Tag: 2016

Land-Seizing Language: Rhetoric’s Claim to Territory in Colonial Travel Writing of the New World

Presenter: Erin Weaver

Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth Bohls, Brent Dawson

Presentation Type: Poster 88

Primary Research Area: Humanities

Major: English

England sends its first party of settlers to New World Virginia in 1585, but it isn’t until 1607 that the empire founds Jamestown – the first lasting colony on the continent, following 22 years of failure to occupy the territory. In absence of physical ownership of the land, how to do the narratives that emerge out of the New World during this period attempt to assert a rhetorical claim to it?

To answer this question, my research analyzes the writing of New World authors Smith, White, Lane, and Harriot. Thus far, it has investigated the existence of the following through close reading analysis in order to pinpoint rhetorical strategies that assert possession: a) the binding of space in the New World into definable (and therefore claimable) place through rhetorical cartography and the theory of space and place; b) Edenic tropes to assert a God-given right to cultivate the landscape and mark it as claimed; c) syntactical structures that infantilize native improvements and project English structures (or signs of ownership) onto the land.

The rhetoric of travel writing has been well studied; the rhetoric of claim within these texts is lacking. In combining the studies of travel writing’s rhetoric and language’s ability to bound space, I will discern ways in which English colonists are able to claim the territory solely through their use of narrative.

Calibration of the MFR Device

Presenter: Minyuan Wang

Faculty Mentor: Josh Peterson, Frank Vignola

Presentation Type: Poster 87

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Biochemistry, Human Physiology

Accurate measurements of solar radiation are important for climate modeling, efficient building design, and in the development of solar electric systems. These measurements are performed using instruments that must be calibrated and maintained at the highest quality level. The Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Spectroradiometer (MFR) measures three components of incoming solar radiation: light directly from the sun (Direct Irradiance), light coming from everywhere but the sun (Diffuse Irradiance), and light incident from everywhere (Global Irradiance). The MFR device is a unique instrument in that it can make all three of these measurements and does so at six discrete wavelengths. The purpose of this project was to accurately calibrate the MFR device and determine the corresponding uncertainty. To do this, solar radiation data was collected and analyzed from various reference instruments and the MFR in Eugene, Oregon, from June through September 2015 at all times of day throughout the 4-month period. The irradiance measured by the MFR was compared to the reference instruments and the calibration factor of the MFR device was determined. Our results were within 2.5% of the calibration performed in 2013 for each of the six wavelengths the MFR measures with an uncertainty of ±5% at the 95 percent confidence level.

Women Working in the Public Relations Industry in Hong Kong

Presenter: Tiffany Wan Hoi Nga

Faculty Mentor: Kathryn Kuttis, David Remund

Presentation Type: Oral

Primary Research Area: Humanities

Major: Journalism: Public Relations

In the 21st century, public relations plays an important role in the business world. The majority of people who work in the public relations industry are female. This pattern leads to a significant question “Why are there many women working in the public relations industry in Hong Kong?” Is it only because women tend to have a better communication skill? Indeed, it is more than this reason. This research focused on women working in public relations industry in Hong Kong. In this study, I used qualitative and quantitative methods to examine and explain why there is a pattern of feminization in the public relations industry in Hong Kong. Results showed that Hong Kong’s unbalanced gender ratio issue can become an impact in the public relations industry. Moreover, education is another crucial factor that lead to many women working in the public relations industry. Besides the unbalanced gender ratio and education factors, the most significant finding in this study is that the majority of public relations leaders in Hong Kong are men not women.

The Ups and Downs of the Mammal World: How Mammal Diversity Has Changed in the United States throughout the 20th Century

Presenter: Kendra Walters

Faculty Mentor: Edward Davis, Samantha Hopkins

Presentation Type: Oral

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Geology, Biology

Funding Source: Presidential Undergraduate Research Scholar, Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, $5,000

Biodiversity loss is recognized as a global crisis. Current research strives to create models that predict regions that are at high risk for a significant drop in biodiversity levels. These models must be scaled by analyses of historic changes in biodiversity. However, no study has yet to analyze the changes in mammal richness in the United States at a high enough spatial and temporal resolution to produce a predictive model of mammal diversity. Our research is a high-resolution analysis of the changes in mammal richness in the contiguous United States from 1906 to 1995. We collected mammal occurrence data from the online database VertNet and BISON and individual museum collections, divided it into ten year increments, and used scripts in R to produce sampling-standardized patterns of mammal richness for each decade. We then analyzed the geographic distribution of change in richness over the 20th century. From our results, we were able to determine which regions experienced a significant rise in diversity levels and which experienced a significant drop. We also identified regions where sampling intensities remain too low to conclusively determine how mammal diversity has changed. Regions experiencing the most severe biodiversity changes, as well as those without adequate data, should be focal areas for continued research in conservation efforts.

Vestibular Modulation of the abductor hallucis and abductor digiti minimi Muscles in Response to Changes in Head Position and Visual Cues

Presenter: Jonathan Wallace

Faculty Mentor: Brain Dalton, Marjorie Woollacott

Presentation Type: Oral

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Human Physiology

Maintaining standing balance involves processing of vestibular, visual, and somatosensory information to produce dynamic motor responses. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if intrinsic foot muscles are modulated by vestibular activity and if the medium-latency responses are altered by changes in head position and visual cues. Indwelling electromyography (EMG) of the abductor hallucis (AH) and abductor digiti minimi (ADM) were sampled while bilateral electrical vestibular stimulation (EVS) was administered to quietly standing participants. Vestibular stimulation delivered on the mastoid processes is interpreted as a true head acceleration which creates a medium- latency vestibular-evoked balance response. A cumulant density function (i.e. cross-correlation) was used to analyze EVS input and the muscle activity (output). When the head was positioned 90◦ to the left with the eyes closed, the medium-latency response amplitude was -0.122 ± 0.027 in the AH and 0.130 ± 0.048 in the ADM. Visual cues reduced the medium-latency amplitude by 14 and 23% in the AH and ADM, respectively (p < 0.05). When the head was oriented 90◦ to the right, the medium-latency response was opposite for the AH (0.101 ± 0.042) and ADM (0.065 ± 0.026, p < 0.05). The inversion and reduction of the medium-latency response with changes to head position and visual input indicate that the vestibular system is modulating activity in the ADM and AH. These results may suggest that the ADM and AH muscles are important contributors to standing balance control.

Art Makes Science: Making Visible the Invisible

Presenters: Jacob Armas, Mara Elise Peasley, Cortelle Pletcher, Morgan Janes

Faculty Mentor: Robert Voelker-Morris, Julie Voelker-Morris

Presentation Type: Creative Work 9 (GSH 117 Corridor)

Primary Research Area: Fine/Performance Arts

Twelve students participated in a First-Year Program seminar, Art Meets Science: Making Visible the Invisible, during Winter 2016. Throughout the seminar, students examined ways in which images, whether of the human body or the universe, are visually and artistically represented in public spaces. They further explored how such imagery tells us stories about our lives related to science. Students came to understand that, when placed within artistic contexts, scientific images change meaning over time and become part of our visual culture. Each student researched and analyzed a specific artist and area of scientific influence in that artist’s work. From this research, a final paper and online formal visual presentation was developed. Overarching findings and conclusions from this creative research process included the students discovering the implications of their individual research bias in the presentation of both scientific data as well as larger scientific and artistic philosophical arguments. Specifically, they better understood the abstraction of articulating physical, biological, astronomical and technological phenomena. Select research and artistic presentation of student work will be presented during this open session.

Sociolinguistic Awareness through Cultural Spaces

Presenter: Nayelli Velazquez

Co-Presenters: Corinna Soriano

Faculty Mentor: Claudia Holguin, Heather Quarles

Presentation Type: Oral

Primary Research Area: Social Science

Major: Human Physiology

Even though some states, such as Arizona and Texas are pushing for monolingual, English-only policies, it is important that cultural spaces such as Mexican markets exist in every community. Through interviews with several people at a Mexican market and grocery store in Hillsboro, Oregon about their experiences with Spanish in the area and about what draws them to shop in the market, we found a consistent message about the importance of these types of places. Many of the people interviewed expressed comfort in having a space to visit that reminds them of their home cultures and as a place where the North American and Latin American cultures are fused into one hybrid identity. We documented many examples of Spanglish, proposed by several scholars as an entire way of life rather than just as a new language. Over the course of this project we have come to realize the benefits of these cultural spaces and we propose community-level creation of cultural havens apart from the politics and social discrimination of our current society. These spaces should be established by the local Latino communities, in order to best accommodate their identities. Ultimately, they would serve as places of cultural expression, and appreciation.

The Increased Danger of High Drivers: Evidence from the Fatal Accident Reporting System

Presenter: Mitchell VanVuren

Co-Presenters: Daniel Palau

Faculty Mentor: Benjamin Hansen, Bill Harbaugh

Presentation Type: Oral

Primary Research Area: Social Science

Major: Economics, Mathematics

As recreational marijuana legalization grows increasingly prominent, one possible externality of its use concerns its impact on driving; motorists under the influence of marijuana may have increased risk of being involved in a fatal accident. We use national-level data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System to estimate the increased risk due to high drivers. Using a multinomial model of car accidents, we estimate that a high driver is at least 2.8 times more likely to be involved in a fatal car accident than a sober driver. Ours is the first study to estimate this parameter while accounting for changes in driving patterns across geography and time over nine years.

From Hoplon to Scutum: The Evolution of the Roman Military’s Shield

Presenter: John Tuttle

Faculty Mentor: Mary Jaeger, Stephanie Budin

Presentation Type: Oral

Primary Research Area: Social Science

Major: History, Classical Civilizations

The Roman legion built one of the largest empires in the world but it was not the original structure of the Roman military. The Romans adopted this system after it utilized the hoplite phalanx from Greece. The most fundamental difference between these tactical systems boils down to the shields that each soldier carried. The earlier hoplon is much heavier than the scutum and each were used for different advantages. The reason this change occurred was not only for the advantages that the scutum offers a legionary model but because of economic and population constraints the Romans faced after the Gallic sack of Rome in c.a. 390 BCE. Livy reports that the Romans lost much of their wealth in the raid and this would have resulted in a lack of important military resources such as bronze as well as the death of a substantial amount of the population. The lack of wealth as well as a lack of tin or copper deposits within the sphere of influence meant that the Roman citizenry could not afford to trade for enough bronze to make the hoplon. The loss of so many people also made phalanx tactics impractical as well as the use of the hoplon. This forced the Romans to adopt the scutum and change its military into the dominant force of the Mediterranean.

Force Matching Sense: An Ipsilateral Shoulder Study Investigating the Effect of Torque and Elevation Angle

Presenter: Katya Trousset

Faculty Mentor: Andrew Karduna, David Phillips

Presentation Type: Poster 85

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Human Physiology

Force matching sense (FMS), or the ability to reproduce a desired force one or more times, is one of three subdivisions that define proprioception. Unlike the other two, joint position sense (JPS) and kinesthesia, FMS is not associated with joint motion (Riemann & Lephart, 2002a). Previous research has found that JPS becomes more accurate as shoulder elevation and external load increases (D. Suprak, Osternig, & Karduna, 2005). The goal of the present study was to investigate how torque and shoulder abduction angle contribute to accuracy of FMS in an ipsilateral remembered force matching task. FMS was tested on the dominant arm of 12 subjects (6 males, 6 females) at three angles (50, 70, and 90 degrees of elevation in the scapular plane), and at 20, 40, and 60 percent above subject baseline torque. It was found that there was no significant change in error due to abduction angle (p > 0.05), but force reproduction error decreased as torque load increased (p < 0.05). From these findings, it appears that FMS does not follow the same pattern as JPS when reproducing a target at different angles, suggesting that these two components must be considered separately when assessing proprioception.