Matching Items (138)
Description
Cancer remains one of the leading killers throughout the world. Death and disability due to lung cancer in particular accounts for one of the largest global economic burdens a disease presents. The burden on third-world countries is especially large due to the unusually large financial stress that comes from late tumor detection and expensive treatment options. Early detection using inexpensive techniques may relieve much of the burden throughout the world, not just in more developed countries. I examined the immune responses of lung cancer patients using immunosignatures – patterns of reactivity between host serum antibodies and random peptides. Immunosignatures reveal disease-specific patterns that are very reproducible. Immunosignaturing is a chip-based method that has the ability to display the antibody diversity from individual sera sample with low cost. Immunosignaturing is a medical diagnostic test that has many applications in current medical research and in diagnosis. From a previous clinical study, patients diagnosed for lung cancer were tested for their immunosignature vs. healthy non-cancer volunteers. The pattern of reactivity against the random peptides (the ‘immunosignature’) revealed common signals in cancer patients, absent from healthy controls. My study involved the search for common amino acid motifs in the cancer-specific peptides. My search through the hundreds of ‘hits’ revealed certain motifs that were repeated more times than expected by random chance. The amino acids that were the most conserved in each set include tryptophan, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, proline, alanine, serine, and lysine. The most overall conserved amino acid observed between each set was D - aspartic acid. The motifs were short (no more than 5-6 amino acids in a row), but the total number of motifs I identified was large enough to assure significance. I utilized Excel to organize the large peptide sequence libraries, then CLUSTALW to cluster similar-sequence peptides, then GLAM2 to find common themes in groups of peptides. In so doing, I found sequences that were also present in translated cancer expression libraries (RNA) that matched my motifs, suggesting that immunosignatures can find cancer-specific antigens that can be both diagnostic and potentially therapeutic.
ContributorsShiehzadegan, Shima (Author) / Johnston, Stephen (Thesis director) / Stafford, Phillip (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
This thesis provides an analysis on the crowdfunding environment in comparison to traditional fundraising methods in an effort to understand the relationship between the two types of fundraising and why crowdfunding has gained traction. Additionally, this thesis provides a study on good vs. bad crowdfunding to formulate a strategy for crowdfunding success. Methods of analysis include the execution of a situational analysis for both fundraising environments, and the collection of primary and secondary data of case studies of both crowdfunding failures and successes. Results showed that although crowdfunding provides lower search cost, greater efficiency, and eliminates geographical limitations leading to successful fundraising, the industry itself is too new and unexplored to be solely relied upon. Fundraising campaigns are most effective when crowdfunding is used complimentary to traditional fundraising methods. This thesis finds that crowdfunding offers unparalleled connectivity between creators and funders, but the transparency of the crowdfunding process is not ready to be trusted entirely. Until more data is collected on the crowdfunding environment, crowdfunding is best utilized in conjunction with traditional fundraising methods.
ContributorsRoth, Ari Lawrence Max (Author) / Giles, Bret (Thesis director) / Schlacter, John (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This paper features analysis of interdisciplinary collaboration, based on the results from the Kolbe A™ Index of students in the Nano Ethics at Play (NEAP) class, a four week course in Spring 2015. The Kolbe A™ is a system which describes the Conative Strengths of each student, or their natural drive and instinct. NEAP utilized the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) method, which uses abstract LEGO models to describe answers to a proposed question in school or work environments. The models could be described piece by piece to provide clear explanations without allowing disciplinary jargon, which is why the class contained students from eleven different majors (Engineering (Civil, Biomedical, & Electrical), Business (Marketing & Supply Chain Management), Architectural Studies, Sustainability, Anthropology, Communications, Philosophy, & Psychology).
The proposed hypotheses was based on the four different Kolbe A™ strengths, or Action Modes: Fact Finder, Follow Through, Quick Start, and Implementor. Hypotheses were made about class participation and official class twitter use, using #ASUsp, for each Kolbe type. The results proved these hypotheses incorrect, indicating a lack of correlation between Kolbe A™ types and playing. The report also includes qualitative results such as Twitter Keywords and a Sentiment calculation for each week of the course. The class had many positive outcomes, including growth in the ability to collaborate by students, further understanding of how to integrate Twitter use into the classroom, and more knowledge about the effectiveness of LSP.
The proposed hypotheses was based on the four different Kolbe A™ strengths, or Action Modes: Fact Finder, Follow Through, Quick Start, and Implementor. Hypotheses were made about class participation and official class twitter use, using #ASUsp, for each Kolbe type. The results proved these hypotheses incorrect, indicating a lack of correlation between Kolbe A™ types and playing. The report also includes qualitative results such as Twitter Keywords and a Sentiment calculation for each week of the course. The class had many positive outcomes, including growth in the ability to collaborate by students, further understanding of how to integrate Twitter use into the classroom, and more knowledge about the effectiveness of LSP.
ContributorsStevens, Jenna Marie (Author) / Seager, Thomas (Thesis director) / Jenses, Camilla (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
This paper explores women and bicycling, with the focus of looking at how to get more women onto the bicycle in Tempe, Arizona. The main areas of interest for this study are improvements to bicycling infrastructure and an increase in the safety and the perception of safety of women cyclists in the Tempe area. In order to explore this topic, an online survey of 75 Arizona State students was conducted. From the results women were primarily concerned with their safety due to the condition of the overall infrastructure and the lack of bicycle related improvements. Research such as this that examines women and cycling is significant due to the current underrepresentation of women in the cycling community and has the potential to improve safety and increase bicycle ridership.
ContributorsStarr, Nicole (Author) / Kelley, Jason (Thesis director) / Golub, Aaron (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Biofeedback music is the integration of physiological signals with audible sound for aesthetic considerations, which an individual’s mental status corresponds to musical output. This project looks into how sounds can be drawn from the meditative and attentive states of the brain using the MindWave Mobile EEG biosensor from NeuroSky. With the MindWave and an Arduino microcontroller processor, sonic output is attained by inputting the data collected by the MindWave, and in real time, outputting code that deciphers it into user constructed sound output. The input is scaled from values 0 to 100, measuring the ‘attentive’ state of the mind by observing alpha waves, and distributing this information to the microcontroller. The output of sound comes from sourcing this into the Musical Instrument Shield and varying the musical tonality with different chords and delay of the notes. The manipulation of alpha states highlights the control or lack thereof for the performer and touches on the question of how much control over the output there really is, much like the experimentalist Alvin Lucier displayed with his concepts in brainwave music.
ContributorsQuach, Andrew Duc (Author) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Labyrinths is my Capstone/Honors Creative Project, blending my proclivity for music composition and the inspiring stories of Jorge Luis Borges. Originally, the project was outlined as a collection of five to eight songs named for and based on stories in Borges' collection Labyrinths, to be written, recorded, and performed by me. Over time other aspects were included, making me a director of a large-scale creative project which now included three other musicians and two artists. In this paper, I give a brief overview of Borges' life and the context surrounding his collection Labyrinths, an in-depth description of the project as a whole, liner notes for each song, credits, and three appendices. The liner notes are broken into four sections: a summary of the story, an analysis of the story and my interpretation of it (including my musical ideas for the resulting song), an effects list, and performance notes which include the text I read from each story in the performance and recordings. The first appendix is a collection of the sheet music scores for each song and the text document I used for the performance readings. The second appendix shows the art I was given permission to use, and how I modified them for my thesis. The third appendix contains my primary sources, secondary sources/suggested readings, and suggested websites and videos. Attached are the recordings of each song I made in Logic Pro 9, a video of the live performance, and an unedited audio recording of the same performance.
ContributorsVidean, Matthew Cutter (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Downey, Ryan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
The purpose of this project is to artistically express that our perceptions of the visual world are interrupted due to the often overlooked blinking of our eyes. The project was guided by two questions: 1) How is blink rate related to thought and emotion? 2) How does the process of blinking provide context to our life experiences? To link these two concepts together, I constructed a creative editing device that uses a live video feed of the user's eye blinking to randomly launch pre-existing footage of the user's significant life events. The process of creating this project occurred in three distinct steps. In the first step, I recorded 30-second videos to be used as a demonstration when exhibiting the device. In the second step, I attached a camera to a head mount to output a real time video of my eye blinking. In the third step, I created a Max patch that used the video feed of my eye as a trigger to play my pre-recorded clips. The final result was an evocative non-linear narrative of past personal experiences, and the development of the narrative itself is similar to the way in which humans recall memories. The visuals of the blinking eye were placed adjacent to the pre-recorded footage in order to mimic the positioning of two eyes on a face; one side of the display shows my actual eye, and the other side signifies looking back on what my eye has seen. The intended effect was to generate an awareness of the breaks in our vision and how this influences our existence.
ContributorsYoshisato, Sarah Hanako (Author) / Connell, Ellery (Thesis director) / Gharavi, Lance (Committee member) / Tinapple, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor)
Created2014-05
DescriptionKidSmith is an application to teach children about gendered marketing. The app has two components, a game and a database of activities featuring neutral found objects from the home or in nature.
ContributorsPeate, Lyric Laurel (Author) / Sanft, Al (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The purpose of this project is to artistically express that our perceptions of the visual world are interrupted due to the often overlooked blinking of our eyes. The project was guided by two questions: 1) How is blink rate related to thought and emotion? 2) How does the process of blinking provide context to our life experiences? To link these two concepts together, I constructed a creative editing device that uses a live video feed of the user's eye blinking to randomly launch pre-existing footage of the user's significant life events. The process of creating this project occurred in three distinct steps. In the first step, I recorded 30-second videos to be used as a demonstration when exhibiting the device. In the second step, I attached a camera to a head mount to output a real time video of my eye blinking. In the third step, I created a Max patch that used the video feed of my eye as a trigger to play my pre-recorded clips. The final result was an evocative non-linear narrative of past personal experiences, and the development of the narrative itself is similar to the way in which humans recall memories. The visuals of the blinking eye were placed adjacent to the pre-recorded footage in order to mimic the positioning of two eyes on a face; one side of the display shows my actual eye, and the other side signifies looking back on what my eye has seen. The intended effect was to generate an awareness of the breaks in our vision and how this influences our existence.
ContributorsYoshisato, Sarah Hanako (Author) / Connell, Ellery (Thesis director) / Gharavi, Lance (Committee member) / Tinapple, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The influenza virus, also known as "the flu", is an infectious disease that has constantly affected the health of humanity. There is currently no known cure for Influenza. The Center for Innovations in Medicine at the Biodesign Institute located on campus at Arizona State University has been developing synbodies as a possible Influenza therapeutic. Specifically, at CIM, we have attempted to design these initial synbodies to target the entire Influenza virus and preliminary data leads us to believe that these synbodies target Nucleoprotein (NP). Given that the synbody targets NP, the penetration of cells via synbody should also occur. Then by Western Blot analysis we evaluated for the diminution of NP level in treated cells versus untreated cells. The focus of my honors thesis is to explore how synthetic antibodies can potentially inhibit replication of the Influenza (H1N1) A/Puerto Rico/8/34 strain so that a therapeutic can be developed. A high affinity synbody for Influenza can be utilized to test for inhibition of Influenza as shown by preliminary data. The 5-5-3819 synthetic antibody's internalization in live cells was visualized with Madin-Darby Kidney Cells under a Confocal Microscope. Then by Western Blot analysis we evaluated for the diminution of NP level in treated cells versus untreated cells. Expression of NP over 8 hours time was analyzed via Western Blot Analysis, which showed NP accumulation was retarded in synbody treated cells. The data obtained from my honors thesis and preliminary data provided suggest that the synthetic antibody penetrates live cells and targets NP. The results of my thesis presents valuable information that can be utilized by other researchers so that future experiments can be performed, eventually leading to the creation of a more effective therapeutic for influenza.
ContributorsHayden, Joel James (Author) / Diehnelt, Chris (Thesis director) / Johnston, Stephen (Committee member) / Legutki, Bart (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2014-05