56593 research outputs found
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Peace and Propaganda: A Look into the Self-Serving Characteristics of the Peace Corps
No full textabstract: The American government does not come without its fair share of problems, though it will often utilize different forms of propaganda in order to distract from those problems. This thesis sought to expose the Peace Corps as one of the most overlooked, but successful, forms of America’s propaganda. Research questions created for this study are as follows: What were the driving forces behind the Peace Corps’ creation? What are the qualifications necessary for a host country to partner with the Peace Corps, and what relevant assistance did the Peace Corps provide for these host countries? Using sources that retold the Peace Corps’ history, spoke on hegemony, and imperialism, as well as statements from Peace Corps volunteers, the study conducted over months answered the questions above. Results revealed that the Peace Corps ultimately provided more benefit for the United States than the host countries and is a modern-day example of America’s soft-power imperialism. (abstract
Risk-reducing Infrastructure: How Much is too Much?
No full textabstract: This paper examines infrastructure spending in a model economy. Infrastructure is subdivided into two types: one that makes future production more efficient, and another that decreases the risk of devastation to the future economy. We call the first type base infrastructure, and the second type risk-reducing infrastructure. Our model assumes that a single representative individual makes all the decisions within a society and optimizes their own total utility over the present and future. We then calibrate an aggregate economic, two-period model to identify the optimal allocation of today’s output into consumption, base infrastructure, and risk-reducing infrastructure. This model finds that many governments can make substantive improvements to the happiness of their citizens by investing significantly more into risk-reducing infrastructure. (abstract
Make-A-Wish America: Marketing and Brand Management Analysis
No full textabstract: Make-A-Wish America has a world-renowned reputation as one of the best nonprofits in the world, and is widely known amongst many individuals looking to support or donate to nonprofits. Their work is not only a fundamental part of human services care within the nonprofit world, but their unique online platform and social media presence is a differentiating factor among many other nonprofits and for-profit businesses alike. The purpose of this study is to research Make-A-Wish America’s brand management and marketing strategies as a nonprofit, including secondary research on the brand itself, analyze all environmental factors that affect its marketing strategy, assess their market segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and evaluate their integrated marketing communications strategy. Additionally, I conducted interviews with Make-A-Wish America professionals working within the brand management department at the national office. The individuals were interviewed with various marketing backgrounds within the brand department to gain a deeper insight into their individual experiences and assessments of Make-A-Wish America’s brand management and marketing strategy. My specific thesis goals include utilizing my marketing recommendations to grow Make-A-Wish America’s profits, specifically in actions to increase fundraising. Also, my thesis goal is to find recommendations to outperform competition in gaining supporters and donors as well as, more recently, analyzing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and making recommendations on how they can grow despite this economic tragedy. The results suggest that there are common themes amongst my secondary research and primary research, resulting in marketing recommendations that Make-A-Wish America can utilize to better market to donors and supporters in the future, giving them competitive advantage over other nonprofits and combatting the effects of COVID-19. Recommendations for Make-A-Wish America include investing in their own research and development in terms of customer relationship management tools, online fundraising campaigns, and technology to better inform donors of their mission, vision, and values, diversifying their donor profile and targeted communities, and taking advantage of their point of parity within their social media online platform. (abstract
Threes Get Degrees? Evaluating the Performance of AP-3 Students and AP Credit Acceptance Policy at ASU
No full textabstract: The goal of this study is to test the assumption that an AP score of 3 is equivalent to a C and gain an understanding of how AP-3 students are performing academically at ASU and how to interpret a 3 when evaluating ASU AP credit acceptance policy. Of primary interest is comparing the performance of AP-3 students to those non-AP students that got a C or higher in the corresponding course. To accomplish this, a tabular analysis of academic performance by AP score is conducted using aggregate student data from the ASU 2012-2014 cohorts. Among the performances considered are GPA, time to graduation, performance in the corresponding and following course at ASU, and more. Following this, a model is estimated for the impact that a 3 has on a student’s time to graduation when compared to non-AP students that got a C in the corresponding course. (abstract
Association of Mental Health Stigma with Marital Quality in Police Wives
No full textabstract: Previous research on law enforcement officers has not included studies of marital relationships from the spouse perspective, and tend to focus on workplace-based manifestations of stress and other health issues. This study fills a gap in current research by surveying police wives about their personal experiences of marriage to law enforcement officers, and mental health as it relates to themselves and their husbands. We examined the association of mental health stigma with marital quality in a sample of 969 police wives. We found a significant negative association between wives’ perceptions of police officers’ mental health stigma and marital quality, and additionally that wife characteristics of positive emotion and reappraisal are positively associated with marital quality, but do not act as moderators. We also discussed methods of reducing negative impacts of mental health stigma on marital quality, specifically mandatory police officer counseling and marital quality interventions. (abstract
The Role of Transportation Management Systems (TMS) in Complex Supply Chains
No full textabstract: Technology continues to impact human's daily lives and behavior, from how we purchase our groceries to how we get access to news and the means we communicate with others. New technologies are constantly being introduced and are not only influencing the public but also how businesses operate. During this technological era companies are investing more in research and development to learn more about the potential benefits of these technologies. This research, in particular, will address the need for companies' investment and continuous improvement in transportation management systems among complex supply chains to increase adoption rates of TMS technology. Also I will show how Transportation management systems have increased cost savings, customer satisfaction, the optimization of data, and planning. Such research is further supported by personal interviews with Intel, Big lots, Leslie’s Pools, and At Home, whom all have experience with transportation management systems within their business operations. (abstract
The Fight for Women at Work
No full textabstract: This creative project dives into the issue of sexual harassment against women at work. I applied the topic to a clock and exhibit design, and explained the topic further in “In Conclusion.� The book also documents my senior year research, projects, and experience. (abstract
Lighter Concrete: An In-Depth Analysis of the Effects of Recycled Plastic Aggregate in Composite Concrete
No full textabstract: The scope of this project is a combination of material science engineering and mechanical engineering. Overall, the main goal of this project is to develop a lightweight concrete that maintains its original strength profile. Initial research has shown that a plastic-concrete composite could create a more lightweight concrete than that made using the typical gravel aggregate for concrete, while still maintaining the physical strength that concrete is known for. This will be accomplished by varying the amount of plastic in the aggregate. If successful, this project would allow concrete to be used in applications it would typically not be suitable for. After testing the strength of the concrete specimens with varying fills of plastic aggregate it was determined that the control group experienced an average peak stress of 2089 psi, the 16.67% plastic group experienced an average peak stress of 2649 psi, the 33.3% plastic group experienced an average peak stress of 1852 psi, and the 50% plastic group experienced an average stress of 924.5 psi. The average time to reach the peak stress was found to be 12 minutes and 24 seconds in the control group, 15 minutes and 34 seconds in the 16.7% plastic group, 9 minutes and 45 seconds in the 33.3% plastic group, and 10 minutes and 58 seconds in the 50% plastic group. Taking the average of the normalized weights of the cylindrical samples it was determined that the control group weighed 14.773 oz/in, the 16.7% plastic group weighed 15 oz/in, the 33.3% plastic group weighed 14.573 oz/in, and the 50% plastic group weighed 12.959 oz/in. Based on these results it can be concluded that a small addition of plastic aggregate can be beneficial in creating a lighter, stronger concrete. The results show that a 16.7% fill ratio of plastic to rock aggregate can increase the failure time and the peak strength of a composite concrete. Overall, the experiment was successful in analyzing the effects of recycled plastic aggregate in composite concrete. Some possible future studies related to this subject material are adding aluminum to the concrete, having better molds, looking for the right consistency in each mixture, mixing for each mold individually, and performing other tests on the samples. (abstract
Data Representation for Predicting Harmonic Clusters with LSTM
No full textabstract: The purpose of this project is to create a useful tool for musicians that utilizes the harmonic content of their playing to recommend new, relevant chords to play. This is done by training various Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) on the lead sheets of 100 different jazz standards. A total of 200 unique datasets were produced and tested, resulting in the prediction of nearly 51 million chords. A note-prediction accuracy of 82.1% and a chord-prediction accuracy of 34.5% were achieved across all datasets. Methods of data representation that were rooted in valid music theory frameworks were found to increase the efficacy of harmonic prediction by up to 6%. Optimal LSTM input sizes were also determined for each method of data representation. (abstract