Digital Commons Network^™

Creativity In Science, Engineering, And The Arts: A Study Of Undergraduate Students' Perceptions, Dildora F. Beaulieu

Dissertations and Theses

Creativity is widely recognized as being invaluable for human development and a crucial 21^st century talent. Preparing students for an uncertain and complex world requires that higher education promote students' imagination, originality, curiosity, and flexibility and build their capacity to take risks to try new approaches to problem-posing and problem-solving. However, little is known about how undergraduates enrolled in different disciplines view creativity. This quantitative study at a university in the northwestern United States assessed how undergraduate students in different academic disciplines responded to an instrument on creativity measurement developed by Dlouhy (2012). The study asked: How do undergraduates …

Rosenstock-Huessy’S “Cross Of Reality” And Systems Theory, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is a systems theoretic examination of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s “cross of reality,” a structure that fuses a vertical spatial dyad of inner-outer and a horizontal temporal dyad of past-future into a space-time tetrad. This tetrad is compatible not only with the human-centered phenomenological point of view that Rosenstock-Huessy favors, but also with a world-centered scientific point of view. It is applied by him explicitly or implicitly to a wide variety of individual and collective human experiences. In this paper I mention a few examples of these applications from the realm of language, religion, and social critique. I also show …

"We Support You... To An Extent": Identities, Intersections, And Family Support Among First-Generation Students In A School Of Social Work, Miranda Mosier

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Family support is a critical part of college student retention. Given the strength of parental educational attainment in predicting access and persistence among college students (Choy, 2001), some have questioned the capacity for families to support first-generation college students. Family support may be especially critical for first-generation college students, who value interdependence more highly than continuing generation students (Stephens et al., 2012). This paper centers the perspectives of first-generation students in a school of social work and their experiences of family support. Focus group conversations were analyzed using the Listening Guide/Voice-centered relational data analysis (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). My interpretations …

Novel Quantum Algorithms To Minimize Switching Functions Based On Graph Partitions, Peng Gao, Marek A. Perkowski, Yiwei Li, Xiaoyu Song

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

After Google reported its realization of quantum supremacy, Solving the classical problems with quantum computing is becoming a valuable research topic. Switching function minimization is an important problem in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and logic synthesis, most of the solutions are based on heuristic algorithms with a classical computer, it is a good practice to solve this problem with a quantum processer. In this paper, we introduce a new hybrid classic quantum algorithm using Grover’s algorithm and symmetric functions to minimize small Disjoint Sum of Product (DSOP) and Sum of Product (SOP) for Boolean switching functions. Our method is based …

Investigating Values In Discourse: Ideals And Social Plans, Luke Edward Hanst

Dissertations and Theses

Social scientists argue that values enable group coordination. I explore two theories of values before turning to evidence provided by Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb." First, the paradigm of Shalom Schwartz describes values as transsituational goals which enable groups to coordinate action and evaluate the world. I argue the Schwartz paradigm zooms out from values into categories while I need a means to zoom in to understand values in discourse. I turn to the Pragmatic Prospection paradigm to elaborate the cognitive ontology of goals and to understand the function of language. I argue that values are shared …

Can Preference Policies Advance Racial Justice?, Amie Thurber, Lisa K. Bates, Susan Halverson

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mitigating the harms of gentrification to communities of color is a pressing challenge. One promising approach is preference policies that enable long-term residents to remain in or return to gentrifying neighborhoods. This mixed-methods study evaluates the City of Portland’s “Preference Policy,” which provides targeted affordable rental housing to residents displaced from a historically Black neighborhood. This paper draws on survey, interview, and focus group data to explore resident motivations, changes to well-being, and recommendations for improving the policy. Findings suggest preference policies can enhance well-being, and underscore the need for comprehensive strategies to advance racial justice in gentrifying neighborhoods.

Early Implementation Of A Standards-Based Mathematics Curriculum: Understanding Teacher Perspectives And Concerns, Karen Ann Prigodich

Dissertations and Theses

Standards-based mathematics curricula are intended to shape teachers' classroom instruction in alignment with the content and practices of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Instructional leaders facilitating teachers' implementation of these curricula frequently offer a variety of resources and structures to support effective curriculum use, but teachers themselves do not always find these supports to be helpful. Because teachers' concerns vary, understanding teachers' own perspectives is an important starting place for aligning support with teachers' needs. This case study explored the concerns of teachers from three U.S. school districts during their first year of implementing Bridges in Mathematics, …

Developing Strategies To Enhance Mobility And Accessibility For Community-Dwelling Older Adults, Kate Hyun, Kathy Lee, Caroline Krejci, Nilufer Oran Gibson, Troyee Saha

TREC Final Reports

Mobility disparities among older adults affect their ability to travel and access services. This project seeks to understand challenges, barriers, and gaps that older adults experience, and develop forms of assistance or educational strategies to fill the varying mobility gaps and meet mobility needs. This study characterizes older adults’ use of existing and potential transportation options, including conventional transit, paratransit, and ride-hailing systems, based on surveys collected from 146 low-income older adults in Dallas, TX. Using the survey data and interview data, we develop two mathematical modeling (a Latent Class Cluster Analysis and agent-based modeling (ABM)) and conduct content analysis …

The 2019 Conference On Health And Active Transportation: Research Needs And Opportunities, David Berrigan, Astrid Dannenberg, Michelle Lee, Kelly Rodgers, Janet R. Wojcik, Behram Wali, Calvin P. Tribby, Ralph Buehler, James F. Sallis, Multiple Additional Authors

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Active transportation (AT) is widely viewed as an important target for increasing participation in aerobic physical activity and improving health, while simultaneously addressing pollution and climate change through reductions in motor vehicular emissions. In recent years, progress in increasing AT has stalled in some countries and, furthermore, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created new AT opportunities while also exposing the barriers and health inequities related to AT for some populations. This paper describes the results of the December 2019 Conference on Health and Active Transportation (CHAT) which brought together leaders from the transportation and health disciplines. Attendees charted a course …

Planning For Future Fire: Scenario Analysis Of An Accelerated Fuel Reduction Plan For The Western United States, Alan A. Ager, Cody Evers, Michelle A. Day, Fermin J. Alcasena, Rachel Houtman

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent fire seasons brought a new fire reality to the western US, and motivated federal agencies to explore scenarios for augmenting current fuel management and forest restoration in areas where fires might threaten critical resources and developed areas. To support this effort, we modeled the scheduling of an accelerated forest and fuel management scenario on 76 western US national forests. Specifically, we modeled a 10-year ramp up of current forest and fuel management that targeted the source of wildfire exposure to developed areas and simulated treatment in areas that accounted for 77% of the predicted exposure. We used a sample …

Making A Water Data System Responsive To Information Needs Of Decision Makers, Alida Cantor, Michael Kiparsky, Susan S. Hubbard, Ronan Kennedy, Lidia Cano Pecharroman, Kamyar Guivetchi, Gary Darling, Christina Mccready, Roger Bales

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Evidence-based environmental management requires data that are sufficient, accessible, useful and used. A mismatch between data, data systems, and data needs for decision making can result in inefficient and inequitable capital investments, resource allocations, environmental protection, hazard mitigation, and quality of life. In this paper, we examine the relationship between data and decision making in environmental management, with a focus on water management. We focus on the concept of decision-driven data systems—data systems that incorporate an assessment of decision-makers' data needs into their design. The aim of the research was to examine the process of translating data into effective …

The Pacific Sentinel: November/December 2021, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Police Resistance to Federal Vaccine Mandates
• COVID on Campus
• Death of the Damsel in Distress
• Game Night at the Dysfunctional Family
• Same Old Story, Different Title
• Socially Alive
• The 2021 Portland Book Festival
• PSU Student Feature: Nikki James
• Notes From Behind the Bar
• A Far Reach for Greater Idaho
• The Truth Pandemic

New Radar Sensor Technology For Intelligent Multimodal Traffic Monitoring At Intersections, Siyang Cao, Yao-Jan Wu, Feng Jin

TREC Project Briefs

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) need traffic data to run smoothly. At intersections, where there is the greatest potential for conflicts between road users, being able to reliably and intelligently monitor the different modes of traffic is crucial.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that more than 50 percent of the combined total of fatal and injury crashes occur at or near intersections. For pedestrians the intersection is a particularly dangerous place: the City of Portland, OR identified that two-thirds of all crashes involving a pedestrian happen at intersections. And when darkness comes earlier in fall and winter, crashes increase dramatically. So …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet November 2021, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The November 1, 2021 Monthly packet includes the November agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held October 4, 2021.

Considering Who Has Opportunities For Training And Advancement, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

The three working learners featured in this blog post represent contrasting experiences that help us to understand the level and quality of support from such mediators as has become evident in our research, and the resu Its on the careers of these learners. Al I names used are pseudonyms.

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Enhanced Hemichannel Function Of A Cataract-Associated Cx50 Mutant, Jun-Jie Tong, Umair Khan, Bassam George Haddad, Peter J. Minogue, Eric C. Beyer, Vivian M. Berthoud, Steve L. Reichow, Lisa Ebihra

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Connexin-50 (Cx50) is among the most frequently mutated genes associated with congenital cataracts. Although most of these disease-linked variants cause loss of function because of misfolding or aberrant trafficking, others directly alter channel properties. The mechanistic bases for such functional defects are mostly unknown. We investigated the functional and structural properties of a cataract-linked mutant, Cx50T39R (T39R), in the Xenopus oocyte system. T39R exhibited greatly enhanced hemichannel currents with altered voltage-gating properties compared to Cx50 and induced cell death. Coexpression of mutant T39R with wild-type Cx50 (to mimic the heterozygous state) resulted in hemichannel currents whose properties were indistinguishable from …

Creating Academic-Community Partnerships To Jointly Enhance Advocacy And Research On Violence And Disability: Two Case Examples, Emily M. Lund, Rosemary B. Hughes, Katherine E. Mcdonald, Sandra Marie Leotti, Marsha Katz, Leanne Beers, Christina Nicolaidis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: This article describes the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) to foster bidirectional and equitable academic-community partnerships in two studies related to interpersonal violence and disability. Method: We analyzed our methods and experiences in conducting these studies to focus on the ways in which CBPR methodology was used to jointly promote and enhance research and advocacy surrounding violence and disability in the research processes themselves and the resulting assessment and intervention products. Results: Our use of CBPR methodology allowed us to identify and address critical issues related to violence in the disability community, such as disability-related forms and experiences …

Concolic Execution Of Nmap Scripts For Honeyfarm Generation, Zhe Li, Bo Chen, Wu-Chang Feng, Fei Xie

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Attackers rely upon a vast array of tools for automating attacksagainst vulnerable servers and services. It is often the case thatwhen vulnerabilities are disclosed, scripts for detecting and exploit-ing them in tools such asNmapandMetasploitare released soonafter, leading to the immediate identification and compromise ofvulnerable systems. Honeypots, honeynets, tarpits, and other decep-tive techniques can be used to slow attackers down, however, such approaches have difficulty keeping up with the sheer number of vulnerabilities being discovered and attacking scripts that are being released. To address this issue, this paper describes an approach for applying concolic execution on attacking scripts in Nmap in …

"We Had To Rely On Each Other": Voices Of Latinx Foster Youth With Experiences In Care With Siblings, Isabella B. Ginsberg

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Relationships between members of sibling groups have been found to impact well-being for children who enter foster care (Herrick & Piccus, 2005). Being placed in stranger foster care is often challenging and can be traumatic with children reporting confusion, worry, and loss of identity and sense of belonging (Herrick & Piccus, 2005, Unrau et al, 2008). While there is some research that explores the experiences of siblings groups in foster care and others separately that examines Latinx children in foster care, there is very little information that looks into the potentially unique experiences of Latinx individuals who were in care …

Japanese-English Code-Switching By Postwar Speakers In Contemporary America, Andre John Shepherd

Dissertations and Theses

In her examination of Japanese-English bilingualism in Toronto, Nishimura (1995b) demonstrated that second-generation Japanese-Canadians varied their speech dependent on the audience they were addressing. According to her, the Japanese-Canadians spoke primarily in English to fellow second-generation speakers, while maintaining conversations in Japanese with those who had spent their formative years in Japan. However, when addressing audiences composed of both groups, they switched back and forth evenly between the two languages.

Following research done by Woolard (1989) on the effects of societal influences on language, the state of the Japanese-Canadians can be related to the breakup of the ethnic enclaves in …

Centering Equity In Sustainable Food Systems Education, Eleanor J. Sterling, Erin Betley, Selena Ahmed, Sharon Akabas, Daniel J. Clegg, Shauna Downs, Betty T. Izumi, Pamela Koch, Sara M. Kross, Karen Spiller, Lemir Teron, Will Valley

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sustainable food systems education (SFSE) is rapidly advancing to meet the need for developing future professionals who are capable of effective decision-making regarding agriculture, food, nutrition, consumption, and waste in a complex world. Equity, particularly racial equity and its intersectional links with other inequities, should play a central role in efforts to advance SFSE given the harmful social and environmental externalities of food systems and ongoing oppression and systemic inequities such as lack of food access faced by racialized and/or marginalized populations. However, few institutional and intra-disciplinary resources exist on how to engage students in discussion about equity and related …

The Longitudinal Effects Of A Family And Sleep Supportive Intervention On Service Member Anger And Resilience, Shalene Joyce Allen

Dissertations and Theses

The vast majority of workplace intervention research on employee anger and resilience primarily focuses on individual-level strategies for mitigating employee anger and resilience outcomes in the workplace, with no studies having examined these outcomes with tangible occupational health interventions utilizing organizational-level techniques. Thus, the current study extends the literature on how to provide improvements in employee anger and resilience using higher system and organizational change mechanisms by providing evidence-based support for the effectiveness of a Total Worker Health® intervention, referred to as the Family and Sleep Supportive Intervention Training (FaSST). This approach employs both health protection and health promotion strategies …

Using Gis-Based Spatial Analysis To Determine Urban Greenspace Accessibility For Different Racial Groups In The Backdrop Of Covid-19: A Case Study Of Four Us Cities, Arun K. Pallathadka, Laxemi Pallathadka, Sneha Rao, Heejun Chang, Dorn Van Dommelen

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the United States leads COVID-19 cases on global charts, its spatial distribution pattern offers a unique opportunity for studying the social and ecological factors that contribute to the pandemic’s scale and size. We use a GIS-data-based approach to evaluate four American cities—Anchorage (Alaska), Atlanta (Georgia), Phoenix (Arizona), and Portland (Oregon) characterized by the significant composition of different racial and ethnic group populations. Building upon previous studies that investigated urban spatial inequalities using the environmental justice framework, we examine: (1) the relative racial vulnerability of Census Block Groups (CBG) and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA) to COVID-19 (2) green space …

God-Talk In Catholic High Schools: Theology Teachers Doing Theological Education For And With Religiously Diverse Student Populations, David Michael Avram Gregory

Dissertations and Theses

High school students deserve educations that honor and respect their cultural positionalities, of which religious beliefs are frequently an integral part. Almost 25% of students in Catholic high schools identify as non-Catholic, but the U.S. Catholic bishops have mandated that Catholic secondary theological education (through their 2008 Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age) be catechetical. In writing and promulgating this document, the bishops presupposed that Catholic schools' students are Catholic, or (should) desire to become Catholic. For decades, scholars have critiqued catechesis as an inappropriate mode …

Transportation Planning In Tribal Communities: From Plan Development To Implementation, Cole Grisham

PSU Transportation Seminars

Existing studies surveying transportation planners in Tribal communities have recognized two challenges: (1) that existing planning analysis tools do not always align with Tribal community context and needs, and (2) that it is not always clear what benefits planning provides to transportation project selection and delivery in Tribal communities. These challenges are outlined in a 2020 FHWA Research Needs Statement titled Making Transportation Planning Applicable in Tribal Communities.

This study, therefore, seeks to align available planning analysis tools to Tribal community needs based on a range of contextual factors, and to quantify the benefits of planning analysis in the project …

Validating The Resident View In Long-Term Care Settings: Final Report To Oregon Department Of Human Services, Aging & People With Disabilities Division, Diana L. White, Ozcan Tunalilar, Serena Hasworth, Jaclyn Winfree, Institute On Aging, Portland State University

Institute on Aging Publications

In 2015, Portland State University Institute on Aging (PSU/IOA) received a grant from the Quality Care Fund to develop the Resident VIEW (Voicing Importance, Experience, and Well-being), a measure of person-centered care (PCC) from the perspective of residents. Structured open-ended interviews were conducted with residents living in nursing homes (NH), assisted living (AL/RC), and adult foster homes (AFH) settings to learn more about their everyday concerns, values, and preferences. Each interview focused on one of eight domains of PCC. These domains had been identified from the literature and in prior research. Personhood, or as described by residents as being “treated …

Ebux Of Oers For Ptc: Student And Faculty Ebook User Experiences (Ebux) Of Open Educational Resources (Oers) For Professional And Technical Communication (Ptc), Henry Covey

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report analyzes the digital/electronic textbook user experience (eBUX) of web-based open educational resources (OERs) for professional and technical communication (PTC). Data and information were gathered from students enrolled in introductory PTC courses (with IRB oversight and input from faculty and writing program directors) via online surveys (Google Forms), collaborative documents (Google Docs), remote interviews (Zoom), learning management system analytics (Desire2Learn), workshop documentation (pre-pandemic), and email correspondence. User research revealed issues of use and usability with web-based open-access PTC textbooks related to functional specifications, content requirements, interface and interaction design, information architecture, navigation, and aesthetics. The conclusion discusses the evolution …

Disaster Documentation Revisited The Evolving Damage Assessments Of Emergency Management In Oregon, Henry Covey

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report revisits a previous case study focused on the computing machinery and design of communication that are employed at the local, county, regional, state, and federal levels in Oregon to collect, review, and publish damage assessments of disasters and other emergency events. Since the last report, emergency managers throughout Oregon have faced numerous disaster incidents, including the COVID-19 pandemic, ice storms, flooding, and some of the worst heat waves, drought conditions, and megafires on record, with the threat of more to come in the years ahead. After years of research and development, fueled by lessons learned from a catastrophic …

Fourth-Order Nonlinear Distortion To The Power Spectrum Of Rf Amplifiers, Xianzhen Yang, Shiyu Li, Fu Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Even-order intermodulation distortions are often considered easy to filter in narrowband radio frequency (RF) wireless systems because they are usually located far away from the desired passband and adjacent bands. However, even-order intermodulation distortions have recently attracted more interest with the increasing popularity of wideband RF appli- cations. The authors’ previous work was devoted to establishing the power spectrum model of second-order intermodulation distortion. Motivated by the latest efforts on RF power amplifier linearization with second-order and fourth-order intermodulation, our focus now is to establish a power spectrum model of fourth-order intermodulation distortion which can be used to discuss the …

The Discourse/Pragmatic Functions Of Japanese Okkē, Peter Fodor

Dissertations and Theses

Okay is one of the most commonly used words in the English language. It is also one of the most commonly borrowed English-origin loanwords across all of the world's languages. Although there is a wealth of research on the communicative functions of English okay, there is comparatively little research on the many borrowings of the word in various other languages. In order to address this gap in the literature, this study explores the differences in discourse/pragmatic function between the English word okay, and the Japanese borrowing of the word, okkē.

Extensive research in discourse analysis, pragmatics, and …