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The African-American community has played a historically significant role in the advancement of Arizona and our region. The future success of our state relies on our ability to strengthen our communities and empower them to meet and exceed their vast potential. This project between the community and the University was

The African-American community has played a historically significant role in the advancement of Arizona and our region. The future success of our state relies on our ability to strengthen our communities and empower them to meet and exceed their vast potential. This project between the community and the University was undertaken to help advance a better understanding of the changing dynamics of Arizona’s African-American population and the critical issues that require our collective attention in terms of education, health care, the economy, culture and leadership.
Created2009
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Description
Washington State University Everett could benefit from a Blackboard® online orientation course prior to their first credited online course. Research included results from student satisfaction surveys and focus groups. It was determined through both quantitative and qualitative data that students who opt into an online orientation course have the potential

Washington State University Everett could benefit from a Blackboard® online orientation course prior to their first credited online course. Research included results from student satisfaction surveys and focus groups. It was determined through both quantitative and qualitative data that students who opt into an online orientation course have the potential for increased satisfaction and success with online coursework throughout their degree-completion experience. Once this determination was made, a fully-functioning Blackboard® orientation course was designed and developed. The course has been tested by faculty and is ready for Fall 2017 deployment as a voluntary online orientation for any student already admitted to WSU Everett.
ContributorsWilder, Corrie (Author) / Brumberger, Eva (Degree committee member) / D'Angelo, Barbara J. (Degree committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017-03-20
Description

The field of radio broadcast requires the cohesion of several different skill sets in order to be a success. KHEA Radio has used a traditional form of teaching, which means taking a one-on-one approach. Taking this approach has worked for years in the past and has been the only option

The field of radio broadcast requires the cohesion of several different skill sets in order to be a success. KHEA Radio has used a traditional form of teaching, which means taking a one-on-one approach. Taking this approach has worked for years in the past and has been the only option for teaching. The down side to this method of teaching is that it requires one seasoned employee to stop their work and take the time to train a new employee. Because of the significant void in the area of instructional content for radio sound engineering, my co-worker and I had to troubleshoot this console and basically teach ourselves its functions. I saw the need for better instructional content on the Internet and in print based on my own experiences. The skills used to create the following instructional content were gained from course work at Arizona State University. The graduate department of Technical Communication makes every effort to equip students with varied skills that can be applied to different fields within the overall scheme of technical communication. This guide serves as a tool for radio broadcast novices to learn the basics of sound board operation.

ContributorsGarcia, Gerardo (Author) / D'Angelo, Barbara J. (Degree committee member) / Maid, Barry M. (Degree committee member) / Lauer, Claire (Degree committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017-02-16
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Description

YourBrandPartner.com exists to provide content to those seeking specific advice and information on purchasing custom promotional items. For this investigation, I conducted a usability test with a select user group to identify user experience issues. The primary goal of this research was to conduct general usability testing through large group survey

YourBrandPartner.com exists to provide content to those seeking specific advice and information on purchasing custom promotional items. For this investigation, I conducted a usability test with a select user group to identify user experience issues. The primary goal of this research was to conduct general usability testing through large group survey and a small in-person usability testing group. I designed surveys and tests to investigate if users experienced difficulties in finding the information they were looking for on the website. Based on the results of this study, I recommend reviewing the visual design of the website, increasing site speed, creating a better experience between the blog and e- commerce interactions, and creating an environment that is more accommodating of where the user is in the buying process. This full report includes expanded participant feedback, methodology behind the study, and full recommendations for improvement.

ContributorsWood, Amy (Author) / D'Angelo, Barbara J. (Degree committee member) / Batova, Tatiana (Degree committee member) / Maid, Barry M. (Degree committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017-04-18
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Description

The purpose of this applied project was to research and recommend to Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH) improvements to their website in order to provide parents whose child has been newly diagnosed with cancer the most clear and appropriate health information. I conducted a study in order to analyze and evaluate

The purpose of this applied project was to research and recommend to Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH) improvements to their website in order to provide parents whose child has been newly diagnosed with cancer the most clear and appropriate health information. I conducted a study in order to analyze and evaluate the health information content currently provided to parents at PCH. This was done by through qualitative coding methods on both printed documents provided by The Emily Center Library, as well as interviews conducted with three Hematology/Oncology nurses at PCH. Additionally, I researched the current literature surrounding this topic in order to provide a background of information. Based on the results, I recommended that PCH offer parents a comprehensive cancer database in which all provided information would be searchable via their website. This database would also allow them to expand on their two topic focuses: home care and emotional support. Additionally, I recommended that parents are provided information on how to identify credible and non- credible sources on the Internet so that they can find information that is truly medically valuable when searching for information on their own. Lastly, I offered future recommendations that will require continued research so that PCH’s provided health information can continue to grow and improve.

ContributorsAudet, Tessa (Author) / Batova, Tatiana (Degree committee member) / D'Angelo, Barbara J. (Degree committee member) / Brumberger, Eva (Degree committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017-04-17
Laberinto Journal Vol. 12 (2019)
ContributorsDe Armas, Frederick A., 1945- (Contributor) / Worden, Bill (Professor) (Contributor) / Marek, Margaret (Contributor) / Prendergast, Ryan (Contributor) / Gasior, Bonnie L., 1971- (Contributor) / Granja Ibarreche, Xabier (Contributor) / Gil-Osle, Juan Pablo (Contributor) / ACMRS Press (Creator) / Arizona State University (Contributor) / Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Contributor)
Created2019
Description
Zoonotic pathogens that cause leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae) and tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, MTBC) continue to impact modern human populations. Therefore, methods able to survey mycobacterial infection in potential animal hosts are necessary for proper evaluation of human exposure threats. Here we tested for mycobacterial-specific single- and multi-copy loci using qPCR.

Zoonotic pathogens that cause leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae) and tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, MTBC) continue to impact modern human populations. Therefore, methods able to survey mycobacterial infection in potential animal hosts are necessary for proper evaluation of human exposure threats. Here we tested for mycobacterial-specific single- and multi-copy loci using qPCR. In a trial study in which armadillos were artificially infected with M. leprae, these techniques were specific and sensitive to pathogen detection, while more traditional ELISAs were only specific. These assays were then employed in a case study to detect M. leprae as well as MTBC in wild marmosets. All marmosets were negative for M. leprae DNA, but 14 were positive for the mycobacterial rpoB gene assay. Targeted capture and sequencing of rpoB and other MTBC genes validated the presence of mycobacterial DNA in these samples and revealed that qPCR is useful for identifying mycobacterial-infected animal hosts.
Created2015-11-16
Description

Background:
Many pharmaceutical drugs are known to be ineffective or have negative side effects in a substantial proportion of patients. Genomic advances are revealing that some non-synonymous single nucleotide variants (nsSNVs) may cause differences in drug efficacy and side effects. Therefore, it is desirable to evaluate nsSNVs of interest in their

Background:
Many pharmaceutical drugs are known to be ineffective or have negative side effects in a substantial proportion of patients. Genomic advances are revealing that some non-synonymous single nucleotide variants (nsSNVs) may cause differences in drug efficacy and side effects. Therefore, it is desirable to evaluate nsSNVs of interest in their ability to modulate the drug response.

Results:
We found that the available data on the link between drug response and nsSNV is rather modest. There were only 31 distinct drug response-altering (DR-altering) and 43 distinct drug response-neutral (DR-neutral) nsSNVs in the whole Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base (PharmGKB). However, even with this modest dataset, it was clear that existing bioinformatics tools have difficulties in correctly predicting the known DR-altering and DR-neutral nsSNVs. They exhibited an overall accuracy of less than 50%, which was not better than random diagnosis. We found that the underlying problem is the markedly different evolutionary properties between positions harboring nsSNVs linked to drug responses and those observed for inherited diseases. To solve this problem, we developed a new diagnosis method, Drug-EvoD, which was trained on the evolutionary properties of nsSNVs associated with drug responses in a sparse learning framework. Drug-EvoD achieves a TPR of 84% and a TNR of 53%, with a balanced accuracy of 69%, which improves upon other methods significantly.

Conclusions:
The new tool will enable researchers to computationally identify nsSNVs that may affect drug responses. However, much larger training and testing datasets are needed to develop more reliable and accurate tools.

ContributorsGerek, Nevin Z. (Author) / Liu, Li (Author) / Gerold, Kristyn (Author) / Biparva, Pegah (Author) / Thomas, Eric D. (Author) / Kumar, Sudhir (Author) / Biodesign Institute (Contributor) / Center for Evolution and Medicine (Contributor)
Created2015-01-15
Description
Microalgae-derived lipids are good sources of biofuel, but extracting them involves high cost, energy
expenditure, and environmental risk. Surfactant treatment to disrupt Scenedesmus biomass was evaluated
as a means to make solvent extraction more efficient. Surfactant treatment increased the recovery of fatty
acid methyl ester (FAME) by as much as 16-fold vs. untreated

Microalgae-derived lipids are good sources of biofuel, but extracting them involves high cost, energy
expenditure, and environmental risk. Surfactant treatment to disrupt Scenedesmus biomass was evaluated
as a means to make solvent extraction more efficient. Surfactant treatment increased the recovery of fatty
acid methyl ester (FAME) by as much as 16-fold vs. untreated biomass using isopropanol extraction, and
nearly 100% FAME recovery was possible without any Folch solvent, which is toxic and expensive. Surfactant
treatment caused cell disruption and morphological changes to the cell membrane, as documented by
transmission electron microscopy and flow cytometry. Surfactant treatment made it possible to extract wet
biomass at room temperature, which avoids the expense and energy cost associated with heating
and drying of biomass during the extraction process. The best FAME recovery was obtained from highlipid
biomass treated with Myristyltrimethylammonium bromide (MTAB)- and 3-(decyldimethylammonio)-
propanesulfonate inner salt (3_DAPS)-surfactants using a mixed solvent (hexane : isopropanol = 1 : 1, v/v)
vortexed for just 1 min; this was as much as 160-fold higher than untreated biomass. The critical micelle
concentration of the surfactants played a major role in dictating extraction performance, but the growth
stage of the biomass had an even larger impact on how well the surfactants disrupted the cells and
improved lipid extraction. Surfactant treatment had minimal impact on extracted-FAME profiles and,
consequently, fuel-feedstock quality. This work shows that surfactant treatment is a promising strategy for
more efficient, sustainable, and economical extraction of fuel feedstock from microalgae.
Created2015-10-20
Description
Using a CH[subscript 4]-based membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR), we studied perchlorate (ClO[subscript 4]–) reduction by a biofilm performing anaerobic methane oxidation coupled to denitrification (ANMO-D). We focused on the effects of nitrate (NO[subscript 3]–) and nitrite (NO[subscript 2]–) surface loadings on ClO[subscript 4]– reduction and on the biofilm community’s mechanism

Using a CH[subscript 4]-based membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR), we studied perchlorate (ClO[subscript 4]–) reduction by a biofilm performing anaerobic methane oxidation coupled to denitrification (ANMO-D). We focused on the effects of nitrate (NO[subscript 3]–) and nitrite (NO[subscript 2]–) surface loadings on ClO[subscript 4]– reduction and on the biofilm community’s mechanism for ClO[subscript 4]– reduction. The ANMO-D biofilm reduced up to 5 mg/L of ClO[subscript 4]– to a nondetectable level using CH[subscript 4] as the only electron donor and carbon source when CH[subscript 4] delivery was not limiting; NO[subscript 3]– was completely reduced as well when its surface loading was ≤0.32 g N/m[superscript 2]-d. When CH[subscript 4] delivery was limiting, NO[subscript 3]– inhibited ClO[subscript 4]– reduction by competing for the scarce electron donor. NO[subscript 2]– inhibited ClO[subscript 4]– reduction when its surface loading was ≥0.10 g N/m[superscript 2]-d, probably because of cellular toxicity. Although Archaea were present through all stages, Bacteria dominated the ClO[subscript 4]–-reducing ANMO-D biofilm, and gene copies of the particulate methane mono-oxygenase (pMMO) correlated to the increase of respiratory gene copies. These pieces of evidence support that ClO[subscript 4]– reduction by the MBfR biofilm involved chlorite (ClO[subscript 2]–) dismutation to generate the O[subscript 2] needed as a cosubstrate for the mono-oxygenation of CH[subscript 4].
ContributorsLuo, Yi-Hao (Author) / Chen, Ran (Author) / Wen, Li-Lian (Author) / Meng, Fan (Author) / Zhang, Yin (Author) / Lai, Chun-Yu (Author) / Rittmann, Bruce (Author) / Zhao, He-Ping (Author) / Zheng, Ping (Author) / Biodesign Institute (Contributor) / Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology (Contributor)
Created2015-02-17