Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Ra21: Seamless Access Is Easy, Secure And Highly Reportable, Scott Anderson

Online Northwest

Proxy services originating 20+ years ago, do not meet the needs of modern libraries. Today's authentication systems are more secure, offer robust analytics, and provide modern user experience for managing collections by groups of libraries or users (alumni, faculty, health sciences, law libraries, etc.). Libraries need to support research in ways that are more personalized and need to support research when users are not connected to their institution's network. This session will discuss how libraries can move beyond IP authentication to one that is more secure, personalized and is easy to setup and manage.

Food Waste Diversion Programming In Post-Secondary Education, Manar Arica Alattar

Dissertations and Theses

The urgent need for reform of USA and global food systems is evident in the pervasiveness of both food waste and food insecurity. Such an inefficient system strains the environmental, social, and economic systems on which it relies. Although policy and infrastructure changes are essential, consumers can play a significant role by decreasing their food waste, given that consumer waste represents 60% of the waste along the food cycle in developed countries. Incorporation of food literacy and food waste education in school curricula may provide a meaningful entry point for promoting food waste reduction skills.

This dissertation presents context on …

Modeling Spawning Habitat Potential For Chum (Onchorhynchus Keta) And Pink Salmon (O. Gorbuscha) In Relation To Landscape Characteristics In Coastal Southeast Alaska, Bernard Timothy Romey

Dissertations and Theses

In response to the increasing need for ecosystem services throughout the Southeast Alaska region, decision makers are tasked with balancing the need for natural resources with salmon conservation. However, accurate historical and current information on salmonid population abundance, freshwater distribution, and habitat quality are sparse with limited resolution for large portions of this remote and rugged landscape. Here, I created Intrinsic Potential (IP) models for chum and pink salmon to predict the potential for portions of coastal rivers to provide high-quality spawning habitat. I developed IP models for both species from field redd surveys and synthetic habitat variables derived from …

Power Spectrum Prediction Of Amplified Dual-Band Lte-Advanced Signals, Xianzhen Yang

Dissertations and Theses

In wireless communication, the nonlinearity of a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier is an important issue for power amplifier designers. Since the nonlinearity is generated by the properties of physical components, it is hard to avoid it in producing power amplifiers. Power amplifier designers should know about the nonlinearity in order to compensate for it.

A two-tone test is a relatively widely used method to measure the nonlinearity of a power amplifier, which means the third order intercept point (IP3) can be measured from the two-tone test. Through the two-tone test, researchers have proposed some formulae to present what the …

Soil Phosphorus Characterization And Vulnerability To Release In Urban Stormwater Bioretention Facilities, Benjamin James Shetterly

Dissertations and Theses

Modern urban stormwater infrastructure includes vegetated bioretention facilities (BRFs) that are designed to detain water and pollutants. Phosphorus (P) is a pollutant in stormwater which can be retained in BRF soils in mineral, plant, and microbial pools. We explored soil properties and phosphorus forms in the soils of 16 operational BRFs in Portland, OR. Since soil hydrology can significantly impact P retention, we selected BRFs along an infiltration rate (IR) gradient. We conducted sequential fractionation and tests of P pools and measured P release in a subset of soils after drying and flooding samples for ten days. We hypothesized that …

Assessment Of Technology Adoption Potential Of Medical Devices: Case Of Wearable Sensor Products For Pervasive Care In Neurosurgery And Orthopedics, Liliya Stepanivna Hogaboam

Dissertations and Theses

Information and communication technologies hope to revolutionize the healthcare industry with innovative and affordable solutions with a focus on pervasive care. Wearable sensors products can provide monitoring in a natural environment with a constant stream of information, enriching healthcare practices and enabling better pervasive care.

Wearable sensor technologies could monitor patients' mobility, gait, tremor, daily activity and other health indicators in real time that could allow for simple, non-invasive, tracking of spine care that may lead to increased patient engagement, integration, feedback, post-surgery analysis, monitoring of patient's condition, patient's data extraction and analysis and possibly aiding in better diagnosis, intervention, …

Hydrodynamic And Water Quality Modeling Of The Tigris River System In Iraq Using Ce-Qual-W2, Muhanned Al Murib

Dissertations and Theses

The Tigris River is one of two primary rivers in Iraq and is, along with the Euphrates, the main source for drinking and irrigation water in the country. The Tigris River originates in the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, and is 1850 km long. The majority of the river lies within Iraq. The river passes through, and is the primary drinking water source for major cities such as Mosul, Baeji, Samarra, Baghdad (the capital), and Kut. The Tigris River joins the Euphrates River in Qurna city within Basra province to form the Shatt Al-Arab River which eventually discharges into the Persian …

Spacetime Numerical Techniques For The Wave And Schrödinger Equations, Paulina Ester Sepùlveda Salas

Dissertations and Theses

The most common tool for solving spacetime problems using finite elements is based on semidiscretization: discretizing in space by a finite element method and then advancing in time by a numerical scheme. Contrary to this standard procedure, in this dissertation we consider formulations where time is another coordinate of the domain. Therefore, spacetime problems can be studied as boundary value problems, where initial conditions are considered as part of the spacetime boundary conditions.

When seeking solutions to these problems, it is natural to ask what are the correct spaces of functions to choose, to obtain wellposedness. This motivates the study …

Assessing The Effects Of Climate Change And Fuel Treatments On Forest Dynamics And Wildfire In Dry Mixed-Conifer Forests Of The Inland West: Linking Landscape And Social Perspectives, Brooke Alyce Cassell

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past century in the western United States, warming has produced larger and more severe wildfires than previously recorded. General circulation models and their ensembles project continued increases in temperature and the proportion of precipitation falling as rain. Warmer and wetter conditions may change forest successional trajectories by modifying rates of vegetation establishment, competition, growth, reproduction, and mortality. Many questions remain regarding how these changes will occur across landscapes and how disturbances, such as wildfire, may interact with changes to climate and vegetation. Forest management is used to proactively modify forest structure and composition to improve fire resilience. Yet, …

Public Participation In Plant-Pollinator Conservation: Key Assessment Areas That Support Networked Restoration And Monitoring, Kerissa Battle

Dissertations and Theses

Environmental problems are growing at a pace and scale that traditional research methods alone can no longer tackle. Innovative research models that utilize contributory, participatory and crowdsourcing methods are rapidly emerging to fill this gap. For these participatory efforts to be effective and sustainable, however, closer attention must be paid to key components that can promote coordinated action and sustainability. Through the lens of public participation in plant-pollinator conservation, I have, with rigorous social-ecological inquiry, offered three foundational assessment areas that can provide scientific support to this nascent field: accuracy, ecological significance and scalability.

In the first study (Chapter 2), …

Crystal Growth And Surface Modification Of Pyrite For Use As A Photovoltaic Material, Eric Rustad Young

Dissertations and Theses

Pyrite (FeS₂) has recently attracted significant interest as a photovoltaic material due to its promising optical properties, high photon to electron conversion yield, and low-cost raw materials. However, hopes have been tempered by recent discoveries that suggest the presence of hard to remove bulk sulfur defects. This research was focused on engineering and implementing the crystallization of pyrite from a sulfur rich solution to counteract the material's natural tendency to form bulk sulfur defects. Homoeptiaxial layers and single-crystal samples have been grown from tellurium sulfur melts with an Fe:S ratio of 1:4 using both natural and synthetic substrates. …

The Wildcat Creek Tuff, Eastern Oregon: Co-Eruption Of Crystal-Poor Rhyolite And Fe-Rich Andesite With Implication For Mafic Underpinnings To Voluminous A-Type Rhyolites, Hillarie Jaye Sales

Dissertations and Theses

The Wildcat Creek Tuff is a thin (~3-12 m), rhyolite to andesitic ash-flow tuff with a minimal extent of 1500 km² in Malheur county, eastern Oregon. The previously undated tuff yielded a single crystal, anorthoclase ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of 15.49±0.02 Ma and thus is closely related to mafic and silicic volcanism of the Columbia River Province. The tuff texturally stands out by its high proportion of co-mingled mafic inclusions appearing as dark, scoriaceous, and phenocryst-poor fragments, and their proportion dictate bulk tuff compositions ranging from rhyolite (74% SiO2) to andesite (59% SiO₂). Glass analyses confirm …

Recovery Of Zooplankton Communities To Whole-Lake Disturbance, Brian Newton Mcgann

Dissertations and Theses

Community assembly following disturbance is a key process in determining the composition and function of the future community. However, replicated studies of community assembly at whole ecosystem scales are rare. Here is described a series of whole-lake experiments in which the recovery of zooplankton communities is tracked following an ecosystem-scale disturbance. Fourteen lakes in eastern Washington were chosen: seven lakes were treated with rotenone, while the remaining seven were reference. Each lake was monitored up to six months before and one to two years after the rotenone treatments. Zooplankton tows were taken monthly, at a shallow, intermediate, and deep site …

Foreign Language Anxiety, Sexuality, And Gender: Lived Experiences Of Four Lgbtq+ Students, James Donald Mitchell

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship between foreign language anxiety and gender identity has been largely a quantitative endeavor that has shown contradictory results. Furthermore, sexual identity has not been researched in foreign language anxiety literature. A qualitative account of LGBTQ+ language learners with different gender identities has been absent from the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between foreign language anxiety and sexual and gender identity. To gain insight into this relationship, this qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of four LGBTQ+ foreign language university students who represented three gender identities. Data were collected through multiple, in-depth …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet March 2018, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The March 2018 Monthly packet includes the February agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held February 2018.

The Faculty Governance Statistics and the draft version of the Student Pregnancy and Postpartum Assistance and Accommodations Policy are included as supplemental files below.

A New Method For Multi-Bit And Qudit Transfer Based On Commensurate Waveguide Arrays, Jovan Petrovic, J. J. P. Veerman

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The faithful state transfer is an important requirement in the construction of classical and quantum computers. While the high-speed transfer is realized by optical-fibre interconnects, its implementation in integrated optical circuits is affected by cross-talk. The cross-talk between densely packed optical waveguides limits the transfer fidelity and distorts the signal in each channel, thus severely impeding the parallel transfer of states such as classical registers, multiple qubits and qudits. Here, we leverage on the suitably engineered cross-talk between waveguides to achieve the parallel transfer on optical chip. Waveguide coupling coefficients are designed to yield commensurate eigenvalues of the array and …

Glacier Inventories And Change In Glacier National Park, Melissa Carrie Brett

Dissertations and Theses

Glacier National Park, in northwestern Montana, is a unique and awe-inspiring national treasure that is often used by the media and public-at-large as a window into the effects of climate change. An updated inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields (G&PS) in the Park, along with an assessment of their change over time, is essential to understanding the role that glaciers are playing in the environment of this Park. Nine inventories between 1966 and 2015 were compiled to assess area changes of G&PS. Over that 49-year period, total area changed by nearly -34 ± 11% between 1966 and 2015. Volume change, …

Human Resource Analytics: Implications For Strategy Realization And Organizational Performance, Xylia Kathleen M. Lydgate

University Honors Theses

Human resource (HR) analytics continues to attract significant attention from organizations worldwide as the HR profession is being held to a higher standard in terms of data-driven decision making and strategy realization. This paper defines HR analytics based on a thorough review of 71 sources and offers a foreground for understanding the role it plays in strategy formulation and implementation across business. A total of 9 case studies will be integrated throughout the body of the thesis to further contextualize its practicality and impact on US-based firms. The primary objective of this paper is to demonstrate that HR analytics continues …

Bitcoins In Venezuela: Examining The Origins, Nature, And Viability Of Cryptocurrencies In The Hyperinflated Country Of Venezuela, Connor Wulf

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis seeks to examine the origins, nature, and viability of cryptocurrencies in the hyperinflated country of Venezuela. This inquiry first considers the emergence and proliferation of cryptocurrencies as alternative currencies to the Venezuelan bolivar due to breakdown of the populist economic policies of the Chavez and Maduro regimes. The economic policies taken into consideration are the government’s overreliance on oil production, a lack of private property institutions, disproportionate government spending, expansionary monetary policy, draconian price controls, and an inefficient exchange rate system which all contribute to the weakening and eventual collapse of the Venezuelan bolivar. We …

Interlaboratory Comparison Of Δ13c And Δd Measurements Of Atmospheric Ch4 For Combined Use Of Data Sets From Different Laboratories, Taku Umezawa, Carl Brenninkmeijer, Thomas Röckmann, Carina Van Der Veen, Stanley C. Tyler, Ryo Fujita, Shinji Morimoto, Shuji Aoki, Todd Sowers, Jochen Schmitt, Michael Bock, Jonas Beck, Hubertus Fischer, Sylvia E. Michel, Bruce H. Vaughn, John B. Miller, James W.C. White, Gordon Brailsford, Hinrich Schaefer, Peter Sperlich, Willi A. Brand, Michael Rothe, Thomas Blunier, David Lowry, Rebecca E. Fisher, Euan G. Nisbet, Andrew L. Rice, Peter Bergamaschi, Cordelia Veidt, Ingeborg Levin

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report results from a worldwide interlaboratory comparison of samples among laboratories that measure (or measured) stable carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios of atmospheric CH₄ (δ¹³C-CH₄ and δD-CH₄). The offsets among the laboratories are larger than the measurement reproducibility of individual laboratories. To disentangle plausible measurement offsets, we evaluated and critically assessed a large number of intercomparison results, some of which have been documented previously in the literature. The results indicate significant offsets of δ¹³C-CH₄ and δD- CH₄ measurements among data sets reported from different laboratories; the differences among laboratories …

Raps Sheet, March 2018, Retirement Association Of Portland State

RAPS Sheet: Monthly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Drivers Of Solar Radiation Variability In The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, Maciej K. Obryk, Andrew G. Fountain, Peter T. Doran

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Annually averaged solar radiation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica has varied by over 20 W m−2 during the past three decades; however, the drivers of this variability are unknown. Because small differences in radiation are important to water availability and ecosystem functioning in polar deserts, determining the causes are important to predictions of future desert processes. We examine the potential drivers of solar variability and systematically eliminate all but stratospheric sulfur dioxide. We argue that increases in stratospheric sulfur dioxide increase stratospheric aerosol optical depth and decrease solar intensity. Because of the polar location of the McMurdo Dry Valleys …

A Virtual Lock-In Amplifier, Spectrum Analyzer, Impedance Meter And Semiconductor Analyzer Implemented On An Sr7265 Hardware Target, Jianghua Bai, John L. Freeouf, Andres H. La Rosa

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lock-in amplifiers are used to detect and measure very small AC signals down to the range of nVs. Accurate measurements may be made even when the small signals are buried by noise sources thousands of times larger. With the digital signal processing (DSP) technology involved in modern instrumentation, a lock-in amplifier is more versatile than sensing and recover small signals. Combining the virtual instrumentation technology, we reorganize the functional blocks of a programmable lock-in amplifier and build it as a virtual spectrum analyzer, virtual impedance meter, virtual network analyzer, virtual semiconductor parameter analyzer, signal generator, etc. A 4 layer model …

The What And Why Of Whole Number Arithmetic: Foundational Ideas From History, Language And Societal Changes, Xu Hu Sun, Christine Chambris, Judy Sayers, Man Keung Siu, Jason Cooper, Jean-Luc Dorier, Sarah Inés González De Lora Sued, Eva Thanheiser, Nadia Azrou, Lynn Mcgarvey, Catherine Houdement, Lisser Rye Ejersbo

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasing globalization encourages assumptions of universalism in teaching and learning, in which cultural and contextual factors are perceived as nonessential. However, our teaching and learning are unavoidably embedded in history, language and culture, from which we draw to organize our educational systems. Such factors can remain hidden but can also provide us with opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of constraints that are taken for granted. This chapter provides a meta-level analysis and synthesis of the what and why of whole number arithmetic (WNA). The summary provides background for the whole volume, which identifies the historical, cultural and linguistic foundations …

Evidence-Based Causal Chains For Linking Health, Development, And Conservation Actions, Jiangxiao Qiu, Edward Game, Heather Tallis, Lydia Olander, Louise Glew, James S. Kagan, Multiple Additional Authors

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Sustainability challenges for nature and people are complex and interconnected, such that effective solutions require approaches and a common theory of change that bridge disparate disciplines and sectors. Causal chains offer promising approaches to achieving an integrated understanding of how actions affect ecosystems, the goods and services they provide, and ultimately, human well-being. Although causal chains and their variants are common tools across disciplines, their use remains highly inconsistent, limiting their ability to support and create a shared evidence base for joint actions. In this article, we present the foundational concepts and guidance of causal chains linking disciplines and sectors …

Development And Field Validation Of An Environmental Dna (Edna) Assay For Invasive Clams Of The Genus Corbicula, Dominique A. Cowart, Mark A. Renshaw, Crysta Gantz, John Umek, Sudeep Chandra, Scott P. Egan, David M. Lodge, Eric R. Larson

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Early detection is imperative for successful control or eradication of invasive species, but many organisms are difficult to detect at the low abundances characteristic of recently introduced populations. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a promising invasive species surveillance tool for freshwaters, owing to its high sensitivity to detect aquatic species even when scarce. We report here a new eDNA assay for the globally invasive Asian clam Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774), with field validation in large lakes of western North America. We identified a candidate primer pair for the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene for C. fluminea. We …

Science In The Learning Gardens: A Study Of Motivation, Achievement, And Science Identity In Low-Income Middle Schools, Dilafruz Williams, Heather Anne Brule, Sybil Schantz Kelley, Ellen A. Skinner

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Science in the Learning Gardens (henceforth, SciLG) program was designed to address two well-documented, inter-related educational problems: under-representation in science of students from racial and ethnic minority groups and inadequacies of curriculum and pedagogy to address their cultural and motivational needs. Funded by the National Science Foundation, SciLG is a partnership between Portland Public Schools and Portland State University. The sixth- through eighth-grade SciLG curriculum aligns with Next Generation Science Standards and uses school gardens as the milieu for learning. This provides the context to investigate factors that support success of a diverse student population using the motivational …

Draft Genome Sequence Of A Dictyoglomus Sp. From An Enrichment Culture Of A New Zealand Geothermal Spring, Anna-Louise Reysenbach, John A. Donaho, John F. Kelley, Emily St. John, Christina Turner, Mircea Podar, Matthew B. Stott

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A draft genome of a novel Dictyoglomus sp., NZ13-RE01, was obtained from a New Zealand hot spring enrichment culture. The 1,927,012-bp genome is similar in both size and G+C content to other Dictyoglomus spp. Like its relatives, Dictyoglomus sp. NZ13-RE01 encodes many genes involved in complex carbohydrate metabolism.

Implementing An Spm Controller With Labview, Jianghua Bai, John L. Freeouf, Andres H. La Rosa

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this article is to reduce the barrier of developing a house-made scanning probe microscope(SPM). Here in this paper,we cover all the details of programming an SPM controller with LabVIEW. The main controller has three major sequential portions. They are system initialization portion,scan control and image display portion and system shutdown portion. The most complicated and essential part of the main controller is the scan control and image display portion, which is achieved with various parallel tasks. These tasks are scan area and image size adjusting module, Y-axis scan control module, Xaxis scan and image transferring module, parameters …