Category: 2015

Consumer Behavior of Generation Y in the Performing Arts

Presenter: Taylor Jones

Mentor: Patricia Lambert, Arts and Administration

Poster: 32

Major: Public Relations and Art Management 

This research seeks to understand how arts managers have adapted to changes in consumer behavior in order to maintain youth audiences. Both quantitative and qualitative research provide insight on the demographic and psychographic backgrounds of Generation Y, which is categorized as people born between 1980-2000 and are popularly known as Millennials. Through citing multiple case studies, this paper evaluates positive and negative trends in modern consumer behavior and its impact on the performing arts industry. Key findings of this research were the social and technological trends that influence Generation Y, the impact of arts education on consumers, and how performing arts organizations have responded to changes in consumer behavior. These topics all relate to arts administrators’ effective use of marketing tools to better define and engage audiences. To understand consumer behavior of Generation Y is to understand the trends of performing arts attendees for decades to come.

The Effect of Chronic Passive Heat Therapy on Forearm Reactive Hyperemia

Presenter: Andrew Jeckell

Mentors: Christopher Minson and Vienna Brunt, Human Physiology

Poster: 31

Major: Post-baccalaureate 

Reactive hyperemia is a transient increase in blood flow that occurs following a period of ischemia (e.g. arterial occlusion) and is indicative of microvascular health. Regular exercise is a critical preventive measure in maintaining reactive hyperemia; however, consistent exercise is difficult or impossible for some people. Recent evidence suggests chronic passive heat therapy (CHT) may result in improvements to cardiovascular health similar to exercise. To examine the effects of 8 weeks of CHT on forearm post-occlusive reactive hyperemia, six healthy university students (21 ± 1 years) underwent hot water immersion 4-5 times per week to maintained rectal temperature of 38.5°C
for 1 hour per session. Before and after 8 weeks of CHT, brachial artery blood flow was measured via Doppler ultrasonography for 3 minutes following a 5-minute forearm arterial occlusion. Data presented as mean ± SE vascular conductance (VC, blood flow divided by mean arterial pressure). In preliminary subjects, change in peak VC from baseline, indicating structural microvascular changes, increased following CHT from 1.77 ± 0.24 to 2.26 ± 0.20 ml/ min/mmHg (p = 0.09). Area-under-the-curve of the hyperemic response, indicating functional changes, increased from 59.7 ± 9.0 to 111.9 ± 13.0 sec.ml/min/mmHg (p = 0.11). CHT appears to produce structural and functional microvasculature changes comparable to that of exercise, and could potentially serve as an alternative method for improving cardiovascular health.

The Colossal Hats (pukao) of Monumental Statues: An Analysis of Shape Variability among the pukao of Rapa Nui

Presenter: Sean Hixon

Mentors: Terry Hunt, Honors College Anthropology; Carl Lipo, CA State Anthropology

Poster: 30

Major: Geology and Anthropology

As part of monumental statue (moai) construction during the prehistory of Rapa Nui, islanders quarried bodies of red scoria, carved them into hats (pukao), and placed them atop statues measuring up to 10 meters tall. Despite overall great interest in moai and the improbable magnitude of pukao that were raised to reach their positions on the heads of statues, few studies have investigated pukao production and transport. This study seeks to analyze three-dimensional variability of pukao using 15,000 photos of 50 pukao found near statues and 13 red scoria cylinders located in quarries. Three-dimensional computer models based on these photos are used to evaluate which surface features are stylistic with associated temporal and spatial variability and which are functional and relate to construction and transport of these multi-ton objects. The functional detail has the potential to shed light on how prehistoric islanders designed pukao to be placed atop moai. To this end, additional three-dimensional models of statue platforms (ahu) and moai are combined with the models of pukao to test the feasibility of the conventional hypothesis that the pukao were placed atop moai using stone ramps.

Putting the Human Back in the Humanities: Studying Shakespeare Inside Prison

Presenter: Eve Hirschman

Mentors: Corbett Upton and Steven Shankman, English

Oral Presentation

Major: English 

Hamlet: Denmark’s a prison.
Rosencrantz: Then is the world one.
Hamlet: A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons…for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison.
-Hamlet, II.ii.261-70

Elizabethan England and Oregon State Correctional Institution, two places separated by substantial amounts of time and space, come together to provide new insight into the human condition in today’s world. After studying Shakespeare in a classroom environment consisting of equal parts UO students and Adults in Custody, it is clear that the benefits of a humanities education reach far beyond the world of Academia. Incorporating the ethical and moral implications that arise from engaging in literature and theory should be a cornerstone in how modern society approaches correctional institutions. Whether outside or inside prison, close proximity to the study of the humanities, especially works as psychologically and emotionally complex as Shakespeare’s, provides an important and unique opportunity to understand one’s relationship with society. A humanities education enhances one’s conception of their own humanity while unavoidably acknowledging that of the other. Not only do we need the human element in academic studies of the humanities, but also the incorporation of the humanities into institutions which play a part in defining what it is to be human.

Responding to Disclosure of Mistreatment: The Long-Term Impact of Listening Skills Education

Presenter: Alexandra Henry

Mentors: Kristen Reinhardt and Jennifer Freyd, Psychology

Poster: 29

Major: Psychology 

Negative reactions to a disclosure of mistreatment can be more emotionally detrimental to the discloser than not disclosing the event at all, while positive reactions to disclosures can yield significant benefits, such as desensitization towards negative feelings and thoughts (Radcliffe, Lumley, Kendall, Stevenson, & Beltran, 2010). Previous research from Foynes and Freyd (2011) has shown that providing educational material on supportive listening significantly lowered the unsupportive behavior of listeners. This present study hopes to extend the work of Foynes and Freyd (2011) by examining the impact that a supportive listening skills tip-sheet has on a sample of 32 dyads after the disclosure of a mistreatment and at a 6-month follow-up time period. Our sample has a mean age of 19.22 and is 66% women. We hypothesize that the listening tips will have a long term, positive impact on the listeners’ and disclosers’ self-rated ability to listen to disclosures of mistreatment, improve both participants’ satisfaction in the relationship, and enhance participants’ self-reported listening skills through the listening tips learned during the study.

A Reflection in the Mirror: How Noir Championed the Voice of a Generation

Presenter: Brennan Heller

Mentors: Ulrick Casimir, English; Kelly Sutherland, Biology

Oral Presentation

Majors: Business and Psychology 

Dark lighting. Risqué women. Hard liquor paid in cold cash within the corrupt cities of noir. During its apotheosis, noir fully critiqued the social, cultural, and political changes in American ideology through powerful aesthetics. Analyzing how the economic restrictions of World War II on the United States influenced noir’s developed use of novel lighting, characterization, and fatalistic narrative, I will demonstrate how the aesthetics of this genre captured the anxious zeitgeist of American society distraught by the war and its aftermath. By examining noir’s stylized cinematography,

I show how noir was the aesthetic response from an apprehensive America faced with ideological upheaval in the wake of World War II.

Who Was Chief Paulina? Restoration History and the Reconstruction of Paulina’s Identity in Popular Memory

Presenter: Sarianne Harris

Mentors: Kevin Hatfield, History; Jennifer O’Neal, Special Collections

Poster: 28

Major: Human Physiology

This paper examines the life of Chief Paulina, a Northern Paiute of the Hunipuitoka band, beginning at the time of major conflicts caused by the creation of the Warm Springs Reservation within Central Oregon in 1855 and ending around the time of his death in 1867.Chief Paulina, throughout his life and in popular memory, has been demonized and distorted into a bullet-proof, blood-thirsty, violent war leader who cared for little but the thrill of raiding. I argue that Chief Paulina was, instead, a skilled leader who cared for his people and fought bitterly to protect his homeland. He made necessary decisions, based on the information and resources he had at his disposal, to care for his people and keep their land. I utilize secondary, but focus on primary, resources as I examine the Northern Paiute view of the Warm Springs Reservation, interactions between Chief Paulina and Captain Kelly of Fort Klamath, and Chief Paulina’s behavior regarding the capture of his people. These areas of focus reveal a more complete view of the person behind the legend than the portrayals of Chief Paulina found in history books, Oregon museums, and local histories.

Searching for the Nearest Extragalactic Binary Black Hole: A Spectroscopic Study of NGC 4736

Presenter: Annika Gustafsson

Mentors: Scott Fisher and Elsa Johnson, Physics

Oral Presentation

Majors: Physics and Mathematics

Maoz et al. (1995, 1996) concluded that the nearby galaxy NGC 4736 is in the late stages of a merger event. After further investigation, in 2005, Maoz et al. observed ultraviolet variability in the nuclear region, implying the presence of a second unknown source. Since merging systems are an ideal location to search for binary black holes (BBHs), we hypothesize that the second unknown source here is a black hole, making this a BBH system. While the existence of BBHs are necessary for many theoretical predictions and play an important role in astrophysics, evidence for their existence remains sparse. To date, only NGC 6240 (Komossa et al., 2003) and Arp 299 (Ballo et al., 2004) have been discovered as merging galaxies with two active galactic nuclei (AGN). In 2008, NGC 4736 was observed with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini North telescope. Optical spectra of the nuclear region were obtained with spatial resolution of 0.5’’. The two nuclear sources, at a projected separation of 2.5’’ are therefore spatially resolved (Maoz et al., 2005). As a result, we will attempt to classify the second source by analyzing optical line ratios following Ho et al., 1997. The line ratio value will allow us to definitely categorize the unknown source as a black hole if it falls correctly on the Baldwin, Phillips & Terlevich (BPT) diagram. At a distance of 4.9 Mpc, NGC 4736 would be the nearest BBH system, enabling high-spectral and spatial resolution observations. The distance and character of this possible BBH galaxy would be a significant step in allowing astrophysicists to validate models of galaxy mergers.

Rotational Properties of the Extraordinary Multi-tailed Asteroid P/2013 P5

Annika Gustafsson

Mentor: Scott Fisher, Physics

Poster: 27

Majors: Physics and Mathematics 

Observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope in September 2013 revealed that the asteroid known as P/2013 P5 appeared to have six comet-like tails. Jewitt et al. (2013) concluded that this extraordinary structure and activity cannot be explained by traditional near-surface ice sublimation or collision events ejecting particles from the asteroid’s surface. Instead, the most likely explanation is that this unusual object has been spun-up by solar radiation forces to a critical limit that resulted in the rotational disruption of the asteroid causing the unique six-tail structure. This interpretation predicts that the nucleus of this comet-like asteroid should be in rapid rotation as a result of spin- up caused by the solar radiation forces. In November 2013, Dr. Stephen Levine obtained broadband photometry of P/2013 P5 for a duration of 4 hours using Lowell Observatory’s 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope with the Large Monolithic Imager to investigate the possibility of rapid rotation. After performing differential photometry on P/2013 P5, the resulting light curves were analyzed to search for periodicity of 2.2 hours, an easy indicator of rapid rotation. While the variation in the rotational light curve from these data was too small to be justifiable, morphological changes in the nucleus-coma system were observed.

Finding the Lesser Evil: A Comparison of the Environmental Impacts of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project and Conventional Geothermal Wells

Presenter: Hannah Greenberg

Mentor: Peg Boulay, Environmental Science

Poster: 26

Major: Environmental Science

The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) intends to harness geothermal power in a way that power companies hope will increase the efficiency of geothermal energy generation. The goal of the project is to drill deep for supercritical fluids with a high energy yield potential. Conventional geothermal wells are drilled to an average depth of 2 km and produce fluids up to 275 °C. The IDDP plans to drill 3.5-5 km deep for supercritical fluids at 450-600 °C. Geothermal energy is a renewable resource but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is sustainable: geothermal plants can affect the environment in different ways and it is important to study the potential impacts of this new approach. This study aims to compare conventional geothermal with deep drill wells in order to determine if it is a responsible advancement for the future in Iceland and around the world. After conducting this study, it has been determined that the potential benefits of the IDDP are worth investing in. Deep drill wells have the potential to produce more energy than a conventional geothermal well; meaning less land would be disrupted per unit of energy produced by a geothermal well. Further development of deep drilling for supercritical fluids is a step in the right direction for decreasing the impact and increasing the economic viability of geothermal energy.