College is the first time many students will experience living away from home and with learning how to manage college course loads, students also need to figure out how to feed themselves for the next four years. The focus of this thesis will be to assess the current food environment available at Arizona State University. The Perceived Food Environment (PFE) Model was used to evaluate the accessibility, affordability, acceptability, and adequacy of the residential dining halls, restaurants, and marketplaces.<br/><br/>The Tempe and Downtown Phoenix campuses’ food environments were used in this paper to determine what they offer and how healthy the food options are for students. Both campuses combined offer 32 possible choices for students to dine. The Tempe campus has 4 dining halls, 15 fast-casual restaurants, and 5 Provisions on Demand (P.O.D) Markets. The Downton campus has 1 dining hall, 6 fast-casual restaurants, 1 P.O.D Market, and 1 marketplace. <br/><br/>Both campuses have good accessibility to all their dining options, even though Downtown lacks many options compared to Tempe. Dining halls also have good accessibility for students who have meal plans. Affordability did vary among locations, it seemed as though many of the healthier restaurants were either too expensive or, in the case of Engrained on the Tempe campus, open for a short amount of time. The fast-casual restaurants seemed to be more affordable and appear in larger amounts than the healthier options. Marketplaces on campus lack fresh food to choose from, so they also promote the habit of poor eating choices. For acceptability, all dining options are popular on campus and accept payments in cash, card, or Maroon & Gold Dollars (M&G). <br/><br/>Overall, the food environment at ASU seems to favor more unhealthy food options. Students do not have much of a choice when needing to find food on campus because there is a lack of fresh ingredients or a kitchen to use. There are also barriers that risk promoting poor food choice that needs to be addressed to solve this problem.

The purpose of this project was to discuss the physiological effects of isolation on the human body and how the body adapts. Through reviewing stories and studies of social and perceptual isolation, the adaptations of the human mind are detailed. This project explores the experiences of prisoners, sensory deprivation tanks, cave explorations, as well as studies involving monkeys and carpenter ants. The adaptations witnessed include hallucinations, increased mortality, anxiety, agitation, altered sense of time, delayed response, and lowered blood pressure. Knowing the factors surrounding the isolation experience is crucial to understand the presenting adaptation methods. These factors include duration, voluntary or involuntary participation, mental strength, and the restriction level of the isolation.

DISCLAIMER: Due to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, the attached podcast is a draft recording in lieu of the final recording

Throughout history humans have had to adapt to changing conditions in order to survive. Food shortages are one of the major pressures that have shaped past populations. Because of this, the human body has many physiological adaptations that allow it to go extended periods of time consuming little to no food. These adaptations also allow the body to recover quickly once food becomes available. They include changes in metabolism that allow different fuel sources to be used for energy, the storing of excess energy absorbed from food in the forms of glycogen and fat to be used in between meals, and a reduction in the basal metabolic rate in response to starvation, as well as physiological changes in the small intestines. Even in places where starvation is not a concern today, these adaptations are still important as they also have an effect on weight gain and dieting in addition to promoting survival when the body is in a starved state.

Disclaimer: The initial goal of this project was to present this information as a podcast episode as a part of a series aimed at teaching the general public about human physiological adaptations. Due to the circumstances with COVID-19 we were unable to meet to make a final recording of the podcast episode. A recording of a practice session recorded earlier in the year has been uploaded instead and is therefore only a rough draft.

As of March 2020, there were over 112,400 patients actively waiting on the United States national organ transplant waitlist with only about 3,300 donors1. Although transplantation is an effective treatment for end-stage organ failure, the access to a procedure will vary depending on national regulations, cost of health care, extensive screening processes, and the availability of organs2. Organ shortage is a worldwide problem, and the growing insufficiency has resulted patients becoming too for ill or dying while waiting3. Due to the varying wait times and costs of procedures, some patients have begun to outsource their own transplantation through international transactions, also known as transplant tourism2. The 2004 World Health Assembly resolution recognized these trades as a significant health policy issue, while also acknowledging the inability of national health care systems to meet the needs of patients4. To address this issue, a proposal will be made such that all live kidney and liver donors will be compensated $22,500 and $12,150 respectively through a cost-neutral scheme based on annual healthcare expenditures per organ that would be eliminated by a transplant. With this proposal, it is suggested that the organ transplant waitlist would not only be significantly reduced, but potentially eliminated, and the crisis of organ shortage would be defeated.

The goal of this paper is to describe the current understanding of how a human’s remaining senses are affected by the onset of blindness through physiological adaptations. The main focuses of this paper stem around the brain and how it adapts to blindness through mechanisms such as neuroplasticity. This paper will explore the increased acuity of both tactile and auditory processing as well as spatial navigation resulting from the onset of blindness. This paper will also explore the enhanced ability of the blind to echolocate as well as the mechanisms of homeostasis that underlie this ability. Finally, this paper will report on the lack of enhancement for the senses of taste and smell in humans after the onset of blindness and possible reasons why there are no observed increases in potential. It is the hope of the writers that this paper will cover the current state of knowledge on the phenomenon of adaptations resulting from the onset of blindness to such an extent that this information can be presented in a podcast format later on.

Disclaimer: Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the final outcomes of this project were impacted and limited. Therefore, the rough draft practice podcast session has been uploaded to accompany the written thesis portion as final recordings could not be recorded at this time.

Objective: The main objective of this analysis is to review existing literature and data relating to student food choice. Little research has been conducted within the United States on factors that impact these food choices, specifically a much-overlooked college meal plans many university students participate in. A broader look at how all these influences fit together is necessary to fully understand how students make food choices.
Method: A cross-sectional review of existing research about student food choice was considered and sourced from recent articles in peer-reviewed journals. Specific areas of study identified as having an impact of food choice included meal plans, nutrition and diet quality, weight management, purchasing behavior, student knowledge, eating habits and food security. Each area was evaluated based on available research and how it may coincide with meal plans to affect student food choices. Recommendations for future studies were made regarding gaps in existing research.
Conclusion: There are several factors that influence student food choices and none that stand alone. These factors must instead be considered in conjunction with one another. The implication of meal plans is largely unknown, yet students across the country at different universities participate in them every year. Further research is needed on how meal plans may create a type of food desert or food insecurity for students who live on campus and depend on the meal plan. It is possible the meal plan not only restricts student options but those students who live on campus may be especially affected due to an inability to obtain healthy food after hours or on weekends.

The focus of this research paper will be on assessing the nutritional quality of the available dining options across the Arizona State University Campus by assessing the healthfulness, cost and availability of dining options. Due to the lifestyle changes that come along with attending college, first time full-time freshmen are at an increased risk for gaining weight and developing poor lifestyle choices that will follow them into adulthood. Freshman who chose to live in an on-campus dorm are required to enroll in a meal plan giving them access to dining halls as well as on-campus convenience and fast casual restaurants.
The on-campus dining options across the Tempe and Downtown campuses were evaluated using two established measures: The Full Restaurant Evaluation Supporting a Healthy Dining Environment Audit (FRESH) & The Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (NEMS). A total of 31 on-campus dining facilities including twenty-two fast-casual restaurants, five markets and four dining halls were evaluated for this study. The results from these surveys assisted in determining if the nutritional environment provided by Arizona State supports healthy eating behaviors or if it incentives students to make poor nutritional choices.
Of the 21 restaurants evaluated using the FRESH survey, scores ranged from 33% to 63% of the total points possible. The maximum total score was awarded to Engrained on the Tempe Campus with a score of 91 and the minimum score was received by the Domino’s Pizza on the Downtown Campus with a score of 48. Of the four dining halls evaluated, the highest total score was 85 and the lowest was 79, indicating low variability amongst the dining halls. Out of the 22 restaurants evaluated using the NEMS-R, 32% fell within the lowest of the four quartiles of score distribution, 36% fell within the second lowest, 27% fell within the third quartile and a mere 4%, accounting for one restaurant (Engrained), fell within the top tier.
The loss of points amongst the restaurants and dining halls is mostly attributed to lack of fresh sides, lack of healthy entrees and barriers to healthy decision making. The restaurants that were classified as the healthiest options had limited hours of operations past 4 pm on weekdays and were not open on weekends. Additionally, the entrees at these restaurants averaged between $4-6 more expensive than those that were classified as the unhealthiest. The unhealthiest options also had the most hours of operation as they were open past 2 am every day of the week.
Overall, the campus dining environment provided by Arizona State University does not enable students to make healthy nutritional choices. In a setting where most students living on-campus do not have transportation or a full kitchen to prepare their own food in, a majority of their meals are consumed via on-campus dining options. Based on the overall assessment of healthy options, the barriers to healthy decision making, the hours of availability and the cost associated with healthier alternatives, the campus environment assists students in making poor nutritional choices.

Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the world. The incidence of cardiovascular disease is known to be much higher in men than women until around the ages of 60-75 years, when the occurrence of the disease becomes approximately equal in both sexes. Additionally, the occurrence of heart disease is significantly lower in premenopausal women than postmenopausal women. Since men have a higher risk for heart disease than women until 10-15 years after the average age of menopause and postmenopausal women have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than premenopausal women, it is hypothesized that endogenous estrogen exposure throughout the fertile period of a woman's life postpones the onset of cardiovascular disease. Research shows estrogen has beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system by regulating multiple metabolic processes including lipid metabolism, vasodilation, nitric oxide synthesis, cytochrome c apoptosis, and mitochondrial antioxidant production. Though estrogen has been found to have cardiovascular benefits on individual metabolic processes, the treatment of synthetic estrogen on postmenopausal women and men to reduce the overall risk of heart disease is very controversial. The controversy of synthetic estrogen is partially due to the fact that most studies done using estrogen replacement therapy on postmenopausal women and men resulted in either no effects or harmful effects on the cardiovascular system. Hormone replacement therapy has also been associated with a higher risk of multiple medical conditions, especially venous thromboembolism and breast cancer. This review will explore these topics and consider the costs and benefits of estrogen replacement therapy.

In an attempt to fix the problem of an abundance of individuals with mental health issues in the criminal justice system, mental health courts have begun to develop as the newest form of problem-solving court. These courts aim to keep individuals with easily treatable mental health issues out of prison and connect them with the treatment that they need. This paper is a literature review examining the development and implementation of mental health courts across the United States. The paper first explains the essential elements to a mental health court and how they function. The main claim addressed is that: through the institution of statewide standards as well as the blanket adoption and regular measurement of national performance measures in each accredited mental health court, the large-scale and longitudinal study of mental health courts will become more practical. When these types of studies become more prevalent, the most effective practices of mental health courts will be identified and innovation will follow. The paper develops this claim by explaining the state and national regulations currently in place and the importance of standardization. It then moves into the national performance measures that should then be examined by courts once state standards are in place. The paper then explains the importance of longitudinal study to the proper collection of the significant data needed to solidify the institution of successful mental health courts. By identifying the most effective practices in mental health courts and standardizing them, this system will be able to: better help the individuals involved get appropriate treatment, promote public safety, and more effectively use taxpayer money.