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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Department of Information Systems
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
Quantifying ecological relationships by gathering and sifting through large stores of data and applying statistical models to them is a substantial first step in identifying
optimal habitat for the dispersal of threatened species, but the implementation of the
result requires coordination between political, economic, and environmental actors that
are further complicated by the margin of error in modeling a wildlife corridor. That is
why the partnership between Arizona State University (ASU), the Phoenix Zoo: Arizona
Center for Nature Conservation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) DEVELOP, and Osa Conservation needed a framework for identifying and
analyzing the forest patches that constituted the least cost path (LCP) modelled to
connect the Talamanca Mountains of La Amistad International Peace Park and the Osa
Peninsula of Corcovado National Park and allow for the dispersal of jaguars (Panthera
onca). A framework for selection of forest patches of adequate size was established in
ArcMap and data were extracted to further analyze their characteristics and select targets
to be ground-truthed. Forest patches were successfully identified and selected using data
used for the modelling of the LCP. Patches were selected by the desired size of three
hectares or greater, the home range of prey species paca (Cuniculus paca). Patches were
characterized by patch area, resistance value or cost, distance from LCP, and distance
from nearest neighbor across multiple forest density thresholds.
ContributorsSerna, Patrick Karey Samuel (Author) / Schipper, Jan (Thesis advisor) / Watanade-Sailor, Karen (Committee member) / Frazier, Amy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In an era of educational transformation, teacher leaders play a pivotal role in facilitating systemic change within schools. This dissertation presents a single-case action research study investigating the support structures provided by a Team Lead Communities of Practice (TL CoP) to nurture teacher leaders. The primary aim of this research is to explore the effectiveness of the TL CoP in supporting teacher leaders at one school site. Utilizing qualitative data from interviews, participant journals, researcher memos, and agendas, this study captures the perspectives of team leads of interdisciplinary teams. The findings emphasize the need for flexible support systems tailored to the unique challenges teacher leaders face. Offering teacher leaders agency in their learning is paramount to their success. Additionally, structured time for collaboration and problem-solving within the TL CoP is crucial. One significant revelation is the importance of role clarity. Team leads need a clear understanding of their responsibilities to effectively lead teams and drive systemic change. This research contributes to the literature on educational leadership by highlighting the vital role of teacher leaders and the potential of TL CoPs in supporting their development. It advocates for the creation of such communities as a promising strategy to empower teacher leaders, providing them with essential support, dedicated collaboration time, and role clarity. As schools evolve to meet the demands of the 21st century, the insights from this study offer guidance for educational stakeholders seeking to cultivate a culture of leadership and foster systemic change through teacher leadership.
ContributorsPreston, Lee Allyne Cox (Author) / Markos, Amy (Thesis advisor) / Corner, Kevin (Committee member) / Fourlis, Andi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most commonly transmitted STI and isresponsible for an estimated 5% of cancer cases worldwide. HPV infection is implicated
in 70% of cervical cancer incidence and is also responsible for a variety of oropharyngeal
and anogenital cancers. While vaccination has greatly reduced the cervical cancer
burden in developed countries, HPV infection remains high in developing countries due
to high cost and poor access to healthcare. Several studies have highlighted the
presence of anti-HPV antibodies following infection and their potential use as
biomarkers for developing novel screening methods. Progression from initial infection to
cancer is slow, thus presenting an opportunity for effective screening programs.
Biomarker screening is an important area of cancer detection and Lateral Flow Assays
(LFA) are a low cost, easy to use alternative to other screening methods that require
extensive training and laboratory space. Therefore, this project proposes as a hypothesis
that the development of an LFA screening for HPV specific IgG can provide clinically
relevant data for the early detection of cervical dysplasia. This project adapts an LFA in a
multiplexed format for fluorescence-based serologic detection of HPV specific IgG in
patient plasma.
ContributorsJohns, William (Author) / Anderson, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Lake, Douglas (Committee member) / Hogue, Brenda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Novel means are needed to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and cancer, given delays in medical diagnosis and rising rates of disease incidence, prevalence, and mortality worldwide. Development of NDDs and cancer has been linked to environmental toxins. Ensuing epigenetic changes may serve as helpful biomarkers to diagnose amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s Disease (PD), and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) as well as various cancers sooner and more accurately. This dissertation tabulates and evaluates a spectrum of diagnostic matrixes (i.e., soil, sewage sludge, blood) and markers of disease to inform disease surveillance. A literature search using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Bradford Hill criteria implicated BMAA, formaldehyde, Mn, Hg, and Zn as environmental factors with strong association to ALS risk. Another PRISMA search identified epigenetic changes (e.g., DNA methylation) in NDD patients associated with environmental toxic exposures to air pollutants, heavy metals, and organic chemicals. Of the 180 environmental toxins hypothesized to be associated with AD, PD, or ALS, four heavy metals (As, Cd, Mn, and Hg) were common to these NDDs. Sources, as well as evidence and proxies of human exposure to these heavy metals and Pb were investigated here, namely the metal industries, and metal concentrations in topsoil, sewage sludge, and blood. Concentrations of Cd and Pb in sewage sludge were found to be significantly correlated with NDD prevalence rates in co-located populations (state-level) with odds ratios of 2.91 and 4.08, respectively. Markers of exposure and disease in urine and feces were also evaluated using PRISMA, finding 73 of 94 epigenetic biomarker panels to be valid for tracking primarily gastric and urinary cancers. In all studies, geospatial analyses indicated a preference in study cohorts located in the U.S., Europe, and the northern hemisphere, leaving underserved many populous regions particularly in the southern hemisphere. This dissertation draws attention to sewage sludge as a currently underutilized proxy matrix for assessing toxic human exposures and further identified a spectrum of particularly attractive, non-invasive biomarkers for future diagnostic use to promote early detection, survivability, and quality of life of individuals at risk of NDDs and cancer.
ContributorsNewell, Melanie Engstrom (Author) / Halden, Rolf U. (Thesis advisor) / Mastroeni, Diego (Committee member) / Lee, Heewook (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In 2022, a previous team of computer science and accounting students worked together to design and build a fully-functioning website to automate accounting transactions. They created dynamic accounting applications using software frameworks such as React and Express. They then used the services provided by Amazon Web Services to make the website available online. The stakeholders of the project wanted to expand upon the services provided by the website so they entrusted our team with implementing new features and applications to the software system. Using the same software frameworks and services of the previous team, we redesigned the website and increased its functionality to better meet the needs of accounting automation.
ContributorsJain, Sejal (Author) / Macabou, Elise (Co-author) / Lim, Jonathan (Co-author) / Villani, Jacob (Co-author) / Chen, Yinong (Thesis director) / Hunt, Neil (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Business Design is a thesis project where students can work in groups and consult for various projects. I had the opportunity to work on three major projects for my thesis involving a small entrepreneur looking for a go-to market plan for her board game, an app developer looking for a better way to connect to their target audience, as well as create my own digital product and consulting services that helped founder's lab groups build their online presence through e-commerce. All these projects allowed me to hone my critical thinking skills by working my way through real-life problems that don't have direct answers. I was also able to take away some valuable lessons in leadership and working in a team of very capable students.
ContributorsShosten, Madison (Author) / Akhter, Aliza (Co-author) / Bautista, Hariette (Co-author) / Chou, Chuhhsuan (Co-author) / Guan, Jessica (Co-author) / Flores, Lea (Co-author) / Kim, Min (Co-author) / Qin, Annie (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Lee, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Magic has changed over the past several centuries in terms of how it shows up in people's lives and how it’s discussed: in the 21st-century modern-day, the term magic is used to describe illusions and unknown facts, whereas before magic was tied more into superstitions about higher beings and religion. Nevertheless, every culture has been influenced by magic. Even before travel and technology allowed information to be widespread, magic was a part of people’s lives, whether it be to protect a tribe on their hunt or a magician trying to earn a living. Even though secular magic is quite recent on the timeline of history, secular magic can still tap into the same feelings that non-secular magic has had on people. People try to understand what they can’t and deal with stressors in their lives in many ways, and magic in its various forms has provided this filler.
Throughout this paper, I’ll be discussing magic’s role as a bridge between cultures. I looked for various explanations of magic’s history and the impact it’s had on people throughout, to be able to compare by culture and over time, and how magic has served as cultural bridge, bringing people together, creating new conversations, and sparking similar emotions across all people such as awe and wonder.
ContributorsBregman, Maxwell (Author) / Ostling, Michael (Thesis director) / Edmonds, Larry (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Arena Report is created to be a teaching and learning application. The app features projection-based Augmented Reality (AR) overlays of sports statistics at meaningful spatial positions to educate coaches and players about how they can use data to make better decisions. It is also meant to enable users to better communicate results and make better decisions. By interacting with immersive, 3-dimensional data visualizations, Arena Report allows users to develop their ability to make sound decisions in sports.
ContributorsHobbs, Caleb (Author) / Johnson-Glenberg, Mina (Thesis director) / Coza, Aurel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
This thesis investigates the quality and usefulness of "DeepDEMs" from Moon and Mars images, which are Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) created using deep learning from single optical images. High-resolution DEMs of Moon and Mars are increasingly critical for gaining insights into the slope and the elevation of the terrain in the region which helps in identifying the landing sites of possible manned missions and rovers. However, many locations of interest to scientists who use remote sensing to study the Earth or other planetary bodies have only visible image data coverage, and not repeated stereo image coverage or other data collected specifically for DEM generation. Thus, Earth and planetary scientists, geographers, and other academics want DEMs in many locations where no data resources (repeat coverage or intensive remote sensing campaigns) have been assigned for geomorphic or topographic study. One specific use for deep learning-generated terrain models would be to assess probable sites in the lunar south polar area for NASA's future Artemis III mission which aims to return people to the lunar surface. While conventional techniques (for example, needing two stereo pictures from satellites for photogrammetry) work well, this high-resolution data only covers a small portion of the planets. Furthermore, older approaches need lengthy processing durations as well as human calibration and tweaking to achieve high-quality DEMs. To address the coverage and processing time concerns, we evaluated deep learning algorithms for creating DEMs of the Moon and Mars' surfaces. We explore how the findings of this study may be used to create elevation models for planetary mapping in the future using automated methods.
ContributorsJain, Rini (Author) / Rastogi, Anant (Co-author) / Kerner, Hannah (Thesis director) / Adler, Jacob (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The paper investigates the efficacy of utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) for code generation, specifically looking into Java and it’s GUI Swing library, and evaluates the quality of the generated code. It presents a comparative analysis of various AI-generated solutions, aiming to determine which approach yields the most optimal results. The study explores different AI techniques, such as machine learning models, employed in code generation tasks. Through rigorous experimentation and evaluation criteria, the paper assesses factors like code efficiency, readability, and functionality to identify the most effective AI-based code generation methods. The findings contribute insights into leveraging AI for code development and offer recommendations for improving code quality in software engineering practices.
Utilizing Java Swing I created a Hangman game and then asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Blackbox to create the same game.
ContributorsConsalvo, Benjamin (Author) / Sopha, Matt (Thesis director) / Mazzola, Daniel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2024-05