Digital Commons Network^™

Spatially Allocated Population Characteristics For Oregon Counties From The 2017-2021 Acs Pums, Version 1.0" [Computer File], Population Research Center, Portland State University

Publications, Reports and Presentations

A novel dataset and documentation containing spatially allocated estimates based on analysis of the 2017-21 ACS PUMS for counties in the State of Oregon. Analysis was performed by iterative adjustment to the ACS weights such that results were consistent with selected tables generated from the full ACS sample published by the US Census Bureau. The data are delivered in two pipe-delimited text files. Each row represents one county, and columns represent standard data fields described in the codebooks. Oregon Department of Human Services supported the analysis and selected the indicators for production; race/ethnicity are reporting in a manner consistent with …

On Willing Surrender As Virtuous Self-Constitution, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our cultural situation is to seek a moral form of self-constitution, rather than an ontological or epistemological foundation. Such a moral ground lies in the paradox of willing surrender of the will to do wrong or dysfunctional acts in order to enter temporally-extended processes of moral change. But the paradox of willing surrender of the will requires analysis. The propositional form of it cannot be sustained and must instead give way to willingness as an ongoing choice. The self-reflexivity of the will with which we accomplish this turns out to be a core activity of human activity that seeks openness …

The Intersection Of Asset Management And Geographic Information Systems For University Facilities Maintenance, Andrew Westerlund Beland

Masters in GIS Practicum Reports

This project describes a proof of concept for developing a digital asset management system dashboard for water backflow assemblies at Portland State University (PSU) using a modified ESRI ArcGIS Online backflow solution. Asset management is crucial for optimizing the lifecycle of tangible assets, which ensures cost-effective operational efficiency and regulatory compliance. PSU manages over 250 backflow assemblies spread across the 50-acre campus and has traditionally relied on manual processes, which can lead to inefficiencies and potential transcription errors.

The system links spatial data with asset attributes for backflow devices, enabling field staff to update inspection results directly from mobile devices. …

Mud Acoustics, Charles W. Holland, Stan E. Dosso, Jason D. Chaytor

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Imaging the ocean requires an understanding of how different seafloor sediments interact with sound waves.

App-Based Data Collection To Characterize Latent Transportation Demand Within Marginalized And Underserved Populations, Noelle L. Fields, Courtney Cronley, Stephen Mattingly, Nicole Iroz-Elardo, David Levine, Nithisha Gudipati, Cristine Highfill, Mary Kris Stringfelllow, Anna O'Dell, Rebecca Cole, Melody Huslage

TREC Final Reports

Our interdisciplinary team refined an app prototype, MyAmble, to gather data related to quantity of transportation disadvantage and latent demand, and to identify psycho-social-economic corollaries. MyAmble utilizes a traditional travel diary format but expands the type of trips measured to include 1) completed trips, 2) missed trips, and 3) latent travel demand. The app also measures the real-time perceived impact of transportation behaviors (realized and latent) on participants’ physical health, mental health, social engagement, and employment/academics. Finally, the app has a text-messaging feature, Travel Buddy, that is used to increase participant engagement and retention over longitudinal data collection. The project …

Unjust And Unsafe: The Eviction Experiences Of Latine Immigrant And Farmworker Tenants In Oregon, Natalie J. Cholula, Lisa K. Bates, Alex Farrington, Marisa Zapata, Jacen Greene, Azad Amir-Ghassemi, Colleen Carroll

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Latine immigrant households often face housing instability due to language barriers, immigration status, and limited access to government resources. Oregon farmworkers experience additional obstacles to safe and stable housing caused by low wages, a lack of affordable housing options, and social isolation. In light of the identified needs and lack of equitable access to resources that this group experiences, the Evicted in Oregon research team conducted focus groups with Latine immigrant and farmworker tenants in Multnomah, Washington, and Marion Counties. The aim was to gain insight into their experiences with eviction and understand how they navigated through evictions during the …

From Provincial Palace To Country Cottage: A History Of The Russian Dacha, 1700s To Present, Melissa Renee Rosenak Bevency

History Undergraduate Departmental Honors Theses

In Russia, the dacha is typically a second home with a garden, located outside of but not far from a major city. However, this definition fails to fully encapsulate the cultural phenomenon, which has transformed in tandem with Russia throughout the years. The dacha's first manifestations appeared during the reign of Peter the Great, the name coming from the verb "to give," as dachas were given as land allotments by the tsar to his servitors. These grand estates were limited to Russia's most elite and were maintained by enserfed peasants. However, in centuries that followed, the dacha became more accessible …

Sharing Stories Of Hope And Transformation In U.S. Higher Education: An Ereader By Portland State University Students, Óscar Fernández, David Peterson Del Mar

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

This eReader showcases stories of hope and transformation written by diverse students enrolled in University Studies courses at Portland State University. The goal is to motivate first-year and transfer students to see that, in higher education, they are not alone in their personal, familial, and academic struggles—and personal, familial, and educational achievements.

American Indian Census Rolls: An Underutilized Source Of Historical Demographic Information On Tribal Populations, David Swanson, Jeff Tayman

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Historical information on tribal populations in the United States is incomplete. American Indians and Alaska Natives were not enumerated with the general population until the 1940 decennial census. However, Indian Census Rolls were produced for the period 1885 – 1940 under the auspices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the U.S. The information given in the Indian Census Rolls varies but usually includes the roll number, age, gender, tribal identity, and relationship to the head of the family. In this paper, we present background information on Indian Census Rolls and demonstrate how the digitized microfiche census roll schedules can …

Housing Choice, Transportation Equity, And Access To Opportunities In Refugee And Immigrant Communities, Diane Mitschke, Anne Nordberg, Stephen Mattingly, Katherine Kitchens

TREC Final Reports

Mobility directly impacts access to opportunities for all protected classes; however, transportation planning and public transit agencies and housing authorities rarely coordinate affordable housing and the transportation system planning decisions. This lack of coordination often leads to mismatches between access to opportunities and affordable housing. Safe access to employment, quality schools, and healthcare represent a few of the many factors that may influence housing choice. For most households with budget constraints, all of these factors may not be achievable. While existing research documents the mismatch between affordable housing and access to opportunities, the role that mobility plays in residential selection …

Fight, Flight, Freeze: How Access To Support Shapes Tenant Responses To Eviction In Multnomah County, Natalie J. Cholula, Lisa K. Bates, Alex Farrington, Marisa Zapata, Colleen Carroll, Jacen Greene, Hadley Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Facing eviction is a traumatic event that forces tenants into a fight, flight or freeze response. Our focus groups with Multnomah County tenants reveal that their responses to eviction are directly shaped by their access to support. Many tenants are unable to access formal support and therefore respond to eviction by freezing up or fleeing their home. Conversely, tenants who can access formal support—including rental assistance or legal assistance—exhibit a fight response, leveraging external support to challenge or avoid their eviction.

Targeted, Harassed, And Displaced: The Role Of Discrimination In Oregon Evictions, Alex Farrington, Natalie J. Cholula, Lisa K. Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on focus groups with 101 Oregon tenants who have experienced an eviction since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this report examines the role that discrimination plays in Oregon evictions. As this is not a legal investigation, we do not focus solely on legally-actionable or provable claims. Rather, we include a wide range of tenants’ descriptions of their experiences with unfair, malicious, or prejudicial treatment. We find that many tenants are specifically targeted for eviction or experience prejudicial treatment during the eviction process because of their identity or background. This includes being treated unfairly based on tenants’ race, language, …

Shame And History, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

If history—our past, the sum of our thoughts, passions, and deeds—is so pervasive, influential, and meaningful, why then do we lose sight of it? Why do we not gain good values from it? And if it is part of our existential core, why then do we so often fail to ravel it into our deliberations?

I propose that very often and to a great degree it is shame that separates us from history. Shame: garrulous, compulsive, intense, omnivorous. A shamed person pushes away the experiences that shame her, thus cutting off the past.

Impacts Of Sex Work Criminalization On Sex Workers In Oregon: A Pilot Study, Stephanie Wahab, Katie Shammel

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Executive Summary

Context for the Study
In July, 2023, Oregon legislators voted to fund research exploring the impacts of the criminalization of sex work in Oregon. Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed the budget item, stating that the private sector should fund this type of public health research and noting the need for additional public discussion about the issue. To date, there have been no attempts to study the impacts of prostitution laws on the people most impacted by them in Oregon. The research presented in this report seeks to address this gap.

This qualitative pilot study was designed to better understand …

Looking At The Past To Change The Future: Showcasing Featured Collections, Building Communities, And Co-Creating, Sherry Buchanan

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Academic libraries have the opportunity and the responsibility to promote and advance content that creates transformative and iterative learning opportunities. To that end, and in an effort to build communities and facilitate co-creation, Portland State University showcases three main Featured Collections in our open access repository, PDXScholar: Climate Justice, COVID-19, and Racial and Gender Equity, with a fourth pilot collection—Student Work: An Open Showcase of Outstanding Student-Created Research & Creative Work—under development. The collections include a broad range of audiovisual materials, such as podcasts and webinar series, as well as sustainability and equity work, student-created content, and numerous future-focused multidisciplinary …

A Profile Of Freshman Inquiry Students Fall 2024, Rowanna L. Carpenter

University Studies Assessment Research

In order to better understand the students enrolled in Freshman Inquiry (FRINQ) courses and identify areas where they may need support, University Studies (UNST) began collecting and compiling data on these students. This report presents a profile of FRINQ students from Fall 2024. It presents an overview of all students enrolled in FRINQ during Fall 2024 and then summarizes information from the Prior Learning Survey.

Developmental Change In English-Learning Children’S Interpretations Of Salient Pitch Contours In Word Learning, Carolyn M. Quam, Daniel Swingley

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

To efficiently recognize words, children learning an intonational language like English should avoid interpreting pitch-contour variation as signaling lexical contrast, despite the relevance of pitch at other levels of structure. Thus far, the developmental time-course with which English-learning children rule out pitch as a contrastive feature has been incompletely characterized. Prior studies have tested diverse lexical contrasts and have not tested beyond 30 months. To specify the developmental trajectory over a broader age range, we extended a prior study (Quam & Swingley, 2010), in which 30-month-olds and adults disregarded pitch changes, but attended to vowel changes, in newly learned words. …

Alternative Shelter Evaluation Report, Jacen Greene, Todd Ferry, Emily Leickly, Franklin H. Spurbeck

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes research by Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative for the Joint Office of Homeless Services on the cost, participant experiences, and client outcomes in village-style and motel shelters as compared to each other and to traditional, congregate shelters.

Assessment Of Avian Community Structure And Habitat Connectivity In The Fanno Creek Corridor Bird Surveys, Habitat Assessment, And Management Recommendations, Grace Hall

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Urbanization can significantly impact habitat quality and connectivity for avian communities, decreasing species richness and diversity. However, in highly fragmented habitats, urban parks and riparian zones can provide important habitat corridors for birds that facilitate movement and access to essential resources. On the west side of greater Portland, Oregon, Fanno Creek may serve as a habitat corridor for birds and other local wildlife.

Fanno Creek is a 25-kilometer tributary of the Tualatin River that runs through the cities of Portland, Beaverton, Tigard, and Durham in northwestern Oregon. The land surrounding the creek includes residential, commercial, and industrial properties as well …

Salvation And Sweet Rolls: An Examination Of Mormon Diet Books, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Religious diet books highlight the overlap between religious and diet cultures. This article examines the intersection of Mormonism, diet culture, and fatphobia through an analysis of Mormon diet books published between 1990 and 2015. The study explores how Mormon diet books leverage the Word of Wisdom (the LDS health code) to promote weight loss and reinforce religious obedience. By framing dietary compliance as a spiritual mandate, these texts link physical health and body size to moral and spiritual worthiness. This conflation of body and spirit, rooted in Mormon theology, amplifies fatphobia by promoting thinness as a sign of obedience and …

International Bestsellers And The Online Reconfiguring Of National Identity, Rachel Noorda, Millicent Weber, Melanie Ramdarshan Bold

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

International bestsellers are the ideal sites for examining the complicated relationship between literary culture and national identity. Despite the transnational turns in both literary studies and book history, place is still an important configurer of twenty-first-century book reception. Books are crucial to national identity and catalysts of nationalist movements. On an individual level, books enable readers to shape and maintain their own national identities. This Element explores how contemporary readers' understandings of nation, race/ethnicity, gender, and class continue to shape their reading, using as case studies the online reception of three bestseller titles-Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies (Australia), Zadie Smith's …

Uncertainty Quantification Of Live Load Effect In Buried Rc Box Culverts, Mohd Firoj

Dissertations and Theses

Although buried and mostly invisible to the traveling public, bridge-sized culverts (i.e., culverts with span around or longer than 20 ft) account for a large proportion of state-managed bridges. As per Oregon Department of Transportation inventory, there are approximately 35,000 culverts in the state highway system. Among them, 10,862 are in poor conditions and need to be analyzed for load rating purposes. The prediction and understanding of live load effects in culverts are crucial to the design, evaluation, and life-cycle maintenance of culverts. These live load effects include maximum bending moments and shear forces at different critical cross sections.

This …

Cultivating Equity: Harnessing School Garden Education As A Catalyst For Food Justice And Social Change, Maureen Madeleine Callahan

Dissertations and Theses

In the realm of critical pedagogy, state power, and food justice in school garden education, this internship reflection paper delves into the creation and impact of a unique video project. Collaborating with a school garden education organization and a local farm owned by a pair of queer, multiracial women near Portland, Oregon, the study aimed to present K-5 students with farming and environmental insights through a food justice lens. Central inquiries explored the intersection of school garden curriculum and farming knowledge, emphasizing community-building and cultural diversity, farmer-environment interactions, engaging young students, and creating a replicable video format. Rooted in critical …

The Contested Exempla Of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Victoria Theresa White

Dissertations and Theses

In 82 BCE, Lucius Cornelius Sulla emerged the victor of his civil war against the supporters of Marius and Cinna. The brutal aftermath of this victory, characterized by the creation of the proscriptions, would brand Sulla as a cruel and immoderate victor. Still, his successes in Rome’s previous wars against foreign enemies had enshrined Sulla as a brilliant military commander within Roman memory. Previous scholarship about Sulla has focused on the dichotomy of Sulla’s actions, often in order to evaluate his clemency or cruelty and his aims of his political reforms. This thesis analyzes how ancient Roman and Greek authors …

E Hui Me Ke Kaiāulu: To Connect With The Community, Heather Kayleen Bartlett

Dissertations and Theses

Urban planning literature contains a wealth of knowledge on community engagement as a crucial component of the planning process, yet there remains a notable gap in our understanding of best practices when it comes to sustaining community involvement for ongoing plan implementation. The County of Hawai'i, has charted a unique course through the establishment of Action Committees which serve as an intermediary to uplift grassroots implementation efforts while remaining closely entwined with County resources and processes. This interplay provides a unique case study that results in somewhat of an "identity crisis": Action Committees do not have the autonomy of external …

American Institution Of Public, K-12 Education: An Institutional Field Under A Complexity Paradigm, Jennifer Jean Joyalle

Dissertations and Theses

Institutional fields serve as foundational bedrocks that shape and govern behaviors, norms, and practices within distinct domains of societal and organizational interactions. The emergence of machine learning and the ability to manipulate large datasets offer researchers and decision makers the potential ability to model and visualize the behavior associated with institutional fields.

This proof of concept provides an example of visualizing the changing conditions in the institutional field of public K-12 education in America as a topology. By interweaving three primary strands of theory -- institutional fields, complexity in the guise of complex adaptive systems as a paradigm, and paradigms …

Dwindling Trust In Experts: A Starting Point For Information Literacy, Mark N. Lenker Iii

Communications in Information Literacy

Librarians and teachers encourage students to include expert perspectives in their research, but recent public discourse includes high-profile examples of experts being inconsistent or wrong, and recent studies suggest that public trust in experts is declining. Waning trust makes it difficult to teach information literacy: I can push students to find high-quality research sources, but what if these sources turn out to be yet another example of experts getting it wrong? After a period of living with this worry, I found a way to move forward by centering class discussion on the public’s dwindling trust in experts. Part of this …

"Suited To The Wants Of The Country": Historical Ceramics From The Fort Vancouver Sutler's Store, Vancouver, Washington, Kaitlyn Nicole Hosken

Dissertations and Theses

For much of the early 19th century, the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) dominated commercial activity throughout the Pacific Northwest. Following development of the Oregon Trail in the 1840s and 1850s, however, the HBC saw increasing social and economic competition from American settlers. This research examines nationalist attitudes evident during the transition to the American colonial era and effects on the consumption of commercial goods. Analyses compare archaeological ceramics from two retail sites located in what is now Vancouver, Washington: an 1850s American sutler's store and the HBC Sale Shop. Additional comparison is made with a contemporaneous U.S. Army Officers' …

The Experiences Of Black Women Direct Care Workers In Long-Term Care, Nakeshia Knight-Coyle

Dissertations and Theses

This study expands understanding about the experiences of Black women direct care workers (DCWs) experiences with racism, discrimination, and economic exploitation in the long-term care (LTC) sector. It comes at a critical time when COVID-19 has demonstrated the important and essential nature of long-term care work. COVID-19 has also elucidated the challenges of an insufficient workforce and its detrimental impact on the long-term care system’s ability to meet the care needs of those accessing long-term care services. Finally, workforce needs are projected to increase with the impending influx of baby boomers into retirement, making this study a timely effort at …

Information Literacy In English-Language Higher Education Teaching Journals: A Review, Jennifer Masunaga, Lanyi Peng, Tiffanie Ford-Baxter, Kendall Faulkner

Communications in Information Literacy

Wider visibility of information literacy (IL) outside of the library and information science (LIS) field is important to the success of IL instruction, learning, and research. The development and major updates of several information literacy documents in the past decade evidence the changing landscape of IL research, but how these changes have impacted other disciplines remains to be seen. To aid in this discussion, this article examines a wide range of higher education teaching journals to expand on Badke's (2011) work, “Why Information Literacy is Invisible.” Specifically, this study examines articles published in 30 general higher education and 32 …