Matching Items (11,246)
Filtering by
- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
Description
This thesis examines the discourse on firearm suicide in the United States, focusing on the contrasting narratives of gun rights and gun control advocacy groups. It analyzes how these groups use rhetorical, visual, and linguistic strategies to shape public perception and policy discussions about the link between gun ownership and suicide rates. The study highlights the role of digital media in amplifying these divergent narratives, revealing a polarized discourse that simplifies the complexities of firearm suicide. The findings advocate for a more nuanced approach to the public and policy dialogue, aiming to foster more effective suicide prevention strategies.
ContributorsSinger, Sean (Author) / Young, Alex (Thesis director) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
In the European Union, the challenges surrounding migration are increasingly becoming more hostile towards both migrants and the organizations that help them. For years, the EU has worked to balance supranational and intergovernmental policies specifically in the realm of migration, due to states having varying priorities contingent on location, GDP and governments. One of the realms of governance that has fallen short is in the Mediterranean, with large numbers of migrant fatalities during boat crossings taking place. In response, NGOs operating sea rescue initiatives in the Mediterranean, have increased the volume of their operations to address a high number of deaths. As a result of the influx of migration into the EU, the union, as well as individual states, have enacted strict policies of management. The increase in migrants has changed both the governance of migration as well as the role the judiciary plays in migration, which highlights the shortcoming of states when it comes to compliance with UN and EU protocols. The EU has also worked hard to build relationships with their border security force, Frontex, and neighboring states, to minimize migrants entering the union. The emphasis on this type of governance led to a shift towards securitization policies in the EU and its states. The shift resulted in an increase in pressure on state judicial systems, who are experiencing an uptake in migration related cases in their regional and lower courts. The EU and NGOs are both running simultaneous operations in the Mediterranean with the goal of saving lives, with the EU also trying to minimize migration by enacting securitization policies. One of the most evident results of the securitization shift is the Italian government's targeting of NGOs. This is the outcome of NGOs refusing to participate in Italy's investigations into migrant smuggling operations. The investigations into the NGOs frame the organizations in the courts and media as smugglers with the intention of causing harm within the community. Instead of properly litigating, Italy is manipulating the court system to keep humanitarian aid cases in lower, more regional courts with less resources and less supranational oversight. The judicial section of the paper focuses on the complexity of compliance with UN, EU and state legal protocols and ratifications, which all play an important role in the analysis.
The criminalization of humanitarian aid is the center of this thesis and can be best understood by investigating both the governance sector and the judicial implications of the court cases analyzed, the cases of the Iuventa and the Sea Watch 3, both sea rescue organizations investigated for facilitating smuggling into Italy. The attempt to use the judicial system to manage migrant governance is the start of a concerning trend and the thesis presents evidence of state action to dissuade and limit humanitarian aid operations. The erosion of migrant governance in the UN and its member states has put immense pressure on the judicial system, which in turn has impacted the basic functions of democracy in Italy.
ContributorsLindeman, Flannery (Author) / Sivak, Henry (Thesis director) / Peskin, Victor (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The primary channel responsible for cold thermo-transduction in mammals is the transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8) channel. TRPM8 is a polymodal, nonselective cation channel with an activation that is dependent on a variety of signals, including the membrane potential, calcium concentration, temperature, and ligands such as menthol. Mathematical modeling provides valuable insight into biochemical phenomena, such as the activity of these channels, which are difficult to observe experimentally. Here, we propose a TRPM8 gating model, represented as a system of ordinary differential equations with menthol, calcium, voltage, and temperature dependencies. We use voltage-clamp data from transfected HEK293 cells in the presence of menthol to create a menthol-dependent voltage shift of activation. We fit the parameters of the TRPM8 gating model to replicate experimental TRPM8 transfected HEK293 cell voltage clamp electrophysiology data using a genetic algorithm. Using k-means clustering, we note eight clusters within 110 total parameter sets consisting of parameter solutions that provide a good fit to the experimental data. We then replicate novel fixed-voltage temperature ramp and fixed-temperature voltage ramp experimental data, demonstrating that our model can replicate the dynamic behaviors of TRPM8. With this TRPM8 gating model, we analyze the various parameter sets obtained from the genetic algorithm and find that different parameter combinations of calcium decay, calcium voltage shift of activation, and temperature sensitivity are able to match static voltage clamp data although differ in their effects on hysteresis and maximal current within prolonged temperature ramp simulations.
ContributorsDudebout, Eric (Author) / Crook, Sharon (Thesis director) / Van Horn, Wade (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Business Design is a thesis project where students can work in groups and consult for various projects. I had the opportunity to work on three major projects for my thesis involving a small entrepreneur looking for a go-to market plan for her board game, an app developer looking for a better way to connect to their target audience, as well as create my own digital product and consulting services that helped founder's lab groups build their online presence through e-commerce. All these projects allowed me to hone my critical thinking skills by working my way through real-life problems that don't have direct answers. I was also able to take away some valuable lessons in leadership and working in a team of very capable students.
ContributorsShosten, Madison (Author) / Akhter, Aliza (Co-author) / Bautista, Hariette (Co-author) / Chou, Chuhhsuan (Co-author) / Guan, Jessica (Co-author) / Flores, Lea (Co-author) / Kim, Min (Co-author) / Qin, Annie (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Lee, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
My Barrett Thesis focuses on the answers collected from two participants and research about how to support Neurodivergent students in a choral environment. The participants I interviewed were Dr. Andrew Clark from Harvard University and Dr. Alice Hammel from James Madison University. The questions I asked both participants focused on getting to know students and selecting music, inclusive teaching practices, suggested vocal exercises, how to be open-minded, and advice for future educators. I also provide different accommodations that can be used to support neurodivergent students. The purpose of this paper is to help new teachers and current teachers have multiple ideas for how to support neurodivergent students in their classrooms.
ContributorsCable, Laura (Author) / Palkki, Joshua (Thesis director) / Kimbrel, Shawn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2024-05
DescriptionBalcony Bros is a company that seeks to provide affordable and custom turf designs for student balconies within university affiliated housing as well as nearby complexes. We aim to allow customers to express themselves creatively within the guidelines of local government and student housing restrictions.
ContributorsHolling, Maya (Author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Lawson, Brennan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
This thesis project focused on determining the primary causes of flight delays within the United States then building a machine learning model using the collected flight data to determine a more efficient flight route from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. In collaboration with Honeywell Aerospace as part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Capstone Course, CSE 485 and 486, this project consisted of using open source data from FlightAware and the United States Bureau of Transportation Statistics to identify 5 primary causes of flight delays and determine if any of them could be solved using machine learning.
The machine learning model was a 3-layer Feedforward Neural Network that focused on reducing the impact of Late Arriving Aircraft for the Phoenix to Las Vegas route. Evaluation metrics used to determine the efficiency and success of the model include Mean Squared Error (MSE), Mean Average Error (MAE), and R-Squared Score.
The benefits of this project are wide-ranging, for both consumers and corporations. Consumers will be able to arrive at their destination earlier than expected, which would provide them a better experience with the airline. On the other side, the airline can take credit for the customer's satisfaction, in addition to reducing fuel usage, thus making their flights more environmentally friendly.
This project represents a significant contribution to the field of aviation as it proves that flights can be made more efficient through the usage of open source data.
ContributorsRosenbloom, Yonatan (Author) / Chavez Echeagaray, Maria Elena (Thesis director) / Govindillam, Sreenivasan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
This project, Building the Backdrop, Expanding Perspectives on Sustainability, is a sculpture of a desert sunset that seeks to explore important sustainability issues and highlight the beauty in sustainable practices. Constructed for an honors thesis project at Arizona State University, the primary medium used was cardboard repurposed from package deliveries to bring attention to modern overconsumption of packaging materials and showcase our ability to give new life to traditionally single use materials. I invite you to interact with the piece by sharing photos of yourself in front of it to help spread its message and exploring the resources shared along with the sculpture.
ContributorsSandoval, Nicole (Author) / Hines, Taylor (Thesis director) / Meissinger, Ellen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The project investigates the differences in the left and right hemispheres during a sensory gating paradigm in people with dyslexia compared to neurotypicals. The sensory gating paradigm included repeated pure tones, and each response's negative amplitudes during the first and second tones were recorded. It was determined that the response to the second tone can predict the response to the second tone. Still, there was no significant difference between participants with dyslexia and controls in the gating magnitude. There were no significant results when determining if gamma and beta power could predict the level of gating magnitude.
ContributorsBienz, Owen (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis director) / Daliri, Ayoub (Committee member) / Kim, Yookyung (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Magic has changed over the past several centuries in terms of how it shows up in people's lives and how it’s discussed: in the 21st-century modern-day, the term magic is used to describe illusions and unknown facts, whereas before magic was tied more into superstitions about higher beings and religion. Nevertheless, every culture has been influenced by magic. Even before travel and technology allowed information to be widespread, magic was a part of people’s lives, whether it be to protect a tribe on their hunt or a magician trying to earn a living. Even though secular magic is quite recent on the timeline of history, secular magic can still tap into the same feelings that non-secular magic has had on people. People try to understand what they can’t and deal with stressors in their lives in many ways, and magic in its various forms has provided this filler.
Throughout this paper, I’ll be discussing magic’s role as a bridge between cultures. I looked for various explanations of magic’s history and the impact it’s had on people throughout, to be able to compare by culture and over time, and how magic has served as cultural bridge, bringing people together, creating new conversations, and sparking similar emotions across all people such as awe and wonder.
ContributorsBregman, Maxwell (Author) / Ostling, Michael (Thesis director) / Edmonds, Larry (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2024-05