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- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
Researchers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries identify the study of the intrinsic and external factors that influence human aging as senescence. A commonly held belief in the year 2015 is that at least some kinds of cells can replicate over long periods or even indefinitely, thereby meaning the cell does not undergo senescence (also known as replicative senescence) and is considered immortal. This study aims to provide information to answer the following question: While some scientists claim they can indefinitely culture a stem cell line in vitro, what are the consequences of those culturing practices? An analysis of a cluster of articles from the Embryo Project Encyclopedia provides information to suggest possible solutions to some potential problems in cell culturing, recognition of benefits for existing or historical culturing practices, and identification of gaps in scientific knowledge that warrant further research. Recent research suggests that hESCs, and immortalized cell lines in general, do not escape the effects of senescence. While there exists a constant change in the practices of cell culturing, a large portion of scientists still rely on practices established before modern senescence research: research that seems to suggest that cultured hESCs, among other immortal cell lines, are not truly immortal.
ContributorsBartlett, Zane (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Hurlbut, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Food deserts are defined as regions with low average income, low accessibility to grocery stores, and high adverse health outcomes. Food deserts have thus become an important area of public health research, and many actions are being taken across the country to "solve" the variety of problems food deserts represent. Despite the many solutions promoted to improve food security, healthy food access, and health outcomes among individuals living in food desert areas, not all activities have been critically assessed for their potential for sustained impact. Further, little research has been conducted in the state of Arizona regarding food-related ‘assets’ available to employ in solutions to food desert problems. This analysis gives a glimpse into the complex nature of food deserts, which are impacted by a variety of factors, from economics to public policy to culture. It further provides a current assessment of available assets for potential use in ameliorating the negative impacts of food deserts on Arizona citizens. A graphical asset mapping analysis offers specific consideration of farmers markets and food hubs to possibly aid food deserts in the state.
ContributorsYanamandra, Meghana (Author) / Wharton, Christopher (Christopher Mack), 1977- (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Intake of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit substances such as marijuana and methamphetamine during pregnancy can have significant deleterious effects on a developing fetus and the resulting infant. The existence of substance-exposed newborns also has negative impacts on society as a whole; these include financial burdens placed on taxpayers and the additional time and resources required by health care professionals, social workers, and law enforcement authorities to properly care for such infants. Existing literature show a strong correlation between prenatal care and improved birth outcomes, including abstinence from or reduction of prenatal substance abuse. The Health Start Program in the state of Arizona attempts to mitigate the incidence of substance-exposed newborns, among other goals, by employing community health workers who identify high-risk pregnant and postpartum women, inform these women about how to receive prenatal care services, educate them on appropriate prenatal and neonatal care, and provide program and referral services to both pregnant and postpartum women. Community health workers interact directly with women most at-risk for prenatal substance abuse and should be well-versed in the understanding of the complex issues related to substance-exposed newborns. In an attempt to discover, analyze, and compile those complex issues with which community health workers should be knowledgeable, this project explores existing federal regulations regarding substance-exposed newborns, compares Arizona’s regulations to Minnesota’s, Virginia’s, and Washington’s, and analyzes prevailing literature in the field about the various implications associated with screening and reporting substance-exposed newborns to law enforcement authorities. After an intensive literature review, this project concludes that the Health Start Program needs a comprehensive resource document which enumerates federal and select state policies, landmark cases involving substance-abusing pregnant women and the precedence set by each, and recommendations from medical and public health experts. The document should also provide clear guidelines by which each stakeholder should abide and why, and recommend potential best practices the state of Arizona could adopt into law based on other state policies which have proven to be effective.
ContributorsTantibanchachai, Chanapa (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin (Thesis advisor) / Coursen, Cristi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Today in the U.S. the narrative of the “bad drug” has become quite a familiar account. There is an ever-growing collection of pharmaceutical products whose safety and efficacy has been debunked through the scandalous exposure of violations of integrity on the part of researchers, lapses in procedure and judgment on the part of the FDA, and reckless profiteering on the part of big pharma. However, a closer look reveals that the oversights and loopholes depicted in the bad drug narrative are not incidental failures of an otherwise intact, effective system. Rather, bad drugs, like good drugs, are a product of normal operations of the system; the same processes, actors, and influences manifest in both. The aim of this project is to shed light on these processes, actors, and influences at work in drug normalization by interrogating the peculiar case of the drug Lupron. Lupron exhibits all of the controversial features of the “bad drug” narrative but has remained an endorsed and embraced staple of the infertility industry. This contradiction situates Lupron to expose a number of the contingencies on which drug normalization rests more generally. In order to put forth an explanatory model for drug normalization, three such contingencies are described in detail for the case at hand: the nature of drug regulation, the structures and value that underpin the medical categorization of diseases, and the inextricability of post-medicine from the forces of industry. These contingencies provide some explanatory power for understanding not only the retention of Lupron but the ways in which all drugs are produced, validated, and perpetuated in a society.
ContributorsStevenson, Christine, M.S (Author) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbut, Benjamin (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Blind and visually impaired individuals have historically demonstrated a low participation in the fields of science, engineering, mathematics, and technology (STEM). This low participation is reflected in both their education and career choices. Despite the establishment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), blind and visually impaired (BVI) students continue to academically fall below the level of their sighted peers in the areas of science and math. Although this deficit is created by many factors, this study focuses on the lack of adequate accessible image based materials. Traditional methods for creating accessible image materials for the vision impaired have included detailed verbal descriptions accompanying an image or conversion into a simplified tactile graphic. It is very common that no substitute materials will be provided to students within STEM courses because they are image rich disciplines and often include a large number images, diagrams and charts. Additionally, images that are translated into text or simplified into basic line drawings are frequently inadequate because they rely on the interpretations of resource personnel who do not have expertise in STEM. Within this study, a method to create a new type of tactile 3D image was developed using High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Computer Numeric Control (CNC) milling. These tactile image boards preserve high levels of detail when compared to the original print image. To determine the discernibility and effectiveness of tactile images, these customizable boards were tested in various
university classrooms as well as in participation studies which included BVI and sighted students. Results from these studies indicate that tactile images are discernable and were found to improve performance in lab exercises as much as 60% for those with visual impairment. Incorporating tactile HDPE 3D images into a classroom setting was shown to increase the interest, participation and performance of BVI students suggesting that this type of 3D tactile image should be incorporated into STEM classes to increase the participation of these students and improve the level of training they receive in science and math.
university classrooms as well as in participation studies which included BVI and sighted students. Results from these studies indicate that tactile images are discernable and were found to improve performance in lab exercises as much as 60% for those with visual impairment. Incorporating tactile HDPE 3D images into a classroom setting was shown to increase the interest, participation and performance of BVI students suggesting that this type of 3D tactile image should be incorporated into STEM classes to increase the participation of these students and improve the level of training they receive in science and math.
ContributorsGonzales, Ashleigh (Author) / Baluch, Debra P (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Despite the minor differences in the inclusiveness of the word, there is a general assumption among the scientific community that the 'pursuit of knowledge' is the most fundamental element in defining the word 'science'. However, a closer examination of how science is being conducted in modern-day South Korea reveals a value system starkly different from the value of knowledge. By analyzing the political discourse of the South Korean policymakers, mass media, and government documents, this study examines the definition of science in South Korea. The analysis revealed that the Korean science, informed by the cultural, historical, and societal contexts, is largely focused on the values of national economic prosperity, international competitiveness, and international reputation of the country, overshadowing other values like the pursuit of knowledge or even individual rights. The identification of the new value system in South Korean science deviating from the traditional definition of science implies that there must be other definitions of science that also deviates, and that even in the Western world, the definition of science may yield similar deviations upon closer examination. The compatibility of the South Korean brand of science to the international scientific community also implies that a categorical quality is encompassing these different contextual definitions of science.
ContributorsHyun, Byunghun (Author) / Hurlbut, Ben (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Lung Cancer Alliance, a nonprofit organization, released the "No One Deserves to Die" advertising campaign in June 2012. The campaign visuals presented a clean, simple message to the public: the stigma associated with lung cancer drives marginalization of lung cancer patients. Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) asserts that negative public attitude toward lung cancer stems from unacknowledged moral judgments that generate 'stigma.' The campaign materials are meant to expose and challenge these common public category-making processes that occur when subconsciously evaluating lung cancer patients. These processes involve comparison, perception of difference, and exclusion. The campaign implies that society sees suffering of lung cancer patients as indicative of moral failure, thus, not warranting assistance from society, which leads to marginalization of the diseased. Attributing to society a morally laden view of the disease, the campaign extends this view to its logical end and makes it explicit: lung cancer patients no longer deserve to live because they themselves caused the disease (by smoking). This judgment and resulting marginalization is, according to LCA, evident in the ways lung cancer patients are marginalized relative to other diseases via minimal research funding, high- mortality rates and low awareness of the disease. Therefore, society commits an injustice against those with lung cancer. This research analyzes the relationship between disease, identity-making, and responsibilities within society as represented by this stigma framework. LCA asserts that society understands lung cancer in terms of stigma, and advocates that society's understanding of lung cancer should be shifted from a stigma framework toward a medical framework. Analysis of identity-making and responsibility encoded in both frameworks contributes to evaluation of the significance of reframing this disease. One aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between these frameworks in medical sociology. The results show a complex interaction that suggest trading one frame for another will not destigmatize the lung cancer patient. Those interactions cause tangible harms, such as high mortality rates, and there are important implications for other communities that experience a stigmatized disease.
ContributorsCalvelage, Victoria (Author) / Hurlbut, J. Benjamin (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Leo Kanner first described autism in his 1943 article in Nervous Child titled "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact". Throughout, he describes the eleven children with autism in exacting detail. In the closing paragraphs, the parents of autistic children are described as emotionally cold. Yet, he concludes that the condition as he described it was innate. Since its publication, his observations about parents have been a source of controversy surrounding the original definition of autism.
Thus far, histories about autism have pointed to descriptions of parents of autistic children with the claim that Kanner abstained from assigning them causal significance. Understanding the theoretical context in which Kanner's practice was embedded is essential to sorting out how he could have held such seemingly contrary views simultaneously.
This thesis illustrates that Kanner held an explicitly descriptive frame of reference toward his eleven child patients, their parents, and autism. Adolf Meyer, his mentor at Johns Hopkins, trained him to make detailed life-charts under a clinical framework called psychobiology. By understanding that Kanner was a psychobiologist by training, I revisit the original definition of autism as a category of mental disorder and restate its terms. This history illuminates the theoretical context of autism's discovery and has important implications for the first definition of autism amidst shifting theories of childhood mental disorders and the place of the natural sciences in defining them.
Thus far, histories about autism have pointed to descriptions of parents of autistic children with the claim that Kanner abstained from assigning them causal significance. Understanding the theoretical context in which Kanner's practice was embedded is essential to sorting out how he could have held such seemingly contrary views simultaneously.
This thesis illustrates that Kanner held an explicitly descriptive frame of reference toward his eleven child patients, their parents, and autism. Adolf Meyer, his mentor at Johns Hopkins, trained him to make detailed life-charts under a clinical framework called psychobiology. By understanding that Kanner was a psychobiologist by training, I revisit the original definition of autism as a category of mental disorder and restate its terms. This history illuminates the theoretical context of autism's discovery and has important implications for the first definition of autism amidst shifting theories of childhood mental disorders and the place of the natural sciences in defining them.
ContributorsCohmer, Sean (Author) / Hurlbut, James B (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Laubichler, Manfred (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
A dental exam in twenty-first century America generally includes the taking of radiographs, which are x-ray images of the mouth. These images allow dentists to see structures below the gum line and within the teeth. Having a patient's radiographs on file has become a dental standard of care in many states, but x-rays were only discovered a little over 100 years ago. This research analyzes how and why the x-ray image has become a ubiquitous tool in the dental field. Primary literature written by dentists and scientists of the time shows that the x-ray was established in dentistry by the 1950s. Therefore, this thesis tracks the changes in x-ray technological developments, the spread of information and related safety concerns between 1890 and 1955. X-ray technology went from being an accidental discovery to a device commonly purchased by dentists. X-ray information started out in the form of the anecdotes of individuals and led to the formation of large professional groups. Safety concerns of only a few people later became an important facet of new devices. These three major shifts are described by looking at those who prompted the changes; they fall into the categories of people, technological artifacts and institutions. The x-ray became integrated into dentistry as a product of the work of people such as C. Edmund Kells, a proponent of dental x-rays, technological improvements including faster film speed, and the influence of institutions such as Victor X-Ray Company and the American Dental Association. These changes that resulted established a strong foundation of x-ray technology in dentistry. From there, the dental x-ray developed to its modern form.
ContributorsMartinez, Britta (Author) / Ellison, Karin (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This thesis explores concept of "global bioethics" in both its development as well as its current state in an effort to understand exactly where it fits into the larger field of bioethics. Further, the analysis poses specific questions regarding what it may contribute to this field and related fields, and the possibility and scope associated with the continued development of global bioethics as its own discipline. To achieve this, the piece addresses questions regarding current opinions on the subject, the authorities and their associated publications related to global bioethics, and what the aims of the subject should be given its current state. "Global Bioethics" is a term that, while seen frequently in bioethics literature, is difficult to define succinctly. While many opinions are provided on the concept, little consensus exists regarding its application and possible contributions and, in some cases, even its very possibility. Applying ethical principles of health and medicine globally is undoubtedly complicated by the cultural, social, and geographical considerations associated with understanding health and medicine in different populations, leading to a dichotomy between two schools of thought in relation to global bioethics. These two sides consist of those who think that universality of bioethics is possible whereas the opposing viewpoint holds that relativism is the key to applying ethics on a global scale. Despite the aforementioned dichotomy in addressing applications of global bioethics, this analysis shows that the goals of the subject should be more focused on contributing to ethical frameworks and valuable types of thinking related to the ethics health and medicine on a global scale. This is achieved through an exploration of bioethics in general, health as a function of society and culture, the history and development of global bioethics itself, and an exploration of pertinent global health topics. While primarily descriptive in nature, this analysis critiques some of the current discussions and purported goals surrounding global bioethics, recommending that the field focus on fostering valuable discussion and framing of issues rather than the pursuit of concrete judgments on moral issues in global health and medicine.
ContributorsRuffenach, Stephen Charles (Author) / Robert, Jason S (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Hruschka, Daniel J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011