Digital Commons Network^™

Growth And Optical Characterization Of Zinc Oxide Nanowires For Anti-Reflection Coatings For Solar Cells, Martha Coakley

Dissertations and Theses

The optical properties of solar cells greatly affect their efficiencies. Decreasing the broadband and directional reflectance of solar cells increases the solar irradiance transmitted and absorbed by the cell, thereby increasing the production of electron-hole pairs. Traditional optical enhancements such as light trapping and anti-reflection coatings reduce the reflectance of silicon at an optimized wavelength and angle of incidence. They do not perform as well at high angles of incidence or over the broadband solar spectrum. Theoretical studies suggest that layers with a suitable gradient-index of refraction can create both a broadband and directional anti-reflective coating. Through their variations in …

Self-Efficacy And Drinking With Friends: An Investigation Into The Drinking Behaviors Of Japanese College Students, Staci Jean Wendt

Dissertations and Theses

Recent studies have documented an alarming rate of alcohol use in Japan (Eisenback-Stangl et al., 2005; Milne, 2003; Shimizu, 2000). Indeed, permissive social and cultural norms for alcohol use exist within Japanese culture (Shimizu, 1990, 2000). Japanese college-students may be at further risk due to their developmental time period, where increases in alcohol use are typically seen. Furthermore, drinking habits formed during this time period may be difficult to alter later in life (Frone, 2003). Thus, social, developmental, and cultural factors exist to influence drinking among Japanese college students. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the drinking …

Subsurface Igneous Mineral Microbiology: Iron-Oxidizing Organotrophs On Olivine Surfaces And The Significance Of Mineral Heterogeneity In Basalts, Amy Renee Smith

Dissertations and Theses

The subsurface igneous biome contains a vast portion of Earth's total biomass, yet we still know so little about it. Igneous environments such as iron-rich ocean crust and lava tubes may also host analogs to chemolithotrophically-driven life on other planets, so studying life in this biome is essential to understanding how life may survive on other planets. In this study, three igneous surface and subsurface environments were investigated for microbial preference for olivine, microbial physiologies and phylotypes present on olivine, and microbial growth on olivine in the laboratory via iron oxidation. These environments include a subseafloor borehole drilled into the …

Marginalized Characters In Contemporary American Short Fiction, Timur Shishkin

Dissertations and Theses

The focus of the present research work is the contemporary American short stories that bring up issues of compulsory norm and the conflict between marginalized characters and their environment. This research was based on those short stories that seemed to represent the idea of being "different" in the most complex and multilayered way, and its goal was to unfold new aspects of the conflict between "normal" and "abnormal"/"different". Variations of norm as well as diversity within the marginalized raise a number of questions about the reasons for their inability to coexist peacefully. The close reading and the analysis of the …

The Effects Of Multiple Thematic Layers On Web Map Use By Middle School Students, Andrew Percy Freed

Dissertations and Theses

Access to the to the Internet and to a variety of interactive mapping tools has increased interest among middle school teachers to use interactive maps in conjunction with learning activities. There is very little research in the area of interactive mapping in educational situations, specifically with regards to layer maps that combine multiple thematic layers on a single map. This study evaluates the relationship between the number of layers present on a web-based map and middle-school students' accuracy and timeliness using the map to answer geographic questions. Additionally, this study examines the specific effect of a hill shade on student …

Perceptions Of Peacebuilding And Multi-Track Collaboration In Divided Societies For A Sustainable Peace Agreement At The Political Level: A Case Study Of Cyprus, Brooke Patricia Galloway

Dissertations and Theses

It is the purpose of this study to propose that perceptions of peacebuilding activities in all tracks of divided societies (political, civil society leaders, and grassroots), and the perceptions of the collaboration between the tracks are essential processes to a sustainable peace agreement at the political level. This study will examine multi-track peacebuilding and the collaboration (or lack of it) between tracks in Cyprus. Additionally, it will analyze the perceptions of the necessity of collaboration across tracks. The analysis of this study is conducted in two phases: (1) analyzing interviews with Track One diplomats and examining previous and existing peacebuilding …

Opening Black Boxes And Following Traces: An Exploration Of The Coalition For A Livable Future's Regional Equity Atlas Actor-World, 2003-2007, Meg Merrick

Dissertations and Theses

Maps have longed been recognized as instruments of power and persuasion. With the recent proliferation of maps in the media and on the Internet has come an increasing desire among groups advocating for environmental and social change to have access to maps (the product) and mapping (the process) to more effectively promote their agendas. However, this is not as simple as it seems. Far from being neutral conduits of "truth," maps are constructed by a myriad of social interactions among heterogeneous actors (human and technical) that left unacknowledged can lead to an untapped potential of the power of maps. Adopting …

"Each Generation Of A Free Society": The Relationship Between Montana's Constitutional Convention, Individual Rights Protections, And State Constitutionalism, Inga Katrin Nelson

Dissertations and Theses

In the mid-1970s, state courts began to interpret state constitutions independently of the federal constitution in a way that provided greater protection for individual rights at the state versus federal level. Scholars have generally attributed the rise of this movement, known as state constitutionalism, to the actions and scholarship of judges and point to the cause as a fear that the Burger court would rollback Warren court era protections for individual rights. In reality, the concept of state constitutionalism had been present throughout the 1950s-1970s period of state constitutional revision and was deeply influenced by concerns over the status of …

A Comparative Case Study Of Newspaper Coverage Of The Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot/Incinerator From 1994 To 1998., Rogue Elliott Robertson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this case study was to compare the news coverage of The Umatilla chemical weapons by examining newspapers from different communities: The Oregonian and The Hermiston Herald. The author examines solution frames, pluralistic frames, episodic frames, and thematic frames and compares them across two newspapers. The study found the difference was not significant when comparing the use of solution frames between The Hermiston Herald and The Oregonian. In addition, there was not a significant difference in use of pluralistic framing by The Hermiston Herald and The Oregonian. However, there was a significant difference in the sources presented in …

The Fourth Amendment And Cyberspace: Conflict Or Cohesion?, Federico Alberto Cantón

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the study was to determine how the Fourth Amendment is treated in the age of the internet. To determine the degree of the significance of this relationship a comparative approach is used. Court opinions from cases involving other technological innovations and the Fourth Amendment were examined and their reasoning was compared to that of cases involving the internet and the Fourth Amendment. The results indicated that contrary to some fears that the internet would require a different approach with respect to the law it actually did not present many novel barriers to its application. The principle conclusion …

Impacts Of Rhizosphere Co₂ On Root Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase Activity, Root Respiration Rate And Rhizodeposition In Populus Spp., Dawn Marie Matarese

Dissertations and Theses

Roots live in and have evolved in a high carbon dioxide (CO₂) environment, yet relatively little research has been conducted on the impacts of soil dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) on root metabolism. In this thesis, I explore the impacts of root-zone DIC on whole plant biomass accumulation, water use efficiency, and above-ground gas exchange. In addition, I explore the impacts of root-zone DIC on root processes: root PEP-Carboxylase activity, root respiration rate and root exudation of Krebs cycle organic acids.

Root-zone DIC did not impact biomass accumulation, leaf gas exchange parameters or water use efficiency under the growth conditions examined. …

The Effect Of Role Models On The Attitudes And Career Choices Of Female Students Enrolled In High School Science, Stephanie Justine Van Raden

Dissertations and Theses

Girls who have high aptitude in math are not entering careers related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM fields) at the same rate as boys. As a result, female students may have fewer employment opportunities. This study explores one potential way to reduce the gap between male and female career aspirations and choices. Specifically, it looks at the impact of bringing women with careers in math- and science-related fields into high school classrooms as role models. The study uses surveys to measure pre- and post-visit perceptions of science and scientific work as well as student's short-term interest in math …

Chinese Merchants And Race Relations In Astoria, Oregon, 1882 - 1924, Aaron Daniel Coe

Dissertations and Theses

A large wave of Chinese immigrants came to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. Employment, mainly in the salmon-canning industry, drew thousands of them to coastal Astoria, Oregon. Taking the period between the first Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924, this thesis focuses on the Chinese merchants in Astoria and their importance for our understanding of race relations in the town during these years. Specifically, the merchants help to make sense of how the Chinese related to the local white population, as different sources suggest different trends of amiability and …

Floorplan Design And Yield Enhancement Of 3-D Integrated Circuits, Rajeev Kumar Nain

Dissertations and Theses

We have developed a placement-aware 3-D floorplanning algorithm that enables additional wirelength reduction by planning for 3-D placement of logic gates in selected circuit modules during the floorplanning stage. Thus it also bridges the existing gap between 3-D floorplanning and 3-D placement. To reduce the solution space of 3-D floorplanning which is known to be an NP-hard problem, we derive a set of feasibility conditions on the topological representation of a floorplan. In addition, we have designed a fast module packing algorithm that satisfies a set of constraints for placement-aware 3-D floorplanning. Furthermore, we have designed an efficient evolutionary algorithm …

Complexity Through Recombination: From Chemistry To Biology, Niles Lehman, Carolina Diaz Arenas, Wesley A. White, Francis J. Schmidt

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recombination is a common event in nature, with examples in physics, chemistry, and biology. This process is characterized by the spontaneous reorganization of structural units to form new entities. Upon reorganization, the complexity of the overall system can change. In particular the components of the system can now experience a new response to externally applied selection criteria, such that the evolutionary trajectory of the system is altered. In this work we explore the link between chemical and biological forms of recombination. We estimate how the net system complexity changes, through analysis of RNA-RNA recombination and by mathematical modeling. Our results …

Interview With Brendan Phillips, Sisters Of The Road, 2010 (Audio), Brendan Phillips

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Brendan Phillips by Brandon Green in Portland, Oregon on December 8th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Dan Mcfarling, Aorta, 2010 (Audio), Dan Mcfarling

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Dan McFarling by Andrew Scanlan at Union Station, Portland, Oregon on December 1st, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet December 2010, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The December 2010 Monthly packet includes the December agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held November 2010

Interview With Michael O'Brien, Osd, 2010 (Audio), Michael O'Brien

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Michael O'Brien by Ian Caputo in North Portland, Oregon on November 22nd, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Brighton West, Friends Of Trees, 2010 (Audio), Brighton West

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Brighton West by Brigitta Bazso at Portland State University on November 18th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Renee Loveland, Gerding Edlen, 2010 (Audio), Renee Loveland

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Renee Loveland by Jena Orr at Gerding Edlen, Portland, Oregon on November 17th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

A Look Into The Future Of Wireless Mobile Communication Technologies, Jisun Kim, Tugrul Unsal Daim, Timothy R. Anderson

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The number of wireless mobile communication service subscribers has reached 4.6 billion worldwide in 2009, and mobile revenues are expected to be over $1 trillion around 2012 according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (ITU, 2010). A significant number of studies have been done to forecast the growing market and evaluate the new generation technology, the Beyond 3 Generation (B3G). However, there is no study forecasting when any of these new technologies will be commercialized. This paper presents a technical framework for forecasting the commercialization timeline of B3G technologies and provides insight on technology trajectories from 1G to 4G. The …

X, Emily Ford

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

The author focuses on the issue of undisclosed publications, by which she means works published under pseudonyms or anonymously. The author comments on the proliferation of anonymity in the era of the Internet, saying that technology allows people to be not accountable for their actions and to break social contracts in the scholarly world. The author uses the example of the library field and discusses peer review and professional discourse.

The Cyclin E Regulator Cullin 3 Prevents Mouse Hepatic Progenitor Cells From Becoming Tumor-Initiating Cells, Uta Kossatz, Kai Breuhahn, Benita Wolf, Matthias Hardtke-Wolenski, Ludwig Wilkens, Doris Steinemann, Stephan Singer, Felicitas Brass, Stefan Kubicka, Brigitte Schlegelberger, Peter Schirmacher, Michael P. Manns, Jeffrey D. Singer, Nisar P. Malek

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cyclin E is often overexpressed in cancer tissue, leading to genetic instability and aneuploidy. Cullin 3 (Cul3) is a component of the BTB-Cul3-Rbx1 (BCR) ubiquitin ligase that is involved in the turnover of cyclin E. Here we show that liver-specific ablation of Cul3 in mice results in the persistence and massive expansion of hepatic progenitor cells. Upon induction of differentiation, Cul3-deficient progenitor cells underwent substantial DNA damage in vivo and in vitro, thereby triggering the activation of a cellular senescence response that selectively blocked the expansion of the differentiated offspring. Positive selection of undifferentiated progenitor cells required the expression of …

A City Club Report On Ballot Measure 26-108, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Accurate Description Of The Optical Response Of A Multilayered Spherical System In The Long Wavelength Approximation, H. Y. Chung, G. Y. Guo, Hai-Pang Chiang, D. P. Tsai, P.T. Leung

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The optical response of a multilayered spherical system of unlimited number of layers (a “matryoshka”) in the long wavelength limit can be accounted for from the knowledge of the static multipole polarizability of the system to first-order accuracy. However, for systems of ultrasmall dimensions or systems with sizes not-too-small compared to the wavelength, this ordinary quasistatic long wavelength approximation (LWA) becomes inaccurate. Here we introduce two significant modifications of the LWA for such a nanomatryoshka in each of the two limits: the nonlocal optical response for ultrasmall systems (<10 >nm), and the “finite-wavelength corrections” for systems ∼100 nm. This is …

How A Systems Engineer Starts..., Herman Migliore

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Dr. Migliore will review systems engineering as a process for developing products, processes, and services and suggest views that encourage systems thinking. As an example, he will focus on the beginning of the development process, the fuzzy front end, and discuss a method, ConOps, for getting started using examples from PSU's masters program.

Legends At Work, Post-Katrina, Kate Parker

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Sometimes what's lurking in the depths is scarier than an albino alligator. Supporting agency: The Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston Project

Early Psychosis Intervention And Its Implications For Mental Health Counselors, Advocates And Supervisors: Lessons And Outcomes From The East Program, Ryan P. Melton

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

This presentation focuses on early psychosis intervention, identification, prevention, and intervention.

Teaching Matters: Developing As A Teacher/Librarian [Column]: Rules Of Engagement: Best Practices For Connecting With Students, Janelle M. Zauha

Communications in Information Literacy

This column focuses on the conceptual and practical aspects of teaching information literacy. Column co-editor Patrick Ragains and I write about trends and issues that have come to our attention, but we also solicit contributions to this space. Readers with ideas for Teaching Matters may contact Patrick Ragains at [email protected], or the editors of Communications in Information Literacy at [email protected].