Digital Commons Network^™

The Multicultural Family Learning Gardens At The Learning Gardens Laboratory: An Investigation Of Community Collaboration, Madelyn Mickelberry Morris

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

This project explores the role of the small-scale polyculture garden in promoting a resilient community, its importance in helping meet nutritional and medicinal needs, and its role as a site for civic and place-based transformative development. The pedagogical principles of sustainability education address the importance of ecological systems, biocultural diversity, social & economic justice, and multicultural perspectives. Framing the garden as a sustainable solution, I will address the need for vibrant local food networks, particularly in low-income areas; social, ecological, and community resilience; opportunities for ecological education; and increased meaningful opportunities for civic engagement. Using a conceptual framework of the …

12 Eylül'Ü Konu Alan Filmlerde Karşı Anlatı Olarak Ses Ve Hafıza, Pelin Basci

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

During the last three decades, the 1980 military coup has acquired increased visibility in Turkish cinema. Films that treat the 1980 coup record two aspects of it as parts of a cinematographic narrative: some films explore the socio-political reasons behind the coup by capturing the period preceding the takeover, while others explore the human impact of the coup by capturing the period following it. Films in both groups interrupt the silence maintained by the official narrative about the coup, critique the justifications for military intervention, and expose the violence that was perpetrated in the name of the state.

What’S Missing In Theories Of The Residential Energy User, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Residential energy use has been envisioned in varied ways, each highlighting different factors and capturing a partial truth. This paper outlines assumptions of core theories about household energy use. It gives an abbreviated list of major empirical findings framed by these theories. It then identifies a new set of "blind spots" created by overly-simple reliance on models and by data shortcomings that in combination may block development of a more sophisticated understanding of energy use. Policies and program strategies, in turn, can become oriented toward simplistic approaches to change. We point to the need for improved interpretation and elaboration of …

Design Of Regular Reversible Quantum Circuits, Dipal Shah

Dissertations and Theses

The computing power in terms of speed and capacity of today's digital computers has improved tremendously in the last decade. This improvement came mainly due to a revolution in manufacturing technology by developing the ability to manufacture smaller devices and by integrating more devices on a single die. Further development of the current technology will be restricted by physical limits since it won't be possible to shrink devices beyond a certain size. Eventually, classical electrical circuits will encounter the barrier of quantum mechanics. The laws of quantum mechanics can be used for building computing systems that work on the principles …

The Impact Of Humanitarian Photography On The Generation Of Sympathy And On Donation Behavior, Marta Barberini

Dissertations and Theses

This paper presents findings of an exploratory study to evaluate the impact of humanitarian photography on the generation of sympathy and donation behavior. Considering the large amount of money spent each year by charity organizations on marketing strategies, it seems crucial to shed light on the persuasive impact of images in this context. The overarching purpose of this study was to discern what impact, if any, a number of features in a photograph have on sympathetic reactions. Specifically the author examined facial expressions (sad vs. happy), eye contact vs. no eye contact and total number of subjects portrayed. Findings supported …

Efficient Encoding Of Vocalizations In The Auditory Midbrain, Lars Andreas Holmstrom

Dissertations and Theses

An important question in sensory neuroscience is what coding strategies and mechanisms are used by the brain to detect and discriminate among behaviorally relevant stimuli. To address the noisy response properties of individual neurons, sensory systems often utilize broadly tuned neurons with overlapping receptive fields at the system's periphery, resulting in homogeneous responses among neighboring populations of neurons. It has been hypothesized that progressive response heterogeneity in ascending sensory pathways is evidence of an efficient encoding strategy that minimizes the redundancy of the peripheral neural code and maximizes information throughput for higher level processing. This hypothesis has been partly supported …

The Pulpit At The End Of The Rainbow: How Queer Clergy Enter Into And Maintain Religious Occupations, Brian Gregory Gerow

Dissertations and Theses

This study is a description of the ways queer clergy identify with and navigate their position in a traditionally heteronormative culture. Through twelve in-depth interviews, a set of codes and categories helped to assess the major barriers to access in contemporary Protestant clergy occupations in the United States. This research was conducted in Portland, Oregon, where a thriving queer religious community made it possible to access various different Protestant faiths and compare minister's experiences as professional clergy.

Model Analysis Of The Hydrologic Response To Climate Change In The Upper Deschutes Basin, Oregon, Michael Scott Waibel

Dissertations and Theses

Considerable interest lies in understanding the hydrologic response to climate change in the upper Deschutes Basin, particularly as it relates to groundwater fed streams. Much of the precipitation occurring in the recharge zone falls as snow. Consequently, the timing of runoff and recharge depend on accumulation and melting of the snowpack. Numerical modeling can provide insights into evolving hydrologic system response for resource management consideration. A daily mass and energy balance model known as the Deep Percolation Model (DPM) was developed for the basin in the 1990s. This model uses spatially distributed data and is driven with daily climate data …

Participatory Action Research With Dignity Village: An Action Tool For Empowerment Within A Homeless Community, Heather Irene Mosher

Dissertations and Theses

With homelessness continuing to rise over the past two decades, disenfranchised unhoused people have sparked a national movement to build for themselves democratically governed communities of affordable housing. Dignity Village, in Portland Oregon, is one of the longest running and most organized self-help housing communities in the nation. This paper presents a theoretical systems-based model of a developmental pathway out of homelessness in the U.S. that has as one of its key steps membership and participation in humane and dignified "self-help micro-housing"; communities such as Dignity Village.

This research involved working collaboratively with Dignity Village on a participatory action research …

Effects Of Biochar-Amended Soil On The Water Quality Of Greenroof Runoff, Deborah Aileen Beck

Dissertations and Theses

As the numbers of installed greenroofs continue to grow internationally, designing greenroof growing media to reduce the amount of nutrients in the stormwater runoff is becoming essential. Biochar, a carbon-net-negative soil amendment, has been promoted for its ability to retain nutrients in soils and increase soil fertility. This study evaluated the effect on water quality of greenroof runoff after adding biochar to a typical extensive greenroof soil. Prototype greenroof trays with and without 7% biochar (by weight) were planted with sedum or ryegrass, with barren soil trays for controls. The greenroof trays were subjected to two sequential 2.9 in/hr rainfall …

Biomechanical Assessment Of Parkinson's Disease, Edward A. Katz

Dissertations and Theses

Parkinson's disease is a chronic neurological disorder affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans. The current best practice for assessment of this disease is a clinical examination and subjective rating using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Such ratings are coarse scaled, subject to rater bias, and costly. Instruments which provide objective measurements of disease state can eliminate rater bias, provide repeatable data, and increase the frequency and responsiveness of subject assessments, expediting the validation of new therapies and treatments. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a battery of bio-mechanical devices suitable for clinical and in home use, including …

Molecular Changes Associated With Anoxia Tolerance In Austrofundulus Limnaeus Embryos, Camie Lynn Meller

Dissertations and Theses

Embryos from the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus have a unique and unequalled ability among vertebrates to withstand extended periods of anoxia (maximum lethal time to 50% mortality of 65 days at 25°C). In addition, tolerance of anoxia is gained and subsequently lost during the normal development of this species. Thus, anoxia tolerant and anoxia sensitive individuals can be compared within the same species, making A. limnaeus an excellent model for studying the molecular changes associated with survival of oxygen deprivation in vertebrates. The aim of this project is to analyze the molecular changes associated with anoxia tolerance in the embryos …

Weder Bürger Noch Mensch: Gefangener Der Medien Und Des Rechtsstaats Gekoppelte Entmenschlichung Mit Radikalisierung Zwei Auffassungen Heinrich Bölls Die Verlorene Ehre Der Katharina Blum Oder: Wie Gewalt Entstehen Und Wohin Sie Führen Kann, Tyler Robert Russ

Dissertations and Theses

In his 1974 novella The lost Honor of Katharina Blum Heinrich Böll argues for the constitutional guarantee of presumption of innocence. He states that this principle is violated when defamatory media headlines make unwarranted accusations against a private citizen destroying their reputation as part of a targeted smear campaign. The novella characterizes such intentional campaigns as both criminalizing and dehumanizing. Böll argues that the government should influence the press to conform to the limits implied in the institution of freedom of press. He shows the helplessness of a private citizen under attack from a smear campaign …

Leo Strauss And The Problem Of Sein: The Search For A "Universal Structure Common To All Historical Worlds", Jennifer Renee Stanford

Dissertations and Theses

Leo Strauss resurrected a life-approach of the ancient Greeks and reformulated it as an alternative to the existentialism of his age that grew out of a radicalized historicism. He attempted to resuscitate the tenability of a universal grounded in nature (nature understood in a comprehensive experiential sense not delimited to the physical, sensibly-perceived world alone) that was historically malleable. Through reengagement with Plato and Socrates and by addressing the basic premises built into the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, Strauss resurrected poetry (art, or the mythos) that Enlightenment thinkers had discarded, and displayed its reasonableness on a par …

Local Food And Land-Use In Washington County, Oregon, Joshua James Cousins

Dissertations and Theses

Local food networks are often defined as presenting a variety of alternative food production, consumption, and distribution practices to the conventional food system such as community-supported-agriculture, farmers markets, and community gardens. Local food initiatives are commonly proposed as a model for the future of sustainable agriculture, and in the region of Portland, Oregon the abundance of such alternative venues results from the area's natural surroundings and smart planning. The region is host to 39 farmers markets and Portland is often hailed as one of the country's most sustainable cities. This study examines the role of local food networks in preserving …

Portland's Independent Music Scene: The Formation Of Community Identities And Alternative Urban Cultural Landscapes, Rebecca Elizabeth Ball

Dissertations and Theses

Portland has a rich, active, and fluid music culture which is constantly being (re)created and (re)defined by a loose network of local musicians who write, record, produce, promote, distribute, and perform their music locally (and sometimes regionally, nationally, and internationally) and local residents, or audiences, who engage in local musical practices. Independent ("indie") local music making in Portland, which is embedded in DIY (do it yourself) values, creates alternative cultural places and landscapes in the city and is one medium through which some people represent themselves in the community. These residents not only perform, consume, promote, and distribute local music, …

Functional Separation Of Multimodular Type I Pks Polypeptides By Utilizing Matched Docking Domains From A Heterologous Pks System, John Kam Yan

Dissertations and Theses

Bacterial type I modular polyketide synthases (PKS) are large multifunctional enzyme systems responsible for the biosynthesis of complex polyketide natural products such as erythromycin, pikromycin, and borrelidin. Type I systems are comprised of a loading module which generally selects an appropriate acyl group starter unit, and multiple discrete extension modules, responsible for each single round of acyl group incorporation into the final polyketide core structure. These modules can exist naturally as either single discrete polypeptides, such as modules 5 and 6 from the pikromycin PKS (PikA3 and PikA4 respectively), or as multimodular polypeptides fused together by short intrapolypeptide linkers such …

Vertical Noise Structure And Target Detection Performance In Deep Ocean Environments, Zizheng Li

Dissertations and Theses

In passive sonar systems, knowledge of low-frequency shipping noise is an important factor for target detection performance. However, an accurate model for the shipping noise structure is difficult to obtain, due to the varying distributions of ships and complicated underwater environment. This work characterizes low-frequency distant shipping noise observed in deep water environments as a function of receiver depth and vertical arrival structure for the case of a receiver below the conjugate depth. Surface shipping noise is examined using Monte Carlo simulations using a normal mode propagation model based on random distribution of ships and realistic parameters. The depth dependence …

Identity, Nostalgia And Leisure: Technology Use In Second Homes, Françoise Bourdonnec

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis, based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in the US, Russia, France and Australia, focuses on technology use in second homes and its implications for technology design. I highlight the unexpectedly strong sense of nostalgia, for place as well as for richer relationships, felt in second homes around the world, and the ways in which second home residents use technology to shape space and behavior to reinforce this link to an imagined past. I show that the transition between main and second homes, with its rituals of preparation and transition between physical locations, allows residents to assume different …

Family Relationship Quality And Acculturation: Examination Of Their Relationship Among Latino Adolescent Sexual Offenders, Lindsey B. Patterson

Dissertations and Theses

Research on child sexual abuse (CSA), from the perspective of the perpetrator, has been conducted to better inform intervention and prevention programs. Although information from perpetrators can be beneficial for these programs, much of the research is limited by the diversity of sample populations of sex offenders. Moreover, potentially distinct variables relevant to specific populations (e.g., Latinos) have not been thoroughly studied in relation to CSA. To better understand the perpetration of CSA on variables that may be of particular concern to Latinos (i.e., relationship quality in familial supervision and acculturation strategies), the purpose of the present study was to …

Genomic And Hormonal Components Of Altered Developmental Pathways In The Annual Killifish, Austrofundulus Limnaeus, Benjamin M. Pri-Tal

Dissertations and Theses

The annual killifish, Austrofundulus limnaeus, may enter embryonic diapause at three distinct points of development, termed diapause I, II, and III. Previous studies suggest a role for steroid hormones in the regulation of diapause in annual killifish. This study concerns the hormonal and genomic components involved in the developmental decision to enter or escape diapause II from both a maternal and embryonic perspective. Steroid hormone levels were measured in tissues isolated from adult female fish that were producing either high or low proportions of escape embryos. Levels of steroid hormones were also measured in new fertilized embryos that were known …

Spatial Segregation Of The Sexes In A Salt Marsh Grass Distichlis Spicata (Poaceae), Charlene Ashley Mercer

Dissertations and Theses

Understanding the maintenance of sexual systems is of great interest to evolutionary and ecological biologists because plant systems are extremely varied. Plant sexual systems have evolved to include not only complete plants with both male and female reproduction occurring on one plant (i.e., monoecious and hermaphroditic) but also plants with male and female function on separate plants (dioecious). The dioecious reproductive system can be used to test theories on niche differentiation given that having separate plants potentially allows for the exploitation of a broader niche. This increase in the realized niche is due to the ability for separate sexes to …

Model-Based Material Parameter Estimation For Terahertz Reflection Spectroscopy, Gabriel Paul Kniffin

Dissertations and Theses

Many materials such as drugs and explosives have characteristic spectral signatures in the terahertz (THz) band. These unique signatures imply great promise for spectral detection and classification using THz radiation. While such spectral features are most easily observed in transmission, real-life imaging systems will need to identify materials of interest from reflection measurements, often in non-ideal geometries. One important, yet commonly overlooked source of signal corruption is the etalon effect - interference phenomena caused by multiple reflections from dielectric layers of packaging and clothing likely to be concealing materials of interest in real-life scenarios. This thesis focuses on the development …

Photovoice As Authentic Civic Engagement: Lessons Learned In One Immigrant Community, Meg Merrick, Angie Mejia

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

It is widely acknowledged that equitable and sustainable public policy can only be achieved when it is informed by the concerns, hopes, and experiences of those who are affected. Public agencies wishing to engage recent immigrants can find this to be challenging, however. Effective public participation and civic engagement can be difficult when community members cannot speak English and/or come from very different cultural and political environments. The Chronic Disease Prevention Program (CDPP) of the Multnomah County Health Department and Metro, two public agencies serving the Portland, Oregon region, have actively sought to learn from the experiences of immigrant community …

Review Of Three Recent Randomized Trials Of School-Based Mentoring: Making Sense Of Mixed Findings, Marc E. Wheeler, Thomas E. Keller, David L. Dubois

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Between 2007 and 2009, reports were released on the results of three separate large-scale random assignment studies of the effectiveness of school-based mentoring programs for youth. The studies evaluated programs implemented by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) affiliates (Herrera et al., 2007), Communities in Schools of San Antonio, Texas (Karcher, 2008), and grantees of the U.S. Department of Education's Student Mentoring Program (Bernstein et al., 2009). Differences in the findings and conclusions of the studies have led to varying responses by those in practice and policy roles. The results of the BBBSA trial led the organization to undertake …

Modeling Terahertz Diffuse Scattering From Granular Media Using Radiative Transfer Theory, Kyung Moon Nam

Dissertations and Theses

Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy can potentially be used to probe and characterize inhomogeneous materials, however spectroscopic identification of such materials from spectral features of diffuse returns is a relatively underdeveloped area of study. In this thesis, diffuse THz scattering from granular media is modeled by applying radiative transfer (RT) theory for the first time in THz sensing. Both classical RT theory and dense media radiative transfer (DMRT) theory based on the quasi-crystalline approximation (QCA) are used to calculate diffuse scattered intensity. The numerical solutions of the vector radiative transfer equations (VRTE) were coded and calculated in MATLAB. The diffuse scattered field …

War, Peace, And Principled Action: A Study Of Veterans And The Peace Movement, Laura Kay Wegener

Dissertations and Theses

Throughout the history of the United States (U.S.), there have been service members who, upon leaving the service, have spoken out against U.S. involvement in wars. The current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and their increasing unpopularity, have contributed to this trend. Recently veterans have begun to come forward in larger numbers to speak out against the current wars and have self-identified as members of peace movements. The purpose of this research project was to explore veterans' understandings of the peace movement and their involvement in veterans' peace movement organizations. This study hoped to answer the following questions: 1) How …

Globalization; But Under What Conditions? -- The Case Of The E.U., Michaelangelo Anastasiou

Dissertations and Theses

The present study explores the relationship between trust placed in national institutions and opinion of globalization. A secondary data analysis is conducted using data collected by the European Commission in a 2004 Eurobarometer survey of European Union (EU) citizens on various issues regarding the EU, globalization and national challenges. A prominent theme in the literature is that, in recent times, globalization has had the effect of compromising the sovereignty of nation-states. This has generated a backlash of nationalistic attitudes wherein globalization is posited in opposition to the nation-state. This surge in nationalism has reinforced a culture wherein any external force …

Investigation Of Speech Samples From Typically Developing Preschool Age Children: A Comparison Of Single Words And Imitated Sentences Elicited With The Paba-E, Matthew William Olsen

Dissertations and Theses

Assessment of speech sound production in young children provides the basis for diagnosis and treatment of speech sound disorders. Standardized single-word articulation tests are typically used for identification of speech sound errors because they can provide an efficient means of obtaining a speech sample for analysis and comparison to same-age peers. A major criticism of single-word articulation tests is that they may not accurately reflect speech sound production abilities in conversation. Comparison of performance in single-word and conversational contexts has produced conflicting results in the available research.

The purpose of the present study was to compare speech samples obtained using …

Rashomon Comes To The Courtroom: The Adoption Of The Lay Judge System In Japan, Its Impact On Jurisprudence, And The Implications For Civic Engagement, Bryan Matthew Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

In May of 2009, Japan began formal operations of the "saiban-in seido" or "lay judge system," a quasi-jury means of criminal trial adjudication that represents the first occasion since 1943 that average Japanese citizens will be required to fulfill a role in the criminal jurisprudential process. While the lay judge system promises to affect the methods and procedures of criminal trials in Japan, recent scholarship in the United States has raised an interesting question: to what degree can the lay participatory adjudication process facilitate greater levels of civic engagement in past citizen jurists once their service has completed?

It …