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Description
As the prevalence and awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) increases, so does the variety of treatment options for primary symptoms (social interaction, communication, behavior) and secondary symptoms (anxiety, hyperactivity, GI problems, and insomnia). Various treatments, from Adderall to Citalopram to Flax Seed Oil promise relief for these symptoms. However,

As the prevalence and awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) increases, so does the variety of treatment options for primary symptoms (social interaction, communication, behavior) and secondary symptoms (anxiety, hyperactivity, GI problems, and insomnia). Various treatments, from Adderall to Citalopram to Flax Seed Oil promise relief for these symptoms. However, very little research has actually been done on some of these treatments. Additionally, the research that has been done fails to compare these treatments against one another in terms of symptom relief. The Autism Treatment Effectiveness Survey, written by Dr. James Adams, director of the Autism/Asperger's Research Program at ASU, and graduate student/program coordinator Devon Coleman, aims to fill this gap. The survey numerically rates medications based on benefit and adverse effects, in addition to naming specific symptoms that are impacted by the treatments. However, the survey itself was retrospective in nature and requires further evidence to support its claims. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to evaluate evidence related to the results of the survey. After the performing an extensive literature review of over 70 different treatments, it appears that the findings of the Autism Treatment Effectiveness Survey are generally well supported. There were a few minor discrepancies regarding the primary benefitted symptom, but there was not enough of a conflict to discount the information from the survey. As research is still ongoing, conclusions cannot yet be drawn for Nutritional Supplements, although the current data looks promising.
ContributorsAnderson, Amy Lynn (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Coleman, Devon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
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Description
The vastly growing field of supercomputing is in dire need of a new measurement system to optimize JMRAM (Josephson junction magnetoresistive random access memory) devices. To effectively measure these devices, an ultra-low-noise, low cost cryogenic dipping probe with a dynamic voltage range is required. This dipping probe has been designed

The vastly growing field of supercomputing is in dire need of a new measurement system to optimize JMRAM (Josephson junction magnetoresistive random access memory) devices. To effectively measure these devices, an ultra-low-noise, low cost cryogenic dipping probe with a dynamic voltage range is required. This dipping probe has been designed by ASU with <100 nVp-p noise, <10 nV offsets, 10 pV to 16 mV voltage range, and negligible thermoelectric drift. There is currently no other research group or company that can currently match both these low noise levels and wide voltage range. Two different dipping probes can be created with these specifications: one for high-use applications and one for low-use applications. The only difference between these probes is the outer shell; the high-use application probe has a shell made of G-10 fiberglass for a higher price, and the low-use application probe has a shell made of AISI 310 steel for a lower price. Both types of probes can be assembled in less than 8 hours for less than $2,500, requiring only soldering expertise. The low cost and short time to create these probes makes wide profit margins possible. The market for these cryogenic dipping probes is currently untapped, as most research groups and companies that use these probes build their own, which allows for rapid business growth. These potential consumers can be easily reached by marketing these probes at superconducting conferences. After several years of selling >50 probes, mass production can easily become possible by hiring several technicians, and still maintaining wide profit margins.
ContributorsHudson, Brooke Ashley (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Anwar, Shahriar (Committee member) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The goal of the paper was to examine the fatigue mechanisms of polymers and silicone based elastomers. The mechanisms of fatigue due to crazing: the alignment of polymer chains to the stress axis, and shear banding: the localized orientation of the polymer by the shear stresses from two planes, were

The goal of the paper was to examine the fatigue mechanisms of polymers and silicone based elastomers. The mechanisms of fatigue due to crazing: the alignment of polymer chains to the stress axis, and shear banding: the localized orientation of the polymer by the shear stresses from two planes, were discussed in depth in this paper. Crazing only occurs in tensile stress, is initiated on the surface of the material, and only occurs in brittle polymers. Crazing also accounts for a 40-60% decrease in density, causing localized weakening of the material and a concentration in stress. This is due to a decrease in effective cross sectional area. The mechanism behind discontinuous growth bands was also discussed to be the cause of cyclic crazing. Shear banding only occurs in ductile polymers and can result in the failure of polymers via necking. Furthermore, the high fatigue resistance of silicone elastomers was discussed in this paper. This conclusion was made because of the lack of fatigue mechanisms (crazing, discontinuous growth bands, and shears banding) in the observed elastomer's microstructure after the samples had undergone fatigue tests. This was done through an analysis of room temperature vulcanized silicone adhesives, a heat-curing silicone elastomer, and a self-curing transparent silicone rubber. Fatigue of room temperature vulcanized silicon was observed, however this was reasoned to be the failure of the adhesion of the elastomer to the steel substrate instead of the microstructure itself. Additionally, the significance of fatigue in real world applications was discussed using SouthWest Airlines Flight 812 as an example.
ContributorsWong, Christopher Stanley (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Krause, Stephen (Committee member) / Anwar, Shahriar (Committee member) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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Description
Vitamins and minerals are, by definition, essential substances that are necessary for good health, and needed by every cell and organ to function appropriately. A deficiency of any one vitamin or mineral can be very serious. Although a very healthy diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and protein can provide sufficient

Vitamins and minerals are, by definition, essential substances that are necessary for good health, and needed by every cell and organ to function appropriately. A deficiency of any one vitamin or mineral can be very serious. Although a very healthy diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and protein can provide sufficient amounts of most vitamins and minerals, many people do not consume an adequate diet. During pregnancy, there is an increased need for vitamins and minerals to promote a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Prenatal supplements are intended to supplement a normal diet to ensure that adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals are consumed. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established Recommended Dietary Allowances for total vitamin/mineral intake from food and supplements, but they have not established recommendations for prenatal supplements. Therefore, there is a very wide variation in the content and quality of prenatal supplements. Many prenatal supplements contain only minimal levels of some vitamins and few or no minerals, in order to minimize cost and the number of pills. This results in insufficient vitamin/mineral supplementation for many women, and hence does not fully protect them or their children from pregnancy complications and health problems. Therefore, we have created our own set of recommendations for prenatal supplements. Our recommendations are based primarily on four sources: 1) FDA's Recommended Daily Allowances for pregnant women, which are estimated to meet the needs of 97.5% of healthy pregnant women. 2) FDA's Tolerable Upper Limit, which is the maximum amount of vitamins/minerals that can be safely consumed without any risk of health problems. 3) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which evaluates the average intake of vitamins and minerals by women ages 20-40 years in the US 4) Research studies on vitamin/mineral deficiencies or vitamin/mineral supplementation during pregnancy, and the effect on pregnancy, birth, and child health problems. In summary, the RDA establishes minimum recommended levels of vitamin/mineral intake from all sources, and the NHANES establishes the average intake from foods. The difference is what needs to be consumed in a supplement, on average. However, since people vary greatly in the quality of their diet, and since most vitamins and minerals have a high Tolerable Upper Limit, we generally recommend more than the difference between the RDA and the average NHANES. Vitamins generally have a larger Tolerable Upper Limit than do minerals. So, we recommend that prenatal vitamin/mineral supplements contain 100% of the RDA for most vitamins, and about 50% of the RDA for most minerals. However, based on additional research studies described below, in some cases we vary our recommendations from those averages.
ContributorsSorenson, Jacob (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Pollard, Elena (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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Description
The purpose of this honors project is to analyze the difference between different powder separation techniques, and their suitability for my capstone project – ‘Effect of Powder Reuse on DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) Product Integrity’. Due to the nature of my capstone project, my group needs to characterize foreign

The purpose of this honors project is to analyze the difference between different powder separation techniques, and their suitability for my capstone project – ‘Effect of Powder Reuse on DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) Product Integrity’. Due to the nature of my capstone project, my group needs to characterize foreign contaminants in IN 718 (Ni-based superalloy) powder with a mean diameter around 40um. In order to clearly analyze the contaminants and recycle useful IN 718 powders, powder separation is favorable since the filtered samples will be much easier to characterize rather than inspect all the powders at once under microscope. By conducting literature review, I found that powder separation is commonly used in Geology, and Chemistry department. To screen which combination of techniques could be the best for my project, I have consulted several research specialists, obtained adequate knowledge about powder separation. Accordingly, I will summarize the pros and cons of each method with regard the specific project that I am working on, and further explore the impacts of each method under economical, societal, and environmental considerations. Several powder separation techniques will be discussed in details in the following sections, including water elutriation, settling column, magnetic separation and centrifugation. In addition to these methods, sieving, water tabling and panning will be briefly introduced. After detailed comparison, I found that water elutriation is the most efficient way to purity IN718 powder for reuse purpose, and recovery rate is as high as 70%, which could result in a significant reduction in the manufacturing cost for Honeywell since currently Honeywell only use virgin powders to build parts, and 90% of the leftover powders are discarded.
ContributorsLuo, Zheyu (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Tasooji, Amaneh (Committee member) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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Description
Honeywell is currently extending the reach of additive manufacturing (AM) in its product line and expects to produce as much as 40% of its inventory through AM in five years. Additive manufacturing itself is expected to grow into a $3.1 billion dollar industry in the next 5 to 10 years.

Honeywell is currently extending the reach of additive manufacturing (AM) in its product line and expects to produce as much as 40% of its inventory through AM in five years. Additive manufacturing itself is expected to grow into a $3.1 billion dollar industry in the next 5 to 10 years. Reusing IN 718 powder, a nickel-based super alloy metal powder, is an ideal option to reduce costs as well as reduce waste because it can be used with additive manufacturing, but the main obstacles are lack of procedure standardization and product quality assurances from this process. The goal of the capstone project, "Effect of Powder Reuse on DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) Product Integrity," is to create a powder characterization protocol in order to determine if the IN 718 powder can be reused and what effect the IN 718 reused powder has on the mechanical properties of the products Honeywell fabricates. To provide context and impact of this capstone project, this paper serves to identify the benefits of AM for Honeywell and the cost effectiveness of reusing the powder versus using virgin powder every time. It was found that Honeywell's investment in AM is due to the cost effectiveness of AM, versatility in product design, and to ensure Honeywell remains competitive in the future. In terms of reducing expenses, reusing powder enables costs to be approximately 45% less than using virgin powder. With these key pieces of information, the motivations for this capstone project are understood to a fuller and more profound degree.
ContributorsQuigley, Elizabeth (Co-author) / Luo, Zheyu (Co-author) / Murella, Anoosha (Co-author) / Lee, Wey Lyn (Co-author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Tasooji, Amaneh (Committee member) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a disorder that makes learning, socializing and daily living much more challenging for affected children and adults because of their atypical behaviors. A few examples of these behaviors are repetitive movements, impulsive actions, inability to communicate in a social setting, and many more. There is a

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a disorder that makes learning, socializing and daily living much more challenging for affected children and adults because of their atypical behaviors. A few examples of these behaviors are repetitive movements, impulsive actions, inability to communicate in a social setting, and many more. There is a stigma behind autism that is caused by those who are not well informed on the disorder. These people lack information, and in the past, it was assumed that the disorder is caused by "bad parenting." The parents are then afraid of social shame brought upon them by their child and neglect or avoid a diagnosis for their child's disorder. This becomes a vicious cycle that has negative effects on the affected individuals and their loved ones. Neglect of a diagnosis may also be caused by misinformation interpreted by the parents as their child develops. The parents do not realize this child developing outside of normal behavioral patterns. Years of research have been done to attempt to alleviate the symptoms of autism and cure the disorder. The Autism and Asperger's Program at ASU has developed a year-long dietary plan that increases supplementation to alleviate nutritional deficiencies in participants with autism. These deficiencies include vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, sulfate, carnitine, and digestive enzymes such as sucrase, maltase, and lactase. The participants were also put on a gluten-free casein-free diet toward the end of the study. To test the effectiveness of the treatment, the Severity of Autism Scale (SAS) and Social Responsiveness Scales (SRS) were used. The SAS tested the overall severity of ASD participants by rating them from one to ten, ten being "very severe" in terms of ASD symptoms. The results of this scale were compared at the beginning of the study (day 0) and at the end of the study (day 365). The SRS tested the social responsiveness of participants in the form of overall SRS and five subscales that included awareness, cognition, communication, motivation, and mannerisms. These results were also compared at the beginning and end of the study. After analysis of the data, there seemed to be no correlation between age and severity of autism/social responsiveness of participants. There was also no statistically significant data to suggest that there was a correlation between gender and severity of autism/social responsiveness of participants. However, there was statistically significant evidence that the treatment group did improve over the non-treatment/delayed treatment group in both the SAS and SRS. Neither age nor gender had a significant effect on the effectiveness of the treatment. These positive findings suggest that the integrated dietary
utritional therapy was beneficial, and future research on dietary treatments for autism and other disorders is recommended. This may also further discoveries of affected epigenomes with regards to nutritional treatments in disorders like ASD. The epigenome is the methylation and demethylation of the genome that mediates gene expression.
ContributorsGutgsell, Crystal Megan (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Pollard, Elena (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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Description
This research examines the presentation of ASD in fictional children's literature. The goal is to use the research collected to determine what symptoms of ASD are receiving coverage versus what is not being covered but needs to be in a children's book about ASD. This was accomplished by first consulting

This research examines the presentation of ASD in fictional children's literature. The goal is to use the research collected to determine what symptoms of ASD are receiving coverage versus what is not being covered but needs to be in a children's book about ASD. This was accomplished by first consulting background literature on ASD before examining 40 children's books about characters on the spectrum. It was found that girls on the spectrum received less coverage than boys did, and that most books conformed to one of two types: looking at ASD through the eyes of a neurotypical child and looking at it through the eyes of a child who has it. This led to the proposed idea of a book about a girl on the spectrum that would alternate between her point of view and the point of view of her neurotypical friend, and the subsequent draft of said book.
ContributorsAnderson, Sarah (Contributor) / Baldini, Cajsa (Contributor) / Adams, James (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2014-12
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Description
Although wind turbine bearings are designed to operate 18-20 years, in the recent years premature failure among these bearings has caused this life to reduce to as low as a few months to a year. One of the leading causes of premature failure called white structure flaking is a mechanism

Although wind turbine bearings are designed to operate 18-20 years, in the recent years premature failure among these bearings has caused this life to reduce to as low as a few months to a year. One of the leading causes of premature failure called white structure flaking is a mechanism that was first cited in literature decades ago but not much is understood about it even today. The cause of this mode of failure results from the initiation of white etched cracks (WECs). In this report, different failure mechanisms, especially premature failure mechanisms that were tested and analyzed are demonstrated as a pathway to understanding this phenomenon. Through the use of various tribometers, samples were tested in diverse and extreme conditions in order to study the effect of these different operational conditions on the specimen. Analysis of the tested samples allowed for a comparison of the microstructure alterations in the tested samples to the field bearings affected by WSF.
ContributorsSharma, Aman (Author) / Foy, Joseph (Thesis director) / Adams, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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Description
Analysis of 4 lesson plans for primary education in which 3D printers are used either to build components or are directly used by students. Provides critique on how proper investment and utilization of this new technology can enrich education and misuse can waste time, money, and even reduce the quality

Analysis of 4 lesson plans for primary education in which 3D printers are used either to build components or are directly used by students. Provides critique on how proper investment and utilization of this new technology can enrich education and misuse can waste time, money, and even reduce the quality of education.
ContributorsPrzeslica, Michael Cody (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Krause, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05