Matching Items (297)
Description
This project, Building the Backdrop, Expanding Perspectives on Sustainability, is a sculpture of a desert sunset that seeks to explore important sustainability issues and highlight the beauty in sustainable practices. Constructed for an honors thesis project at Arizona State University, the primary medium used was cardboard repurposed from package deliveries to bring attention to modern overconsumption of packaging materials and showcase our ability to give new life to traditionally single use materials. I invite you to interact with the piece by sharing photos of yourself in front of it to help spread its message and exploring the resources shared along with the sculpture.
ContributorsSandoval, Nicole (Author) / Hines, Taylor (Thesis director) / Meissinger, Ellen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
A guidebook meant to be used by the leadership of the club Poly Purrs. It includes definitions of key terms as well as literature-backed discussion of free-roaming cats in general. The second half of it is advice and information drawn from my own experience with the cat population on the Polytechnic campus.
ContributorsWiese, Alexa (Author) / Murphree, Julie (Thesis director) / Gallaway, Cynthia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
We discuss the intricate and puzzling concept of quantum entanglement, and not only
define it but also consider the implications of the behaviors of entangled particles. The ability of
these particles to provide instantaneous information about their entangled counterparts sparked a debate among physicists as to whether or not these particles had definite quantities before
measurement, and whether or not their behaviors could be explained by a local hidden-variables
theorem. Mermin’s gedanken demonstration for a two-particle entangled system is introduced, as well as Bell’s inequality, and an explanation of how a pair of two entangled particles violate this inequality. Additionally, we also discuss various experimental verifications that were able to use Bell’s inequality to verify the expected quantum mechanical results for their entangled systems.
ContributorsDavis, Elsie (Author) / Foy, Joseph (Thesis director) / Hines, Taylor (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Chisholm’s contrary-to-duty paradox raises important questions for formulating instances of conditional obligation. Angelika Kratzer is one linguist whose theories offer some solutions to these questions; more generally, she provides theories for how we should represent modals, conditionals, and other features of language in terms of functions. Though her theories are incredibly useful, they do not adequately represent the Chisholm scenario as a whole. In this paper, I attempt to address this shortcoming in her theory. First, I present and explain some of Kratzer’s main ideas. Then, I explain how her theory offers a solution to Chisholm’s Paradox, and examine a shortcoming of her theory as presented– specifically, the fact that her theory does not account for the importance of different norms in relation to each other. Finally, with the Chisholm situation as a backdrop, I offer my own contribution to her theory. Namely, I propose assigning an importance “score” to each norm, and factoring that “score” into the machinery of Kratzer’s theory.
ContributorsBrooks, Elizabeth (Author) / nair, shyam (Thesis director) / Pinillos, Angel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Immediate early genes (IEGs) are the first set of genes to be transcribed in a cell in response to stimuli; their expression is quick and is not protein synthesis dependent. Neurons are activated in response to external stimuli, causing a rapid increase in IEG expression in the brain. IEG proteins go on to affect fundamental neurobiological processes that are known to be dysfunctional in patients with psychiatric disorders, and therefore IEGs have been connected to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Early growth response (Egr) genes are immediate early gene transcription factors (IEG-TFs) that are expressed in response to an altered environment. The IEG-TFs, early growth response 1 (EGR1) and early growth response 3 (EGR3) are necessary for processes such as memory and synaptic plasticity; lack of function in these genes causes dysfunction or disruption of these processes. We wanted to observe if increasing the function of Egrs by overexpressing them will lead to improved memory. To help further understand how behavior is affected by the overexpression (O/E) of Egr1 in response to stimuli, the AAV-ESARE-Egr1 virus was developed to be injected in the hippocampus of mice. In the hippocampus of wild-type (WT) mice, cells that are active endogenously express Egr1. The virus was created using the synaptic activity-response element (SARE), an element discovered on the promoter of the IEG activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) gene by our collaborators in Japan. Using an “enhanced” form of SARE (ESARE), our newly created virus acts to overexpress Egr1 only in response to activity in the hippocampus; we can then observe if the behavioral processes associated with Egr1 will improve. First, this project aims to validate that the AAV-ESARE-Egr1 virus is increasing Egr1 expression in the active hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) granule cells of WT mice, and only in response to activity. The activity is in the form of a physiological stimulus, environmental enrichment (EE) and a non-physiological stimulus, electroconvulsive seizures (ECS). After confirming these characteristics of AAV-ESARE-Egr1 we can then use it to observe if EGR1 O/E improves the memory of mice.
ContributorsWallace, Sophie (Author) / Lewis, Candace (Thesis director) / Gallitano, Amelia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Objective: Previous studies have expressed that individuals with dyslexia may be hypersensitive to stimuli when compared to typical individuals, creating the neural noise hypothesis. This study uses electroencephalogram (EEG) to look at participants' mismatch negativity (MMN) response to the distinctive English phoneme /æ/ and an allophone of the phoneme /æ/, measuring their reaction to the variation between these two sounds.
Methods: Twenty-two adults, fourteen with dyslexia and 8 controls partook in an auditory oddball EEG experiment measuring MMN with the amplitudes and latencies being collected.
Results: Five participants demonstrated a large MMN response, four of which were in the dyslexic group. These participants’ results indicate an increased sensitivity to phonetic differences.
Significance: Understanding how some individuals with dyslexia process phonetic differences may be key to comprehending how a dyslexic subtype takes in auditory information.
ContributorsOvaska, Madeline (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis director) / Daliri, Ayoub (Committee member) / Kim, Yookyung (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Background: Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental impacting reading and writing ability present in around 5 to 9 percent of the population. The etiology of the condition is not currently well understood.
Purpose: To identify new genes of interest regarding the etiology of dyslexia, describe the interaction of those genes within known gene networks, and discuss potential relationships between their expression in the early developing brain and phenotypic outcomes.
Method: With informed consent, participants’ phenotypic and exome data were collected. Phenotypic data were collected using assessments measuring reading and spelling ability. Exome data were collected via saliva samples and processed at the UW-CRDR. Exome data were then filtering using Seqr and compared across participant families. Certain genes with identical variations were visually validated using the Integrated Genome Viewer, and then investigated using STRING Network Analysis and the Human Brain Transcriptome.
Results: Three genes were identified: BCL6, DNAH1, and DNAH12. Protein-protein interactions were confirmed between DNAH1 and DNAH12 via STRING Network Analysis. BLC6 and DNAH1 experience higher postnatal expression in the cerebellar cortex. DNAH12 experiences higher prenatal expression in the hippocampus.
Discussion: The findings appear to be consistent with a heterogenous and polygenic model of dyslexia. The correlation between the participants’ genotypes and phenotypes is not strong enough to draw significant conclusions regarding genotype/phenotype connections. A larger participant sample size and analysis of a large pool of shared genes may reveal a clearer relationship.
ContributorsBanta, Claire (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis director) / Liu, Li (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05