Category: 2022

Comparison of External Load Estimation from Wearable Sensors during a Free Run

Presenter: Anna Mare − Human Physiology

Faculty Mentor(s): Seth Donahue, Rachel Robinson

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Cumulative training load has been defined as the product of external loading and internal physiological loading experienced by an individual during a training session and may be an important predictor for running related injury. Traditional methods of monitoring external load for runners has been the tracking of mileage, however, with the increased availability of wearable sensors, we can develop more sophisticated paradigms for the estimation of external load. Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) and GPS watches are wearable sensors that have been used for the quantification of external load during running in a laboratory setting. The purpose of this study was to compare GPS-derived metrics and IMU metrics for the quantification of ground reaction force (GRF) peaks as an estimation of external load from participants running in a real-world environment. Twelve participants were equipped with force sensing insoles to measure GRF. Three IMUs were mounted on each participant, one on the dorsal aspect of each foot, and one attached near the sacrum on the waistband. Participants also wore a Garmin GPS watch. Participants were instructed to run an approximately 5-mile course at their own pace. The IMU-based model was a significantly better fit than the GPS model, indicating an improvement of the estimation of external load using IMU data. These findings show that IMUs provide a more accurate estimation of cumulative peak GRF as a proxy for external load than GPS-derived estimates.

Dark Quarks Detection via Magnetic Dipole Interaction

Presenter: Chester Mantel − Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Graham Kribs

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Uniquely Their Own

Fermionic dark matter could arise from a strongly interacting dark sector. Dark quarks are bound into neutral composite dark baryons, which can be probed by direct detection experiments through a magnetic dipole interaction. We consider theories where the strong interaction consists of Nc colors, where Nc is odd and large, and place bounds on the parameter space of the theory using direct detection and cosmological constraints.

Simulating Dead-End State Distributions for Microbial Metabolism

Presenter: Nathan Malamud − Mathematics and Computer Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Stilianos Louca

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

In this project, I simulate the influence of microbial metabolism on ocean geochemistry using the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela as a model system. In my investigation, I used bifurcation diagrams to visualize the distribution of possible dead-end states: geochemical configurations at which all metabolic reactions become energetically unfavorable and microbial metabolism slows to a halt. In a radically novel approach, I used an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process to stochastically model kinetic rates.

My rationale for doing this was to show how stoichiometry and energetics alone could potentially determine long-term biogeochemical states. By running N=9,336 simulations written in Python, I found that the dead-end state of an isolated system with aerobic sulfide-oxidizing microbes could be determined fairly consistently based on varying oxygen levels. At high oxygen concentrations (>100 micromolars), oxygen was utilized to the fullest metabolic extent (until the Gibbs free energy yield reached 0 kJ / mol) by the simulated microbes in order to convert all available sulfide to sulfate.

At lower oxygen levels, nitrate was utilized instead due to its biochemical role as an alternative electron acceptor. At higher oxygen levels, final nitrate concentrations were far less predictable, and significant variation in nitrate consumption can be seen in the associated bifurcation plot. This theoretical exercise may aid in the development of biogeochemical models of climate-influenced ocean processes.

Code-Switching: Students in Formal v.s Informal Settings

Presenter: Ashling Mahony − Psychology

Co-Presenter(s): Sofia Martin, Taylor Bollenbaugh, Simone Baeza

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Baese-Berk

Session: (Virtual) Poster Presentation

The way we communicate is always changing. It even changes when we speak to different people or in different settings. We decided to look further into the details of how specifically college- aged students change their lexicon and grammar in formal and informal settings. This is known as code-switching–alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in a single conversation. We have looked at responses from students from each scenario and have drawn conclusions from both sets of responses. We want to see how college-aged students code-switch their language in different situations. The two different environments we are going to study are formal/classroom settings and informal/social media settings. We want to see how college-aged students react to online school versus in-person school. We sent out questionnaires for students to complete anonymously. UO academic residential communities and Instagram stories will be how we get the majority of our responses. Hybrid learning has created an academic environment that is formal, yet informal. When students code-switch in response to a change in setting, the type of language they speak reflects their attitudes and interests in those different situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly transformed many students’ attitudes towards education in the United States. We can use our results to help predict what the future of education may look like post- pandemic.

South Umpqua Watershed Study: Impacts to Salmon

Presenter: Sprout Mahoney − Environmental Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Colin Phifer

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Salmon are an anadromous, keystone species that have a massive impact on the regions they inhabit, from freshwater stream ecosystems to ocean habitats. These fish have unique lifecycle needs, including specific water quality factors and mobility access to their full habitat range. These factors are explored using spatial analysis and results show several ways salmon populations may be negatively impacted in the South Umpqua watershed.

Do waste management firms in Oregon disproportionately affect low-income minorities?

Presenter: David Lopez-Aparicio − Political Science

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Diversity and Analysis, Poster Presentation

History has shown us that low-income minorities often bear the brunt end of the stick for health, income-mobility, and education. Though in recent times these disparities are narrowing, there is still much to be done. Past research in other states has demonstrated that low-income minorities are disproportionately affected by environmental racism through pollution cause by firms. These quiet literal dirty economies have directly resulted in lower-quality healthcare, lower education rates, and lack of socio-economic mobility for minorities. With the ongoing exacerbating effects of the pandemic, it is crucial to analyze how these marginalized people are being effected to implement protective policy. Currently, there exists no data examining if there is a relationship between Oregon waste management firms and the communities they’re surrounded by. We will be utilizing economic regression models to examine past data regarding income, health, and education rates around the communities waste management firms in Oregon reside. This will assist us in determining the potential adverse effects they face as a result—higher health defects, lower income and graduation rates. If previous investigations are any indicator, we should expect to find there is a negative relationship for communities geographically close to these firms. These findings will add to the national conversation surrounding environmental racism and reaffirm past exploration.

Structure-Property Relationship of Halogen bonding Supramolecular Receptors

Presenter: Faith Longnight − Chemistry, Sociology

Co-Presenter(s): Scout Trom

Faculty Mentor(s): Hannah Bates, Thaís de

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Anion receptors hold an important place within the field of supramolecular chemistry due to the vast biological impacts many anions have in biology. Our project focuses on the synthesis of various novel reversible halogen-bonding anion receptors. The investigation varies the withdrawing characteristics of substituents of charged and neutral receptors to enable a thorough structure- property relationship study. Preliminary results show that the neutral receptors have significantly lower binding strength when compared to their corresponding charged receptors. We also see that the more electron-withdrawing the substituent group, the stronger the binding for the charged receptors. We also see that the binding pocket of our receptors best fit to chloride, our target analyte, when compared to the other halide anions. Through this study, we hope to identify the key structural characteristics needed to bind smaller anions, like chloride, so that future work can include creating receptors that can bind chloride in cells. The results of this study will provide fundamental knowledge of the most efficient way to modify receptors for an optimal binding moving forward in the field of halogen-bonding supramolecular sensors.

The effects of physical violence on mental health in Tunisian women

Presenter: Makenzie Litty − Data Science, Psychology

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Physical violence is a public health problem because it not only affects the physical wellbeing of victims short-term, but also negatively affects their mental health long-term. Although much research has been done on the effects of intimate-partner violence, less has been done looking at overall risk of personal violence and its effects on mental health. In this study, we analyzed the World Health Organization’s Tunisian Health Examination Survey (2016) responses to better understand the association between women experiencing physical violence and rates of depression. Results are forthcoming, but we hypothesize that experiencing physical violence will be associated with the presence of depression for women in Tunisia. With this research we hope to highlight how experiencing deliberate violence by another person [stabbings, being struck by an object] in your community lead to long-term effects on mental health.

Stable Isotope Analysis of Fossil Shark Teeth from the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway

Presenter: Rachel Lisle − Earth Sciences

Faculty Mentor(s): Edward Davis, Kellum Tate-Jones

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

The Western Interior Seaway was a Late Cretaceous (100.5-66 mya) inland sea that, at it’s largest, stretched north to south, from the modern-day Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Research concerning the seaway has revealed that there was likely a significant temperature gradient present, with cooler temperate waters to the north and warmer subtropical waters to the south. Using fossilized teeth from two species of sharks collected from an Arkansas site associated with the Western Interior Seaway, I seek to use carbon and oxygen isotopes to interpret the paleoecological conditions present in the southern province of the seaway during the Late Cretaceous. I also seek to identify what conditions made it suitable for these sharks to live in this province. Using stable isotope analysis by way of laser ablation, as well as conducting a literature review on relevant sources, I have found that these sharks likely preferred the subtropical temperatures over cooler temperate waters. Mirroring this is a similar pattern in salinity, wherein these species likely preferred water with a higher salinity than the more brackish water up north. This research is essential in understanding what conditions made the seaway favorable for shark species and how extinct marine vertebrates interacted with and reacted to their environment.