Digital Commons Network^™

Climate Change Proposal: Coupling Equity And Scientific Rigor In Facing Global Warming, Rebecca Mcnicholas

University Honors Theses

Global warming has detrimental effects on the health and population of our planet. For years, scientists have known that in order to preserve the earth for future generations, it is necessary to adopt more sustainable practices that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste. Policy makers across the globe have attempted to address the issue but have received pushback from the general public, industry and politicians on the other side, alike. Controversy surrounding necessary changes encompasses issues from livelihood, to affordability, to health equity, to taxation. This multifaceted problem cannot be solved with a simple solution; rather, it requires consideration …

The Pacific Sentinel, March 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Dan Chilton

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Essential NW Bands & Musicians
• Events Calendar
• What Happens When the Artist Becomes the Art?
• The SubArtic Collective
• The Enlightenment
• How to Dismantle a Bomb
• The New Space Race
• MyCoreMediation
• Nuclear Oregon
• What We're Enjoying
• Sudoku & Comics

Raps Sheet, March 2023, Retirement Association Of Portland State

RAPS Sheet: Monthly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Paid Sick Leave, Chronic Disease, And Systemic Racism: A Systematic Review, Lauren Yee

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this systematic review is to assess the impact of paid sick leave (PSL) availability on chronic disease prevention, treatment, and recovery. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate the role of race on this relationship as a possible source of systemic racism. The findings of this review show a growing body of evidence that affirms the statistically significant association between PSL and chronic disease-related outcomes. The availability of PSL has the potential to remove financial barriers allowing employees to access preventative services for chronic diseases. Access to PSL also increases work resumption by improving financial stability after being …

Nationalist And Non-Nationalist Christianity In The United States, Aaron Epperson

University Honors Theses

Christian nationalism has broken into the American news cycle over the last few years through its connection to former President Donald Trump, and it's closely associated with violent events like the January 6th insurrection and the Charlottesville, VA, Unite the Right rally. However, its close association with Trump and depiction in a 24-hour news cycle makes defining what Christian nationalism is--and is not--difficult for those unfamiliar with nationalism and the broader American Christian tradition. This paper hopes to briefly explore what Christian nationalism is within the United States through an exploration of nationalism itself and a discussion of nationalist and …

Pedestrian Behavior Study To Advance Pedestrian Safety In Smart Transportation Systems Using Innovative Lidar Sensors, Taylor Li, Sirisha M. Kothuri, Katherine L. Keeling, Xianfeng Terry Yang, Farzana R. Chowdhury

TREC Final Reports

Pedestrian safety is critical to improving walkability in cities. Although walking trips have increased in the last decade, pedestrian safety remains a top concern. In 2020, 6,516 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes, representing the most deaths since 1990 (NHTSA, 2020). Approximately 15% of these occurred at signalized intersections where a variety of modes converge, leading to the increased propensity of conflicts. Current signal timing and detection technologies are heavily biased towards vehicular traffic, often leading to higher delays and insufficient walk times for pedestrians, which could result in risky behaviors such as noncompliance. Current detection systems for pedestrians at …

The Power Of Music – An Economic Analysis Of Oregon’S Emerging Commercial Music Industry, Jenny H. Liu, Steve Marlotta, Emma Brophy, Rohan Khanvilkar, Hyeoncheol Kim

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Oregon has a vibrant creative presence, producing a diverse array of artists known on the national scale, in addition to independent artists mostly familiar on the local scene. The state is also home to many annual music festivals and live performance events that attract large numbers of attendees, while also playing host to music businesses big and small spanning sound recording studios, mastering engineers, composers, tuners, digital streaming services, graphic designers and music educators. All of these components of the Oregon commercial music industry economically impact their communities by providing entertainment and increasing profits for performance venues, distributing wages, and …

Gender Violence Or Tradition?: Media Coverage Of Child/Forced Marriage In Us Newspapers, Manjusha Gupte, Sundari Anitha

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The news media play an important role in influencing public perceptions and raising awareness of an issue. This research analyzes media framing of child/forced marriage through an examination of six US national newspapers over a ten-year period. It probes how narratives are constructed based on issue perception, blame attribution, and protagonist perceptions. It finds that print media has afforded increasing coverage to minimum marriage age legislation in the US. Mediated by advocacy organizations and survivors, the discourse surrounding child marriage has used a thematic frame as a legal issue with the onus on the state to amend laws facilitating child …

Developing And Implementing A Sustainable, Integrated Weed Management Program For Herbicide-Resistant Poa Annua In Turfgrass, James D. Mccurdy, Rebecca G. Bowling, Edicarlos De Castro, Alec R. Kowalewski, Clint M. Maddox, James T. Brosnan, Shawn W. Askew, Clebson G. Goncalves, David Ervin, Multiple Additional Authors

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The ability of Poa annua L. to adapt to most turfgrass environments extends to its ability to develop resistance to commonly used herbicides. Herbicide resistant P. annua is of almost epidemic proportions. The loss of once viable chemical-based treatments pushes practitioners towards more expensive, and often less effective, control strategies. This management guide focuses on integrated weed management (IWM) practices for P. annua control and herbicide resistance—what it is and how to overcome it. Also discussed are resistance mechanisms and documentation of common occurrences of field-level resistance within much of the United States. Finally, a summary of some of the …

Exploring Perspectives On Social And Emotional Learning Programs In Schools, Gina N. Carruth

University Honors Theses

This study explores different viewpoints on the implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools. Using a literature review approach, information was collected through peer-reviewed and online articles to examine the benefits and potential challenges of SEL programs in promoting students' social and emotional development. The findings reveal that while there is widespread support for SEL programs, there are also concerns about its implementation, effectiveness, and potential unintended consequences. This study contributes to the field by highlighting the need for a more nuanced and critical understanding of SEL programs, and their impact on students as well as insight …

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Understanding The Value In Producing Film Adaptations And Movie Franchises, Courtney Mcdonald

University Honors Theses

The business of making movies is not an easy one; in an industry where very few see financial success, risk aversion often takes the wheel. In order to combat the immense amount of uncertainty, existing research has attempted to establish factors of film success, including actor star power and reviews. However, statistical studies evaluating these factors have produced consistently inconclusive results. To approach this idea from another perspective, this paper investigates two specific areas of film—movie adaptations and film franchises—that contain valuable properties not always as explicitly connected to box office results. While many movies are referenced, two film franchises …

Extracting Extractivism: Technopessimism, Green Anarchism And (Gestures Toward) Indigeneity, Matthew Anglin

University Honors Theses

A certain ethics of technology has begun appearing in "extractivismo/extractivism" discourses concerning resource extraction in relation to the greater socio-ecological emergency in order to describe a critique of, inter alia, prevalent conceptions of, and efforts to promote and expand, "sustainable development" and the "renewable energy transition." This thesis reviews political ecology literature concerning various conceptualizations of extractivism, highlighting the critical concept of total extractivism; it focuses on the relatively divergent intellectual resources of technopessimism and green anarchism that converged in the late-twentieth century, revealing another strand of influence coming from interactions with Indigenous peoples--all of which inform …

Live From Oregon - An Economic Analysis Of Oregon’S Emerging Live Performance Industry, Jenny Liu, Steve Marotta, Emma Brophy, Rohan Khanvilkar, Hyeoncheol Kim

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Oregon has a vibrant creative presence, producing a diverse array of artists known on the national scale, in addition to independent artists mostly familiar on the local scene. The state is also home to many commercial and non-profit concerts, music festivals, and other live performance events that attract large numbers of attendees, while also playing host to related businesses big and small spanning musical and theater groups, instrument and gear makers, lighting and sound engineers, graphic designers, and numerous venues. All of these components of the Oregon live performance industry economically impact their communities by providing entertainment and increasing profits …

Not Your “Typical” Research: Inclusion Ethics In Neurodiversity Scholarship, Liana Bernard, Stefanie Fox, Kay Kulason, Alex Phanphackdy, Xander Kahle, Larry R. Martinez, Ludmila Praslova, Nicholas A. Smith

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research focusing on neurodiversity^Footnote1 is critical for including all marginalized populations in the organizational diversity literature and for promoting theoretical innovation. It is imperative that such research models the ethics of inclusion (Gowen et al., Reference Gowen, Taylor, Bleazard, Greenstein, Baimbridge and Poole2019; Nicolaidis et al., Reference Nicolaidis, Raymaker, Kapp, Baggs, Ashkenazy, McDonald, Weiner, Maslak, Hunter and Joyce2019). Despite positive intent, majority group researchers have historically produced biased scholarship on novel marginalized populations (Colella et al., Reference Colella, Hebl and King2017). As all research includes some subjective bias, neurotypical researchers are likely to publish information that …

Quantum Algorithm For Mining Frequent Patterns For Association Rule Mining, Abdirahman Alasow, Marek Perkowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Maximum frequent pattern generation from a large database of transactions and items for association rule mining is an important research topic in data mining. Association rule mining aims to discover interesting correlations, frequent patterns, associations, or causal structures between items hidden in a large database. By exploiting quantum computing, we propose an efficient quantum search algorithm design to discover the maximum frequent patterns. We modified Grover’s search algorithm so that a subspace of arbitrary symmetric states is used instead of the whole search space. We presented a novel quantum oracle design that employs a quantum counter to count the maximum …

A Simple In Situ Method For Optimizing Settings For The Einzel Lens Elements In A Focused Ion Beam, Rich Swinford, Erik Sanchez

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ion beams have had an incredible impact on research in the past couple of decades. One major reason for this is the continued development of systems having optimal beam currents that allows one to image more clearly at different spot sizes to include higher currents that allow for faster milling. The advancements for Focused ion beam (FIB) columns have developed rapidly due to the computational optimization of lens designs. However, once a system has been produced, the optimal column settings for these lenses may change or simply become obscure. Our work involves regaining this optimization with the newly applied values …

Global Climate Governance: Does Bilateral Cooperation Matter?, Nataliya Stranadko

Dissertations and Theses

The international relations literature looks at the climate regime from a perspective of power distribution, state interests, institutions, and multilateral negotiations. The international law literature focuses on legal analysis and design of international climate agreements. The transnational governance literature examines the participation of transnational actors at different levels of governance. However, each of these disciplines overlooks the trend in bilateral cooperation between national and subnational actors in a multilateral setting, which arises as part of the construction of the international regime. Why do national and subnational public actors in global climate governance cooperate bilaterally when multilateral cooperation already exists? What …

Gait And Turning Characteristics From Daily Life Increase Ability To Predict Future Falls In People With Parkinson’S Disease, Vrutangkumar Shah, Adam Jagodinsky, James Mcnames, Multiple Additional Authors

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objectives: To investigate if digital measures of gait (walking and turning) collected passively over a week of daily activities in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) increases the discriminative ability to predict future falls compared to fall history alone. Methods: We recruited 34 individuals with PD (17 with history of falls and 17 non-fallers), age: 68 ± 6 years, MDS-UPDRS III ON: 31 ± 9. Participants were classified as fallers (at least one fall) or non-fallers based on self-reported falls in past 6 months. Eighty digital measures of gait were derived from 3 inertial sensors (Opal® V2 System) placed on the …

Crack Detection In An Aluminium Oxide Grinding Wheel By Impact Hammer Tests, Yubin Lee, David Turcic, Dan Danks, Chien Wern

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Grinding is widely used as the last step of the manufacturing process when a good surface finish and precise dimensional tolerances are required. However, if the grinding wheels have cracks, they may lead to a hazardous working environment and produce poor tolerance in machined products. Therefore, grinding wheels should be inspected for cracks before being mounted onto the machine. In this study, a novel method of finding possible internal cracks in the aluminium oxide grinding wheel will be explored by examining the natural frequency and displacement of wheels using an impact hammer testing method. Grinding wheels were cracked into two …

Evaluating Differences Between Ground-Based And Satellite-Derived Measurements Of Urban Heat: The Role Of Land Cover Classes In Portland, Oregon And Washington, D.C., Vivek Shandas, Yasuyo Makido, Aakash Nath Upraity

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The distinction between satellite-based land surface temperature (LST) and air temperature has become an increasingly important part of managing urban heat islands. While the preponderance of urban heat research relies on LST, the emergence of a growing infrastructure of publicly available consumer oriented, ground-based sensor networks has offered an alternative for characterizing microscale differences in temperatures. Recent evidence suggests large differences between LST and air temperatures, yet discerning the reason for these differences between satellite-derived measurements of urban heat islands (UHI) and ground-based measurements of air temperature remains largely unresolved. In this study, we draw on an unusually robust and …

Does Structural Racism Influence How Black/African Americans Define Memory Loss And Cognitive Impairment? An Africana Phenomenological Study, Andre Pruitt

Dissertations and Theses

With the variety of research about dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), few studies have explored the effect of social structures, such as racism, on how Black/African Americans conceptualize memory loss, dementia, or AD. Furthermore, limited within the scholarship are the environmental factors and structural racism that are thought to influence cognitive impairments and meaning making about cognitive decline impacting Black/African Americans.

Most U.S. research centers on methodologies and epistemologies grounded in Eurocentric ways of knowing (objectivity, individuality, either/or logic). However, Eurocentric methodologies fail to acknowledge the cultural experiences with memory loss, cognitive impairment, dementia, and AD, as well as the …

Webinar: Improving Recreational Trail Accessibility With A Volcanic Ash Treatment, Charles Riley, Ashton Greer

TREC Webinar Series

Recreational trails serve as valuable transportation corridors and support the health of users. Wheelchair accessibility of recreational trails depends on a variety of conditions, including slope, cross-slope, and surface characteristics. This project focused on improving the firmness and stability of a 0.2-mile section of trail that was otherwise accessible. The existing trail surface consisted of loose ¼” off-specification aggregate on native soil. A volcanic ash-Portland cement binder, studied in prior research, was batched, distributed, mixed, wetted, and compacted on site to improve the firmness and stability of the surface resulting in a smoother surface with less rolling resistance. The webinar …

A Representation For Many Player Generalized Divide The Dollar Games, Garrison Greenwood, Daniel Ashlock

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Divide the dollar is a simplified version of a two player bargaining problem game devised by John Nash. The generalized divide the dollar game has n > 2 players. Evolutionary algorithms can be used to evolve individual players for this generalized game but representation—i.e., a genome plus a move or search operator(s)—must be carefully chosen since it affects the search process. This paper proposes an entirely new representation called a demand matrix. Each individual in the evolving population now represents a collection of n players rather than just an individual player. Players use previous outcomes to decide their choices (bids) in …

Legal Geographies, Caroline Griffith, Sarah Klosterkamp, Alida Cantor, Austin Kocher

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This encyclopedia entry defines and discusses legal geography. Legal geography is an interdisciplinary area of scholarship that focuses on the intersections and co-constitution between law and space and place: that is, how law and legal processes produce space/place, and how particular places in turn influence law. Rather than thinking of law as an abstract, universal, a-spatial set of rules, legal geography examines the ways in which law is situated in place, and how places are shaped by legal practices and processes.

Building The Foundation For A Community Generated National Research Blueprint For Inherited Bleeding Disorders: Research Priorities In Health Services; Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion; And Implementation Science, Vanessa R. Byams, Judith Baker, Cindy Bailey, Alexis Dinno, Multiple Additonal Authors

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) conducted extensive all-stakeholder inherited bleeding disorder (BD) community consultations to inform a blueprint for future research. Sustaining and expanding the specialized and comprehensive Hemophilia Treatment Center care model, to better serve all people with inherited BDs (PWIBD), and increasing equitable access to optimal health emerged as top priorities. Research Design and Methods: NHF, with the American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network (ATHN), convened multidisciplinary expert working groups (WG) to distill priority research initiatives from consultation findings. WG5 was charged with prioritizing health services research (HSR); diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and implementation science (IS) research …

Thin Film Deposition Of Mop, A Topological Semimetal, Robert Browning, Paul Plachinda, Raj Solanki

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

MoP is a topological semimetal which has drawn attention due to its unique electrical and optical properties resulting from massless electrons. In order to utilize these properties for practical applications, it is necessary to develop a technique to produce high-quality, large-scale thin films of this 2D material. We report below our initial results of growth of MoP thin films using atomic layer deposition (ALD), where the film grows layer-by-layer. These films were grown on 5 cm × 5 cm silicon oxide coated Si wafers. Resistivity versus temperature measurements show that these films are metallic and includes a partial superconducting phase. …

Transportation Safety Culture: Where We Are And What It Means, Tara Beth Goddard

PSU Transportation Seminars

Like any healthy professional community, the transportation safety community is not homogenous or without constructive conflict. The increased attention on systems thinking – most commonly known, if not necessarily well understood, under the “Vision Zero” approach – has sparked debate among engineers, planners, academics, public health professionals, advocates, and others about where our attention should be focused to reduce the epidemic of traffic violence. The built environment? Drivers? Engineers and planners? Car culture? What IS car culture? Dr. Goddard brings together her research conducted with colleagues on police crash reporting processes, NHTSA crash investigations, attitudes and effects of the language …

High Prep Uptake And Objective Longitudinal Adherence Among Hiv-Exposed Women With Personal Or Partner Plans For Pregnancy In Rural Uganda: A Cohort Study, Lynn T. Matthews, Esther Atukunda, Moran Owembabazi, Christina Psaros, David Bangsberg, Multiple Additional Authors

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

In Uganda, fertility rates and adult HIV prevalence are high, and many women conceive with partners living with HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces HIV acquisition for women and, therefore, infants. We developed the Healthy Families-PrEP intervention to support PrEP use as part of HIV prevention during periconception and pregnancy periods. We conducted a longitudinal cohort study to evaluate oral PrEP use among women participating in the intervention.

Methods and findings

We enrolled HIV–negative women with plans for pregnancy with a partner living, or thought to be living, with HIV (2017 to 2020) to evaluate PrEP use among women participating …

Exploring The Impact Of Interpersonal Trust On Health Outcomes In Rapidly Gentrifying Neighborhoods In Portland, Oregon, Julie T. Ha

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Social determinants have been recognized to be significant factors contributing to the overall health outcomes of individuals. However, there is limited research on how these factors have directly impacted the mental and physical wellness of people in neighborhoods that are experiencing rapid gentrification. The objective of this study is to determine whether the present level of interpersonal trust between individuals in neighborhoods is associated with the mental and physical health outcomes among its residents. This quantitative study uses the Albina-Rockwood Neighborhood Promise Survey, which uses data from a random sample of families living in two rapidly gentrified neighborhoods in Portland, …

Survival In The City Streets: An Autoethnographic Analysis Challenging The Criminalization Of Urban Street Gangs, Robert Northman

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

To varying outcomes, many attempts have been made to understand and define urban street gangs. Though these understandings and definitions of gangs may vary, they almost always rely on criminality as at least one of the gang’s “purposes.” The author, a gang member for approximately thirty years seeks to contribute lived experiences to the conversation centered on gangs. This auto-ethnographic analysis of urban street gang culture seeks to highlight the author’s experiences as potential determinants of gang membership while also exacting the realities of some common myths and other misconceptions surrounding the urban street gang, including the criminalization thereof. The …