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- Creators: School of Life Sciences
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Ethnic, Familial, and Cultural Barriers Impacting non-White Representation in Environmental Programs
Description
Non-White minorities represent nearly half of the US population and strongly support environmental protection but are severely underrepresented in environmental careers and natural resource-related degree programs. What factors contribute to this disparity in environment career choice? Previous research has indicated that students career decisions are influenced by family and culture as they related to self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations towards different occupation choices. In this paper, I explored the importance of familial and cultural factors in career choice decisions to understand the motivations of non-White minority students to enter and remain in college degree programs within environmental disciplines. I surveyed 122 students enrolled in both environmental and non-environmental degree programs at Arizona State University. I measured family and cultural influence using the “Family Influence Scale” and “Orthogonal Cultural Identification Scale” respectively. I hypothesized that non-White students in environmental degree programs are influenced less by their families and are more acculturated to the dominant Anglo culture compared to non-White students in non-environmental degree programs. I found no significant relationship between ethnicity, family influence, or acculturation on the degree choices of students. Interestingly, family influence on students’ career decisions was most influenced by home language, household income, and acculturation to the dominant culture. Students more acculturated to Anglo culture reported higher familial influence. Higher income and non-English speaking households also reported higher levels of family influence. Acculturation and language in particular are interesting factors related to family influence and warrant further analysis especially in relation to non-White student participation in environmental careers.
ContributorsGutierrez, Luis (Co-author, Co-author) / Hall, Sharon (Thesis director) / Budruk, Megha (Thesis director) / Salgado, Casandra (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In examining the popular culture of the United States today, one would find themselves hard-pressed to avoid mentions of texts and films that fall within the fantasy genre. In fact, many works within this genre find themselves amongst the ranks of the best-selling books and movies of all time (Moor; Harding and Thompson). Outside of their economic success, these stories have become an integral part of American culture. Extending from the domination of the entertainment industry, the characters and stories of the fantasy genre have influenced the collective ideals and perspectives of the United States population. Websites such as DeviantArt and Archive of Our Own serve as testament to how these stories inspire their fans, boasting thousands of pieces of artwork and writing that have been inspired by various fantasy texts and films. Beyond this, characters featured in these stories find themselves being applied elsewhere, ranging from their prevalence in online meme culture to their use during times of political strife. A notable example of this is a photograph of a protestor holding up a large sign boasting the claim that “Dumbledore wouldn’t let this happen,” which later became viral and was posted across several media platforms (whiskey-tango). The importance and impact of the fantasy genre can clearly be seen to take on many forms, and can be observed as playing a larger role than simple entertainment in the lives of the American public. While all of these examples highlight the deeply embedded nature of these tales in popular culture, it begs the question as to how and why these stories got to this status.
ContributorsKrolick, Samantha Rae (Author) / Cruse, Markus (Thesis director) / Fong, Benjamin (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Dean, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The purpose of this study was to determine current feelings of veterinary staff on their relation to the topics of burnout and compassion fatigue in their field. Additionally, this study was used to determine possible solutions to these mental health issues facing veterinary staff, with solutions coming straight from staff members themselves. Burnout, often experienced by healthcare workers, is a “state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity” (Mayo Clinic 2018). Compassion fatigue is a loss of empathy to stressful or emotionally draining situations mostly due to frequent encounter with these situations. Using a survey conducted on veterinary professionals, opinions on attitudes toward work environments as well as thoughts on potential solutions to issues with burnout and compassion fatigue were analyzed. Survey respondents ranged from technicians and support staff to doctors and DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) students. Results of the survey showed that DVM students were under increased pressure, many respondents often felt tired before arriving to work, and doctors felt they did not perform their jobs with the same enthusiasm as when they first started in the field. However, many respondents indicated they were happy and invigorated by accomplishments in the workplace. The respondent comments also displayed a wide range of possible solutions to these mental health issues. Understanding the root causes of these issues as well as possible solutions to help alleviate them could help prevent harsh consequences such as suicide from occurring.
ContributorsOrcutt, Julia Clare (Author) / DeNardo, Dr. Dale (Thesis director) / Thatcher, Dr. Craig (Committee member) / Usiak-Mcbeth, Dr. Megan (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The epidemic of drug addiction continues to grow at an alarming rate and cocaine-related overdoses have increased by more than 33% over the last decade. Cocaine targets the mesolimbic reward system in the brain to produce the “high” felt when taking cocaine. There is currently no single cure for psychostimulant abuse, but researchers continue to find viable therapeutic options. Dopamine receptors have been a recent target for researchers. We tested a novel D3R-antagonist, SWR-5, with 905-fold D3/D2 selectivity, on addiction using a rat self- administration model and hypothesized that it would reduce motivation for cocaine. SWR-5 significantly reduced cocaine intake on a high-effort PR schedule at a dose of 10 mg/kg but did not affect sucrose intake. Also, SWR-5 did not affect either spontaneous or cocaine-induced locomotion. From our results, we concluded that SWR-5 affects motivation for cocaine, not sucrose, and does not produce adverse locomotor effects. Further research would include taking a behavioral economics approach to determine the cost/benefit ratio of taking the drug, as well as performing cue reinstatement tests to solidify whether SWR-5 plays a role in cocaine-seeking behavior.
ContributorsMokbel, Ayleen Marie Halim (Co-author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Vannan, Annika (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The human body’s immune system utilizes many different cell types, signaling proteins, and receptors to thwart an infectious pathogen from an individual. Adaptive immunity, particularly with CD4+ T cell lymphocytes & the MHC II receptor, was the focus of this paper by creating a custom destination vector plasmid, pFLIiP, which would contain a gateway cloning site and the nucleotides encoding the first 85 amino acids of the invariant chain protein upstream to provide a means of high-throughput antigen screening via the MHC II receptor and peptide processing pathway. The plasmid pFLIiP was successfully created and sequence verified. Both GFP and mCherry fluorescent proteins were inserted into pFLIiP via LR Clonase and successfully transfected into K562 cancer cells. Fluorescent activity read of a flow cytometer in conjunction with the differing pKa values of the two different fluorescent proteins suggested the fusion protein was in-frame and pFLIiP was successfully targeting the protein to the endosome.
ContributorsGrade, Dylan Beck (Author) / Anderson, Karen (Thesis director) / Hogue, Ian (Committee member) / Knappenberger, Mark (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In the early summer of 2018, I found myself driving back to Arizona from a friend’s graduation ceremony in southern Colorado. It was the middle of the day as I wound through the mountains. The drive was peaceful and smooth, with a warm sun and a pleasantly empty road keeping me company. The thick trees and rural farmland I drove past seemed like something from a movie, trying to further convince me that life here moved at a pace somewhat slower than what I was accustomed to. I approached a sign that read “Wolf’s Creek Pass,” and recalled my mother telling me to fully appreciate the beauty of it as I drove through; this was one of her favorite places to hike and explore with her dad when she was young, and she wanted me to experience the same beauty that she had often marveled at. I had driven through here a few days earlier and enjoyed the views as much as I could. On the way back, I decided that I would add to the experience by listening to an album I had recently discovered, Béla Fleck’s Ten from Little Worlds, a smaller sampling of his full 3-disc Little Worlds.
It was this moment that served as the inspiration for my creative thesis project. I was fascinated by the interplay between the music and the scenery around me; on top of appreciating the related moods that both facets evoked, it seemed at times as if certain transitions between sections and tracks in the album were mirrored by small changes or disruptions in the general scenery. While it was interesting enough to observe the natural similarities that seemed to exist simply by chance, I was eager to explore the idea of taking a specific stretch of scenery and composing a piece of music that complemented and interacted with it.
It was this moment that served as the inspiration for my creative thesis project. I was fascinated by the interplay between the music and the scenery around me; on top of appreciating the related moods that both facets evoked, it seemed at times as if certain transitions between sections and tracks in the album were mirrored by small changes or disruptions in the general scenery. While it was interesting enough to observe the natural similarities that seemed to exist simply by chance, I was eager to explore the idea of taking a specific stretch of scenery and composing a piece of music that complemented and interacted with it.
ContributorsBitter, Nathan Adam (Author) / Caslor, Jason (Thesis director) / Temple, Alex (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Ephrem the Syrian was a prominent Syriac theologian and poet of the fourth century. He was born in modern day Turkey where he was likely raised a Christian. In Ephrem’s time, the subordinationist heresy was prevalent. Ephrem’s historical and cultural background are important to understand Ephrem’s theology presented in his work. Ephrem wrote many theological works, being most known for his hymns. Ephrem used many symbols in his hymns including the one and the many, the divinity as fire, and the pearl. The pearl has Scriptural and historical significance to Ephrem. Ephrem uses the pearl as a polyvalent symbol that symbolizes, among other things, Mary, the kingdom of God, and Christ. In this paper, I explore how Ephrem’s Christology in his five hymns on the pearl contrast with that of the subordinationists by highlighting the mystery that is Christ’s nature, the incomprehensibility of Christ’s nature by the human mind, and the attempt to fully understand Christ’s nature as a manifestation of pride.
ContributorsBarakat, Rita John (Author) / Clay, Eugene (Thesis director) / Hartung, Blake (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / Educational Leadership & Innovation, Division (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Human trafficking is a widespread global health issue impacting communities both locally and globally. Despite its prevalence in our world, there is a lack of education amongst healthcare providers. Research suggests that more than 80 percent of human trafficking victims encountered one or more healthcare professionals while being trafficked. Of these providers encountered, 60 percent were emergency department personnel (Lederer & Wetzel, 2014). Although emergency department personnel have a high rate in interaction with victims, less than 5 percent have received formal training regarding human trafficking (Lederer & Wetzel, 2014). It is my goal to better educate current and future healthcare professionals on human trafficking. Through education, more victims can be recognized and be offered the resources they deserve. In order to do this, I want to understand current perceptions, knowledge, and beliefs that healthcare personnel have, and how education affects these perceptions. To gain this information, I will distribute the same survey to healthcare professionals before and after receiving a formal training on human trafficking. Through this survey, I hope to better understand how education affects people’s perceptions, knowledge, and beliefs on human trafficking.
ContributorsWilson, Lauren Noelle (Author) / Calvin, Samantha (Thesis director) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
As ASU students, we saw that our peers had opinions regarding sustainable issues, but did not feel like their voices were being heard by the university. We saw a space we could fill to promote engagement and let students know that they could participate in finding sustainable solutions to problems they faced around campus. This created our venture which works to promote engagement through sustainable solutions. We ran a successful competition with students and local professionals by focusing on sustainability topics students were interested in. Promoting engagement can often come across as disingenuous and thus serve the opposite effect of its function. By centering around the topic of tailored sustainability related competitions, we can direct goodwill to the organizations by harnessing the positive feelings individuals have toward sustainability topics.
ContributorsDesmond, Sarah C (Co-author) / Williams, Brock (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Miller, Clark (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Extensive research on the human mother-child relationship has led to the investigation of how relationships between dogs (Canis lupus var. familiaris) and humans compare. Studies suggest that dogs share a strong affectional bond with their owners and if put under stressful situations, exhibit key characteristics of attachment also observed in human babies. The goal of this review is to assess a variety of studies that explore different ways of measuring attachment between dogs and humans, beginning with a discussion of the Ainsworth Strange Situation Test (SST). The SST provides a foundation for the first studies that introduced attachment to the canine science field. It also aids in linking numerous attachment studies that look into different factors like the ages and physiology of the dogs, varying degrees of familiar people interacting with the dogs, owner-reported attitudes and behaviors, and the connection to wolves’ attachments with humans. I propose ways in which this particular scientific field can be enhanced and place a heavy emphasis on the implications of studying attachment particularly in shelter dogs. Synthesis and evaluation of the significant research on dog-human connections will not only lead to ways of fostering better relationships between owners and their dogs, but also allows us to better appreciate the special bond we have with dogs that lets us learn more every day.
Keywords: dog, attachment, human-animal interaction, animal shelter, dog behavior, preference
assessment
Keywords: dog, attachment, human-animal interaction, animal shelter, dog behavior, preference
assessment
ContributorsQuintana, Victoria A. (Author) / Wynne, Clive (Thesis director) / Gilchrist, Rachel (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05