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A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis Of The Workplace Challenges Experienced By Women, Ahmed Mohammed Almousa

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation explores the persistent workplace challenges experienced by women through three interrelated studies using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Despite decades of progress, women continue to face structural barriers, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and emotional labor demands that shape their professional experiences.

The first study analyzes GSS data to examine the impact of the #MeToo movement on self-reports of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Results show an increase in reporting sexual harassment among White men and Women of color. With respect to men of color and white women, the results were not significant or did not show an increase. …

"I'M Strictly T4t": Trans For Trans Connections In The Contemporary, Madi Lou Alexander

Dissertations and Theses

Trans for trans relationships, referred to as "t4t", are a relationship type specific to trans individuals. Linguistically originating from Craigslist personal ad spaces, t4t indicates a trans person seeking out and engaging with another trans person. The scope of relationships under the t4t label are often largely associated with sexuality and dating scenes due to their conception in online cruising spaces. Through qualitative analysis, I assess the range of what t4t relationships are through 30 in-depth interviews with participants identifying as trans. This work moves away from focusing on the deficits of holding a marginalized identity, instead aiming to center …

Levels Of The Nicotine Analog 6-Methyl Nicotine As A Naturally Formed Tobacco Alkaloid In Tobacco And Tobacco Products, James F. Pankow, Wentai Luo, Kevin J. Mcwhirter, Mohana Sengupta, Robert M. Strongin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

S-6-methyl nicotine (S-6MN) has appeared as a nicotine substitute in commercial electronic e-cigarette products and pouches, including with the claim that such use is not regulated under current U.S. law. This work describes an analytical chemistry based search for the natural S/R presence of 6MN and three other MN compounds in additive-free cured leaf tobaccos and in multiple commercial tobacco products. The samples were extracted using 5 N NaOH, then methyl t-butyl ether. The extracts were analyzed using gas chromatography (GC) with mass spectrometric (MS) detection, and liquid chromatography (LC) with high resolution MS/MS detection. GC peaks with the correct …

A House With No Walls Where Persimmons Grow In The Garden: Photography As A Collaborative Feminist Practice And Using Archives To Reframe The Present, Jada Wheeler

University Honors Theses

A House With No Walls is an investigation of the idea of chosen family, as it exists apart from the influence of any institution. It alludes to the home as a place that exists within space shared with the people we choose as family and within our own free bodies. This project investigates the collaborative potential of photography, and uses it as a tool in creating a feminist representation of family. All the photographs were made with close friends, in an unplanned and spontaneous manner, to document intimate moments of our everyday lives.

Where Persimmons Grow In The Garden is …

Spousal Bereavement Enhances Proinflammatory Cytokine Production To Acute, Psychological Stress., E Lydia Wu-Chung, Ryan L. Brown, Robert Suchting, Jensine Paoletti-Hatcher, Michelle A. Chen, Angie S. Leroy, Kyle W. Murdock, Cobi J. Heijnen, Christopher P. Fagundes

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Early widowhood is characterized by chronic stress and is associated with a higher risk of incident depression and cardiovascular-related morbidity and mortality. Peripheral inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder and atherothrombosis and may represent a common mechanism underlying widow(er)'s elevated risk for both health conditions. Chronic psychological stress sensitizes the release of proinflammatory cytokines during the peripheral stress response. The present study examined whether recent spousal bereavement enhances the inflammatory response to an acute, psychological stressor. Recently widowed older adults (n = 143) and non-widowed controls (n = 69) participated in a quasi-experimental study, during which …

"This Revolution Been Televised": Media As A Tool Of Justice And An Apparatus Of State Violence, Nahal Rastegarpour

Dissertations and Theses

This study utilizes case information from an online database called Fatal Encounters, which has over 30,000 incident reports of civilian deaths involving a police officer. From this larger population, a sample of 415 cases is used to run an additional mixed method research design, which integrates quantitative data analysis and qualitative content analyses. The quantitative analysis sample includes all 415 cases, and the qualitative content analysis uses a subsample of 34 cases. Using demographic data provided by Fatal Encounters, this study expands case information to create new data sets. Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected, developed, and then analyzed. …

The Effects Of Family Cohesion On The Relationship Between Trauma And State-Level Social Policy Provision In The United States, Brandon Kendall Ross Fielding

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines how childhood trauma and family cohesion interact to shape state-level social policy generosity in the United States. The study begins with a multilevel quantitative analysis using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health and the State Safety-Net Generosity Index to assess how individual-level experiences of trauma and family support relate to state-level welfare generosity. Two trauma indices--one focused on adverse childhood experiences and bullying, and the other on food-related hardship--are used to explore how trauma influences attitudes toward public assistance, and whether family cohesion moderates this relationship. Results from marginal effects analyses indicate that family cohesion, …

Symbolic Leverage: Nominating (Non)Veiled Women As An Electoral Competition Strategy In Polarized Turkey, Elif Sari-Genc

Politics and Global Affairs Faculty Publications and Presentations

Do party elites strategically nominate (non)veiled women? While research exists on Muslim-minority countries, little is known about the dynamics of such strategies in Muslim-majority contexts, where the interplay of Islam, secularism, gender, and veiling is complex. To address this gap, I examine electoral competition in Turkey, investigating whether parties strategically nominate (non)veiled women for mayoral seats in opposing party strongholds to capitalize on the political symbols associated with women's identities — a strategy | term "symbolic leverage." Using an original dataset, elite interviews, and electoral discourse analysis, I find that parties leverage the symbolic value of veiled and nonveiled women …

Post-Fire Delayed Tree Mortality In Mesic Coniferous Forests Reduces Fire Refugia And Seed Sources, Alec S. Dyer, Sebastian Busby, Cody Evers, Matthew Reilly, Aaron Zuspan, Andres Holz

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Context Ecological functions provided by fire refugia are critical for supporting conifer forest resiliency under increased fire activity across the western United States. The spatial distribution and persistence of fire refugia over time are uncertain as fire-injured trees continue to die over subsequent years post-fire. Objectives We examined how post-fire delayed tree mortality affects the spatial distribution and attributes of fire refugia at patch and landscape scales following high-severity wildfires. Methods To explore changes in fire refugia patch size, isolation, and fragmentation over time, we used high-resolution satellite imagery (3 m pixel size) following high-severity fires in Oregon’s western Cascades …

Managing Happiness In The Mexican Maquiladora Industry: A Turnover Management Challenge, Claudia M. Burgos Cruz, Reyna Virginia Barragan Quintero, Angel Contreras Cruz

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explores a turnover management case by implementing exploratory Human-Centered Design (HCD) strategies, combining a collaborative tool in a Mexican maquiladora in Tecate, Baja California. To reduce turnover, the tool was designed, prototyped, and tested to foster the emotional well-being of employees, enhance employee engagement, and promote a sense of belonging in the workplace. The company leaders and managers were trained to use the HCD prototypes, such as the Happiness Dashboard, a visual feedback system using emojis to collect data during regular shifts, and the Gemba Walks, a method for collecting information through observing and interacting with workers. Organizational …

"Significant Bodily Intrusions": Investigations Into Law Enforcement Phlebotomy, Anne Kathleen Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

This three-paper dissertation explores law enforcement phlebotomy, the ability of law enforcement officers to draw blood. Phlebotomy is both a ubiquitous, invasive diagnostic tool as well as a social site with complex relational dynamics at play between phlebotomist and patient. Through law enforcement phlebotomy, the blood draw is co-opted from the medical field into the policing field, and the normative framework through which it is used changes: whereas medical edicts instruct providers to work with patients through an ethics of care--respecting consent and refusal--policing is not similarly bound, instead operating through a prioritization of security and efficiency. In the articles …

Experiences Of Support And Success For Students Of Color In The Midwifery Educational Setting, Laura Jenson

Dissertations and Theses

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other developed country, yet perinatal health outcomes are among the worst, particularly for Black and Indigenous pregnant women and people. Structural and societal racism has contributed greatly to these inequities, and while a diverse perinatal healthcare workforce has the potential to mitigate the impact of pervasive racism, professions such as nurse-midwifery have evolved over time to be predominately white. The purpose of this study is to explore how students of color experience support and apply personal strategies for success in the midwifery educational setting. A basic qualitative study was done using …

Bans Against Book Bans: State Legislation Fighting Against Censorship, Marissa Muraoka

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research evaluates three of the eight states that passed legislation in 2023 and 2024 to limit the ability to ban books in their states. Using three states as case studies and analyzing the bill documents and news articles covering the legislation, I evaluated the conversations occurring in our local governments about book banning in the US. While many of these bills argue that book bans should not exist solely based on “partisan or doctrinal beliefs,” the issue is intrinsically tied to those beliefs. Democrats struggle to protect diverse voices of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities; Republicans fight to remove sexually …

Documenting The Effects Of Laboratory Sorting In Zooarchaeology: Lessons Learned From The Cixwicn Project, Kristine M. Bovy, Virginia L. Butler, Michael A. Etnier, Sarah K. Campbell

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Zooarchaeologists routinely analyze assemblages that were initially sorted into major animal type (birds, mammals, fish, invertebrates) by students or lab technicians with varied backgrounds in zooarchaeology. Sorting errors are probably made in this initial phase, which can affect taxonomic representation and understanding of human–animal relationships. Recent study of the immense faunal assemblage (over 1 million NSP [Number of Specimens]) from Čḯxwicən (45CA523), a 2,700-year-old Lower Elwha Klallam village located on the coast of Washington (USA), allows us to systematically analyze trends in sorting errors. For example, 22.6% of the bird bones included in our sample were initially missorted into other …

Overt Representation And Subtle Clues A Study Of Queer Book Descriptions In English, Croatian, And Serbian, Rachael Phillips

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Most commonly, a book description is the first contact one has with the contents of a book. It is the elevator pitch on the back of the book or the Amazon page that tries to sell you your next read among literally millions of competitors. In book publishing terms, a book description is a piece of metadata that follows the book throughout its marketing life. It is usually a one to three paragraph description of the book, including the setting, main characters, and some (spoiler-free) plot summary, but also usually includes themes and tone, comparative titles, and potentially author background …

When My Intersecting Identities Of Being Racially Oppressed And Privileged Become Blurred: An Autoethnographic Dive Into Unlocking The Polarities Of Who I Am, Susan Acosta

Dissertations and Theses

Freire argued that each person is, at times, both the oppressor and the oppressed. He posited that the path to liberation is increased critical consciousness, problematizing our circumstances, and finding ways to take action. As a person from the global majority (PGM), this autoethnography incorporates my personal narratives, communication with colleagues, photo observations, and professional writings that problematizes and examines ways I have been both complicit in, or have been victimized by, racialized oppression, particularly in educational settings. I've had an increasingly keen sense of awareness toward my own racialized tensions when interacting with individuals, in groups, or with an …

Entheogens: The Hallucinogenic Plants That Shaped Religion, Nicolas A. Michaud

Young Historians Conference

Entheogens have played a pivotal role in religious and spiritual practices across diverse cultures, aiding in the pursuit of divine connection and higher consciousness. Evidence suggests that dating as far as back as a million years ago, early human species such as Homo erectus and Homo habilis experimented with hallucinogenic plants like psilocybin mushrooms, introducing the earliest forms of shamanic practices. As societies became more structured, the use of entheogens expanded throughout various parts of society. In ancient Greece, oracles utilized plants like henbane to communicate with the divine, molding military and political policy. During the Middle Ages, Tibetan Buddhism …

A Crucial Western Foothold: Uyghur-Americans In The Fairfax-D.C. Metro Area, Jake C. Mccauley

Young Historians Conference

Since the 1980s, the Uyghur people of East Turkestan, now known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, have migrated from their ancestral homeland in China in search of a better life. As an ethnically, linguistically, and religiously distinct group, the Uyghurs face severe oppression, with the Chinese state targeting them economically, socially, and physically. Since 2017, mass internment efforts have escalated, leading to the establishment of labor camps that claim to transition Uyghur labor from agricultural to industrial sectors but also serve as sites of ideological indoctrination, torture, and death. As a result of these human rights violations and other …

Islands In Motion: The Transnational Ties Between Japan And Hawaii, 1885-1945, Annalise Jones

Young Historians Conference

Native Hawaiians have been joined on their islands by Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, and Europeans in recent centuries. Because of this, Hawaii has generally had a more tolerant attitude towards racial diversity. However, the relationship between Hawaii and Japan is a transnational one that has evolved over generations. In 1941, 37% of Hawaii’s population was Japanese. Beginning with only 150 contract laborers in 1868, immigrants had come from Japan to Hawaii in droves throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, attracted by steady work and wages. Since then, Japanese people and their descendants have had a marked impact on the …

Face Value: Cosmetics As A Unit Of Historical Analysis, Sophie Durocher

Young Historians Conference

Cosmetics are a universal concept that have been inherent in society all throughout history. This paper explores four unique cultures from across the globe and their primary cosmetic of choice. A tube of lipstick from a Bronze Age Persian burial ground sheds light on the early uses and significance of lipstick in Ancient Persia. A compact of powdered pearls from China in the 11th century reveals the widespread importance of facial powder in China. The Maya applied paint and perfumes to denote social status and in ritual traditions, as evidenced by artwork and archaeological evidence. Ancient Egyptians famously painted their …

The Roots Of Ethno-Political Strife In Ceylon: The Dividing Power Of British Colonialism, Audrey Francioch

Young Historians Conference

A bloody civil war has rocked Sri Lanka for decades, as the Sinhalese and Tamil populations fight each other for recognition, access, and control. Since the 1950s, each group has feared domination by the other, resulting in bitter battles on the ballots and in the streets to assert or retain power and subjugate the culture of the other. Each conflict perpetuates the vicious circle of retaliation and retribution through the generations, and the roots of this divide can be directly traced to the colonial occupation of the island in the 1800s. What began with the Dutch and became refined by …

Reflecting Life Back: The Influence Of Mirrors On Human World History, Helen F. Cruz-Uribe Bandstra

Young Historians Conference

Ten thousand years ago, humans first created mirrors. They were developed simultaneously all over the world, reflecting the innate human desire to see something so close to us, yet so hard to view. Our own face. While this invention had a simple initial purpose, it quickly became tied to many of the more complicated developments of human life, including, but not limited to, religion, power, and technology. We see this reflected in everything from the polished obsidian mirrors of Mesoamerica, used to commune with the gods and revered for their reflectiveness, to the bronze mirrors of Greece used in early …

From Prison Cells To Parliament: How The H-Block Hunger Strikes Transformed Sinn Féin To Enable Peace In Northern Ireland, Madeleine E. Wallenberg

Young Historians Conference

The 1988 Good Friday Agreement signed in Belfast is regarded as a landmark feat of diplomacy. Allowing for a non-violent redistribution of power, the Good Friday Agreement marked the end of a nearly thirty-year period of violence known as The Troubles. The efficacy of this agreement relied on the participation of members of the I.R.A. and Sinn Féin, something that likely would not have happened if not for a 1981 Hunger Strike that changed the public’s perception of the Irish Republican movement and launched the platform for Sinn Féin as a legitimate political organization. This paper explores the development of …

Do Gun-Purchase Waiting Periods Save Lives?, Grace E. Arnold, Mitchell Blaine Priestley

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We study the impact of gun-purchase waiting periods on suicide rates using county-level mortality data from 1991-2019. We find that waiting periods are associated with a reduction in both firearm and overall suicide rates of approximately 5% and 2%, respectively. Novelly, we find that counties that are within 50 miles from a state without a waiting period experience no statistically significant reduction in suicides. Our findings reveal that the decrease in suicides under a waiting period is driven by counties that are more than 50 miles from a non-restricted neighboring state.

The Effects Of School Safety Strategies On K-12 Schools: Armed Civilians, School Resource Officers, And Metal Detectors As Contributors To The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Rebeca Petean

Dissertations and Theses

In recent decades, K-12 public schools have introduced get-tough measures ostensibly to improve school safety through punitive responses to misconduct and delinquency--expanding from traditional security measures to more punitive, zero-tolerance policies and surveillance-based approaches. Academic literature and media accounts highlight that such efforts continue to proliferate and extend across our nation's school spaces. This three-paper dissertation examines how specific safety practices--namely, the presence of armed civilians, School Resource Officers (SROs), and random metal detector checks--influence student outcomes and contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. Rooted in Becker's (1963) and Lemert's (1967) labeling theory, as well as Sampson and Laub's (1997) cumulative …

Behind The Walls: The Implications Of Assisted Living Building Codes On Resident Safety, Adam Pennavaria, Lindsey Smith, Paula Carder, Cassandra Hua, Eric Jutkowitz, Kali Thomas

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

As the US population collectively ages, issues related to assisted living (AL) resident safety have become an increasingly pressing issue for the general public, reflected by major media reporting in the last year. The building codes that govern ALs play an important role in mitigating the risks associated with falls, wandering, and other hazards, especially for residents living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. We sought to understand how states vary in their approaches to building code regulations that might impact resident safety. We used search term-based text retrieval to identify areas of text relevant to locks, alarms, and egress …

Effects Of Wetting Events On Mass Timber Surface Microbial Communities And Voc Emissions: Implications For Building Operation And Occupant Well-Being, Gwynne Á. Mhuireach, Susan Collins, Leslie Dietz, Patrick Finn Horve, Aurélie Laguerre, Dale Northcutt, Jason Stenson, Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg, Elliott Gall, Mark Fretz

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

IntroductionHumans have used wood as a construction material throughout history. Currently, mass timber products, such as cross-laminated timber (CLT), are becoming more popular as a structural material, since they are renewable and have a lower carbon footprint than concrete or steel. Nonetheless, some building types, such as healthcare, veterinary, and food manufacturing, avoid using structural mass timber due to concerns about microbial growth in the event of wetting. One solution is to use protective coatings on mass timber products to increase moisture resistance, although the coatings themselves may generate concerns about volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Natural uncoated wood also …

Addressing The Promise And Peril Of Ai For Nonprofit Management Through A Data Feminist Pedagogy, Billie Sandberg, Rafeel Wasif, Laura C. Hand

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has opened up possibilities for nonprofit management, and practitioners are taking notice. A recent study revealed that nearly 90% of nonprofit organizations are interested in using AI (MacDonald, Citation2023). Another study indicated that more than half of the nonprofits surveyed use AI to support finance, human resources, communications, and mission-related (i.e., working with clients, program implementation, and grantmaking) functions (Herschander, Citation2024). Indeed, many of us likely know student-practitioners and nonprofit colleagues who leverage AI to help write donor thank-you notes, newsletters, grant proposals, and press releases and who work for nonprofits that incorporate chatbots …

Rupert Raj’S Written Acts Of Activism And Care Throughout The 1980s And 1990s, Mia Jakobsen

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

In researching acts of activism and care in Canadian queer and trans racialized history, I examined how Rupert Raj advocated and cared for other trans individuals through his writing in the 1980s and 1990s. He noticed that there were few publications for trans individuals so he created easily accessible methods to share vital information regarding research and support that would have otherwise been difficult to acquire. Raj’s writings shared vital transgender research, literature, and expertise from across the globe. He provided critical support to and for other trans men through his easily accessible publications and letters, serving as an information …

"I Know Who I Am": Draw-And-Tell Conversations With Gender-Creative Children, Eline Leemans Lenne

Dissertations and Theses

A growing number of children identify in various gender-creative ways, likely due to broader social awareness and affirmation of transgenderism. Gender-creative children face higher risks for adverse social, academic, mental health, and healthcare outcomes compared to non-transgender peers. Support from loved ones along with guidance from pediatric providers can mitigate poor outcomes and ensure that gender-creative children live healthy and happy lives. Young gender-creative children's perspectives about the aforementioned topics are markedly absent from the literature, which instead highlights adolescent and adult proxy perspectives.

In this participatory arts-based study anchored by a constructivist epistemology and informed by post-structuralist, queer, and …