This thesis explores the accuracy and relevance of the representation of the prison industrial complex in the show Orange is the New Black and the potential impact it has on viewers. The data is collected from the show as well as relevant news stories. The conclusion is not a stamp of “accurate” or “inaccurate”, rather it is a discussion on the different impacts the show could have on viewers that have different exposure to the prison industrial complex. Finally, there are suggestions for further study and a call to action for television and film executives.

This project covers the history, function, and issues with campus policing in general across the United States and specifically at Arizona State University. With campus policing overall, this project discusses the issues of power and issues of race, racial profiling, and racism. With the Arizona State University police department, this project discusses the issues of how sexual assault has been handled, issues of transparency, lack of screening/qualifications/training, and issues of race, racial profiling, and racism. All of these issues are studied using specific cases and instances. Several suggestions for improvement are then covered, including the removal of police presence on campus, improved training, and increased accountability and transparency measures.

Sexual education in public schools varies drastically across the United States in the curriculum, teaching style and mandatory status. Recently a change in curriculum has occurred in some states to include education on healthy relationships and consent both within and beyond sexual health education. Educating students of different ages on healthy relationships and consent has numerous benefits including developing empathy and respect for others in addition to decreasing domestic violence and sexual assault cases, however only a handful of states have elected to incorporate this education into schools. This study will compare and analyze different sexual health curriculums across the United States to demonstrate the need and benefit of educating students of all age levels about healthy relationships and consent. The goal of this study is to create a proposal that will allow the incorporation of healthy relationship and consent education into Arizona public schools.

Research regarding typical English language development in children who are bilingual is of interest for speech-language pathologists, but often this information is not available to them. As a result, many individuals find themselves believing false stereotypes about children who are bilingual, such as the idea that bilingualism causes developmental delay or disorders. For example, individuals do not realize the differences in past tense development for bilingual children versus monolingual children, a form that is often difficult for monolingual English-speaking children with developmental language delays. By focusing on a specific aspect of language development, such as English past tense acquisition of children who are bilingual, and observing changes in MLU and grammaticality that accompany acquisition, this study seeks to increase the existing knowledge on bilingualism and language development. Specifically, we will answer the following questions: a) At which grade level do Spanish-English bilingual children master English past tense after they enter English-only schooling in preschool? b) What types of errors do the children make with regular past tense? c) what types of errors do they make with irregular past tense? and d) What is the level of English grammaticality and MLUw at each grade level in English after children enter preschool? This study examined past-tense accuracy, MLU, and grammaticality development over a period of 5 years, in 13 children who were participants in a larger project called the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC). Children were followed from preschool to third grade. They provided a yearly language sample by retelling one of the wordless Marianna Meyer and Mercer Meyer frog books, such as Frog on His Own or A Boy a Dog a Frog and a Friend. The language samples were then transcribed, coded, and analyzed using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software. Results indicate that children progressively improved over the years, with children reaching over 80% accuracy with past tense by year 3 or first grade; they demonstrated the most improvement in MLU between years 2 to 3 and years 3 to 4; and they showed a gradual improvement in grammaticality each year, with the exception of no increase between years 4 to 5. Findings from the study indicate that there is leveling in all three areas after 2nd grade. These results contribute to our understanding of normal English language development in bilingual children and may improve assessment when we evaluate their performance in English as a second language.

Intercultural competency is becoming more crucial for effective communication as the world becomes more global and interconnected. This issue is particularly true in health care settings, where effective communication is essential for providing the best care possible. There is very little research about intercultural competence training for Child Life Specialists whose primary role is to communicate with the patients and parents. The purposes of this study was to investigate 1) the levels of cultural competency training Child Life Specialists (CLSs) report having received, as well as their interest in more training, 2) assessing the extent to which CLSs are providing culturally competent care (self-reported), 3) understanding the extent to which barriers to providing culturally competent care are present, 4) identifying relations between culturally competent practice, barriers, and perceived feelings of success, and 5) determining whether there are group differences on culturally competent practice, barriers, and perceived feelings of success between those who reported having received training and those who reported no training. A total of 42 Child Life Specialists completed an online survey. Results indicated a variety of training experiences, with those reporting more training perceiving fewer barriers to culturally competent care. A strong interest in more training was also revealed.

This thesis highlights the impact that nursing and collaborative care can have for patients in the acute care setting who have a mental illness, with a specific focus on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and related disorders. Holistic care for patients admitted into the acute care setting with a comorbidity of OCD includes exploration of nursing interventions and collaborative therapies, namely journaling, mindfulness or meditation, breathing, self-help methods, exercise, massage, acupuncture or electroacupuncture, yoga, and nutrition. Each intervention was evaluated in the context of how a nurse can apply or facilitate the intervention in an acute care setting. Nurses and health professionals are encouraged to utilize these interventions and to be creative in their treatments, taking into consideration all aspects of a patient: mental, physical, and otherwise.

Throughout the two semesters of the Founder’s Lab program, we developed and practiced our entrepreneurship skills by working to solve the issue of diversity and polarization. In the first semester, our task was to help a corporate entrepreneurial venture create and execute a marketing plan to diversify their target audience. We worked with the lead professors developing the World War II Studies Master’s Program for ASU’s School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. During our collaboration with the World War II program, we realized that their issue with finding diverse students stemmed from an institutional problem with cultural diversity and polarization.

While working with the World War II Studies program, we primarily conducted market research, which eventually led us to pivot into starting our own venture. The data from the surveys we created indicated that the target market for a World War II Master’s Program was too narrow, and only appealed to people with specific cultural backgrounds. We concluded that a simple marketing plan would not be able to solve the lack of diversity, and decided to start up our own business to combat the issue. In the spring semester we created Platter Chatter, a social venture dedicated to promoting diversity and cultural awareness through food.

We believe that Platter Chatter has future potential as a social venture due to its unique position in the market, as well as the diverse perspectives and social capital that we bring as founders of the company. Some unexpected events have disrupted our original plans for testing and launching our venture, but with future work we are sure that our company and product will be able to succeed.

College students are motivated, passionate, and knowledgeable individuals who lack opportunities and the appropriate first-hand experience to get involved in their local community. I used an Academic Community Engaged Learning (ACEL) approach to build student self- efficacy to engage with their community. I created a formal curriculum that teaches students the basics of community development and encourages students to consider their role and impact in the community. I organized a community project with a local elementary school to create a kindness mural that would give students an opportunity to experience community engagement, thereby facilitating deeper comprehension of the material. I find that ACEL can be a valuable tool in harnessing college students by using their motivation and passion to facilitate a collaborative process.

Immigration becomes relevant in policies and U.S. culture as globalization spreads. The physical relocation affects children’s development because they are growing up during uncertain times and they could potentially miss important milestones during childhood if the effects of immigration are not understood and explored. This paper aims to assess children’s physical, psychosocial, and academic trends and how they compare to native citizens of the United States. Law, research, medicine, and education are all relevant realms that could work on understanding the immigrant children’s problems, as well as help bolster any advantages and skills they might have.

A mobile phone application was designed as part of an X-Prize challenge at Arizona State University (ASU). The team created an application that displays 4D visualization of time sensitive contagion data, specifically focusing on the Ebola Virus Disease. The application, named “Ebola Resource Decision Evaluator” (ERDE), is a tool to aid in resource allocation for decision-makers during epidemics and outbreaks. The predictive algorithm was based on the SIR Model—susceptible, infected, and recovered (or immune). We adapted this predictive model into our application to forecast weeks forward the Ebola incidence in three cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The current 2D map used by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) displays only the number of deaths in a city caused by the outbreak. But, the cities differ in ways 2D cannot convey. We implemented the augmented reality (AR) aspect to give more meaning to data and to give decision-makers interactive 4D city-by-city comparisons. The outbreak is ongoing as of September 2019 and ASU has committed to hosting the application for other healthcare workers to use. The application incorporates the most recent data on the disease and updates to visualize how many are predicted to become infected given X units of vaccine. We are able to use the data and compare the effectiveness to other cities. After this collection of data, professionals would determine the most efficient action to take against the spread of the disease.