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- Language: English
- Creators: Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Description
While public transit systems are perceived to produce lower GHG emission intensities per passenger miles traveled (PMT) and per vehicle miles traveled (VMT), there is a limited understanding of emissions per PMT/VMT across cities, or of how emissions may change across modes (light, metro, commuter, and bus) and time (e.g., with changing electricity mixes in the future). In order to better understand the GHG emissions intensity of public transit systems, a comparative emissions assessment was developed utilizing the National Transit Database (NTD) which reports energy use from 1997 to 2012 of rail and bus systems across the US. By determining the GHG emission intensities (per VMT or per PMT) for each mode of transit across multiple years, the modes of transit can be better compared between one another. This comparison can help inform future goals to reduce GHG emissions as well as target reductions from the mode of transit that has the highest emissions. The proposed analysis of the NTD and comparison of modal emission intensities will be used to develop future forecasting that can guide public transit systems towards a sustainable future.
ContributorsCano, Alex (Author) / Chester, Mikhail (Thesis director) / Seager, Thomas (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
I began this thesis with one goal in mind: to discover which career path is best for me. The plan was to take a critical look at my life using deductive logic and Information Measurement Theory (IMT) to determine who I am and through that knowledge ultimately align my future with where I would be best suited career-wise. I was interested in this because I was fascinated with IMT and I wanted to apply it to something that I would find useful. I knew that I would be graduating and I also knew that I had no idea what I wanted the rest of my life to look like. For me, it was like killing two birds with one stone: delving deeper into a fascinating theory as well as determining what to do with my future. I began my project by analyzing my own life and creating a timeline of major events in my life. Then, I pieced together the characteristics of my family to gain perspective of their lives and how their lives have influenced mine. As I explored this information and the implications this knowledge had in my life, my thesis began to take a new direction. The more I began to understand myself, the more I realized that I needed to spend more time on this area of my project. I realized the importance of understanding who I am at the core in order to be the best person that I can be. To reach happiness, be fulfilled, be a good person, I needed to spend time understanding myself rather than just jumping forward into my future.
ContributorsCrepeau, Megan Grace (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This project explores a variety of ways of framing the problem of obesity, beginning with a multidisciplinary assessment of genetic, environmental, cultural, nutritional, and socioeconomic factors involved in the structure and the consequences of each frame. How obesity is framed as a problem has a profound impact on the kinds of solutions that may be deemed scientifically appropriate. But frames are not entirely evidence-based, inasmuch as political and moral values infuse debates about the nature of obesity. Drawing on interdisciplinary resources from bioethics and the philosophy of science, I strive to offer strategic insight in to how to navigate the complexity of these issues.
ContributorsYanamandra, Meghana (Author) / Robert, Jason (Thesis director) / Wharton, Christopher (Committee member) / Drago, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The interview is a vital part of the reporter's story. In a reporter's quest for the truth, the interview can give the reporter an understanding of the source, a sense of what the source represents to the story and get the source to disclose enough information to properly tell the story. In this paper, the key body language of reporters and sources during the journalistic interview are evaluated. To help the reporter get the most out of an interview, this study observes key behaviors from reporters and sources of five major areas of kinesics: hand gesture, posture, proxemics, mirroring and facial expressions. This study categorized the positive from the negative gestures associated with these major movements in order to help evaluate the attitude of a interview participant and how to best improve relations through a reporter's subtle body gestures.
ContributorsMykleseth, Kathryn Jo (Author) / Thornton, Leslie (Thesis director) / Rueles, Richard (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Because children do not have the same decision-making powers as adults in matters affecting their health, their opinions have often been underrepresented in research (Bradding & Horstman, 1999). However, there is growing interest in the way that children view health because this knowledge elicits the development of more child-centered and effective approaches to health education and intervention (Bradding & Horstman, 1999). Professionals have often utilized the write-and-draw technique in school settings to gain a better understanding of how to best implement health education programs. The "bottom-up" approach of the write-and-draw method encourages participation and has been shown to elicit thoughtful responses about how children conceptualize health (Pridmore & Bendelow, 1995). This study uses the write-and-draw method to perform a cross- cultural comparison of child perspectives of health in the United States and Guatemala, countries that represent contrasting paradigms for child health. The results of this study are consistent with previous research, especially the emergent health themes. Children from the United States and Guatemala predominantly depicted health in terms of food. Guatemalan students were more likely to refer to hygienic practices and environmental conditions, while US children mentioned vegetables, water, and exercise as being healthy. For the unhealthy category, themes of poor hygiene, chips, fat/grease, fruit, carbohydrates, and environment were mentioned more often in Guatemala, while U.S. students listed sweets and fast food more frequently. Results support claims made in other literature that children's concepts of health are shaped by life experience and social context. Potential applications of the research include exposing areas (themes) where children are less likely to understand health implications and developing educational curriculum to increase a more comprehensive understanding of health.
ContributorsRenslow, Jillian Marie (Author) / Maupin, Jonathan (Thesis director) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This project investigates how experiences colleges create for admitted students impact students' excitement for, satisfaction with, and likelihood to attend the college, analyzed by different subgroups, and how non-yielded students compare their college selection to W. P. Carey on various metrics. This study found that top admit students were less likely to attend, less satisfied, and less excited with the services offered than their counterparts and recommendations were made to improve the gap.
ContributorsGullo, Kelley (Co-author) / Dwosh, Bennett (Co-author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Olsen, Douglas (Committee member) / Desch, Timothy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This paper will explore the themes of performing race in hip-hop music. Through the genesis of the hip-hop industry in the Bronx in the 1970s, rap music has become aligned with afrocentric themes. The music spoke to inner cities and often held themes of economic abandonment, racism, and poverty. Today, non-black hip-hop artists are entering the rap scene. However, the mainstream hip-hop industry is still dominated by black artists. We explore the idea of performing race, specifically performing blackness. Non-black artists do this by dressing a certain way, speaking a certain way, and moving a certain way. We have chosen to identify three case studies to help us explore these ideas and understand how race is still important in the hip-hop industry today. Our case studies include Mellow Man Ace, Jin, and Brother Ali. While success is a complex term, we have discovered that race still follows a predictive outcome in monetary success and fame. The hip-hop industry is always in dynamic change. Our paper attempts to open the dialogue for talking about race and hip-hop music.
ContributorsKoyama, Curtis (Co-author) / Chiu, Carissa (Co-author) / Bhattacharjya, Nilanjana (Thesis director) / Montesano, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This creative project attempts to capture the fervor of bringing an immersive attraction from page to park by providing the different points of view of several fictitious teams—such as engineers, marketing experts, and set designers—which are involved in the creation and maintenance of a theoretical theme park ride. The specific theme park ride detailed below, tentatively titled The Once and Future Dark Ride, stands as an allegory for the majority of “dark rides” in the theme park world. Different points of view are detailed in order to give readers an approximation of the ride design process.
ContributorsMatsen, Julie Andrea (Author) / Facinelli, Diane (Thesis director) / Foy, Joseph (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Social structure is the product of the costs and benefits of group living. Dyadic social bonds in female chacma baboons are strong and long-standing, conferring fitness benefits upon both individuals while contributing to a greater social structure. Longitudinal grooming data collected from 2001-2007 from Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana, illuminate social network dynamics of 50 female chacma baboons. Utilizing social network analysis (SNA), we analyzed social structure above the level of the dyad to see if attribute data (age, rank, and number of close female kin) was predictive of network location. Our SNA data was longitudinal, unbalanced, and continuous. We therefore used linear mixed-effects models (LMEs) and respective AIC/BIC values to choose the most likely predictive attributes for each SNA metric. From the chosen LMEs, rank was present most often. High rank predicted a higher frequency of outward grooming, an overall lower number of grooming partners, and a less extensive social network. It appears that high-ranking females have a fewer number of social bonds than low-ranking females, but that they are stronger. Considering that enduring social bonds result in increased offspring longevity, future studies include examining the potential adaptive value of weak, transient, more numerous social bonds.
ContributorsBest, Megan Renee (Author) / Silk, Joan B. (Thesis director) / Schaefer, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The ideal function of an upper limb prosthesis is to replace the human hand and arm, but a gulf in functionality between prostheses and biological arms still exists, in large part due the absence of the sense of touch. Tactile sensing of the human hand comprises a key component of a wide variety of interactions with the external environment; visual feedback alone is not always sufficient for the recreation of nuanced tasks. It is hoped that the results of this study can contribute to the advancement of prosthetics with a tactile feedback loop with the ultimate goal of replacing biological function. A three-fingered robot hand equipped with tactile sensing fingertips was used to biomimetically grasp a ball in order haptically explore the environment for a ball-in-hole task. The sensorized fingertips were used to measure the vibration, pressure, and skin deformation experienced by each fingertip. Vibration and pressure sensed by the fingertips were good indicators of changes in discrete phases of the exploratory motion such as contact with the lip of a hole. The most informative tactile cue was the skin deformation of the fingers. Upon encountering the lip of the test surface, the lagging digit experienced compression in the fingertip and radial distal region of the digit. The middle digit experienced decompression of the middle region of the finger and the lagging digit showed compression towards the middle digit and decompression in the distal-ulnar region. Larger holes caused an increase in pressure experienced by the fingertips while changes in stroke speed showed no effect on tactile data. Larger coefficients of friction between the ball and the test surface led to an increase in pressure and skin deformation of the finger. Unlike most tactile sensing studies that focus on tactile stimuli generated by direct contact between a fingertip and the environment, this preliminary study focused on tactile stimuli generated when a grasped object interacts with the environment. Findings from this study could be used to design experiments for functionally similar activities of daily living, such as the haptic search for a keyhole via a grasped key.
ContributorsLoges, Shea Remegio (Author) / Santos, Veronica (Thesis director) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05