Digital Commons Network^™

More Than The Sum Of Its Parts: How Disturbance Interactions Shape Forest Dynamics Under Climate Change, Melissa S. Lucash, Robert M. Scheller, Brian R. Sturtevant, Eric J. Gustafson, Alec M. Kretchun, Jane R. Foster

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Interactions among disturbances are seldom quantified, and how they will be affected by climate change is even more uncertain. In this study, we sought to better understand how interactions among disturbances shift under climate change by applying a process-based landscape disturbance and succession model (LANDIS-II) to project disturbance regimes under climate change in north-central Minnesota, USA. Specifically, we (1) contrasted mortality rates and the extent of disturbance for four individual (single) disturbance regimes (fire, insects, wind, or forest management) vs. all four disturbance regimes operating simultaneously (concurrent) under multiple climate change scenarios and (2) determined how climate change interacts with …

Baroclinic Tidal Sea Level From Exact-Repeat Mission Altimetry, Edward Zaron

Portland Institute for Computational Science Publications

A near-global model for the sea-surface expression of the baroclinic tide has been developed using exact-repeat mission altimetry. The methodology used differs in detail from other altimetry-based estimates of the open ocean baroclinic tide, but it leads to estimates which are broadly similar to previous results. It may be used for prediction of the baroclinic sea level anomaly at the frequencies of the main diurnal and semidiurnal tides, K₁, O₁, M₂, S₂, as well as the annual modulates of M₂, denoted MA₂ and MB₂. Based on a …

Who Teaches Technical And Professional Communication Service Courses?: Survey Results And Case Studies From A National Study Of Instructors From All Carnegie Institutional Types, Sarah Read, Michael J. Michaud

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, we offer answers to the question, “Who teaches the technical and professional communication service course and in what institutional situations?” We present data from a national online survey of technical and professional communication instructors from across all Carnegie institutional types (2- and 4-year). In addition, we share four case-studies of survey respondents whose situations present the greatest challenges facing those who seek to improve or reform the technical and professional communication service course. We close the article by putting the case studies into the context of the reported survey data and arguing for how advocates for the …

The Disruptive Potential Of A Queer Vegan Praxis, Naomi M. Kolb-Untinen

University Honors Theses

Queerness and veganism are two historically contested social locations that have become more mainstreamed in recent years. This thesis seeks to explore how queer vegans have experienced and utilized these identities to resist normativity. The open ended research question that guided this project was “how do young adult, queer vegans experience connections and disconnections between their queerness and their veganism?” Six semistructured interviews with young adults between the ages of nineteen and twenty-four who self-identify as both queer and vegan were conducted for this project. The interviews were analyzed using queer and feminist frameworks and ultimately aligned with existing theory …

The Impact Of Domestic And Foreign Forces On Guatemala's Social Services, Brooke Marie Reichert

University Honors Theses

This thesis will look at the socio-political history in both domestic and international contexts to analyze the development of Guatemala. This work will evaluate the positive and negative impacts of foreign aid and intervention in the development of Guatemala. International development theory is applied to this case study to better understand the current health and education crisis that intensified after the Cold War era. This thesis will serve to answer the following questions: how have internal and external forces shaped, beneficially and negatively, the current state of human development and social services in Guatemala? Why has Guatemala, a resource rich …

Pavilions As Urban Placemakers: Temporary Architecture And Community Engagement, Avery Asato

University Honors Theses

Temporary urbanism in the form of temporary pavilions can reveal the social, economic, or political needs and wants of a community. The pavilion can act as a space of freedom from physical needs such as shelter, as well as freedom with the purpose of meeting, exchanging, and thinking (Bevan, 2015). When the pavilion is only in place for an intentionally temporary span of time, it is possible for activities, ideas, and communities to form, whereas the implication of permanence may not allow for the same action, due to efficient cost, lower level of planning, and faster development (Bishop & Williams, …

Gerrymandering And The Courts: Evaluating Judicially Manageable Standards, Amelia L. Zuidema

University Honors Theses

For years the Supreme Court has struggled to set judicially manageable standards for cases involving partisan gerrymandering. The author argues that partisan gerrymandering is justiciable and that standards do exist.

“Living Day By Day” Refugees Of Color Navigate Gentrification And Racism In Portland, Oregon: A Sense Of Place, Serena Dressel

University Honors Theses

This research highlights the impact that rising rent prices have on refugees' sense of place in Portland. The majority of Oregon’s refugee population arrive in Portland, the fourth fastest gentrifying city in the United States. Refugees receive eight months of financial assistance upon arrival, an average of $339 per month. Employees from the Immigrant Refugee Community Organization were interviewed including refugees, an asylee, and immigrants from Bhutan, Myanmar/Burma, Chad, Iraq, and Somalia. One employee from Catholic Charities was interviewed. Positive perceptions include natural amenities, that it is considered safe and small, the progressive political climate, and community presence & support. …

Social New Orleans: Identity, Capital, Space, Jonathon G. Brearley

University Honors Theses

Fundamentally, space is a social product. Social practices both create and are supported by built environment. Urbanity is so much more than a dense array of buildings; it is the street, the sidewalks, the allies, the parks, the people––from the houseless to the penthoused. A city is best understood through the mechanisms that produce the social capital, identity, and space of those people who occupy it. The city of New Orleans is no exception. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, deeply impacting the social economy of the city. This research explicates three unique social practices in …

The Path To Modern Iran: An Examination Of Shiite Islam's Influence (1900-Present), Autymn A. Langford

University Honors Theses

Throughout history, we have struggled to determine how best to govern and maintain our societies. Many times religion has found a place in government by providing an enforceable framework of expected behaviors and laws to impose over citizens to create order in society.

In a country that separates church and state, the government attempts to not enact laws that are directly derived from any one religious ideology to avoid imposing religious codes onto citizens who choose to not abide by that particular religious code. In Iran the government has taken form as a theocracy, referred to as the Islamic Republic …

Erasing History? Contextualizing Modern Monument Destruction Through An Archaeological Lens, Stephanie Holton

University Honors Theses

Cultures throughout the world have expended great amounts of energy in the practice of monument construction. Often, the resulting monuments become a part of the archaeological record through processes of either environmental or cultural deposition, and sometimes even by means of intentional destruction. The destruction of such an energetically costly object begs explanation, and is particularly relevant given the movement currently taking place across the United States to destroy or relocate standing Confederate monuments. My project sought to place the current monument destruction in a larger historical context through the analysis of three archaeological case studies. I attempted to separate …

Climate Change Amplifications Of Climate‐Fire Teleconnections In The Southern Hemisphere, Michela Mariani, Andrés Holz, Thomas T. Veblen, Grant J. Williamson, Michael-Shawn Fletcher, David M. J. S. Bowman

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent changes in trend and variability of the main Southern Hemisphere climate modes are driven by a variety of factors, including increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases, changes in tropical sea surface temperature, and stratospheric ozone depletion and recovery. One of the most important implications for climatic change is its effect via climate teleconnections on natural ecosystems, water security, and fire variability in proximity to populated areas, thus threatening human lives and properties. Only sparse and fragmentary knowledge of relationships between teleconnections, lightning strikes, and fire is available during the observed record within the Southern Hemisphere. This constitutes a major knowledge gap …

Assessment Of Observed Increases In Extreme Warm Exceedances In Locations With Short Warm Side Tails, Jacob S. Hunter, Paul C. Loikith, J. David Neelin

Student Research Symposium

Regions of shorter-than-Gaussian temperature distribution tails have been shown to occur in spatially coherent patterns in the current climate using reanalysis. Under such conditions, future changes in extremes due to global warming may manifest in more complex ways than if the underlying distribution were closer to Gaussian. For instance, under a uniform warm shift, the simplest prototype for future warming, a location with a short warm side tail would experience a greater increase in exceedances than if the distribution were Gaussian. This carries meaningful societal and environmental implications including but not limited to negative impacts on human and ecosystem health, …

Public Access To Crime Maps From Police Agencies: Frequency, Agency Characteristics, And Maps Used, Jordan A. Grant, Kris R. Henning

Student Research Symposium

Advances in desktop computing, research and theory addressing the geography of crime, and evidence for the efficacy of hotspot policing have resulted in rapid adoption of GIS mapping technology by police agencies. Some of these agencies have gone a step further and now offer access to crime maps for public viewing through their website or linked services. This includes maps depicting all or some criminal offenses, calls for service, and the location of specific offenders. These maps have the potential to influence community perceptions, and yet we know very little about the prevalence of public crime mapping, the characteristics of …

Transforming Development And Disaster Risk, Frank Thomalla, Michael Boyland, Karlee Johnson, Jonathan Ensor, Heidi Tuhkanen, Asa Gerger Swartling, Guoyi Han, John Forrester, Darin Wahl

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Abstract:

This article focuses on the complex relationship between development and disaster risk. Development and disaster risk are closely linked as the people and assets exposed to risk, as well as their vulnerability and capacity, are largely determined by development processes. Transformation is key to moving from current development patterns that increase, create or unfairly distribute risks, to forms of development that are equitable, resilient and sustainable. Based on a review of existing literature, we present three opportunities that have the potential to lead to transformation in the development-disaster risk relationship: (i) exposing development-disaster risk trade-offs in development policy and …

Seasonality Of Tides In Southeast Asian Waters, Adam T. Devlin, Edward Zaron, David A. Jay, Stefan Talke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An analysis of water level time series from 20 tide gauges in Southeast Asia finds that diurnal and semidiurnal astronomical tides exhibit strong seasonal variability of both amplitude and phase, which is not caused by known modulations of the astronomical tide-generating forces. Instead, it is found that the tidal properties are coherent with the western North Pacific monsoon index (WNPMI), indicating that monsoonal mechanisms are the likely cause. The study domain includes the Malacca Strait, Gulf of Thailand, the southern South China Sea, and Java Sea. The character of the geography and the tidal variability is different in each of …

The Labor Between Farm And Table: Cultivating An Urban Political Ecology Of Agrifood For The 21st Century, Amy K. Coplen

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The variegated landscape of food production and consumption reveals a great deal about socionatural relations and processes of urbanization and globalization under capitalism. Food production has changed dramatically over time, shifting away (but never fully divorced) from the rural agrarian landscape to spaces that are characterized as industrial and/or urban. Workers transform nature at each stage in the food production process, not only on farms but also in processing plants, grocery stores, restaurants, and other spaces. This paper draws on urban political ecology (UPE) to position labor as central to understanding the socioecological relations embodied in food systems. It puts …

Making Room For Roses: The 1911 Relocation Of The Multnomah County Poor Farm, Kira Helene Lesley

Dissertations and Theses

From 1868 to 1911, the Multnomah County Poor Farm off Canyon Road in the Tualatin Hills housed indigent and sick residents of Portland and surrounding areas. In 1911, county officials relocated the Poor Farm from the West Hills flanking Portland to the far eastern portion of the county. Subsequently, the site hosted a municipal golf course and is currently home to the Oregon Zoo and Hoyt Arboretum. With no physical presence left, the original Poor Farm was quickly forgotten, and the reasons for its relocation have been obscured by the passage of time. Occasional references to the farm in newspapers …

Portland Msa Economic & Population Outlook April 2018, Portland State University, Northwest Economic Research Center, Thomas Potiowsky

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

NERC's biannual forecast of employment, income, housing permits, and house prices for the Portland MSA. The April release also includes the annual forecast of population and households.

Enterprise Marketing Automation Software Selection, Anju Babu

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Enterprises devote a large amount of time and effort in selecting software products that are critical to their competitive advantage, and one such software is the marketing automation software. The paper discusses in detail the different criteria and methodology for selecting one marketing automation software product among the leading products available in the market.

The selection process was identified as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem and the methodology used for analysis was Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM), a variation of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Nine experts with different backgrounds in terms of job functions, functional experience, and geographies, who had expertise …

Assessing Transboundary Wildfire Exposure In The Southwestern United States, Alan A. Ager, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Cody Evers, Michelle A. Day, Ana M.G. Barros

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

We assessed transboundary wildfire exposure among federal, state, and private lands and 447 communities in the state of Arizona, southwestern United States. The study quantified the relative magnitude of transboundary (incoming, outgoing) versus nontransboundary (i.e., self-burning) wildfire exposure based on land tenure or community of the simulated ignition and the resulting fire perimeter. We developed and described several new metrics to quantify and map transboundary exposure. We found that incoming transboundary fire accounted for 37% of the total area burned on large parcels of federal and state lands, whereas 63% of the area burned was burned by ignitions within the …

Africa's Urban Adaptation Transition Under A 1.5° Climate, Mark Pelling, Hayley Leck, Lorena Pasquini, Idowu Ajibade, Emanuel Osuteye, Susan Parnell, Shuaib Lwasa, Cassidy Johnson, Arabella Fraser, Alejandro Barcena, Soumana Boubacar

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

For cities in sub-Saharan Africa a 1.5 °C increase in global temperature will bring forward the urgency of meeting basic needs in sanitation, drinking water and land-tenure, and underlying governance weaknesses. The challenges of climate sensitive management are exacerbated by rapid population growth, deep and persistent poverty, a trend for resolving risk through relocation (often forced), and emerging new risks, often multi-hazard, for example heat stroke made worse by air pollution. Orienting risk management towards a developmental agenda can help. Transition is constrained by fragmented governance, donor priorities and inadequate monitoring of hazards, vulnerability and impacts. Opportunities arise where data …

Newwater Regimes: An Editorial, Alida Cantor, Jacque Emel

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This editorial is an introduction to the special issue of Resources on New Water Regimes. The special issue explores legal geographies of water resource management with the dual goals of providing critiques of existing water management practices as well as exploring potential alternatives. The papers in the special issue draw from numerous theoretical perspectives, including decolonial and post-anthropocentric approaches to water governance; social and environmental justice in water management; and understanding legal ecologies. A variety of themes of water governance are addressed, including water allocation, groundwater management, collaborative governance, drought planning, and water quality. The papers describe and analyze water …

Food Insecurity, Social Networks And Symptoms Of Depression Among Men And Women In Rural Uganda: A Cross-Sectional, Population-Based Study, Jessica M. Perkins, Viola N. Nyakato, Bernard Kakuhikire, Alexander C. Tsai, Sv Subramanian, David Bangsberg, Nicholas A. Christakis

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: To assess the association between food insecurity and depression symptom severity stratified by sex, and test for evidence of effect modification by social network characteristics.

Design: A population-based cross-sectional study. The nine-item Household Food Insecurity Access Scale captured food insecurity. Five name generator questions elicited network ties. A sixteen-item version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist for Depression captured depression symptom severity. Linear regression was used to estimate the association between food insecurity and depression symptom severity while adjusting for potential confounders and to test for potential network moderators.

Setting: In-home survey interviews in south-western Uganda. Subjects: All adult residents …

Outsourcing Strategies In Software Engineering, Cody Miller

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Over the last several years, software has become a vital component of almost every business. Success increasingly depends on using software as a competitive weapon [1]. In today’s software industry, many organizations are realizing that outsourcing is becoming an imperative, strategic step to growing their business, and as a way to gain competitive advantage over its competitors.

The focus of this article, will be a literature review of current literature on outsourcing, and its strategies in the Software Engineering domain. As a software engineer at Intel, I have seen an increased need for outsourcing within our business group, and the …

Center For Real Estate Quarterly, Special Land Use Issue, Volume 12, Number 2, Portland State University. Center For Real Estate

Center for Real Estate Quarterly

Table of Contents:
-- Portland's Housing Market and the 2018 Urban Growth Boundary Decision by Gerard C.S. Mildner
-- East Metro Urban Reserves by Loos & Shimada
-- Hillsboro & Forest Grove Urban Reserves by Adisuryo, Crampton, Dick, Eldridge, Geffner & Wilkes
-- Oregon City Urban Reserves by Beh, Benson, Brown, Lee & Young
-- Sherwood Urban Reserves by Argyropoulos & Baarstad
-- Southwest Urban Reserves by Mandel & Miller - Freeman
-- Stafford Urban Reserves by Henderson, Leeding, Marchant, Miller, Sturley & Summers
-- Wilsonville Urban Reserves by Aleman, DuBois, Hoke, Legarza, Pollard & Zhang

Two New Librarians Develop Their University Libraries’ First High-School Internship, Elliott Stevens, Kian Flynn

Online Northwest

Our program will highlight the UW Libraries High-School Internship, which marked the first time that high-school students took part in a paid internship at the UW Libraries. Over the course of the twenty-hour internship, the students, who are aspiring to be first-in-family college students, created two digital stories using WeVideo and got hands-on experience using online primary source collections and geospatial databases at the UW Libraries. In our program, we will detail why we were inspired to create our institution’s first high-school internship, how we assembled the internship, and what we accomplished with the internship.

Using The Syrian Civil War To Measure Hierarchy: Regional Power Transition In The Middle East, Eric Michael Clary

Dissertations and Theses

In 2018, the Syrian Civil War will enter into its ninth year of conflict. From an international relations perspective there are few, if any, studies on state actors in regional sub-state systems. What can an intrastate conflict teach us about future dynamics of the regional interstate hierarchy? It is worthwhile to examine The Syrian Civil War for three reasons. First, Syria lies in the heart of the Middle East lending proximity to regional actors. Second, the breakdown of order in Syria represents a microcosm of the global anarchic environment. Third, Syrian Civil War is an intrastate war that encapsulates both …

"Agglutinating" A Family: Friedrich Max MüLler And The Development Of The Turanian Language Family Theory In Nineteenth-Century European Linguistics And Other Human Sciences, Preetham Sridharan

Dissertations and Theses

Some linguists in the nineteenth century argued for the existence of a "Turanian" family of languages in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, claiming the common descent of a vast range of languages like Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish, Mongol, Manchu, and their relatives and dialects. Of such linguists, Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900) was an important developer and popularizer of a version of the Turanian theory across Europe, given his influence as a German-born Oxford professor in Victorian England from the 1850s onwards. Although this theory lost ground in academic linguistics from the mid twentieth century, a pan-nationalist movement pushing for the political …

Whence And Whither: Acoustic Variability And Biogeography Of Tarsiers In North Sulawesi, Olivia Clare Kulander

Dissertations and Theses

The morning duet calls of eastern tarsiers (Tarsius spp.) in North Sulawesi were recorded and analyzed to examine the effects of geography and geologic history on their call structure. Tarsius species exhibit interspecifically variable duet calls shown to correlate with species differentiation and distribution. They are distributed across Sulawesi, a biogeographically complex island in the Indonesian archipelago, where tectonic activity and multiple glaciations during the Pleistocene generated and modified barriers to their dispersal and gene flow.

Recordings were made at ten locations from November of 2012 through June of 2014. Two locations were categorized as mainland, while eight island …