Tag: 2019

An Analysis of the Connection Between Agnes von Calatin and Josephine Lang

Presenter(s): Elizabeth Soper

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephen Rodgers

Poster 143

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Josephine Lang is one of the few documented women composers from 19th-century art songs and analysis of her work is crucial for having a comprehensive knowledge of composers from this era. While research suggests the male composers from this era played a large role in Lang’s success, an equally important relationship was her friendship with Agnes von Calatin, an underrepresented female poet. This friendship was a great benefit to Lang’s career as she used Calatin’s poetry as inspiration. The unique relationship between these two female artists illustrates how mutually collaborative relationships are just as important as having supportive connections to famous male artists. By examining the original sources such as letters written by Emma Niendorf and Justinus Kerner and the art that Lang and Calatin co-created, I will illustrate how this relationship between Josephine Lang and Agnes von Calatin differed compared to her relationship with male counterparts. von Calatin provided more support and experimentation than was common in the traditional male mentorship, including personalized poetry, musical inspiration, and connections to prominent male composers and poets. However, because of von Calatin’s status as a female artist, not simply an artist, she was not able to provide as many exposure opportunities as her male counterparts for Lang. Most women composers from the 19th century found themselves in a similar dilemma where purely female collaboration promoted equality but hindered success in their careers.

Admissions Without Acquittal: The Effect of “Ban the Box” on College Admissions

Presenter(s): Hannah Solheim

Faculty Mentor(s): Ben Hansen

Oral Session 3 RA

In February of 2018, Oregon State University President Edward J. Ray decided to “ban the box” on the university’s application. Ray’s decision eliminated any questions about an applicant’s criminal history from the Oregon State University application. Officially, President Ray’s policy was designed to protect black and Hispanic men, who are more likely to have felony convictions. Many other institutions are also making the contentious decision to “ban the box” (BTB). However, does implementing a “ban the box” policy actually have a net positive effect on college enrollment for minorities and ex-offenders? Or, will admissions committees find other ways to keep ex-offenders off their campuses? Because the push to remove criminal history information from the college admissions process is so recent, little academic research has been done on it. However, economists have studied the analogous “ban the box” policies in the labor market. They found that BTB policies had a net negative effect on employment for young black and Hispanic men. Without criminal history information, employers may try to guess who has a criminal record, and avoid interviewing low-skilled black and Hispanic men as a result. Perhaps we will see the same phenomenon in the college admissions setting: after BTB goes into effect, admissions committees will be extra wary of admitting black and Hispanic applicants. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I use a two-way fixed effects regression model to estimate the effect of adding criminal history questions to college applications. Preliminary results show that adding criminal history questions decreases enrollment for both male and female Hispanic students. Furthermore, using the synthetic control method, preliminary results show that BTB policies may cause statistical discrimination against Hispanic students. Further investigation is needed because it is imperative to understand any unintended consequences of BTB policies.

Metatarsophalangeal Joint Mechanics Differ Between Overground and Treadmill Running

Presenter(s): Joseph Smits

Faculty Mentor(s): Mike Hahn & Evan Day

Poster 35

Session: Sciences

Treadmills are commonly used in fitness centers and physical therapy clinics for training and monitoring gait mechanics during return-to-running programs. Previous work has established kinematic and kinetic differences between treadmill and overground running. This study sought to investigate how metatarsophalangeal joint (MTPJ) mechanics differ between the two conditions. Running trials were conducted on an instrumented treadmill (Bertec, Inc.) and on a 20-m overground runway at 4.0 m/s. Overground running velocity was monitored by calculating the average anterior-posterior velocity of a sacral marker during stance. Data were collected for five foot strikes and averaged for each condition for analysis. Participants all wore the same neutral footwear (Nike Streak 6 Flyknit) for both conditions. Range of motion, peak moment, and joint stiffness of the MTPJ were significantly different between overground and treadmill running. There was no significant difference in duration of the forefoot serving as the base of support (p=.18). Initial examination of these findings reveals that MTPJ kinematics and kinetics are different during overground and treadmill running. Clinicians and footwear scientists should be aware that treadmill evaluation may lead to inadequate translation to overground running.

Automating Dev Ops with Docker Application Technology Shell Scripts

Presenter(s): Franklin Smith

Faculty Mentor(s): Ramakrishnan Durairajan 

Oral Session 2 C

With an emerging rise of Dev Ops technology like Docker and other application containers comes an underlying challenge that has been plaguing the computer industry for years, how to efficiently learn and use the technology in a timely manner. Most users are tired of long and meaningless online tutorials and videos which shove irrelevant information down the throat of the consumer. I have solved this problem by programming a shell script that automates the dev ops process with docker while allowing the user to interact and choose where, what, and how they would like to learn about the technology. With a computer execution run time of 2-3 minutes, one can now learn to: set up their docker environment; build an image and run as one container; scale their application to run multiple containers; distribute their application across a cluster; stack their services by adding a back end database; and deploy their application to production.

Life History Responses to Variation in Bacterial Food Sources in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Presenter(s): Alexander Smith

Faculty Mentor(s): Patrick Phillips & Stephen Banse

Poster 73

Session: Sciences

Diet is directly tied to the life history traits of an organism. Life history traits, such as development, reproductive capability, and lifespan, respond to changes in diet. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans can serve as a model to demonstrate the effect of various bacterial diets on development and fecundity. Using various available natural bacteria isolates, we screened for bacterial diets that produce observable effects on the health and development of nematodes. Two bacteria species, Comamonas aquatica and Comamonas testosteroni, were observed to produce accelerated development in the growing nematodes relative to the standard laboratory diet of E. coli OP50. This prompted investigation into whether a tradeoff exists between life history traits, or whether this food source is simply a better food. We measured the number of offspring produced by organisms given a diet of Comamonas aquatica or Comamonas testosteroni and found that it is less with the number normally observed in nematodes given a diet of E. coli OP50. This demonstrates a tradeoff that is also well understood in temperature. When temperature is increase, nematode development is accelerated, and total offspring count is reduced. We found that when fed a diet of Comamonas aquatica or Comamonas testosteroni that the pattern of change relative to temperature is not consistent with nematodes on a diet of E. coli OP50. This work shows that this change in diet produces a tradeoff between development time and total offspring count, and that interactions with abiotic factors do not alleviate the tradeoff completely. Future research could show the specific nutrient composition differences in bacteria species that are responsible for the accelerated development and reduced offspring count.

From Massacre to Genocide: Redefining the Sook Ching

Presenter(s): Lauralei Singsank

Faculty Mentor(s): Tuong Vu

Oral Session 4 M

Sook Ching is a Chinese term meaning “purge through cleansing.” Operation Sook Ching took place in Singapore from February 21 to March 4, 1942. The Sook Ching was a military operation carried out by the Japanese with the intent of executing anti-Japanese Chinese men between the ages of 18 and 50. Ultimately, it is impossible to know exactly how many people were killed; the Japanese official figure is 5,000, while unofficial estimates reach as high as 50,000. These men were called into screening centers, where it was decided if they were anti-Japanese.These determinations have been said to be extremely disorganized. The legacy of the Sook Ching lives on to today as one of the greatest tragedies in Singaporean history.
The intent of this paper is to argue for a redefinition of the Sook Ching as a genocide rather than a massacre. The United Nations’ definitions and qualifications of genocide, as well as contemporary sources discussing the event, act as the cornerstones of the research. This research is important because it sets a precedent of accountability, as well as acknowledging the wrongs that the Japanese committed during the second World War. This presentation will discuss the Sook Ching, its legacy, and the steps required to address the incident and right the wrongs that occurred. It will also examine the racial and political environment that set the stage for the tragedy, as well as the scars it left behind.

Social Isolation: Which aspects of Social Media are at Fault?

Presenter(s): Michael Silver

Faculty Mentor(s): Kate Harmon

Poster 110

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Social isolation as a result of social network use is a problem that has gained much media attention, but we don’t know how deeply rooted this problem is or how to approach it. While researchers previously have found our online lives cause socially isolating feelings, I would like to discover potential solutions in incentivizing a more meaningful online experience for our youth. Using an online survey and offering continuous focus groups over summer I hope to engage directly with Social Media Users to find out how we can best redesign key social media features to bring value to users’ online experience. There are strong indications that the current social networking model has some socially isolating features, while only specific use scenarios actually provide a positive benefit to the user. My hypothesis is that one-click features of social media usage are more socially isolating than others. To gather participants I plan to advertise a survey that asks to scale a social media user’s state of mental well-being as well as their social media usage for each particular social site and feature. After the survey has enough responses I will be able to use a Chi-squared test and dummy variables to deduce which features of social media are more socially isolating than others. Then using focus groups that will be held monthly I should be able to gather additional anecdotal evidence in figuring out which ways are most beneficial in bridging the gap between our digital and real-life experiences, so they can co-exist and complement each other. Learning from the past, I believe a brand new social network can be specifically re-designed to embrace the positive merits of social networking and bring value to the users themselves.

The Unofficial Story and the People Who Paint It: An Investigation of Urban Art’s Mobilizing Power in Oaxaca and Mexico City

Presenter(s): Kendra Siebert

Oral Session 1 SW

Although parietal writing – the act of writing on walls – has existed for thousands of years, its contemporary archetype, urban art, emerged much more recently. An umbrella term for the many kinds of art that occupy public spaces – graffiti, murals, stencils, etc. – urban art can be accessed by whoever chooses to look at it, and has roots in the Mexican muralism movement that began in Mexico City and spread to other states like Oaxaca.

Over the course of three years, I have been developing my undergraduate thesis, which looks into the Mexican Revolution and the origins of the Mexican muralism movement, before narrowing in on the function of urban art – specifically in times of unrest. In both 1968 and 2006, two points in Mexico’s recent history that birthed national social movements, urban art emerged as a visual form of testimony when other outlets like public radio became restricted and censored. Today, it continues to take on new forms and meanings, reflects culture from a different perspective than that of the government, leaders, corporations, etc.: that of the people.

I first traveled to Mexico City and Oaxaca for three weeks in August 2017 to investigate this topic, and returned on a follow-up trip this past winter term. My objective has remained the same since I first started exploring this topic: to bring the voices and unique perspectives of contemporary Mexican artists to people in other parts of the world. To accomplish this, I conducted one-on-one interviews with more than 25 urban artists in Oaxaca and Mexico City and asked questions ranging from “What do you think is the function of urban art” to “Is all art in the public space inherently political?” I also dove deeply into the existing body of relevant literature, toured museums and national monuments, and embedded myself in the artistic community as best as I could.

Additionally, I created a digital archive of photographs from 2017 and 2019 that highlight the changes I myself have witnessed on walls in Oaxaca and Mexico City. Through the various methodological approaches I have used in this project, I have identified four functions urban art can, and has served, in Oaxaca and Mexico City: 1) It can act as a form of identity affirmation – one that reflects everyday people, regardless of status or affiliation; 2) It places cultural testimony in public spaces; 3) When combined with other approaches, it can lead to social mobilization; 4) in the aftermath of a movement, it can preserve the collective memory, rather than a dominant hegemonic narrative.

My objective is to challenge common perceptions surrounding urban art and encourage people to go see these works for themselves. It was made possible thanks to support from UROP and HURF.

Embodied Experiences: The Health Implications of Transnationality and Undocumented Migration Among Latin Americans

Presenter(s): Samantha Sidline

Faculty Mentor(s): Kristin Yarris & Christabelle Dragoo

Oral Session 1 C

Given the current political climate, studying Latin American migrant experiences and adverse consequences to health is particularly important and relevant. By evaluating health disparities, studying social stigmas, and examining institutions and policies, ethnographic research has been able to show how being a Latin American in a transnational setting negatively affects health outcomes. This project draws on three ethnographic studies about health and transnational migration written by Kristin E. Yarris, Whitney L. Duncan, and Sarah B. Horton. The ethnographic research follows the experiences of Latin Americans in three distinctly different transnational circumstances, including grandmothers serving as caretakers of their grandchildren in their migrant daughter’s absence, families separated by the United States and Mexico border, and undocumented migrants in California. The arguments of this presentation synthesize the findings in these ethnographies by identifying key themes and commonalties among Latin American transnational migrants and applying theories to these themes. The health outcomes of the individuals studied in these ethnographies reveal how mental and physical health symptoms are the manifestation of lived experiences based on social position, such as socioeconomic and legal status. These outcomes are directly related to the concept of syndemics, which describes the interrelationship between mental health struggles and chronic disease. Intersectionality Theory, which describes how systems of oppression contribute to health inequity, is also foundational in the evaluation of health outcomes across Latin American populations. The culmination of these ethnographic studies and the application of other theories demonstrate how Latin American transnational families and undocumented migrants suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and mental health challenges.

Landscape scale forest health assessment in Hendricks Park, Eugene, Oregon

Presenter(s): Kelly Shull

Co Presenter(s): Owen Collins, Jackson Dailey, Betsy Finn, Ben King, Haley Nicholson, Sky Ramirez-Doble, Nick Richardson, Haley Santos, Kiana Seto

Faculty Mentor(s): Peg Boulay

Oral Session 2 CLN

During Spring 2019, the Environmental Leadership Program will be partnering with the City of Eugene to collect data on Hendricks Park, located in Eugene, Oregon. The Hendricks Park team will collect data on vegetation, wildlife habitat features, recreational impacts, and invasive species in the original twenty-four plots that were surveyed in 1999. This data will be collected through multiple qualitative and quantitative measurements that indicate forest health, such as measurements of invasive species cover, coarse woody debris, and plant composition. The team will then conduct a comparative analysis of the 1999 and 2019 data to assess what has changed over time, and how this change influences the City of Eugene’s management objectives. This analysis will be compiled in a report for the City of Eugene to use and make informed decisions about the future management of Hendricks Park.