Digital Commons Network^™

Speech & Language Services: Examining The Experiences Of Deaf / Hard Of Hearing People, Milayna N. Barker

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) adults and parents of Deaf/HoH children related to speech and language services, and their recommendations for service providers. Historically, professionals have focused on the development of speech and aural/oral skills of Deaf and HoH people. As such, when working with families of newly-identified children with hearing loss, hearing professionals may be ill-equipped to provide culturally-responsive, fully inclusive information and education regarding communication options and opportunities.

Method: This study used a qualitative research design to examine participant experiences related to speech and language services …

The Health Risks Of Deportation: Impacts Of Family Separation On Relationships And Wellbeing In Latinx Communities, Shantay Rhea Rocha

University Honors Theses

Anti-immigration policy and deportation practices create multifaceted implications for Latinx communities in the United States. A comprehensive literature review drawing from public health and immigration studies was used to examine the direct and indirect implications of separation of families due to deportation. This thesis synthesizes existing research to illuminate the health threats pertaining to Latinx wellbeing in the context of being undocumented and fearing being separated from their family. Addressing the dimensions of deportation-related health risks, policy makers, health care professionals, and community organizations can work towards promoting Latinx health and well-being in the U.S. to mitigate the health consequences …

Compassionate Practice: A Review And Framework For Integrating Medical Humanities Into Pre-Medical And Medical Curricula, Megan Mccoy

University Honors Theses

The article presents the findings of a comprehensive narrative literature review aimed at addressing the question: What are the current frameworks of the medical humanities discipline in terms of purpose, methodology, curriculum, and student learning outcomes? Thematic analysis and qualitative coding highlighted key themes and areas of concern, including the purpose of medical humanities, methodology, current curriculum, and student outcomes. Recommendations are provided to address disagreements within the discipline, proposing a conceptual framework and definition for medical humanities, alongside advocating for a mixed-method approach as the primary methodology. Curriculum guidelines emphasize the importance of a quality integrated curriculum focusing on …

Removal As A Control Method For Trachemys Scripta Elegans And The Response Of Chrysemys Picta Bellii, Jacob Swanson

University Honors Theses

The red-eared slider is considered one of the most ubiquitous freshwater turtles globally. Several key ecological advantages and life history traits of this species jointly impact growth rates and survivorship of native freshwater turtles where sympatry occurs. Evaluation of current management actions for red-eared slider turtles is limited, resulting in a paucity of information to guide management for the species and conservation of declining native freshwater turtles. We used previously collected mark-recapture and removal sampling data from sites with sympatric populations of red-eared slider and western painted turtles. We examined the effects of control (trapping and removal) of red-eared sliders …

Student Perceptions: How Stem Students Value Belonging Interventions, Elizabeth Runkel Baez

University Honors Theses

With the prioritization of increasing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates in the United States, researchers have become increasingly interested in how to promote STEM students' sense of belonging. Sense of belonging is considered a marker of persistence in STEM. Facilitated 'belonging interventions' are one way to strengthen a sense of belonging amongst STEM students. How students respond to, value, and understand these belonging interventions is relatively understudied. In this study, focus groups were conducted with STEM students from a single university to investigate how they value an in-class belonging activity. Qualitative thematic coding of focus group responses revealed …

Health Equity In Stroke Prophylaxis For New Atrial Fibrillation In The Emergency Department, Mariam Anwar

University Honors Theses

Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, and often, first diagnosed in the emergency department (ED). AF increases the risk of stroke, which can be decreased by 64% if the appropriate oral anticoagulation (OAC) is prescribed. However, many patients are not prescribed OAC for new AF. We investigate whether patient ethnicity, specifically Hispanic-Latino & Russian/Ukrainian, affects OAC prescription.

Method: This retrospective chart review study included patients at an academic tertiary care center and a community hospital >17 years old with a primary ED diagnosis of AF or paroxysmal AF from January 2020-2024. Patients with valvular heart disease …

Biofeedback Gaming For Substance Use Disorder, Rebecca L. Chevrel

University Honors Theses

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and stress are often predictive of one another, bidirectionally causal, and mutually intensifying. This thesis describes the bi-directional connection between physiological stress-modulating systems and Substance Use Disorder, and explores some emerging biofeedback stress-reduction gaming technology as a potential adjunct to recovery treatments. Improving autonomic balance, often described by Heart Rate Variability, has been shown to be beneficial for physical and psychological recovery, as well as improving self-control. For this reason, regular biofeedback for stress relief could be helpful in augmenting SUD treatment and preventing relapse. This exploration found that presenting it through a gaming lens may …

Henna Chatbot Capstone Review, Kobe Norcross

University Honors Theses

This thesis reviews the development of the Henna Chatbot, an AI-powered DEI consultant designed to provide personalized feedback to organizations. Sponsored by DEI consultant Arsh Haque, the project aims to address gaps in current DEI software, which often lacks team-specific feedback. The Henna Chatbot leverages GPT-3.5 Turbo to create an affordable SaaS platform where organizations can train Henna with their DEI values, and Henna will help organizations stay aligned with those values. The project spanned twenty weeks and was completed by a team of eight computer science students at Portland State University. The development process followed Agile methodologies, emphasizing effective …

Capstone Review: Filament Unit Multiplexing Engine, Gal Cohen

University Honors Theses

The Filament Unit Multiplexing Engine (FUME) is a Mechanical Engineering capstone project sponsored by Portland State University's Electronic Prototyping Lab (EPL). The project addresses the need for an automated system to manage 3D printing operations. The current manual process of selecting and routing a spool of filament to one of the available 3D printers is labor-intensive and limits the efficiency of the lab's 3D printing farm. FUME aims to create a custom solution tailored for a multi-user, multi-spool, and multi-printer environment. The designed system includes key components: a spool holder, an engine, a track and shuttle system, and a funnel. …

Climate Justice Issues, Urban Heat Island Effect, And Trees As The Solution In Portland, Oregon, Cleo Needham

University Honors Theses

Portland, Oregon, is experiencing rising temperatures caused by climate change and urban heat island effect. High heat disproportionately impacts vulnerable communities in Portland, causing harm to physical and mental health. Trees are a solution that reduces temperatures in urban environments. A strategy called 3-30-300 helps create a structure for where to place trees to help people receive the benefits. There are challenges with trees, such as the space required, the significant cost, and the time it takes to mature. Using trees as a solution can support and protect vulnerable communities in Portland, Oregon.

Modern Trail Of Tears: The Commodification Of First Foods And Medicines In Relation To Food Apartheid And Genocide Of Indigenous Peoples, Darius Mani Yaw

University Honors Theses

I am asking you to share in a cultural conversation with me. I will use different fonts in order to express my autobiographical and ethnographic Indigenous story separate from traditional academic writing This will not be a traditional thesis by any means of academic writing; this will also be a living document in a format of a cited reflection in order to continue the conversation not only through my Indigenous Research but also through community, and ideally will create everlasting solutions. However, this will be an introduction into my Indigenous writing and Indigenous voice.

I will be discussing the next …

Coercion, Conversion, Control: Techniques Utilized To Recruit And Indoctrinate New Members Into Cult Organizations, Hailey Savanna Robertson

University Honors Theses

Religious belief of some form has long been a regular part of many people's lives, but when a person’s devotion to doctrine becomes so all-encompassing that they structure their entire life around it, they may be in a cult. While the dogma may vary across groups, a cult is characterized as having extremely devoted disciples who often follow a charismatic leader and espouse extreme beliefs or practices not widely accepted by society. Members of cults commit themselves wholly to their leaders. Proving their commitment by turning over financial assets, obeying commands without question, and even severing all social ties outside …

Prochlorococcus Death By A Ubiquitous Zooplankton Filter Feeder, Avery Harman

University Honors Theses

Prochlorococcus is a globally abundant cyanobacterium that can help reveal the ecology of microorganisms in the ocean. Specifically, mortality by zooplankton such as appendicularians is globally important and Prochlorococcus can help reveal some of the choices made around feeding for this ubiquitous filter feeder. Two ecotypes of Prochlorococcus were introduced to appendicularians to determine if appendicularian feed selectively between these ecotypes. Further, a single ecotype of Prochlorococcus was fed to appendicularians over a variety of life stages to determine if retention rate changed with appendicularian life stage. My results reveal that there is no significant selection between the two Prochlorococcus …

Evaluation Of Sleep Outcomes After Traumatic Brain Injury In Children Using Questionnaires And Actigraphy, Connie Tran

University Honors Theses

Traumatic brain injuries are the result of a sudden external blunt force to the brain and can result in long-term complications or death. In pediatrics, it is the leading cause of acute and chronic sleep-wake disturbances, as well as cognitive deficits, which can lead to a reduction in the quality of life for these children. These impairments can later result in lowered performance in work and school settings or decreased psychosocial function. Currently, there is a need to determine the relationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and sleep. There is a need for more research on whether or not sleep-wake …

Business Capstone Review: Analysis Of Startups In Technology And Artificial Intelligence, Grayson Hoffman

University Honors Theses

This is a review of the Portland State University's business capstone course. The team was engaged by the client to reach certain goals and deliverables. Key to this project was immense research on startups within the Technology and Artificial Intelligence industry. Information was communicated with the client throughout the project to ensure client relevancy. The research was then used to perform an analysis to measure the potential of startups being a good fit with the client's goals. Upon completion of the project, the team will have presented a full report summarizing the research as well as the final recommendation list …

Attrition And Assimilation: The Neural Mechanisms Of Mandarin-English Bilingualism, Natalie Paige Robison

University Honors Theses

This line of research investigates attrition of native language (L1) Mandarin proficiency with increasing proficiency in English. English uses pitch to denote intonation (e.g., "it's there?" versus "it's there!"), while Mandarin additionally uses pitch to indicate word meanings; e.g., /he/ means "drink" when spoken with a high, level tone, or "river" when spoken with a rising tone. The present study delineates between two alternative explanations for the prior finding that English proficiency correlates with attrition of Mandarin tones, but not Mandarin vowels. This pattern could be explained by 1) assimilability of the Mandarin vowel contrasts used in the study into …

Differentiating Dynamic System Outcomes In Cam Photosynthesis Through Sonification, Duncan Turley

Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sonification is a powerful tool that is harnessed by modern engineers to represent information through audio, and is beginning to be used to interpret more complex data sets. Sonification can be used to facilitate the listeners' ability to grasp microscopic or complex changes in the state of a system. This study uses the assigning of sound patterns to model outputs that indicate chaotic or non-chaotic systems in Crassulacean acid metabolism photosynthesis. Using sound allows the interpretation of chaotic data without the more time intensive processes typically used, such as of Fast Fourier Transformations. Based on past research, it is known …

Cards With Class: Formalizing A Simplified Collectible Card Game, Dan Ha

University Honors Theses

Collectible card games (CCGs) have been a wildly popular game genre since the release of Wizards of the Coast's Magic: The Gathering. These games revolve around their thousands of cards and the hundreds of thousands of interactions they can create with their many effects. For designers, it is an incredibly demanding task to ensure that every single card works properly and that each card's text unambiguously conveys its intended behavior in all cases. The task only grows more difficult over time as the number of cards in the game grows and card effects become more complex or experimental. If the …

The Institutional Challenges Of A Quantified Self Study: An Attempt To Ascertain How Data Collected From A Mobile Device Can Be An Indicator Of Personal Mental Health Over Time, Julian Lazaras

University Honors Theses

The adoption of an application of new technology always comes with a bias, this is never more true for the case of human behavioral analytics within higher education. While movements such as the quantified self movement make strides to reinterpret the realm of data analytics, psychology, and computer science, there are inevitably limitations to the adoption and application of such approaches within the standard realm of research. Herein is presented a case where an effort to evaluate the prospect of use of mobile phone data as secondary indicators of personal mental health through the lens of data analysis was put …

Neverland Theory: An Introduction To A Childish-Positive Framework, Daniel M. Gardner

University Honors Theses

Proposes, defines, and defends the beginnings of an original theoretical approach (Neverland Theory) which advocates for the revitalization of psychotherapy through embracing and incorporating more of the "Childish" in clinical practice. Three formal aspects of Childishness are proposed and briefly defined. A literature review of three existing psychotherapies which effectively incorporate the proposed Childish aspects are highlighted and shown to be effective and efficacious. It is argued that prioritization of these aspects contributes to treatment outcome in a way which goes beyond what can be empirically evidenced.

Technologies For Wearable Seizure Detection: A Systematic Review, Rhema Losli

University Honors Theses

Knowing when a seizure occurred is helpful because this information can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of seizure interventions and possibly alert caregivers to emergency situations. The current practice for recording seizures outside of a hospital and without sensors is through keeping a self-reported seizure diary. This practice may be unreliable if the diary is not updated or the person having the seizure does not realize it is happening. Wearable seizure detectors aim to solve this problem by reliably recording when a seizure happened and either sending out an alert or storing the data for later analysis. In this …

Preservation Of Biomass In Underground Capsules Using An Open-Source Wireless Water Activity Sensor System: Capstone Review, Joshua Varughese

University Honors Theses

This paper highlights the progression of a two-term senior capstone project in the ECE department at Portland State University. Sponsored by Dr. David Burnett from PSU's WEST Lab, the project aims to produce an affordable wireless monitoring system for water activity. The example scenario focuses on carbon sequestration where wood biomass is buried underground in enclosed capsules. For optimal sequestration, microorganisms capable of decaying the wood and releasing carbon back into the environment must be eliminated. Water activity, a key metric for measuring microbial activity, must be below 0.61 to prevent microbial survival. The system this project was designed for …

Trial By Rat Infestation, Elias Lunsford

University Honors Theses

Wanna make a rat movie?! From Ashton Livingston handing me his script in class to a week of December night shoots, his vision for a 1980s-inspired horror comedy called Rat Problem was a joy of a challenge for me to take on as his cinematographer. Watching reference films, renting and borrowing equipment, and managing the crew all culminated in creating this film's unique vintage-inspired ultra-wide and high-contrast aesthetic. The process of making this film, from equipment technicalities to creative problem-solving, forged my values as a creative collaborator. I learned to always protect the essence of the film as campy and …

A Marxist Analysis Of Women's Labor In The Soviet Union, Shania Sweet

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the evolution of Soviet women's labor and labor laws through a Marxist lens, emphasizing the contributions of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin. It explores the ideological foundations of communism concerning gender equality and the legislative measures taken by the Soviet Union to emancipate women from traditional capitalist oppression. The analysis reveals significant advancements in women's rights, such as legal equality and protection in the workforce, yet highlights the inconsistencies and challenges, particularly under Stalin's regime, where ideological shifts and practical enforcement diverged from Marxist principles. The research utilizes historical documents, legislative texts, and scholarly analyses …

Effects Of Language Status, Community Advice, And Parent Beliefs On Heritage Language Maintenance In The U.S.: A Scoping Review, Isabelle Trujillo

University Honors Theses

This scoping review of qualitative research examines effects of language status, community advice to parents, and parents' beliefs on heritage-language maintenance within a U.S. context. The review was guided by three research questions: 1. What is the nature of the relationship between a heritage language's (HL) status in society and language maintenance across generations? 2. How does information parents receive from community members (e.g., health professionals, teachers, friends, and family) influence their beliefs about the HL? 3. How do parents' beliefs about the impact of a HL on academic or career success influence HL transmission? Through a rigorous data extraction …

A History Of The Deutsche Sommerschule Am Pazifik, Sequoia J. Oar

University Honors Theses

The number of post-secondary German immersion programs in the United States has decreased from eleven to three since their heyday in the 1960s and the 1970s. The remaining three include: the German Immersion Program at Middlebury Language Schools (est. 1915), the Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik (est. 1958), and the Deutsche Sommerschule von New Mexico (est. 1975). These programs provide post-secondary students with immersive German-learning experiences for undergraduate and graduate credit during a summer session each year. Of these schools, the Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik stands alone in not having an accessible written history available to the public, which this thesis …

Mapping Mental Models Through An Improved Method For Identifying Causal Structures In Qualitative Data, Erin S. Kenzie, Wayne Wakeland, Antonie Jetter, Kristen Hassmiller Lich, Mellodie Seater, Melinda M. Davis

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Qualitative data are commonly used in the development of system dynamicsmodels, but methods for systematically identifying causal structures in qualita-tive data have not been widely established. This article presents a modifiedprocess for identifying causal structures (e.g., feedback loops) that are commu-nicated implicitly or explicitly and utilizes software to make coding, tracking,and model rendering more efficient. This approach draws from existingmethods, system dynamics best practice, and qualitative data analysis tech-niques. Steps of this method are presented along with a description of causalstructures for an audience new to system dynamics. The method is applied to aset of interviews describing mental models of …

Applying Decolonizing Theories And Methodologies In Archaeology To Two Collaborative Cultural Resource Management Projects, Cydney K. Lanthier

Dissertations and Theses

Decolonizing theories and methods were employed during two separate graduate research projects. The methods of the initial project were informed by political ecology, the landscape-level historical ecology theory, Tribal sovereignty, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), Indigenous archaeology, and community based participatory research (CBPR). The initial project was based entirely on CBPR and purposed to gain National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination as a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) over a portion of the traditional landscape. This project was cancelled before completion. However, several methods involved in CBPR were employed before then. The second project took on more of the historical ecology …

Lawfare As A Policy Tool In Sino-American Relations: The Case Of Huawei Cfo Meng Wanzhou, Zachary S. Souders

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

Competition between the United States and China is at an all-time high. Despite decades of diplomacy between the East and West, recent trends suggest the two powers are drifting further apart. To understand US-China relations, it is critical to understand major developments as they occur. This paper examines the geopolitical significance of United States v. Meng (2020), an extradition case in which US authorities requested the transfer of Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou to American jurisdiction. Despite US policymakers declaring Meng and Huawei to be threats to national security, the eventual dismissal of all charges Meng faced presents a puzzle …

Developing A Social Equity Action Plan: A Pathway Towards Achieving Water Equity In Oregon, Anis Zaman, Wade Hathhorn

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

The Sunrise Water Authority is a public utility serving the City of Happy Valley and surrounding areas of unincorporated Clackamas County. In general, the customers of Sunrise tend to be relatively affluent (by state and federal household income standards) and predominately white, and non-Hispanic by race and ethnicity. Notwithstanding, there are several vulnerable groups within the service population including low-income households, persons of color, children, seniors, immigrants, disabled, and others. Social equity looks to ensure fair and equitable access to public services for all. Following a framework established by the U.S. Water Alliance (known as the ‘3 Pillars’), a preliminary …