Poster Presentation – Undergraduate Research Symposium Abstracts

Reflections on Water, a Photographic Narrative of the McKenzie Watershed from Top to Tap

Presenter: Nicole Zavoshy

Co-Presenters: Anya Vollstedt, Chancee Stumpf, Riley Fortier, Sulley Schuster

Faculty Mentor: Katie Lynch, Peg Boulay

Presentation Type: Poster 91

Primary Research Area: Fine/Performance Arts

Major: Biology, Environmental Science

Funding Source: Anonymous Donor

Reflections on Water is a team of nine students who were inspired by the beauty of the McKenzie River Watershed. This interdisciplinary project of the Environmental Leadership Program at the University of Oregon showed an interest of photographing and encouraging people to reflect upon their relationship with their water source.
Did you know Eugene gets its drinking water from the McKenzie River? Beginning at the headwaters of the McKenzie River at Great Spring and Clear Lake, the Reflections Team captured the journey of the McKenzie as it traveled underground, over cliffs, past dams, and through an intensive filtration process before being distributed throughout the city of Eugene. With cameras in hand, the Reflections on Water Team sought to illuminate the beauty, recreational opportunities, and resources that these waters provide. We hope to inspire personal connections, instill understanding, and encourage people to experience the river for themselves.

Umbrella Stand

Presenter: Daisy Yen

Faculty Mentor: Jessica Swanson, John Arndt

Presentation Type: Poster 90

Primary Research Area: Design

Major: Product Design

Douglas Fir trees are usually used as the material for furniture, poles, and flooring in some buildings, which usually consume a large quantity of wood. Since people are now more aware of environmental issues and how long it takes for a tree to grow a certain size, the wood industry has begun designing and producing smaller home-goods products. The umbrella stand represents the smaller furniture and home accessories that are made out of Douglas Fir. The top and bottom pieces are each made from three layers of thin slices of fir, which were soaked in hot water for thirty minutes, then bent individually around a mold to achieve the round shape. They are then glued together after shaping and drying them individually. The four sides are also each made out of three thin slices of fir, which were placed on top of the mold and formed their shape in a vacuum bag for up to ten hours. Through bending the fir, I found out that certain density and colors of grains are easier to bend in certain directions, so choosing the right part of the wood for a specific part is essential and can affect whether the slices are able to bend successfully. Learning how to work with fir requires first getting to know its characteristics so as to be able to work around those instead of forcing the wood to conform to shapes that are not suitable.

Evolving a Healthier Worm: Microfluidics, Pharyngeal Pumping, and Experimental Evolution in C. elegans

Presenter: Kelley Williams

Faculty Mentor: Stephen Banse, Patrick Phillips

Presentation Type: Poster 89

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Biochemistry

Although C. elegans is a popular model for lifespan research, study of genetic and pharmacological interventions that specifically alter healthspan, the length of time an animal stays healthy, is less thorough. We therefore propose to study nematode healthspan using the decline in rhythmic activity of the feeding organ (pharynx) as a selection metric for experimental evolution. To facilitate this project, we are developing three assay platforms based on three microfluidic chips. The first two assay platforms are lower throughput, higher resolution measures of pharyngeal health, while the third is a higher-throughput assay designed for experimental evolution. The first microfluidic device, the “electropharyngeogram chip”, allows us to quantify age-related declines in pharyngeal electrical activity. This approach shows the expected changes in pump frequency and prolonged health of known longevity mutants, as well as shows novel changes in pump patterning. The second device, the “feeding chip”, is designed to provide tight temporal control of food exposure while imaging feeding animals. It also will enable measurements of grinder (chewing) and peristalsis (swallowing) efficiency. The third device, the higher-throughput “sorter chip”, was designed for separating males from females, but now allows automated and programmable selection of high performing individuals from ~2000 animals per hour as measured by ingestion rates. We will present the developmental work for all three devices and for the methods with which we use them, as well as the intellectual framework in which we are using these devices to evolve a worm that stays healthier, longer.

Land-Seizing Language: Rhetoric’s Claim to Territory in Colonial Travel Writing of the New World

Presenter: Erin Weaver

Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth Bohls, Brent Dawson

Presentation Type: Poster 88

Primary Research Area: Humanities

Major: English

England sends its first party of settlers to New World Virginia in 1585, but it isn’t until 1607 that the empire founds Jamestown – the first lasting colony on the continent, following 22 years of failure to occupy the territory. In absence of physical ownership of the land, how to do the narratives that emerge out of the New World during this period attempt to assert a rhetorical claim to it?

To answer this question, my research analyzes the writing of New World authors Smith, White, Lane, and Harriot. Thus far, it has investigated the existence of the following through close reading analysis in order to pinpoint rhetorical strategies that assert possession: a) the binding of space in the New World into definable (and therefore claimable) place through rhetorical cartography and the theory of space and place; b) Edenic tropes to assert a God-given right to cultivate the landscape and mark it as claimed; c) syntactical structures that infantilize native improvements and project English structures (or signs of ownership) onto the land.

The rhetoric of travel writing has been well studied; the rhetoric of claim within these texts is lacking. In combining the studies of travel writing’s rhetoric and language’s ability to bound space, I will discern ways in which English colonists are able to claim the territory solely through their use of narrative.

Calibration of the MFR Device

Presenter: Minyuan Wang

Faculty Mentor: Josh Peterson, Frank Vignola

Presentation Type: Poster 87

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Biochemistry, Human Physiology

Accurate measurements of solar radiation are important for climate modeling, efficient building design, and in the development of solar electric systems. These measurements are performed using instruments that must be calibrated and maintained at the highest quality level. The Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Spectroradiometer (MFR) measures three components of incoming solar radiation: light directly from the sun (Direct Irradiance), light coming from everywhere but the sun (Diffuse Irradiance), and light incident from everywhere (Global Irradiance). The MFR device is a unique instrument in that it can make all three of these measurements and does so at six discrete wavelengths. The purpose of this project was to accurately calibrate the MFR device and determine the corresponding uncertainty. To do this, solar radiation data was collected and analyzed from various reference instruments and the MFR in Eugene, Oregon, from June through September 2015 at all times of day throughout the 4-month period. The irradiance measured by the MFR was compared to the reference instruments and the calibration factor of the MFR device was determined. Our results were within 2.5% of the calibration performed in 2013 for each of the six wavelengths the MFR measures with an uncertainty of ±5% at the 95 percent confidence level.

Force Matching Sense: An Ipsilateral Shoulder Study Investigating the Effect of Torque and Elevation Angle

Presenter: Katya Trousset

Faculty Mentor: Andrew Karduna, David Phillips

Presentation Type: Poster 85

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Human Physiology

Force matching sense (FMS), or the ability to reproduce a desired force one or more times, is one of three subdivisions that define proprioception. Unlike the other two, joint position sense (JPS) and kinesthesia, FMS is not associated with joint motion (Riemann & Lephart, 2002a). Previous research has found that JPS becomes more accurate as shoulder elevation and external load increases (D. Suprak, Osternig, & Karduna, 2005). The goal of the present study was to investigate how torque and shoulder abduction angle contribute to accuracy of FMS in an ipsilateral remembered force matching task. FMS was tested on the dominant arm of 12 subjects (6 males, 6 females) at three angles (50, 70, and 90 degrees of elevation in the scapular plane), and at 20, 40, and 60 percent above subject baseline torque. It was found that there was no significant change in error due to abduction angle (p > 0.05), but force reproduction error decreased as torque load increased (p < 0.05). From these findings, it appears that FMS does not follow the same pattern as JPS when reproducing a target at different angles, suggesting that these two components must be considered separately when assessing proprioception.

Hip Joint Moment during Obstacle Crossing Following Concussion in Adolescents

Presenter: Austin Thompson

Co-Presenters: Quinn Peterson, David Howell, Li-Shan Chou

Faculty Mentor: Li-Shan Chou, Quinn Peterson

Presentation Type: Poster 84

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Human Physiology

Patients with concussion often complain of instability while walking. Previous studies have shown that subjects with concussion have altered gait under normal conditions, dual-task walking, and obstacle crossing. While other studies have looked at joint moments in healthy adolescents and the geriatric population and found that older adults have increased hip moment compared to young adults, there has not been a study looking at the changes in joint moment during obstacle crossing in subjects with concussion. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of concussion on hip joint moment during obstacle crossing in adolescents. It was hypothesized that peak
hip joint moment of the leading and trailing limbs would be increased in patients with concussion. Nine patients with concussion diagnosed by health professionals were matched with eight control subjects by age, height, mass, sex, and sport. Subjects were tested five subsequent times: 72hrs, 1wk, 2wks, 1mo, and 2mo. Twenty-nine retro- reflective markers were placed on boney landmarks, and motion analysis was performed using a 10 camera, 60 Hz system. The subjects stepped over an obstacle 10% of body height during steady state gait, and data was analyzed using Orthotrakä. The neurometabolic cascade of concussion causes changes to motor control, which could lead to unnecessary strain and a mechanism of further injury while providing further insight into how concussions affect gait.

Electron Vortex Beaks With Magnetic Diffraction Gratings

Presenter: Simon Swifter

Faculty Mentor: Benjamin McMorran

Presentation Type: Poster 41

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Physics, Mathematics

The purpose of this study is to produce and characterize electron vortex beams created by a diffraction grating formed by a magnetization texture. In the past, electrons vortex beams have been produced using nano-fabricated physical diffraction gratings placed in a Transmission Electron Microscope. Professor Benjamin McMorran (University of Oregon) is an expert in the production of these electron beams with a spiraling wave front, or vortex beams. Our objective is to achieve the same vortex beams by instead utilizing magnetic materials as a diffraction grating. In thin samples, Iron Gadolinium (FeGd) has sinusoidal varying magnetic domains with regularly occurring fork defects that make it ideal for use in creating electron vortex beams. Our plan is to find an area where the domains in a sample of FeGd are forked appropriately, and to observe and image the diffraction patterns caused when electrons are transmitted through those points.

Early Identity Building in the Boy Scouts of America 1910–1912

Presenter: Charles Steenkolk

Faculty Mentor: Michael Peixoto, Jamie Bufalino

Presentation Type: Poster 92

Primary Research Area: Humanities

Major: History, Spanish

The Boy Scouts of America is one of the most popular, largest, and longest running youth organizations in the United States. Created in 1910, the organization competed with other youth organizations that started around the same time. This article looks at the incorporating documents, the letters and correspondence, and the minutes of the first national meetings, in order to identify and track the initial conceptualizations of the BSA as it asserted itself in the American society. The documents span from 1910 to 1912, the first two years of the BSA. The documents show that the future of the organization was not clear at the time, and that there were significant issues presented to the organization as it formed. The documents also show that the BSA was a composition of the individual people that founded it, and the consensus on a course of action was not present at first. The individual decisions of the leaders of the organization led to a more clear definition of the organization’s niche in society, and its identity as a youth organization.

Sidebar