIS/SAS model of gonorrhea transmission in a population of highly active men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) is presented to study the impact of safe behavior (prevention and self-awareness) on the prevalence of this endemic disease. Behavior is modeled in this examples via static parameters describing consistent condom use and frequency of STD testing. In an example of behavioral heterogeneity, in the absence of underlying dynamics, I present a generalization to ``test theory without an answer key" (also known as cultural consensus modeling or CCM). CCM is commonly used to study the distribution of cultural knowledge within a population. The generalized framework presented allows for selecting the best model among various extensions of CCM: multiple subcultures, estimating the degree to which individuals guess yes, and making competence homogenous in the population. This permits model selection based on the principle of information criteria. The third behaviorally heterogeneous model studies adaptive behavioral response based on epidemiological-economic theory within an $SIR$ epidemic setting. Theorems used to analyze the stability of such models with a generalized, non-linear incidence structure are adapted and applied to the case of standard incidence and adaptive incidence. As an example of study in spatial heterogeneity I provide an explicit solution to a generalization of the continuous time approximation of the Albert-Barabasi scale-free network algorithm. The solution is found by recursively solving the differential equations via integrating factors, identifying a pattern for the coefficients and then proving this observed pattern is consistent using induction. An application to disease dynamics on such evolving structures is then studied.
ContributorsMorin, Benjamin (Author) / Castillo-Chavez, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Hiebeler, David (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Suslov, Sergei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of this study is to first investigate the role of political socialization on young men and women and what motivates them to become politically active and make the ultimate decision to run for elected office. These effects include parental attitudes, exposure to political shows and news sources, participation in voluntary organizations, and overall community involvement. After understanding these direct and indirect effects of political socialization, I can attempt to explain the causes for the gender gap in political ambition \u2014 meaning that significantly more men are running for elected office compared to women.
ContributorsOsgood, Shannon Marie (Author) / Woodall, Gina (Thesis director) / Herrera, Richard (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Public Service and Community Solutions (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The Undoing Project is an ongoing educational feminist YouTube channel that serves as an introduction to feminism and feminist theory. The objective for this project is to present feminist theory and feminist ideology in an accessible and entertaining way. Through this project I sought to accomplish three goals: to challenge the negative image of feminism, bridge the gap between the language of academia and the public, and to acknowledge and unlearn ingrained prejudices. The videos focus on theory, history, legislation, current events, and pop culture. The initial project consists of ten videos addressing the feminist wave models, a brief history of the feminist movement, and discussions of concepts like hegemony, intersectionality, masculinity, femininity, and race.
ContributorsBuchholtz, Kaylee Marie (Author) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Grzanka, Patrick (Committee member) / Brouwer, Dan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Public Service and Community Solutions (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Due to persistent undernutrition in India and the increased demands placed on a woman’s body during childbearing and lactation, the Indian government has implemented a program to provide supplemental nutrition packets to women in rural India. This study examines the factors influencing uptake of nutritional packets by lactating mothers in southern, rural Rajasthan. Women were recruited from 65 villages in Rajasthan, India (n=149, minimum of 2 per village) to evaluate the relationship of nutrition packet uptake and two factors--education levels and distance to the health center.
Level of education had little impact on whether or not women received the nutrition packet. Of those women with no education, 63.1% received the packet. Of those with any education, 63.9% got the packet.
In contrast, distance was strongly correlated with whether or not women received the packet. For example, of the women living within 200 meters of the health center, 93.2% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living between 250 meters and one kilometer of the health center, 68.4% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living over one kilometer from the health center, only 25% received a nutrition packet. The relationship between uptake of packets and women’s perception of distance to the health center was also explored. Out of 50 women who did not receive the packet, all of the women who said there was no health center in their village did live more than one kilometer from a health center. Of the women who lived between 250 meters and one kilometer from the health center, 40% felt it was too far. Of the women who lived more than a kilometer from the health center, 66.7% felt it was too far and 29.6% said there was no health center in their village. Again, it does not appear that ‘too far’ is just a default reason for women, but that actual distance, more so than education, is a major contributing factor in their ability to take the nutrition packet. These findings suggest that improving access to supplemental nutrition packets at the village level may increase uptake by the women.
Level of education had little impact on whether or not women received the nutrition packet. Of those women with no education, 63.1% received the packet. Of those with any education, 63.9% got the packet.
In contrast, distance was strongly correlated with whether or not women received the packet. For example, of the women living within 200 meters of the health center, 93.2% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living between 250 meters and one kilometer of the health center, 68.4% received a nutrition packet. Of the women living over one kilometer from the health center, only 25% received a nutrition packet. The relationship between uptake of packets and women’s perception of distance to the health center was also explored. Out of 50 women who did not receive the packet, all of the women who said there was no health center in their village did live more than one kilometer from a health center. Of the women who lived between 250 meters and one kilometer from the health center, 40% felt it was too far. Of the women who lived more than a kilometer from the health center, 66.7% felt it was too far and 29.6% said there was no health center in their village. Again, it does not appear that ‘too far’ is just a default reason for women, but that actual distance, more so than education, is a major contributing factor in their ability to take the nutrition packet. These findings suggest that improving access to supplemental nutrition packets at the village level may increase uptake by the women.
ContributorsJeffers, Eva Marie (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Maupin, Jonathan (Committee member) / Cook, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Previous research has found improvements in motor and cognitive measures following Assisted Cycle Therapy (AC) in adolescence with Down syndrome (DS). Our study investigated whether we would find improvements in older adults with DS on measures of leisure physical activity (GLTEQ) and sleep, which are early indicators of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in persons with Down syndrome. This study consisted of eight participants with Down syndrome between 31 and 51 years old that cycled for 30 minutes 3 x/week for eight weeks either at their voluntary cycling rate (VC) or approximately 35% faster with the help of a mechanical motor (AC). We predicted that, based on pilot data (Gomez, 2015), GLTEQ would either maintain or improve after AC, but would decrease after VC and would stay the same after NC. We predicted that the sleep score may improve after both VC or AC or it may improve more after VC than AC based on pilot data related to leisure activity. Our results were consistent with our prediction that GLTEQ will either maintain or improve after AC but will decrease after VC. Our results were not consistent with our prediction that sleep may improve after both VC or AC or it may improve more after VC than AC, possibly because we did not pre-screen for sleep disorders. Future research should focus on recruiting more participants and using both objective and subjective measures of sleep and physical activity to improve the efficacy of the study.
ContributorsParker, Lucas Maury (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Buman, Matthew (Committee member) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / College of Public Service and Community Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05