Digital Commons Network^™

Public Interest Group Politics And American Political Culture, Patrick Henry Brennan

Dissertations and Theses

Recent theories of interest group behavior have attempted to gain an understanding of how these groups mobilize for political action. However, these theories have led to account for a crucial aspect of public interest groups, a particularly important segment of the interest group universe. The purpose of this essay is to shed light on the ways that interest group theories must adapt if they are to better reflect this unique aspect of public interest group behavior. Specifically, it is necessary to acknowledge the role that a group"s ideas regarding shared American values play within the behavior of groups that seek …

Urban Sprawl, Media Monopoly, And Citizen Participation : A Longitudinal Case Study Of Daily Newspapers In Portland, Oregon, Andrew David Butz

Dissertations and Theses

The process and consequences of global economic expansion are the subject of increasing scholarly and popular attention. Emerging patterns of globalization are of particular interest from a sociological standpoint. This study establishes a theoretical and methodological approach for examining, within a framework of competing values, locally observable effects of the widely recognized global trend -- of increasingly concentrated news media ownership. Recent patterns of development in Portland, Oregon provide the specific context for this study. As in most American cities within the past generation, Portland experienced a shift from having independent, competing daily newspapers to having one conglomerate-owned monopolistic daily. …

Measure 9: Oregon’S 1992 Anti-Gay Initiative, Patricia Jean Young

Dissertations and Theses

In 1992 Oregon voters rejected Measure 9, an anti-gay initiative sponsored by the Oregon Citizens Alliance, a conservative, religious organization. Measure 9 sought to amend the Oregon Constitution to prohibit the state from establishing civil rights protections based on sexual orientation. Its passage also would have required government agencies and schools to set a standard that declared homosexuality as abnormal and perverse.

The Measure 9 campaign was emotional and divisive. Rhetoric was at an all-time high as the issue of gay-rights made front-page news, and Oregonians from all walks of life were forced to examine their beliefs about homosexuality, religion, …

Sexual Intercourse : A Feminist Reading Of Strip Joint Discourse, Regina Marie Howard Yaroch

Dissertations and Theses

The discursively-constructed stereotype of stripper plays an important role in the ideology that sustains our system of sexual relations. This construction also interacts with and constrains the lived reality of actual women who earn their living in the stripping industry. This research attempts to examine this interaction by exploring the discourse that is generated by stripping industry participants. A long interview transcript is analyzed as a text to develop a feminist reading that focuses on the socio-cultural forces that make a particular story possible as well as necessary to tell. This story emerges, through the first-person account of a dancer-informant, …

The Interaction Of Naphthoquinones With The Calcium Release Channel Of Skeletal Muscle Sarcoplasmic Reticulum, Ruohong Xia

Dissertations and Theses

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) is an intracellular membrane system which regulates cytoplasmic calcium concentration in muscle and controls the contractile state of muscle. In this thesis, the interaction between naphthoquinone and the Ca²⁺ release mechanism of SR is described. 1,4-naphthoquinone (1,4NQ) is shown to stimulate Ca²⁺ release and to modify high-affinity ryanodine binding to skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum. The interaction between 1,4NQ and the SR involves the oxidation ofcritical sulfhydryl groups associated with the Ca²⁺ release mechanism. The modulation of ryanodine binding by 1,4NQ is biphasic. At low concentrations of 1,4NQ (<10 >μM) ryanodine binding is stimulated, …

A Survey Of Swallowing Symptoms Associated With The Premenstrual Cycle, Jill Gigi Calcagno

Dissertations and Theses

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) has been associated with a vast number of physical, emotional, social, and behavioral symptomatology. Laryngeal disturbances invoked by hormonal imbalance may affect swallowing as a component of PMS. Previous studies regarding swallowing ability during the premenstrual cycle were nonexistent.

This study examined the relationship between PMS and swallowing disorders. One hundred thirty-seven females completed a written survey that elicited information regarding biographical data, presence and severity of cyclically recurring symptoms associated with PMS, and perceived presence and severity of dysphagia during premenstruum.

Spearman Rank (Rho) correlation coefficients were computed to determine the extent of the relationship between …

A Comparison Of Two Second Language Acquisition Models For Culturally And Linguistically Different Students, Karen Dorothy Kuhn

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis research was to determine if there were significant educational advantages in terms of sociocultural development for culturally and linguistically different students enrolled in a two-way bilingual education program as compared to those directly mainstreamed. Eighteen third-grade students were selected from two schools in the same school district. Half of the subjects spent their third grade year in a two-way bilingual educational program while the other half were mainstreamed into a submersion education program. Each subject was culturally (Hispanic) and linguistically (Spanish was the dominant language) different from mainstream students. A qualitative summary and statistical analyses …

A Migratable User-Level Process Package For Pvm, Ravi Kunuru, Steve Otto, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Shared, multi-user, workstation networks are characterized by unpredictable variability in system load. Further, the concept of workstation ownership is typically present. For efficient and unobtrusive computing in such environments, applications must not only overlap their computation with communication but also redistribute their computations adaptively based on changes in workstation availability and load. Managing these issues at application level leads to programs that are difficult to write and debug. In this paper, we present a system that manages this dynamic multi-processor environment while exporting a simple message-based programming model of a dedicated, distributed memory multiprocessor to applications. Programmers are thus insulated …

Physical Media Independence: System Support For Dynamically Available Network Interfaces, Jon Inouye, Jim Binkley, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Advances in hardware technology has fueled the proliferation of dynamically configurable network interface cards. This empowers mobile laptop users to select the most appropriate interface for their current environment. Unfortunately, the majority of system software remains "customized" for a particular network configuration, and assumes many network characteristics remain invariant over the runtime of the software. Physical Media Independence (PMI) is the concept of making assumptions about a particular device explicit, detecting events which invalidate these assumptions, and recovering once events are detected. This paper presents a model supporting PMI. Based on device availablilty, the model identifies implicit device-related assumptions made …

Weak Bands Within Ice Stream B, West Antarctica, Christina L. Hulbe, I. M. Whillans

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Kilometer-scale variations in ice velocity and surface topography are used to investigate the style of glacier deformation in the main body of Ice Stream B, West Antarctica. The pattern is very different from that reported for other glaciers. For the 250 km2 area studied on Ice Stream B, most of the observed deformation occurs within two narrow bands, in which there is large across-flow compression and slow lateral shearing. The bands underlie valleys in the ice-surface topography. Measured upward displacement of ice adjacent to the rapidly compressing bands appears to be linked to the creation of the ice stream's topography. …

Microlanguages For Operating System Specialization, Calton Pu, Andrew P. Black, Crispin Cowan, Jonathan Walpole, Charles Consel

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Specialization is a technique that has the potential to provide operating system clients with the performance and functionality that they need, while still retaining the advantages of a simple generic code base for the operating system maintainer. However, at present the specialization process is labor-intensive and requires the knowledge of an expert in the domain of application behavior. In order to realize the full advantages of specialization, we believe that the process must be automated. This means building tools for specialization, and also making the domain knowledge explicit in some form or other. A specialization toolkit has been developed jointly …

Meeting Notes 1996-12-12 , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Chemical Communication In House Mice (Mus Musculus): Can They Recognize Gender From The Anogenital, Harderian Gland Or Mouth/Nose Odor?, Dawn Michele Andrews

Dissertations and Theses

Identifying the sensory systems animals employ to communicate chemically and the function of the chemical signals facilitates further understanding of chemical communication. Increased knowledge of how animals use the olfactory and vomeronasal systems in order to interpret the meaning of body odors will aid in developing a more detailed organization of chemosensory pathways. The message that each body odor contains can change from species to species.

The purpose of this thesis was to study three previously untested body odors in house mice (M. musculus) for their role in gender recognition of conspecifics. These odors are the anogenital (feces, …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet December 1996, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The December 1996 Monthly packet includes the December agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held November 1996.

Parking Regulation And Land Use In The Portland Metropolitan Region: A Case For Local Parking Districts And Shared Parking Arrangements, Eric Engstrom

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

The purpose of this paper is to examine parking regulations and parking management in a land-use and transportation planning context. Current parking management policies in the Portland metropolitan region provide the overall framework for this analysis. The paper is divided into six sections:

• Section one provides a summary of the planning policies and growth management strategies of the Portland metropolitan region which impact par king policy. These policies provide the context for the current discussion of parking regulations in the region.

• The experiences of two close-in Portland neighborhoods are discussed in section two. Parking is not regulated by …

A Specialization Toolkit To Increase The Diversity Of Operating Systems, Calton Pu, Andrew P. Black, Crispin Cowan, Jonathan Walpole, Charles Consel

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Virus and worm attacks that exploit system implementation details can be countered with a diversified set of implementations. Furthermore, immune systems show that attacks from previously unknown organisms require effective dynamic response. In the Synthetix project, we have been developing a specialization toolkit to improve the performance of operating system kernels. The toolkit helps programmers generate and manage diverse specialized implementations of software modules. The Tempo-C specializer tool generates different versions for both compile-time and run-time specialization. We are now adapting the toolkit to improve operating system survivability against implementations attacks.

Analysis And Optimization Of A Banyan Based Atm Switch By Simulations, Syed Sohel Hussain

Dissertations and Theses

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is proposed technology to create a broadband (high speed) packet switching network capable of transporting wide variety of services including voice, video and data in an integrated manner. The main concern in designing the switching fabrics used in this technology are speed, throughput, delay and variance of delay. We analyze the performance by simulations of ATM switch based on Banyan network in the uniform traffic condition.

We compare the analytical results obtained from three-state model Yan and Jenq to the simulation results. Based on observation of simulation results, we propose non-blocking first stage (NBFS) to increase …

Meeting Notes 1996-11-14 , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Some Possible Sources Of Oral Foreign Language Anxiety (Fla) Among Japanese Students In The United States, Sawako Yoshikawa

Dissertations and Theses

This study attempted to locate some possible sources of oral Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) among Japanese students in the United States. This study proposed that the following three factors were possible sources of FLA: 1) the subjects' traitlike anxiety, which is carried by individuals across all communication-bound contexts; 2) the subjects' self-perceived oral proficiency levels in English and 3) the subjects' gapsize (i.e., the distance between their self-perceived and their self-expected oral proficiency levels in English) . This research examined whether the above three independent variables and the dependent FLA variable were significantly correlated, and if so, which one had …

A Comparison Of Speech Intelligibility Measures Between Unsophisticated Listener Judgements And Orthographic Transcription, Carla J. Dukart

Dissertations and Theses

Intelligible speech is a primary component for successful communication. However, the speech of children with disordered phonologies is often unintelligible. Therefore, when assessing the speech intelligibility of children in order to determine whether they qualify for intervention services, speech-language pathologists need reliable evaluation tools.

The focus of this investigation was the measurement of speech intelligibility. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two methods for measuring speech intelligibility. The first, identification method, involves the listener transcribing a speech sample from which the percentage of words understood is calculated. The second, scaling procedure, involves the listener estimating …

A Pilot Study: Normative Data On The Intelligibility Of 3 1/2 Year Old Children, Karen Mary Ware

Dissertations and Theses

Most of the previous published research involving intelligibility has focused on persons with various disabilities or delays. Minimal research has been conducted on intelligibility in young children with no diagnosed speech and/ or language disorders. The result is a gap in normative data by which to set a standard to judge speech as being at an acceptable level of intelligibility for a particular age group. The focus of this pilot study was to collect normative data on the intelligibility of young children, ages 3:6 ±2 months, with no diagnosed speech and/or language disorder. ~ Thirteen subjects, ages 3:6 ±2 months, …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet November 1996, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The November 1996 Monthly packet includes the November agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held October 1996.

Ecological Economics: Reintegrating The Study Of Humans And Nature, Robert Costanza

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary effort to link the natural and social sciences broadly, and especially ecology and economics. The goal is to develop a deeper understanding of the complex linkages between ecological and economic systems, and to use that understanding to develop effective policies that will lead to a world that is ecologically sustainable, has a fair distribution of resources (both among groups and generations of humans and between humans and other species), and efficiently allocates scarce resources including natural capital. This will require new approaches that are comprehensive, adaptive, integrative, multi-scale, and pluralistic, and that acknowledge the huge …

Humor Recognition: A Comparative Analysis, William T. Argent

Dissertations and Theses

There are various approaches to the explanation of humor in the field of humor research. Some of these theories, while providing interesting insight into the phenomenon known as humor, remain limited in their ability to account for how humor is recognized. Others do not even address the issue. This thesis compares five different theories in humor research by analyzing the humorous short story "My Watch" by Mark Twain. These theories are: 1. a typological approach to humor, 2. a social- functional model, 3. incongruity theory, 4. Grice's Cooperative Principle taken from linguistic pragmatics, and 5. the General Theory of Verbal …

Eco-Industrial Parks: A Case Study And Analysis Of Economic, Environmental, Technical, And Regulatory Issues, Sheila A. Martin, Keith A. Weitz, Robert A. Cushman, Aarti Sharma, Richard C. Lindrooth, Stephen R. Moran

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Despite a growing interest in and awareness of applications of industrial ecology (IE), such as eco-industrial parks (EIPs), little information is available about the potential economic and environmental benefits of EIPs, the process for successful EIP development, the important regulatory issues surrounding EIPs, or the technologies needed to support them. This report contains the results of a body of research intended to investigate and support the development of EIPs—communities of companies modeled after industrial ecosystems. EIPs can exist within defined boundaries and broader industrial ecosystems in a region. These communities consciously collaborate to enhance their economic performance through improved environmental …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet October 1996, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The October 1996 Monthly packet includes the October agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held June 1996.

Temporal Characteristics Of Words Surrounding A Moment Of Stuttering In Preschool-Age Children, Gregory Keith Lilly

Dissertations and Theses

Until this time, few studies have examined differences in durational characteristics in words surrounding a moment of stuttering for untreated preschool children. It is important to determine whether or not untreated preschoolers' who stutter alter the duration of their speech when they stutter versus when they are fluent to determine what factors influence stuttering behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to examine the duration of words immediately before and after a stuttered word and the duration of the matched target word in the identical fluent utterance. The following questions were to be addressed: 1) Is there a significant …

A Study Of The Narrative Skills Of 7-Year Olds With Normal, Impaired, And Late Developing Language, Rita F. Hernandez

Dissertations and Theses

The narrative, just like any lectured or monologue information which is shared, does not depend to any great extent on context. Therefore, ability to encode and decode the information to be presented verbally is required, that is, in order for the speaker to be able to verbalize what he or she wants to say while taking into consideration the listener's needs. This indicates that production of strong narratives depends on higher level language skills, and so children's narratives provide a sensitive means of assessing children's language development. The purpose of this study was to compare the narrative ability of children …

City Club Of Portland Report: Billboard Regulation In Portland, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: After a decade and a half without men’s basketball, the team is back playing Division I in the Big Sky Conference; as the high-tech industry in Oregon prospers, higher education is looking to catch up; an entire graduate program, including faculty and students, has moved from Lewis & Clark to PSU; Jim Aalberg ’72 left the mergers, downsizing, and buyouts of the banking industry to join Fred Meyer Inc.; Portland Public Schools may open its first new grade school in more than 20 years on PSU’s campus; and more.