Matching Items (127)
Description
One of the major challenges that were yet to be solved for solid phase peptide synthesis was the lack of an efficient peptide sequencing technique that was less hazardous, easier to perform , and was more cost-effective. Sequencing peptides were held important in the field of Chemistry and Biochemistry because it aided in drug discovery, finding ligands that bind to a specific target protein and finding alternative agents in transporting molecules to its desired location. Therefore, the overall purpose of this experiment was to develop a method of solid phase sequencing technique that was more environmental friendly, sequences at a faster rate, and was more cost-effective.
ContributorsCordovez, Lalaine Anne Ordiz (Author) / Woodbury, Neal (Thesis director) / Zhao, Zhan-Gong (Committee member) / Legutki, Joseph Barten (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Historically, the study of cognition has focused on species-specific learning, memory, problem-solving and decision-making capabilities, and emphasis was placed on the few high-performing individuals who successfully completed cognitive tasks. Studies often deemed the success of a small fraction of individuals as suggestive of the cognitive capacity of the entire species. Recently though, interest in individual variation in cognitive ability within species has increased. This interest has emerged concomitantly with studies of variation in animal personalities (i.e. behavioral syndromes). Cognitive ability may be closely tied to personality because the mechanisms by which an individual perceives and uses environmental input (cognition) should influence how that individual consistently responds to various ecological demands (personality). However, empirical support for links between animal cognition and behavioral syndromes is currently lacking. I examined individual variation in cognition and personality in male veiled chameleons, Chamaeleo calyptratus. I considered three axes of personality (aggression, activity, and exploratory behavior) and cognition in a foraging context using visual cues − specifically, the ability to associate a color with a food reward. I found that aggression was positively correlated with the proportion of correct choices and number of consecutive correct choices. Also, one measure of exploration (the number of vines touched in a novel environment) was correlated negatively with the proportion of correct choices and positively with the number of consecutive incorrect decisions. My investigation suggests that more aggressive, less exploratory chameleons were more successful learners, and that there exists a shared pathway between these personality traits and cognitive ability.
ContributorsBruemmer, Sarah Adele (Author) / McGraw, Kevin (Thesis director) / Rutowski, Ronald (Committee member) / Ligon, Russell (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
We, a team of students and faculty in the life sciences at Arizona State University (ASU), currently teach an Introduction to Biology course in a Level 5, or maximum-security unit with the support of the Arizona Department of Corrections and the Prison Education Program at ASU. This course aims to enhance current programs at the unit by offering inmates an opportunity to practice literacy and math skills, while also providing exposure to a new academic field (science, and specifically biology). Numerous studies, including a 2005 study from the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), have found that vocational programs, including prison education programs, reduce recidivism rates (ADC 2005, Esperian 2010, Jancic 1988, Steurer et al. 2001, Ubic 2002) and may provide additional benefits such as engagement with a world outside the justice system (Duguid 1992), the opportunity for inmates to revise personal patterns of rejecting education that they may regret, and the ability of inmate parents to deliberately set a good example for their children (Hall and Killacky 2008). Teaching in a maximum security prison unit poses special challenges, which include a prohibition on most outside materials (except paper), severe restrictions on student-teacher and student-student interactions, and the inability to perform any lab exercises except limited computer simulations. Lack of literature discussing theoretical and practical aspects of teaching science in such environment has prompted us to conduct an ongoing study to generate notes and recommendations from this class through the use of surveys, academic evaluation of students' work and ongoing feedback from both teachers and students to inform teaching practices in future science classes in high-security prison units.
ContributorsLarson, Anika Jade (Author) / Mor, Tsafrir (Thesis director) / Brownell, Sara (Committee member) / Lockard, Joe (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Urbanization exposes wildlife to many unfamiliar environmental conditions, including the presence of novel structures and food sources. Adapting to or thriving within such anthropogenic modifications may involve cognitive skills, whereby animals come to solve novel problems while navigating, foraging, etc. The increased presence of humans in urban areas is an additional environmental challenge that may potentially impact cognitive performance in wildlife. To date, there has been little experimental investigation into how human disturbance affects problem solving in animals from urban and rural areas. Urban animals may show superior cognitive performance in the face of human disturbance, due to familiarity with benign human presence, or rural animals may show greater cognitive performance in response to the heightened stress of unfamiliar human presence. Here, I studied the relationship between human disturbance, urbanization, and the ability to solve a novel foraging problem in wild-caught juvenile house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus). This songbird is a successful urban dweller and native to the deserts of the southwestern United States. In captivity, finches captured from both urban and rural populations were presented with a novel foraging task (sliding a lid covering their typical food dish) and then exposed to regular periods of high or low human disturbance over several weeks before they were again presented with the task. I found that rural birds exposed to frequent human disturbance showed reduced task performance compared to human-disturbed urban finches. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that acclimation to human presence protects urban birds from reduced cognition, unlike rural birds. Some behaviors related to solving the problem (e.g. pecking at and eying the dish) also differed between urban and rural finches, possibly indicating that urban birds were less neophobic and more exploratory than rural ones. However, these results were unclear. Overall, these findings suggest that urbanization and acclimation to human presence can strongly predict avian response to novelty and cognitive challenges.
ContributorsCook, Meghan Olivia (Author) / McGraw, Kevin (Thesis director) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Committee member) / Weaver, Melinda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The nature and correlates of emerging internalizing symptoms in young children are largely unknown. Maternal factors such as psychological symptoms and detached parenting style have been found to be present in children with anxiety and depression. Further, child attentional control in task completion has been associated with difficulty related to internalizing problems. This study tested hypotheses that child anxiety and depression at age five could be predicted by a combination of maternal distress and maternal detached behavior recorded at age three. An additional hypothesis was tested to determine if child attentional control at age four may be a partial mediator of the relation between maternal symptoms and parenting to child internalizing symptoms. Using structural equation modeling, no hypotheses were supported; child internalizing problems were not significantly predicted by maternal distress nor detached parenting. Further, child attentional control was not predicted by maternal distress or detached behavior, nor did attentional control predict internalizing problems. Findings indicate that over a two-year interval, childhood internalizing problems at age five are likely best predicted by early internalizing problems at age three. There was no support that the mother or child factors tested were predictive of child outcomes.
ContributorsSkelley, Shayna (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Eisenberg, Nancy (Committee member) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Rock Doves (Columba livia), also known as pigeons, are a common sight to city dwellers around the world. Often overlooked as urban pests, these birds have intriguing iridescent coloration on their necks that has been the subject of few studies. Previous studies have documented the multimodal reflectance spectra of the iridescence and the keratin cortex microstructures responsible for those properties, but do not address questions about the biological context of this coloration. In this study, I explore the factors that affect how this directional signal might appear to intended receivers (assumed to be females). Pigeon neck feathers were obtained from captive-raised birds and measured for reflectance values at numerous angles in the hemisphere above the feather to obtain a directional reflectance distribution. Each feather was mounted individually, and measurements were taken at a consistent location on the feather using a spectrophotometer; the collector was positioned directly above the feather, while we moved the light source in both azimuth and elevation on a Carden arm to simulate changes in pigeon movements during courtship. Depending on the elevation and azimuth of the light source, pigeon neck feathers shift in appearance from green to purple, with an accompanying shift in the location and intensity of reflectance peaks. Additionally, this unique coloration is due to multiple reflectance peaks in the avian vision field between 300 and 700nm. These data coupled with qualitative behavioral observations of Rock Dove courtship inform our understanding of how the color signal is displayed and how it appears to a potential mate; as a female observes the movements in a male courtship display, properties of the iridescence utilize multiple viewing angles to create a dynamic color array.
ContributorsFankhauser, Kaci Lynn (Author) / Rutowski, Ronald (Thesis director) / McGraw, Kevin (Committee member) / McBeath, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis contains three chapters, all of which involve using culturally inclusive education to explore the experiences of religious undergraduate biology students. The first chapter is an essay entitled "Toward Culturally Inclusive Undergraduate Biology Education," which describes a literature review performed with the aim of characterizing the landscape of cultural competence and related terms for biology educators and biology education researchers. This chapter highlights the use of 16 different terms related to cultural competence and presents these terms, their definitions, and highlights their similarities and differences. This chapter also identifies gaps in the cultural competence literature, and presents a set of recommendations to support better culturally inclusive interventions in undergraduate science education. The second chapter, entitled "Different Evolution Acceptance Instruments Lead to Different Research Findings," describes a study in which the source of 30 years of conflicting research on the relationship between evolution acceptance and evolution understanding was determined. The results of this study showed that different instruments used to measure evolution acceptance sometimes lead to different research results and conclusions. The final chapter, entitled "Believing That Evolution is Atheistic is Associated with Poor Evolution Education Outcomes Among Religious College Students," describes a study characterizing definitions of evolution that religious undergraduate biology students may hold, and examines the impact that those definitions of evolution have on multiple outcome variables. In this study, we found that among the most religious students, those who thought evolution is atheistic were less accepting of evolution, less comfortable learning evolution, and perceived greater conflict between their personal religious beliefs and evolution than those who thought evolution is agnostic.
ContributorsDunlop, Hayley Marie (Author) / Brownell, Sara (Thesis director) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Barnes, M. Elizabeth (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Dielectrophoresis has been shown in the recent past to successfully separate bioparticles of very subtle differences at high resolutions using biophysical forces. In this study, we test the biophysical differences of methicillin resistant and susceptible Staph. aureus that are known to have very similar genomes by using a modified gradient insulator-based dielectrophoresis device (g-iDEP). MRSA is commonly seen in hospitals and is the leading killer of infectious bacteria, claiming the lives of around 10,000 people annually. G-iDEP improves many capabilities within the DEP field including sample size, cost, ease of use and analysis time. This is a promising foundation to creating a more clinically optimized diagnostic tool for both separation and detection of bacteria in the healthcare field. The capture on-set potential for fluorescently tagged MRSA (801 ± 34V) is higher than fluorescently tagged MSSA (610 ± 32V), resulting in a higher electrokinetic to dielectrophoretic mobility ratio for MRSA. Since the strains have proven to be genomically similar through sequencing, it is reasonable to attribute this significant biophysical difference to the added PBP2a enzyme in MRSA. These results are consistent with other bacterial studied within in this device and have proven to be reproducible.
ContributorsSmithers, Jared (Author) / Hayes, Mark (Thesis director) / Woodbury, Neal (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
“Tell It to the Frogs: Fukushima’s nuclear disaster and its impact on the Japanese Tree Frog” is a representation of the work from Giraudeau et. al’s “Carotenoid distribution in wild Japanese tree frogs (Hyla japonica) exposed to ionizing radiation in Fukushima.” This paper looked to see if carotenoid levels in the tree frog’s vocal sac, liver, and blood were affected by radiation from Fukushima’s power plant explosion. Without carotenoids, the pigment that gives the frogs their orange color on their necks, their courtship practices would be impacted and would not be as able to show off their fitness to potential mates. The artwork inspired by this research displayed the tree frog’s degradation over time due to radiation, starting with normal life and ending with their death and open on the table. The sculptures also pinpoint where the carotenoids were being measured with a brilliant orange glaze. Through ceramic hand building, the artist created larger than life frogs in hopes to elicit curiosity about them and their plight. While the paper did not conclude any changes in the frog’s physiology after 18 months of exposure, there are still questions that are left unanswered. Why did these frogs not have any reaction? Could there be any effects after more time has passed? Is radiation leakage as big of a problem as previously thought? The only way to get the answers to these questions is to be aware of these amphibians, the circumstances that led them to be involved, and continued research on them and radiation.
ContributorsWesterfield, Savannah (Author) / Beiner, Susan (Thesis director) / McGraw, Kevin (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Diabesity is a global epidemic affecting millions worldwide. Diabesity is the term given to the link between obesity and Type II diabetes. It is estimated that ~90% of patients diagnosed with Type II diabetes are overweight or have struggled with excess body fat in the past. Type II diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance which is an impaired response of the body to insulin that leads to high blood glucose levels. Adipose tissue, previously thought of as an inert tissue, is now recognized as a major endocrine organ with an important role in the body's immune response and the development of chronic inflammation. It is speculated that adipose tissue inflammation is a major contributor to insulin resistance particular to Type II diabetes. This literature review explores the popular therapeutic targets and marketed drugs for the treatment of Type II diabetes and their role in decreasing adipose tissue inflammation. rAGE is currently in pre-clinical studies as a possible target to combat adipose tissue inflammation due to its relation to insulin resistance. Metformin and Pioglitazone are two drugs already being marketed that use unique chemical pathways to increase the production of insulin and/or decrease blood glucose levels. Sulfonylureas is one of the first FDA approved drugs used in the treatment of Type II diabetes, however, it has been discredited due to its life-threatening side effects. Bariatric surgery is a form of invasive surgery to rid the body of excess fat and has shown to normalize blood glucose levels. These treatments are all secondary to lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise which can help halt the progression of Type II diabetes patients.
ContributorsRobles, Alondra Maria (Author) / Woodbury, Neal (Thesis director) / Redding, Kevin (Committee member) / Allen, James (Committee member) / Hendrickson, Kirstin (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05