Tag: Poster 41

Inaccurate Grip Predictions for Congenital Amputees’ Absent Hand: Evidence of Sensory-dependent Construction of Accurate Internal Models for Motor Planning

Presenter: Samantha Ross

Mentor: Marjorie Woollacott

AM Poster Presentation

Poster 41

To what extent does accurate internal model construction, for motor planning, depend on sensory experience? A previous study showed preserved accuracy of models for traumatic amputees’ absent hand (Philip & Frey, 2011). We investigated whether accurate internal models depend on initial limb presence. Five congenital upper limb amputees and matched controls performed two grip selection tasks: overt grip selection (OGS), where participants explicitly grasped a presented stimulus with their intact hand; and prospective grip selection (PGS), where judgments were made for either hand while remaining stationary. Predictive accuracy was calculated by comparing PGS directly to OGS for intact hand, and to the inversed OGS for absent hand. Amputees did not signifi- cantly differ in overall accuracy from controls [F(1,4)=4.49, p=0.10], or between hands [F(1,4)=0.13, p=0.74]. However, a significant accuracy-orientation pattern for amputees’ absent hand, [F(1,4)=7.908, p=0.048] was found. This suggests amputee’s directly use their intact hand for decisions about absent hand, supporting sensory-dependent construction of internal hand models for motor planning.

Senior Honors Thesis on Attitudes Toward Gay Marriage

Presenter : Daniel Schwartz

Mentor : Patricia Gwartney

Major : Sociology

Poster 41

A majority of Americans have been opposed to same-sex marriage since public opinion polls first began asking about it in 1988. However, beginning in 2010, attitudes in support of same-sex marriage began to outweigh opposition. This senior honors thesis helps explain why and how Americans’ attitudes have shifted toward greater support for same-sex marriage. I also thoroughly examine the homophile movement, and propose that without it being so robust, Americans’ attitudes would remain largely opposed today. I relied on existing data from the General Social Survey. My hypothesis was that age cohort would be the strongest determinant of one’s attitude toward same-sex marriage, and my findings supported my hypothesis. While previous literature has examined the strong impacts the homophile movement has had on the public, it has not empirically examined the correlates of the shift in attitudes. Additionally, my research contributes to the dialogue on same-sex marriage as a currently contentious civil rights issue. Homosexuals are the only minority groups that do not enjoy the same marital rights as non-homosexual minority groups. But considering the recent legislative attention same-sex marriage has received, it is likely that homosexuals will soon be granted the right to wed.

Finding Home in Human Rights: A Correlation between Conflicting Identities of “Home” in the Palestinian-American Immigration Experience and the Global Citizenship Identity

Presenter: Dan Le

Mentors: Diane Baxter, Anthropology; David Frank, Honors College

Poster: 41

Major: Anthropology

For immigrants and refugees, the concept of “home” is seldom a concrete definition, as the question of where “home” is – either in the country of origin or the new country, activates a tension in self-identity. For the Palestinian immigration and refugee experience, the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict produces an even more complex tension. The purpose of this study is to explore this tension in a Palestinian-American context. To do so, the research project focuses on an oral history project about Ibrahim Hamide, a restaurateur and human rights activist in Eugene for the past 30 years. The project involved taking participant observation notes prior to the series of interviews, conducting the interviews themselves, coding the interviews for common themes, and then analyzing the information with other works about the Palestinian/Arab American experience. The primary findings of this study indicate that Orientalism, a term by Edward Said that means the representation of the Middle East in a stereotyped and colonialist manner, has a major influence on the tension of self-identity. For Hamide, this tension leads him to find solace in human rights activism and embrace a more globalized sense of identity, rather than choosing between his two “homes.” The significances of this research are that it serves as documented piece of history for the Eugene community and contributes to the importance of the human rights philosophy.

Electron Vortex Beaks With Magnetic Diffraction Gratings

Presenter: Simon Swifter

Faculty Mentor: Benjamin McMorran

Presentation Type: Poster 41

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Physics, Mathematics

The purpose of this study is to produce and characterize electron vortex beams created by a diffraction grating formed by a magnetization texture. In the past, electrons vortex beams have been produced using nano-fabricated physical diffraction gratings placed in a Transmission Electron Microscope. Professor Benjamin McMorran (University of Oregon) is an expert in the production of these electron beams with a spiraling wave front, or vortex beams. Our objective is to achieve the same vortex beams by instead utilizing magnetic materials as a diffraction grating. In thin samples, Iron Gadolinium (FeGd) has sinusoidal varying magnetic domains with regularly occurring fork defects that make it ideal for use in creating electron vortex beams. Our plan is to find an area where the domains in a sample of FeGd are forked appropriately, and to observe and image the diffraction patterns caused when electrons are transmitted through those points.

Utilizing the Optomotor Response to Measure the Effect of Cadaverine on Larval Zebrafish Behavior

Presenter(s): Laura Reich − Biology

Faculty Mentor(s): Adam Miller, Matt Smear

Poster 41

Research Area: Natural Science

Zebrafish behavior is strongly influenced by environmental stimuli, and olfaction (sense of smell) is a powerful driver of behavioral responses. Our overarching goal is to measure an odorant’s effect on a behavioral response and to understand the sensorimotor transformations that occur within the brain as the animal smells its world and reacts accordingly. As a first step towards this goal, we used a repetitive visual stimulus to induce the optomotor response, causing the zebrafish to swim in the direction of perceived motion. This method allows us to orient the larval zebrafish towards a region of water with an odorant of interest. This research specifically focuses on the impact of cadaverine, an odorant known to stimulate an aversive response, on larval zebrafish. We hypothesize that while a repetitive visual stimulus is in use, the distribution of larval zebrafish in a petri dish will differ when cadaverine is administered to a section of the water. Rather than moving with the visual stimulus, we predict that the fish will avoid regions with cadaverine, halting the optomotor response. This research serves to demonstrate that olfaction, the sense that is often forgotten and taken for granted, plays an important role in zebrafish and can potentially overcome visually-directed behavior.

The Role of Gene Expression in the Origin of Species Differences

Presenter(s): Hanna Minns

Faculty Mentor(s): Patrick Phillips

Poster 41

Session: Sciences

Speciation, or the process of how new species are formed, is responsible for the incredibly diverse world we live in today. Speciation develops as a result of reproductive isolation, or the inability to produce viable offspring, which is caused by an accumulation of genetic and phenotypic incompatibilities between two groups of diverging organisms. Understanding the genetic and molecular mechanisms responsible for this regulatory divergence and reproductive isolation is crucial to understanding speciation and evolutionary change (McManus, J.C., et al. 2010). To investigate this phenomenon of reproductive isolation in order to observe and understand speciation first hand, we crossed Caenorhabditis remanei to the closely related, yet recently speciated, C. latens. Using RNA-sequencing analysis, we observed the gene expression levels of both the parental species as well as the F1 population and found that there was significant differential gene expression between the two groups. More specifically, we found that a higher proportion of the differentially expressed genes were caused by cis-regulatory changes and that these genes were more likely to be downregulated in the F1s. We also found that many of these genes play a role in the formation of the ribosome complex. In conclusion, our exploration into if and how differential gene expression is acting in the offspring of these two species contributes to the growing body of work on speciation, a process that is still relatively unknown despite its vast importance in creating and maintaining our earth’s biodiversity.