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DescriptionThrough researching the animators Georges Schwitzgebel and Paul
Driessen, I explored the concepts of narrative space and escapism in their films to create my own animated short film.
ContributorsUtakis, Anna (Author) / Del Rosario, Sandro (Thesis director) / Benge, Andrea (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2025-05
DescriptionThe purpose of this thesis is to help guide the reader through the basics of research repository creation and utilization, guided by interviews and real-world examples. This thesis provides an outline for repository creation on any topic, in addition to considerations of the future landscape of research repository creation.
ContributorsBloomgren, Jack (Author) / Wade, Nathaniel (Thesis director) / Igoe, Sarah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
Anaphylaxis is a severe, often life-threatening, allergic reaction that can occur due to multiple factors such as food, insect bites, medications, and more. Epinephrine, commonly in the form of an auto-injector, is used to combat the effects of anaphylaxis until first responders arrive. In the case anaphylaxis takes place, it is crucially important to administer the drug quickly to give the victim the best chance of survival. However, epinephrine can be costly and must be prescribed by a medical professional. To combat barriers that exist when attempting to obtain epinephrine, legislative change can potentially increase the accessibility of the rescue drug for those in need. Based on thorough research regarding epinephrine accessibility, we created a legislative proposal that mandates public businesses and institutions in the state of Arizona to hold emergency dosages of the drug. In addition to this proposal, a detailed program was included outlining the requirements and steps necessary for businesses and institutions to stock emergency epinephrine.
ContributorsKharoufeh, Noah (Author, Co-author) / Medcalf, Rollin (Thesis director) / Sellner, Erin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
Supply chain resilience has become a strategic priority in the uncertain and tightly integrated global economy. Even with scholars paying increasing attention to resilience—the ability to anticipate, absorb, recover from, and adapt to shocks—no systematic measurement of such a capability has yet been achieved across organizations. This thesis will fill this gap by developing a comprehensive, practitioner-informed Supply Chain Resilience Scorecard Framework for guiding organizations in tracking, evaluating, and improving resilience over time.
The research is based on a detailed literature review and interviews conducted with supply chain professionals from six companies in sectors including healthcare, technology, food distribution, and renewable energy. These interviews focused on current definitions of and practices in resilience and the ways resilience is measured and tracked.
The proposed scorecard framework derives from these views and organizes all such inputs into four core perspectives: asset and inventory resilience, supplier resilience, operational agility and continuity, and visibility and reporting. It is modular, scalable, and adaptable across industries and maturity levels. This thesis also defines the barriers to implementation, like limited visibility into deeper-tier suppliers, such as tier-2 suppliers, a lack of data integration within companies, and short-term cost pressures. Lastly, the thesis proposes a phased maturity model toward adoption.
This thesis contributes a practitioner-informed, academically grounded resilience scorecard framework that translates abstract resilience concepts into measurable, actionable metrics. It bridges theory and practice by integrating insights from literature and cross-industry interviews to support strategic decision-making and resilience maturity tracking in supply chains.
ContributorsAgarwal, Kashish (Author) / Polyviou, Mikaella (Thesis director) / Schneller, Eugene (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Applied Professional Studies (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
Understanding the impact of macronutrient consumption on immune function across species has broad implications for both ecological and biomedical research. This paper presents a comparative analysis between desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) and various vertebrate models, focusing on how diet modulates immune responses to pathogenic infections. Previous research demonstrated that desert locusts infected with Metarhizium robertsii fungal pathogen exhibited increased resistance when fed a carbohydrate-biased diet compared to those on a protein-biased diet. This observation parallels findings from invertebrate and vertebrate models, including fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), mice (Mus musculus) and chickens (Gallus gallus). Studies with D. melanogaster found that the protein:carbohydrates intake ratio can alter the expression of immune-related genes and modify an organism's resistance to fungal pathogens. Studies in mice have shown that carbohydrate-rich diets improve immune resilience and reduce susceptibility to viral infections like influenza, whereas protein-dominant diets can exacerbate disease outcomes. Similarly, in chickens, balanced diets with adequate carbohydrates support mucosal immunity and help control Salmonella colonization. By comparing immune responses across these taxonomic groups, we highlight the evolutionary conservation of nutritional immunology and justify the use of desert locusts as a complementary model for studying macronutrient-driven immune mechanisms. This cross-species perspective can inform human health interventions, particularly in optimizing diet for better health outcomes.
ContributorsLichaa, Tamir (Author) / Harrison, Jon (Thesis director) / Cease, Arianne (Thesis director) / Tahir, Mehreen Syeda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
The Robotics Design Fundamentals Educational VR Experience is a game designed to help players learn and understand the concepts of robot configuration, basic kinematics, and forward kinematics through an embodied approach in virtual reality. This Virtual Reality (VR) experience focuses on reinforcing player's understanding of the Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameter derivation process, a key step in developing forward kinematic models. Forward kinematic models are extensively used in the field of robotics, since they act as an intermediate step in the development of more complex models, such as inverse kinematic models, so it is important for students to be able to quickly and confidently derive forward kinematic models. By analyzing VR game design best practices, characteristics of effective embodied learning approaches, and current educational robotics simulators, The Robotics Design Fundamentals Educational VR Experience aims to be an effective tool for students to practice the process of deriving DH parameters and forward kinematic models.
ContributorsJung, Damon (Author) / Johnson, Mina (Thesis director) / LiKamWa, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Computing and Informatics Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
This research heavily involves improving the fabrication process of liquid metal soft strain (LMSS) sensors, which improves the robustness and sensitivity of the sensors. Traditional LMSS sensors can experience channel collapse as microchannels deform and lose conductivity under higher elongation when created manually without the use of advanced equipment. To address this issue, pressurizing the liquid metal (LM) was initially proposed as a solution after liquid metal sensors fabricated manually were characterized. After iterating the fabrication method with the use of a spin coater and a resin printer, the most recent sensors that were created during this project were able to not only withstand strains up to 800% but also increase the minimum aspect ratio of channel dimensions. The final sensor designs were fabricated using Ecoflex 00-10 silicone filled with Eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn). This specific type of liquid metal was chosen because of its low toxicity, high conductivity, and liquid state at room temperature. The smallest microchannel dimensions at which the sensors were fabricated at were (WxH) 0.4 mm x 0.2 mm, 0.3 mm x 0.15 mm, and 0.2 mm x 0.1 mm channels. Small aspect ratios were considered to maximize sensitivity and improve resolution. The robustness of the sensor was achievable through different fabricating methods, the main differences being manual vs spin coating techniques. This was confirmed through tensile testing, where the sensors demonstrated improved reliability and consistent conductivity at higher strains compared to the sensors that were created without the spin coater. Shrinking the dimensions and the channel size not only provide a more sensitive sensor that is useful for measurement, but it can also open opportunities in human assisting technology where enhanced LMSS sensors have potential applications in biomechanical monitoring, such as human joint angle measurement and wearable motion tracking.
ContributorsFurukawa, Cindy (Author) / Sun, Jiefeng (Thesis director) / Lee, Hyunglae (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
Coal mined from Appalachia was a key contributor to our nation’s success beginning with the Industrial Revolution. However, in modern times Appalachia is nearly as synonymous with environmental degradation and poverty as it is with coal, raising critical questions about the long-term effects of the way extractive industries affect the regions they operate in. This study (a) explores the history of the Appalachian region, the effects of legislative policy, and the ways broader perceptions of miners have evolved in order to examine the way the coal mining industry has affected the health, economic status, and social status of the people dependent on it; and (b) extrapolates these lessons to Arizona’s copper industry. As the demand for copper grows, Arizona’s copper mining grows along with it, and it is essential that patterns of neglect to long-term sustainability for miners and their families not be repeated. To create a resilient mining economy that balances national resource needs and company profits with the health, safety, finances, and social role of the blue collar workers that allow the industry to function there are a number of changes that need to be made. This study finds that improved health and safety standards, requirements for better benefits for disabled employees, a greater level of economic involvement through financial literacy education programs, retraining programs and relocation benefits for laid off employees, and a shift in the way legislators discuss issues surrounding mining and miners are all hugely important for maintaining the sustainability of these communities.
ContributorsSherman, Nora (Author) / Semken, Steven (Thesis director) / Burt, Donald (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
This thesis explores how major events—like armed conflict, sanctions, and
disinformation—disrupt the systems that move goods around the world. These systems, called
supply chains, are often thought of in economic terms, but they are also deeply connected to
people, culture, and memory. Through a series of lectures, films, and discussions hosted by
Arizona State University’s Melikian Center, this research looks closely at how trade is affected
by the war in Ukraine, corruption in the Balkans, and the use of propaganda to shape public
opinion and economic decisions. From blocked ports to factories reduced to rubble, the thesis
uncovers how trade is not just about shipping materials—it’s about the lives, histories, and
futures of entire communities.
ContributorsShah, Shriya (Author) / Jakubczak, Laura (Thesis director) / Brokaw, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
The presence of inclusions embedded within a polymer matrix significantly influences the macro- and nano-scale properties of the matrix. Characterizing the mechanical properties of such inclusion-embedded matrices is crucial for their diverse applications. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has the unique ability to nondestructively characterize local modulus and height contours of nanocomposite surfaces. While previous studies have established a strong correlation between nanoparticle dispersion and the mechanical properties of nanocomposites, the combined influence of structural effects and material properties convolutes precise characterization. This study aims to deconvolute the effects of the nanoparticle’s embedment depth and damaged polymer on force-displacement curves using finite element analysis (FEA) to simulate the probe-matrix interactions in AFM. Validation of the FEA models was conducted using the Derjaguin-Muller-Toporov (DMT) and Hertzian contact mechanics models. Indentations were modeled for polymer matrices with inclusions embedded at varying depths and damaged polymer to analyze linear and nonlinear material, geometric, and contact mechanics effects. Nonlinear material behavior was characterized using a bilinear elastoplastic stress-strain curve and yield strength derived from Hertzian contact theory and Tresca’s yield criterion. Results revealed that inclusion depth and damaged polymer have distinct and measurable impacts on force-displacement curves retrace slopes, offering insights to identifiable patterns in mechanical behavior.
ContributorsChurch, Jett (Author) / Wilbur, Joshua (Thesis director) / Yekani Fard, Masoud (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05