In females, critical hormonal shifts occur during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, and <br/>menopause. The fluctuating ovarian hormone levels across a woman’s lifespan likely contribute <br/>to inflammatory responses driven by the immune system, which is regulated by a variety of <br/>physiological pathways and microbiological cues. Pregnancy in particular results in drastic <br/>changes in circulating hormone profiles, and involves a variety of physiological changes, <br/>including inflammatory responses of the immune system. There is evidence that these effects are <br/>mediated, in part, by the significant hormone fluctuations that characterize pregnancy and <br/>postpartum periods. This thesis highlights and synthesizes important physiological changes <br/>associated with pregnancy, and their potential implications on cognitive and brain aging in <br/>women. A tertiary model of cognition is presented depicting interactions between hormonal <br/>history, reproductive history, and immune functions. This research is important to create a better <br/>understanding of women’s health and enhance medical care for women throughout pregnancy <br/>and across reproductive hormone shifts across the lifespan.

Consider Steven Cryos’ words, “When disaster strikes, the time to prepare has passed.” Witnessing domestic water insecurity in events such as Hurricane Katrina, the instability in Flint, Michigan, and most recently the winter storms affecting millions across Texas, we decided to take action. The period between a water supply’s disruption and restoration is filled with anxiety, uncertainty, and distress -- particularly since there is no clear indication of when, exactly, restoration comes. It is for this reason that Water Works now exists. As a team of students from diverse backgrounds, what started as an honors project with the Founders Lab at Arizona State University became the seed that will continue to mature into an economically sustainable business model supporting the optimistic visions and tenants of humanitarianism. By having conversations with community members, conducting market research, competing for funding and fostering progress amid the COVID-19 pandemic, our team’s problem-solving traverses the disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to educate our readers about a unique solution to emerging issues of water insecurity that are nested across and within systems who could benefit from the introduction of a personal water reclamation system, showcase our team’s entrepreneurial journey, and propose future directions that will this once pedagogical exercise to continue fulfilling its mission: To heal, to hydrate and to help bring safe water to everyone.

Animals encounter information from different resources simultaneously, integrating input from multiple sensory systems before responding behaviorally. When different cues interact with one another, they may enhance, diminish, or have no impact on their responses. In this project, we test how the presence of chemical cues affect the perception of visual cues. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) often use both chemical cues and visual cues to communicate with shoal mates, to assess predation risk, and to locate food. For example, zebrafish rely on both olfactory cues and visual cues for kin recognition, and they frequently use both chemical and visual cues to search for and to capture prey. In zebrafish, the terminal nerve (TN) constitutes the olfacto-visual centrifugal pathway and connects the olfactory bulb with the retina, thus allowing olfactory perception also to activate visual receptors. Past studies have found that the presence of an olfactory cue can modulate visual sensitivity in zebrafish through the terminal nerve pathway. Alternatively, given that zebrafish are highly social, the presence of social chemical cues may distract individuals from responding to other visual cues, such as food and predator visual cues. Foraging and predator chemical cues, including chemical food cues and alarm cues, may also distract individuals from responding to non-essential visual cues. Here, we test whether the response to a visual cue either increases or decreases when presented in concert with alanine, an amino acid that represents the olfactory cues of zebrafish prey. We found that the presence of chemical cues did not affect whether zebrafish responded to visual cues, but that the fish took longer to respond to visual cues when chemical cues were also present. These findings suggest that different aspects of behavior could be affected by the interaction between sensory modalities. We also found that this impact of delayed response was significant only when the visual cue<br/>was weak compared to the strength of the chemical cue, suggesting that the salience of interacting cues may also have an influence on determining the outcomes of the interactions. Overall, the interactive effects of chemicals on an animal’s response to visual cues may also have wide-ranging impacts on behavior including foraging, mating, and evading predators, and the interaction of cues may affect different aspects of the same behavior.

My project is designed to provide art education to incarcerated youth in Arizona. This project will address two current issues in Arizona; the underfunding of art programs and high rates of incarceration. As of 2021, there are no state-funded art programs in Arizona. Arizona is tied with Texas for the eighth highest rate of incarceration in the country. In Arizona, 750 out of every 100,000 people are incarcerated. This project is an art course for incarcerated youth. The project includes a packet detailing the course content and assignment details, a class syllabus, a course flyer, and a certificate of completion. The course is intended to be taught at the Adobe Mountain School facility. The course is designed so that it can be implemented in other facilities in the future. The class will be taught by volunteers with a background in studio art, design, or art education. Each student will receive a course packet that they can use to keep track of information and assignments. Instructors will use the course packet to teach the class. The course focuses on drawing with charcoal and oil pastel, which will build a foundation in drawing skills. The course covers a twelve-week semester. The course content packet includes a week-by-week breakdown of the teaching material and project descriptions. The course consists of two main projects and preparatory work. The preparatory work includes vocabulary terms, art concepts, drawing guides, brainstorming activities, and drawing activities. The two main prompts are designed for students to explore the materials and to encourage self-reflection. The class is curated so that students can create art in a low-risk, non-judgemental environment. The course will also focus on establishing problem-solving and critical thinking skills through engaging activities.

Midlife is a unique period of development during which individuals are simultaneously engaging in multiple roles. Despite this, there is a surprisingly small amount of research on this period of the life course. In order to examine sources of adversity during this period, we analyzed interviews with individuals in midlife about their greatest challenge. The most common themes for types of adversity included relationships, health, and work, reflecting the unique combination of roles in midlife.

Healthcare professionals across America are suffering from the inaccessibility of coping strategies that would help them to transform the excessive amounts of stress that they experience during each shift at the hospital or facility in which they work. Healthcare worker burnout, a disorder that manifests as physical exhaustion can be a side effect of a poor work-life balance. Other symptoms of burnout include problems with concentration as well as psychological disorders including depression and anxiety. Although it may seem odd, hospitals can start to implement programs utilizing alternative medicine in the form of mindfulness in combination with gratitude and vulnerability exercises that will not only create a positive corporate culture but also preemptively help these facilities save money by reducing rates of worker turnover, limiting the cost of employee treatment for burnout, and reducing the risk of employee accidents and poor quality of care leading to expensive patient lawsuits.

University Devils is a Founders Lab Thesis group looking to find a way for post-secondary institutions to increase the number of and diversity of incoming applications through the utilization of gaming and gaming approaches in the recruitment process while staying low-cost. This propelling question guided the group through their work. The team’s work primarily focused on recruitment efforts at Arizona State University, but the concept can be modified and applied at other post-secondary institutions. The initial research showed that Arizona State University’s recruitment focused on visiting the high schools of prospective students and providing campus tours to interested students. A proposed alternative solution to aid in recruitment efforts through the utilization of gaming was to create an online multiplayer game that prospective students could play from their own homes. The basic premise of the game is that one player is selected to be “the Professor” while the other players are part of “the Students.” To complete the game, the Students must complete a set of tasks while the Professor applies various obstacles to prevent the Students from winning. When a Student completes their objectives, they win and the game ends. The game was created using Unity. The group has completed a proof-of-concept of the proposed game and worked to advertise and market the game to students via social media. The team’s efforts have gained traction, and the group continues to work to gain traction and bring the idea to more prospective students.

Esports is a rapidly growing virtual competitive space that is projected to surpass physical sports in the near future. Given that Esports is considered to be in its infancy, it has only been recently introduced at the high school level. Our group connected with local high school Esports teams in order to evaluate its efficiency. We found that players at this level are lacking a connection to other competitive teams and consistent practice. In the Esports world, practice with another team of equal level is called a “scrim”. In an effort to combat this issue, we created a platform named Clear Scrims to connect high school and collegiate Esport teams across the country with other teams of equivalent level. This platform will allow individuals to sign up, register with their competitive team, and provide available times to scrim. The platform then would be able to use their self-reported ingame rank to match them with worthy opponents for the most quality scrim experience. Teams playing into the growing sector of Esports need a structure like Clear Scrims to increase skill level and communication. In addition, our platform has a review component where teams and individuals score their opponent to see if they played as advertised. This component will help specify our matchmaking program but also work to dismantle the culture of bad manners or toxicity in Esports. Our site, Clear Scrims, will engender more competition and thus more opportunities for players to practice and hone in their skills.

Graduating from college is an important time of life transitions and career development for undergraduates and their future. Future self-identification, the connection between an individual’s current and future self, can negatively predict depression and utilize self-control as a mechanism to achieve later academic goals. Investigating an individual’s future self- identification, depression scores, and behavioral outcomes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic can help optimize college graduate success in an uncertain world. The present study aimed to (1) determine if earlier future self-identification moderated the changes between later outcomes (e.g., depression, perceived alcohol consumption, and academic and career goals) from pre-COVID-19 to during COVID-19, (2) investigate if psychological resources (e.g., self-control and emotion regulation) had any intermediary effects between earlier future self-identification and later depression and behavioral outcomes during the pandemic, and (3) test for any moderation effects of future self-identification on the relationship between available psychological resources before COVID-19 and during COVID-19. The present research demonstrated that students with greater earlier future self-identification were less likely to change their academic and career goals and were less likely to experience symptoms of depression during the pandemic. Additionally, self-control was demonstrated as an intermediary factor between earlier future self-identification and later academic and career goal changes. These findings may help college graduates develop resilience in other stressful situations.