Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 11 No. 1 (2017)
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Cover Art by Jade Lazaris
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Item Open Access Cover Art- "OUR Journal"(University of Oregon, 2017) Lazaris, JadeItem Open Access Letter from the Editor(University of Oregon, 2017) Dorning, SandraItem Open Access Guest Editorial- "The Long Road to Knowledge"(University of Oregon, 2017) Peppis, PaulItem Open Access Art Feature- "Lane Poppy"(University of Oregon, 2017) Allums, MartinItem Open Access Bean as Our Future: How Ender's Shadow Disputes the 1997 Backlash Against Human Cloning(University of Oregon, 2017) Temple, SethIn 1997, Dr. Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute performed a successful somatic cell nuclear transfer on a female sheep named Dolly. Fear-mongering media coverage of Dolly immediately postulated concerns surrounding potential human cloning. In 1999, Orson Scott Card reimagined the Enderverse with the genetically enhanced clone Bean as the protagonist for Ender’s Shadow. Bean exists as Card’s counterexample to the aforementioned speculation. Card’s portrayal of Bean posits a world in which cloning technologies maintain human dignity, respect individuality, and benefit mankind’s pursuits. This paper demonstrates the historical concerns surrounding cloning as inadequately corroborated through analyses of Bean and Ender as literary foils, of Bean and Nikolai as unique personalities despite being genetic copies, and of Bean as a helpful wholesome clone due to the Christian education Sister Carlotta provides him. By presenting a contradiction to dispute the media’s fallacious and unfounded claims, Card requests more discourse over the cloning debate and pleads for an understanding of various perspectives.Item Open Access Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Immigration in the United States(University of Oregon, 2017) McIntosh, MichaelIn this paper, I attempt to establish a causal relationship between immigration and local economic outputs. My estimation sample consists of national data on each of education attainment, wages, and native employment, organized by state. The sample also contains state- and national-level data on other macroeconomic factors including population, unemployment, Consumer Price Index, and a construction of remittances, that I believe impact the economic outputs. Estimation reveals positive effects of immigration on educational attainment and wages, and an ambiguous effect of immigration on native employment. I then discuss potential theoretical economic explanations for my estimation results, ranging from simple uncorrected endogeneity to labor supply and demand interactions, and a complementarity effect leading to labor specialization among immigrants. In sum, my data shows immigration having positive or neutral impacts on each of the economic outputs listed above. In many cases, I find these impacts can be explained by conventional economic theory rather than issues with the data or estimation methodology used.Item Open Access Magical Girl Martyrs: Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Purity, Beauty, and Passivity(University of Oregon, 2017) James, TateThe Japanese animated television show (or “anime”), Puella Magi Madoka Magica, has garnered significant popularity. Anime fans and critics alike often hail the show as a progressive criticism of the magical girl genre. Indeed, the show gives its female characters complex, nonlinear narratives, breaking down the dichotomy between innocent young girls and evil old women that is prolific within the magical girl genre. While Madoka Magica does make important headway in the realm of dismantling harmful female archetypes, the moral judgments the show assigns to those archetypes, coupled with the regressive ways in which it represents female agency, problematize such a positive reading. In order to address this issue, I will briefly examine the history of magical girl anime, locating Madoka Magica within its generic tradition. I will perform a close reading of the show through a feminist critical perspective in order to assess the way that the elements of the show critics have cited as progressive function within its broader narrative, especially in relation to female purity and agency. I argue that Madoka Magica’s revolutionary potential is stifled by the fact that it demonizes impurity at the same time as it portrays impurity as almost inescapable, ultimately suggesting that the only acceptable strategy for girls is to be completely passive in order to remain pure.Item Open Access Springing Forward: Changes in Phenology of Native Plant Species in Southern Oregon Prairies as a Result of Experimental Climate Change(University of Oregon, 2017) Kanner, Maura; McCullough, Laura; Nock, KathrynChanges in land use, agriculture, and the introduction of invasive species have left prairies of the Pacific Northwest at risk of exacerbated disturbance as a result of changes in climate. A shift in phenology—the timing of biological events (e.g., flowering)—is one of the projected consequences of climate change for many plant species, which may lead to disruptions in community structure such as mismatches in timing of plant-herbivore and plant-pollinator interactions. Shifts and disruptions among prairie species in the Pacific Northwest as a result of climate change are generally unknown. Thus, we examined timing of flowering and seed set under three experimental climate treatments in Selma, Oregon. Treatments included: a control, a 2.5°C increase in temperature, and a 40% reduction in rainfall to mimic extreme drought. From 20 March to 27 May 2016, we visited the climate plots weekly and recorded the abundance of flowering plants and the number of flowers each plant produced for 15 native grass and forb species. Only three produced sufficient flowers to analyze. Sidalcea malviflora ssp virgata, an endemic perennial forb species, flowered earlier but produced fewer plants and flowers per plant in the heated treatments. Navarretia pubescens and Clarkia purpurea, two annual forb species, trended towards flowering earliest in the heated plots, but this was not statistically significant. Continued data collection over the next several years will enable parameterization of a model to predict these plants’ responses to projected climate change, including their predicted future distributions and their annual growth timeline.