Digital Commons Network^™

Projected Impact Of Mid-21st Century Climate Change On Wildfire Hazard In A Major Urban Watershed Outside Portland, Oregon Usa, Andy Mcevoy, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Andres Holz, Arielle J. Catalano, Kelly E. Gleason

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Characterizing wildfire regimes where wildfires are uncommon is challenged by a lack of empirical information. Moreover, climate change is projected to lead to increasingly frequent wildfires and additional annual area burned in forests historically characterized by long fire return intervals. Western Oregon and Washington, USA (westside) have experienced few large wildfires (fires greater than 100 hectares) the past century and are characterized to infrequent large fires with return intervals greater than 500 years. We evaluated impacts of climate change on wildfire hazard in a major urban watershed outside Portland, OR, USA. We simulated wildfire occurrence and fire regime characteristics under …

Clarity On Cronbach’S Alpha Use, Jack Barbera, Nicole Naibert, Regis Komperda, Thomas C. Pentecost

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Cronbach’s alpha (α) statistic is regularly reported in science education studies. However, recent reviews have noted that it is not well-understood. Therefore, this commentary provides additional clarity regarding the language used when describing and interpreting alpha and other estimates of reliability.

Nonlinear Multigrid Based On Local Spectral Coarsening For Heterogeneous Diffusion Problems, Chak Shing Lee, Francois Hamon, Nicola Castelletto, Panayot S. Vassilevski, Joshua A. White

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This work develops a nonlinear multigrid method for diffusion problems discretized by cell-centered finite volume methods on general unstructured grids. The multigrid hierarchy is constructed algebraically using aggregation of degrees of freedom and spectral decomposition of reference linear operators associated with the aggregates. For rapid convergence, it is important that the resulting coarse spaces have good approximation properties. In our approach, the approximation quality can be directly improved by including more spectral degrees of freedom in the coarsening process. Further, by exploiting local coarsening and a piecewise-constant approximation when evaluating the nonlinear component, the coarse level problems are assembled and …

Not A Blank Slate: Information Literacy Misconceptions In First-Year Experience Courses, Michelle Keba, Elizabeth Fairall

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy is the primary instructional focus of many librarians. With the development of a core set of information literacy threshold concepts, librarians often strive to impart these concepts to undergraduate students during their years of study. However, when students come to school, they are not blank slates. They arrive with preconceived ideas or misconceptions which can impede this process. In this article, the authors report on the results of focus groups held with first-year students at a private, liberal arts university. During the focus groups, participants were asked to share their perceptions of the misconceptions identified by Hinchliffe et …

The Media Industry In Oregon: Incentive And Impact Analysis 2020 Update, Emma Brophy, Peter Hulseman, Northwest Economic Research Center

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Oregon’s media industries have become increasingly well-known over the last several years, thanks in large part to successful feature length films and television series produced in the state. It is widely known that such productions offer visibility, tourism interest, and a boost to local merchants during their visits. More economically important, but less immediately obvious, are the impacts of a home grown industry of professionals and businesses that thrive in regions able to maintain a reliable stream of production activity. Numerous states now offer incentives to visiting media productions, some focused on big-ticket features and visiting series. In Oregon, the …

Neighborhood Air Quality Impact From Construction Site Emissions In Portland, Or, Lyndsey Boyle

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Research has shown that diesel particulate matter, including black carbon, is harmful to human health and has climate warming properties. Emissions from off-road engines, specifically construction, are a major source of diesel particulate matter in Portland, OR. There has been little done to manage the impact that construction has on local air quality. This project included a review of recent literature on the health and climate warming effects of particulate matter and black carbon, a modeling study to better understand what the major sources of diesel particulate matter are in Oregon, and a review of current research on construction site …

Robust Maximum Coverage Facility Location Problem With Drones Considering Uncertainties In Battery Availability And Consumption, Darshan Chauhan, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Miguel Figliozzi, Stephen D. Boyles

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Given a set of spatially distributed demand for a specific commodity, potential facility locations, and drones, an agency is tasked with locating a prespecified number of facilities and assigning drones to them to serve the demand while respecting drone range constraints. The agency seeks to maximize the demand served while considering uncertainties in initial battery availability and battery consumption. The facilities have a limited supply of the commodity being distributed and also act as a launching site for drones. Drones undertake one-to-one trips (from located facility to demand location and back) until their available battery energy is exhausted. This paper …

Aryne-Guided C-H Functionalization Of Benzenoid Rings Using Diaryliodonium Salts, Aleksandra Nilova

Dissertations and Theses

The benzenoid core is a frequent and irreplaceable component of biologically active molecules. Structure function relationship of these compounds has been broadly analyzed and presented in numerous literature reports. Herein, we augmented existing knowledge by a broad analysis of the benzenoid substitution patterns in small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients approved by the FDA. Our findings reveal a strong correlation that the most represented substitution patterns are those achieved via S_EAr. Despite the rapid development of methods to functionalize benzenoid rings, the lack of synthetic methodologies to access sterically and electronically unfavorable positions is highlighted. We sought to establish …

Microplastics In Pacific Northwest Bivalves: Ecological Prevalence, Harvester-Consumer Exposure, And Aquarium Exhibit Outcomes, Britta Rahel Baechler

Dissertations and Theses

Up to 23 million metric tons of mismanaged plastics enter the global ocean annually. Microplastics (MPs;<5mm) degrading. MPs leak into the environment and now pervade every corner of the earth, with implications for animal, plant, ecosystem and human health. It is important to understand localized environmental MP prevalence, distribution and organismal uptake in order to determine the extent of MP pollution, and ultimately unlock solution sets to reduce transmission of MPs into the natural world. In Chapter 2, I quantified MP types, concentrations, anatomical burdens, geographic distribution, and temporal differences in Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) from 15 coastal sites in Oregon. Both of these species are integral to culture, economy, gastronomy and food security along the United States West Coast. In Chapter 3, I quantified MPs in Pacific razor clams collected from 8 Olympic Coast, Washington sites, administered questionnaires to recreational razor clammers and subsequently estimated annual MP exposure of those Olympic Coast razor clam harvester-consumers surveyed. In Chapter 4, I designed and installed an educational ocean plastic …

A Posteriori Error Estimates For Maxwell's Equations Using Auxiliary Subspace Techniques, Ahmed El Sakori

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of our work is to construct provably efficient and reliable error estimates of discretization error for Nédélec (edge) element discretizations of Maxwell's equations on tetrahedral meshes. Our general approach for estimating the discretization error is to compute an approximate error function by solving an associated problem in an auxiliary space that is chosen so that:

-Efficiency and reliability results for the computed error estimates can be established under reasonable and verifiable assumptions.

-The linear system used to compute the approximate error function has condition number bounded independently of the discretization parameter.

In many applications, it is some functional …

A Posteriori Error Estimates For Elliptic Eigenvalue Problems Using Auxiliary Subspace Techniques, Stefano Giani, Luka Grubišić, Harri Hakula, Jeffrey S. Ovall

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose an a posteriori error estimator for high-order p- or hp-finite element discretizations of selfadjoint linear elliptic eigenvalue problems that is appropriate for estimating the error in the approximation of an eigenvalue cluster and the corresponding invariant subspace. The estimator is based on the computation of approximate error functions in a space that complements the one in which the approximate eigenvectors were computed. These error functions are used to construct estimates of collective measures of error, such as the Hausdorff distance between the true and approximate clusters of eigenvalues, and the subspace gap between the corresponding true and approximate …

Investigation Of Prussian Blue Analogues As Cathode Materials For Next Generation Batteries, Neal Walters Kuperman

Dissertations and Theses

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the average global temperature has risen about 1 °C due increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Of all human produced greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the most prevalent, with the production of electricity from fossil fuels being the major contributor.

Solar and wind power are promising net zero emission energy sources but only accounted for ~5% of global electricity generation in 2016. The most significant hurdle hindering their widespread adoption is the intermittent nature of the electricity generation. To overcome this limitation, significant resources need to be put into the …

Contextualizing Educational Disparities And The Evaluation Of Teacher Quality, Dara Shifrer

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Value added scores, statistical estimates of teacher quality, are representative of neoliberal logic. The higher average scores of teachers of socially advantaged students raise concerns that scores are inaccurate and unfair, and propagate decontextualized neoliberal understandings of the nature of learning and teachers’ work. This study uses longitudinal data from roughly 4,500 teachers in a large urban district between 2007–08 through 2012–13 to follow individual teachers as they switch into schools of different “performance levels” over time. Fixed-intercept models tracking individual teachers between 2007–08 and 2012–13 showed scores increased for teachers who switched into high-performing schools and decreased for teachers …

Nicotine In Tobacco Product Aerosols: 'It's Deja Vu All Over Again', Anna K. Duell, James F. Pankow, David H. Peyton

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: The distribution of nicotine among its free-base (fb) and protonated forms in aerosolised nicotine affects inhalability. It has been manipulated in tobacco smoke and now in electronic cigarettes by the use of acids to de-freebase nicotine and form ‘nicotine salts’.

Methods: Measurements on electronic cigarette fluids (e-liquids) were carried out to determine (1) the fraction of nicotine in the free-base form (α fb) and (2) the levels of organic acid(s) and nicotine. Samples included JUUL ‘pods’, ‘look-a-like/knock-off’ pods and some bottled ‘nicotine salt’ and ‘non-salt’ e-liquids.

Results: α fb= 0.12 ±0.01 at 40°C (≈ 37°C) for 10 JUUL products, …

The Right To Urban Streams: Quantitative Comparisons Of Stakeholder Perceptions In Defining Adaptive Stream Restoration, Chang-Yu Hong, Eun-Sung Chung, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Assuring healthy streams in the urban environment is a major goal for restoration scientists, urban planners, and city practitioners around the globe. In South Korea, many urban stream restoration efforts are designed to provide safe water to society and enhance ecological functions. We examined the extent to which the individual interests and different values of multiple stakeholders were considered in previous decision-making in two urban stream restoration projects. The relevant data on stream restoration were collected through the nominal group technique (NGT) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for the two stream cases of a populated inland area and a …

Raps Sheet, November 2020, Retirement Association Of Portland State

RAPS Sheet: Monthly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Gauge Principle From The Schrodinger-Born Wave Mechanics, P. T. Leung

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose an elementary way of introducing the gauge principle to beginners with a background in only mechanics, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics. This evolves from an apparent conflict in the Schrodinger-Born formulation of wave mechanics, and does not have to resort to advanced concepts like covariant derivative and minimal coupling. With such an approach, one would have appreciated how interactions can be dictated from consideration of internal symmetry of a physical system, which serves as a principle underlying the foundation of almost all modern physics. In addition, the gauge principle also serves as a resource providing consistency between the Born …

The Cycle Structure Of Unicritical Polynomials, Andrew Bridy, Derek Garton

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

A polynomial with integer coefficients yields a family of dynamical systems indexed by primes as follows: for any prime p" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: normal; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;">pp⁠, reduce its coefficients mod p" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: normal; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; …

Distributed Energy Resource Aggregation Using Customer-Owned Equipment: A Review Of Literature And Standards, Manasseh Obi, Tylor Slay, Robert B. Bass

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Large-scale deployment of renewable energy resources, both utility-scale and distributed, create reliability concerns for electrical power system operators. The weather-dependent, non-dispatchable nature of renewable resources decreases the ability of operators to match supply with demand. Concurrently, distributed energy resources, defined as small-scale loads, generation sources, and storage systems, are becoming ubiquitous within modern electrical systems. This literature review presents the grid services that utilities use to alleviate power systems reliability concerns, particularly those caused by renewable resources, and how aggregations of residential-scale distributed energy resources can be used to provide these services.

By aggregating distributed energy resources en masse to …

Extending The Functional Subnetwork Approach To A Generalized Linear Integrate-And-Fire Neuron Model, Nicholas Szczecinski, Roger Quinn, Alexander J. Hunt

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Engineering neural networks to perform specific tasks often represents a monumental challenge in determining network architecture and parameter values. In this work, we extend our previously-developed method for tuning networks of non-spiking neurons, the “Functional subnetwork approach” (FSA), to the tuning of networks composed of spiking neurons. This extension enables the direct assembly and tuning of networks of spiking neurons and synapses based on the network’s intended function, without the use of global optimization ormachine learning. To extend the FSA, we show that the dynamics of a generalized linear integrate and fire (GLIF) neuronmodel have fundamental similarities to those of …

A Simplified Accuracy Enhancement To The Saleh Am/Am Modeling And Linearization Of Solid-State Rf Power Amplifiers, Haider Al-Kanan, Fu Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Saleh behavioral model exhibits high prediction accuracy for nonlinearity of traveling-wave tube power amplifiers (TWT-PAs). However, the accuracy of the Saleh model degrades when modeling solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs) technology. In addition, the polynomial expansion of the Saleh model consists of only odd-order terms as analyzed in this work. This paper proposes a novel model accuracy enhancement for the Saleh amplitude-to-amplitude (AM/AM) model when applied to radio frequency (RF) SSPAs. The proposed model enhancement accounts for the second-order intermodulation distortion, which is an important nonlinearity challenge in wideband wireless communications. The proposed static AM/AM model is a three-parameter rational …

Reflections On Bodies And Absences In The Covid-19 Interregnum, Matthew Weinstein

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This is a meditation on the role of absence during the COVID-19, especially the ways absences are felt and experienced. It explores the roles of bodies as both symbols and material. Bodies are both thought through the logic of borders and difference but also as the raw resources of scientific investigations. This is all examined within and against “education” both in my and in my students’ (pre and in-service teachers) classes and our anxieties of not knowing the what or how we of our jobs in these conditions.

Teacher Education In A Dangerous Time: (Re)Imagining Education For Diversity, Democracy And Sustainability, John J. Lupinacci

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This article amplifies the importance of social movements like Black Lives Matter and diverse critical educator responses to social suffering, COVID-19, and related critiques of current dominant assumptions of teacher education and Western schooling. The author offers an ecocritical conceptual framework to support education to recognize the importance of how teachers, and teacher educators, can take action as leaders (re)imagining education in support of valuing diversity, democracy, and sustainability. This article calls for an ecocritical pedagogical (re)imagining of how teacher education might be (re)constituted through local activist teaching in collaboration with social movements and in support of social justice and …

Determinants Of Green Purchase Intentions Of Saudi Consumers, Amani Mohammed Kaadoor

Dissertations and Theses

Much of the research on how and why consumers engage in pro-environmental consumption has occurred in the wealthy countries of the West, where green markets are increasingly well established. Research in other economic and cultural context is sparse and points to large regional differences that cause some researchers to call key theoretical foundations, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior, into question. In response, this study investigates the factors that predict green purchase intention for food and personal care products in Saudi Arabia, a wealthy country with a rapidly growing population, severe environmental challenges, and a nascent green consumer market …

Exploring The Potential Of Sparse Coding For Machine Learning, Sheng Yang Lundquist

Dissertations and Theses

While deep learning has proven to be successful for various tasks in the field of computer vision, there are several limitations of deep-learning models when compared to human performance. Specifically, human vision is largely robust to noise and distortions, whereas deep learning performance tends to be brittle to modifications of test images, including being susceptible to adversarial examples. Additionally, deep-learning methods typically require very large collections of training examples for good performance on a task, whereas humans can learn to perform the same task with a much smaller number of training examples.

In this dissertation, I investigate whether the use …

Newton Polygons Of Hecke Operators, Liubomir Chiriac, Andrei Jorza

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this computational paper we verify a truncated version of the Buzzard–Calegari conjecture on the Newton polygon of the Hecke operator T2 for all large enough weights. We first develop a formula for computing p-adic valuations of exponential sums, which we then implement to compute 2-adic valuations of traces of Hecke operators acting on spaces of cusp forms. Finally, we verify that if Newton polygon of the Buzzard–Calegari polynomial has a vertex at n≤15, then it agrees with the Newton polygon of T2 up to n.

Developing A Common Language Of Ethical Engagement In Teaching: Lessons For And From A Time Of Crisis, Richard D. Sawyer

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This article explores how educators may develop and contribute to a common language of ethical engagement, a language that rises above specific actions but is grounded in ethical practice and scholarship. Questions are raised about how online education may further the patterns educational inequities in the United States. An ethics framework is explored through a comparison. The author explores the educational principles--not standards—that educators can surface in their teaching practice. A discussion is included of recent dilemmas and problems with online teaching environments, underscoring the need for ethical principles helping to frame practice.

Approximate Computing With Emerging Devices, Richard Atherton

Maseeh Summer Undergraduate Research Experience

Approximate computation is a new trend that explores and harnesses trade-offs between the precision and energy/power consumption of computing systems. In this project a feed-forward neural network was designed as well as several reservoir networks using different network topologies to compare the accuracy and resilience of the network against the computational complexity required.

Convex Analysis Of Minimal Time And Signed Minimal Time Functions, D. V. Cuong, B. S. Mordukhovich, Mau Nam Nguyen, M. L. Wells

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we first consider the class of minimal time functions in the general setting of locally convex topological vector (LCTV) spaces. The results obtained in this framework are based on a novel notion of closedness of target sets with respect to constant dynamics. Then we introduce and investigate a new class of signed minimal time functions, which are generalizations of the signed distance functions. Subdifferential formulas for the signed minimal time and distance functions are obtained under the convexity assumptions on the given data.

What You Should Know About Racism-20: A Fact Sheet In The Time Of Covid-19, Ryan J. Petteway

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Satire has a history within public health and medical scholarship. However, research and academic works related to COVID-19, health inequities, and structural racism to date have not engaged/explored satire as a critical mode of reflection, analysis, and commentary. Drawing from social epidemiology literature related to structural racism, and rooted in critical race theory and critical theory related to narrative power, this paper—in the form of a "RACISM-20" fact sheet/health promotion flyer—uses satire and humor as critical commentary on mainstream public health discourse of/responses to COVID-19, transposing structural racism and COVID-19 to accentuate how individualist, apolitical, and “colorblind” downstream frames of …