Digital Commons Network^™

When I Was A Young Girl: Gender And Race In The Life Archives Of Criminal Transportation, Nick Townsend

University Honors Theses

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the carceral system in England shifted away from corporal punishment and moved towards containing and policing those deemed criminal in different ways. One notable way was transportation, the practice of moving convicts out of the imperial core into a colony. This practice became a way to remove "lesser" populations from England and regulate social behavior while also expanding the British Empire and allowed convicts a new purpose in expanding the carceral state. This developed alongside the broader trends of racialization and colonization in the British Empire, which drew a global color line separating "white" …

Naomi: Learning For Future Possibilities, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

We've published 5 blog posts that present different personas of working learners. These personas are drawn from our interviews with frontline worker learners across the country who are participating in employer-supported learning opportunities. The personas characterize aspects of a set of real people - capturing and blending them in order to create one story that illustrates a broader representation of a participant in an employer-supported educational program or course.

Vestiges Of Propaganda: Postage Stamps Issued By The Third Reich In Poland And The Netherlands During The Second World War, Olivia Phillips

University Honors Theses

This thesis hopes to bridge the gap between philately and history and examines how postage stamps issued by the Third Reich during the Second World War portrayed their colonial and racial policy in the Netherlands and Poland. Through my research where I examine Nazi primary source documents and rely on an expansive discourse community whose focus is communications theory, postal history, and colonial history, I focus on how these stamps were an extension of the Reich’s Ministry for Propaganda. Dutch stamps closely align with German-issued stamps from the same period, through the depiction of hypermasculine men in a rural setting …

E(Raced): Race And Use Of Self Amongst Bipoc Social Workers, Anita Reinette Gooding

Dissertations and Theses

Use of self is defined as the social worker's instrument, and involves an intentional engagement of one's personhood in ways that facilitate client change (Heyt & Sherman, 2005). This dissertation argues that race is one component of the social worker's self that is visible, and that can affect how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) social workers use self in their practice. Using Critical Race Theory, Social Identity Theory and an Interpretive Description methodology, this dissertation engages 27 BIPOC field instructors in semi-structured interviews in order to answer the following research questions: a) What are the components of use …

Diffusion Of Innovation: Investigations Of Technology Advances On A University Campus, Melissa Shaquid Pirie

Dissertations and Theses

This multi paper format dissertation contains three separate but related papers. The three papers focus on the Diffusion of Innovation (Moore, 2014) through investigations of technological advances on a university campus. Each of the three papers highlights the work of faculty and staff who received internal university grant funding aimed at increasing innovation in technology use. The first paper covers a program built to address academic integrity issues through the regular and highly structured use of small group video conferencing as a requirement for all courses. The second paper recounts the process of creating an ePortfolio culture on campus through …

Next Generation Sequencing Identifies Population Structure And Signatures Of Local Adaptation In Red Alder (Alnus Rubra Bong.), Jacob Brent Loveless

Dissertations and Theses

Red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.) is the dominant hardwood tree species in the Pacific Northwest. Red alders are only found in western North America, generally within 200 km of the coast and below 1000 m in elevation--although there are several disjunct populations in the northern Rocky Mountains in Idaho. Commonly a riparian species, the shade intolerant red alder generates most of the leaf litter in the streams and rivers it occupies which has been shown to greatly influence the decomposer communities. This, in turn, has a cascading effect throughout the entire riparian ecosystem greatly influencing multiple levels of the …

Numerical Techniques And Simulations For Studying Various High Power Optical Fiber Amplifiers, Particularly For Ytterbium (Yb+3), And Thulium (Tm+3) Doped Fibers, Tathagata Goswami

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation we present a simplified scalar numerical model, derived from Maxwell's field equations, for the fiber laser amplifier simulations. Maxwell's equations are reduced using a technique called Coupled Mode Theory (CMT).

The reduced model is made more efficient through a new scale model, referred to as an equivalent short fiber, which captures some of the essential characteristics of a longer fiber. The equivalent short fiber can be viewed as a fiber made using artificial (nonphysical) material properties that in some sense compensates for its reduced length. The computations can be accelerated by a factor approximately equal to the …

A Method For Comparative Analysis Of Trusted Execution Environments, Stephano Cetola

Dissertations and Theses

The problem of secure remote computation has become a serious concern of hardware manufacturers and software developers alike. Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) are a solution to the problem of secure remote computation in applications ranging from "chip and pin" financial transactions to intellectual property protection in modern gaming systems. While extensive literature has been published about many of these technologies, there exists no current model for comparing TEEs. This thesis provides hardware architects and designers with a set of tools for comparing TEEs. I do so by examining several properties of a TEE and comparing their implementations in several technologies. …

Open Crime Maps: How Are Police Departments Doing So Far?, Khaing Sandee Lynn

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, some police departments have started providing open crime maps depicting select crime-related data. However, there has been no studies so far evaluating map delivery sources, the type of maps delivered, and why agencies might be doing so. Using a random, stratified sample of 1,677 police departments from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, the current study examines how many police departments provide access to online crime maps as well as how they are delivered (externally or internally) and prevalent map types (dot, density, choropleth, etc.). Furthermore, whether or not agencies provided a justification(s) …

Towards A Theory Of Informal Supply Networks: An Exploratory Case Study Of The Za'atari Refugee Camp, Ismail Abushaikha, Zhaohui Wu, Theodore A. Khoury

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies of humanitarian supply chain operations contribute to efficient system designs for the delivery of goods and services to disaster- and conflict-stricken regions. However, our understanding of what happens to these relief goods and services after they are delivered is quite limited. Using a case study of the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, we develop a theory of informal supply networks, whereby we uncover how refugee-led, informal supply networks emerge in the camp. We find that these supply networks are an aggregate of predominantly illicit—yet legitimate—channels and social relationships that support the economic exchange of goods and services between distinct …

Tellurorhodamine Photocatalysts In Aerobic Oxidation Reactions: Development Of Synthetic Methods And Reaction Mechanisms, Irving D. Rettig

Dissertations and Theses

Aerobic oxidation photocatalysis involves the use of oxygen as an oxidant species, coupled to a light driven catalyst to achieve useful chemical transformations. Catalytic aerobic oxidation reactions can be defined as either oxidase-like, in which O₂ acts as an electron donor/acceptor but is not incorporated into the reaction products, or oxygenase-like where O₂ acts as an electron donor/acceptor and is incorporated into the reaction products. A multitude of inorganic catalysts have been developed that can achieve a wide scope of oxidase-like or oxygenase-like reactivity, however, it is rare for a catalyst to be capable of both. We report …

A Community Of Fear: Emotion And The Hydro-Social Cycle In East Porterville, Michael Egge

Geography Masters Research Papers

Broader governance challenges driving water insecurity globally are well documented in the literature, however the power-laden relationships and emotions that shape water access at the household and community levels are yet to be fully investigated, especially in the context of water consolidation projects. In this article, we examine the role of emotions in mediating access to water and in the production of resource struggles among marginalized communities existing outside of conventional regulatory frameworks. We bring together two relational approaches – the hydro-social cycle and emotional political ecology – to examine water insecurity and how it manifests in the historically disadvantaged …

Neoliberalism, Civic Identity, And Resistance: An Ethnographic Case Study Of A Community Development Organization, Erin Layne Elliott

Dissertations and Theses

Research on the marketization of the nonprofit sector and how it has come to operate in more business-like ways has been well documented in recent years. This research has largely focused on how marketization has pervaded the nonprofit sector, yet little research has been done on how business-like values and modes of acting are manifesting in nonprofits. Even less understood are the impacts marketization may have on foundational civic values in the nonprofit sector. As marketized discourses proliferate, concerns have been raised about threats to nonprofit autonomy and the sector's important civic role. This dissertation aims to fill this gap …

Perceived Value Of Technology Product Features By Crowdfunding Backers: The Case Of 3d Printing Technology On Kickstarter Platform, Nina Chaichi

Dissertations and Theses

Crowdfunding is an activity that gathers funds by drawing on a relatively small contribution from a relatively large number of individuals using the internet. One of the crowdfunding purposes is to fund entrepreneurial ventures. Modern crowdfunding activities--that utilize the internet--go back to 1997 and gained popularity in the music and video community. However, the most common platforms for entrepreneurial activities, including Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, have been established as recently as 2008. Thus the understanding of crowdfunding's dynamic is in its infancy.

Crowdfunding has been studied from various perspectives, primarily focusing on the factors that increase the platform's participation and determinants …

Understanding Financial And Human Resource Capacity Challenges Among Small Nonprofits In Oregon: How To Overcome Challenges Unique To Size And Urban-Rural Divide, Anindita Mukerjee

Dissertations and Theses

Nonprofit and voluntary organizations are part of the political economy that add to the services of public and private sectors by addressing civic interests, participation in democracy and providing social programs that improve quality of life. This sector is mostly comprised of small organizations whose impact is more than their budget size. At the advent of this study, information existed about the needs and capacity challenges of Oregon nonprofits in general but lacked specifics on smaller organizations, especially differentiating the urban rural distinction. The aim of this research was to explore the financial and human resource capacity of small nonprofit …

The Digital Divide And Health: Examining Digital Access As A Social Determinant Of Health, Elizabeth Melissa Withers

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is comprised of three papers that consider ways in which one's level of digital access may impact self-rated health. Data are from multiple years of three separate nationally representative cross-sectional surveys: National Health Interview Survey, General Social Survey, and Health Information National Trends Survey to address the primary overarching research question: Is there an association between digital access and health? The examination of the relationship between digital access and health is situated within a social determinants of health perspective and draws on van Dijk's (2005) causal and sequential model of digital access. Education, income, race and ethnicity, work …

Investigations Into Size And Surface Control Of Silicon Nanocrystals For Improved Optical Properties, James Donald Barnes

Dissertations and Theses

The discovery of visible photoluminescence (PL) from nanocrystalline porous silicon in 1990 led to extensive research into the mechanisms of the emergent properties, and optimization of these properties, for use in applications. The widespread use of silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) in commercial applications is currently limited by three main factors: 1) poor radiative recombination efficiency of the interband transition, 2) instability of the interband photoluminescence, and 3) a lack of scalable methods for producing Si NPs that are both highly crystalline and size monodisperse.

To address these limitations, this dissertation correlates changes in the photoluminescence properties of hydrogen passivated silicon …

Incorporating Conditional Ss-Mean Based Equity Metric In Coverage Based Facility Location Problems, Rohan Sirupa

Dissertations and Theses

A classical maximum coverage facility location problem (MCLP) tries to maximize the coverage by serving all possible demands within the specified coverage radius. Depending on the applications, several families of MCLP variants have been developed - each with its unique set of additional constraints. One specific application is locating Emergency medical service (EMS) units. EMS units such as ambulances or drones with emergency supplies are located using models such as the maximum expected survival location problem (MEXSLP). However, a classical MEXSLP model tends to locate EMS units near densely populated regions, resulting in increased response times for lowly populated regions. …

Maple Lane Asset-Based Community Development, Portland State University. Center For Public Interest Design, Sergio Palleroni, Todd Ferry, Kaylyn Berry, Hannah Lopez, Athena Shepherd, Sean Silverstein

Center for Public Interest Design Projects

A development of Community Development Partners (CDP) and Hacienda Community Development Corporation (Hacienda CDC), the Maple Lane project will address the community’s need for high-quality, affordable housing. In addition, this project aspires to support an intergenerational community for all ages, and an inter-cultural community. The project aims to be a hub for residents and the wider Oregon City community through the provision of meeting spaces and community center for a wide range of programming. The abundant green space will provide an outdoor park and other recreational amenities, at the heart of the site, echoing a Central Park sentiment.

As an …

Tensile Strength Evaluation Of Glulam Connection With Screw Fasteners, Bradley Sharpshair

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Multiple knife plate and external steel plate deep-beam glulam connections were investigated in a series of destructive tests within the Infrastructure Testing and Applied Research laboratory at Portland State University. The goal of these tests was to better understand the failure mode and ultimate load capacity of the large-scale glulam moment connections. Two different types of tests were performed on each connection; one with axial loading, and another loaded in flexure. The first, smaller, axial tests were conducted to inform the later, much larger, bending tests. The results of these tests helped to develop future designs as well as provide …

21st Century Learning Ecosystem For Working Learners, Kathy Harris, Jen Vanek,, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

• What are the experiences of working learners in employer sponsored learning?
• What motivates frontline service workers to participate in employer sponsored learning opportunities, many of which are offered online?
• What factors support working learners’ continued participation and their success?

“This Is Just What We Do”: Phd Students On Becoming Scholars In A Community Of Practice, Linds Roberts

Communications in Information Literacy

Increasingly librarians are interested in how the Community of Practice (CoP) framework can provide a more complete picture of how information literacy practices are influenced by situated and social learning. Doctoral students are socialized into the practices of the academy and gradually take on the identity and work of a scholar in their field. As an illustration of the CoP framework among doctoral students, the author shares data from a qualitative study with a small group of early-career education PhD students who are developing their information literacy skills within their disciplinary and social contexts, using the CoP as a source …

Beyond The Checklist Approach: A Librarian-Faculty Collaboration To Teach The Beam Method Of Source Evaluation, Jenny Mills, Rachael Flynn, Nicole Fox, Dana Shaw, Claire Walker Wiley

Communications in Information Literacy

Evaluating information is an essential skill, valued across disciplines. While librarians and instructors share the responsibility to teach this skill, they need a common framework in order to collaborate to design assignments that give students multiple opportunities to learn. Librarians and First Year Seminar faculty at Belmont University collaborated to design a unit of instruction on source evaluation using the BEAM method. BEAM requires students to apply a use-based approach to evaluation, to read and engage with sources more closely, and to think about how they might use a source for a specific purpose. Structured annotated bibliographies that included BEAM …

Understory Species Increase Project: Investigating The Revegetation Of Native Herbaceous Species From Seed In Urban Forest Fragments, Erin Mcelroy

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Management of urban forest fragments often aims to reduce invasive species and promote native species abundance and diversity. Often, these environments lack natural establishment of native forest species, including herbaceous species that are especially sensitive to site conditions. While herbaceous understory species may represent a small proportion of forest biomass, they perform important functions within forest environments, including nutrient cycling, erosion and runoff control, and providing habitat for wildlife, as well as hosting the greatest biodiversity among other forest strata. However, many restoration projects focus primarily on the revegetation of dominant woody forest species, such as hardwood trees and shrubs. …

Current Stormwater Practices And Future Implementation At Portland State University With The Uncertainty Of Climate Change, Evan Suemori, Alexandra Vargas Quiñones

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Stormwater runoff is one of the most critical environmental issues in urban areas and is only expected to worsen as climate change persists (EPA, 2016). When precipitation events occur, stormwater travels across impervious surfaces collecting soils and pollutants which can negatively impact water quality in receiving waters. Additionally, stormwater has human health impacts, specifically through flooding and the contamination of drinking water. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it has been determined that climate change will increase the frequency, intensity, and/or number of precipitation events in some regions, including the Pacific Northwest, and decrease in others (IPCC, …

Influence Of Climate Change On Forest Fire Occurrence And Distribution Of Sri Lanka And Modeling Of Forest Fire, Mohan Heenatigala

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Forest fire is one of the main causes for forest degradation and deforestation which affect ecosystem services provided by the given landscapes. Weather variables like temperature, wind speed and direction, rainfall, and relative humidity also govern the forest fire regime and vulnerability. On the other hand, forest fuel characteristics, human impacts, population density, forest canopy density, slope, elevation, road density, closeness to the human settlement areas are other factors that determine the forest fire impact and potential of damage. Annually, 100 to 2500 hectares of forest resources are damaged due to forest fires in Sri Lanka. From the past few …

Street Art: The Gallery Of The City, Mia Pinzelik

University Honors Theses

This project will look to better understand the culture and community of Portland street art, the unique aspects of the art form, the kinds of people participating in street art culture, the difficulties they face, and what defines this specific Portland subculture in 2020. The goal of this project is to compile this research into a board game illustrating a general overview of the process and experiences of street artists in Portland.

Parking Spaces To People Places, Shawn Canny, Natalie Knowles, Arva Hussain, Ann Le, Megan Doherty, Elizabeth Cox

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In partnership with the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS), we sought to better understand how off-street parking space could accommodate economic activity in East Portland, the city’s most economically and racially diverse neighborhood. We focused on two different neighborhoods based on equity considerations and interest: the Rosewood and the Jade Districts. The goal was to better understand these areas with granularity but also to juxtapose them looking for similarities and differences that could guide our recommendations for using parking spaces and serving the community. This project was exploratory in nature. Our research questions and resulting deliverables were dynamic. …

The First-Year Library Instruction One-Shot: A Place For Caring, Leah Morin

Communications in Information Literacy

An academic librarian providing one-shot instruction sessions to first-year students is uniquely positioned to enact a feminist ethic of care in the classroom. First-year university students are particularly in need of caring. The library instruction session is often their introduction to and first impression of the library and an opportunity to inspire a relationship with the librarian and library. The instruction session, then, should be seen as an open door to a future relationship between librarian and student. The librarian is not the professor and, therefore, has the freedom to focus a primary learning objective on caring.

Agency, Sense Of Place, And Knowledge On The Zumwalt Prairie: A Social Study Of Place-Based Conservation And Resilience, Dana Elyse Hellman

Dissertations and Theses

Shifting and often diminishing environmental conditions, due to climate change, resource loss, and ecosystem degradation, pose a significant concern to both social and ecological systems. The field of conservation science has attempted to address environmental threats through varying approaches, transitioning from fortress conservation and complete human exclusion to community-based and co-managed models which incorporate human actors and social dimensions in the conservation process. The latest iteration of conservation scholarship, place-based conservation, is deeply rooted in interdisciplinary, social scientific thinking, and calls for significant practitioner engagement with local knowledge, practices, social constructions, and place meanings. It is an approach which emphasizes …