The Electoral College, the current electoral system in the U.S., operates on a Winner-Take-All or First Past the Post (FPTP) principle, where the candidate with the most votes wins. Despite the Electoral College being the current system, it is problematic. According to Lani Guinier in Tyranny of the Majority, “the winner-take-all principle invariably wastes some votes” (121). This means that the majority group gets all of the power in an election while the votes of the minority groups are completely wasted and hold little to no significance. Additionally, FPTP systems reinforce a two-party system in which neither candidate could satisfy the majority of the electorate’s needs and issues, yet forces them to choose between the two dominant parties. Moreover, voting for a third party candidate only hurts the voter since it takes votes away from the party they might otherwise support and gives the victory to the party they prefer the least, ensuring that the two party system is inescapable. Therefore, a winner-take-all system does not provide the electorate with fair or proportional representation and creates voter disenfranchisement: it offers them very few choices that appeal to their needs and forces them to choose a candidate they dislike. There are, however, alternative voting systems that remedy these issues, such as a Ranked voting system, in which voters can rank their candidate choices in the order they prefer them, or a Proportional voting system, in which a political party acquires a number of seats based on the proportion of votes they receive from the voter base. Given these alternatives, we will implement a software simulation of one of these systems to demonstrate how they work in contrast to FPTP systems, and therefore provide evidence of how these alternative systems could work in practice and in place of the current electoral system.

System and software verification is a vital component in the development and reliability of cyber-physical systems - especially in critical domains where the margin of error is minimal. In the case of autonomous driving systems (ADS), the vision perception subsystem is a necessity to ensure correct maneuvering of the environment and identification of objects. The challenge posed in perception systems involves verifying the accuracy and rigidity of detections. The use of Spatio-Temporal Perception Logic (STPL) enables the user to express requirements for the perception system to verify, validate, and ensure its behavior; however, a drawback to STPL involves its accessibility. It is limited to individuals with an expert or higher-level knowledge of temporal and spatial logics, and the formal-written requirements become quite verbose with more restrictions imposed. In this thesis, I propose a domain-specific language (DSL) catered to Spatio-Temporal Perception Logic to enable non-expert users the ability to capture requirements for perception subsystems while reducing the necessity to have an experienced background in said logic. The domain-specific language for the Spatio-Temporal Perception Logic is built upon the formal language with two abstractions. The main abstraction captures simple programming statements that are translated to a lower-level STPL expression accepted by the testing monitor. The STPL DSL provides a seamless interface to writing formal expressions while maintaining the power and expressiveness of STPL. These translated equivalent expressions are capable of directing a standard for perception systems to ensure the safety and reduce the risks involved in ill-formed detections.

Animals encounter information from different resources simultaneously, integrating input from multiple sensory systems before responding behaviorally. When different cues interact with one another, they may enhance, diminish, or have no impact on their responses. In this project, we test how the presence of chemical cues affect the perception of visual cues. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) often use both chemical cues and visual cues to communicate with shoal mates, to assess predation risk, and to locate food. For example, zebrafish rely on both olfactory cues and visual cues for kin recognition, and they frequently use both chemical and visual cues to search for and to capture prey. In zebrafish, the terminal nerve (TN) constitutes the olfacto-visual centrifugal pathway and connects the olfactory bulb with the retina, thus allowing olfactory perception also to activate visual receptors. Past studies have found that the presence of an olfactory cue can modulate visual sensitivity in zebrafish through the terminal nerve pathway. Alternatively, given that zebrafish are highly social, the presence of social chemical cues may distract individuals from responding to other visual cues, such as food and predator visual cues. Foraging and predator chemical cues, including chemical food cues and alarm cues, may also distract individuals from responding to non-essential visual cues. Here, we test whether the response to a visual cue either increases or decreases when presented in concert with alanine, an amino acid that represents the olfactory cues of zebrafish prey. We found that the presence of chemical cues did not affect whether zebrafish responded to visual cues, but that the fish took longer to respond to visual cues when chemical cues were also present. These findings suggest that different aspects of behavior could be affected by the interaction between sensory modalities. We also found that this impact of delayed response was significant only when the visual cue<br/>was weak compared to the strength of the chemical cue, suggesting that the salience of interacting cues may also have an influence on determining the outcomes of the interactions. Overall, the interactive effects of chemicals on an animal’s response to visual cues may also have wide-ranging impacts on behavior including foraging, mating, and evading predators, and the interaction of cues may affect different aspects of the same behavior.

Exploratory Play is a universal experience that occurs throughout different kinds of childhoods. This study investigates how children’s vocabulary and exploratory play are influenced by how the caregiver responds to the child’s communicative bids. We hypothesize that if caregivers use more open-ended questions in response to their child’s communicative bids, children will show higher rates of exploration during free play.

CubeSats can encounter a myriad of difficulties in space like cosmic rays, temperature<br/>issues, and loss of control. By creating better, more reliable software, these problems can be<br/>mitigated and increase the chance of success for the mission. This research sets out to answer the<br/>question: how do we create reliable flight software for CubeSats? by providing a concentrated<br/>list of the best flight software development practices. The CubeSat used in this research is the<br/>Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture (DORA) CubeSat, which is a 3U CubeSat that seeks to<br/>demonstrate optical communication data rates of 1 Gbps over long distances. We present an<br/>analysis over many of the flight software development practices currently in use in the industry,<br/>from industry leads NASA, and identify three key flight software development areas of focus:<br/>memory, concurrency, and error handling. Within each of these areas, the best practices were<br/>defined for how to approach the area. These practices were also developed using experience<br/>from the creation of flight software for the DORA CubeSat in order to drive the design and<br/>testing of the system. We analyze DORA’s effectiveness in the three areas of focus, as well as<br/>discuss how following the best practices identified helped to create a more reliable flight<br/>software system for the DORA CubeSat.

This case study describes an adult patient whose brachial plexus injury was treated with various modalities and exercise. The participant of this study was a 76 year old female who sustained a brachial plexus injury during an elective reverse total shoulder arthroplasty. The initial evaluation reported only passive range of motion with 90 degrees shoulder flexion, 85 degrees abduction, and 30 degrees external rotation. Muscle testing yielded significantly limited wrist and digit extension strength. Testing of sensation found diminished protective sensation along the median nerve distribution, including the thumb, index finger, and middle finger. Occupational therapy was initiated for postoperative treatment of the shoulder as well as treatment of the brachial plexus palsy. Therapy consisted of static splinting for healing structures and sensory reeducation through massage, finding objects with the eyes occluded, and fluidotherapy. Additionally, various exercises and modalities for improving motion and strength were initiated, including proprioceptive neuromuscular reeducation, passive/active assist/active exercises, dynamic splinting, muscle stimulation, kinesio tape, functional activities, and tendon glides. After five months, active range of motion in the shoulder, elbow, and wrist was finally achieved and median nerve sensation had improved. After nine months, elbow motion was within normal limits and wrist motion had significantly improved. Upon muscle testing, the elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand had made significant gains in strength. However, shoulder strength and motion was still limited. Overall, treatment made a significant improvement in the patient’s functionality.

Within the pediatric hospitalization experience, fear and anxiety are two emotions commonly felt by children of all ages. Hospitalized children can greatly benefit from interventions designed to help them cope with these emotions throughout their medical experiences. This study draws on each of our clinical experiences as volunteers at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and uses a qualitative analysis of three semi-structured interviews with currently employed Child Life Specialists to understand and analyze the use of medical play, a form of play intervention with a medical theme or medical equipment. We explore the goals and benefits of medical play for hospitalized pediatric patients, the process of using medical play as an intervention, including the activity design process, the assessments and adjustments made throughout the child’s hospitalization, and the considerations and limitations to implementing medical play activities. Ultimately, we found that the element of fun that defines play can be channeled into medical play activities implemented by skilled Child Life Specialists, who are experts in their field, in clinical settings to promote several different and beneficial goals, including pediatric patient coping.

"No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth." These were the words of former Facebook Vice President Chamath Palihapitiya who publicly expressed his regret in a 2017 interview over his role in co-creating Facebook. Palihapitiya shared that social media is ripping apart the social fabric of society and he also sounded the alarm regarding social media’s unavoidable global impact. He is only one of social media’s countless critics. The more disturbing issue resides in the empirical evidence supporting such notions. At least 95% of adolescents own a smartphone and spend an average time of two to four hours a day on social media. Moreover, 91% of 16-24-year-olds use social media, yet youth rate Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as the worst social media platforms. However, the social, clinical, and neurodevelopment ramifications of using social media regularly are only beginning to emerge in research. Early research findings show that social media platforms trigger anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and other negative mental health effects. These negative mental health symptoms are commonly reported by individuals from of 18-25-years old, a unique period of human development known as emerging adulthood. Although emerging adulthood is characterized by identity exploration, unbounded optimism, and freedom from most responsibilities, it also serves as a high-risk period for the onset of most psychological disorders. Despite social media’s adverse impacts, it retains its utility as it facilitates identity exploration and virtual socialization for emerging adults. Investigating the “user-centered” design and neuroscience underlying social media platforms can help reveal, and potentially mitigate, the onset of negative mental health consequences among emerging adults. Effectively deconstructing the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (i.e., hereafter referred to as “The Big Three”) will require an extensive analysis into common features across platforms. A few examples of these design features include: like and reaction counters, perpetual news feeds, and omnipresent banners and notifications surrounding the user’s viewport. Such social media features are inherently designed to stimulate specific neurotransmitters and hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and cortisol. Identifying such predacious social media features that unknowingly manipulate and highjack emerging adults’ brain chemistry will serve as a first step in mitigating the negative mental health effects of today’s social media platforms. A second concrete step will involve altering or eliminating said features by creating a social media platform that supports and even enhances mental well-being.

In this thesis I will explore deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM) in autistic people due to new evidence that they do not completely lack a ToM. A new theory is proposed, claiming that autistic people use a Hyper Theory of Mind (HyperToM) which has some application and processing differences from typical ToM. The HyperToM test will be administered as an online questionnaire that includes a self-reported Autism Quotient (AQ) section. The study is done in low support needs autistic (LSA) adults, which should have a developed ToM due to age and ability. Results showed some correlations with the AQ symptoms and HyperToM, but not enough diagnosed autistic people (9) participated in this study for significant results.

Appearance ideals are standards of beauty imposed by a culture or society, that are unrealistic and impossible to achieve. Research documents the existence of three appearance ideals, thin, muscular and hourglass ideals. The thin ideal is the pursuit of a very thin and low body weight. The muscular ideal is the pursuit of a toned and fit body. The hourglass ideal is the pursuit of a shapely body with bigger breasts and hips/buttocks than waist. These ideals are associated with disordered eating. However, no current study has examined the prevalence of all three ideals, or how the combination of ideals relates to dietary restraint, one example of a disordered eating behavior. This study was conducted on 505 undergraduate women at Arizona State University, who were completing research credit for a psychology course. The women participated in an online survey that assessed their demographics, each ideal, and dietary restraint. Results show that all combinations of ideals exist. Specifically, 41.5% of the sample endorse high levels of all three ideals, while 12.5% report thin and muscular ideals, 9.5% report thin and hourglass ideals, 9.9% report hourglass and muscular ideals, 8.4% report low levels of all three ideals, 6.4% report muscular ideal only, 6.4% report hourglass ideal only, and 5.6% report thin ideal only. Endorsing more than one ideal significantly associated with dietary restraint. Findings fulfill an important gap in the literature, suggest future directions for research, and have important clinical implications.