Undergraduate Works

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Open Access
$1 CEO Salaries and R&D Spending as a Form of Extreme Incentive Compensation and Investor Signaling
(University of Oregon, 2019) Gardner, Brooke L.
While gaining popularity in mainstream media, the $1 CEO salary is a trend whose motives and impact remain largely misunderstood. This paper examines a dataset of 155 companies that have implemented the $1 salary. Statistical testing is used to analyze the relationship of $1 salaries to several variables including company financial measures and descriptive CEO attributes. The trends in research and development spending, capital expenditures, and stock price that result before and during the $1 salary period are also examined. The goal of this research is to understand the relationship between $1 CEO salaries and long-term spending in the form of research and development and capital expenditures. The secondary goal is to understand how the $1 salary acts as a form of extreme incentive compensation and investor signaling by using long-term spending as a proxy for managerial belief in future firm performance. The findings in this thesis suggest that $1 CEOs have strong beliefs in their firms as demonstrated by the $1 salary and increases to long-term spending. However, investors do not appear to share this same belief in the firm which suggests the $1 salary may be an ineffective attempt at signaling.
Open Access
The 1903-1904 Typhoid Fever Epidemic in Butler, Pennsylvania
(University of Oregon, 2009) Donheffner, Kristen
Open Access
The 1960s NAACP Campaign to Integrate Public Housing in Portland
(University of Oregon, 2007) Matsumaru, Michael
Like many other cities in the U.S. during the 1960s, Portland, Oregon featured an undeniable black ghetto, located in the heart of its Albina district. The Portland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) struggled throughout the 1960s to keep local government from perpetuating the existing ghetto. For years, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations protested plans from the Housing Authority of Portland (HAP) to build federally subsidized public housing units in the heart of Albina.
Open Access
A 2-D Magnetotelluric Investigation of the Cascadia Subduction Zone
(University of Oregon, 2016-06) Wogan, Nicholas
I have produced four 2-D magnetotelluric conductivity inversions of MOCHA data roughly between the latitudes of 43N and 46N that indicate fluid variation along strike in the Cascadia subduction zone. I directly compare these results to Wannamaker et al. 2014 EMSLAB inversion and find the models to be very similar despite the use of different data sets and inversion methods. Conductivity structure along the plate interface supports the hypothesis that there is "partial creeping" occurring in the locked zone in central Cascadia, as well as the possible presence of a secondary, inboard locked zone at 44.5N in the ETS region. The variability of conductivity along strike also suggests a more permeable crust in the northern region of Cascadia directly overhead the ETS zone, and more fluid accumulation in this same region. This study indicates that a more permeable overlying crust, combined with larger amounts of fluid present may be critical components of rapid ETS occurrence.
Open Access
2D conductive MOF electronic property study
(University of Oregon, 2021) Yang, Min Chieh; Hendon, Christopher
Due to metal organic framework (MOF) high surface area and crystal lattice architecture, electronic conductive MOF has arisen to become a promising candidate for energy store applications. However, as binding nature between metal and organic linker being ionic, electronically conductive MOFs required for energy related application remains unexplored and desirable while most MOFs are insulators. Among conductive MOFs, MX4 type MOF structure provided potential in-plane charge transfer pathway through d-pi interaction between the metal and organic linker with examples such as Ni3(HIB)2 and Cu3(HIB)2 providing conductivity of 800 S/cm and 1300S/cm, respectively. Ni3(HITP)2 (Ni3(2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene)2), MX4 type structural MOF, has shown conductivity of 40 S/cm through pi-stacking along the C-direction of its organic linker instead of through the conjugating pathway along the AB-plane. While Ni3(HITP)2 AB-plane shown to possess band gap within the semi-conductor level, , Ni3(HITP)2 derivative NiTAA-MOF (Ni(II) Tetraaza[14]annulene-Linked Metal Organic Framework) was synthesized to explore potential in-plane conduction pathway. Here, with computational technique, we examine the effect of the additional 3-carbon bridge motif towards Ni3(HITP)2 electronic structure. In addition, as NiTAA-MOF composed of unoxidized HITP linker, electronic structural examinations towards n-type doped Ni3(HITP)2 were performed to explore potential improvement of Ni3(HITP)2 charge transfer ability.
Open Access
3D GM Study of Effects of Age on Cranial Shape in Large-Bodied Papionins, Using Molar Wear as a Proxy for Age
(University of Oregon, 2020) Quintanilla, Andrea; Simons, Evan; Frost, Stephen; Simons, Evan
Primate cranial shape in relation to age, sex and taxonomy is a growing topic of research, with large-bodied Old World monkeys being among the most studied using geometric morphometrics (GM) and used as models for human cranial shape variation. Ontogenetic changes to skull shape from juveniles to adults are well studied, but those that occur during adulthood are less well known: a twenty-year old is still an adult, but their skull could differ in shape compared to that of a sixty-year old. In this project, we used GM and multivariate analyses to observe changes of cranial shape that occur with post-adult aging. Forty-five 3D landmarks were collected with a Microscribe 3DX digitizer on a sample of 347 wild-collected baboon (Genus Papio) crania, and subjected to generalized Procrustes analysis using the Geomorph package in Rstudio; this superimposes the data and standardizes geometric size, but leaves shape differences. The resulting Procrustes shape coordinates were adjusted for size and sex with multivariate regression analysis to mitigate the effects of allometry and dimorphism. These adjusted coordinates were then regressed against upper third molar wear stage as a proxy for age, using multivariate tests for significance. Principal components analysis was used to summarize the resulting shape space. Results demonstrated that there is a significant effect of molar wear stage on cranial shape, even after accounting for size and sex differences, but it is a subtle effect that accounts for approximately 1% of shape variance. In the future, we will investigate causes of this shape change.
Open Access
44 Minutes: Showcasing Issues in Journalism Through Screenwriting
(University of Oregon, 2014-05) Schauffler, Mia
This thesis is an attempt to discuss contemporary issues in journalism in the form of a screenplay. This script builds upon the classic films that preceded it, but differs by engaging in a dialogue of contemporary issues in journalism. This work focuses on two main issues in journalism: how modem business models affect journalistic content; and the current, widely-debated topic of net neutrality. This thesis attempts to discuss these issues, while using the classic narrative screenplay structure.
Open Access
6A School District: A Case Study Correlating Content Standards to Teacher Practice
(University of Oregon, 2015-06) Gleason, Greta
In light of new legislation defining society’s newest standards for math learning, my research aims to observe how teachers are adapting to put these mandates into practice. Through a case study of one high school Algebra 1 teacher, I analyzed how differences in pedagogical practices affected student learning outcomes. In observing the shifts in teacher practices in the facilitation of math discourse and the building of procedural fluency from conceptual understanding, I have found a strong correlation between the change in teaching practices and the shifts from the McDougal & Littell (M&L) and College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) textbooks. In this study, “Conceptual Understanding” is defined as the ability for a student to “understand why a mathematical ideal is important and the contexts for which it is useful”, and “Procedural Fluency” means that “students understand when to use certain procedures and how to perform them with both flexibility and precision.” (National Research Council, 2001, p. 118) By creating a more encouraging environment where students are unafraid to ask for help, and providing more opportunities for students to justify their reasoning, the changes in Cornelia’s teaching practices are a positive adaption to meet the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) standards, and highly aligned to the shift in textbooks. As the CPM lesson specifically dictates that students work in groups, there is an explicit emphasis on student communication as members must check-in with each other to verify their solutions. Additionally, CPM provides a higher percentage of problems that do not have solutions to reinforce the idea that students must justify when they can use a procedure. Overall, the shifts between Chapter ten of McDougal & Littell textbook and Chapter eight of College Preparatory Mathematics textbook are moderately aligned to the change in content standards. While CPM presents students with more opportunities to justify their understanding in writing and via peer communication, many improvements to Chapter 8 of the CPM text can be made to fully align the text to the CCSSM standards regarding quadratic equations. These changes include limiting the use of Learning Logs, (notebooks where students explain their conceptual understanding), until students can fully prove a hypothesis, including more sections that begin with contextual problems like Sections 8.2.1 and 8.2.4, and better connecting the 8 Standards of Mathematical Practice (Practices students should use in the math classroom) to each lesson. Because the curriculum shifts are moderately aligned to the changes in content standards, we can conclude that the changes in student standards have made a moderate impact on teacher practices.
Open Access
8 on Market | An Eco-conscious Housing Development in Downtown San Diego
(University of Oregon, 2015-06) Motahari, Kiana
The world around us is changing and this time we are the ones to blame. From melting glaciers to disappearing lakes, climate change is no longer a problem our children & children’s children will have the privilege of ignoring. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), buildings consume nearly half of all energy and seventy-five percent of all electricity produced in the United States and were responsible for nearly half of U.S. carbon (CO2) emissions in 2010. This places architects, the puppeteers of the built environment, in a very unique position to mitigate the progression of climate change and adapt to its onset. This creative thesis presents a viable example of environmentally sensitive architecture. The vehicle for this exploration takes the form of a mixed-use building in heart of Downtown San Diego. A fundamental goal throughout the design process was the integration of green strategies in a way that not only improved the buildings economic and environmental performance, but also enhanced the aesthetics of the building.
Open Access
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DEVELOPMENT DURING THE ARGENTINE AND CHILEAN JUNTA
(University of Oregon, 2023) Munly, Bo; CHAKRABORTY, SHANKHA
The purpose of this study is to understand why Argentina and Chile, countries in the same region that in some years were concurrently rule by two superficially similar regimes (the most recent Argentine junta known as the Ultima Dictadura and the Chilean junta headed by Augusto Pinochet), had such divergent development outcomes and left their democratic heirs with greatly differing mandates and political cultures. This work attempts to further understanding of the Chilean economy’s success and Argentina’s continual struggles by comparing the countries’ most recent juntas regimes on the basis of their initial mandates, how they acted upon those mandates and how successful each regime’s policies were.
Open Access
A Comparison of Ursula K. Le Guin and Ken Kesey's Response to the Counter Culture Movement of the Sixties
(University of Oregon, 2020) Balthazaar, Lyla; Lyla, Balthazaar; Max, Braker; Eleanor, Davis; Rust, Stephen
Research comparing two Oregonian authors (Ursula K. Le Guin and Ken Kesey) response to the counterculture movement of the sixties using the special archive collection from the Knight Library and outside resources.
Open Access
A Comprehensive Analysis of Subsidies for Professional Sports Stadiums in the United States using the Moda Center
(University of Oregon, 2020) Quinton, Dawson Xavier
Sports are deeply engrained within the culture of the United States, and professional sports at its highest level generates immense levels of revenue. These sports, however, are played within grand arena’s that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to construct. Part of the burden of these massive stadium costs is placed upon the relevant taxpayers. In theory, these public subsidies incentivize the building of stadiums because they bring a significant economic benefit to the local economy. This thesis aims to better understand if professional sports stadiums provide an economic impact that is more than the amount of public financing they have received. Using an in-depth analysis of Portland, Oregon’s professional sports stadium the Moda Center as a template, to analyze the unique aspects of both the subsidy itself as well as the economic impact of the stadium. This thesis provides a crude model to any municipality hoping to understand if they should provide a subsidy for a stadium, and if so the acceptable amount of the subsidy.
Open Access
A Comprehensive Framework for the Accommodation of Exercise in People with Developmental Disabilities
(University of Oregon, 2020) Eaton, Lauren Elizabeth
The goal of this thesis is to create a framework for professionals in the fitness industry to accommodate people with special needs, specifically those with autism, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy. My intent is to educate personal trainers and other fitness professionals on the need to differentiate and adapt their interactions and training protocols for people with developmental disabilities. This is expected to lead to a decline in the rate of obesity-related disease and causes of death in this population by making exercise more accessible. The annual cost of obesity is roughly $6.38 billion (Trogdon et al., 2008). The framework of this thesis can be implemented to alleviate some of those health-related costs. The methods for this study involved searching key words including “special needs, developmental disability, or mental retardation” and cross-referencing these terms with words like “exercise, fitness, or workout” in information sources such as Web of Science, Sport Discus, and PubMed. The information from the articles retrieved was broken down into categories which provided data for different sections of this thesis.
Open Access
A Formal and Semantic Reconstruction of Cariban Postpositions
(University of Oregon, 2019) Douglas, Jordan A. G.
With at least 25 attested languages in the family, the Cariban Language Family is found from Columbia to French Guiana to the Brazilian Amazon. Through a historical reconstruction that looks at 15 language in the family, this work examines the lexical class of POSTPOSITION—a word class that conveys spatiotemporal and grammatical information. Each language in the family has between 50-150 attested postpositions, many of which were relatively unexamined previously. While many have assumed that postpositions in the family were monomorphemic in nature, this work finds that the majority of the postpositions are in fact bipartite in nature— having either an opaque stem or a relational noun stem with a postpositionalizing suffix. While this bipartite nature of postpositions was observed for four opaque stems and 4 suffixes previously (Derbyshire 1999), this work finds that there are 13 reconstructable suffixes and 72 stems and monomorphemic postpositions—in addition there are multiple suffixes and stems that are limited to a single language. Through this work, the understanding of Cariban postpositions is now fundamentally changed. Monomorphemic postpositions tend to give information about grammatical relations (dative, ergative, addressee, etc.) as well as certain narrow locative meanings, such as the superessive. The stems give information about the ground by which an action occurs, such as a flat surface, a container, or liquid. Given that new postpositions are formed by putting suffixes on relational nouns (typically body parts), the opaque stems are likely to be old, semantically bleached relational nouns. However, in some languages, nominalized verbs are beginning to take postpositionalizing suffixes. (1) Tiriyó notonna 'behind (invisible)' from noto(mï) 'to block vision' (Meira 2006) notamï + -na > notamïna > notamna > notanna > notonna Suffixes combine with a stem to give the path relative to the ground, such as ablative and allative (i.e. English 'to', 'via', 'from', 'at', etc.). Of the reconstructed suffixes, there are a number of suppletive suffixes, with multiple allative, perlative, ablative, locative, and inessive suffixes. Each suffix lexicalized with different stems in different languages; in individual languages, no modern stem is attested as being able to occur with more than one suffix of each semantic category. (2) Ye'kwana kwa-ka Waimiri ka-ka Macushi ka-ta Wayana kwa-ta 'ALL liquid' 'ALL liquid' 'ALL liquid' 'in a port' (Cáceres forthcoming) (Bruno 2003) (Abbott 1991) (Tavares 2005) Further still, some of these suffixes, such as *po, are attested as monomorphemic and also as a stem. (3) Wayana po 'on (supported)' (Tavares 2005:171) po-lo 'along on' (Tavares 2005:315) uh-po 'on top of' from upu 'head' (Tavares 2005:171) uh-po-lo 'along on top of' from upu 'head' (Tavares 2005:318)
Open Access
A Great and Spherical Zero: Collected Works
(University of Oregon, 2020) Ford, Lida Mayy Catherine
Inspired by the concept of “zeroness” as defined by the late Swiss writer Robert Walser, A Great and Spherical Zero is a collection of fiction that addresses what it means to be small, or find smallness, and how greatness is often hidden in small places. Using a variety of experimental writing techniques, the 15 stories in this collection play with the idea, posed by Walser, of zeroness. The juxtaposition of what it means to be both “great” and “zero” is central to this collection. The pieces are additionally unified by their attempt to experiment with literary form – ranging from the most extreme works of stream of consciousness representation to the more traditional stories that feature newly assertive narrative control. The collection is a representative of my inspiration from four years of undergraduate study focusing on the modernist/postmodernist literature of the 20th century, and an attempt to add my own work to the history of experimental literature.
Open Access
A Historical Approach to Originality and Replication in Visual Art
(University of Oregon, 2022) Fairman, Alana; Michlig, Christopher; Mondloch, Kate; Hagenlocher, Esther
This paper takes the reader through several foundational movements in defining originality and replication in visual art, beginning with the gilded age in Europe, continuing through modernism and postmodernism, and ending with the digital age. The notions of originality and replication have always seemed to be at odds with one another, with movements favoring one over the other but never coupling the two as essential to a meaningful artistic practice. The advancements in technology and shifts in societal values demonstrate how originality and replication shape one another and in turn shape the art movements of the time. Through investigating key artists within and between each movement, the texts of art critics and historians, and how these writings relate to legislation and the standards of what the art experience should be, a more comprehensive perspective develops about how humans relate to the original and the copy. Today, in the digital age, artists must wrestle with how they create during a time period where each image has an almost endless string of images trailing behind it; this paper seeks to offer clarity and direction for how visual artistic practices can still be original in a time where the prestige of the original is fading.
Open Access
A Historical Contextualization of Reproductive Rights and Autonomy in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying
(University of Oregon, 2022) Hall, Grace; Peppis, Paul; Williams, Timothy; McWhorter, Brian
In the 1930 quintessential American modernist novel, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner tells the story of a poor family, the Bundrens, living in the Deep South. The novel follows fifteen separate narrators, including all seven family members, as the children and husband of Addie Bundren transport her body to a town forty miles away so she can be laid to rest. Particularly interesting is the novel's portrayal of gender, and more specifically reproduction, which centers around the two characters of Addie and Dewey Dell Bundren and themes of sexual and reproductive autonomy. This thesis interrogates the central theme of women’s reproductive rights and autonomy in the novel by synthesizing the disciplines of history and English. It contextualizes close readings of the text in terms of the twentieth-century national birth control and abortion movements, attitudes towards women’s reproductive rights in the US, and the lived experiences of specifically poor rural white southern women. This contextualization clarifies how the book responds and reacts to the contexts in which it was written and which it portrays, thus illuminating how the novel illustrates the convergence of literature and history. The novel depicts the oppression of women, including the abuse of Addie Bundren’s dead body by her mostly male family, criticism towards Dewey Dell’s pregnancy, and her rape, among other issues. Given Faulkner’s identity, it is possible to view him as an ally to the male oppressors in the novel. Many prior critics support this viewpoint. My thesis, however, argues that Faulkner constructs the women in the story as moral centers and uses the novel to illuminate and raise awareness for women’s reproductive struggle in this time period. The historical lens helps to support this counterargument by providing the context that shows that the portrayals of women and their oppression in this time are historically sensitive and accurate, while also avoiding falling into stereotypical or misogynistic representations of women in the Deep South. By using this historical and textual evidence, this investigation proves that Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying presents significant and progressive claims about the reproductive experiences of women in the time period, thus challenging current ideas of Faulkner’s gender politics and the assumption that his identity restricted him from producing an early feminist work. On a broader scale, the thesis shows how literature can be read as a historical document, and how history can be used to contextualize and deepen understanding of the politics and themes that appear in literature.
Open Access
A History of Muscular Dystrophy: The Biosocial Nature of Disease
(University of Oregon, 2021) Chambrose, Starla; Valiani, Arafaat; Connolly, Amy; Prazniak, Roxann
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is one of the most frequently inherited diseases, yet few science, technology, and society (STS) scholars have attempted to study it. In particular, there is a significant gap in the literature regarding how sociocultural contexts have shaped biomedical perspectives on the disease. Therefore, this thesis adopts Paul Rabinow’s notion of biosociality and traces the history of muscular dystrophy to draw conclusions about how and what kinds of knowledge about MD are produced as biological fact. The first chapter, which analyzes early descriptions of muscular dystrophy, demonstrates that modern perspectives on correct ways of knowing in turn influence who scientists credit with “discovering” MD. Similarly, the second chapter reveals how diagnostic technologies help define the boundaries of disease. Ultimately, this thesis serves as a case study to prove that science does not stand apart from culture; indeed, it is profoundly shaped by “the social.”
Open Access
A History of the Western State Hospital Sexual Offender Treatment Program
(University of Oregon, 2019) Giacoppe, John Anthony
Western State Hospital is a mental hospital in Steilacoom, Washington. In 1951, on the order of the Washington State Legislature, Western State Hospital began accepting sex offenders as inpatients. In 1958, a treatment program was developed. The program used an iconoclastic form of group therapy, wherein the offenders led their own group sessions without staff present. The program considered sexual offense the most prominent symptom of the offender’s social maladjustment and self-isolation. Therapy sought to have the offenders “teach” each other interpersonal skills, as well as to elucidate individual problems. Under the leadership of Dr. George MacDonald and Robinson Williams, M.S.W., the program developed to a multi-component modality that included work release and couples’ therapy. The program received an increasingly large percentage of the state’s sex offenders through 1975, with little corresponding oversight from the state or the wider academic world. The professional field shifted rapidly toward conditioning therapies in the late 1970’s. The program adopted these new methods slowly. Treatment costs ballooned as staff levels increased to handle the large patient population and the new methods. The public’s fears of escapes, despite their rarity, led to numerous demands that the program be closed to protect the local community. The state eventually sided with the public as costs continued to rise, and the program was formally ended in 1986. Washington replaced the program with the strictest sex-offender laws in the nation.
Open Access
A Journey to Build a Dog Walking Application
(University of Oregon, 2023) Pelky, Angela; Wills, Eric; Hinkle, Lindsay
For those who are new to the world of computer science, what are your thoughts? Is it intimidating? Is it a black box? Is it something that will eventually have robots taking over the world? Well, I am here to tell you that it is all of those things and none of those things if you look at it through the right lens. Computer science background or not, this paper is meant for any person who would like to build their own, independent business platform. The use case example of building my own dog walking web app will exemplify two key facts. First, it will provide a code template for any small business owner to use and make their own. Second, it will exemplify the asset and tool that computer science can be without having a formal education or background in the subject.