Digital Commons Network^™

Leaving College Without A Degree: The Student Experience At An Urban Broad Access Institution, Andrea Marie Garrity

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis seeks to understand how students who leave college without a degree, or non-completers, experience broad access institutions in an effort to shift our thinking from the student characteristics that predict college dropout to how broad access institutions can better serve students and improve graduation rates. To answer this question, I conducted interviews with former students who had recently attended a broad access institution and left without a degree. Results show that participants expressed internalized views of the traditional college student archetype, which was reinforced through their college experience. Further, participants encountered significant bureaucratic challenges and barriers, and expressed …

Planning And Real-Time Resource Allocation In Freight Logistics Systems Utilizing Emerging Transportation Technologies, Darshan Rajesh Chauhan

Dissertations and Theses

Transportation is a key driver of any national economy. In the United States, the transportation sector contributes $1.3 trillion to the economy, of which freight transportation represents more than 50%. Trucks alone account for more than 70% freight movements in the United States. In addition to worsening stress at ports of entry and traffic congestion in the system, freight also accounts for nearly one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Emerging transportation technologies like electric unmanned aerial vehicles (or drones) and electric vehicles can provide a more sustainable alternative to combat greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the …

Comparative Foreign Aid Analysis: Replacing The Competition Between Donors With Complementary Aid Policies, Emily Melinda Baker

Dissertations and Theses

Foreign Aid has been a topic of study for decades with few concrete findings on whether it is effective or not. Contemporary foreign aid is divided into two camps: the West and China, with little cooperation and plenty of politics between them. In this thesis I analyze the effectiveness of Western aid and Chinese aid in twelve sub-Saharan African states using annual HDI scores and GDP. I find there is a strong correlation between Western aid and the development measures used as well as cases where Chinese aid is more effective than Western aid. With these findings, I argue that …

Examining Demographic And Environmental Factors In Predicting The Perceived Impact Of Cancer On Childhood And Adolescent Cancer Survivors, Nazan Cetin

Dissertations and Theses

Cancer survivors' perceptions on how cancer has impacted their lives has been identified as a "critical predictor" of psychosocial well-being and quality of life outcomes. Given the dramatic increase in survival rates and the long-term health and psychosocial challenges, as well as survivorship care barriers, this study focuses special attention on childhood and adolescent cancer survivors and is guided by Tedeschi and Calhoun's theory of posttraumatic growth and Hammond's theory of distinctiveness. This study aims to examine the influence of demographic (i.e., age at diagnosis, biological sex, race/ethnicity, type of cancer) and environmental factors (i.e., geographical location and insurance type), …

The Myths They Make Of Us, Kaitlin Stone

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the relationship between myth and personhood. The societal constructs placed on us all, but specifically women, appear throughout cultures as mythology. How do these myths impact our identities? How can we utilize mythos and storytelling to reject, disrupt, or complicate those myths?

Development Of A Configurable Real-Time Event Detection Framework For Power Systems Using Swarm Intelligence Optimization, Umar Farooq

Dissertations and Theses

Modern power systems characterized by complex topologies require accurate situational awareness to maintain an adequate level of reliability. Since they are large and spread over wide geographical areas, occurrence of failures is inevitable in power systems. Various generation and transmission disturbances give rise to a mismatch between generation and demand, which manifest as frequency events. These events can take the form of negligible frequency deviations or more severe emergencies that can precipitate cascading outages, depending on the severity of the disturbance and efficacy of remedial action schema. The impacts of such events have become more critical with recent decline in …

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Colonization Response To Dike Removal In The Salmon River Estuary, Elinore Webb

Dissertations and Theses

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form symbiotic relationships with wetland plants and are important to the restoration of coastal estuaries. The purpose of this study was to assess the presence and colonization of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Distichlis spicata from three formerly diked areas of the Salmon River Estuary to determine an initial understanding of the mycorrhizal community in tidal wetlands post-restoration. AMF were present in all four sample areas and total colonization ranged on average 39-72%. The reference site had the lowest levels of total colonization, which is contrary to the findings of studies of younger wetland restorations. Most importantly, …

Orthotrichum Lyellii As An Active Moss Biomonitor: Examining The Interplay Between Ambient Pm10, Bulk Deposition And Heavy Metals In An Urban Environment, Scott Bradley Kiel

Dissertations and Theses

The importance of monitoring and preventing pollution in the environment is a globally recognized issue. Of the criteria pollutants outlined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, particulate matter is among these least understood in relation to toxicity and most wide-spread. Many governments have employed continuous air quality monitoring networks to track ambient levels of particulate matter, but are often too widespread to capture the heterogeneity of the urban environment, especially for heavy metal deposition. In Portland, OR, the epiphytic moss Orthotrichum lyellii was successfully used as a low-cost passive biomonitor to increase the spatial resolution of pollution around the …

The Process Of Establishing A Blooming Chemistry Tool For Use In Undergraduate Chemistry Education And Research, Emryse Geye

Dissertations and Theses

While it is still common in college chemistry to assess student learning and skill with summative assessments, the CER community does not currently have a simple tool to determine and communicate whether an assessment is actually aligned with the outcomes of interest. In particular, as so-called evidence-based teaching practices and active learning strategies gain a foothold in college chemistry classrooms, the ability to communicate whether those (often labor-, cost-, and time-intensive) interventions are not only aligned with course outcomes, but also provide measurable benefit to students becomes more imperative. While college chemistry has made some strides in the area of …

Modeling And Analysing The Impact Of Heat Pump Water Heaters On Distribution Systems Using Gridlab-D, Midrar Adham

Dissertations and Theses

With the constant increase in energy demand, finding ways to reduce peak load and the energy-costs factors has become more imperative. Domestic water heating showcases a significant opportunity for such applications. Water heating is the second-highest energy consumer in the residential sector across the United States. Electric Water Heaters (EWHs), in particular, constitute nearly 43% of American household water heating energy consumption. Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH), on the other hand, is an advanced water heating technology that has recently emerged in the United States residential market.

The objectives of this work are to develop a HPWH model and build …

A Privacy-Preserving Strategy For The Trust Layer Of The Energy Grid Of Things Distributed Energy Resource Management System, Mohammed Abdullah Alsaid

Dissertations and Theses

Emergent from the shadows of the traditional grid flaws, the Smart Grid (SG) idea was born and led by government mandates toward cleaner energy production. The SG represents the next generation of electricity distribution systems that subsume recent technological innovations. It uses digital communication between its components and entities to attain more automation, self-sufficiency, and reliability. Unfortunately, this relatively new concept is not flawless; the intrinsic reliance on increased digital communication spreads open attack paths for adversaries. Therefore, finding solutions that address information exchange vulnerabilities has become imperative.

The Energy Grid of Things (EGoT) is Portland State University's implementation of …

Nmr Analyses Of Flavored E-Cigarette Liquids Before And After Aerosolization, Paul Joseph Kerber

Dissertations and Theses

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are the most commonly used tobacco products among adolescents with ~11 and ~3% of high school and middle school students reporting past 30 day use in 2021 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), respectively. Furthermore, greater than ~80% of high school and middle school e-cigarette consumers use flavored e-liquids. Consumers can be exposed to variable toxicant levels upon e-liquid aerosolization, depending on the composition of the e-liquid, type of e-cigarette, e-cigarette settings, and other customizations.

E-liquids are typically composed of a carrier solvent (propylene glycol (PG) and glycerol (GL)), flavorants, and nicotine. PG …

Proper Orthogonal Decomposition Of Reynolds And Dispersive Stresses In Turbulent Boundary Layers Over Multi-Scale Rough Patches, Catherine Virginia Spivey

Dissertations and Theses

Multi-scale rough patches are present in topologies such as urban canopies (cities) and natural landscapes (forests, ocean floors). The flow over such canopies is three-dimensional, with turbulent structures known as secondary flows present in the boundary layer due to the difference in rough surface heterogeneities. Three dimensional instantaneous velocities are analyzed within the roughness sublayer over three generations of multi-scale rough patches at nine vertical planes using particle image velocimetry obtained experimentally. The secondary structures present in the flow are identified in the form of Reynolds and dispersive fluctuations. Proper orthogonal decomposition is employed to characterize the imprint of the …

A Distributed Trust Model Simulator For Energy Grid Of Things Distributed Energy Resource Management System, Abdullah Barghouti

Dissertations and Theses

The evolution of networks into more distributed, self-reliant nodes has mitigated single-point failures that plagued traditional centralized networks. Applied to power grids, distributed systems can increase the integrity and availability of grid services while also offering a power management solution. However, while distributed networks provide scalability, security, and sustainability compared to centralized networks, their distributed nature makes them harder for anomaly detection and prevention. Incorporating a Distributed Trust Model (DTM) System into an Energy Grid of Things Distributed Energy Resource Management System (EGOT DERMS) allows grid participants to be characterized and their communication to be analyzed for possible attacks. A …

Modeling Postfire Effects On Snow Albedo And Forest Recovery Over A Chronosequence Of Burned Forests In The Triple Divide Region Of The Rocky Mountains, Anton J. Surunis

Dissertations and Theses

Wildfires impact snow albedo, forest cover, and forest structure and thus snow melt rate and snowpack supply for as long as 15 years following burn. These effects have not been quantified at fine spatial resolutions and long time periods at a watershed scale. I modeled the effects of postfire effects on snow albedo, snow-mass energy balance, and resulting snow-water equivalent (SWE) depth over a long-time scale and at a fine spatial resolution. Using a spatially and temporally distributed snow evolution model called SnowModel, I modeled postfire effects on snow albedo and forest structure over postfire recovery within 8 forest fires …

Development Of A Configurable Derms Test System In Gridapps-D, Sean James Keene

Dissertations and Theses

Distributed Energy Resources and their increased penetration within the power grid are a suitable method to provide essential reliability services. In order to do so, they must operate in aggregate. Aggregation of a wide variety of systems with varying standards and protocols is a complex task, which could benefit from rules and standards to support interoperability. To this end, the Portland State University Power Lab has developed the Energy Grid of Things project, which includes a Distributed Energy Resource Management System to provide aggregation and demonstrate the usage of an Energy Services Interface: a set of rules governing the interface …

Learning From Machines: Insights In Forest Transpiration Using Machine Learning Methods, Morgan Thornwell

Dissertations and Theses

Machine learning has been used as a tool to model transpiration for individual sites, but few models are capable of generalizing to new locations without calibration to site data. Using the global SAPFLUXNET database, 95 tree sap flow data sites were grouped using three clustering strategies: by biome, by tree functional type, and through use of a k-means unsupervised clustering algorithm. Two supervised machine learning algorithms, a random forest algorithm and a neural network algorithm, were used to build machine learning models that predicted transpiration for each cluster. The performance and feature importance in each model were analyzed and compared …

A Day Late And A Dollar Short: Examining Perceptions Of Which Exonerees Deserve Compensation, Alexandra Pauline Olson

Dissertations and Theses

Many exonerees do not receive compensation from the state after they are found innocent and released because most states have exclusionary laws that bar exonerees from receiving compensation. This thesis examined public perceptions of exclusionary laws and addressed the broader question of who deserves compensation (according to community members). Online participants (n = 225) read an article about a fictional exoneree who either pleaded guilty or was convicted by a jury trial and who received a subsequent conviction or did not receive a subsequent conviction. An exoneree with a subsequent conviction was perceived as less deserving of financial compensation, …

Framing The Green New Deal And Climate Change: A Content Analysis Of The New York Times And The Wall Street Journal, Danielle Elizabeth Duffy

Dissertations and Theses

The importance of climate change recognition and need for action cannot be overstated. Climate change has historically been a partisan issue with an almost hyper focus on the (un)certainty of science, the need for action within a particular timeframe, and the cost of tackling the issue. With the contemporary relevance and salience of climate change, this content analysis explores emerging framing patterns in coverage of the Green New Deal and subsequent climate change references within news articles from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal in 2019. Frame typology from O'Neill et al. (2015) is used to explore the …

High School Persisters And Alternative Schools, Hyuny Clark-Shim

Dissertations and Theses

In response to a "dropout crisis," over the past decade much effort was made to retain high school students. Recent years' trends indicated an overall increased level of graduation rates; however, there has been a largely overlooked student population, persisters, who did not earn a high school diploma by the expected graduation date but remain engaged and continue to work towards graduation into their fifth or even sixth year of high school.

Using exploratory CART analysis, this study examined what individual-level and school-level factors were most effective in distinguishing students who were persisters versus on-time graduates. Given that persisters …

Analyzing Classroom Discourse To Investigate Structuring Equitable Mathematical Talk In Small Groups And Whole-Class Discussions, Brittney Marie Ellis

Dissertations and Theses

Shifting classroom discourse to be more student-centered has become an integral part of reform-oriented instructional practices. At the same time, shifting discourse can open up opportunities for inequity to occur in the immediate learning environment as both the quantity and quality of mathematical talk changes. In this project, I examined complexities involved in such settings by using discourse analysis methods to explore the positioning of students relative to mathematics content and each other's mathematical ideas. First, I analyzed the ways teachers' discourse during group work enactments related to established equitable teaching practices. Findings from this study suggest communicating group tasks …

Stoneware And Earthenware From The Beeswax Wreck: Classification Of The Dubé Collection And Discussion Of The Interpretation Of The Materials In Protohistoric Sites, Vanessa Renee Litzenberg

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past three centuries, items from the Beeswax Wreck have been discovered on Oregon's northern coastline near Manzanita, including stoneware and earthenware fragments. While the stoneware and earthenware were not noticed by beachcombers washing ashore until more recently, similar artifacts have been noted within Indigenous sites for decades. While most of the analysis of the artifacts found in protohistoric settings are used to provide proof of a wreck or potentially a marker of the start of the contact period, this study aims to provide some context to the stoneware and earthenware sherds related to the wreck. The goal was …

Toward Analyzing The Diversity Of Extractive Summaries, Aaron David Hudson

Dissertations and Theses

As the amount of text generated across the internet continues to increase, developing methods for processing that text to glean valuable insights is paramount. Automatic text summarization is one such method that aims to provide a concise and representative summary of input text, allowing users access to the most salient points from a large amount of textual data. However, in working with these summaries, especially those generated from social media data, questions arise about not only the quality of a summary, but also its ability to reflect the diversity of user perspectives. This work examines the quality of summaries with …

Treatment Disparities In Emergency Medical Services: The Influence Of Race/Ethnicity, Obesity, And English Proficiency, Jamie Kennel

Dissertations and Theses

Different treatment in healthcare settings provided to different social groups of people may lead to disparities in health, quality of life, and life span. Despite the critical role among healthcare services that Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provides disproportionately for marginalized communities, it remains unclear if and to what extent treatment disparities take place in the pre-hospital setting. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of social worth, aversive racism, and stigma, this study utilizes medical chart data from three different public and private datasets to investigate treatment disparities by Emergency Medical Service providers for racial minority, obese, and limited English proficiency patients. …

Gender Equity And State-Mosque Relations In Middle East North Africa: A Case Study Of Tunisia, Joy Amarachi Agbugba

Dissertations and Theses

Why is the Middle East North Africa region consistently ranked the lowest on the gender equity scale? This question is quite perplexing and that has driven several scholarly researchers to investigate the situation of gender and women's rights within the states in the region. In this research, I explore the various theories explaining the cause of gender inequity in this region including the Islam thesis/social modernization theory, political-economic theory, and psychological/social structural theories, with an emphasis on the Islamic thesis theory. I argue that the state's support and prioritization of Muslim/sharia law over federal law is a major contributor to …

Unpaired Style Transfer Conditional Generative Adversarial Network For Scanned Document Generation, David Jonathan Hawbaker

Dissertations and Theses

Neural networks are a powerful machine learning tool, especially when trained on a large dataset of relevant high-quality data. Generative adversarial networks, image super resolution and most other image manipulation neural networks require a dataset of images and matching target images for training. Collecting and compiling that data can be time consuming and expensive. This work explores an approach for building a dataset of paired document images with a matching scanned version of each document without physical printers or scanners. A dataset of these document image pairs could be used to train a generative adversarial network or image super resolution …

"Damn, Man. The Time That I Lost": Power And The Process Of Diagnosis For Women With Chronic Illnesses, Kaitlin Roquel Yeomans

Dissertations and Theses

Historical sociological research on people with chronic illness has examined their navigation of their lives post-diagnosis. Diagnosis has been considered with regard, not to its process, but rather to its definitions. While a rich literature has been produced by such approaches, how people experience the process of diagnosis has largely been ignored. This research looks at the process of diagnosis as a series of moments, all of which hold specific meaning in the interactional context of the patient-provider relationship. Looking at diagnosis from the patient’s perspective demonstrates how information about health and illness is exchanged, navigated, and negotiated. Importantly, this …

Efficiency In The Upper Deschutes Basin: Understanding The Hydrosocial Implications Of Irrigation Canal Piping, Rebecca Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

In response to water scarcity, irrigation efficiency projects aim to conserve water for in-stream flow and agricultural use. Piping irrigation canals is a common irrigation efficiency method which reduces the loss of incidental recharge, resulting in trade-offs within a hydrosocial system. Few studies have focused on the consequences of canal piping and none have integrated a critical analysis of the social factors involved in deciding what constitutes 'efficient' water use. This study seeks to fill this gap by combining natural and social science to give attention to the scales and perspectives involved in irrigation efficiency canal piping and the material …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of How Youth In Care Describe Social Support, Jared Israel Best

Dissertations and Theses

There are nearly 422,000 youth in foster care in the United States with 20,000 aging out each year. Youth who age out of care demonstrate worse outcomes in all areas (education, employment, homelessness, justice system involvement, and social support) compared to the general population. These outcomes represent an ideological production, or a production of knowledge regarding the discursive youth in care. Thus, dominant discourses of youth are informed and constitutive of these problematic outcomes. Similarly, youthhood is dominantly defined by risk and informed by peer groups and social relationships. This study presents findings from interviews with 22 youth preparing to …

Legislative Procedures And Perceptions Of Legitimacy, Megan Elizabeth Cox

Dissertations and Theses

While mechanisms of legitimacy development have been extensively studied in governments as a cohesive whole, procedural legitimation of the legislative branch has not been explored. Using a procedural justice framework to identify indicators of openness in legislative rules, this paper theorizes that the presence or absence of these indicators will be the key factor in public perceptions of legitimacy of the legislature. This paper hypothesizes that where more indicators are present, a legislature will be viewed as more legitimate by its citizens as compared to a legislature with fewer indicators.

Comparing Indonesia and the Philippines, two presidential democracies in Southeast …