Category: Oral Presentation

Observations of Mobile Health Clinics in Honduras: A Case Study on El Centro De Salud Integral Zoé

Presenter(s): Mitchell Yep—International Studies, General Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Lesley Weaver, Melissa Graboyes

Session 1: Time for Your Check-Up—Decolonizing Global Health

Visual impairment and blindness are debilitating conditions with increasing rates around the globe . The World Health Organization estimates at least 2 .2 billion people have a vision impairment or blindness, of whom at least 1 billion are preventable or remain unaddressed (Bourne et al ., 2017; World Health Organization, 2019) . El Centro de Salud Integral Zoé uses an innovative Mobile Health Clinic model to deliver cataract screenings and visual acuity exams to populations marginalized from the Honduran health care system . Zoé ́s outreach model actively removes systemic barriers that prevent individuals from seeking care such as cost, distance, logistics, and lack of knowledge . The colonial legacy and proposed neoliberal development policies have resulted in the underdevelopment of health infrastructure and widespread exclusion from these services . The expansion of accessible health care is a pressing national issue as the State›s Ministry of Health estimates 18% of the population (over 1 .5 million Hondurans) do not have access to health services (Secretary of Health, 2015) . Implementing the Right to Health under the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and achieving the 2015 United Nations Millennium Development Goals requires the foundation of accessible health care . Mobile Health Clinics present an alternative development strategy to ease disparities of access to health care by bringing medical services to communities that would not receive them .

Preserving the Authenticity of Chinese New Year in Process of Modernization Through Generational Perspectives

Presenter(s): Evelyn Woo—Psychology, International Studies

Co-Presenter(s): Tina Chan

Faculty Mentor(s): Matthias Vogel

Session 5: It’s a Small World After All

This project explores generational gaps in celebrating Chinese New Year, which is arguably the most important holiday in China . Also known as the Spring Festival, traditional rituals include the family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, putting up lucky red decorations, handing out red envelopes to children, and setting off firecrackers . In the last decade, many new forms of commemorating Chinese New Year have developed among young people, such as sending virtual red envelopes for online money transfers via WeChat, a popular messaging app, and watching the extravagant Chinese New Year Gala on screens rather than participating in small festivities with family . These technology-driven changes are of particular concern to some elders who think that the younger generation is turning away from traditional family values and customs . The purpose of this project is to examine attitudes toward the Spring Festival and question whether it is losing its authenticity . We debate in how far this transition is indicative of a larger restructuring of Chinese society and contrast different generational perspectives by analyzing Western and Chinese news outlets, social media blog posts, and websites . We expect to find that with China’s rapid urbanization, cultural traditions are not lost but simply changed, which some may see as growth, while others interpret it as a disappearing act . Our project has strong social significance, as it points out schisms in Chinese society and issues China faces in its process of modernization .

Ensembles link RNA thermodynamics and molecular evolution

Presenter(s): Daria Wonderlick—Biochemistry

Faculty Mentor(s): Mike Harms

Session 5: The Bonds that Make Us

Designing better biomolecules is a long-standing goal for biochemists . Doing so requires a rigorous understanding of how the sequence of a biomolecule determines its properties . Sequence changes, known as mutations, alter these properties and drive the natural evolutionary process . If we can accurately predict how mutations impact biomolecular properties, we can engineer novel biomolecules for applications in medicine, energy, and technology . Predicting a mutational effect is challenging, however, because the effect often depends on the presence of other mutations . Previous work in the Harms lab suggests that some of these mutational interactions emerge from a thermodynamic property of biomolecules—the ensemble . A biomolecule’s ensemble is the collection of interchanging structures it can adopt . A mutation may impact any structure in the ensemble, and its effect arises from perturbations to the relative populations of these structures . Mutations will have different effects depending on the degree to which other mutations have redistributed the ensemble . To mechanistically understand how the ensemble mediates mutational interactions, I am characterizing the effects of five mutations alone and in combination on a magnesium- and adenine-binding RNA molecule with a simple four-structure ensemble . By measuring the amount of a fluorescent adenine analog bound in the presence of varying magnesium concentrations, I can detect the effect of mutations on each of the four structures in this ensemble . The simplicity of this system will provide detailed mechanistic insight into the relationship between ensembles and mutations that can be used to improve the mutational predictions required for successful biomolecule design .

History of the Animal House: (1977–20)

Presenter(s): Katherine Wilson—English

Faculty Mentor(s): Philip Krysl

Session 1: Flicks and Pics

This research project asks what is left of an old fraternity house made famous in 1977 during the filming of National Lampoon’s Animal House, and is answered in a short motion picture: https://vimeo . com/401735276/4367deb178

In the mid-60s and early 70s the Animal House was a half-way house for parolees going to college . In 1977 it’s exterior starred in the movie Animal House, but the interior was off limits . So the set decorators bought two identical doors, and mounted one of them as the front door on the “Exterior” of the Animal House, while the other they mounted on the Sigma Nu House, which also had sidelights, and would help continuity-wise to not only mimic the living room and basement of the other house, but would double as the Interior door .

In 1986, an old friend of Katherine Wilson’s contacted her about trying to save the house from being demolished . She was on-location in Washington state and was unable to help, and it was demolished . However, pieces of the house were saved, and ended up in her possession in 2012 . In 2017, she was asked to create a movie set from the various pieces for The Oregon Film Museum’s fundraiser, and she recreated the front porch . In 2018, the Cottage Grove Hysterical Society, planning for the 40th Anniversary Celebration of Animal House, used it as a backdrop at Bohemian Park for the concert starring Otis Day and The Kingsmen . Watch for it again in 2021 .

The University of Oregon’s EMU: Cultural Epicenter and Incubator for Oregon’s Film Industry (1967–77)

Presenter(s): Katherine Wilson—English

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephen Rust

Session 1: Flicks and Pics

This research project answers the questions relating to how the University of Oregon’s EMU helped create Oregon’s First Film Crew in the 70’s; how that in turn resulted in National Lampoon’s Animal House being filmed at the UO in 1977; and why significant events were held and filmed specifically in The EMU: A) How Animal House Came to the UO: https://vimeo .com/401518226/f72da257a4
B) The Casting Call: https://vimeo .com/400122172/8de7c92b45
C) The Food Fight: https://vimeo .com/399570228/6eab0a62f7

The EMU was considered one of the Nation’s cultural epicenters because of its programs supporting and housing new social, intellectual, political, artistic, journalistic, filmic and musical paradigms of the 60’s . Because of this, a group of Poetic Cinema filmmakers emerged from this cultural center in 1969 and became Oregon’s first film crew; not only helping create Oregon’s film industry, but stepping in to help save Animal House from being scrapped by a Hollywood studio . These filmmakers all met on July 8th, 1969 on the Free Speech Platform of the EMU while watching a Communist debate the ASUO Student Body President . From there they formed FWAPS to help Kesey edit his 1964 footage, participated in Jack Nicholson’s film Drive He Said (1970), Elliott Gould’s Getting Free (1971), the Grateful Dead’s Sunshine Daydream (1972), as well as supporting Paul Newman’s Sometimes A Great Notion and Michael Douglas’ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), before becoming key personnel on Animal House in 1977 .

“Desde Abajo, Como Semilla:” Narratives of Puerto Rican Food Sovereignty as Embodied Decolonial Resistance

Presenter(s): Momo Wilms-Crowe—Political Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Dan Tichenor, Michael Fakhri

Session 1: Oh, the Humanities!

This thesis explores the power, possibility, and agency embedded in food in the contemporary Puerto Rican context . Building from participatory ethnographic fieldwork with activists, chefs, and farmers engaged in food sovereignty work on the island, I examine the concepts of agency and subjectivity as they relate to embodied experiences of politics . This approach is made possible with the understanding that the food we consume directly connects our individual lived experiences to broader structures of power in intimate and material ways . Through food, I offer a grounded critique of US colonial violence, inherently linked to ecological destruction, cisheteropatriarchy, and disaster capitalism . I also document dynamics of radical prefigurative politics as visible in people’s generative reimagining of relationships with their bodies, each other, and the land . This analysis is supported theoretically by key indigenous, anarchist, and queer/feminist perspectives which similarly connect the personal to the political and offer examples of political action that extend beyond state-centric formal politics . Ultimately, I argue that food is a powerful site of resistance, source of resilience, and mechanism of resurgence; as Puerto Ricans reclaim autonomy via food, they are resisting deeply rooted patterns of colonial extraction and dispossession and directly cultivating a more ecologically, socially, and politically just future .

Language Proficiency and Lexical-Semantic Processing in Bilingual Toddlers

Presenter(s): Abbey Ward—Communication Disorders and Sciences; Spanish

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephanie De Anda

Session 6: Interact & React

Prior research suggests that language systems are not entirely separate but interact in bilingual individuals . The current study seeks to extend prior work by investigating whether or not bilingual toddlers organize vocabulary words and their meanings (i .e ., lexical-semantic networks) within and across languages as early as 2 years of age . Of interest is how the words a toddler hears (i .e ., language exposure) versus the words that they say (i .e ., language proficiency) influence this organization of dual vocabulary systems . This study presents findings from a group of Spanish- English bilingual toddlers (N = 20, Mage = 24 .65 months) to examine the association between (a) language exposure and (b) language proficiency with lexical-semantic processing . Four measures were used: the Language Exposure Assessment Tool (LEAT) captured exposure, whereas the Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT) and the English-Spanish Vocabulary Inventories (ESVI) measured vocabulary size in both languages . Lastly, eye-tracking measures assessed lexical- semantic processing within and across Spanish and English . Consistent with prior literature, results suggest that vocabulary systems interact in bilingual toddlers by 24 months of age . As a group, toddlers with larger vocabulary sizes and faster speed of word recognition in their stronger language (Spanish) demonstrated inhibition, such that they were more likely to efficiently discard words similar in meaning (i .e ., semantic competitors) in order to correctly identify the target . When processing semantic relationships between words in their weaker language (English), toddlers with slower speed of word recognition demonstrated facilitation in order to continue ongoing activation of their sparse vocabulary networks . However, language exposure was not associated with lexical- semantic processing . Together these findings demonstrate that the words bilingual toddlers say and understand (and not necessarily what they hear) influence the organization of dual language systems . Ultimately, our findings contribute to the current understanding of bilingual first language acquisition and emerging theoretical models on bilingual language development .

Government Response, Epidemiology, and Impacted Communities in New York during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Presenter(s): Angelique Wallmann—International Studies, French

Co-Presenter(s): Amelia Hardeman, Hannah Heskin

Faculty Mentor(s): Kristin Yarris

Session 2: US Outbreak Breakout—COVID-19 Research

During this unprecedented time of global health crisis, Covid-19 has impacted each state in the United States differently . A lack of guidance from the federal government has allowed state governments to develop varying responses to the crisis bringing individual results . New York has quickly become the epicenter for the disease in the US, because of this, I have chosen to follow the state-level response to Covid-19 in New York as part of the INTL Field Experience: GH Crisis course this term . My project uses social media to share and analyze important information related to disease epidemiology, government response through policies, and impacted communities . This research is ongoing as the crisis continues to unfold, at this time focus is being given to how and when the New York state government will begin to prepare for a transition out of emergency response to Covid-19 .

Quantification of Point Defects in Perovskite Solar Cells

Presenter(s): Nicole Wales—Chemistry and Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Lonergan, Zack Crawford

Session 5: The Bonds that Make Us

In order to improve perovskite solar cell efficiency, it is necessary to minimize defects within the perovskite absorber layer, which may include crystallographic point defects . By understanding how these defects form and contribute to the material’s electronic structure, we will gain insight into routes of Shockley-Read-Hall recombination and associated efficiency loss . Theoretical studies have credited some point defects with the production of energy trap states within the bandgap. As such, we aim to measure and describe the nature and formation of traps in real materials. External quantum efficiency measurements are used to describe a gaussian distribution of traps . Additionally, capacitance techniques are applied with the added advantage of increased sensitivity to the absorber layer . However, capacitance techniques are complicated by the hysteretic perovskite system, which is discussed . The samples used in this study include methylenediammonium dichloride- stabilized alpha-formamidinium lead triiodide, a perovskite with interstitially incorporated chloride . External quantum efficiency measurements showed lower defect densities compared to devices of different compositions, however, one sample did show a small signal with a defect transition energy of 1 .08 ± 0 .01 eV . Findings may point to material suppression of sub-gap defects associated with methylenediammonium dichloride-stabilization compared to alternative compositions . It will be interesting to determine if methylenediammonium dichloride is the source of defect suppression in these samples . To understand how the composition might affect defect states, it will also be necessary to take measurements of other stabilizing agents with different compositions .