Category: 2020

Intergenerational Effects of Maternal Obesity on Offspring Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species Production and DNA Damage

Presenter(s): Maurisa Rapp—Human Physiology

Faculty Mentor(s): Carrie McCurdy, Byron Hetrick

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

Epidemiological studies have shown that offspring from pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity have a 4-fold greater risk for developing childhood obesity and symptoms of metabolic syndrome . The developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis states that certain environmental exposures during critical windows of development may have consequences for an individuals long term health . DOHaD may explain a portion of the continual increase in obesity rates among children . In a non-human primate model, offspring of obese dams become sensitized to obesity-induced metabolic disruptions, including insulin resistance and mitochondrial disfunction . Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production contributes to mitochondrial defects observed in obesity . Oxidative stress, which is caused by overproduction of ROS, can lead to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, decreased copy number, reduced membrane permeability and subsequent suppression of mitochondrial respiratory chain activity . Therefore, I hypothesize that maternal obesity increases offspring mitochondrial ROS production leading to mtDNA damage without loss of mtDNA abundance . To study the effect of maternal obesity, we used a previously established Japanese macaque model of fetal programming . Dams were fed either a control (CON) diet or western style diet (WSD) prior to and during pregnancy and lactation . Offspring were then weaned at 8 months and fed a healthy CON diet . Skeletal muscle biopsies from offspring were collected at 3 years of age and relative mtDNA abundance was measured using quantitative PCR (qPCR) amplification of short regions of mtDNA . No differences were measured in the amount of mtDNA between offspring groups . Moving forward, I will test for elevations in ROS-induced mtDNA damage by qPCR amplification . Overall, these data indicate that exposure to maternal obesity and WSD during fetal development does not reduce mitochondrial abundance in skeletal muscle of adolescent offspring .

The T-shirt Problem: Environmental Issues Caused by Fast Fashion and Simple Ways to Upcycle a Cotton T-shirt

Presenter(s): Megan Rangel-Lynch—Environmental Studies

Co-Presenter(s): Grace Kowalski, Freya Rhodes, Isaac Wasserman

Faculty Mentor(s): Sarah Stoeckl, Kathryn Lynch

Session 1: Environmental Leaders ARC

The t-shirt is a clothing item that fills all people’s drawers, but when not sourced or disposed of sustainably, can have serious environmental impacts . This project aims to explain the negative environmental impacts of the fast fashion industry, a system of rapid production of on trend items using low quality materials, focused on high consumption rate . We are focusing on the t-shirt because it is a simple item almost everyone owns, and there are easy ways to use the fabric to upcycle, create new products, and reduce additional waste other products create . Our project will present alternatives to throwing away unwanted clothing items by upcycling shirts into reusable bags and plant hangers . Our tutorials provide a reusable alternative to products that create waste and ultimately emphasize a more sustainable way of upcycling items instead of buying new ones . Through researching the impacts of the T-Shirt and product alternatives such as plastic bags we will represent our research and our solutions through DIY instructional videos and an analysis of the data found from our research . By creating a video that discusses our research and gives DIY alternatives to clothing waste, we hope to educate viewers on the negative implications of buying into the fast fashion industry and prompt them to make choices emphasizing sustainability and upcycling old clothing resources .

3D GM study of effects of age on cranial shape large-bodied Papionins, using molar wear as a proxy for age

Presenter(s): Andrea Quintanilla—Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephen Frost, Evan Simons

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

Primate cranial shape in relation to age, sex and taxonomy is a growing topic of research, with large- bodied Old World monkeys being among the most studied using geometric morphometrics (GM) and used as models for human cranial shape variation . Ontogenetic changes to skull shape from juveniles to adults are well studied, but those that occur during adulthood are less well known: a twenty-year old is still an adult, but their skull could differ in shape compared to that of a sixty-year old . In this project, we used GM and multivariate analyses to observe changes of cranial shape that occur with post-adult aging . Forty-five 3D landmarks were collected with a Microscribe 3DX digitizer on a sample of 347 wild-collected baboon (Genus Papio) crania, and subjected to generalized Procrustes analysis using the Geomorph package in Rstudio; this superimposes the data and standardizes geometric size, but leaves shape differences . The resulting Procrustes shape coordinates were adjusted for size and sex with multivariate regression analysis to mitigate the effects of allometry and dimorphism . These adjusted coordinates were then regressed against upper third molar wear stage as a proxy for age, using multivariate tests for significance . Principal components analysis was used to summarize the resulting shape space . Results demonstrated that there is a significant effect of molar wear stage on cranial shape, even after accounting for size and sex differences, but it is a subtle effect that accounts for approximately 1% of shape variance . In the future, we will investigate causes of this shape change .

What I Wanted to Say, But Couldn’t: Epistolary Poetry’s Effects on Access and Intimacy for Asian-American Diasporic Poets

Presenter(s): Katie Quines—Spatial Data Science, Geography

Faculty Mentor(s): Ariel Machell

Session 4: Let’s KIDD Around: KIDD Creative Writing Program

While much attention has been paid to the thematic similarities between poetic works produced by Asian-American writers, little commentary exists on why several Asian-American poets are partial to a particular poetic form: the epistolary poem, or a poem stylized as a letter . Contemporary poets ranging from Franny Choi to Ocean Vuong have produced several epistolary poems that discuss their perspectives on the experience of being part of the Asian diaspora . However, the epistolary form creates varied and distinct effects on themes common to diasporic writing, with some letter-poems giving authors access to voice and emotions that critique external, social structures, while some choose to address issues that exist internal to the Asian-American community . This project explores different benefits that the epistolary format confers upon poems written to address the experience of diaspora . By analyzing letter-poems from four Asian-American poets in relation to Marie Myuk-Ok’s theory that the epistolary poem functions as a means of giving minorities access to social critique, I argue that the letter-poems give access to more than pure critique . Rather, the epistolary format functions as a liminal space, which allows diasporic writers to both confront and come to terms with various forms of absence (racial equality and power, of knowledge of our own communities or histories, of physical separation from loved ones, etc .) . This project aims to help poets like myself, who write under the shadow of diaspora, understand the epistolary poem as a form that is ripe with potential for creating new understandings of identity .

Lobodon carcinophaga: Evolutionary constraints on the spatial variability of crabeater seal postcanine teeth for successful filter-feeding foraging strategies

Presenter(s): Megan Pollak—Earth Sciences—Paleontology

Faculty Mentor(s): Kellum Tate-Jones

Session 6: The Earth, Sky & Everything In Between

Pinnipeds, the group that includes true seals, eared seals, and walruses, generally display highly variable tooth spacing . Previous studies have credited this variability to the typical pinniped feeding mechanism, a combination of suction feeding and pierce feeding known as the “grab-and-gulp” method, which does not require precise dental occlusion . However, the crabeater seal (i .e ., Lobodon carcinophaga) is unique among pinnipeds as a filter-feeder . The distinct sieve-like postcanine tooth processes such as high-cuspation and intricate trellis-like morphology allow the crabeater seal to effectively strain small krill from the water . I hypothesize that individuals in this group with unevenly spaced teeth are unlikely to survive ecological pressures and are thus removed from the population by natural selection, leading to lesser variation in crabeater seal tooth spacing than in grab-and-gulp feeders . I test this hypothesis by assessing whether the distinctive feeding method of the crabeater seal constrains tooth spacing by comparing the variability in tooth gaps of crabeater seals to that of bearded seals (i .e ., Erignathus barbatus) . I measured the tooth gaps between the postcanine teeth of 21 specimens of L . carcinophaga and 11 specimens of E . barbatus . I then performed an F test of equal variance on these two datasets . I found that crabeater seal tooth gaps are significantly less variable in spacing than those of bearded seals . This result supports my hypothesis that natural selective processes have generated evolutionary constraints for lower variability in tooth spacing in the filter- feeder, L . carcinophaga, than in grab-and-gulp feeders such as E . barbatus .

Emery Owens Abstract

Presenter(s): Chelsea Pitarresi—Journalism, Cinema Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Dan Cheung

Session 4: Let’s KIDD Around: KIDD Creative Writing Program

“Emery Owens” is a story of the liminal spaces of life; the peculiarity of the early stages of adulthood and adult relationships, when you have been given both the freedom and restrictions of an established adult, but have no idea how to take advantage of them . Max finds comfort in these in-betweens, and has difficulties moving to the next “big thing” his life has to offer . While adjusting to surprising annoyances in his new job at the bowling alley, Max leans on his brand-new relationship with Delilah for comfort . As the relationship progresses though, he finds himself not wanting to break the illusions of perfection that newness can offer relationships, and directs his anxieties towards Delilah’s unusual pet, Emery Owens . When I first started writing the story, I was focused purely on the strange dynamic between Max and Emery Owens and was writing with a very specific and dramatic ending in mind . However, as my writing came into shape, I found the real value of Max’s story in the smaller moments .

Meeting Needs and Reclaiming Communal Autonomy: Post-Conflict Community Organizing in Rural Colombia

Presenter(s): Sarah Pishioneri—Political Science

Session 4: Cultural Considerations—The Other

This presentation details community organizing practices that work to rebuild a social framework devastated by armed conflict in Caño Berruguita, a rural village in the Montes de Maria region of northwestern Colombia . Through an exploratory analysis of this particular community’s post- conflict experience and by looking more broadly at the rural reform efforts by governmental bodies and nongovernmental organizations, this presentation highlights local organizing efforts as the primary means of Colombian communities to reclaim their communal dignity and assert their territorial autonomy . The findings of this work are primarily sourced from a 10-day field study in Caño Berruguita, and secondarily from varying peace and conflict contexts provided in a 4-week intensive study program in Cartagena, Colombia . Results show that while structural organizations, projects, partnerships, and goals of informal and formal community groups not only rebuild, but embolden rural communities, community leaders themselves face significant risk by engaging in this work .

Characterizing the relationship between bacterial motility and range expansion

Presenter(s): Noah Pettinari—Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Raghuveer Parthasarathy

Session 5: To the Moon and Back—Relativity Matters

Self-propelled organisms were first observed under the microscope over 300 years ago . Since then, great strides have been made in characterizing the mechanisms behind motile behavior in bacteria, but current models relating cellular motility to bulk range expansion have not been rigorously tested . To better characterize the relationship between these micro- and macroscale patterns, our research is focused on the analysis of images collected via light sheet fluorescence microscopy of bacterial cells and macroscopic imaging of range expansion . Preliminary results have suggested disagreements between predicted rates of range expansion and cellular motility . Further data and analysis is needed to confirm these results . These findings may highlight the need for the consideration of spatial structure or the possibility of unknown mechanisms in current models .

Hogs and Hazelnuts: resolving conflict between oak conservation and organic agriculture

Presenter(s): Calvin Penkauskas—Environmental Science and Biology

Faculty Mentor(s): Alejandro Brambila, Lauren Hallett

Session 2: Oregon Trails

The Oregon hazelnut industry makes up over 99% of domestic production and 4% worldwide . The key economic pest of hazelnuts in the Pacific Northwest is filbertworm and population sinks are located in nearby oak habitat . This is of concern because there is only 5% of oak habitat left in the Willamette Valley, which is mostly on private agricultural land, and oaks are an important keystone species . Here, I present a case study of a novel strategy to reconcile this conflict by using domesticated pigs (hogs) to reduce pest pressure in surrounding native oak habitat . I investigated the use of hogs to glean filbertworm infested acorns from an oak woodland floor, the effects on the mating population, and the subsequent proportion of infested acorns . My results demonstrate that grazing in oak patches can be an effective method to reduce filbertworm pest populations . While hog silvopasture has potential to be an effective biological pest control method, this practice will only be implemented widely if hazelnut farmers are receptive to the benefits it can provide . Furthermore, in addition to supporting diverse and sustainable farm operations, silvopasturing hogs in oak patches can benefit oak conservation goals by converting them from a landowner’s liability into an asset . Since this novel pest management approach seeks to regionally benefit both environmental concerns and farmers, this example provides a model for similar challenges and conflicts where agricultural and wildlands interact in the same landscape .

What Parts of Status Matter? Comparing Respect and Admiration to Social Influence

Presenter(s): Joshua Pearman—Psychology

Faculty Mentor(s): Bradley Hughes, Sanjay Srivastava

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

In social hierarchies, people are organized based on their relative status compared to others . A person’s status is determined by the judgments of others and has two components: respect and admiration and social influence The focus of this work was to understand the relationship and effects of these components in interpersonal perceptions . We tested three hypotheses: 1) The components of status, respect/admiration and social influence, will be associated such that individuals who are perceived as having greater respect/admiration will also have higher levels of social influence; 2) Others will agree about who has status in a group (consensus), and will also agree about their own relative status in the group (self-other agreement); 3) Personality traits will predict who attains status . To test these hypotheses, we had groups of n = 4 – 6 (N = 218) complete a leaderless group decision making task and then provide ratings about the status and personality of each of the other members of the group and make decisions about who they would prefer to work with on future tasks . The preregistered analysis will use a Social Relations Model approach to account for dependencies in the data and linear regression models to test the hypotheses . We will present the results from this analysis and discuss implications of a two-component approach to status for future work .