Digital Commons Network^™

Deciphering French Decentralization Efforts And Economic Attractivity Through The Evaluation Of France's Lyonnaise Region, Magwyer Grimes, Kimberley Brown

University Honors Theses

France has long been a country politically and economically dominated by its largest city: Paris. This dynamic seemed natural for an absolute monarchy and a subsequent empire that sought centralized administration, but in the second half of the twentieth century there were increasing calls for regional solidarity and a more active industrial policy to develop metropolitan France beyond the Paris basin. The objectives of the French government seem two-fold: to lean on and expand the economic strength of the Paris region while increasing the economic dynamism of the various other large agglomerations. But in an economy already so dominated by …

Traits Of Leadership, Alinta Magdalene Ali

University Honors Theses

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the correlation between leadership styles, introverted and extroverted traits, and their impact on effective leadership within the workplace. The first section defines leadership and introduces leadership styles: servant, transformational, identity, autocratic, democratic, and coaching. The discussion delves into the distinctive characteristics, advantages, and obstacles associated with each leadership style, highlighting how each style prioritizes personalized guidance and assistance for team members. The second section explores the introvert and extrovert aspects and how they complement each other in the workplace. Effective leaders possess the ability to adjust their personality traits, exhibiting both social …

Hemingway In Hollywood: From Page To Screen, Hayden Hendricks

University Honors Theses

Little attention has been paid to how film adaptations affected Hemingway’s popular reputation (and vice versa). This thesis traces Hemingway's celebrity through the case studies A Farewell to Arms (1932), The Killers (1946), and The Old Man and the Sea (1958). It details their production histories, analyzes the changes made from page to screen, and discusses the contextual motivations behind such divergences. Finally, it considers the ways in which the filmmakers adapted texts of different lengths to fit feature length runtimes and, in doing so, found cinematic equivalences of literary form.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cbt): A Queer Analysis, Elizabeth M. Munk

University Honors Theses

This literature review seeks to understand the history and development of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) within a clinical setting in the United States and other Western institutions. Furthermore, employing a critical eye to CBT will highlight areas of future intervention. This will be done by emphasizing the importance of a queer lens and starting to integrate theory and analytics to address potential gaps and lacks within the therapy process of CBT. Theories like Donna Haraway's situated knowledges, Jasbir Puar's assemblage theory, and Sara Ahmed’s affect theory will then be discussed in the context of MAST, a variation of CBT. I'm …

Rejoice In The Lamb: Preparation To Performance, John Gladen

University Honors Theses

Rejoice in the Lamb is a masterpiece of the choral music world by Benjamin Britten. This thesis documents one educator's journey of preparing and performing this piece with a choir. Exploring the life of Britten and the poet, Christopher Smart, a greater context for this work is discovered. The educator's personal take on the piece is also included.

Epl Card Reader Capstone: The Strengths Of Partner Programming From A Team Leader's Perspective, Zach Yost

University Honors Theses

This essay looks to reflect back upon the successes and failures of the EPL Card Reader capstone project, sponsored by Edward Ivory, head of Portland State University's Electronics Prototyping Lab. The EPL Card Reader's goal is to provide a means of tracking and updating student activity and training on the various machines in the lab. Using a local computer port to host this web app a lab administrator or manager is able to scan a student's access badge to review which machines they have been trained on as well as update that training status. The app also has a running …

Motor Vehicle Theft In Portland Oregon, Io Nicholls

University Honors Theses

Residents and stakeholders are increasingly concerned about trends related to motor vehicle theft (MVT) in Portland, Oregon. Currently there are no in-depth studies regarding this crime. This analysis identifies trends in vehicle theft over time, compares Portland to other similar cities, and assesses demographics of neighborhoods with high counts and rates of MVT. First, a broad overview of MVT over a 21-year period spanning from 2000 to 2021 provides context. Then, a more focused analysis of this crime in Portland during more recent years provides information about offenders, types of vehicles stolen, and hot spots where vehicles are most likely …

Hybrid Photovoltaic + Battery Energy System Grid-Tied Converter Capstone Review Thesis, Archer Taylor

University Honors Theses

Hybrid power converters present an opportunity to more efficiently harness energy from renewable sources. This paper reviews an undergraduate senior capstone project with the goal of designing and verifying the benefits of a hybrid converter, combining a photovoltaic array, battery energy system and a DC-AC inverter. The author recounts their experience throughout the 6 month period, detailing the research and design process followed by the prototype testing. Additionally, they reflect on the struggles of the capstone team and how to apply the learnings in the future.

The Impact Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On Anxiety And The Protective Role Of Mindfulness Among Bipoc Adults, Salena D. Keys-Kukoricza

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

This study examined the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on anxiety and the protective role of dispositional mindfulness in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) adults. Anxiety can be defined as a sense of distress, worry or nervousness of an unpredictable result. There is evidence that external factors play a pivotal role in BIPOC communities' risk for anxiety. ACEs have been utilized as important criteria when assessing childhood abuse and neglect. Dispositional mindfulness is considered to be adaptable and negatively related to ACEs and anxiety; however, little is known about these relationships in BIPOC communities. We hypothesized that …

"It's Not The Same Anymore" (2023): A Reflection On The Creative Process Behind My Queer Coming-Of-Age Short Film, Olivia Lee

University Honors Theses

"It's Not The Same Anymore" stands as a poignant queer coming-of-age short film crafted by individuals who share the queer experience, with the intention of resonating deeply with the queer community. The narrative intimately captures the journey of a young queer woman as she navigates the realms of love, heartbreak, and the quest for self-discovery. Amidst a media landscape that frequently falls short in its representation of LGBTQ+ voices and authentic lived experiences, this film aspires to bridge the gap and bring forth a much-needed sense of belonging and recognition.

A link to the short film can be found here: …

Webinar: Transportation Resources And Behaviors Among Older Immigrants And Migrants, Rebecca Mauldin, Stephen Mattingly, Rupal Parekh

TREC Webinar Series

This presentation reports findings from a cross-sectional survey of older Vietnamese immigrants in the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX metroplex and members of a Hispanic senior center in Hartford, CT. In addition to providing a description of transportation resources and behavior, we present a method for assessing the geospatial "regular activity spaces" of older adults based on the frequency and locations of routine activities. We also present options for assessing the geospatial burden of providing rides to older adults using "ride-provision activity spaces," which entails the frequency and locations of activities for which rides are given. Finally, we discuss the association of …

An Integrated Analysis Of Urban Sustainability In Portland: Issues, Indicators, Stakeholders, And Geospatial Assessment, Arun Kumar Pallathadka

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation presents three individual studies that collectively explore the concept of urban sustainability. The research is grounded in the recognition that many cities worldwide are striving to achieve sustainable development, yet existing sustainability frameworks often lack comprehensive definition and consideration. Moreover, the existing sustainability frameworks and methods are often not clearly structured to allow for their replication and adaptation to meet the unique needs of diverse local settings. To address this gap, the dissertation utilizes the Social-Ecological-Technological Framework, with particular emphasis on equity, to investigate key issues in urban sustainability, such as indicators, stakeholder engagement, tradeoffs, and assessment. The …

The Factors Contributing To The Resilience Of Thailand's Social Welfare Nonprofit Organizations Since The Onset Of The Country's Prolonged Political Crisis In 2005, Narttana Sakolvittayanon

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2005, nonprofit organizations in Thailand, a transitive country, have experienced survival challenges due to social, economic, and political changes. This study aims to explore the organizational attributes of nonprofit organizations in Thailand that contribute to resilient capacity, which is an ability to survive and continue providing goods and services to fulfill missions when facing challenges. The research questions of this study are what factors have affected the resilience of social welfare nonprofit organizations in Thailand since the onset of the country’s prolonged political crisis in 2005? And to what extent do theories of nonprofit resilience in advanced liberal democracies …

Creating Regression Model For Non-Markov Transition Probability Using Pseudo-Observations, Michael Gray

Dissertations and Theses

A multi-state model is a graphical tool widely used to illustrate a transitional relationship between states in many applications. We will study the transition probabilities of an illness-death model, which is an example of a multi-state model. We will investigate transition probabilities using a counting process approach. Aalen-Johansen estimator is the gold-standard in estimating a transition probability. However, Aalen-Johansen estimator may be biased when the Markov assumption is violated. Therefore, Aalen-Johansen estimator is an unreliable estimator when the Markov assumption is violated. Several papers have published non-parametric estimators that accommodate for non-Markov models using a counting process approach.

Furthermore, there …

Identifying Advantages To Teaching Linear Regression In A Modeling And Simulation Introductory Statistics Curriculum, Kit Harris Clement

Dissertations and Theses

Statistical association is a key facet of statistical literacy: claims based on relationships between variables or ideas rooted in data are found everywhere in media and discourse. A key development in introductory statistics curricula is the use of simulation-based inference, which has shown positive outcomes for students, especially in regards to statistical literacy and conceptual understanding. In this dissertation project, I investigate students from the Change Agents for the Teaching and Learning of STatistics (CATALST) curriculum in activities I designed for learning statistical association and linear regression. First, I analyzed the informal line fitting strategies of CATALST students. Findings suggest …

Humanity In Trauma, Alyssa K. Thompson

University Honors Theses

The main objective of the literature review is to use the trauma-informed care paradigm to argue that the current implementation of trauma-informed care reinforces hierarchies of harm, leading to feelings of moral obligation and moral injury while perpetuating othering. This literature review criticizes trauma-informed care, emphasizing lived experiences against the characteristics trauma-informed care aspires to reflect. The review centers on the broad themes of understanding, universality, and acceptance of the present trauma-informed care paradigm. The critique comes from the silently excluded group of healthcare workers, with a personal perspective from a professional who worked in an urban hospital emergency department …

Care Remittances: Farmworkers' Political Knowledge And Hemispheric Information Practices During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jennifer Martinez-Medina

Dissertations and Theses

Information is the building block of democracy. Yet, dominant political theories assume different groups within the political system acquire, process, and use information similarly, even as the golden age of globalization has sparked new forms of cross-border political exchanges. Despite a flourishing literature by interdisciplinary social scientists, gaps remain in our understanding of how transnational information circuits shape political knowledge and democratic judgments of groups in host and home countries, especially among so-called "information poor" agricultural workers who often live in precarious conditions. Using a mixed-methods analysis based on the community-engaged Oregon COVID-19 Farmworker Study (OR COFS) and interviews with …

Survival Times And Investment Analysis With Dynamic Learning, Zhenzhen Li

Dissertations and Theses

The central statistical problem of survival analysis is to determine and characterize the conditional distribution of a survival time given a history of some observed health markers.

This dissertation contributes to the modeling of such conditional distributions in a setup where the health markers evolve randomly over time in a manner that can be represented by an Ito stochastic process, that is, a stochastic process that can be written as a sum of a time integral of some stochastic process and an Ito integral of some stochastic process, with both integrands subject to certain restrictions.

The random survival time is …

Contextualizing The Role Of Answerers' Gaze Orientation In Turn Taking, Cassidy Moore

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis extends our understanding of the role of gaze orientation in turn taking, answering the following research question: When an answerer withdraws their gaze from a questioner at the completion point of the first turn-constructional unit of their answer, is this a practice for communicating that their answer-turn-so-far is not transition relevant (i.e., that the answerer is not complete with their turn and will continue speaking)? Data are videotapes of 274 information-seeking sequences drawn from 28 dyadic, mundane, English conversations between close friends. The methods are mixed, including conversation analysis and coding for statistical purposes. Data were transcribed for …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet June 2023, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The June 5, 2023 monthly packet includes the June agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meetings held June 5 and 12, 2023.

Uhv-Shear-Force Acoustic Near-Field Microscopy And Its Implementation In The Study Of Confined Mesoscopic Fluids, Theodore Alex Brockman

Dissertations and Theses

The design, construction, and implementation of Shear-force Acoustic Near-Field Microscopy (SANM), operational from ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) to ambient conditions--offering a pristine environment for more reliable characterization the hydrophobic/hydrophilic wetting properties of surfaces--is presented. SANM capitalizes on its sensitivity to the evanescent near-field acoustic emissions from a mesoscopic fluid (confined between the apex of a laterally oscillating tapered nanosized probe and a flat substrate) when subjected to shear motion. This distinct capability provides direct access to the fluid’s viscoelastic response when subjected to shear interactions, in contrast to indirect measurements performed by other standard probe proximity scanning techniques. The entire …

A Policy Proposal For Agricultural Data Governance, Ana Sofía Castellanos Santamaría

Dissertations and Theses

As the digital economy continues to grow and data becomes increasingly important, effective data governance is essential. A data governance framework enables the efficient management, sharing, and integration of data, resulting in better decision-making, increased productivity, and enhanced innovation across industries, including agriculture. However, the agricultural sector in the United States is lagging behind other industries in the adoption of effective data governance practices. Agricultural data governance presents a unique set of challenges due to the wide range of stakeholders involved and the ever-increasing volume of data generated by digital technologies in farming. One key challenge to achieving the benefits …

Romanticism’S Fellow Creatures, Alastair Hunt, Ron Broglio, Katey Castellanos, Mario-Ortiz Robles

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This panel opens up innovative ways of thinking about Romanticism and “the problem of sharing our earth with other creatures.” Over the last couple of decades, the crisis in human relations with animals has deteriorated to the point that it has become increasingly recognized as a constitutive part of the global environmental crisis. Like the climate crisis, the “animal crisis” originates with the emergence of the industrial form of capitalism in Britain around the turn of the nineteenth century. Appreciation of this historical constellation can and should become the basis of a renewed Romantic animal studies. However, reading Romanticism as …

Audible Inhalation As A Practice For Mitigating Systemic Turn-Taking Troubles: A Conjecture, Jeffrey D. Robinson

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extending Jefferson’s analysis of the limited utility of turn-constructional-unit (TCU)-initial particles in managing overlapping talk, this article limits itself to a similar turn-taking context/position in which current speakers bring TCUs to places of possible completion when it is relevant for next speakers to take a turn of talk. This article examines situations in which current speakers continue to audibly inhale in the transition space, arguing that inhalations (a) are pre-beginning actions; (b) bestow a weaker right to speak next than does talk; (c) are not accountable for obscuring next speakers’ talk (if it eventuates); (d) allow for beginning TCUs while …

The Pacific Sentinel, June 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Dan Chilton

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Android Flowers of the Future
• Gary Numan Tours North America
• Emily King, the Queen of Hearts
• Who Protects Us?
• The Landing to Close Its Doors
• The First (& Forgotten) 'R'
• Celebrate the Legacy, Ignore the History
• Donuts & Dao's
• About Town
• What We're Enjoying

Small Business Marketing In The Sports Industry, Cheyenne L. Abbett

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores how small sports businesses can avoid high failure rates by establishing a strategic marketing plan that makes the most of their constrained resources. The current literature on sports marketing strategy examines social media, relationship, and influencer marketing, but is limited in its application to small businesses. The purpose of this thesis is to address and fill that gap. This thesis consists of a literature review of the previously stated topics, best practices that incorporate the findings of this research, and a brief case study of these recommendations in action. Best practices include establishing a greater purpose for …

The Benefits Of Outdoor Education For Students With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Annabelle Winking

University Honors Theses

ADHD diagnoses and pharmaceutical treatment have increased dramatically within this century. However, non-pharmaceutical treatments have not reflected this increase. One area where those diagnosed often struggle the most is within academic settings. This study argues for the benefit of outdoor education for students with ADHD, and suggests the importance of future research on this topic. In this study I examine the recent history of ADHD and evaluate trends in treatment, particularly green space as a form of treatment. These studies show both immediate and long-term benefits within a variety of settings. Within these studies, I identified a research gap in …

Leading For Success: Leader-Member Exchange Relationships And Employee Creative Self-Efficacy, Mary Joy Wytsma

University Honors Theses

In today's competitive and ever-evolving business landscape, creativity has become a major focus for managers, leaders, and organizations. However, there are downsides to making creative employees the end-all goal. Instead, managers and leaders should focus on fostering employee creative self-efficacy via high-quality Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationships. Within team settings, LMX works in tandem with Team-Member Exchange (TMX), and these relationships allow employees to experience positive physiological state, social persuasion, vicarious experience, and mastery experience, the four drivers of self-efficacy. Employees with high levels of creative self-efficacy experience increased creativity, job satisfaction, and motivation, making them major assets to teams and …

Understanding Ubiquitin-Like Signaling At The Host-Pathogen Interface, Danna Eloisa Guzman Gonzalez

University Honors Theses

Research on pathogen intervention and ubiquitin modification has increased over the last few years but a lot is still unknown about ubiquitin-like modifiers (Ubl) and how or if they are modified by pathogens in the same way as Ubiquitin. In this work, two different studies conducted over the course of 2 years are highlighted. The first study focused on purifying and synthesizing four activity based probes in order to study enzymatic activity in the Ubl-modification systems. These probes were reacted with virulence factors isolated from different bacteria and it was concluded that there were unexpected bands formed between some of …

Pfas In News Media: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis, Madison Haley

University Honors Theses

News media analysis allows for a greater understanding of mainstream public concerns throughout time. The history of US news articles covering per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of chemicals posing increasing threats to public health and the environment, demonstrates Americans' awareness and perceptions of these chemicals over time. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analyses of PFAS-related national news articles in 2012-2022, this study discusses media representations and public perceptions of PFAS during the stated period. Results indicate an over 5700% increase in PFAS-related news articles over the 10-year timespan. Further, thematic analysis reveals that PFAS-related news articles are …