​​Social curiosity, a desire to learn about others, may play an important role in socio-cognitive development in early childhood. However, we poorly understand whether and how social curiosity is elicited. In this study, we examined the malleability of social curiosity in young children by developing a “Social Uncertainty Paradigm.” Children aged 5 to 8 (30 collected, target N = 105) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (Social Curiosity (SC), General Curiosity (GC), or No Curiosity (NC)) and introduced two learning objectives: the new person (Sam) and new object (Apple House). Participants had 10 chances to gather information about either Sam and the Apple House. In SC, participants obtained 4 times more facts about Sam than the Apple House. The reverse was true for GC. To maximize uncertainty (a lack of information), the experimenter remarked about the difference in the amount of information they gathered. In NC, participants obtained the same amount of facts about Sam the Apple House. Next, participants’ social curiosity were measured with two tasks: Choice Task measuring their preference for learning between Sam and the Apple House and Rating Task measuring the degree to which they want to learn more about both Sam and the Apple House (5-point Likert scale). Preliminary results suggest that creating uncertainty in social information elicits social curiosity and is associated with more active information seeking behaviors to fill the knowledge gap. The current study will provide practical information that could be used for creating social curiosity-promoting environments.

This project was an exploratory take on outreach in the life sciences - looking into the existing literature and practices and formulating a proof of concept for future outreach with synthesizes my findings. The research culminated in the creation of an insect guide for the novice observer, which reads as a modern take on the dichotomous key and allows amateur insect observers to develop some skills of identification with relatively little entomological knowledge.

As fan demographics of major professional sports continue to increase in age, research on youth fandom continues to be a topic of interest for researchers. There are relatively few studies in the space that adequately address the issue of an aging population of fans and highlight the importance of growing fandom starting at a young age. There have been previous studies that have looked at sports fandom and age demographics on a broader scale. This thesis aims to add on to that research by focusing more closely on younger fans and their experience with baseball prior to their college years. The data presented in this thesis was conducted through a predominately qualitative online questionnaire. This research is primarily focused on investigating three topics of interest within the consumer behavior realm of the sports industry. First, to provide a baseline understanding of what factors in childhood potentially impact a person’s likelihood of fandom as they age. Second, to look into promotions and activations that could potentially influence a consumer's behaviors and likelihood of attendance at a Major League game. Third, to provide a comprehensive look at whether or not the understanding of baseball impacts if a person is a fan of the sport. With the data collected from this research, the MLB and individual professional baseball teams can look into ways to capitalize on the findings of the research to promote youth fan engagement. Furthermore, this research identifies a significant need for the league and/or teams to invest in youth fandom and fandom enhancement opportunities.

Beautiful and rich in history, the Arabic language is spoken by over 422 million people. The language has significant social and political importance, and it is increasingly taught in universities around the United States. When languages are taught their aim should be not only to teach learners to communicate effectively, but also to gain a deep understanding and respect of culture, people, and history. The Al-Kitaab textbook series by Georgetown University Press is utilized as the main learning material in most universities in the United States to teach Arabic language. The highly political and negative nature of the series limits students’ comprehension to a political perspective influenced by the conflicts in the Middle East and has a severe impact on not only students’ learning ability but also their perception of the Arabic language and culture. While the series sufficiently provides the political vocabulary necessary for roles in government, it overlooks the importance of a full understanding of the cultural richness and nuances of the Arabic language necessary for an appreciation of history, arts, and literature of the region. The overarching objective of this project is to analyze the Georgetown University Press Al-Kitaab textbook series for Arabic language instruction and compare it to the Vista Higher Learning Sentieri textbook for Italian language instruction to plan a new Arabic curriculum to increase student enrollment. This comparison will explore recurring themes present in each textbook series and display the detrimental and outdated depictions of Arab culture presented throughout the Al-Kitaab series. Different aspects of the textbooks will be discussed including vocabulary and vocabulary progression, biographies of important figures, in-text activities, reading passages, and recurrent themes. Through revamping the learning materials used to teach Arabic, Arizona State University (ASU) and the School of International Letters and Cultures (SILC) can become innovative leaders in the instruction of university-level Arabic language.

Romantic relationship research has focused on various characteristics of individual and partner dynamics including intimacy and trust which are important aspects of relationship success. High levels of intimacy in relationships is associated with commitment, passion, psychosocial identity, and lower self-consciousness. Similarly, trust involves the perception of stability and consistency in partner behavior that is in accordance with one’s best interests. Another aspect of romantic relationships that has been heavily researched is attachment style which has been shown to strongly influence how partners behave in relationships. Couples that face relationship challenges have been found to benefit from dance and movement therapy. Current research does not investigate the interactions of all of these facets of relationships and how they might be improved. Therefore, the present study strives to explore how established research on trust, intimacy, and attachment style can be used to improve relationships in the context of dance and movement. The experimental group consisted of 7 couples who participated in partnership dance lessons over the course of one month. The control group consisted of 9 couples who did not participate in the classes. We predicted that partnership dance classes would increase intimacy and trust in couples. We also investigated how attachment style might be implicated in this change. Results show a significant increase in intimacy for participants in the experimental group who participated in partnership dance classes. There was no significant increase in trust. While some participants did change attachment style throughout the study, the majority of participants retained their attachment style from the beginning of the study. Future research should focus on what types of dance are most beneficial for romantic couples, coding participant emotions during the dance class, and how the approach to teaching impacts participants’ experience.

Birds have been found to possess naturally high blood glucose levels compared to other mammals of similar sizes (Braun and Sweazea, 2008). Additionally, birds utilize lipids as their primary source of fuel yet continue to have high resting blood glucose levels (Landys et al., 2005). It has been hypothesized that the underlying cause of this is a preference to oxidize fatty acids rather than carbohydrates, which results in the production of glycerol (a precursor to gluconeogenesis). Thus, the role of gluconeogenesis in blood glucose regulation in birds was examined in this study. We captured seven mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) in Tempe, Arizona, and allowed them to acclimate to their new environment for two weeks. One bird was released prior to experimentation due to poor acclimation. Over a course of six weeks following this acclimation period, birds were administered either metformin (an inhibitor of gluconeogenesis that is commonly used in type 2 diabetes patients) at 150 mg/kg or 300 mg/kg, a compound called DAB (1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-D-arabinitol) at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg that acts to inhibit glycogenolysis (a potential compensatory mechanism that elevates blood sugar), or a control (water). Blood draws were conducted at 0, 5, and 15 minutes following each treatment. In this crossover design study, each bird received one treatment each week. In the first phase of this study, Kreisler et al. found that 150 mg/kg metformin significantly increased blood glucose whereas 300 mg/kg metformin did not increase over two hours. These observations held true in the current acute study as well. Additionally, Kreisler et al. observed no effect of METDAB (150 mg/kg metformin and 2.5 mg/kg DAB) on blood glucose compared to the control, indicating that DAB effectively inhibited glycogenolysis induced by metformin. Contrary to this, the current study observed a significant increase (p<0.05) in blood glucose over 15 minutes after administration of METDAB, suggesting that DAB does not act within a shorter period of time. While metformin increases blood glucose within only 5 minutes, the longer timeframe with which DAB acts was not sufficient to prevent the increase. Additionally, when administered alone, DAB had no effect on blood glucose concentrations over a 2-hour period. This suggests that glycogenolysis is most likely not activated in healthy mourning doves under fed conditions and that gluconeogenesis plausibly plays a much larger role.

Birds naturally have high circulating blood glucose concentrations compared to other vertebrates. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain their high levels including the lack of an insulin responsive glucose transport protein, higher circulating glucagon concentrations, as well as a reliance on lipid oxidation to fuel the high metabolic demands for flight. We suspected the latter may result in the production of the gluconeogenic precursor, glycerol. Therefore, we examined the hypothesis that gluconeogenesis, via glycerol, contributes to the naturally high glucose concentrations in birds (Madiraju et al., 2014). We captured seven mourning doves, Zenaida macroura, in Tempe, AZ, USA and acclimated the birds to captivity for two weeks. In this crossover design study, doves received either an oral inhibitor of gluconeogenesis (150 or 300 mg/kg metformin) or water (50 ul) each week. We measured blood glucose concentrations using a glucometer at baseline, 30, 60 and 120 minutes following the oral dose. In contrast to mammals and chickens, 300 mg/kg metformin did not alter blood glucose (p>0.05) and 150 mg/kg metformin significantly increased blood glucose concentrations (p=0.043) compared to the oral bolus of water. To examine whether the low dose of metformin stimulated glycogenolysis, thus causing the hyperglycemic effect, we administered the low dose of metformin along with an inhibitor of glycogenolysis, 2.5 mg/kg 1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-D-arabinitol (DAB), which prevented the hyperglycemic response (p>0.05 vs. water). These data suggest that low doses of metformin activate glycogenolysis. It is possible that glycogenolysis is also activated at the higher dose, but glycogen may be depleted early on resulting in no measurable changes, given the present study design. In conclusion, and in contrast to the hypothesis, mourning doves may not rely on gluconeogenesis to maintain their naturally high blood glucose concentrations under fed conditions, although further studies with more specific gluconeogenic antagonists and under fasted conditions may be needed to confirm these findings.