Digital Commons Network^™

Global Water Level Variability Observed After The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’Apai Volcanic Tsunami Of 2022, Adam Thomas Devlin, David A. Jay, Stefan Talke, Jiayi Pan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano on 15 January 2022 provided a rare opportunity to understand global tsunami impacts of explosive volcanism and to evaluate future hazards, including dangers from “volcanic meteotsunamis” (VMTs) induced by the atmospheric shock waves that followed the eruption. The propagation of the volcanic and marine tsunamis was analyzed using globally distributed 1 min measurements of air pressure and water level (WL) (from both tide gauges and deep-water buoys). The marine tsunami propagated primarily throughout the Pacific, reaching nearly 2 m at some locations, though most Pacific locations recorded maximums lower than 1 m. …

Machiavelli's The Prince: Utopia And Dystopia, Lea Yonago

Young Historians Conference

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince is regarded as one of the first works of political realism, a text that put power and pragmatism before all else. I speculate that Machiavelli took absolutism as a point of departure because he was attempting to regain Medici favor. However, his commitment to a prince and its corresponding praxis exemplifies the power of utopia. Along the lines of Lezsek Kolakowski, “utopia” here refers to a state of social consciousness that is an inevitable product of developing historical conditions. Without utopias, there could be no social subject which processes and shapes the world. Antonio Gramsci would …

The Court Of Versailles Under Lou’S Xiv: Home To The Desperate, The Destitute, And The Debauched, Evelyn L. Cooper

Young Historians Conference

“A nobleman, if he lives in his providence, lives free but without substance; if he lives at Court, he is taken care of, but enslaved.” A quote by a contemporary of Louis XIV, King of France and resident of Le Château de Versailles, Jean de La Bruyère reveals the more intricate reality of the Court in seventeenth century France. Versailles was not merely a royal spectacle, nor another French palace, it was a highly politicized project undertaken by Louis XIV with the express intent to devastate the noble class. This paper explores the means by which Louis weaponized Versailles and …

Most Vulgar And Barbarous: A History Of Tattoo Stigma, Sophie Luzier

Young Historians Conference

For thousands of years, tattoos have been used cross-culturally for purposes ranging from religious affiliation to ritual. Still, many societies today associate tattoos with deviance and criminality, making it difficult for tattooed people to find employment and acceptance within society. This negative stigma can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greece, when tattoos were used to mark slaves and prisoners of war. Other examples are given from Dynastic China, Japan, the American circus, and the Holocaust. This examination of tattoo stigma throughout history exposes larger patterns of racism, hegemony, and ostracism, and gives us an awareness of social …

Death And Vengeance Behind Every Corner: The Great Purge And The Psychology Of Joseph Stalin, Isabella Gurin

Young Historians Conference

Under Joseph Stalin’s rule of the Soviet Union, the Purges, or “repressions” as they are now known in Russia, led to the direct and indirect deaths of an estimated twenty million people through starvation, executions, and forced labor camps. As the uncontested dictator of the Soviet Union for nearly twenty-five years, Stalin made no attempt to gain popular support among his nation but enforced his interpretation of communist-socialist rule by means of unremitting oppression and terror. Why did he utilize such vindictive measures? Was it his absolute aversion to any authority and ruthless insistence on total control at all times? …

“An Impediment To Those Who Would Walk The Difficult Way”: How St. Francis Of Assisi’S Revolution In Catholic Thought Was Built On The Perceived Inferiority Of Femininity, Julian F. Balsley

Young Historians Conference

St. Francis of Assisi is undoubtedly one of the most famous saints in the Catholic Church. Known for his complete poverty and deep love for the poor and animals, the Little Poor Man of Assisi has become renowned for his way of life and the fraternity he started that has continued for over eight hundred years. In an organization rife with cardinal sin, Francis was in stark contrast with his asceticism and rankless order. However, St. Francis’ entire ideology is built on the Catholic belief that women are inherently inferior to men and dangerous to those following God. Francis used …

Odysseus Of The Arctic: The Epic Of John Franklin And The Search For His Lost Expedition, Andy Manne

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines and maps the reasons for the lasting impression and legacy of the search for Sir. John Franklin's disappeared 1845 expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, burgeoning British Arctic exploration provided a rich foundation for serialized narratives, which, as they played off sentiments of national ambition and imperial pride, inspired a romanticization of the Arctic region and the men who explored it. The search for John Franklin's missing expedition became the epicenter of this trend due to the search efforts of his wife, Lady Jane Franklin, and the controversial findings …

The Contribution Of Domestic And International Conflict In Renaissance Italy To The Sport Of Fencing, Amelia E. Nason

Young Historians Conference

Fencing, the art or practice of attack and defense with the foil, épée, or saber, has progressed over hundreds of years from the warfare of Germanic tribes to a regulated Olympic sport. This paper investigates the development of fencing during the fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian Renaissance and outlines a variety of ways that fencing culture mirrored Italy’s at the time, demonstrating that Italian fencing was a product of both international and domestic conflict beyond the sport itself. The competitive cultural influence of aesthetic epicenters such as the Florentine Republic over other European countries—particularly France, Spain, and Italy—was paralleled by …

Rite To Death, Left To Life: Death Ritual As A Cross-Cultural Unit Of Analysis, Ro M. Runkel

Young Historians Conference

Death ritual is a nearly ubiquitous aspect of life within civilization, and serves the purpose of reconciling the logical positivist societal constructions that uphold social order with the fundamentally logic-breaking nature of death. This paper posits that death ritual serves as a strong cross-cultural unit of analysis as it provides insight into the defining socio-cultural traits and spiritual outlooks of different cultures. This unit of analysis is applied to Song-era Ch’an Buddhism, pre-colonial Hindu India, and Maori death ritual. For each of these examples, death rites are connected to aspects of art, culture, social organization, and spirituality or religion, and …

The History Of Vampire Folklore: Fear And Introspection 2000 Bce.-2000 Ce., Poppy N. Baxter Game

Young Historians Conference

The History of Vampire Folklore: Fear and Introspection, 2000 BCE.-2000 CE., is an exploration of the history of vampire folklore and how legends of vampires have influenced the behaviors of different cultures for centuries. Chapter one “Ancient and Classical Vampire Legends” begins with examples of pre-Christian vampire mythology including the vampire king Abhartach from Celtic Ireland, Classical Greecian vampires, Lilith as she is depicted in Sumer, as well the Old Testament during the Talmudic period of Hebrew mythology, and finally the Rakasha from Ancient Indian legends. “Slavic Vampire Folklore” concerns European vampires, more specifically the three types of vampires in …

Menstruation Products And Perceptions: Breaking Through The Crimson Ceiling, Ava Colleran

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines different views on menstruation throughout history and their effects on social, political, and economic landscapes. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Mayans all believed in the supposed ‘magical powers’ of menstrual blood. These societies held their own ideas on the limits of these magical abilities, and the good and evil forces they could be used for. Throughout these ancient societies, menstruation was used as a justification for the increased control of the state and men over women’s bodies. If menstrual blood did have these magical powers, it was a power that needed to be limited and controlled so …

A Double Edged Blade: Contrasting Theories Of Dissection Within 16th Century Italy, Sarah Zdebski

Young Historians Conference

Up until the Middle Ages, dissection was largely nonexistent. Gory and unsettling to the modern eye, physicians and anatomists alike agreed that animal dissections and comparative anatomies were more than sufficient to map out the human body. When academic dissections did begin to occur with regularity, they were rigid and formal in nature, relying on inaccurate anatomical texts written over a millennia ago by the Greek physician Galen. Dissection was a visual exercise, conducted primarily in Italian universities to provide a gory illustration for the medical student. The established format for dissection at the beginning of the 16^th century …

Law And Cultural Attitudes Towards Abortion: Ancient Civilizations To Present, Scarlett O. Anderson

Young Historians Conference

Abortion, the termination of a pregnancy, has been practiced throughout history in various forms and frequencies. The controversy of the procedure has prevailed similarly, evident from its earliest documentation to recent legal decisions. Statutory legal sanctions were scarce in ancient civilizations, and differing opinions were recorded in early medical, religious, and philosophical texts. These texts influenced centuries of common law & cultural attitudes toward the practice. Debate about the role of fetal viability, ethicality, and safety of the procedure wove their way into the public conscience. These ancient conceptions influenced the widespread emergence of statutory abortion law in the 19th …

Institutionalizing Femininity: A History Of Medical Malpractice And Oppression Of Women Through 19th Century American Mental Asylums, Ciara E. Pruett

Young Historians Conference

“Institutionalizing Femininity” explores the origins of the medicalization of gender norms in 19th century mental asylums. This paper examines the connections between rampant medical malpractice in 19th century American mental asylums, and how these abuses were a symptom of the patriarchy in the medical community acting to oppress the female psyche. One of the major issues this paper examines is the indistinguishability between psychiatry and gynecology in this time period. Gynecologists created the notion that women’s reproductive organs made them insane, by arguing that issues in the uterus or reproductive organs, or simply possessing female reproductive organs could cause insanity. …

33rd Annual Young Historians Conference Program, Portland State University History Department, Portland State University Challenge Program

Young Historians Conference

This is the 2023 Young Historians Conference schedule and abstracts.

Main, Mediated, And Moderated Effects Of Participating In An After-School Social And Emotional Learning Program On Young Children's Development Of Social-Emotional Skills, Amy L. Cordier

Dissertations and Theses

Young children's social and emotional skills (SE skills) are highly predictive of the ease with which they transition to kindergarten as well as their success in the K-12 school system and in life after graduation. Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often enter kindergarten with less well-developed SE skills and lag their peers throughout their school careers. Studies of social-emotional learning (SEL) programs indicate that these programs are successful in teaching SE skills, both in school and in after-school programs. However, less is known about the mechanisms of changes through which SEL programs improve children's SE skills and for …

The Use And Influence Of Health Indicators In Municipal Transportation Plans​​, Kelly Rodgers

PSU Transportation Seminars

As a social determinant of health, transportation significantly contributes to well-being through several pathways. Researchers and practitioners have called for health indicators as one way to integrate public health concerns into transportation decision-making. However, it is unclear how indicators are used and what their impact is on policy. This case study of five cities explored how health-related indicators are being used in municipal transportation plans, whether they are institutionalized into transportation agency decision-making processes, and what influence they have on administrative decision-making. In addition, this research also explored the conceptual use of indicators as it relates to social learning and …

Increasing Access To Doulas In Oregon: A Delphi Study, Courtney Elizabeth Crane

Dissertations and Theses

Doulas are trained, nonmedical support professionals that provide continuous emotional, informational, physical, and practical support before, during, and after childbirth. Doula care has been shown to reduce the cost of birth-related healthcare, reduce adverse birth outcomes, and increase patient satisfaction and positive birth experience. In 2011 Oregon became the first state to authorize payment expenditures of doula care through Medicaid as a strategy to reduce birth-related health disparities and increase culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare delivery. The intention of the set of policies and administrative rules was to mandate access to doulas and other types of Traditional Health Workers (THWs) …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Innovation Ecosystems In Facilitating The Adoption Of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Dana Sami Bakry

Dissertations and Theses

Sustainable entrepreneurship has a substantial role of a steadily growing economy and advanced industrial economies. Several strategies have been formed and employed to support the adoption of innovation and technologies in the sustainable entrepreneurship sector. However, the successful outcome of these strategies in achieving their goals depends on how effective they are in satisfying their objectives and thus increasing innovation adoption. One measurement for effectiveness of ecosystem implements can be their support to the input of the process of innovation and technologies adoption and their impact on satisfying regional goals.

The objective of this research is evaluating the effectiveness of …

The Experiences Of American Indian Participants And Site Coordinators In A Gestational Diabetes Risk Reduction Trial, Sarah Stotz, Kelly L. Gonzales, Kelly R. Moore, Heather Garrow, Multiple Additional Authors

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Gestational diabetes mellitus is the most common complication of pregnancy and contributes to increased risk for type 2 diabetes in both the mother and offspring. We developed and evaluated a gestational diabetes risk reduction and preconception counseling program, Stopping GDM (SGDM), for American Indian females. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of American Indian mother-daughter dyad participants and the site coordinators who facilitated the SGDM randomized controlled trial to inform program revisions. We engaged mother-daughter dyads (n = 22 dyads) and site coordinators (n = 6) in focus group interviews. Four themes emerged: (1) …

Discrimination And Perceived Cultural Mismatch Increase Status-Based Identity Uncertainty, Sierra H. Feasel, Tessa L. Dover, Payton Small, Brenda Major

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Periods of social mobility, such as attending college, can challenge one’s status-based identity, leading to uncertainty around one’s status in society. Status uncertainty is associated with poorer well-being and academic outcomes. Little is known, however, about what experiences lead to status uncertainty. The current longitudinal study investigated discrimination experiences and cultural mismatch as predictors of status uncertainty. We propose that discrimination indirectly predicts increased status uncertainty by increasing perceived cultural mismatch with the university. Participants were Latinx college students, all of whom were low-income and/or first generation to college. Discrimination experiences were measured at the end of participants’ first year. …

Bodyslam: Feasibility Of Tracking Human Kinematics With Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (Slam), Sepehr Laal

Dissertations and Theses

We evaluated a new wearable technology that fuses inertial sensors and cameras for tracking human kinematics. These devices use on-board simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms to localize the camera within the environment. Significance of this technology is in its potential to overcome many of the limitations of the other dominant technologies. Our results demonstrate this system often attains an estimated orientation error of less than 1° and a position error of less than 4cm as compared to a robotic arm. This demonstrates that SLAM's accuracy is adequate for many practical applications for tracking human kinematics.

Experimental Evaluations Of The Impact Of An Additive Oxidizing Electronic Air Cleaner On Particles And Gases, Yicheng Zeng, Aurélie Laguerre, Elliott T. Gall, Mohammad Heidarinejad, Brent Stephens

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electronic air cleaning (EAC) technologies have garnered significant attention for use in buildings. Many EAC technologies rely on the addition of reactive constituents to indoor air to react with gas-phase compounds, enhance particle deposition, and/or inactivate microorganisms. However, limited data are available on the efficacy of many EAC technologies and their potential to form chemical byproducts during operation. Here we experimentally evaluate the indoor air quality impacts, specifically targeting particles and gases but not microbial constituents, of a commercially available additive oxidizing EAC that generates positive and negative ions and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Tests were conducted in a large unoccupied …

Beyond The Bmi: Expanding Quantitative Methods To Study Health For All Bodies, Kieran Chase, Daniel Oron

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

The public health field is beginning to reckon with its role in perpetuating and reinforcing systemic anti-fatness. Emerging evidence for the devastating health impacts of stigma call into question decades of research and policy that labels the size of people’s bodies as diseased. However, even as we acknowledge the harmful effects of stigma, the field is materially and institutionally invested in a health paradigm that centers weight loss and size-related proxies for health, such as the BMI. Public health scholars interested in questions related to nutrition, chronic disease, and exercise must begin to expand their research focus to imagine non-stigmatizing …

Serotonin And Migraine, Sophia A. Kogan

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Migraine, experienced by more than 1 billion people, is the second leading cause of disability worldwide. It is a physiologically complex disorder with nervous, vascular, and inflammatory components, and is associated with genetic factors and environmental influences. Migraine triggers are poorly understood, and sufferers have little control in preventing migraines from occurring. The aim of this review is to bridge the physiological migraine processes with lifestyle behaviors that can be modified by individuals, focusing on serotonin.

Migraines can be initiated when an external event triggers the release of vasodilators such as calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), leading to cranial vasodilation, headache, …

(Un)Weighted Assumptions: Anti-Fatness & Health, Kieran Chase, Nell Carpenter, Madysen Schreiber

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

This lecture/discussion session aims to expand and add nuance to public health students’, professors’, and practitioners’ understanding of the interplay between body size and health. We will begin by naming and challenging common assumptions about the relationship between bodyweight and health outcomes. We will then argue for the consideration of weight-related stigma as a Fundamental Cause of Disease as defined by Phelan and Link, and for institutionally embedded anti-fat bias at the policy level (e.g., insurance policy, medical equipment) as a cause of population health inequity as defined in Whitehead’s Health Equity Framework. We offer these frameworks in contrast to, …

Does Sph Curricula Promote ‘Health Equity’, Reproduce Injustice, Or Both?, Jesse Yarnold

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Does SPH Curricula Promote ‘Health Equity’, Reproduce Injustice, or both?

The social justice movements of recent years (preceded by [generations of] insurmountable suffering) have facilitated a collective recognition of the systemic effects of racism and epistemic violence. Despite the ambitious and well-intentioned vision of “health equity” as defined by epidemiologic scholarship - progress is slow and injustices prevail.

Students, scholars, and researchers of ‘Public Health’ are uniquely positioned to imagine and create innovative ways of understanding and addressing the harmful inequities and injustices perpetuated by white settler colonialism. I argue that Academic institutions delivering Public Health education are uniquely positioned …

Determinants Of Modern Contraceptive Use Among Young Women In Ghana: A Mixed-Methods Study Design, Adjoa N. Manu

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Background: Only 20% of sexually active women aged 15-24 in Ghana used contraception during their last sexual intercourse. Young women are highly exposed to the risks associated with having unprotected sexual intercourse, such as unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

Objective: To use an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the determinants of modern contraceptive use among young women in Ghana using population-based data and identify the types of contraceptive methods the population know and use.

QUAN Design: Analysis of the 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey data, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey.

QUAN Findings: The male …

Investing In Family Planning, Education, And Empowering Of Women And Girls To Mitigate The Impact Of Climate Change: An Exemplary Case Of Rwanda., Adjoa N. Manu

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Countries where population growth is high are often highly impacted by the climate crisis despite not being a significant contributor to historical greenhouse gas emissions. This has created a global inequality in that countries with poorly developed infrastructure are 15 times more likely to have deaths due to climate related disasters such as floods, droughts, and storms compared to wealthy countries that can better protect against similar events. While the climate crisis impacts everyone, women and girls are at a higher risk because of their unique health needs and roles in the community. The effects of climate change can be …

Housing Quality In Philadelphia, Pa: An Urban Health Equity Indicators Approach, Jennifer Piacentini

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Philadelphia is also the poorest large city in the country, and many residents live in substandard housing. Poor housing quality is associated with poor physical health outcomes as well as mental health issues (Schilling et al., 2022). Many homes in Philadelphia are of poor quality partially due to the median house age being 93 years, and the fact that 75% of homes are more than 50 years old (Jay, 2017). It has also been found that Black households are disproportionately impacted by housing quality issues. The Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia’s Home Repair programs are invaluable, and work with homeowners to …