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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Creators: Prokofiev, Sergey, 1891-1953
Description
Opening a business is often an exciting time in one’s life, as they take their business idea into the marketplace. But, most individuals fail to adequately address whether their business can actually succeed before entering the marketplace. The thesis, Creating a Successful Gluten-Free Bakery: A Financial Model and Analysis analyzes whether or not a gluten-free bakery is a viable business to open in today’s marketplace. By costing the main financial variables, creating a financial model of a gluten-free bakery, and running scenario analysis, I was able to find whether or not opening a gluten-free bakery was a viable business in today’s marketplace.
ContributorsDantonio, Adam (Author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Arthur, Budolfson (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
An existing house is outdated and in need of a renovation. The kitchen, living room, bar and dining room are currently all closed off from one another creating four separate spaces. The goal is to recreate the main floor into an open concept space, that is great for entertaining, and being with family and friends. This Thesis/Creative Project deals in the area of structural redesign, aesthetics, client relations and budget tracking. To do this effectively, Revit, AutoCAD, RISA 3D and Excel will all be used to complete various elements of the project. In order to open the space a structural analysis needs to be done to ensure the structural integrity of the home remains solid. If structural walls are being removed the forces being exerted on those walls will need to be redistributed. This will require a redesign of the structural members to ensure the forces are supported. Once the walls are down the area can be redesigned to ensure function and usability. Every inch of the space needs to be optimized to ensure the most efficient use of space. The storage will also need to be taken into consideration because there will be storage loss when removing walls. The space will need to look aesthetically pleasing and keep in theme with the country cabin feel of the home. The Client’s will be involved in every step of the process to ensure they are satisfied with the varying design. While redesigning the area there is a strict budget that was set by the Clients, and every step of the designing process needs to take into consideration the cost. Once the successful completion of the project is accomplished, the Clients, will have the ability to take the plans and complete the renovation on the house.
ContributorsKahler, Jared (Author) / Ward, Kristen (Thesis director) / Chatziefstratiou, Efthalia (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Eng Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
Following the prolific car-centric design of the twentieth century, many cities are grappling with increasing pedestrian deaths and greater vehicle congestion. To solve these problems, many of these cities are expressing a desire to create more effective and vibrant walkable places. Aside from safety, numerous benefits come from pedestrian friendly communities, including greater economic activity, better health, greater social capital, and less environmental impact. Although there are several tools already available, evaluating an area’s current walkability situation is still varied, and evaluating a pedestrian’s thoughts on safety and enjoyability is also difficult. The benefits of walkability and past and present tools are summarized in this paper. The goal of this paper was to create a walkability evaluation tool that included smaller, often overlooked aspects of the sidewalk and site design that contribute to a pedestrian’s experience and safety. The author developed a tool containing 40 different measures of the sidewalk concerning safety, connectivity, enjoyment, and accessibility, as well as created methods for visualizing the data. The tool was then utilized to gather data at six Phoenix-metro area intersections using a combination of on street data collection and GIS software and Google Street View. The paper also details suggestions on how to act upon the data and improve walkability in an area, including minor street alterations and larger policy shifts in zoning codes. Although in preliminary data collection the tool provides a good snapshot of the data, further development of the tool and assessment of its reliability are needed, as well as greater data collection to compare evaluated areas to a larger region.
ContributorsLaufer, Daniel (Author) / King, David (Thesis director) / Coseo, Paul (Committee member) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
A heterogeneous team of robots working in symbiosis can maximize their strengths while complementing each other’s weaknesses. These simple robots can achieve more working together than they could on their own but cost less than a single robot with the same combination of capabilities. This project aims to validate the symbiotic relationship of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) with a physical implementation of a heterogenous team of robots and a demonstration of their capabilities. This paper details the selection of robots, the design of the physical coupling mechanism, and the design of the autonomous controls. An experiment was performed to assess the capabilities of the robots according to four performance criteria. The UGV must navigate a space while the UAV follows. The UAV must couple with the UGV. The UAV must lift the UGV over an obstacle. The UGV must navigate the space while carrying the UAV.
ContributorsBreaux, Chris (Author) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Thesis director) / Lee, Hyunglae (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
Human activities around the world are threatening scores of wildlife species, pushing them closer to extinction. In order to address what many conservationists view as a global biodiversity crisis, it is vital that more people are inspired to care about wild animals and motivated to act in ways that help protect them. The up-close experiences and personal connections that people form with wild animals in zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) or the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) can help achieve this. However, it is not very well understood how different types of encounters within these zoos may inspire conservation mindedness and pro-environmental behaviors. During this thesis project, surveys were conducted at the AZA-accredited Arizona Center for Nature Conservation/Phoenix Zoo to understand how interactive, hands-on animal experiences within zoos differ from passively viewing zoo animals when it comes to inspiring people to care about conservation. The Phoenix Zoo is home to two different species of giraffes, and guests can view them from the front of the Savanna Exhibit. Guests can also participate in the Giraffe Encounter, which is a much more interactive, hands-on experience. After surveying guests at both locations, the results showed that fewer people at the Giraffe Encounter responded that they often engage in pro-environmental behaviors. This may indicate that the people who participated in the Giraffe Encounter came to the zoo more for recreation and entertainment than to learn about wildlife. Despite this, more people learned something new about nature or conservation at the Giraffe Encounter than they did at the Savanna Exhibit. On average, guests also felt that the Giraffe Encounter motivated them to learn more about how to help animals in the wild than the Savanna Exhibit did. Overall, there is a strong correlation between having an interactive, hands-on experience with a zoo animal and caring more about wildlife conservation. However, more research still needs to be done in order to conclusively provide evidence for causation.
ContributorsBurgess, Christa Noell (Author) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Minteer, Ben (Committee member) / Allard, Ruth (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably and destroy body tissue, and currently plagues today’s world. Carcinomas are cancers derived from epithelial cells and include breast and prostate cancer. Breast cancer is a type of carcinoma that forms in breast tissue cells. The tumor cells can be further categorized after testing the cells for the presence of certain molecules. Hormone receptor positive breast cancer includes the tumor cells with receptors that respond to the steroid hormones, estrogen and progesterone, or the peptide hormone, HER2. These forms of cancer respond well to chemotherapy and endocrine therapy. On the other hand, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by the lack of hormone receptor expression and tends to have a worse prognosis in women. Prostate cancer forms in the cells of the prostate gland and has been attributed to mutations in androgen receptor ligand specificity. In a subset of triple negative breast cancer, genetic expression profiling has found a luminal androgen receptor that is dependent on androgen signaling. TNBC has also been found to respond well to enzalutamide, a an androgen receptor inhibitor. As the gene of the androgen receptor, AR, is located on the X chromosome and expressed in a variety of tissues, the responsiveness of TNBC to androgen receptor inhibition could be due to the differential usage of isoforms - different gene mRNA transcripts that produce different proteins. Thus, this study analyzed differential gene expression and differential isoform usage between TNBC cancers – that do and do not express the androgen receptor – and prostate cancer in order to better understand the underlying mechanism behind the effectiveness of androgen receptor inhibition in TNBC. Through the analysis of differential gene expression between the TNBC AR+ and AR- conditions, it was found that seven genes are significantly differentially expressed between the two types of tissues. Genes of significance are AR and EN1, which was found to be a potential prognostic marker in a subtype of TNBC. While some genes are differentially expressed between the TNBC AR+ and AR- tissues, the differences in isoform expression between the two tissues do not reflect the difference in gene expression. We discovered 11 genes that exhibited significant isoform switching between AR+ and AR- TNBC and have been found to contribute to cancer characteristics. The genes CLIC1 and RGS5 have been found to help the rapid, uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. HSD11B2, IRAK1, and COL1Al have been found to contribute to general cancer characteristics and metastasis in breast cancer. PSMA7 has been found to play a role in androgen receptor activation. Finally, SIDT1 and GLYATL1 are both associated with breast and prostate cancers. Overall, through the analysis of differential isoform usage between AR+ and AR- samples, we uncovered differences that were not detected by a gene level differential expression analysis. Thus, future work will focus on analyzing differential gene and isoform expression across all types of breast cancer and prostate cancer to better understand the responsiveness of TNBC to androgen receptor inhibition.
ContributorsDeshpande, Anagha J (Author) / Wilson-Sayres, Melissa (Thesis director) / Buetow, Kenneth (Committee member) / Natri, Heini (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Over the past six years, China has embarked on an international economic initiative titled, “The Belt and Road Initiative” in which it finances and constructs multi-billion-dollar infrastructure development projects around the world. Aimed at building out energy and transportation infrastructure, these projects are being undertaken in approximately 68 countries. So far, China has pledged $1 trillion to the initiative, 95% of which is has come from public sources . However, it is projected that, in order to maintain its current growth, Developing Asia will require an additional $26 trillion in investment by 2030 .
The hundreds of projects have been grouped into six maritime and land-based economic corridors that retrace many of the original routes of the Silk Road. Of these corridors, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has proven to be one of the most important in China’s quest for Asian economic integration. The CPEC is the BRI’s first major economic corridor and one of the largest, receiving approximately $39 billion in investments to date.
Despite the thousands of articles and research papers that have been written on the topic, there are very few resources that provide a more comprehensive view of the Belt and Road Initiative. Consistent information on BRI projects is difficult to find, as both China and its debtors have been withholding many of the details regarding construction progress and lending activity. As a result, this thesis attempts to reconcile the simultaneous surplus of research with the shortage of conclusive information by framing its analysis in the form of a question about the BRI’s likelihood of success.
This thesis explores the history of the Silk Road, the progress of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the project’s global implications. In order to determine the BRI’s likelihood of success, this thesis identifies the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as the economic corridor most likely to succeed of the six. It then analyzes the CPEC, determining that, despite the fact that it is the economic corridor most likely to succeed, it likely will not. It then builds upon this to conclude that the BRI, too, is unlikely to succeed.
In addition, this thesis critiques many of the expansionary policies, loose lending practices, and near-term decisions made by Chinese leadership by arguing that the BRI is an initiative for the benefit of China and not its debtors.
The hundreds of projects have been grouped into six maritime and land-based economic corridors that retrace many of the original routes of the Silk Road. Of these corridors, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has proven to be one of the most important in China’s quest for Asian economic integration. The CPEC is the BRI’s first major economic corridor and one of the largest, receiving approximately $39 billion in investments to date.
Despite the thousands of articles and research papers that have been written on the topic, there are very few resources that provide a more comprehensive view of the Belt and Road Initiative. Consistent information on BRI projects is difficult to find, as both China and its debtors have been withholding many of the details regarding construction progress and lending activity. As a result, this thesis attempts to reconcile the simultaneous surplus of research with the shortage of conclusive information by framing its analysis in the form of a question about the BRI’s likelihood of success.
This thesis explores the history of the Silk Road, the progress of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the project’s global implications. In order to determine the BRI’s likelihood of success, this thesis identifies the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as the economic corridor most likely to succeed of the six. It then analyzes the CPEC, determining that, despite the fact that it is the economic corridor most likely to succeed, it likely will not. It then builds upon this to conclude that the BRI, too, is unlikely to succeed.
In addition, this thesis critiques many of the expansionary policies, loose lending practices, and near-term decisions made by Chinese leadership by arguing that the BRI is an initiative for the benefit of China and not its debtors.
ContributorsTrimmer, Nicholas Stephanos (Author) / Prescott, Edward (Thesis director) / Douglas, Kacey (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This is a report on an experiment that examines if the principles of multimedia learning outlined in Richard E. Mayer’s journal article, “Using multimedia for e-learning”, located in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning would apply to haptic feedback used for haptic robotic operation. This was tested by developing and using a haptic robotic manipulator known as the Haptic Testbed (HTB). The HTB is a manipulator designed to emulate human hand movement for haptic testing purposes and features an index finger and thumb for the right hand. Control is conducted through a Leap Motion Controller, a visual sensor that uses infrared lights and cameras to gather various data about hands it can see. The goal of the experiment was to have test subjects complete a task where they shifted objects along a circuit of positions where they were measured on time to complete the circuit as well as accuracy in reaching the individual points. Analysis of subject responses to surveys as well as performance during the experiment showed haptic feedback during training improving initial performance of individuals as well as lowering mental effort and mental demand during said training. The findings of this experiment showed support for the hypothesis that Mayer’s principles do apply to haptic feedback in training for haptic robotic manipulation. One of the implications of this experiment would be the possibility for haptics and tactile senses to be an applicable sense for Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning as most of the current work in the field is mostly focused on visual or auditory senses. If the results of the experiment were replicated in a future experiment it would provide support to the hypothesis that the principles of multimedia learning can be utilized to improve the training of haptic robotic operation.
ContributorsGiam, Connor Dallas (Author) / Craig, Scotty (Thesis director) / Sodemann, Angela (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) can have numerous effects on the water chemistry and the biological life within an aquatic system with its wide variety of chemical structures and properties. The composition of the dissolved carbon can be estimated by utilizing the fluorescent properties of some DOM such as aromatic amino acids and humic material. This experiment was used to observe how organic matter could influence hydrothermal systems, such as Sylvan Springs in Yellowstone National Park, USA. Using optical density at 600 nm (OD 600), excitation-emission matrix spectra (EEMS), and Illumina sequencing methods (16S rRNA gene sequencing), changes in dissolved organic matter (DOM) were observed based on long term incubation at 84ºC and microbial influence. Four media conditions were tested over a two-month duration to assess these changes: inoculated pine needle media, uninoculated pine needle media, inoculated yeast extract media, and uninoculated yeast extract media. The inoculated samples contained microbes from a fluid and sediment sample of Sylvan Spring collected July 23, 2018. Absorbance indicated that media containing pine needle broth poorly support life, whereas media containing yeast extract revealed a positive increase in growth. Excitation-Emission Matrix Spectra of the all media conditions indicated changes in DOM composition throughout the trial. There were limited differences between the inoculated and uninoculated samples suggesting that the DOM composition change in this study was dominated by the two-month incubation at 84ºC more than biotic processes. Sequencing performed on a sediment sample collected from Sylvan Spring indicated five main order of prokaryotic phyla: Aquificales, Desulfurococcales, Thermoproteales, Thermodesulfobacteriales, and Crenarchaeota. These organisms are not regarded as heterotrophic microbes, so the lack of significant biotic changes in DOM could be a result of these microorganisms not being able to utilize these enrichments as their main metabolic energy supply.
ContributorsKnott, Nicholas Joseph (Author) / Shock, Everett (Thesis director) / Hartnett, Hilairy (Committee member) / Till, Christy (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Imagine you and your significant other are relaxing at home watching your favorite Netflix show. You are embraced equally between the arm of your couch and the arm of your significant other right in front of your television. While the living room is small, you both work long days to be in this very position, some would call this your natural environment. In your brief moment of bliss as you sink further into your couch, you have a shiver creep down your spine as you are pressed between your two loves. As you are disgruntled from either the approaching winter or your requirement to simply move, you reach up to turn your ceiling fan off. When you attempt to recover what comfort you peeled yourself out of, you discover a greater inconvenience as the fan blades begin to slide to a stop. Dust, grime and the results of dirty air are caked on the fan blades. You think of climbing onto your coffee table and wiping the blades as all the dust falls on you and your living room. With a sigh, you surmise to deal with the eye sore another day and hope you find the motivation to deal with it another day.
This business report examines the go-to-market strategy and value proposition of a new wind comfort solution for LG. Beyond the analysis of the product, the program itself is reflected upon at the end to provide feedback for future years. The product, Flow ends the days of bad gifts being the only thing collecting dust in your house. The new ceiling fan gives you the ability to clean your home while circulating air, taking air quality off your shoulders and fixing it above your head. Flow takes the features from our normal ceiling fans we know and love but improves upon them to make them seamless to clean the blades and clean the air you breathe. Flow puts air purification in motion, so you can breathe easy in your own home.
This business report examines the go-to-market strategy and value proposition of a new wind comfort solution for LG. Beyond the analysis of the product, the program itself is reflected upon at the end to provide feedback for future years. The product, Flow ends the days of bad gifts being the only thing collecting dust in your house. The new ceiling fan gives you the ability to clean your home while circulating air, taking air quality off your shoulders and fixing it above your head. Flow takes the features from our normal ceiling fans we know and love but improves upon them to make them seamless to clean the blades and clean the air you breathe. Flow puts air purification in motion, so you can breathe easy in your own home.
ContributorsScott, Tanner James (Author) / Trujillo, Rhett (Thesis director) / Hedges, Craig (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05