Category: Uncategorized

From the Ground Up: Connections and Contradictions Within the United States Housing Movement

Presenter: Anna Nguyen – Economics, Political Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Alison Gash

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Connection and Community

The repercussions of the housing crisis today are immense, to say the least. Accelerating trends of deregulation, financialization, and globalization produce conditions that are ripe for real estate investment. Neoliberal policies make affordable housing inaccessible by design. The idea of housing— as a lived and social space, a necessary form of shelter, and a universal basic need—has been stripped away for purposes of profit generation. With these deteriorating conditions in mind, this much is clear: the housing crisis is a colossal problem and will not be resolved overnight. Tenant and unhoused organizers who understand this reality are motivated by it and have acted accordingly to respond to the crisis at its worst. Evaluating the scope of eviction and its root causes necessitates a deeper understanding of housing insecurity and the traumatic displacement of tenants on a political, economic, and spatial level. Because working class tenants and their unhoused neighbors are subject to experiences of housing precarity in their daily lives, they have a lot to gain from establishing solidarity with each other. The goal of this thesis is to investigate how tenant and unhoused groups navigate these collaborative relationships tensions as they respond to the housing crisis on a local and national scale.

Possible Benefits of Maternal Thiamine Supplementation for Mother-Infant Joint Attention in Cambodia

Presenter: Sera Lew – Global Studies, Psychology

Co-Presenter(s): Audrey Saing

Faculty Mentor(s): Dare Baldwin, Jeffrey Measelle

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Thiamine deficiency is a common micronutrient deficiency in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia (Measelle, et al., 2020). Severe thiamine deficiency contributes to infant mortality, while subclinical levels undercut infants’ neurocognitive development (Fattal-Valevski, et al. 2009). This study focuses on the possible implications of mother-infant thiamine status for neurocognitive development in terms of joint attention interactions where caregivers and babies simultaneously engage with the same object. This study is part of a larger randomized controlled trial in rural Cambodia investigating how low-dose thiamine supplementation of breastfeeding mothers might benefit infants’ cognitive development. Cambodian mothers (N=335) were randomly assigned to receive daily supplements of either 0mg, 1.2mg, 2.4mg, or 10mg of thiamine hydrochloride from 2 to 24 weeks postnatal. We hypothesized that mothers and infants who received thiamine would display longer joint attention interactions than those in the control group. Preliminary findings from 70 mother-infant dyads (control: 18; supplementation: 52) provided possible confirmation of these predictions; joint attention interactions were marginally longer for dyads who received supplemental thiamine than those who did not, F(1, 68) = 3.69, p = .059. If these findings are reflected in the full sample, they would indicate that thiamine facilitates infants’ joint attention interactions, a key catalyst for neurocognitive development.

Shia-Catholic Coexistence and Cross-Religious Engagement Among Youth in Southern Lebanon

Presenter: Raimy Khalife-Hamdan − Global Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephen Wooten

Session: Virtual) Oral Panel—Health and Social Science

This ethnographic research project on Shia-Catholic coexistence in Southern Lebanon centers on young adults’ voices and actions. Traveling between a militia-filled Muslim village and a Christian village to conduct over thirty-three qualitative interviews over three months, I examine the interreligious relationship in which young adults engage. I advance an understanding that ordinary youth of different social identities have the ability to enact and bolster long-term peacekeeping. In the case of Ghazieh and Maghdouché, the vast majority of young adults re-conceptualize identity and religion to detach from sectarian master narratives, and they instead articulate a narrative underscoring shared fraternal connection with religious neighbors. In the process, many young adults treat temporalities and spaces as inclusive, surpassing the sectarian to become neutral or religiously sublime. I determine a general “common life” or “single life” (‘aysh mushtarak or ‘aysh wahid) marked by friendships, shared spaces, and mutual reliance. Lebanon’s history of sectarian conflict does not impel the youth I interview to reproduce sectarian narratives. This postwar generation—which rejects divisive war-era master narratives that enemize the religious other—craves an alternative Lebanon, one that disintegrates the sectarian sociopolitical structures. Yet considering the crises plaguing Lebanon and the desperation of young adults to flee, I dare to theorize the country’s demise.

Male Affiliation as an Alternative Mating Strategy in Japanese Macaques

Presenter: Katherine Jones − Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Frances White

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

In non-human primates, dominance is often considered the primary strategy for securing mating opportunities. However, while dominance is certainly an influential factor in an individual’s reproductive success, the ability to form and maintain strong social relationships serves a similar purpose, especially for those individuals who are unable to hold a high dominance rank. Social bonding is predictive of cooperation, higher rates of tolerance, lower rates of aggression, and reproductive success. Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) form complex inter-male social networks, with an individual’s position in the network potentially impacting their reproductive success. In this study, we aimed to examine the inter-relatedness of dominance, positive male-male relationships, and reproductive success. Using behavioral data collected at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, we calculated simulated rank orders and constructed social networks based on grooming interactions between adult males. We then investigated correlations between the number of infants a male sired and the male’s age, dominance rank, and social network positionality. Although the most dominant male was more reproductively successful than many lower-ranking individuals, the male with the most offspring was one who had a more central position within the social network. These findings offer a preliminary model for better understanding male social bonding as an alternative mating strategy.

Does Low-Dose Thiamine Supplementation Affect Mothers’ Support For Infant Secondary Engagement?

Presenter: Bridget Johns − Psychology

Faculty Mentor(s): Dare Baldwin, Diana DeWald

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Thiamine is a crucial nutrient for the body; considerable evidence indicates that its deficiency can negatively impact infants’ health and neurocognitive development. Unfortunately, in Southeast Asia, thiamine deficiency is common due to cultural reliance on thiamine-poor polished white rice as a dietary staple. My research is part of a larger, randomized, controlled trial investigating possible benefits of maternal thiamine supplementation for breastfed babies’ neurocognitive development. I focused on Cambodian mothers’ ability to support infants in secondary engagement; specifically, their skill in facilitating joint attention regarding a novel object. To understand effects of thiamine on maternal joint engagement efforts, we developed a code using a five-point Likert scale to examine mother’s behavioral efforts on four dimensions: presentation of object, joint engagement efforts, contingent responding, and affective tone. Mothers participated in a task where they attempted to initiate and sustain their infant’s attention on a novel object for five 30-second increments (epochs) and were coded on how well they displayed each dimension per epoch. We expected the dimensions’ ratings to display a systemic pattern across each epoch, and mothers who received higher doses of thiamine to have the highest joint engagement codes. Analyses indicate the presence of the predicted systemic patterns but no effect of thiamine dosage.

Renal Hemodynamic Response to Oral Protein Loading during Prolonged Mild Hypohydration

Presenter: Sadie Holt − Human Physiology

Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Christopher Chapman

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Hypohydration, a state of low body water, can occur due to inadequate fluid consumption or with sweating during heat stress. The kidneys regulate body water through multiple mechanisms including modulation of renal blood flow. It is not known if prolonged hypohydration alters the control of renal blood flow. Renal blood flow control can be probed using an oral protein load, a stimulus that increases renal blood flow within 1-3 hours. We tested the hypothesis that prolonged mild hypohydration attenuates oral protein loading-induced increases in renal blood flow compared to a hydrated state (i.e., euhydrated). Eight healthy adults (5 females) arrived at the lab after 24 hours of fluid deprivation (HYPO) or when euhydrated (EUHY). Subjects ingested a whey protein beverage to stimulate increases in renal blood flow. Doppler ultrasonography was used to estimate renal blood flow from blood velocity in the renal and segmental arteries. Data were summarized as the peak increase in renal blood velocity. A mild hypohydration was confirmed by greater reductions in body mass in HYPO vs. EUHY (HYPO: -2.2±0.5%; EUHY: -0.3±0.7%, P=0.001). There were no differences between conditions in the peak increase in renal (HYPO: +5.6±3.8 cm/s; EUHY: +4.8±3.3 cm/s, P=0.54) and segmental (HYPO: +4.4±4.7 cm/s; EUHY: +3.4±4.0 cm/s, P=0.43) artery blood velocities. These findings indicate that prolonged mild hypohydration does not alter the kidneys’ ability to increase renal blood flow.

Femoral Fracture Fixation Device to Wirelessly Monitor Real Time, in Vivo Strain

Presenter: Noah Greenblatt – Human Physiology

Co-Presenter(s): Walker Rosenthal

Faculty Mentor(s): Keat Ghee Ong, Salil Karipott

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Stimuli and Response, Poster Presentation

Strain, a primary measure of the dynamic mechanical environment, is important with regard to patient aimed orthopedic treatment especially in minimizing complications that arise after certain bone fracture injuries. Currently, methods aimed at assessing the mechanical environment include external stimulating devices that fail to measure strain during normal gait patterns, and estimated parameters computed from different computational models which lack real-time data. With these limitations in determining real time load condition in bone fracture healing, we aimed to fabricate a bone fixation device that provided adequate mechanical stability to a healing bone fracture and measured strain present on the device in a rodent femur. This device transmits measurements wirelessly to a nearby computer for quantification of strain. Our results showed the ability to successfully measure local axial strain during functional loading on a rodent with a femur fracture. This device facilitates the study of mechanical strain and its role in bone healing in preclinical rodent fracture models. Most importantly, this device allows for future rehabilitation protocols that are evidenced-based and patient specific.

Affect and New French Extremity: Aesthetics of Traumatic Memory

Presenter(s): Lisa Deluc — Cinema Studies

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—HURF

This thesis hopes to highlight how a particular film phenomenon in early twenty-first century France demonstrates the concepts of traumatic affect eloquently through its aesthetic and formal tendencies. Commonly known as New French Extremity, this phenomenon touched on transgressive subjects in extreme and often viscerally challenging ways. This work into New French Extremity hopes to bring about a broader understanding of how art communicates traumatic memory through formal elements of storytelling. Ultimately this research seeks to better understand how bodily experience is affectively contagious and how cinema facilitates this communication through formal and aesthetic means.