Tag: Poster 35

A Look at the Development of Action Segmentation in Children and Adults

Presenter: Jennifer Paternostro

Mentor: Dare Baldwin

AM Poster Presentation

Poster 35

In order to process and understand events as they unfold, adults break down events into smaller parts. For example, the process of making a sandwich would include big, medium, and small events. A big event would be completing making the sandwich, a medium event would be finishing putting the condiments onto the sandwich, and a fine event would be placing one slice of turkey onto the bread. Adults are readily able to predict the next step in a sequence of actions, such as predicting that the cheese will go on top of the meat in the sandwich example. The present research investigates developmental differences in how humans predict action. We hypothesize that when adults are processing an action sequence, they tend to look longer at the end of that sequence as they actively make predictions about the next step. Children, however, may be slower to predict what will happen next and therefore will have longer looking times at the beginning of each additional sequence. Specifically, this study explores the differences in action segmentation between 3-year old children, 5-year old children, and adults. Participants advanced through a self-paced slideshow of an actor making an ice cream sundae while the computer recorded their looking times to each individual slide. Our findings point to the differences in how children and adults segment and predict action.

Ducks Quacking – UO Network Characterization with NetFlows

Presenter : Ricky Kerndt

Major : Computer Science

Poster 35

“Intra/Inter-network traffic has become an important part of our daily lives. Its become a primary means of communication through email, messaging, and social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter). The University of Oregon represents a small community environment encompassing student housing and the daily activity of classes, staff and professors carrying out research, administration and services to keep the campus functioning. The University’s network backbone thus provides a potential data source for studying how society uses internet applications in their daily activities. This project evaluates the potential of using anonymized netflows obtained from the UO Network and Telecom Services (NTS) to characterize network activity. Netflow records are provided with local addresses anonymized from UO border routers to preserve confidentiality. The records are aggreagated and stored in a database for later characterization of network activity. The characterization includes packet rate!

s, bandwith utilization, applications (unique ports), and distribution of destination IP address. We can then look at how this charac- terization differs with different areas of campus (dorms, offices, wifi) and temporal patterns. The results show that netflow records will provide a valuable data source for studying how a community setting uses internet applications in carrying out their daily activities.

Brain Training and Cognitive Aging: A Meta-analytic Review

Presenter: Lauren Williams

Co-Presenters: Selina Robson

Mentor: Ulrich Mayr

Poster: 35

Major: Psychology

Cognitive decline is an unfortunate hallmark of aging. Deficits can interfere with daily activities and often come at the cost of living independently. In recent years, “brain training” programs and games have become a popular option for older adults who are looking to sharpen their cognitive skills. However, despite their commercial success, it is not clear to what degree these programs produce generalized effects beyond improvement on the trained skills. To determine the size of generalized training effects, we conducted a meta-analysis of existing training studies that used plasticity-focused practice regimes. Studies were included if they sampled adults aged 50 and older, participants had no cognitive impairment, and they had a control group. This led to a final sample of 32 studies. Preliminary results suggest a small-to-moderate overall effect size. In addition, we found that the effect size declined along the near-to-far transfer continuum as assessments become more dissimilar to training type, and with the sample size of the study. Particularly surprising is the fact that the effect size is negatively correlated with duration of the practice regimen. For far-transfer outcome measures with large sample sizes and long durations of practice, the effect size approaches zero. These results raise doubts about the promise that plasticity-related training regimes effectively counter the broad effects of cognitive aging.

Best Practices in University Crisis and Mental Health Services

Presenter: Kylie Juggert

Mentor: Kristin Yarris, International Studies

Poster: 35

Major: International Studies 

Within the last decade there has been an increase in the number of students seeking university campus mental health and crisis intervention services, leading to long waitlists, delays in assistance, and redirected student searches for mental health aid away from trained providers to faculty and staff. Through thematic content analysis of counseling center websites and interviews with counseling center administrators from the University of Oregon and nineteen other UO similar institutions – public, large, coed, urban universities – we collate best practices for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) programs that address these issues. Our findings reveal common problems, including: increased severity and complexity of student needs, limited resources, and minimal faculty training around handling student mental health situations. A negative association between the number of CAPS service issues reported in the administrator interviews and the administrator’s overall level of satisfaction with the current services was also found. Content analysis of CAPS websites by three coders determined that functionality and accessibility was the most important feature for perceived successfulness of the center’s website, followed by provision of resources for “concerned others” and prevention services and programs. The latter finding provides significant insight to potential best practice intervention methods, where improving the web content and accessibility of CAPS online sites and expanding resources for “concerned others” and prevention programs could mitigate some of the initial CAPS’ issues presented.

630 ka Lava Creek Tuff Exchange with Isotopically Labeled Water: Testing the Stability of D/H Paleoenvironmental Signals

Presenter: Abigail Ross

Faculty Mentor: Angela Seligman, Ilya Bindeman

Presentation Type: Poster 35

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Geology

Funding Source: UROP Mini-Grant Recipient, $1000; Department of Geological Sciences

Studies focused on paleoenvironments are becoming increasingly popular and relevant as we begin to understand future climatic patterns through studying those of the past. Isotopic ratios of hydrogen and oxygen of volcanic glass that has been hydrated by surrounding environmental waters have been used as paleoclimate indicators through inferring the isotopic values of past meteoric waters. By testing the exchange of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes

of hydrated volcanic glass with surrounding water, we analyze the validity of this method. This project focuses specifically on the element of age, evaluating if a significant difference in deposition time makes a difference in the isotope’s ability to re-equilibrate, as was suggested by Cassel et al. (2014).

Nolan and Bindeman (2013) placed hydrated ash from the 7.7 ka eruption of Mt. Mazama in isotopically labeled water and observed that the H2O and d18O values remained constant, but the dD values of ash increased with the surrounding water, INDICATING THAT XXX. My research expands on this work by conducting the same experiment, but with ash from the 630 ka Lava Creek Tuff eruption of Yellowstone to see if significantly older glass produces similar results. Preliminary data show that exchange of hydrogen isotopes of hydrated glass is not limited by the age of the glass, and that the use of hydrogen isotopes of secondarily hydrated glass may not be a reliable paleoclimate indicator.

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.