Digital Commons Network^™

The Intersecting Association Of Speaking A Non-Dominant Language And Lower Healthcare Access On Self-Reported Depression Among U.S. Adults: A Cross Sectional Study Using Nhanes Data (2015-March 2020), Vincenzo J. Cornacchione, Corey Linver

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Objective: This analytic study examined the joint and independent associations between language preferences and healthcare access on moderate to severe depression among non-institutionalized adults living in the U.S., using data from the 2015 to March 2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study design, we analyzed a nationally representative data set comprised of 11,051 participants. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the joint and independent associations between our dual exposures and moderate to severe depression, adjusting for key demographic variables based on our theoretical framework. We created categorical measures of preferred language (speaking …

Acompañamiento And Assessment: Examples Of Community Building Through Assignments In A First-Year Class, Shaianne Tran, Hector Amezola, Dalissa Rodriguez, Morgan Baird, Jennifer Fuentes Luna, Alejandra Vazquez, Fattemah Zia, David Peterson Del Mar

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

This collection of seven diverse assignments written by students from under-represented communities for a first-year inquiry class on immigration, migration, and belonging illustrates how instructors can facilitate a sense of belonging or acompañamiento through course assignments, assessment instruments. Each of the student authors provides a retrospective introduction on how their personal reflection, essay, or research project helped them to make personal connections within or outside of the class. The instructor provides a brief introduction to the concept of acompañamiento and why it is particularly important for New Majority college students.

Inciting Action By Analyzing Pachirat, Rhi N. Soto

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

The book Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight by Timothy Pachirat explores “the politics of sight”, or the intentional invisibilizing or transparentizing of repugnant acts in order to encourage or limit them, through the case study of a beef slaughter house in Omaha, NE. While also utilizing the politics of sight, Pachirat hopes for great political and social change concerning the immoral acts that happen at meat plants through a radical act of transparency: a narrative ethnography. Writers with similar goals of great change in social and political issues can make use of Pachirat’s techniques, which …

"I Know Who I Am": Draw-And-Tell Conversations With Gender-Creative Children, Eline Leemans Lenne

Dissertations and Theses

A growing number of children identify in various gender-creative ways, likely due to broader social awareness and affirmation of transgenderism. Gender-creative children face higher risks for adverse social, academic, mental health, and healthcare outcomes compared to non-transgender peers. Support from loved ones along with guidance from pediatric providers can mitigate poor outcomes and ensure that gender-creative children live healthy and happy lives. Young gender-creative children's perspectives about the aforementioned topics are markedly absent from the literature, which instead highlights adolescent and adult proxy perspectives.

In this participatory arts-based study anchored by a constructivist epistemology and informed by post-structuralist, queer, and …

Pathos, Spring 2025, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Adriana Stanzione

An Equitable End: Meeting The Needs Of Queer Families Within Deathcare, Nyssa Peck

University Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to explore end-of-life care experiences of queer families, focusing on interactions with palliative and hospice caregivers. Currently, end-of-life (EOL) practitioners in institutional and medical care settings are often poorly equipped to interact with queer families due to inadequate cultural training models, personal biases, and ignorance regarding the queer identities of their clients. This manifests in substantial inequities within deathcare systems regarding the accommodation of the unique needs of queer familial structures. Drawing upon multidisciplinary scholarship, I sought to examine these needs, which diverge from that of heterosexual families due to queer families’ absence of legal protections and …

Tiered Clinician Vaccine Communication Strategy To Improve Childhood Vaccine Uptake: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial., Douglas J. Opel, Jeffrey D. Robinson, Chuan Zhou, Kathryn Colborn, Heather Spielvogle, Anna Furniss, Christine Spina, Cathryn Perreira, Sean T. O'Leary

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

No experimental studies to date have tested the effectiveness of clinician communication strategies to improve vaccine uptake among children of parents with negative vaccine attitudes.

Beyond The Bickering: Examining Event, Victim, And Offender Characteristics For Sibling Abuse Incidents In Oregon, Isabella M. Starr

University Honors Theses

Sibling violence (SV) is the most prevalent form of intrafamilial and domestic violence, yet it remains underrecognized and lacks the systematic attention given to other forms of family violence. Often minimized or misclassified as typical sibling rivalry, SV can inflict serious and lasting physical, emotional, and psychological harm on its victims. This study explores the characteristics of sibling violence incidents reported to law enforcement in Oregon between 2016 and 2023, using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Through an analysis of 5,793 single-victim, single-offender incidents, the research examines demographic patterns among victims and offenders, incident dynamics, and typological …

Digital Child Labor Exploitation In Sharenting: Proposing Legislative Solutions For Enhanced Child Protection, Joana Guzman Gonzalez

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores the implications of sharenting -- the practice of sharing children's information on mass media--raises urgent concerns about child safety and potential human rights violations -- and the exploitation of children in digital spaces, focusing on the risks of privacy, safety and mental health pose by the rise of kidfluencers – children influencers under the age of 18 – and family vlog channels. Through a comprehensive literature review, the research examines children's online presence's emotional, legal, and societal impacts, drawing from case studies such as Sheri Franke, Wren Eleanor, Ryan Kaji, and JoJo Siwa. The analysis reveals a …

Disrupting The Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence Of Prosecution And Abolitionist Feminist Approaches To Social Care Work, Sid P. Jordan, Emily Thuma, Aylaliyah Assefa Birru, Deirdre Wilson, Romarilyn Ralston, Norma Cumpian, Joseph Hankins

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The vast majority of people in U.S. women’s prisons are survivors of interpersonal violence, a pattern that organizers and advocates have referred to as the abuse-to-prison pipeline. This article critically examines criminal prosecution from the perspectives of survivors of interpersonal violence who faced long prison sentences in California. In-depth interviews and group discussions were generated through a participatory process at a gathering to launch the University of California Sentencing Project, a partnership with the community-based organization California Coalition for Women Prisoners. The twenty-two formerly incarcerated participants had collectively spent more than 300 years imprisoned. Drawing on their lived experiences spanning …

Geotechnical Centrifuge Test Of A Pile-Supported Wharf In Silt (Test Aep01), Andrew Earl Parrott

Dissertations and Theses

There have been many documented cases in the U.S. and elsewhere of failure to ports, wharves, and bridges during seismic events due to liquefaction of soils adjacent to foundations. The major design guidelines for surface and maritime transportation structures, such as those offered in ASCE 61-14, Port of Anchorage Seismic Design Manual (POA 2017), AASHTO (2020), Caltrans (2012), and many others, differ considerably on the recommendations for combining the expected inertial and kinematic loads on the pile system. This knowledge gap becomes wider for pile foundations embedded in low plasticity silt, as varying opinions exist on the appropriate characterization of …

College Outcomes For Young Adults With And Without Learning Disabilities And Adhd: Formal-Disability-Programming And Informal-Disability-Supports, Dara R. Shifrer, Rachel Springer, Hannah Sean Ellefritz, Ned Tilbrook

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Inequalities by disability status in college outcomes contribute to inequalities throughout adulthood in multiple domains. As the share of students with learning disabilities and/or ADHD increases on college campuses, research is needed on how best to support these undergraduates, both through formal and informal means. We integrate the social and medical models of disability with data on nearly 17,000 young adults in the US, who typically finished high school in 2013, and find that formal-disability-programming relates negatively to college enrollment but has no apparent bearing on college persistence. Among youth with similar sociodemographic backgrounds and comparable end of high school …

Between Fire And Water: Miyazawa Kenji's Reimagining Of Opposites In Ginga Tetsudō No Yoru, Taishi Neilsen

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores how Japanese writer Miyazawa Kenji playfully uses opposites and binaries to create thematic richness in his famous children's story Ginga tetsudō no yoru (Night on the Milky Way Railroad). Despite being a children's book, the text works with mature themes such as loneliness, grief, and purpose, themes which are elevated through Kenji's idiosyncratic stylings. Through a close reading of the original Japanese text, the author isolates moments where Kenji conveys his Nichiren Buddhist worldview as part of his proselytizing mission, as well as moments that increase thematic richness, resulting in a multifaceted text that continues …

Investigating Key Structures In Protective Scenes For Llms, Eben M. Weisman

University Honors Theses

This research delves into the realm of "protective scenes" within Large Language Models (LLMs), exploring their impact on bias mitigation, deception, and context preservation. The study investigates the use of roleplay prompting human-like behavior and reasoning in LLMs, focusing on the Character-LLM framework's concept of protective scenes with graduated levels of protection. By combining insights from psychology, cognitive science, and computational analysis, this research aims to develop a framework for understanding how protective scenes influence roleplay performance in LLMs, ultimately contributing to the development of more reliable and ethical AI systems.

The Impact Of Covid-19 On The United States Higher Education System, Phoenix Daniel Van Wormer

University Honors Theses

In the spring of 2020, colleges across the United States rapidly transitioned to online/remote learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Since then, online and remote learning have evolved into an integral component of higher education. This thesis examines the extent to which COVID-19-mandated remote and online learning impacted students pursuing higher education in the United States. By utilizing research that compares academic structures before and after the pandemic, I demonstrate how the shift to online and remote learning has changed teaching and learning methods. I also evaluate the impact of these changes on student performance and engagement, with particular focus …

From Farm To Friend: Fostering Compassion Toward Farmed Animals Through Design, Natalie Kosmos

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores how human compassion for farmed animals can be fostered through design. By analyzing the existing language, imagery, and social norms surrounding animal commodification, the research highlights the root of the issue: how humans perceive farmed animals in relation to themselves. Understanding how humans view and think about farmed animals is important for creating a message that disrupts these existing norms. The culmination of this thesis is a campaign, "From Farm to Friend" which is designed to be approachable and informative, encouraging the audience to have compassion for farmed animals and change their perception, from farm--to friend.

Working Paper No. 89, Towards A Veblenian View Of The Digital Realm, Tanner Weber

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that Thorstein Veblen’s writings offered insights that could assist us in understanding the digital realm in contemporary times. Through advancing his thinking for dealing with the instincts of idle curiosity and workmanship, in particular, Veblen provided an understanding of capital as technologies, especially, that should be valued as contributions to the common and joint stocks of knowledge. Back in his day, Veblen’s understanding of capital, ownership, and private property offered ways for us to think of some of the potential usages of technology as well as a range of possibilities for sabotage. What …

Signifying Improvement: Reform Symbols As Discursive Practice In School Improvement Plans, Madhu Narayanan, Matthew S. Mccluskey

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

School Improvement Plans (SIPs) have been shown to be generally of poor quality and written more as acts of compliance than efforts at genuine reform. This raises the question: if SIPs are ineffective at improving schools, what is their larger purpose? In this conceptual paper, we argue that SIPs are discursive sites where schools can signal their adherence to ostensibly proven and acceptable models of reform. They do so through the use of reform symbols, discursive markers that signal legitimized organizational change through the adoption of accepted modes of improvement. We illustrate this concept by showing how a variety of …

Working Paper No. 90, Social Hierarchies In The Music Industry And Thorstein Veblen's Understanding Of Institutions, Citlactli Carrera López

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that Thorstein Veblen’s understanding of institutions could be used to offer insights into social hierarchies found within the music industry. Institutions, as viewed by Veblen, are structures that are influenced by and extensions of habits that provide an understanding of human behavior. Society creates standards which determine the way that the population operates, setting levels of what is considered as correct and incorrect behaviors. Institutions have a way of altering the way society is governed, setting expectations and new mindsets of how people should interact with each other. Through the introduction of new technologies, these …

Financial Metrics As Predictors Of Financial Vulnerability And Nonprofit Failure, Yossi Haimberg

Dissertations and Theses

Studying nonprofit's risk factors for financial vulnerability and possible demise is important because of the negative social consequences for both the failed organization and its stockholders. Financial vulnerability is a concern shared by all nonprofit's stakeholders as poor financial health affects nonprofit's ability to fulfill its mission, sustain its operations, and in many cases may result in a nonprofit demise. Advance knowledge on financial vulnerability has significant implications for nonprofit's leaders to develop corrective strategies to prevent failure.

Nonprofit scholars such as Tuckman and Chang, Greenlee, Hager, and Searing have contributed notable benchmarks in the field of nonprofit vulnerability, by …

Urban Beavers At The Crossroads: How Ecological Knowledge, Sociodemographic, And Spatial Context Shape Public Perception And Coexistence Preferences, Matthew Guziejka

Dissertations and Theses

Urban beavers demonstrate synurbization by adapting to urban environments, offering ecological benefits such as biodiversity enhancement and flood mitigation, while also occasionally conflicting with infrastructure. This study examines how ecological knowledge, sociodemographics, and spatial context influence public perceptions and management preferences for urban beavers in the Tualatin River watershed, Oregon.

A voluntary survey of 176 participants from peri-urban areas assessed demographic characteristics, ecological knowledge, and attitudes toward management approaches. Spatial factors, such as proximity to watercourses and green spaces, were also analyzed. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore relationships between these factors and management preferences. Political orientation was significantly …

Working Paper No. 88, Algorithms And Thorstein Veblen’S ‘Machine Process’, Eunji Jang

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that the ‘machine process’ which Thorstein Veblen introduced into the Economics literature back in 1904, exhibits similarities to algorithms that are readily found in contemporary times--more than one hundred years on. In The Theory of Business Enterprise [1904] (2005), Veblen defines the machine process as a system that prioritizes efficiency, standardization, and automation. Relatedly, this inquiry argues that algorithms are based upon similar principles and exhibit similar tendencies that yield similar outcomes. Additionally, this inquiry explores the institutional role of algorithms, elaborating upon how their increasing prevalence and solidification might serve to enhance efficiency in …

Accessible Bike Map Design: A Review And Critique Of Portland’S Bike Maps, Zachary Cheyney

Geography Masters Research Papers

Urban bike maps can serve as key tools for route planning and navigation for prospective cyclists, providing both general information (such as landmarks and natural features) and cycling specific information (such as bike lane infrastructure types and cycling amenities). Despite this, there is little professional guidance or academic research on best practices for bike map design. Potential guidance should consider the full range of potential cyclists, including disabled cyclists who have often been left out of cycling policy discussions. In this paper, I begin by discussing 3 case studies on participatory mapping methodologies with disabled participants in order to generate …

Risk Factors For Substance Use Among Serious And Violent Offenders Undergoing Reentry, Elizabeth Bozarth

University Honors Theses

Formerly incarcerated individuals often experience an intensely chaotic and stressful reentry environment, riddled with barriers and challenges that make them more susceptible to substance use and other risky behaviors. This literature review focuses on the most prevalent and pervasive risk factors for substance use among serious and violent offenders undergoing reentry. By examining research published within the last decade on serious and violent offenders in the United States, several major themes were identified: social bonds, housing and employment, mental health, and surveillance and addiction treatment. The results showed that risk factors for substance use are deeply embedded in ex-offenders' social …

Exploring Health Equity With Culturally Specific Providers Of Permanent Supportive Housing, Judith Solomon

University Honors Theses

Chronic homelessness is an important public health issue. Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is a promising opportunity for transitioning people experiencing homelessness into housing, however there remain unaddressed racial inequities in service provision and outcomes. The aim of this study is to better understand the role of culturally specific (CS) providers of PSH in improving health equity. I analyzed interviews with CS PSH providers for themes related to health and healthcare. Providers spoke about the importance of connecting clients to healthcare. Providers stressed the importance of honesty and lived experience, highlighting the strong sense of responsibility to the community. Providers also …

Indigenous Futures: Decolonizing Conservation And Restoring Ecological Sovereignty, Jasmine Beach

University Honors Theses

This study examines how members of Indigenous-led conservation organizations perceive the ecological and social implications of colonial conservation ideologies in the context of contemporary grassroots strategies. By analyzing the ongoing impact of conservation frameworks in Kenya, this research highlights the role of Indigenous-led initiatives in advancing sustainable, community-driven alternatives. Using a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, which integrates Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with Western scientific methods, the study employs qualitative, semi-structured interviews with leaders from Zawadisha, KENVO, Wildlife Works, and CER-Kenya. Findings indicate that these organizations, particularly those led by women, actively restore biodiversity, enhance climate resilience, and challenge exclusionary conservation policies. …

Neural Visual Synthesis For Graphics, 4d Gaussians And Videos, Zhan Li

Dissertations and Theses

Efficient visual synthesis has played an indirect yet important role in the development of neural networks. Graphics processing units (GPUs) were initially designed for visual synthesis tasks such as rendering graphics. However, their parallel computing capabilities later made GPUs the ideal hardware for training neural networks. Since neural networks have greatly benefited from GPUs, a compelling question arises: How can neural networks, in turn, improve efficient visual synthesis?

Existing visual synthesis methods still require improvement for higher efficiency. For example, Monte Carlo rendering takes over 15 minutes to generate a megapixel frame at a high-quality setting on a GPU, as …

Characterizing Rainfall Variability Within A Series Of Storms Over Northern California In February 2017, Parker Jan Malek

Dissertations and Theses

In February 2017, a series of storms with associated atmospheric rivers (ARs) made landfall in the US state of California, dropping large amounts of precipitation over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and their western foothills. The rainfall from these ARs, long, narrow bands of water vapor that transport large amounts of water vapor from the tropics to the mid-latitudes, instigated the near-failure of the Oroville Dam located at the southeastern edge of the Feather watershed outside the city of Oroville in the state's Central Valley. This case study provides a synoptic and mesoscale diagnosis of the drivers of rainfall pulses that …

Special Delivery: Special District Use Of Collaboration To Solve Challenges, Kelly Irene Fahl Sherbo

Dissertations and Theses

As the special district sector continues to increase in number across the U.S., understanding their role in public governance increases in value both to practitioners and academia alike. The state of the academic literature on special districts does not yet reflect the large size and importance of the sector and has been severely limited by available data, mainly coming from the U.S. Census Bureau. Existing research has focused on broad descriptions of the field of special districts, some studies focus on policy and political effects; but scant research analyzes behavior within and among special districts, particularly with their public entity …

Influence Of Inselbergs On Bat Diversity In Afrotropical Ecosystems, Amanda Lee Grunwald

Dissertations and Theses

Humans are altering biological communities on local to global scales, driving profound changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. However, significant gaps and biases in biodiversity data hinder our understanding of ecosystem interactions, making it challenging to develop effective, data-driven policies to protect remaining biodiversity. Bats, the second most species-rich groups of mammals, have a global distribution, and perform a broad array of vital ecosystem functions. Their diversity peaks in the tropics, where they often constitute more than 50% of mammal species diversity. The Afrotropics host substantial bat diversity, yet have historically been perceived as having lower species richness compared to …