Digital Commons Network^™

Inhibition Of Interleukin-1 Receptor-Associated Kinase-1 Is A Therapeutic Strategy For Acute Myeloid Leukemia Subtypes, Mona Mohammad Hosseini

University Honors Theses

A major challenge in treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the molecular heterogeneity of the disease. Previously we showed that interleukin-1 (IL-1), promotes the growth of AML cells in ~ 70% of tested primary AML samples. Increased secretion of IL-1 results in increased levels of IL-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK1), an essential mediator of innate immunity and inflammatory responses. In this study, we showed overexpression of IRAK1 and its activity in AML across various genetic subtypes, and showed that genetic knockdown of IRAK1 gene by using inducible short hairpin RNA (shRNA) in AML cell lines and primary samples as well as …

Expressing The Β-Glucosidase Gene As A Reporter In The Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Pyrococcus Furiosus, Arman Carrasco

University Honors Theses

Archaea are the domain of life closest to the Eukaryotes (which include humans), and they share a very similar gene replication system. Pyrococcus furiosus, a thermophilic archaeon, can be used as a model organism to study this replication system. A common tool used to conduct these studies is a reporter gene. In this study, the beta glucosidase gene was attempted to be integrated by a plasmid vector designed to enhance gene activity and assessed for viability for use as a reporter gene in P. furiosus. This tool would be helpful to track levels of gene expression. Though it was …

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 …

R.I.P (Race In Portland), Christian J. Orellana Bauer

University Honors Theses

R.I.P (Race in Portland) is a music album centered around race in the United States as well as Portland, OR. The written portion of the album accompanying the music itself is a paper which investigates the history of politicized music, discusses the use of hip hop as a tool for social and political conversation as well as critiques of the genre, and draws connections between the album (R.I.P) and the genre itself. The work hopes to expand the conversation about race beyond the genre of hip hop which currently is mostly where this conversation takes place in the medium of …

Treading, Not Running, Victoria A. Rielly

University Honors Theses

Treading, not Running is a 60 page graphic novel following teenage runaway Rat on an emotional road trip, as they befriend the housekeeping robot they had been planning to sell for drug money.

Film Marketing On Instagram: A Model For Effectively Employing Influencers, Bryce Earhart

University Honors Theses

This article discusses the diffusion process of Instagram influencer marketing for a film as sponsored content moves from an influencer through Instagram’s social network. Instagram influencer marketing is broken down into three major pieces: the influencer, the social system, and the message. Each piece is explored within the context of Rogers’ theory of Diffusion of Innovations to build a model that explains successful campaigns. This model is laid onto a case study of Universal Studios’ 2017 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom campaign to showcase an Instagram influencer effort employed by a major film studio. Identifying the diffusion that occurs during Instagram …

Controversy Advertising: An Exploratory Study On Controversy Advertising And Its Effects, Yun Kuan

University Honors Theses

This is an exploratory study on the effects controversial social issues in advertising has on consumers. As the current political climate becomes more and more charged, corporations are joining in on the conversation, producing advertising categorized as “controversy advertising”. However, controversy advertising hasn’t been deeply explored, and its effectiveness and goal is unclear. Data for this research is gathered through secondary and primary research, including a literature review, an interview, and a survey where respondents were asked to react to two controversy advertisements. Between secondary and primary research, this study examines how controversy advertising impacts the way people view the …

Consumer Acceptance Of Eco-Innovations In The Athletic & Outdoor Industry, Ethan Cotton

University Honors Theses

In an age of increasing consumer awareness and connectedness, demand for company level innovation that reduces harmful environmental effects has morphed into a baseline expectation. However, an attitude behavior gap is present between consumers’ stated preferences for sustainable innovation in the products they purchase and their follow through purchase behavior. Research presents conflicting evidence concerning the primary motivation for purchasing with the environment in mind, is it concern for the planet, are consumers just following the way of the crowd, or do they not even care at all? Companies often fail to address the sustainable attributes of products due, in …

To Die Or Not To Die: An Examination Of Gubernatorial Clemency Powers Through A Case Analysis Of Death Penalty Moratoriums, Mary Margaret L. Kirchner

University Honors Theses

Capital punishment is a controversial sentence reserved for the worst of the worst crimes. State citizens and legislatures have addressed the use of the death penalty in different ways. To mitigate capital punishment, governors have been granted the power to issue clemency for inmates in the criminal justice system. This clemency power is an essential component of the executive’s ability to ensure checks and balances between the three branches of government. This report investigates the overlapping relationship between a governor’s ability to affect the death penalty through acts of clemency. Four Governors in the United States have issued death penalty …

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, …

Stop Labelling Us: Queer Futures For Film Criticism, Aria N. Ramus

University Honors Theses

Queer cinema exists as a form of subversive storytelling, where ambiguity is utilized to tell non-normative narratives. Mainstream film criticism, however, finds itself ill-equipped to address the complexities of queer films. Film criticism seeks clarity in films that are intentionally ambiguous, and in doing so runs the risk of misrepresenting the film and its topics. Through the use of a case study, queer cinema is evaluated as a tool for developing mainstream criticism. XXY (2007) and El niño pez (2009), written and directed by Argentine filmmaker Lucía Puenzo, tell coming-of-age stories of queer youth. Their stories and narrative techniques can …

The Semiotics Of Wine Labeling: A Study Of Millennial Perception, Abby Williams

University Honors Theses

Research shows that Millennial customers rely on a front package label as their primary purchase factor when determining a product's worth, but there is little research as to what each element on a label communicates to a customer, and specifically, to a Millennial customer.

Traditional semiotic analysis uses a qualitative approach to discover how attitudes and perceptions of brands are communicated to the consumer. The semiotic method looks to the subconscious consumer interpretations of emblems, icons, fonts, colors and other visual graphic components of a brand to uncover how different elements communicate to an individual.

It is also known that …

Music Video Creation And Auteurism, Dylan Paris

University Honors Theses

My thesis project is a music video for a song I wrote and recorded called “Mad King”. The themes of the song revolve around my fears and anger towards our current presidential administration and the constant threat of death from nuclear war. The video combines footage of myself playing multiple characters in a near future based on my fears and anxieties. Along with the footage of myself, additional found footage is overlaid into the piece. This footage includes rallies, North Korean military parades, the inauguration of Donald Trump, test footage of the “Mother Of All Bombs”, and lastly alpha footage …

Changing Consumer Behavior Towards Mindful Consumption Through Social Proof To Decrease Environmental Harm, Vineta I. Gleba

University Honors Theses

This thesis describes overconsumption as a cause of climate change and environmental problems. It expands on the idea and definition of mindful consumption to include nine different consumer behaviors people can adopt to decrease their carbon footprint and harmful impacts on the environment. Research shows there is a value-action gap between what consumers value and their purchasing patterns. Therefore, this thesis demonstrates how to use the marketing tactic of social proof to change consumer behavior towards mindful consumption and close the value-action gap. Following suggested approaches of organizations applying social proof messaging to the nine mindful consumption practices, two case …

Marketing In Portland's Small Publishing Industry: Case Studies In The Biographical Approach, Kate Jay

University Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the influence of a publisher’s individual experience and background on the marketing functions of a small publishing press. In order to complete this task, the biographical approach was used. This approach requires interviews of small business owners in order to gain an understanding of their motivation, history, and background. Three Portland publishers of similar size but varying genre focuses were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed and treated as individual case studies. The results of the interviews and analysis was an understanding that the impact on a press from the owners’ knowledge, personalities, and backgrounds change …

Internet Of Things Security: Ongoing Threats And Proposed Solutions, Samuel Strba

University Honors Theses

This paper will describe the security vulnerabilities posed by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and potential solutions to alleviate these vulnerabilities. It will describe how IoT devices work, and how they differ from conventional devices such as personal computers in utilizing the Internet. Then the paper will describe the security threats associated with IoT devices, and how a lack of proper security in IoT devices exacerbates this problem. Finally, it will describe proposed solutions to improve IoT device security. IoT devices are seeing increasing deployment in the field, and the continued growth of the Internet of Things along with the …

An Analysis Of Green Infrastructure Implementation Strategies In Portland And Other Global Leaders In Climate Action, Rachel L.R. Lemont

University Honors Theses

Green infrastructure has become increasingly popular as a way to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change in urban environments. Cities all over the world, including Portland, have developed their own strategies which inform local organizations on the actions they should take to be climate resilient - and many of these strategies include the implementation of green infrastructure. This thesis compares Portland's green infrastructure implementation strategies to those known around the world, and utilizes themes found in those strategies to create a survey on local green infrastructure initiatives in the Portland area. This information will be important for …

Interstrand Crosslink Resistance In Escherichia Coli, Jedidiah D. Acott

University Honors Theses

8-methoxypsoralen is a DNA-intercalating agent, which can photoreact with pyrimidine bases on opposing DNA strands, to form an interstrand crosslink. These lesions completely block replication and transcription, and are widely used in chemotherapies; yet how these lesions are processed in the cell remains poorly understood and insight into these processes could lead to better therapies that evade resistance. Previous studies isolated an Escherichia coli mutant demonstrating hyper-resistance to interstrand crosslink-inducing agents. The mutation was mapped to 57.2 minutes on the chromosome, and potentially encoded a 55-kDa protein induced as part of the SOS response. Although these genes remain unidentified, hscA …

War Of Words: Applying Communication Theory And Technology To Understand The 2016 Us Presidential Election, Louis Pino Bello

University Honors Theses

This paper is a qualitative analysis of news reports, broadcast media, tweets, posts, memes, books, biographies and textbooks which uncovers how technology was used to filter through millions of American voters, create or exploit ideological divisions, customize and deliver propaganda via fake news to dramatically sway the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential Election. Russian interests were able to exploit social media networks, to deliver customized messaging designed to leverage communication theory common to the social sciences to demonize a candidate and possibly install the highest ranking foreign asset in the history of The United States of America. All of …

The Role Of Hegemonic Masculinity In Gay Men's Health Disparities, Andrew M. Edwards

University Honors Theses

This study was undertaken to better understand how gay men’s subjection to hegemonic masculinity relates to gay men’s health disparities. Statistically, gay men are subject to numerous health disparities, most notably regarding their sexual health, substance use, and mental health. Masculinities are a relevant framework to contextualize these disparities, as masculinities, and specifically hegemonic masculinity, affect how the gay man engages with himself and society. Employing a qualitative, cross-sectional design, this study utilized in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten gay men residing in the Portland-metro area. Participants detailed a thematic sociocultural framework in which gay masculinity performance is ubiquitously graded on …

Attempts To Synthesize Fumarylacetoacetate Using The Filamentous Ascomycete, Aspergillus Nidulans, Carolyn Loughran

University Honors Theses

Fumarylacetoacetate (FAA) is a downstream metabolite of phenylalanine catabolism. In Human Type 1 Tyrosinemia a deletion of the enzyme that breaks down this compound leads to a toxic build up that leads to acute liver and kidney failure. FAA is used to test the activity of a drug used liver repopulation therapy. This project aims to synthesize this compound using enzyme extracts from the filamentous fungi Aspergillus nidulans. The fungus is grown on a carbon source, phenylacetic acid, which induces expression of enzymes in the phenylalanine catabolic pathway. The enzymes are then extracted from the cultures, purified, and used …

A History Of Friendship Park, Paige E. Landis

University Honors Theses

Friendship Park is the only designated bi-national meeting point along the US-MX border. It's a space where friends and families separated by the border wall can come to be together. The park was created in 1971 as a space that could be shared by both the US and Mexico. But as our relationship with our neighboring nation has become more tense, and as we have begun to build an increasingly secure wall along the border, Friendship Park has suffered. As the border has become more militarized and secure, so has the park. As our two countries have become more divided …

Squat-Able Objects: An Instructional Zine With New Tools For Squatting, Dominic Galen

University Honors Theses

As housing stocks across the country becomes increasingly unstable in the face of imminent ecological collapse, economic austerity measures, and speculative investment, squatting becomes an increasingly appropriate response to the precarity of life in Contemporary America. In contrast to the present neoliberal solutions to the housing crisis, squatting is able to operate outside the logic of the market and effect change on its own terms, by its own will. The excessive demands of the parasitic land owning class cannot be compared to the needs for basic survival and humanity of the rest. Many are tired of the Sisyphean task of …

Transformation Of Pyrococcus Furiosus With Thermostable Green Fluorescent Protein, Emma R. Hollar

University Honors Theses

Archaea, the most recently discovered domain of life, are extremely diverse and can be manipulated for research and commercial use. Pyrococcus furiosus is a hyperthermophilic archaeon used as a model organism for studying archaea, especially extremophiles. Green fluorescent proteins are a commonly used marker of transcription but can only be expressed in a narrow temperature zone and denature at the extreme optimal growth temperature of P. furiosus. To mediate this inability to use green fluorescent protein in hyperthermophiles, a shuttle vector for P. furiosus and Escherichia coli was designed and genes for thermostable green fluorescent proteins were incorporated. This …

Reclaiming Women's Stories At The Border: Mexicana Migration, Catholicism, And Revolution, 1910-1930, Alexandra Ibarra

University Honors Theses

Scholarship concerning Mexican ancestry and Mexican-American communities in the United States during the early twentieth century has largely ignored women. Although Chicana feminist scholarship increased during the 1980's, it focused on the activities of independent women. The focus on revolutionary Mexican women, figures such as the adelitas or soldaderas, obscured the rich history and activities of everyday wives and mothers. This thesis explores how everyday women used domesticity and religiosity, "feminized" domains in Mexican culture, in order to navigate spaces and events of the revolution. The main evidence in this study involves the personal documents of Leonor Villegas de …

Rendering Identity: Normativity In Conventional Contemporary Queer Documentary, Lea G. Kreck

University Honors Theses

Depictions of queer subjects in documentary filmmaking predominantly emphasize the promotion of queer visibility and activist rhetorics. Limited research and discourse has been executed, practically or academically, to explore documentary form as holding potential to contribute to subversive renderings of contemporary queer experience. The following thesis outlines possible basis for reconsidering contemporary queer filmmaking through the disposition of current documentary production limitations. This includes synthesizing tenets of queer theory and film theory to support the potential applications of queer documentary and recommending a premise for subversive documentary principles to better express contemporary queerness. The primary issue confronted is the capacity …

Aftermath: Photographs After 9/11, Ground Zero, And The Myth Of American Exceptionalism, Victoria M. Arredondo

University Honors Theses

The events of September 11^th, 2001 rattled the U.S. public and left them in need of direction when approaching death and grief. Thousands of photographs were taken on 9/11, however, not many were taken of the construction occasionally referred to as "ground zero." In this project, it is demonstrated just how the photographs in two individual projects Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive by Joel Meyerowitz and Aftermath: Unseen Photos by a New York City Cop by John Botte, both perpetuate the myth of moral exceptionalism in the United States post 9/11. Using ideas put forth by Roland Barthes …

Anthropogenic Noise And Cetacean Interactions In The 21st Century: A Contemporary Review Of The Impacts Of Environmental Noise Pollution On Cetacean Ecologies, Caitlin Gordon

University Honors Theses

Anthropogenic noise has been identified as an environmental pollutant since the early 70s and has since been shown to disrupt biologically significant functions of marine life. Recognizing that the world’s oceans are undergoing unprecedented change in the 21^st Century, this study reviews the most current research related to the interactions between cetaceans and anthropogenic noise in their environment. Working with literature published after 2008, this review contextualizes the direct and indirect impacts of the greatest sources of anthropogenic noise: vessel traffic, seismic seafloor exploration, and sonar, and their effect on cetacean biology and ecology. This review found that vessel …

Growing Against The Grain: Confronting White Supremacy And Patriarchy In Gardens In The Dunes, Andre Cole

University Honors Theses

Gardens in the Dunes is a novel from 2008 by indigenous author Leslie Marmon Silko about gardening, family, and the looming threat of White, male hegemony in the late 1800's. By analyzing the characters and the garden settings, a pattern of various resistances and oppositions to this colonial violence emerges that I believe is useful for a case study in making meaningful strides in confronting contemporary support for white patriarchy.

Rebranding Street Art: An Examination Of Street Art And Evolution Into Mainstream Advertising, Branding, And Propaganda, Moira Fiona Hampson

University Honors Theses

An examination of the evolution of street art arising from an elemental form of graffiti/vandalism to an established and respected art form used by corporate organizations for advertisement and branding. This case study will provide testimony of research performed over the span of twenty years allowing for the development of acclaimed street artists like Shepard Fairey to establish their own brand identities and collaborations with corporate advertising. Breaking down what street art is and how it correlates to advertising, branding, and propaganda. Discussing the cultural community component of this art form, allowing for such a growth of social acceptance and …