The purpose of this thesis is to gain exposure to current supply chain research topics through attendance of four seminars. The first portion of this paper includes summaries of each of the four seminars that I attended. These summaries are followed by an analysis of sustainable Styrofoam alternatives with a focus on factors deterring widespread use of these alternatives. This topic relates to the first seminar I attended, presented by Dr. Karen Donohue from the University of Minnesota. Specific areas of Donohue’s presentation — the shift toward e-commerce, and consolidated shipping with reduced packaging— sparked my interest in available alternatives for a popular, but unsustainable, packaging material: Styrofoam. I primarily considered journals and articles for the second portion of this thesis, but I also investigated these alternatives through visiting manufacturer websites discussing available products, production processes, and other available information.

Students for Success is a consulting firm designed to connect undergraduate ASU students with those applying to ASU. Our counselors are well versed in scholarships, housing, programs, clubs, and deadline information. This firm provides flexible work for undergraduate students while giving applicants a custom experience from a student who truly understands the most recent application process.

Our project is to create a simplified, portable, modular electrocardiogram known as ECG/EKG. Most medical facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities, still rely on traditional 12-lead EKG equipment consisting of a large cart with long 10 wires. These wires can be a pain to constantly detangle and rearrange to determine a person’s heart conditions. This creates issues in fast paced scenarios such as when a patient is experiencing a heart attack and needs an EKG stat. Additionally, the current technology can be somewhat unreliable at determining heart conditions, causing providers to request multiple EKG’s for patients. With our improved versatile EKG, we can help solve these issues and implement additional outpatient use with its portable features. This can be done by remotely monitoring heart conditions during activities such as exercise, sleep, or stressful events, without worrying about wire disturbance.

The human experience is driven by the desire for intimacy through interpersonal relationships, and one group in which this desire comes to fruition is the legally binding union of marriage. Through a literature review on the history of marriage, it is evident that the primary motivator for people to marry has changed over time, making the structure of marriage an evolving relationship on a societal and personal level. Shifting from economics to social class to religion, the motivating need for marriage in Western, 21st century society has now become a desire for happiness. Given this, this project is a synthesis of different psychological and sociological theories and studies that provide the key correlates of marriage satisfaction within individual differences, relational processes, and external context. Being happy together within a legally binding relationship is not always an easy task, but with the right knowledge on what truly correlates towards higher marital satisfaction, it is possible for couples to learn what can help them thrive.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, and has caused a ripple effect of global supply disruptions. The United States, Canada, EU and other allies have responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by sanctioning imports from Russia in an attempt to isolate their economy. However, some countries that have not placed trade sanctions on Russia are taking advantage of the opportunity to import from Russia. By integrating import data from Panjiva into a geospatial mapping tool, ArcGIS, global trade patterns can be visualized to understand how global trade is impacted, the effectiveness of Western sanctions on Russia, and potential substitution effects on trade flows from one country to another. First, six key commodities and three countries were identified based on preliminary data analysis. After further analysis, it can be concluded that the Russian sanctions were not effective at isolating their economy for two reasons: certain commodities are critical to our modern lifestyles and some countries took advantage of Western trade sanctions on Russia and increased global trade. In an attempt to diversify their supply, many firms sourced from countries other than Russia, but oftentimes commodities are still sourced from Russia. Lack of supply chain visibility prevents business leaders from making the most efficient supply networks that are in alignment with government regulations.