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Water Quality Model For South Slough, Coos Bay, Oregon, Holly Kay Juza

Dissertations and Theses

The South Slough Estuary is located off Coos Bay along the southern coast of Oregon. It is divided into two channels that meet and continue to Coos Bay at the Charleston Harbor. There are six major contributing streams to South Slough. After rainfall events, the level of coliform bacteria in the slough increases because of stream bacteria loading. This is due to cattle grazing in the drainage areas, failed septic systems from private homes, and sewage sludge applied to the County landfill, which drains into the slough. The Oregon Health Division has enforced a Sanitation Management Plan for Commercial Shellfish …

A Hydrologic Analysis Of Government Island, Oregon, Scott Gregory Bittinger

Dissertations and Theses

Government Island, located in the Columbia River approximately 16 km (10 mi) upstream of the confluence with the Willamette River, is a wetland mitigation site prompted by expansion of the southwest quadrant of Portland International Airport. The purpose of the study is to predict water levels in two enclosed lowland areas, Jewit Lake and Southeast Pond, based on levels of the Columbia River, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. Mitigation is intended to convert 1.13 km² (237 acres) of seasonally flooded wetland to 1.27 km² (267 acres) of semi-permanently flooded wetland and seasonally flooded wetland.

Flooding of the wetland is most …

The Effect Of A Physician's Pronunciation On Nurses' Perceptions Of The Physician's Medical Competency, Laura Anne Horani

Dissertations and Theses

Although many researchers have studied language attitudes in the last three decades, none of the studies have been conducted in the hospital setting, where there are more serious consequences for those working with patients being labeled linguistically "incompetent," as charges of incompetence in language are apt to lead to charges of incompetence in other areas of mastery as well (e.g., Ryan, 1983). This study examines the attitudes of a sample of nurses from three Portland-area hospitals towards nonnative English speaking physicians. The subjects, 156 medical-surgical nurses, listened to three anonymous audiotaped physicians who were from three different ethnic backgrounds: American, …

The Effect Of The Ideology Of Motherhood On Women, Shari A. Burke

Dissertations and Theses

The ideology of motherhood in the United States makes it seem as though motherhood is a natural role for women. The ideology holds mothers solely responsible for the well being of their children. Combined with the ideology of blaming the victim, the ideology of motherhood causes a great deal of guilt in women as mothers cannot possibly live up to the unrealistic expectations set up in the culture.

In this study, I have used two case studies to illustrate the impact of the ideology of motherhood on the lives of these particular women. Utilizing the theories of Michel Foucault and …

The Parser Converter Loader: An Implementation Of The Computational Chemistry Output Language (Ccol), Donald Randall Abel

Dissertations and Theses

A necessity of managing scientific data is the ability to maintain experimental legacy information without continually modifying the applications that create and use that information. By facilitating the management of scientific data we hope to give scientists the ability to effectively use additional modeling applications and experimental data. We have demonstrated that an extensible interpreter, using a series of stored directives, allows the loading of data from computational chemistry applications into a generic database. Extending the interpreter to support a new application involves supplying a list of directives for each piece of information to be loaded. This research confirms that …

Authorizing The Reader: Narrative Construction In Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country Of The Pointed Firs And Willa Cather's My ÁNtonia, Cheri Buck-Perry

Dissertations and Theses

Although Willa Cather's My Antonia and Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs have been highly regarded by numerous literary critics, neither text conforms to conventional expectations for narrative content or structure. Episodic in construction, the novels lack such traditional narrative ingredients as conflict, action, drama, and romance. Furthermore, explicit connections between episodes and stories related within the narratives are not drawn for the reader.

Formalist and structuralist critics have approached the problem of structure in Cather and Jewett's works by employing conventional literary tools of analysis, by "unearthing" the narrative elements that we as readers and critics …

From Promised Lands To Promised Landfill: The Iconography Of Oregon's Twentieth-Century Utopian Myth, Jeffry Lloyd Uecker

Dissertations and Theses

The state of Oregon often has been viewed as a utopia. Figures of speech borrowed from the romantic sublime, biblical pilgrimage, economic boosterism, and millenialist fatalism have been used to characterize it. The visual arts also have responded to Oregon's utopian myth. During the nineteenth century, the landscape was a primary focus for utopian art. In the twentieth century, past human achievements, recreation, agriculture, and industry have joined the environment as themes which inspire utopian imagery.

The objective of this study is to demonstrate that twentieth-century art that responds to Oregon's utopian myth has given rise to an iconography which …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet May 1995, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The May 1995 Monthly packet includes the May agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held April 1995.

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

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: Engineering education has changed and grown under the leadership of retiring dean Chik Erzurumlu; a land of stunning contrasts and uses, the Columbia River Gorge is the home of a bold experiment in land-use planning; what does Washington State University’s new 348-acre campus in Vancouver mean for PSU?; Kathleen Cornett ’75 has made the needs of Oregonians her business; a group of citizen volunteers are serving as sentinels for Oregon’s lakes; a week-long retrospective of the 1970 PSU student protest is planned this may; and more.

The Effects Of Ear Canal Pressure Variation On Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions, Jodi L. Head

Dissertations and Theses

The middle ear system is a vital component in the propagation mechanism of otoacoustic emissions. As such, investigation of the effect of variation in middle ear impedance on the measurement of emissions is warranted.

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) have gained recognition as a means of gaining frequency specific information on auditory function. As the effects of changes in middle ear impedance will vary as a function of frequency, a clear definition of the relationship between middle ear impedance and DPOAE amplitude across the frequency spectrum is needed.

Twenty adults (ages 20-37) with normal hearing and normal middle ear function …

An Examination Of The English Vocabulary Knowledge Of Adult English-For-Academic-Purposes Students: Correlation With English Second-Language Proficiency And The Validity Of Yes/No Vocabulary Tests, Robert Scott Fetter

Dissertations and Theses

The importance given to vocabulary in second language instruction and in theories of second language acquisition has increased greatly in the last fifteen years. It is thus important for second language teachers/researchers to have valid, useful methods of assessing the vocabulary needs and vocabulary knowledge of their students as well as valid and useful methods of assessing the efficacy of various methods and techniques of teaching and learning vocabulary.

This study examines the usefulness and validity of a relatively new type of checklist vocabulary test method known as the 'YES/NO' method. In the YES/NO method, nonsense words are listed together …

Insoluble Ambiguity: Criticism And The Structure Of The Frame Narrative In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James, Cecilia Rosenow

Dissertations and Theses

Since its publication in 1898, The Turn of the Screw has been the focus of diverse critical interpretation. It has reflected shifts in critical theory that include the Freudian, psychoanalytic, mythological, structuralist, reader-response, linguistic, and new-historical schools.

The majority of critical interpretations have focused on the governess's narrative and have excluded the prologue, or frame narrative, that begins the novella. The critics who did examine the prologue overlooked James's departure from the traditional use of frame narration and the importance of the structure of the frame in creating a text of insoluble ambiguity.

James departed from traditional frame narration in …

Improved Finite Analytic Methods For Solving Advection-Dominated Transport Equation In Highly Variable Velocity Field, Wei Cuifeng

Dissertations and Theses

Solute transport studies frequently rely on numerical solutions of the classical advection-diffusion equation. Unfortunately, solutions obtained with traditional finite difference and finite element techniques typically exhibit excessive numerical diffusion or spurious oscillation when advection dominates, especially when velocity field is highly variable.

One recently developed technique, the finite analytic method, offers an attractive alternative. Finite analytic methods utilize local analytic solutions in discrete elements to obtain the algebraic representations of the governing partial differential equations, thus eliminating the truncation error in the finite difference and the use of approximating functions in the finite element method. The finite analytic solutions have …

An Analysis Of Socioeconomic Effects On Scrap Paper Recycling Participation, Sara Phyllis Zimmerman

Dissertations and Theses

In the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan region, almost 16% of the paper products discarded are recoverable mixed grade scrap paper. By targeting recycling campaigns at people who tend not to recycle, participation and recovery rates may be raised. This study attempts to determine if households with greater income and education levels tend to participate in scrap paper recycling more than those with lower levels. Ten areas in Portland, each with 125 households were selected as the sample to represent the population of Portland. Data was collected about each household's recycling participation rates and socioeconomic characteristics. Statistical tests found that people who …

Phytoplankton In Mt. St. Helens Lakes, Washington, Cynthia Fay Baker

Dissertations and Theses

Phytoplankton communities in fifteen lakes in the Mt. St. Helens area were surveyed to assess the abundance and species present. Eleven of the lakes were inside the blast zone of the 1980 eruption and four were located outside the blast zone as a comparison. The hypothesis is that lakes will cluster together based on the algal species present and that some algae will be correlated with certain environmental conditions. A cluster analysis was performed to determine if the lakes would group together based on algal abundance. There did not appear to be any distinct clustering among the study lakes, but …

Germany, Great Britain And The Rashid Ali Al-Kilani Revolt Of Spring 1941, James Christian Scott

Dissertations and Theses

There are few events in the history of humankind which have been more compelling than the Second World War (1939-1945). Unfortunately, most of what transpired during this period of history stands obscured by events such as D-Day, Kursk, and Midway, all happenings which popular history has been more than happy to dwell upon.

This study's intent is to, with the use of primary materials, analyze one of the more "obscured" happenings of the Second World War, the Rashid Ali al-Kilani Revolt of April and May 1941. Central to this work is an assessment of the policy responses of both Great …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet April 1995, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The April 1995 Monthly packet includes the April agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held March 1995.

Automatic Synthesis Of Vlsi Layout For Analog Continuous-Time Filters, David Lyle Robinson

Dissertations and Theses

Automatic synthesis of digital VLSI layout has been available for many years. It has become a necessary part of the design industry as the window of time from conception to production shrinks with ever increasing competition. However, automatic synthesis of analog VLSI layout remains rare.

With digital circuits, there is often room for signal drift. In a digital circuit, a signal can drift within a range before hitting the threshold which triggers a change in logic state. The effect of parasitic capacitances for the most part, hinders the timing margins of the signal, but not its functionality. The logic functionality …

An Exploration Of The Value Of Future Tesol Teachers Reflecting On Their Pasts As Language Learners, Sarah Elizabeth Lawrence

Dissertations and Theses

Virtually all future teachers of ESL/EFL have been foreign- or second-language learners themselves. However, reflection on their own past language-learning experiences is usually not integrated into the coursework of professional TESOL preparation programs and there has been little published research in TESOL in which students in professional TESOL preparation programs reflect on their past language learning experiences. The purpose of this research was to explore the effects on TESOL Methods students of revisiting a past language-learning experience.

The subjects were students in a TESOL Methods class. This study examined an assignment given to these students to write a short "language …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet March 1995, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The March 1995 Monthly packet includes the March agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held February 1995.

Motion Picture Exhibition And The Development Of A Middle-Class Clientele: Portland, Oregon, 1894-1915, James Bruce Labosier

Dissertations and Theses

For about the first fifteen years after its commercial introduction motion picture entertainment throughout the United States was supported almost entirely by the mass of urban industrial workers, immigrants and their families. Beginning a few years before 1910 motion pictures began acquiring regular support from a limited element of the more affluent citizens until by the end of 1916 they constituted motion pictures' primary audience. This paper examines the audience development and conversion as it occurred in the downtown theaters of Portland, Oregon. Motion pictures were shown to two diverse audiences in Portland during the 1890s, regularly on a mass …

Silence: A Comparison Of Japanese And U.S. Interpretation, Mimi Murayama

Dissertations and Theses

It is commonly argued that silence is an important Japanese communication strategy, with the goal of making oneself understood without words; on the other hand, in the U.S., silence tends to be filled by speaking, and speaking up clearly and the facilitation of talking is preferred. However, our knowledge about how silence is interpreted in the U.S. and Japan is weak and based on anecdotal evidence. Therefore, this study examines how people in the U.S. and Japan interpret silence according to contexts, examining what kinds of social rules underlie their interpretation. Interpretation is guided by how people connect ideas. One …

Zooplankton Community Structure In Lakes Near Mt. St. Helens, Wa, Larry Duane Scharnberg

Dissertations and Theses

Eighteen lakes around Mt. St. Helens (MSH) were sampled for zooplankton from September '92 until September '94. Samples were enumerated and identified to the species level in most cases. Standard deviation and t-tests were performed to determine the precision of enumeration methods and replication of duplicate tows. Palatability indexes based upon predator preferences were developed and coupled with length-frequency analyses as indicators of predation pressure. The weighted means of the summer samples were then subjected to cluster analysis in an attempt to categorize lakes with respect to zooplankton community structure. Lastly, the community compositions and abundances of MSH lakes were …

Redefining The Suburban Ideal: An Analysis Of Single-Family Residential Densities In Washington County, Oregon, David Morgan Coughlan

Dissertations and Theses

The United States' suburban landscape has historically been characterized by low-density residential development. This pattern was shaped by the abundance of developable land in nineteenth century America, and by the emergence of a suburban ideal which romanticized the concept of a spacious home set in a private, garden setting. For many homebuyers, the realization of the suburban ideal was made possible by continual improvements in intraurban transportation. The commuter rail, the electric streetcar, and ultimately the automobile increased the commuting range of inner-city workers, and contributed to the continual expansion of development on the periphery of cities. In recent years, …

Tree Restructuring Approach To Mapping Problem In Cellular Architecture Fpgas, Narahari Ramineni

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis presents a new technique for mapping combinational circuits to Fine-Grain Cellular-Architecture FPGAs. We represent the netlist as the binary tree with decision variables associated with each node of the tree. The functionality of the tree nodes is chosen based on the target FPGA architecture. The proposed tree restructuring algorithms preserve local connectivity and allow direct mapping of the trees to the cellular array, thus eliminating the traditional routing phase. Also, predictability of the signal delays is a very important advantage of the developed approach. The developed bus-assignment algorithm efficiently utilizes the medium distance routing resources (buses). The method …

The Biogeochemistry Of Lakes In The Mount St. Helens Blast Zone, Victor Lee Menting

Dissertations and Theses

Dilution and ash weathering are the most important processes controlling the ion chemistry of lakes in the Mount St. Helens blast zone. Gibbs' models indicated total dissolved solids were decreasing as a result of dilution from high precipitation and runoff and the lakes plot in the rock weathering dominated region. Plots of theoretical dilution curves indicated a decline in ion concentrations as a result of dilution. Ion concentrations followed the exponential decline predicted by the dilution curve, although concentrations were higher than predicted by the curve. Increased concentrations were a result of the rapid weathering of ash in basins and …

Design Of A Digital Compensation Filter, Nader Fakhry

Dissertations and Theses

The 24-bit Motorola DSP56001 processor will be used in combination with the DSP56ADC16 and the PCM-56 to design a good FIR compensation filter. Our objective is to digitize the input analog signal, and to compensate for the attenuation in the magnitude response of the digital sine wave. Two different experiments will be conducted, a hands on approach, and a simulation program. The first one will be realized directly, using the DSP system. We will determine the magnitude response of the system, and then deduce the coefficients of the FIR sin(x)/x filter. A look up table will store those values which …

Effects Of Oral And Silent Reading On The Reading Comprehension Performance Of Left Hemisphere-Damaged Individuals, Paul K. Akers

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not the method of reading (either aloud or silently) would affect the reading comprehension performance of left hemisphere-damaged (LHD) and non-brain-damaged (NBD) subjects across inference levels using the Nelson Reading Skills Test (NRST). The experimental group was comprised of fifteen subjects who had suffered a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) to the left hemisphere of the brain. Subjects were selected after they had demonstrated an adequate level of function on the Short Porch Index of Communicative Ability (SPICA), to perform the tasks required in this study. Subjects were then randomly assigned to …

Liberalism, Community, And The Context Of Choice, Marta R. Colburn

Dissertations and Theses

Issues of community have become an important focus in the field of political theory in North America. Critics of liberalism, the dominant American theoretical tradition, have charged that liberal theorists have misconceived the nature of community at the ontological and societal level. Some critics see a relationship between the failure of liberal theorists to adequately address community and certain social pathologies facing the American liberal polity.

This thesis seeks to address the following questions: How have liberal theorists typically dealt with the issue of community? What are the major criticisms related to issues of community currently being leveled at liberalism? …

Psusort: A Parallel External Sort For A Shared Memory Multiprocessor System, Sujata V. Ramamoorthy

Dissertations and Theses

A method to parallelize external sorts on a shared memory multiprocessing system is presented in this thesis. The main goal of the thesis is to develop a sorting package that is scale able and efficient. No prior knowledge of the nature, source or size of the data is assumed for this work. A dynamic load-balancing architecture is used with no static allocation of tasks to processes. The package consists of an interface and a kernel. The interface provides the sort with the following - the sort input, output and temporary work spaces as abstract data types (ADTs), memory available, number …