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Exposure of harmful ultraviolet rays (UV) is a great concern in many locations around the world, as skin diseases and cancer continue to surge. With the number of skin cancer skyrocketing past all the types of known cancers, a vast majority of cases are reported daily. When the skin is

Exposure of harmful ultraviolet rays (UV) is a great concern in many locations around the world, as skin diseases and cancer continue to surge. With the number of skin cancer skyrocketing past all the types of known cancers, a vast majority of cases are reported daily. When the skin is exposed to UVA or UVB radiation, primarily from the sun, the UV radiation damages the DNA within the cells, which results in skin cancer. However, most damaged DNA of cells can undergo nucleotide excision repair. This involves a nuclease molecule that cuts the damaged bases. Preliminary research has developed other ways of repairing DNA damage in cells by implementing organic compounds. An organic chemical such as, ferulic acid has the ability to aid the mechanisms involved in nucleotide excision repair that takes place in your cells after DNA damage.

To test this, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was utilized. This is a primary model used in most medicinal studies due to the resemblance to human cells. This study evaluates the effect of ferulic acid, concentrations on ultraviolet radiated Rad 1 (mutant) and HB0 (wild type) yeast cells. The yeast strains were grown in two different concentrations for ferulic acid and treated with long-wave UV light under 30 seconds, 45 seconds, and 60 seconds. It is observed that, Rad 1 had heavier growth in the presence of high concentration of ferulic acid after UV treatment than HB0. But, HB0 yeast had heavier growth in the presence of lower concentrations of ferulic acid after UV treatment. Ferulic acid concentrations of 1 mM can influence cell repair after UV application by mRNA expression during nucleotide excision repair and higher absorption of UV.
ContributorsSabir, Zhino Lashkry (Author) / Marshall, Pamela (Thesis director) / Quaranta, Kimberly (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
This study was conducted to look for ways to improve engineering school in order to maximize student benefit. The results of the survey showed that additional communication and professional interaction lessons as well as more emphasis on software and programming languages would help prepare engineers for their careers.

This study was conducted to look for ways to improve engineering school in order to maximize student benefit. The results of the survey showed that additional communication and professional interaction lessons as well as more emphasis on software and programming languages would help prepare engineers for their careers. There was unanimous support of communication materials from survey respondents, with constructive confrontation and career path discussion receiving the most positive feedback. Due to the unanimous support of communications material, and the fact that short communications lessons could drive home key points without adding too much work to engineering students’ already busy schedules, two short lesson outlines for constructive confrontation and career path discussion were produced for this study.
ContributorsWolin, Nathan Maxwell (Author) / Taylor, David (Thesis director) / Holloway, Julianne (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
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Description
This Fantasyland expansion is a proposed 302,000 square foot development west of Harbor Boulevard and south of the Parade Route. This plot of land caught the eye of Performance Imagineering, the latest and greatest firm in theme park consulting, as it is currently home to Autopia, a massive drivable car

This Fantasyland expansion is a proposed 302,000 square foot development west of Harbor Boulevard and south of the Parade Route. This plot of land caught the eye of Performance Imagineering, the latest and greatest firm in theme park consulting, as it is currently home to Autopia, a massive drivable car ride for guests. Although this large portion of land is currently considered part of Tomorrowland, this proposition suggests otherwise. With the exponential growth of action and adventure themed attractions in the park, it comes time to revive the original Disney themes of love and fantasy. This proposal does so by introducing princesses from some of Disney's most successful intellectual property of late, to the Disneyland Resort.
ContributorsTaylor, Gary Joseph (Author) / Parrish, Kristen (Thesis director) / Ariaratnam, Samuel (Committee member) / Construction Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
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Description
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is an organization promoting itself as "The National Voice of American Agriculture." However, small independent family farmers are losing their livlihoods, having their rural communities destroyed, and are suffering from mental illness due to the covert actions of the AFBF. In reality, the AFBF

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is an organization promoting itself as "The National Voice of American Agriculture." However, small independent family farmers are losing their livlihoods, having their rural communities destroyed, and are suffering from mental illness due to the covert actions of the AFBF. In reality, the AFBF is a national advocate for agricultural conglomerates and industrial agriculture practice. The AFBF drives the American agribusiness sector and demobilizes small farmer mobilization for any iteration of a modern and sustainable agricultural revolution. This thesis seeks to evaluate the ways in which the Farm Bureau demobilizes farmers in their ideology, education, and activism and seeks to recommend effective ways challenge the American Farm Bureau in pursuit of an agriculturally just Green New Deal (GND). A GND for agriculture emphasizes the need for independent family farmers and ensuing components of sustainability, regenerative practice, and an integrated, healthy food system.
Created2020-12
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Description
Materiality describes the level to which the misreporting of information could influence decisionmakers who use that information. Since materiality is a highly abstract concept, it requires metrics to support its application to financial statements and other documents. Nonprofit and for-profit firms have different missions, suggesting that material information for decisionmakers

Materiality describes the level to which the misreporting of information could influence decisionmakers who use that information. Since materiality is a highly abstract concept, it requires metrics to support its application to financial statements and other documents. Nonprofit and for-profit firms have different missions, suggesting that material information for decisionmakers looking at nonprofits' reports may differ from material information for decisionmakers looking at for-profit firms' reports.

This paper examines how materiality applies to nonprofit information disclosure. It begins by introducing the concept of materiality. It then explores how accounting literature, rule-making bodies, and the courts define and apply materiality. Nonprofit firms' structure, required financial statements, and comparisons to for-profit firms are next addressed. Issues with assessing nonprofit success and materiality in relation to various aspects of a nonprofit's mission are also introduced.

This paper finds that the metrics which support materiality should be different for nonprofit vs. for-profit firms. Nonprofit materiality measures should center around the mission statement, which differs from nonprofit to nonprofit. These nonprofit materiality measures assess the primary mission of providing goods and services, which has the greatest interest to potential donors. Examples of these materiality measures, along with the challenges and insights gained from them, are discussed. This paper concludes by overviewing nonprofit materiality measures and noting how they can improve nonprofit information disclosure. Suggestions for further research into improving materiality for nonprofit information disclosure are also given.
ContributorsBails, Robin Hong (Author) / Shields, David (Thesis director) / Alhusaini, Badryah (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
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Description
In recent events, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been under fire for not creating a way for student-athletes to make money. However, after pressure from legislatures in multiple states, the NCAA decided to adopt a solution for collegiate athletes to receive compensation. Taking effect in January 2021, student-athletes

In recent events, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been under fire for not creating a way for student-athletes to make money. However, after pressure from legislatures in multiple states, the NCAA decided to adopt a solution for collegiate athletes to receive compensation. Taking effect in January 2021, student-athletes will be able to obtain monetary awards. However, the NCAA has yet to release concrete rules regarding how student-athletes will receive compensation. By analyzing the history, economics, current structure, and various interviews with collegiate athletes, a pragmatic solution is extrapolated. College sports is the only place in the United States that does not allow individuals to make money off their market-driven talents, often leading to students leaving college before graduation. However, a solution exists for student-athletes to justly receive compensation without negatively affecting their sport, school, and graduation. This thesis seeks to deliver a logical solution to this situation.
ContributorsJones, Corey (Author) / Burns, Kevin (Thesis director) / Branch, Robert (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
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Description
The purpose of this project is to analyze the MIT OpenCourseWare coffee can radar design and modify it to be better suited for drone based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) applications while maintaining the low-cost aspect of the original design. The MIT coffee can radar can function as a ranged radar,

The purpose of this project is to analyze the MIT OpenCourseWare coffee can radar design and modify it to be better suited for drone based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) applications while maintaining the low-cost aspect of the original design. The MIT coffee can radar can function as a ranged radar, a Doppler radar, or as SAR. Through simulations and research, the suggestions for how to modify the radar resulted in swapping the coffee can monopole antennas for patch antenna arrays or helical ordinary end-fire antennas, adding an Arduino for automatic recording of output pulses, and switching from a breadboard construction to a PCB to shrink form factor and keep costs and construction time low.
ContributorsRivera, Danielle (Author) / Trichopoulos, Georgios (Thesis director) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
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Description
Sepsis is a global health problem, and millions of people die annually from sepsis around the world (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the prevention, recognition, and treatment of sepsis as well as the need for more public health education

Sepsis is a global health problem, and millions of people die annually from sepsis around the world (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the prevention, recognition, and treatment of sepsis as well as the need for more public health education to raise awareness of the significant burden of sepsis. It is difficult to recognize because there are several nonspecific symptoms, and there is not a comprehensive diagnostic tool. Diagnosis is based on evidence of infection, organ dysfunction, and clinical judgment (Fay et al., 2020). The definition of sepsis has evolved over the last three decades, though the most recent update is not widely accepted by all healthcare systems. There remains debate about treatment practices as well, including the following: whether one or multiple antibiotics should be used, which type of fluids should be used for rapid resuscitation, and the number of fluids that should be given to the patient. However, evidence agrees that treatment should be started within the first hour of symptom onset for the best chance of survival (Gyawali, Ramakrishna, & Dhamoon, 2019). Despite the significant burden that sepsis places on families, healthcare team members, and hospitals, there is not enough public awareness of the issue (Jabaley et al., 2018). There should be a greater push for public education using technology, social media, and mass media campaigns to increase awareness and prevention of infection.
ContributorsConrad, Hanna Taylor (Author) / Calvin, Samantha (Thesis director) / Merbergen, Callie (Committee member) / Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
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Description
Immunotherapy is an effective treatment for cancer which enables the patient's immune system to recognize tumor cells as pathogens. In order to design an individualized treatment, the t cell receptors (TCR) which bind to a tumor's unique antigens need to be determined. We created a convolutional neural network to predict

Immunotherapy is an effective treatment for cancer which enables the patient's immune system to recognize tumor cells as pathogens. In order to design an individualized treatment, the t cell receptors (TCR) which bind to a tumor's unique antigens need to be determined. We created a convolutional neural network to predict the binding affinity between a given TCR and antigen to enable this.
ContributorsCai, Michael Ray (Author) / Lee, Heewook (Thesis director) / Meuth, Ryan (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
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Description
With an ever-increasing diagnosis rate and no universal cure, eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) lacks conclusive data regarding the onset of its autoimmune response and its preferred relation to assigned sex males. This thesis seeks to analyze the effects that assigned sex and determinants of health have on EoE diagnosis through previous

With an ever-increasing diagnosis rate and no universal cure, eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) lacks conclusive data regarding the onset of its autoimmune response and its preferred relation to assigned sex males. This thesis seeks to analyze the effects that assigned sex and determinants of health have on EoE diagnosis through previous research and survey development. Upon constructing a Qualtrics survey to collect data patterns and trends of subjects diagnosed with this autoimmune disorder, COVID-19 created a halt in its distribution and data collection. This unexpected event led to the collection and compilation of pre-existing research to be implemented into this thesis as a substitute. The key results of this thesis revealed that in twenty research studies regarding sex differences in EoE, at least 70% of patients diagnosed with EoE were male (Liacouras, 2005). With inconclusive results as to why males are diagnosed at a higher rate, results have not confirmed if this percentage ratio is due to social or genetic factors. To conclude, males are predominately diagnosed with EoE in comparison to the female and intersex population, however, with no data currently available on the effects that EoE has on intersex humans, it cannot be determined what factors create this recurring pattern.
ContributorsHolmes, Katherine Elizabeth (Co-author) / Serrano, Osvin (Co-author) / Borah, Priyah (Co-author) / Spackman, Christy (Thesis director) / Schroeder, Shauna (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12