Digital Commons Network^™

Reproductive Rights At Work: The Role Of Organizations In Menstrual Support, Emily Julia Ready

Dissertations and Theses

Painful menstrual symptoms affect up to 90% of people with uteruses globally. These symptoms can result in lost productivity at work and absenteeism for working individuals. Normative work structures have not been designed with accessibility and inclusivity for those with uteruses in mind. Therefore, women and those with uteruses have often had to work through barriers with no accommodations or systematic change. Currently, there is no published research in the United States on the nuances of the relationship between menstruation and work with the intention of exploring effective solutions. There has been discussion related to menstrual supportive policies, but there …

Temporal Modeling And Forecasting Of Blood Glucose Dynamics In Individuals With Diabetes Mellitus, Mj Ruff

University Honors Theses

People living with Diabetes Mellitus face significant health risks, including an increased likelihood of heart disease, stroke, and fluctuations in blood glucose levels. The unpredictable nature of glucose levels can lead to dangerous conditions such as ketoacidosis and hypoglycemia. This study employs advanced time series analysis tools to forecast the glucose levels for an individual diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.

From Lockdown To Learning: Understanding Motivation Shifts In High School Students Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kelly Lindberg

University Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic induced profound disruptions to the educational landscape, significantly impacting high school students' motivation to learn. This thesis explores how these disruptions affected students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations through the lenses of three motivational theories: Self-Determination Theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and Expectancy-Value Theory. By examining changes in the learning environment, social connections, and mental health before, during, and after the pandemic, this study identifies key factors that shaped changes in students' academic engagement. The shift to online learning during the pandemic, combined with social isolation and increased mental health challenges, diminished students' intrinsic motivation and weakened their …

Forecasting Influenza Rates Using Machine Learning: A Study Of Chatgpt's Predictive Accuracy, Sara Saleh

University Honors Theses

This study evaluates ChatGPT's ability to forecast influenza rates, such as the number of flu cases, hospitalizations, and death during peak season periods using CDC data, and comparing forecasts against actual results to calculate statistical accuracy and consistency. Influenza forecasting is essential for public health planning, but traditional methods may not always provide timely or accurate predictions. In this research study, ChatGPT was utilized to predict the influenza rates for the following week based on the previous week's data obtained from the FluView surveillance system. The predicted rates were compared to the actual influenza rates to assess the model's overall …

If You Give A Website A Cookie: Educating Children About Online Privacy, Tina Mccomiskey

University Honors Theses

Internet usage increases every year, and internet-connected apps and websites make up a large portion of this growth, so it becomes more important to understand how the information we share on the internet can impact our daily lives. From companies using personal data for targeted advertising to hackers exploiting accounts by using public information to answer security questions, poor internet practices can cause a great deal of harm. These forms of exploitation show the need for more education on internet privacy. My Privacy Awareness Learning Games (myPAL Games) was designed to address this gap in education for children …

From Prohibition To Prescription: Exploring Injustice, Bias, And Science-Based Solutions, Alexander Campos

University Honors Theses

This thesis critiques the war on drugs for disproportionately targeting minority communities and prioritizing systemic exploitation over public health. It examines the flawed, politically influenced DEA drug scheduling process, which neglects evidence of the medical benefits of substances like cannabis, psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and MDMA. This thesis gives a brief history of the evolution of US drug policy, which contributed to mass incarceration, reinforced racial disparities, and failed to reduce overdose deaths. It also highlights the potential mental health benefits of decriminalizing and regulating psychedelics to treat conditions like PTSD, depression, and substance abuse disorder. This thesis concludes by promoting …

Teaching Diffuse, Specular, And Total Internal Reflection Via A Halo Effect, Paul R. Destefano, Ralf Widenhorn

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Interesting and pedagogically useful physics can be found in the halo produced by a laser pointer directed into a shallow body of water. We describe a simple model for this phenomenon using geometric optics and support this model with empirical evidence. We also discuss and verify extensions to this model that explain variations in the visual pattern. These variants include a double halo pattern and a disk of dim light that can be produced with minor modifications of the single halo configuration. Although the level of complexity differs, all of these models rely on the same ray optics, specifically refraction …

Assessing Older Adult Behavioral Health Diagnoses In Oregon By Geographical Area, Physical Disability Status, And Age., N F. Parsons, Allyson Stodola, Ellis Hews, Nirmala Dhar, Sheryl Elliott, Sarah Dys, Walter D. Dawson

Institute on Aging Publications

This repeated cross-sectional study aims to assess potential differences among behavioral health (BH) diagnoses for older adults. Differences in services across urban versus rural/remote areas may contribute to deeply entrenched barriers to improved BH for this population.

Examining County-Level Implicit Stereotypes And Prejudice As Predictors Of Racial And Gender Disparities In Incarceration Across The United States, Emma Elizabeth Lee Money

Dissertations and Theses

Background: This dissertation investigated the role of local macropsychological factors - specifically, county-level implicit racial bias and implicit gender stereotyping - in shaping inequalities in incarceration across the United States. Despite overall declines in incarceration, trends in the incarceration of women and people of color (particularly Black women) show disparities compared to White men. Regional aggregations of implicit biases have been proposed as robust markers and drivers of systemic inequalities and are examined in current research.

Research Questions: Three overarching research questions (RQ) guided this dissertation: RQ1 tested the relationship between county-level implicit racial bias and proportions of Black (relative …

A Mixed-Methods Study On Extended Parental Separation Among Mexican And Central American Immigrants: Insights From Legal Violence And The Stress Process, Natalie J. Cholula

Dissertations and Theses

My mixed-methods dissertation examines the mental health effects of legal violence on Mexican and Central American immigrants experiencing prolonged parental separation amid heightened immigration enforcement. The study encompasses three papers utilizing Menjívar and Abrego's (2012) framework of legal violence and Pearlin's (1989) stress process model. The first paper employs quantitative analysis of the Mesoamerican Migration Project data, revealing that heightened immigration enforcement is associated with increased distress among Mexican immigrants in the context of parental separation, the use of coyotes, and the Trump era. The second paper offers qualitative insights from 29 Mexican and Central American immigrants, highlighting the emotional …

Analyzing The Intention To Volunteer Through The Integrated Model Of Behavioral Prediction, Sage Mendre

University Honors Theses

Nationwide, a significant portion of adults lack basic, functional literacy skills. To combat functional illiteracy in the United States, non-profit organizations who focus on literacy require the services of volunteers. In Portland, Oregon, the Portland Literacy Council (PLC) is responsible for training volunteer tutors to help people learning English as a second language (ESL) and native English speakers who want to improve their literacy skills. The integrated model of behavioral prediction (IMBP) is a communication theory that identifies the core factors that can lead to the intention to perform a behavior. The connection between volunteering in literacy environments and IMBP …

Agglomeration Economies In Social Economy Clusters: The Role Of Networks, Mina Kim

Dissertations and Theses

The social economy is an economic framework that prioritizes social value over profit, emphasizing cooperation, solidarity, and community-based solutions to the failures of neoliberal market systems. In East Asia, the development of the social economy is often government-led, raising concerns about resource dependency and the long-term sustainability of Social Economy Organizations (SEOs). This dissertation investigates how network structures and diversity within a policy-driven social innovation cluster shape SEO survival, and how agglomeration economies operate differently compared to conventional industrial clusters. The case of Seoul Innovation Park (SI Park) in South Korea provides the empirical basis for the analysis.

A mixed-methods …

Exploring The Pathway From Customer Sexual Harassment To Instigated Incivility In Service Employees, Fernanda Wolburg Martinez

Dissertations and Theses

The current study explores how and why customer sexual harassment (CSH) experienced by service workers may lead to instigated incivility towards customers in the same week. Specifically, following the tenets of Personality Systems Interaction theory (PSI) and the affective shift model, I hypothesized that week-level affective shifts mediate this relationship, such that upshifts in anxiety and downshifts in self-assurance govern changes in motivational and cognitive functions that impair the employee's ability to provide good customer service. Further, supervisor preventive behaviors and psychological detachment are proposed as interventions that may lead to a departure from the mistreatment spiral by weakening the …

Pesticides As Multiple Stressors To Bivalves And Echinoderms, Alexandra Gabrielle Tissot

Dissertations and Theses

Pesticides are ubiquitous in aquatic environments, alongside numerous contaminants and other stressors that can result in combined exposure to target and non-target organisms. Nevertheless, traditional toxicity studies quantify the effects of these compounds at an individual level, and to a narrow range of traditional test organisms. Through this dissertation, I explored the presence and effects of commonly detected pesticides of concern in the Pacific Northwest in order to realistically quantify potential effects from combined stressors. In Chapter 2, I demonstrated my background knowledge on these select pesticides (atrazine, bifenthrin, diuron, indaziflam, and imidacloprid), including their chemical and physical properties. Using …

Investigation Into Thermodynamic And Kinetic Phenomena In Arylation Reactions With Diaryliodonium Salts, Soocheta Jha

Dissertations and Theses

Benzenoid rings are fundamental structural motifs in organic chemistry, widely recognized for their prevalence in natural products, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and functional materials. Transition metal-catalyzed arylation, using catalysts such as palladium, nickel, or copper, has revolutionized C-C, C-O, and C-N bond formation, offering broad substrate scope and high efficiency. Among the reagents developed for efficient aryl group transfer, diaryliodonium salts have emerged as particularly powerful tools. Diaryliodonium salts facilitate metal-free arylations across a broad spectrum of nucleophiles, offering high reactivity, operational simplicity and environmental compatibility. The versatility of diaryliodonium salts has led to their widespread adoption as efficient arylating reagent in …

Sunrise At The Salton Sea: Environmental Justice, Land Use Change, And Hydrosocial Dynamics Of Solar Energy Transitions In The Imperial Valley, California, Dustin Mulvaney, James J. A. Blair, Alida Cantor

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

California's Imperial Valley, with lithium-rich geothermal brines, extensive flat agricultural fields with abundant desert sunshine, and access to transmission lines, is a leading case to explore interconnected themes around just energy transitions. Despite being the poorest county in California and one of the smallest, Imperial already provides 15% of the state’s solar electricity, and the region as a whole represents on the order of 25% of the state’s electric power capacity. This paper brings to light frictions over solar energy development that have emerged over the history of solar power development in the southern Salton Sea region. It describes the …

Dynamics Of Urban Heat And Green Infrastructure, Yunjae Ock

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of the interaction between urban heat and green infrastructure (GI) in terms of dynamic aspects, spatiotemporal variation across various spatial scales, temporal phases, and socioeconomic contexts. By integrating a national-scale longitudinal analysis, street-level structural assessments, and neighborhood-specific resilience frameworks, this study enhances our understanding of how cities can utilize existing ecological assets to mitigate increasing heat risks while addressing systemic inequities.

Urban areas face unprecedented thermal challenges due to climate change and the urban heat island effect, with marginalized communities disproportionately affected. Although cities are increasingly adopting GI expansion for heat mitigation, significant knowledge …

Race, Reflection And Resistance: An Autoethnographic Journey In Social Studies Curriculum Development, Jesse Nicholas Hendryx-Dobson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this qualitative, self- study, autoethnography is to explore my instructional practices, strategies and decision making as I navigate my attempts to build a more anti-racist, racial justice social studies curriculum in a predominantly white school environment. Critical Race Theory as well as racial literacy provided me with a conceptual framework, but also with the language I need to articulate the research problem and my findings. Three research questions guided how I collected and analyzed my data: 1) How do I plan social studies lessons that address the topic of race/racism? 2) How can I use social studies …

Convergence Research For Microplastic Pollution At The Watershed Scale, Heejun Chang, Elise F. Granek, Amanda Gannon, Jordyn M. Wolfand, Janice Brahney

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Microplastics are found in Earth’s atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, and ecosphere. While there is a growing interest and need to solve this grand challenge in both the academic and policy realms, few have engaged with academics, policymakers, and community partners to co-identify the problem, co-design research, and co-produce knowledge in tackling this issue. Using a convergence research framework, we investigated the perception of microplastic pollution among different end users, delivered educational materials to K-12 teachers and practitioners, and identified key sampling points for assessing environmental microplastic concentrations in the Columbia River Basin, United States. Three community partner workshops identified regional …

Development Of A Low-Cost Electron Microscope For Educational Purposes, Christopher Halseth

Dissertations and Theses

Electron microscopy is a powerful tool for exploring microscopic world, yet its high cost and operational complexity severely limit accessibility, particularly within educational institutions. Commercial systems are often designed as opaque "black boxes," further hindering hands-on learning and experimentation. This dissertation introduces the Educational Scanning/Transmission Electron Microscope (EduSEM), a project designed to overcome these barriers by developing a low-cost, modular, and transparent electron microscope optimized for educational use.

The EduSEM achieves significant cost reduction by operating in a rough vacuum environment (1-20 mTorr), eliminating the need for expensive high-vacuum pumps. This necessitates novel component designs tolerant of higher pressures. The …

Accessibility To Public Spaces: Intersections Between The Courts And The Houseless Community, Margaret Maxey

Dissertations and Theses

In an attempt to answer the question of what role the judiciary played in affecting access to public spaces from the 1960's to 2024, this thesis identifies an accumulation of patterns relating to the courts' role in accessibility of public parks and their amenities over this time period. The data supplied for this question is drawn from scholars focusing on judicial decisions and political theory relating to public spaces, including those mentioned above. The result of this study will include a close examination of the role the judiciary holds as a cornerstone institution in not only our democracy, but in …

What This Work Really Takes: Lessons, Tensions, And Student Perspectives In A Social Justice Math Classroom, Kathryn Elizabeth Roman

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, there have been growing calls for mathematics instruction that engages students in understanding and critiquing injustice through mathematics. While resources for social justice math (SJM) lessons have become increasingly available, implementing these lessons in real classrooms--with real students, real time constraints, and real pressures--remains a challenge. This dissertation explores how teachers and students navigate this complexity through three connected papers.

The first paper introduces a framework to support teachers and mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) in selecting and modifying pre-designed SJM lessons (PSJMLs). The framework is organized around three guiding principles: (1) center student identity and teacher self-awareness, …

Evaluation Of Social Worker Knowledge Of Human Trafficking At The Oregon State Hospital: A Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Education, Training, And Victim Identification, Jamie Sue Pryde

Dissertations and Theses

The prevalence of human trafficking continues to increase worldwide, and the implementation of human trafficking education and victim identification within institutions is slow to catch up. The Oregon State Hospital is a psychiatric in-patient hospital that currently does not provide human trafficking education or a screening tool for staff and does not know how to provide treatment to trafficked victims. Interviews were conducted with employed social workers at the Oregon State Hospital to obtain a baseline understanding of their previous education, training, and knowledge of human trafficking to aid in the creation of a trafficking screening tool. Results indicate participants …

Is Ride-Hailing A Potential Solution For Older Adults After Driving Cessation? The Role Of Objective And Perceived Accessibility, Minju Kim Song

Dissertations and Theses

Due to age-related physical and cognitive changes, older drivers have a greater risk of crashes and are restricted by age-dependent regulation. Nonetheless, many older adults in the United States maintain a car-dependent lifestyle and still prefer driving. When driving cessation or reduction becomes necessary, a primary concern is finding suitable alternative transportation modes. However, the availability of alternative transportation modes does not guarantee their actual use of these options.

As a relatively new transportation mode, ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, offer on-demand, door-to-door transportation and may be a feasible transportation solution for older adults who stop driving. While …

Short Communication: Multiscale Topographic Complexity Analysis With Pytopocomplexity, L. S.-H. Lai, Adam Booth, A. R. Duvall, E. Herzig

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

TopoComplexity is a Python package designed for efficient and customizable quantification of topographic complexity using four advanced methods: two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform analysis, fractal dimension estimation, rugosity index, and terrain position index calculations. This package addresses the lack of open-source software for these advanced terrain analysis techniques essential for modern geomorphology and geohazard research, enhancing data comparison and reproducibility. By assessing topographic complexity across multiple spatial scales, pyTopoComplexity allows users to identify characteristic morphological scales of studied landforms. The software repository also includes a Jupyter Notebook that integrates components from the surface-process modeling platform Landlab (Hobley et al., 2017), facilitating …

#Clandestini: How Italy's Center-Right Parliamentary Coalition Frames The Migrant Crisis On Social Media, Jenna Lynn Depasquale

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines the intersection of Italian neo-fascism, the Mediterranean migrant crisis, and digital media. Through a qualitative content analysis of the Twitter and Instagram posts made by Italy's center-right parliamentary coalition from 2014-2018, this research outlines frameworks that facilitate both the physical and social deaths of migrants. Twitter is a platform on which bite-sized xenophobic messages characterize migrants as criminals, spoiled youth, spreaders of infectious disease, and future terrorists--sometimes in a contradictory fashion. Instagram is a medium for conveying Italian identity and history, which disregards the longstanding contributions of people of color, including Muslims, in Southern Italy. Comment sections …

Just Places And Paths: Equitable Transit-Oriented Development In Vancouver, Washington, Hannah Althea, Jesse Tapia, Ken Yoneda, Blessie Saoit, Hayley Still

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Southwest Washington Equity Coalition (SWEC) has been actively engaged in multiple efforts to uplift BIPOC communities in the City of Vancouver and Clark County. SWEC has partnered with Rhododendron Planning for a project to develop a toolkit to guide future Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) that considers the specific needs and desires of BIPOC communities, which can be used for current and future policy initiatives. This work comes at a time of escalating development, inward migration, and diversification, putting pressure on present and burgeoning BIPOC communities. Between 2010 and 2020, the population of BIPOC communities living in Vancouver, Washington, has …

Time Synchronization For 5g And Tsn Integrated Networking, Zixiao Wang, Zonghui Li, Cheng Long, Yiming Zheng, Bo Ai, Xiaoyu Song

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Emerging industrial applications involving robotic collaborative operations and mobile robots require a more reliable and precise wireless network for deterministic data transmission. To meet this demand, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is promoting the integration of 5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology (5G) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). Time synchronization is essential for deterministic data transmission. Based on the 3GPP’s vision of the 5G and TSN integrated networking with interoperability, we improve the time synchronization of TSN to conquer the multi-gNB competition, re-transmission, and mobility problems for the integrated 5G time synchronization. We implemented the improvement mechanisms and systematically validated the …

Range-Dependent Meso-Scale Geoacoustic Seabed Quantification, Tim Sonnemann, Jan Dettmer, Charles W. Holland, Stan E. Dosso

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presents a probabilistic one-step two-dimensional (2D) inversion method of spherical-wave reflection coefficient data to estimate the range-dependent structure and geoacoustic parameters along a track. The approach of inverting such datasets independently as one-dimensional (1D) layered models and merging them to a 2D section is feasible but computationally expensive. This study demonstrates a more parsimonious 2D parametrization for active source data recorded on a towed hydrophone array. The comparison of data variance reduction for 1D- and 2D-based results clearly favors the 2D parametrization described here.

Synthesis Of Publications On The Anomalous June 2021 Heat Wave In The Pacific Northwest Of The United States And Canada, Erica Fleishman, David E. Rupp, Paul C. Loikith, Karin A. Bumbaco, Larry W. O'Neill

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

We synthesized more than 70 articles, most peer reviewed, that addressed the heat wave that occurred across the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada in late June 2021, breaking hundreds of daily and all-time daily maximum temperature records across the region. A persistent, extraordinarily strong ridge of high pressure was a primary driver of the heat wave. Contributing mechanisms were moisture originating in the tropical western Pacific Ocean, high solar radiation, low pressure offshore, large-scale subsidence over land, and unusually dry soils. Climate change contributed to the heat wave’s magnitude by increasing mean temperature, although it is unclear …