Digital Commons Network^™

Concussion As A Multi-Scale Complex System: An Interdisciplinary Synthesis Of Current Knowledge, Erin S. Kenzie, Elle L. Parks, Erin D. Bigler, Miranda M. Lim, James C. Chesnutt, Wayne Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been called “the most complicated disease of the most complex organ of the body” and is an increasingly high-profile public health issue. Many patients report long-term impairments following even “mild” injuries, but reliable criteria for diagnosis and prognosis are lacking. Every clinical trial for TBI treatment to date has failed to demonstrate reliable and safe improvement in outcomes, and the existing body of literature is insufficient to support the creation of a new classification system. Concussion, or mild TBI, is a highly heterogeneous phenomenon, and numerous factors interact dynamically to influence an individual’s recovery trajectory. …

Escalating Language At Traffic Stops: Two Case Studies, Jamalieh Haley

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, the public has seen a rise in recorded footage of violent encounters between police and Black American citizens, partially due to technology such as cell phones, dash-cameras, and body-cameras. This linguistic study examines how these encounters get escalated to the point of violence by asking 1) what kind of directives were used, 2) how were they responded to, 3) how the directives contributed to escalation, and 4) how might power and authority have played a role. I use two case studies to analyze directives and their responses. Findings reveal that repetition of directives on the part of …

Intraminority Support For And Participation In Race-Based Collective Action Movements: An Intersectional Perspective, Jaboa Shawntaé Lake

Dissertations and Theses

Due to high profile police shootings, collective action movements addressing racial bias in policing, such as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, have come to the forefront of societal concern. Though these movements and actions directly address police use of force against Black people, a number of non-Black racial minority individuals and organizations have declared solidarity and joined in protests with BLM. This study takes an intersectional approach to examine racial intraminority attitudes (i.e., racial minorities' attitudes toward other racial minority outgroups) toward support for and participation in protests against police excessive use of force and the BLM movement, through …

Gis Spatial Analysis Of Arctic Settlement Patterns: A Case Study In Northwest Alaska, Justin Andrew Junge

Dissertations and Theses

In northwest Alaska, archaeologists hypothesize that environmental variability was a major factor in both growing coastal population density, with large aggregated villages and large houses, between 1000 and 500 years ago (ya), and subsequent decreasing population density between 500 ya and the contact era. After 500 ya people are thought to have dispersed to smaller settlements with smaller house sizes in coastal areas, and perhaps, upriver. This settlement pattern was identified through research at four site locations over 30 years ago. The changing geographic distribution of sites, associated settlement size, and house size has not been examined in detail. A …

Promoting Educational Opportunity And Achievement Through 1:1 Ipads, Gayle Y. Thieman, Tatiana Cevallos

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand the growing body of research on the educational impact of 1:1 mobile devices, investigating the iPad’s potential to reduce the disparity of access to high-quality instructional technology and achievement for low income, racially, and linguistically diverse students. Design/methodology/approach: This three-year, mixed-method study investigated the degree to which a 1:1 iPad initiative reduced the disparity of technology access and instructional use and improved student learning and attendance. The research design included survey data on student technology skills, experiences and use and teacher focus groups to confirm and contextualize the survey data. Findings: …

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: Rahmat Shoureshi begins a new era as president of Portland State University; students send balloons into the stratosphere to document the Great American Eclipse; international students bring a fresh perspective to their American peers; the School of Business is bigger, brighter and designed to transform; grants enable high school science teachers to partner with PSU professors; and more.

Raps Sheet, September 2017, Retirement Association Of Portland State

RAPS Sheet: Monthly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Work-Family Interface Conflicts On Salesperson Behaviors: A Double-Edged Sword, C. Fred Miao, Guangping Wang

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Work–family interface conflicts have typically been cast in a negative light due to their detrimental consequences. This study offers new insights by uncovering conditions under which such conflicts may produce both positive and negative effects on salesperson job-related behaviors in the context of B2B sales. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory as an overarching theoretical framework, the authors suggest that informal controls (i.e., professional control and self-control) have differential moderating effects in salespeople’s primary and secondary appraisal processes when faced with work–family conflict and family–work conflict. Dyadic data from a matched salesperson–customer sample reveals that professional control amplifies, whereas self-control mitigates, …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Animal Hoarding Symptoms In A Sample Of Adults Diagnosed With Hoarding Disorder, Jennifer E. Ung, Mary Dozier, Christiana Bratiotis, Catherine R. Ayers

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: The extant research on animal hoarding has a dearth of information on animal hoarding tendencies in adults diagnosed with hoarding disorder (HD). In the present study, we investigated possible recurrent animal hoarding behavioral and symptom patterns in individuals diagnosed with hoarding disorder. Methods: Hoarding severity scores from baseline assessments for 65 community-dwelling adults diagnosed with HD were analyzed with respect to their present and past animal ownership characteristics. Results: Approximately half of participants reported currently owning pets, and pet owners in the sample reported currently owning an average of two pets. Of the participants who reported currently owning animals, …

If It Is Unsightly, Is It Less Healthy? Understanding The Consumer’S Desire For Aesthetically Perfect Produce, Dina Vanderwaal

University Honors Theses

Attention on organic produce and food waste is becoming increasingly intense in the United States. Consumers typically prefer aesthetically perfect produce, forcing grocery stores to throw away blemished fruits and vegetables. Organic produce is typically more blemished than conventional produce. Little research has been done to examine the consumer’s preference for conventional versus organic produce, and the point, if any, where consumers are more likely to choose one over the other. We conducted a controlled online study where we showed participants various organic and conventional apples with varying degrees of imperfections, and asked participants a series of questions about which …

Holocaust, Memory, Second-Generation, And Conflict Resolution, Leslie O'Donoghue

Dissertations and Theses

Ten Jewish second-generation men and women from metro Portland, Oregon were interviewed regarding growing up in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The American-born participants ranged in age from fifty-one to sixty-four years of age at the time of the interviews. Though the parents were deceased at the time of this study the working definition of a Holocaust survivor parent included those individuals who had been refugees or interned in a ghetto, labor camp, concentration camp, or extermination camp as a direct result of the Nazi Regime in Europe from 1933 to 1945.

A descriptive phenomenological approach was utilized. Eight open-ended …

Analyzing The Online Environment: How Are More Effective Teachers Spending Their Time?, Scott Davis Barrentine

Dissertations and Theses

Teaching at an online school is so different from classroom teaching that traditional training includes few of the skills necessary to be a successful online teacher. New teachers to an online environment face a steep learning curve in how they'll use the instructional technology, prioritize their time, and establish relationships with their students. The literature has advice for these teachers about effective online practices, but there has been little research to establish which strategies are most effective in motivating students. This pre-experimental study, conducted at an online 6th-12th grade hybrid school, investigated the practices used more often by the most …

Developmental Trauma Disorder & Effective Therapeutic Interventions, Ellena C. Rosenthal

University Honors Theses

In 2005 The Complex Trauma Task force, which is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, constructed diagnostic criteria for a new diagnosis: Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD). DTD serves as a more precise, accurate, and specific diagnosis for children and adolescents who’ve experienced multiple exposures to one or more developmentally adverse interpersonal traumas, which affect multiple areas of functioning and cause extreme interruptions in developmental processes throughout the course of one’s life. A diagnosis of DTD describes the immense impairments and distress that characterize individuals living with developmental trauma, and provides clinicians a foundation and trauma-informed framework for working …

Trade-Offs: The Production Of Sustainability In Households, Kirstin Marie Elizabeth Munro

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past half-century, environmental problems have become increasingly serious and seemingly intractable, and a careless, clueless, or contemptuous consumer is often portrayed as the root cause of this environmental decline. This study takes a different approach to evaluating the demand for resources by households, assessing possible pro-environmental paths forward through a study of highly ecologically-conscious households. By modeling "green" households as producers of sustainability rather than consumers of environmental products, the sustainability work that takes place in households is brought into focus. An investigation of household sustainability production makes possible the evaluation of the trade-offs inherent in these pro-environmental …

Materialist And Causal Bridges Over The Explanatory Gap, Celine Geday

Anthós

The explanatory gap about the subjective nature of conscious experience is the gap in explanation between conscious experience, and available scientific explanations of conscious experience. The explanatory gap is, as Joseph Levine states, the problem that physicalism (or the physical sciences) has in describing mental terms and experiences.7 Thomas Nagel also describes the explanatory gap problem as the problem of explaining the subjective in objective terms. He states that the subjective viewpoint of the individual is inherently at odds with an objective, or physical explanation.8 Describing someone’s experience of the redness of red, for example, by describing the neural mechanisms …

Social Constructions Of Childhood: From Not-Yet-Adults To People In Their Own Right, Sophia K. Biddle

Anthós

Across the globe it is clear that children are a marginalized group. Children are not allowed to vote or be taken seriously in political circles (Sharpe, 2015), are kept away from public spaces (Valentine 2004), navigate inhospitable working conditions (Gamlin et. al., 2015), and are rapidly losing the time and space to foster their own child culture (Woolley and Griffin, 2014). Adults continue to institutionalize children’s play and restrict children’s access to public space. This serves to reinforce children’s position as second-class citizens. A mounting body of work shows that children are suffering in their physical and social development due …

Privatizing The Second Gender: The Origins Of Private Property And Its Relation To Female Sexual Enslavement In The Capitalist Economy, Van Thao Tran

Anthós

With this inquiry, I seek to establish that the privatization of women as property not only originates from but also propagates the creation of private property as is theorized by Thorstein Veblen – and, through both Veblen’s and Friedrich Engel’s research, we can entail that the erosion of women’s agency and ownership is enforced during the early sedentary stages of human development. Throughout the course of history, women’s barbaric status as war loot has evolved into a more insidious institution of naturalized slavery and sexual encumbrance through the adoption of John Locke’s natural rights philosophy into the businessman’s practice, the …

Faculty Job Satisfaction And Morale In Biomedical Research, Richard John Goranflo Iii

Dissertations and Theses

High faculty morale and job satisfaction are vital for optimum performance and important to the quality and vitality of the academic enterprise. However, research on faculty morale and job satisfaction has historically been limited to faculty at traditional comprehensive institutions and specific professional programs. Faculty who conduct biomedical research at academic health centers experience substantial differences in employment expectations and how they are funded than other faculty. The purpose of this study was to explore how personal and professional factors contribute toward positive morale and job satisfaction for faculty in biomedical research programs at one academic health center. This qualitative …

What Is The Nature Of The Conflict Experienced By Japanese Workers In International Companies Based In Japan And What Type Of Conflict Management Do They Access?, Tomoko Shinohara Le

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this thesis was to identify and analyze workplace conflict by enquiring into the nature of conflict, conflict management, and human resources (HR) strategies for conflict management in international companies based in Japan (ICBIJ). This study explores one part of a conflict system comprising cultural issues, HR strategies, conflict, and its effect on retention. The research question is "What is the nature of the conflict experienced by Japanese workers in international companies based in Japan and what type of conflict management do they access?" 16 Japanese workers were surveyed yielding qualitative and qualitative data. Findings indicate that workplace …

Changing Attitudes Toward Sustainable Transportation: The Impact Of Meta-Arguments On Persuasion, David M. Sanbonmatsu, David L. Strayer

TREC Final Reports

An experiment tested the effects of both communications about the functions of an attitude and communications about the functions of an attitude object on persuasion. Participants received a conventional message about the benefits of public transportation, a message about the benefits of positive public transportation attitudes, or a control message. Meta-arguments about the functions of attitudes led to more favorable evaluations and stronger intentions to use public transportation. These effects were moderated by the political and environmental orientation of participants. Surprisingly, the conventional message was not persuasive. The research is novel in showing that the communication of the functions of …

Evaluative Criteria For Autoethnographic Research: Who’S To Judge? (Chapter 15), Robert Schroeder

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

This chapter is a exploration of autoethnography and shows how entrenched positivist assumptions are in our field. The chapter includes a reflection of the author's own experiences with research and to connect them in ways to my academic library community.

Supported Employment For Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury: Provider Perspectives, Terri K. Pogoda, Kathleen F. Carlson, Katelyn E. Gormley, Sandra Resnick

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: In 2006, 13 sites were provided with one-time pilot funding to provide supported employment (SE) to Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) history. In 2014, we surveyed SE providers at pilot and non-pilot sites that did not receive this funding. Our objectives were to identify any pilot and non-pilot site differences regarding current: (1) provision of SE to Veterans with TBI; (2) staffing and communication between the SE and polytrauma/TBI teams; and (3) provider perceptions on facilitators and barriers to providing, and suggestions for improving, SE.

Design: Mixed methods cross-sectional survey study.

Participants: Providers included a …

Household Water Insecurity, Missed Schooling, And The Mediating Role Of Caregiver Depression In Rural Uganda, Christine E. Cooper-Vince, Bernard Kakuhikire, Dagmar Vořechovská, Amy Q. Mcdonough, Jessica M. Perkins, Atheendar S. Venkataramani, Rumbidzai Mushavi, Charles Baguma, Scholastic Ashaba, David Bangsberg, Alexander C. Tsai

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: School attendance rates in sub-Saharan Africa are among the lowest worldwide, placing children at heightened risk for poor educational and economic outcomes. One understudied risk factor for missed schooling is household water insecurity, which is linked to depression among women and may increase children’s water-fetching burden at the expense of educational activities, particularly among children of depressed caregivers. In this study conducted in rural Uganda, we assessed the association between household water insecurity and child school participation and the mediating pathways behind these associations.

Method: We conducted a population-based, cross-sectional study of female household heads (N = 257) and …

"So, You're Not Doing This Right": Perception Versus Reality Of Transgender Students' Experiences At Portland State, Charles N. Breyer

University Honors Theses

Transgender people in the United States experience mistreatment and discrimination, as well as harassment and violence, at much higher rates than the general population. In university classrooms specifically, it is possible that less conspicuous forms of prejudice-based behavior are even more common. Though past research addresses transgender college students’ perceptions of peer and faculty support (Pryor, 2015) this support cannot be adequately provided if faculty lack an accurate understanding of the issues transgender students face. In hopes of providing better support for transgender students, the present study utilizes semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with students and faculty to better understand the overlap …

Knowledge Spaces And The Politics Of Pedagogy: Politicizing Portland State University's Environmental Education Paradigms, Sasha Kramer

University Honors Theses

I critically consider Portland State University’s Environmental Science and Management (ESM) department’s strategies in presenting Western scientific and Indigenous knowledge in regard to environmental management and interaction through the ESM department's core curriculum. I conduct qualitative primary research through semi-structured interviews with two faculty members from the ESM department, an ESM student, and a faculty member in the Nation Studies department. The interviews illustrate the gap in the ESM's core curriculum where multicultural perspectives are not represented. My research works to understand this gap by considering the historical, political, and economic constructs for the ways in which knowledge systems of …

Empathy In The Multicultural Classroom, Selene Rasmussen

University Honors Theses

Observational data gathered and then analyzed eventually yielded three main themes that illustrate how empathetic behavior is practiced and supported in the classroom. Firstly, successful empathetic behavior in the classroom was largely enacted via a modeling and echoing effect that occurred between teachers and young students that is heavily language-based. Secondly, when young students do self-initiate empathetic behavior, it is often demonstrated through actions of sharing and/or helping, in contrast to language-based empathetic behavior. Finally, the practice of counter-empathetic behaviors such as exclusion are not necessarily completely anti-social, and can potentially serve a pro-social and empathetic purpose in a complex …

Increasing Youths' Participation In Team-Based Treatment Planning: The Achieve My Plan Enhancement For Wraparound, Janet S. Walker, Celeste L. Seibel, Sharice Jackson

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wraparound is a frequently implemented approach for providing individualized, community-based care for children and adolescents with serious mental health conditions and, typically, involvement in multiple child—and family-serving systems. Both Wraparound’s principles and its theory of change stress the importance of youths’ active participation throughout. However, research focusing on the experiences of youth in Wraparound indicates that they are often not particularly engaged in the process or participating actively with their teams, and the findings point to a lack of alliance between the young people and their teams. This article describes a randomized study testing the Achieve My Plan (AMP) enhancement …

Peer Mentoring For Undergraduates In A Research-Focused Diversity Initiative, Thomas E. Keller, Kay Logan, Jennifer Lindwall, Caitlyn Beals

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

To provide multi-dimensional support for undergraduates from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds who aspire to careers in research, the BUILD EXITO project, part of a major NIH-funded diversity initiative, matches each scholar with three mentors: peer mentor (advanced student), career mentor (faculty adviser), and research mentor (research project supervisor). After describing the aims of the diversity initiative, the institutional context of the BUILD EXITO project, and the training program model, this article devotes special attention to the rationale for and implementation of the peer mentoring component within the context of the multi-faceted mentoring model.

The Role Of Relationship Dynamics And Gender Inequalities As Barriers To Hiv-Serostatus Disclosure: Qualitative Study Among Women And Men Living With Hiv In Durban, South Africa, Divya S. Bhatia, Abigail D. Harrison, Muriel Kubeka, Cecilia Milford, Angela Kaida, Francis Bajunirwe, Ira B. Wilson, Christina Psaros, Steven A, Safren, David R. Bangsberg, Jennifer A. Smit, Lynn T. Matthews

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: This qualitative study investigated gender power inequalities as they contribute to relationship dynamics and HIV-serostatus disclosure among men and women living with HIV in Durban, South Africa. HIV serodiscordance among men and women within stable partnerships contributes to high HIV incidence in southern Africa, yet disclosure rates remain low. Given the emphasis on prevention for HIV-serodiscordant couples, this research supports the urgent need to explore how best to support couples to recognize that they are part of this priority population and to access appropriate prevention and treatment.

Methods: Thirty-five in-depth individual interviews were conducted with 15 HIV-positive men …

Culturally Responsive School Leadership For Latino/A Students Success, Victor H. Vergara

Dissertations and Theses

Historically, education in the United States has been tailored to fulfill the needs of White students. As the Latina/o population increases in the United States, we must prepare teachers and school administrators to provide opportunities for an equal education for minority students of all races, cultural backgrounds, or ethnicities. School leadership plays an important role in the effectiveness of educational access for minority students. Leaders must review and modify their practices to ensure that minority students have the opportunity to be productive citizens in our society. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the characteristics of effective high school …