To address and evaluate opioid legislation in the United States and its effectiveness in combating the opioid epidemic.
This paper will assess current and past legislation, on both the state and federal level, in terms of its effectiveness by cross-examining it with existing data. This paper also examines failures on the state and federal levels to properly target at-risk groups. Furthermore, this paper makes recommendations for future legislation to properly allocate resources to localities most affected by the opioid epidemic, and contribute to the decrease in opioid-related overdose deaths.

Companies can spend anywhere from hundreds to millions of dollars in creating as well as redesigning their logos and brand images. To make sure that they are creating their logos in an effective way, it is important to look at how consumers will be affected by the choices that are made with the design.
The purpose of this paper is to examine how colors and orientations of logos affect consumer’s brand perception. This was done by distributing a survey that asked for participant’s feelings toward a certain subject. The survey first asked for the participant to define certain terms. Then, it asked what emotions the participants felt when thinking about certain colors. Finally, it asked users their opinions of logos after specific changes had been made. These changes include changing the colors of the original logos and changing the orientation of the original logos.
This paper will provide a look into over 600 participants' minds and how they perceive color. These participants were Arizona State University marketing students enrolled in Dr. John Eaton’s course during the 2020 Spring semester. This paper will provide recommendations to those looking to rebrand or create a brand logo.
After looking at the results of the survey and some outside research, it was hard to determine exactly what emotions consumers would feel with each color. Even though there was a large sample size, there were a lot of limitations in the survey which caused complications with the results. Due to these limitations, it made the correlation between specific colors and an emotion inconclusive.

Machine learning is the process of training a computer with algorithms to learn from data and make informed predictions. In a world where large amounts of data are constantly collected, machine learning is an important tool to analyze this data to find patterns and learn useful information from it. Machine learning applications expand to numerous fields; however, I chose to focus on machine learning with a business perspective for this thesis, specifically e-commerce.

The e-commerce market utilizes information to target customers and drive business. More and more online services have become available, allowing consumers to make purchases and interact with an online system. For example, Amazon is one of the largest Internet-based retail companies. As people shop through this website, Amazon gathers huge amounts of data on its customers from personal information to shopping history to viewing history. After purchasing a product, the customer may leave reviews and give a rating based on their experience. Performing analytics on all of this data can provide insights into making more informed business and marketing decisions that can lead to business growth and also improve the customer experience.
For this thesis, I have trained binary classification models on a publicly available product review dataset from Amazon to predict whether a review has a positive or negative sentiment. The sentiment analysis process includes analyzing and encoding the human language, then extracting the sentiment from the resulting values. In the business world, sentiment analysis provides value by revealing insights into customer opinions and their behaviors. In this thesis, I will explain how to perform a sentiment analysis and analyze several different machine learning models. The algorithms for which I compared the results are KNN, Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Random Forest, Naïve Bayes, Linear Support Vector Machines, and Support Vector Machines with an RBF kernel.

The past decades have seen major changes with globalization, increased trade, digital technologies, and the increased threat of climate change consequences. These changes in trends have changed how the world communicates, travels, produces, manufactures, and develops. Yet despite having the most advanced technologies and the most connected world to date, other aspects of development and quality of life have not kept up the pace in adapting and changing based on these trends. Specifically in developing countries, while the outside environment may be changing, the systems, structures, and societal values in place have not fully adapted. These aspects of society are naturally slower to change which can be dangerous when dealing with the current issues the world faces, for example the proven increase in climate change consequences. The consequences of slow or no changes at all in systems, structures, and societal values fall disproportionately on women who are often now bearing more responsibility without the benefits due to outdated structures that were developed based on other environments and priorities. This gap between the formal structures and the rapidly changing environments and its effect on women can be seen through analyzing specific common trends in developing countries, such as the feminization of agriculture and climate change. Analyzing this gap from these specific trends can give insight into possible solutions to both speed up the closing of the gap and lessen the burdens for women in the meantime. The role of informal or community networks should be considered as a possible way to do this. The case of St. Lucia and its experience with both the feminization of agriculture and the threat of climate change will be analyzed to understand how informal or community networks could serve to help close the gap and lessen the burdens for women.

This thesis project is an introspective review of the author’s childhood and family life, as one of her siblings is on the severe end of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The siblings of a special needs child are impacted in many different ways, emotionally and behaviorally, and the sibling experience is directly influenced by the dynamics of this relationship. Additionally, family composition has the largest impact on the experiences of the typically developing child, and the roles generally found within a family may be altered by the presence of a special needs child. To determine the validity of this statement, a literature review supplemented by research will be presented in this dissertation.
The purpose of this thesis was to determine the effects of growing up with a special needs child, questioning if there were a set number of outcomes that each typically developing sibling would manifest, and determining if family composition was impactful on these as well.
To frame the literature review, the author establishes that she has an older sibling who rejects the idea that having a special needs sibling had any effect on her life or personality, which is a juxtaposition to the outlook of the author herself. By analyzing research and composing a list of effects on typically developed siblings; such as, increased responsibility; having to grow up quickly; taking on caregiving roles for older siblings; a survey was created to be sent to participants who were either parents or siblings of a special needs person. By including both parents and siblings, two perspectives could be compared--that of the sibling experiencing the change, and the parent who watches it happen. After distribution of the surveys, there were six (6) valid responses.
The findings ranged from a multitude of similarities among older siblings and then parents, but the literature had no information on siblings younger than the special needs child. It was connected that children with an adopted younger special needs sibling have a more difficult adjustment than do biological siblings. Additionally, older siblings feel nearly unanimously that they had to grow up quicker to take on some caregiver roles.

This research examines the impact of films about corporate scandals stemming from environmental disasters, specifically the film ​Dark Waters ​which details the decade-long toxic chemical release by DuPont. It will also explore what distinguishes these kinds of documentary films as successful and if they result in corporate change. Some films about corporate injustices have been successful in shaping viewers’ opinions and have brought about actual changes in targeted corporations’ behaviors. However, in some instances, even though a film may hurt the public image of the corporation, it does not actually affect the operation of the business. The recently released film ​Dark Waters ​details the story of the lawyer and farmer behind the lawsuit that exposed the toxic chemical release by DuPont. The film chronicles how the lawsuit revealed how DuPont ignored and even tried to cover up how its chemicals were poisoning its own workers and the surrounding communities. It remains to be seen if this film will result in DuPont actually changing the ways it does business. In this research, I analyze three documentary films involving corporate scandals with environmental ramifications and determine if any changes were made as a result of the films and what aspects of these films caused them to be successful. My findings indicate that there are many factors that dictate whether or not a film is successful in bringing about change at the corporate level. Some of the factors include the type of corporation, how many people the scandal or environmental disaster affected, and where the incidents took place. Also, certain aspects of the film itself such as being directed or produced by well-known and respected directors and producers as well as employing famous actors can make a difference in the film’s overall impact.

In this thesis, I seek to identify the best practices that can lead to an increase in community service and volunteerism. After the loss of my mentor led me on a path to make a difference through community service, I decided that volunteerism is an especially important area of interest to understand. Through secondary research, I have identified the many benefits of volunteerism specifically mental health, professional development, and more. Then to explain what drives people to volunteer, I investigate three major theoretical frameworks which are self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan), functional theory (Clary and Snyder), and social responsibility theory (Cheng et al) and relate them to peoples’ motivation to volunteer. In addition to looking into these theories, it is important to understand some additional factors which are the effect of mandatory volunteerism, age, and the missions of different organizations on an individual’s desire to volunteer. After analyzing the prior research, I found that social responsibility drives group volunteerism, functional motivation is what explains individuals’ drives to participate in community service, and the self-determination can help explain what creates strong volunteer retention. Furthermore, mandatory volunteerism, age, and the goals of organizations can have signifigant impacts on people’s drive to get involved in community service. After investigating the prior research, I interviewed four managers of non-profits to see if their views aligned with my findings. There answers and views were found to be consistent with the ideas I drew from prior research and helped me conclude that organization must factor age, mandatory volunteerism, and the mission of their non-profit into recruitment and retention efforts. Furthermore, non-profits should understand social responsibility theory and functional theory to recruit volunteers effectivly, and self-determination theory to retain their volunteers.

The goal of this thesis is to find information to further develop understandings of male customers in the cosmetic and personal care industry. The methods and results are aimed to help direct marketers and product developers create more successful business expeditions in the future. The thesis is based off of an online Qualtrics survey created and distributed to male Arizona State University students enrolled in a Marketing Principles class and then appropriately analyzed with SPSS and Qualtrics data tools. The quantitative survey allowed an investigation of external and internal factors in male respondents’ personal lives and how that may translate into their skincare purchasing practices. Rather than asking what products consumers want, this survey aimed to find significant and influential factors behind young male interest in these products. After analyzing the responses the key implications are that social stigma, and perceptions of attractiveness and self-confidence are not the largest inhibitors for men, but rather that their relationships with others have the most significant influence over their use of skincare products.

With the United States' diverse group of people, diverse set of beliefs and diverse cultural backgrounds, it’s no wonder that over the last few decades there has been a 51 percent increase in second-generation Americans in the United States (Child Trends, 2018). Though each of these second- and third-generation Americans experience life in the U.S. vastly different, the common steps of self-identity, acculturation and assimilation persist. However, what is often missed with this seemingly linear process is the delineating step: retro acculturation. Their sense of disconnect sparks a feeling of blurred identity, introducing the phenomenon of retro- acculturation, or an individual’s conscious efforts to connect to their heritage in new ways. Understanding the “why” behind this revelation is essential in understanding the “how”- or the actions taken by the individual to connect with their withdrawn culture. A deeper understanding of retro-acculturation and its processes is essential to leveraging a successful marketing effort in order to reach this demographic. As this population steadily reaches a larger population and quickly gains consumer buying power, it is important to be taking note of new and innovative ways of making lasting impressions on this demographic. This study focuses on exploring and discovering why individuals experience retro-acculturation and their triggers, as well as what approaches they use to connect to their heritage culture. Additionally, the insights gained were leveraged to provide recommendations as to how business can more effectively market to reach this demographic.

This project analyzes the large array of managerial leadership research in congruence with the wide field of workplace communication to attempt to determine the importance of refining communication channels between managers and employees as well as articulate the core competencies a manager should exhibit when practicing exemplary communication in their respective work environment. The preliminary sections of this thesis will establish the currently existing foundations utilized and narrow the wide range of research available to applicable information regarding positive workplace communication, influencing factors in a feedback loop from the employee’s perspective, as well as leadership aspects and actions a manager can alter or initiate to improve their workplace’s environment through communicational refinement. This research is supplemented with a survey that was administered to Arizona State University student leaders who were involved in coordinating the Regional Business Conference on the Polytechnic campus. The survey data is designed to either confirm or contradict the findings of the literature. The objective of this project is to synthesize an overview of a manager’s responsibilities and recommend actions to tailor and improve workplace communication