Much of Nepal lacks access to clean drinking water, and many water sources are contaminated with arsenic at concentrations above both World Health Organization and local Nepalese guidelines. While many water treatment technologies exist, it is necessary to identify those that are easily implementable in developing areas. One simple treatment that has gained popularity is biochar—a porous, carbon-based substance produced through pyrolysis of biomass in an oxygen-free environment. Arizona State University’s Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) has partnered with communities in Nepal in an attempt to increase biochar production in the area, as it has several valuable applications including water treatment. Biochar’s arsenic adsorption capability will be investigated in this project with the goal of using the biochar that Nepalese communities produce to remove water contaminants. It has been found in scientific literature that biochar is effective in removing heavy metal contaminants from water with the addition of iron through surface activation. Thus, the specific goal of this research was to compare the arsenic adsorption disparity between raw biochar and iron-impregnated biochar. It was hypothesized that after numerous bed volumes pass through a water treatment column, iron from the source water will accumulate on the surface of raw biochar, mimicking the intentionally iron-impregnated biochar and further increasing contaminant uptake. It is thus an additional goal of this project to compare biochar loaded with iron through an iron-spiked water column and biochar impregnated with iron through surface oxidation. For this investigation, the biochar was crushed and sieved to a size between 90 and 100 micrometers. Two samples were prepared: raw biochar and oxidized biochar. The oxidized biochar was impregnated with iron through surface oxidation with potassium permanganate and iron loading. Then, X-ray fluorescence was used to compare the composition of the oxidized biochar with its raw counterpart, indicating approximately 0.5% iron in the raw and 1% iron in the oxidized biochar. The biochar samples were then added to batches of arsenic-spiked water at iron to arsenic concentration ratios of 20 mg/L:1 mg/L and 50 mg/L:1 mg/L to determine adsorption efficiency. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis indicated an 86% removal of arsenic using a 50:1 ratio of iron to arsenic (1.25 g biochar required in 40 mL solution), and 75% removal with a 20:1 ratio (0.5 g biochar required in 40 mL solution). Additional samples were then inserted into a column process apparatus for further adsorption analysis. Again, ICP-MS analysis was performed and the results showed that while both raw and treated biochars were capable of adsorbing arsenic, they were exhausted after less than 70 bed volumes (234 mL), with raw biochar lasting 60 bed volumes (201 mL) and oxidized about 70 bed volumes (234 mL). Further research should be conducted to investigate more affordable and less laboratory-intensive processes to prepare biochar for water treatment.

In this Barrett Honors Thesis, I developed a model to quantify the complexity of Sankey diagrams, which are a type of visualization technique that shows flow between groups. To do this, I created a carefully controlled dataset of synthetic Sankey diagrams of varying sizes as study stimuli. Then, a pair of online crowdsourced user studies were conducted and analyzed. User performance for Sankey diagrams of varying size and features (number of groups, number of timesteps, and number of flow crossings) were algorithmically modeled as a formula to quantify the complexity of these diagrams. Model accuracy was measured based on the performance of users in the second crowdsourced study. The results of my experiment conclusively demonstrates that the algorithmic complexity formula I created closely models the visual complexity of the Sankey Diagrams in the dataset.

In theory, Electric Vehicle (EV) ownership and renewable energy seem like a perfect solution to our climate crisis; however, unless done properly, the effects can be less than ideal. We need to find a way to maximize the impact of our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, which is exactly what the heart of my paper gets to. Carbon emissions are bad for the environment because they comprise a large majority of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases have recently become dramatically out of balance and have resulted in an increase in respiratory diseases from smog and air pollution, as well as extreme weather and an increase in wildfires. Getting these greenhouse gases back in balance and maintaining an ecological balance is the goal of sustainability. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA), transportation makes up 29% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US followed closely by electricity generation at 28%, which makes Electric Vehicles the perfect target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions<br/>Arizona has many unique constraints when it comes to its electric infrastructure and its electric generation energy mix, which means the impacts of EV ownership become extremely complicated.<br/> In my paper, I aim to address the question: What are the carbon impact effects of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Arizona through the lens of 1) the time of day that charging occurs, 2) the infrastructure needed to support EV penetration and 3) the incentives given to the public to help provide the impetus for making greener choices? Using the best available research on how EVs are being adopted to reduce emissions, I will provide conclusive recommendations and a framework for how Arizona can best reduce carbon emissions through EVs.

The purpose of this research is to exploit the neglect of specific populations and diseases in Latin America through an epidemiological literature review. As a small part of a larger publication, the foci of this research was the infectious disease, helminthiasis. Using manually indexed abstracts from the National Library of Medicine database in PubMed, 4,594 papers were synthesized and then processed for further review. Of those papers, 29 provided information about helminths in indigenous populations. These papers were reviewed and used in prevalence data extraction and variable analysis. The main conclusion was to reveal the fact that from an entire health database less than 30 papers provided information about the persistence of helminths in indigenous communities of Latin America. Not only that but the few papers that could be analyzed had consistently high prevalence ratios.

The microbiome and the immune system are known to work in conjunction to modulate the clearance of pathogens and tolerance of beneficial microbes. A growing area of research seeks to study the potential extent of the involvement of the microbiome in modulating and supporting the immune system during acute allograft rejection. It has been hypothesized that the localized microbiota in each organ produce metabolites that instigate inflammatory immune responses, but whether microbiota interactions precipitate acute allograft rejection is unknown. Therefore, this study focuses on microbiome shifts in the gut and kidney after inducing acute renal transplant rejection in order to implicate gut dysbiosis as a precursor or supporter of allograft rejection. This study also subsequently explores the use of an immune-modulating protein in order to determine differences in the outcome of transplant rejection and potential differences in intestinal microbial load. This experiment sought to induce rejection in BALB/c mice through the use of C57BL/6 mouse renal slivers. Microbiome abundance was analyzed in all experimental groups. Understanding the role of the microbiome in transplant rejection has vast clinical implications and has the potential to enhance pre- and post-operative treatment, and immune management and quality of life following organ transplant.

Generating an astounding $110.7 billion annually in domestic revenue alone [1], the world of accounting is one deceptively lacking automation of its most business-critical processes. While accounting tools do exist for the common person, especially when it is time to pay their taxes, such innovations scarcely exist for many larger industrial tasks. Exceedingly common business events, such as Business Combinations, are surprisingly manual tasks despite their $1.1 trillion valuation in 2020 [2]. This work presents the twin accounting solutions TurboGAAP and TurboIFRS: an unprecedented leap into these murky waters in an attempt to automate and streamline these gigantic accounting tasks once entrusted only to teams of experienced accountants.
A first-to-market approach to a trillion-dollar problem, TurboGAAP and TurboIFRS are the answers for years of demands from the accounting sector that established corporations have never solved.

This podcast considers the history of online courses in higher education and research into them, focusing on how well they serve a diverse student population. It considers how online learning developed, and how studies into the practices and effectiveness of online courses find inequality in academic outcomes and access. The podcast explores how research approaches bring to light these inequalities or fail to consider them. The future of online learning is also considered.

Since the inception of what is now known as the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1970s, criminal profiling has become an increasingly prevalent entity in both forensic science and the popular imagination. The fundamental idea of which profiling is premised – behavior as a reflection of personality – has been the subject of a great deal of misunderstanding, with professionals and nonprofessionals alike questioning whether profiling represents an art or a science and what its function in forensic science should be. To provide a more thorough understanding of criminal profiling’s capabilities and its efficacy as a law enforcement tool, this thesis will examine the application of criminal profiling to investigations, various court rulings concerning profiling’s admissibility, and the role that popular media plays in the perception and function of the practice. It will also discuss how future research and regulatory advancements may strengthen criminal profiling’s scientific merit and legitimacy.

Music has consistently been documented as a manner to bring people together across cultures throughout the world. In this research, we propose that people use similar musical tastes as a strong sign of potential social connection. To investigate this notion, we draw on literature examining how music merges the public/private self, the link to personality, and group identity, as well as how it is linked to romantic relationships. Thus, music can be a tool when wanting to get to know someone else and/or forge a platonic relationship. To test this hypothesis, we designed an experiment comparing music relative to another commonality (sharing a sports team in common) to see which factor is stronger in triggering an online social connection. We argue that people believe they have more in common with someone who shares similar music taste compared to other commonalities. We discuss implications for marketers on music streaming platforms.