Category: Oral Presentation

Climate Change, Water Policy, and Society in the Peruvian Andes

Presenter(s): Rennie Kendrick − Biology

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey

Oral Session 1M

Research Area: Social Science, Humanities

Climate change has posed a threat to fresh water supplies, which has worsened conflicts over water. Simultaneously, corporations have strategically offered water privatization schemes as a solution to climate change problems. Although privatization may benefit key economic interests, a review of literature examining its impact on water users in Peru as a
case study and its impact on the environment at large, calls into question the viability of this model. I argue that water privatization in Peru has produced negative social impacts on water access, including reduced water access for certain groups, violation of traditional meanings of water, and changes to water’s legal character. More broadly, the privatization of water resources represents a larger flaw in current approaches to climate change, which often rely on market-based solutions over governmental regulation. Because market-based solutions rely on the integrity of private actors, these private actors may, and often do, make decisions that further undermine the natural environment. An understanding of both the negative social and environmental impacts of water privatization will eventually lead to creation of new forms of water governance in the face of climate change and social inequities.

Does Seeing Something Old Help Infants Pay Attention to Something New in Object Sequences?

Presenter(s): Allison Zhou − Biology

Faculty Mentor(s): Caitlin Fausey

Oral Session 2SW

Research Area: Developmental Psychology

Funding: UO VPRI, UO WGS

Infants’ first words include the names of objects that appear frequently in their lives. Could these frequent objects also help them learn the names of less common objects? We know from prior research that what people see and hear is largely structured so that there are a small number of ubiquitous items and a large number that are much less prevalent. In the present study, we test the hypothesis that the shape of a frequency distribution matters for how infants pay attention to its instances. In ongoing work, infants (16-30 months old) view pictures of novel objects that vary in both color and size. Infants sample the pictures one-at-a-time from either (a) a uniform distribution, where infants see each unique object an equal number of times, or (b) a non-uniform distribution, where infants see one of the objects six times more often than the others. Specifically, we measure how many object pictures the infant chooses to observe before they stop engaging in our task. Data collection is ongoing. We predict infants to pay significantly more attention to sequences of objects sampled from a non- uniform distribution. The non-uniform distribution has higher rates of repetition and may encourage the learner to compare newly seen objects to the familiar anchor. Learning about objects and their names requires encountering them. Our research will yield new insight into how object distributions potentiate the ways infants attend to their world.

Machine Learning of Motifs and Motif Patterns in Probabilistic Jazz Grammars

Presenter(s): Joseph Yaconelli − Math And Computer Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Robert Keller

Oral Session 3C

Research Area: Computer Science

Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

Building on previous work by Keller et al. in computer generated jazz solos using probabilistic grammars, this paper describes research extending the capabilities of the current learning process and grammar representation used in the Impro-Visor software with the concepts of motifs and motif patterns. An approach has been developed using clustering, best match search techniques, and probabilistic grammar rules to identify motifs and incorporate them into computer generated solos. The abilities of this technique are further expanded through the use of motif patterns. Motif patterns enable the learning of multiple lengths of motifs at once and induce coherence in generated solos by learning the patterns in which motifs
were used in a given set of solos. This approach is implemented as a feature of the Impro-Visor educational music software. Research has been done in other forms of pattern recognition and motif detection. However, this application of musical motif learning is a special case that requires vastly different techniques to accomplish due to music’s temporal nature, the variability of motifs both in length and melody, and the relatively short lifetime of motifs.

Transnational Professionals: Agency and Practice of Highly Skilled Foreign Employees in American Transnational Corporations

Presenter(s): Shuxi Wu − Anthropology, Asian Studies, Economics, International Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Tuong Vu

Oral Session 3S

Research Area: Social Science

Funding: UROP Mini-grant

Anthropological examination of transnational migration up to current day has focused primarily on the clearly disadvantaged (low-skill workers vulnerable to exploitation) or the driving figures of globalization (what has been termed the “transnational capitalist class”), whereas the middle strata of skilled employees has received scant attention. In policy debates, skilled
foreign employees are seen as displacers of American workers. In economic analysis, professional knowledge is regarded as valuable capital. It is imperative to put these fields in dialogue with each other for a non-fractured image of highly skilled foreign workers. This ethnographic study of relocated, highly skilled East and Southeast Asian employees or “global hires” of two Portland-based transnational corporations (Nike, Inc. and Columbia Sportswear Company) examines the experience and agency of global hires in the transnational circuit. I analyze how the status of foreign workers with special knowledge construe both leverages and obstacles in the employees’ relocation experience and result in a variety of strategies for negotiation of better opportunities within their structural position. Drawing theoretical inspirations from global commodity chain (GCC) analysis and discussions of organizational migration, I first attempt to show the methods and rationale with which corporations condition the transnational labor flow in the new knowledge economy. I then discuss global hires’ strategies in negotiating for mobility and workplace niche – strategies informed by agentic considerations of possibilities and limitations attached to their status; Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and practice will be seminal here.

Chitin Binding Protein GbpA promotes Proliferation In The Drosophila Midgut

Presenter(s): Zoë Wong − Biology, Psychology

Faculty Mentor(s): Karen Guillemin

Oral Session 4S

Research Area: Natural Science (Biology)

The microbes that live both in and on us, collectively known as our microbiota, are estimated to include 3.8 ·1013 cells (Sender, et al., 2016). While this considerable community plays an active role in host health, it also contributes to disease phenotypes including states of inflammation and excess cell proliferation. Previous work has shown that secretion of a bacterial chitin binding protein (CBP), GbpA, by Aeromonas veronii is sufficient to induce cell proliferation in zebrafish (Banse et al., unpublished). Chitin serves as an important Carbon and Nitrogen source for hosts and microbes that can breakdown colloidal chitin (Tran et al., 2011). Interestingly, CBPs are found in microbes that are not capable of utilizing chitin as a nutrient source, which suggests that bacteria have an ulterior motive for CBP translation (Tran et al., 2011). To investigate the relevance of GbpA expression, we propose to use Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism because of their short generation time, ability to be reared germ-free, and established assay for measuring cell proliferation in the midgut epithelium (Jones et al., 2017). We hypothesize that the CBP domain of GbpA (domain 1, GbpAD1) is necessary and sufficient for increased cell proliferation in Drosophila. Chitinases and other CBPs are linked to pro-proliferative states of inflammation and we would expect this result to be replicated in Drosophila (Tran et al., 2011). The highly-conserved sequence identity of CBPs makes it an interesting avenue for exploring the intricacies of bacterial-host interactions.

Shifting the Aid Paradigm: An Exploration into Effective Humanitarian Policy Design through a Case Study analysis of Omnes Volunteer Association

Presenter(s): Momo Wilms-Crowe − Political Science, International Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Nick Macdonald

Oral Session 4M

Research Area: Social Science

Funding: CURE Travel Grant, Carnegie Global Oregon Summer Research Grant, Oxford Consortium for Human Rights Fellowship.

The aid world has long been characterized by top-down, donor-directed programs based on largely context-nonspecific tenets and universalizable methods. Traditionally, a complex web of bureaucracy has separated the recipients of aid from the decision makers and there has been a stark divide between short-term needs alleviation and long-term development. Yet, in an ever more complex world with changing needs, these mechanisms are increasingly out of date, held into question by scholars, humanitarian workers, major donors, and global leaders alike. This project explores the changing nature of humanitarian aid through a case-study analysis of one organization in Northern Greece working to support Syrian asylum seekers and refugees. In addition, I include a comparison to programs running in Turkey and Jordan that similarly emphasize a linking of relief, rehabilitation, and development (LRRD) model. Drawing on historical research, fieldwork findings, and humanitarian literature, my research investigates the drawbacks of the current aid model as described above, as well as highlights potential solutions to those problems. I conclude by outlining the need for further support of and investment in alternative models of aid, including those supporting local NGOs and innovative grassroots organizations.

Responding to The Hyde Amendment: Abortion Discourse, Race, and a Conspiracy of Silence

Presenter(s): Momo Wilms-Crowe − Political Science, International Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Tim Williams

Oral Session 3SW

Research Area: Social Science

This research project examines the discourse about abortion and the 1976 Hyde Amendment in order to better understand race relations within the second-wave feminist movement. Specifically, I explore why more black women did not engage in the national debate about abortion, even when restrictive abortion legislation had a disproportionately negative effect on them. Most existing scholarship has focused either on women’s liberation and feminism, or on civil rights and black liberation. This paper, however, connects those themes by examining reproductive justice in terms of women’s intersecting identities, especially race and gender. This dual identity complicated black women’s involvement in the second wave feminist movement. Primary sources, including feminist publications, interviews, and autobiographies reveal that black women were largely absent from the pro-choice feminist discourse in the 1970s. Their silence and lack of involvement was not because access to abortion was unimportant or irrelevant to them. Rather, my research suggests that their silence was rooted in historical and ideological barriers as well as a failure of the mainstream feminist movement to consider their unique history, needs, and circumstances.

Effects of Environment and Relatedness on the Gut Microbiome of Ugandan Red Colobus Monkeys

Presenter(s): Tabor Whitney − Biology

Faculty Mentor(s): Nelson Ting

Oral Session 4S

Research Area: Biological Anthropology

Funding: Peter O’Day Fellowship

The gut microbiome consists of microbial communities that reside in the gastro-intestinal tract of living organisms. Variation in this system has been linked to health outcomes in human and animal models by affecting digestion, immune system development, and pathogen invasion. However, we still lack a complete understanding of the factors that shape gut microbiome variation, particularly in wild primates. The central aim of this research is to further test how forest fragmentation is associated with gut microbial diversity in the Ugandan red colobus monkey. We sequenced the 16S rRNA hypervariable V-4 region to characterize the gut microbiome from 106 genotyped individuals across eight social groups inhabiting different forest types within Kibale National Park and its surrounding area. We compared alpha diversity in the gut microbiome of individuals inhabiting fragmented versus continuous forest and did not find a simple relationship between gut microbial diversity and forest fragmentation. While individuals residing in some fragments had lower gut microbiome alpha diversity, those residing in well-protected fragments retained gut microbial diversity levels comparable to residents of continuous forest. Furthermore, we discovered numerous highly related red colobus monkey dyads between forests, which allowed us to assess the affects of genetic relatedness on gut microbial similarity. We found that environment plays a larger role than genetic relatedness in shaping the gut microbiome. Our research thus reinforces the role that environment plays in shaping within-species gut microbial variation with potential implications for the conservation of threatened populations in fragmented landscapes.

Arranging and Transcribing: More than Just the Notes

Presenter(s): Derek White − Music Education

Faculty Mentor(s): Michael Grose, Eric Wiltshire

Oral Session 3C

Research Area: Performing Arts

Writing music is a complex process. A composer has to create melody, harmony, and rhythm to convey their artistic message. Many people think that once the notes of the song are written down, the music is finished. However, there is so much more to creating music. I will be speaking about the aspects of writing music that do not get mentioned as often: arranging and orchestration. I will discuss my creative process and how composers and arrangers utilize the science of sound to create meaningful aural experiences for their audience.