Digital Commons Network^™

Determinants Of State Firearms Policy Variation, Brandon Paul Kaskawal

University Honors Theses

The public policy landscape within the United States in regards to firearms is one which is inhabited by a large variation in policies. While many studies, such as those conducted by Azrael, Cook and Miller or O’Brien, Forrest, Lynott, and Daly, have looked at aspects of a states given firearms policy, little research has be conducted looking at why such a variation among state firearms policies exist. In order to uncover possible reasons for state firearms policy variation, this study looked at nine states as case studies along with six variables which are known to influence public policy. Utilizing the …

Feminist Outdoor Leadership: Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity Through Outdoor Education, Amber Smith

University Honors Theses

Through an intersectional Marxist, Post-Structuralist, Eco-Feminist lens, this study responds to Humberstone’s query if outdoor activities can challenge and transform gender inequalities or if outdoor activities must maintain and reproduce these inequalities (2000). I begin by discussing hegemony and hegemonic masculinity in order to critically assess traditional sport, outdoor activities, and the hegemonic constraints in accessing leisure experienced by women. The examples and discussion I provide demonstrate that extraordinary constraints persist in the 21st century, especially in the form of sexualization, infantilization, marginalization, and delegitimization of female athletes.

I argue that Outdoor Education, due to its unique goals and values, …

Niche Television Content, Taya Welter

University Honors Theses

This research ties together the concepts of group vitality and niche television content. Group vitality, the position a group takes based on structures in society, is partially formed by institutional support. This includes representation and depiction in the media. Niche describes specialized content that gratifies individuals, groups, and their needs. This content can be found in the form of books, music, film, television, and more. The current study focused on niche television content preference within specific groups of people based on their demographics. Separate genres were considered niche categories in this research. Participants were asked to rate how much they …

Precipitation Intensity Required For Landslide Initiation In Rwanda, Angela N. Piller

University Honors Theses

Rwanda has a high density of landslides, heavy precipitation events and a shortage of resources to study them, making it an excellent candidate for study using satellite-based remote sensing data. To assess landslide hazards countrywide, I first built a landslide inventory of 254 landslides and used a statistical methodology. Using logistic regression on 24 test variables, I determined that slope and population density are statistically most relevant to landslide occurrence in Rwanda. A preliminary predictive hazard map for Rwanda was produced, with an overall predictive accuracy of 79.6%. Second, I worked to define a relationship between precipitation intensity and landslide …

Gi Zoonoses In Companion Pets Of The Homeless : The Effects Of Environment And Behavior On The Prevalence Of Gi Parasites, And The Role Of Veterinarians In Public Health Education, Matthew Edwards

University Honors Theses

Veterinarians are the front-line in the world of pet-health and zoonoses which means they are also at the front-line of human health and have an important role of educating clients on behaviors that would both reduce the risk of human and pet contracting a disease. In this study we collected 85 stool samples in Portland OR, USA and examined these by centrifugal fecal flotation, direct smears and for a small number (n=15) ELISA snap-tests. Parasitic prevalence was found to be 27.1% total including 2.4% Ancyclostoma Sp., 4.7% Cryptosporidium Sp., 7.1% Cystoisopora Sp., 9.4% Taenia Sp., 2.4% Giardia Sp., and 2.4% …

International Refugee Law, Olivia A. Loveland

University Honors Theses

This article analyzes the international refugee law regime in order to analyze European Union policies towards asylum seekers in light of the Syrian refugee crisis. By comparing the 1951 Refugee Convention and regional legal instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights policies such as the Dublin Regulation and border controls are analyzed to determine their legality. These policies on the surface appear to be violating basic principle of International Refugee Law such as non-refoulement, however on closer inspection have legal basis. A trend among States to interpret the law in a way that deters refugees is rampant. With …

Looking To The Future Of Education: A Social Art Practice Pedagogy, Alexis Xochihua

University Honors Theses

This article discusses how the implementation of a social practice arts pedagogy will benefit the American educational system. It discusses methodologies and influences that affect the current system and how this system does not prepare students for higher education or life. The social practice art pedagogy utilized arts-integrated pluralization of topics and integration of social examination in order to develop critical thinking skills, social awareness, and quality of education.

Gender, Networking, And Transnationalism: A Case Study From Dakar, Senegal, Sarah Akin

University Honors Theses

Nongovernmental organizations have become important actors and contributors to global governance as states have been superseded as the primary representatives of constituents. Many of the current studies on NGOs tend to focus on their abilities as institutions without actually studying the processes that occur in the work. The current trend in the literature is moving beyond a generalization of NGO work that provides binary accounts of success and failure, good and bad toward ethnographic approaches that study the processes of NGOs in time and space. It is argued that development NGOs, particularly those that work on issues of gender and …

Arts Integrated Elementary School Classrooms And Academic Success, Rachel Fackler

University Honors Theses

To support academic achievement, schools must consider an arts integrated approach to lecture based learning. However, teachers, especially those from lower funded schools, who want to integrate the arts into their classrooms often have to fight and defend their reasoning for doing so. With standardized test scores often being the "end all be all" to how schools are funded and supported, arts education has been some of the first variables to be cut from schools and school districts. This is a failure to the students who need a multi-sensory approach to learning that only art can provide. Activities that activate …

Abusive Supervision In The Workplace: An Examination Of Current Research And A Proposal For Preventive Measures, Samantha Kemper

University Honors Theses

Abusive supervision is a serious and growing problem plaguing today’s organizations, affecting up to 16 percent of employees. This paper provides an overview of workplace mistreatment research, focusing specifically on abusive supervision and its antecedents and consequences, and proposes a course of action for organizations interested in reducing and preventing abusive supervision. In total, 93 articles were included based on the originality of their contributions to the literature. The central objective of this paper is to create a foundation of knowledge and understanding of abusive supervision, which organizations can then use to identify and prevent the occurrence of abusive supervision. …

Convex And Nonconvex Optimization Techniques For The Constrained Fermat-Torricelli Problem, Nathan Lawrence

University Honors Theses

The Fermat-Torricelli problem asks for a point that minimizes the sum of the distances to three given points in the plane. This problem was introduced by the French mathematician Fermat in the 17th century and was solved by the Italian mathematician and physicist Torricelli. In this thesis we introduce a constrained version of the Fermat-Torricelli problem in high dimensions that involves distances to a finite number of points with both positive and negative weights. Based on the distance penalty method, Nesterov’s smoothing technique, and optimization techniques for minimizing differences of convex functions, we provide effective algorithms to solve the problem. …

Attitudes Among Legal Professionals: Measuring For A Difference In Attitudes Towards Science, Jonathen N. Gates

University Honors Theses

Media provides an image of science, as used by law, in an unflattering light. Scientific experts are portrayed as misrepresenting and obscuring the truth of research to support a position at the behest of lawyers and their clients. This research examines the occurrence of "junk science" in courts and relates doctrinal and values theories to explain its presence. An investigation of attitudes towards science is conducted using General Social Survey data to test whether legal professionals hold more negative views towards the scientific community than peers in other fields. The regressions suggest that legal professionals may in fact have more …

Night Access Plan, Lea Anderson, David Backes, Abe Moland, Taylor Phillips, Rae-Leigh Stark, Shane Valle

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Oregon Health and Science University is a microcosm of the 24-hour city, and it’s essential that patients, employees, students and others have safe and convenient 24-hour access to its medical campuses. Access to and from the main campus is always complicated, but even more so at night. The Night Access Plan lays out a strategy to make getting to and from OHSU at night and early in the morning safer, more convenient, and affordable.

A video about this project may be viewed here.

This project was conducted under the supervision of Matthew Gebhardt, Susan Gibson-Hartnett, Ethan Seltzer and Marisa …

When Enough Is Enough: The Impact Of Parental Involvement In Children's Participation In Organized Sports, Dorothy K. Hollins

University Honors Theses

In the United States, organized sports for children and youth play a key role in our country’s culture. Child participation in organized youth sports begins as young as the age of 5 and continues on to 18 years of age. Youth participation in athletics is premised upon the socially accepted notion that participation in competitive sports builds character, which in turn helps children learn valuable life lessons. However, recent studies have shown that youth athletics provides an environment for adults to become overly emotionally invested in their children’s athletic endeavors. This thesis examines varying levels of parental involvement in their …

#Blacklivesmatter: This Generation's Civil Rights Movement, Tanika Siscoe

University Honors Theses

Do Black Lives Matter or do All Lives Matter? That question has been the cause of many debates and conversations across America recently. The All Lives Matter response was created to criticize the Black Lives Matter Movement and operates under the assumption that the movement isn’t needed in America because it is a post racial society. This thesis reviews race theories, racial formation in the United States and racist ideology in the pre- and post-Civil Rights era in order to show why the Black Lives Matter Movement is needed. It looks at the influence colorblindness has on the United States …

Defining Protein Interactions: Ankle Link Proteins Of Stereocilia In Hair Cells, Ladan Yazdidoust

University Honors Theses

Hearing loss presenting without any other defects is referred to as nonsyndromic, whereas hearing loss in combination with one or more defects is referred to as syndromic hearing loss. Usher syndrome, one example of syndromic hearing loss, is a genetic disorder that affects both hearing and vision. There are several genes associated with Usher syndrome. The genes GPR98 and USH2A are critical for ankle link formation and when mutated result in deafness. Our lab (Barr-Gillespie Lab at OHSU) is interested in further characterizing the protein-protein interactions required to form the ankle links. This includes two genes (PDZD7 and MYO7A …

Designing Black Watch: How Being A Military Spouse Shaped My Creation Of The Set Design For A Play About War, Nichole Meehl

University Honors Theses

This thesis documents the process of designing the set for the play Black Watch by Gregory Burke. This play tells the story of the British Army’s Black Watch Regiment and their deployment to Iraq in 2004. The Black Watch Regiment is a Scottish regiment, and the play focuses on their history, as well as their current operations. Black Watch was first performed on the 5^th of August 2006 in Edinburgh, Scotland with the National Theatre of Scotland and received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. This thesis will focus on two main areas. First, I will highlight …

Following The Flat Hat: What Leads People To National Park Service Interpretive Careers?, Avarie Fitzgerald

University Honors Theses

National Park Service interpreters around the United States are dedicated to connecting people to their parks and historical sites. While these interpretive rangers have an important mission of preserving the landscape and stories of our nation’s most treasured places, a gap in the research of significant life experiences and environmental education professions exists in understanding the motivations behind following a career in the park service. Through semi-structured phenomenological interviews, the significant life experiences of interpretive park rangers were investigated as to their degree of influence on their choice of career. The findings indicate that quality time spent outdoors, family involvement, …

Oxyhalogen-Sulfur Chemistry: Kinetics And Mechanism Of Oxidation Of N-Acetylthiourea By Aqueous Bromate And Acidified Bromate, Kudzanai Chipiso, Wilbes Mbiya, Thai Tran, Reuben H. Simoyi

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The oxidation of N-acetylthiourea (ACTU) by acidic bromate has been studied by observing formation of bromine in excess bromate conditions. The reaction displays an induction period before formation of bromine. The stoichiometry of the reaction was determined to be 4:3: 4BrO 3 – +3(CH 3 CO)NH(NH 2 )C=S+3H 2 O®4Br – +3(CH 3 CO)NH(NH 2 )C=O+3SO 4 2– +6H + (A) with a complete desulfurization of ACTU to its urea analogue. In excess bromate conditions the stoichiometry was 8:5: 8BrO 3 – + 5(CH 3 CO)NH(NH 2 )C=S + H 2 O ® 4Br 2 + 5(CH 3 CO)NH(NH 2 …

Electrochemistry-Coupled To Mass Spectrometry In Simulation Of Metabolic Oxidation Of Methimazole: Identification And Characterization Of Metabolites, Kudzanai Chipiso, Reuben H. Simoyi

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Methimazole (MMI), an antithyroid drug, is associated with idiosyncratic toxicity. Reactive metabolites resulting from bioactivation of the drug have been implicated in these adverse drug reactions. Mimicry of enzymatic oxidation of MMI was carried out by electrochemically oxidizing MMI using a coulometric flow-through cell equipped with a porous graphite working electrode. The cell was coupled on-line to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EC/ESI-MS). ESI spectra were acquired in both negative and positive modes. In acidic medium, ESI spectral analysis showed that the dimer was the main product, while in neutral and basic media, methimazole sulfenic acid, methimazole sulfinic acid and methimazole …

Advice To Young Adults From Young Adults: Helpful Hints For Policy Change In The Mental Health System, Nancy Koroloff, Barbara J. Friesen, Nicholas Buekea

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This tip sheet is designed for use by youth and young adult led organizations that include young people with lived experience in the mental health system in their membership. Organizations that have a history of working together collectively, have clear leadership roles and are ready to move into policy change are most likely to find these tips useful. The recommendations and the quotes contained in this tip sheet came from a series of interviews with young adult leaders from advocacy groups that focus on mental health challenges or living in foster care. Each organization was selected because of its work …

Full State Revivals In Linearly Coupled Chains With Commensurate Eigenspectra, J. J. P. Veerman, Jovan Petrovic

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Coherent state transfer is an important requirement in the construction of quantum computer hardware. The state transfer can be realized by linear next-neighbour-coupled finite chains. Starting from the commensurability of chain eigenvalues as the general condition of periodic dynamics, we find chains that support full periodic state revivals. For short chains, exact solutions are found analytically by solving the inverse eigenvalue problem to obtain the coupling coefficients between chain elements. We apply the solutions to design optical waveguide arrays and perform numerical simulations of light propagation thorough realistic waveguide structures. Applications of the presented method to the realization of a …

Friends Of The Children: Strategies For Scaling Impact, Jacen Greene, Nicki Yechin Lee, Eric Nelsen

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Friends of the Children, a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, was founded in 1993 by retired entrepreneur Duncan Campbell to serve youth at the highest risk of teen parenting, incarceration, or dropping out of school. Each youth client was matched with a paid mentor from first grade through the end of high school. The costs of this intervention were high, but the outcomes were extremely impressive in each of the three risk areas. The total benefits to society of Friends of the Children’s intervention was estimated at $7 for every $1 spent on the program.

In the United States alone, …

Re-Envisioning Macro Social Work Practice, Bowen Mcbeath

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article presents 10 recommendations supporting a re-envisioning of macro practice for the 21^st century. These strategies are needed to counter a generational trend of disinvestment in macro social work practice and to support the historic vision of the social work profession as equally responsive to the needs of at-risk, disadvantaged populations and the organizational, community, and policy roots of social injustice. Before describing these recommendations and discussing their implications for the social work profession, I first briefly review the challenges facing macro practice and current initiatives promoting its renewal. The goal of this analysis is to define the …

The Influence Of Presidential Rhetoric On Public Perception Of Drugs And The Government’S Handling Of The "War On Drugs" In The United States, Nolan Kuenzi

University Honors Theses

There has been a massive rise in the prison population over the last several decades, in the United States, due to the ongoing "War on Drugs." This "War on Drugs" has had an especially negative impact on poor and minority communities. In order to better understand why this "War on Drugs" has occurred this thesis illustrates the potential mechanisms through which the drug related rhetoric of presidents might have influenced the public's perception of the drug issue and the government’s handling of it in the United States. To illustrate these mechanisms a literature review related to this topic is completed …

A Genetic And Biochemical Analysis Of Sulfolobus Spindle-Shaped Virus 1, Eric Alexander Iverson

Dissertations and Theses

Viruses infecting the Archaea exhibit a tremendous amount of morphological and genetic diversity. This is especially true for crenarchaeal viruses from the family Fuselloviridae, which possess spindle-shaped capsids and genomes that harbor a great number of uncharacterized genes. The functions of these unidentified gene products are of interest as they have the potential to provide valuable insights into the fusellovirus infection cycle and archaeal viruses in general. In an effort to better characterize the genetic requirements of the Fuselloviridae, we have performed genetic and biochemical experiments using the best studied fusellovirus, Sulfolobus spindle-shaped virus 1 (SSV1).

A comprehensive …

Free Mate Choice Enhances Conservation Breeding In The Endangered Giant Panda, Meghan S. Martin-Wintle, David J. Shepherdson, Guiquan Zhang, Hemin Zhang, Desheng Li, Xiaoping Zhou, Rengui Li, Ronald R. Swaisgood

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conservation breeding programmes have become an increasingly important tool to save endangered species, yet despite the allocation of significant resources, efforts to create self-sustaining populations have met with limited success. The iconic giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) embodies the struggles associated with ex situ species conservation. Here we show that behavioural mate preferences in giant pandas predict reproductive outcomes. Giant pandas paired with preferred partners have significantly higher copulation and birth rates. Reproductive rates increase further when both partners show mutual preference for one another. If managers were to incorporate mate preferences more fully into breeding management, the production of giant …

Coyotes On The Web: Understanding Human-Coyote Interaction And Online Education Using Citizen Science, Zuriel Anne Rasmussen

Dissertations and Theses

Coyote (Canis latrans) numbers are increasing in urban areas, leading to more frequent human-coyote interactions. Rarely, and particularly when coyotes have become habituated to humans, conflicts occur. Effective education about urban coyotes and how to prevent habituation reduces conflict. Citizen science, in the form of online education, can be used to engage and educate city dwellers about urban coyotes. In this research, I explore Portland Metropolitan Area (PMA) residents' baseline experiences with, and attitudes toward, urban coyotes. Next, I investigate citizen science as a tool for education. Using the Portland Urban Coyote Project (PUCP), a citizen science project, as a …

Check-In Frequency With Friends On Location-Based Social Networks: A Look At Homophily And Relational Closeness, Jacqueline H. Vo

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines factors associated with the frequency with which users of location-based social networks (LBSNs) "check-in" with their "friends." In addition to a variety of control factors (i.e., sex homophily, race homophily, geographic proximity, length of friendship, and "friendship" type, including non-romantic friend, romantic partner, and family), the central factors of interest were users' background and attitude homophily with, and relational closeness to, their "friends." Results demonstrate that relational closeness and "friendship" type (i.e., romantic partner) were significantly, positively associated with "check-in" frequency.

From Msa To Ca: A Beginner's Guide For Transitioning Into Colloquial Arabic, Lina Gomaa

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

This book is for students who have studied Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) for one year or more and would like to learn colloquial Arabic basics using their knowledge of MSA. It aims at transitioning learners from Novice Mid level to Intermediate Low through presenting situations useful for living in an Arab country. The book has several features including hyperlinks, practice dialogues with open answers, cultural tips, and more.

Please see the Open Textbook Library for faculty reviews of this textbook.

Audio files are available online

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