Category: 2022

The Roles of Theatre and Drama in the Criminal Justice System

Presenter: Hannah Joel − English, Sociology

Faculty Mentor(s): Aryn Bartley, Ce Rosenow

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Read, Speak and Act

Prisons deter the public from engaging in criminal behavior and reform the incarcerated. Despite the goal of deterrence, however, statistics reveal flaws within current U.S. rehabilitation practices. According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics study that followed 404,638 incarcerated individuals upon their release from prison, 67.8% were rearrested within three years of release. 76.6% were rearrested within five years. The alarming recidivism rates suggest that the criminal justice system is failing to properly rehabilitate incarcerated individuals and that they are not given a chance to transform their lives. The criminal justice system is overlooking a critical aspect: the importance of prison education. Theatre and drama programs are examples of prison education that can be highly effective in transforming an incarcerated individual. To analyze the roles these programs play in the criminal justice system, I researched the benefits such programs bring to the lives of incarcerated individuals. Since this is a preliminary study, I relied on the testimonies from incarcerated individuals and articles on prison education programs. These sources demonstrate that theatre and drama programs helped change incarcerated individuals’ lives by developing empathy and reflection on their deviant behavior. Recognizing the role that such programs play in the prison system is crucial in terms of understanding and considering what we can do to mitigate the chances of recidivism in the future.

Diet affects microbiome diversity in Drosophila melanogaster

Presenter: Dante James − Multidisciplinary Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Nadia Singh

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Hot sauce adds spice to our life, orange juice gives us a refreshing break in the morning, and probiotics help us digest food. These components of our diets affect not only our mood, but our general health. We aimed to explore how components of our diet may affect the microbiome. Specifically, we wanted to test the relationship between diet and the bacteria strains found in microbiomes. To test this, we utilized the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Our hypothesis was that different diets affect the microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster. We tested 4 separate treatments. These included a control, probiotics, hot sauce, and juice. We prepared fly food containing 20% (by volume) of each of these treatments. We exposed flies for one week and then homogenized them in water. We plated the homogenate on LB plates to culture bacteria for 3 days. We then counted the colonies that had formed and isolated them. We used PCR to amplify a segment of the 16S gene. Finally, we used the BLAST program to identify what bacteria we cultured. We found that the two most common genera across treatments were Staphylococcus and Acetobacter. We also found that the bacterial community changed in response to the different diets. This indicates that diet can affect the microbiome, which has implications and significance for human health.

Experiences and Health of Transgender & Gender Diverse People of Color During the BLM Protests

Presenter: Alexandra Jagielski − Multidisciplinary Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Zachary DuBois, Alicia DeLouize

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Transgender and gender diverse people of color (TGD POC) endure high levels of discrimination and violence related to anti-trans bias and racism. The Trans Resilience & Health in Sociopolitical Contexts Study (N = 158) is a longitudinal mixed-methods study that captured monthly data on experiences of certain sociopolitical events and measured aspects of mental and physical health from a diverse sample of TGD people living in Oregon, Michigan, Tennessee, and Nebraska. This investigation centers on the experiences and health of TGD POC participants during the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in June 2020. These events involved a series of protests characterized by increased mobilization against systemic racism. Participants reflected on the increased focus on police brutality and racism. TGD POC participants reported significantly higher levels of post-event changes related to anti-trans hate speech and impacts on overall safety. TGD POC also had significantly higher perceived stress scores and lower resilience scores compared to TGD white participants. These findings show how sociopolitical events have negatively impacted the social treatment and well-being of TGD POC in our sample. It enables further understanding of the experiences of TGD POC which could help inform the development of supportive programs in the community. This study also highlights the importance of examining compounded effects of inequality related to intersecting marginalized identities.

Personal Training and its Effects on University of Oregon Students

Presenter: Jackson Hullinger − Human Physiology

Co-Presenter(s): Karl Schenk, Olivia Gurley

Faculty Mentor(s): Chantelle Russell

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Strive to Thrive ARC

This paper analyzes how personal trainers affect and influence the wellness of college students at University of Oregon. If students work with personal trainers then their overall wellness will improve because working with a personal trainer offers a more structured workout plan for people who are inexperienced or uncomfortable at the gym, less risk of injury, and guidance on proper nutrition. To prove this, we read through multiple scientific research papers and spoke to various personal trainers and students about how personal training has benefitted them. Our primary results showed that among the people we interviewed, the overwhelming majority of participants showed improvements in their overall wellness. However, these results were based on prior experience in the gym and their individual relationship with their trainer. The implications of these results can help direct more students who are not comfortable with the gym and/or whose physical and mental health is not well to the Rec Center. Additional possible outcomes of this could be a raised GPA among students at UO, better physical and mental health of students, and just an overall better campus. Overall physical and mental wellness are important aspects of well that UO is trying to help students with, and directing students to meet with a personal trainer would be the most beneficial way to improve wellness.

The Individual: On Lesbian Lands

Presenter: Elle Hopkins − Sociology

Co-Presenter(s): Pippa Simmons

Faculty Mentor(s): Judith Raiskin

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

The creation of the lesbian homeland called the OWL farm, or Open Women’s Land, happened during the second wave of feminism, a movement which lasted from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. This paper will examine why women, specifically lesbian separatists, chose to create a sanctuary for women that was completely separate from patriarchal influences, how they governed their lands, and why women wanted to visit the lands. This will be done by analyzing primary sources such as journals written by residents on the farm, newsletters published at the farm and other miscellaneous resources from the SO CLAP archival collection. This is an effort to understand why the popularity of lesbians lands peaked over two decades (1975-1995) and has decreased over time and why the views of lesbian separatism don’t fit with the modern views of feminism.

Using Photometric Observations of Messier 52 to Derive Color Magnitude Diagrams With Python Scripts

Presenter: Sara Holeman − Astronomy & Planetary Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Scott Fisher

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Here we present results from optical observations of the open cluster M52 (NGC 7654) obtained at Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO) in July 2021. We obtained high signal-to-noise ratio images of M52 in the SLOAN g’, r’, and i’ filters during a single observing run under substandard observing conditions due to surrounding wildfires. M52 was chosen for this project due to the stars being widely separated allowing for photometry to be performed near the cluster center. The cluster was observed in each filter for 25 minutes of on-source integration. The image data was later reduced and analyzed using custom Python scripts that then produced the color-magnitude diagrams (CMD) presented here.

Being that the main motivation of this project was to allow advanced undergraduate students to write and perfect data analysis code and produce adequate results that could be compared against published data, we are pleased to present a high-quality CMD comparison to published data as well as offset comparisons roughly by five magnitudes due to the negative effects of the smoke. Our results give the chance for students to recognize the importance of observing conditions and the reality of optical observations for astronomical research. Additionally, we will use the obtained data to absolutely calibrate the PMO telescope system for the first time and use the customized Python code to return to M52 to obtain better quality data with excellent observing conditions to correct for the offset CMDs.

Design for Migraine Management: Product Proposal to Mitigate Social-Emotional Burdens of Migraine

Presenter: Charlie Holden − Product Design

Faculty Mentor(s): Kiersten Muenchinger

Session: (Virtual) Poster Presentation

Migraine is a common and debilitating neurological illness. Effective migraine treatment often relies on pharmaceutical interventions, though this strategy alone is insufficient in allowing migraineurs, or people who experience migraine headaches, to manage their condition because it does not address social and emotional burdens. My work aims to provide migraineurs with tools to build healthy habits and increase their understanding of individual triggers and treatments, thereby decreasing attack frequency and intensity. My motivation is to lessen the social and emotional burdens of migraine by reducing feelings of helplessness, isolation, frustration, and guilt among migraineurs. I propose that I may increase migraineurs’ actual and perceived control over their condition by providing them with tools to build positive migraine prevention habits. This solution is Pagno, a system by which to record attacks and personal metrics and synthesize these data to gain insights into appropriate treatment plans. By providing migraineurs with a system that optimizes the formation of migraine tracking as a habit, I propose that migraineurs will be empowered to adopt strategies that will improve short-term migraine incidence and long-term condition management.

Discovery of Affinity Binding Partners for Controlled Protein Delivery

Presenter: Henry Hochstatter − Human Physiology

Faculty Mentor(s): Jonathan Dorogin

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Wound healing is orchestrated by a complex sequence of proteins, including granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which facilitates myeloid stem cell differentiation into mature immune cells during the inflammatory response, and fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), which stimulates fibroblast proliferation. Delivery of these proteins to sites of injury may increase the efficacy of tissue repair, but current protein delivery methods fail to precisely control the temporal presentation of GM-CSF and FGF-2 at relevant stages of wound healing. The aim of this research is to develop affinity-based biomaterials that can facilitate the controlled delivery of these regenerative proteins for improved tissue regeneration. To accomplish this, small protein-binding peptides called affibodies have been identified from a randomized pool of ~860 million unique sequences via sorting of a yeast surface display library. Five affibodies were selected that specifically bind to GM-CSF or FGF-2 with varying affinities; the affinities of these affibodies have been characterized on the surface of yeast cells, and were expressed as soluble proteins in E. coli for further analysis. The wide range of affibody affinities for their protein targets will enable extensive modulation of temporal protein presentation. Conjugating these affibodies to biomaterials will allow for the spatiotemporal control of protein release to a wound site for improved wound healing in the clinic.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde’ Relationship with and Reclamation of Tumwata

Presenter: Catelynn Henion − Educational Foundations

Faculty Mentor(s): Leilani Sabzalian

Session: (Virtual) Creative Work—Connection, Escapism, Poetry and Exercise

In 2019, The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde purchased land at Tumwata (Willamette Falls). The falls are of great cultural significance to the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, and the purchase of this land is a reclamation of part of the Tribe’s ancestral homelands.

This project began in my class EDST 456 Decolonization and Education, taught by Dr. Lelani Sabzalian. The goal of my project was to answer the following questions, “how would one teach about Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde’s relationship and reclamation of the Tumwata land” and “what foundational knowledge is necessary for students to contextualize this reclamation within a larger scope of the settler-colonial society in which we live?”

I created a website to answer these questions and prepare myself to contextualize and teach about this relationship and reclamation in the future; this website serves as a compilation of resources. With the mentorship of Dr. Sabzalian, I have grown the scope of my project. This website is a work in progress and is not an exhaustive list of information or resources but rather a starting point for me as a white settler, student, and future educator to engage in critical conversations, actions, and lessons about the falls respectfully and responsibly.

Promoting Pollinators at Whitewater Ranch

Presenter: Olivia Heller − Environmental Studies

Co-Presenter(s): Julia Nauman, Lindsey Nguyen, Fischer Kirk

Faculty Mentor(s): Peg Boulay, Gabby Altmire

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Learning from the Environment

Native pollinators are beneficial in agroecosystems because they are more cost-efficient, resistant to disease, and more favorable to the larger ecosystem than imported honey bees. The Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) has been monitoring pollinators at Whitewater Ranch (WWR), an organic blueberry and timber farm in Leaburg, Oregon, since 2014. Here, the ELP has assisted WWR in its restoration of Goose Creek, a riparian zone that runs through the ranch. The goal of the project is to increase native pollinator abundance and diversity for the benefit of the ranch and greater ecosystem. To do so, we explored the potential of native riparian and forb plantings to increase native pollinator populations. First, we continued to monitor the effects of previous riparian plantings on current pollinator populations in blueberry fields. Second, we explored the role of floral enhancements in logged areas after the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. Working with insect ecologist Lauren Ponisio, we are monitoring which native forbs are most successful in the previously burned areas of Whitewater Ranch. We expect pollinator numbers to remain relatively consistent with previous years.