Digital Commons Network^™

Mindfulness And Test Performance After Stereotype Activation: A Randomized Experiment, Charles J.Z. Daniel

University Honors Theses

Although stereotype threat – pressure to avoid confirming or being judged based on a stereotype – has been found to affect performance on an array of tasks, few studies have examined ways to alleviate the threat after it has been activated. Previous research has demonstrated several outcomes of mindfulness exercises - increased emotional regulation, increased attentional regulation, change in perspective of self, and greater resources available to devote to learning – which parallel four potential mechanisms for stereotype threat: anxiety and SNS arousal, decreased working memory capacity, mindset, and effort. The present study tested the impact of two interventions - …

Adoption And Child Trafficking: Structural Violence In The International Adoption System, Vanessa Virgiel

University Honors Theses

In the United States there exists as part of the institution of international adoption a hegemony of “saving” orphans from developing or economically devastated nations. This hegemony is a factor contributing to an adoption “market” in orphans, leading to incidences of the trafficking of children as part of the intercountry adoption system. This study's purposes are thus twofold. First it is a preliminary attempt within the academic realm to determine the emergence of this hegemony by delineating the US history of intercountry adoption from its origins in the mid-1940s as a response to humanitarian crises, to its current status as …

The Value Of Well-Being: Advancing Urban Blue Infrastructure With Holistic Metrics, Lisa Marie White

University Honors Theses

The design of urban infrastructure has emerging, documented impacts on the environment, local economy, and public well-being, yet conventional design and policy goals fail to account for these emergent properties. These impacts also lack consistent quantifiable metrics and classification in the realm of city planning. Without adequately holistic cost-benefit analyses, the true value of infrastructure projects fails to be ascertained, preventing consideration of design that provides additional benefits not yet incorporated into city policy and metrics. With more people living in cities than ever before, the built environment of cities has become an increasingly important area of study, and the …

Nella Larsen's Passing And Color Theory: Beyond Black & White, Jeff Shoemaker

University Honors Theses

The problem of race in America is still a polarizing issue. We have a responsibility to look to the past for historical context about where we find ourselves today. Nella Larsen's Passing is a text that resists identification and reveals many of the inherent inconsistencies in the process of racial, sexual, and gender identification. Irene and Clare are the characters in Passing who are usually considered for interpretation. At this point in the discourse, it is time to start considering the implications of other characters to the novel. When other characters are considered, a larger context of color-theory begins to …

The Cultural Trombone: A Contemporary View On National Performance Practices, Sam Arnold

University Honors Theses

The world of trombone performance practices based specifically on the nationality of the composition is one that has not been thoroughly explored, especially in regards to methodological studies. The basis of this thesis is to provide a progressive method book detailing appropriate performance practices through the inclusion of various solos and arrangements alongside annotations and performance notes. This aids trombonists in becoming aware of what it means to appropriately play music based on its national background, and elevates trombonists to a new level of playing and musicianship. Upon exploration into this method book, trombonists are guided through the cultural centers …

Trace Metal Analysis Of Drinking Water At Portland State University, Emma Claire Prichard

University Honors Theses

Clean drinking water is essential for human and environmental health, but pollution of drinking water sources due to lack of resources or investment allows poor drinking water quality to be pervasive even in developed areas. Portland State University, located in Portland, OR, U.S.A., had reports of poor drinking water quality in a major academic building (Cramer Hall). In order to investigate, a trace metals analysis of drinking water was conducted using EPA Method 200.7 Section 8.2: Dissolved Metals, via Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Concentrations of 10 different metals were determined in 22 building areas. Results show …

Mercy, Stuart Ewen Ph.D.

Publications and Research

A dog named Finn makes heroic efforts to save the life of a fallen bird, while his human friend watches from a window.

Nancy Huston's Danse Noire, Elizabeth Klosty Beaujour

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Adaptation Of Native Language Construal Patterns In Second Language Acquisition, Loraine Obler, Eve Higby

Publications and Research

First language attrition occurs when a bilingual’s native language shows evidence of language change due to the predominant use of a second language. Recent research in first language attrition has shown that lexical retrieval and word choice are more vulnerable to reduced native language use than are grammatical constructions. However, some research has shown that grammar can also be affected, especially for constructions which exist in both languages but have different distributions in their usage. Taking concepts from cognitive linguistics, we attempt to describe how this research may provide insight into how language construal from the second language can affect …

Effect Of Age, Education, And Bilingualism On Confrontation Naming In Older Illiterate And Low-Educated Populations, Sameer Ashaie, Loraine Obler

Publications and Research

We investigated the effects of age as well as the linked factors of education and bilingualism on confrontation naming in rural Kashmir by creating a culturally appropriate naming test with pictures of 60 objects.We recruited 48 cognitively normal participants whose ages ranged from 18 to 28 and from 60 to 85. Participants in our study were illiterate monolinguals (� = 18) and educated Kashmiri-Urdu bilinguals (� = 30). Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that younger adults performed better than older adults (� < 0.01) and the age effect was quadratic (age²). It also showed Age X Education and Age X L2 Speaking interactions predicted naming performance.The Age X …

The Politics Of Spanish In The World, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

This article offers an overview of the spread of Spanish as a global language focusing on the policies and institutions that have worked, particularly in the last couple of decades, on its promotion. The actions of institutions as well as corporate and cultural agencies involved in this sort of language policy are to be understood as part of a wider movement of internationalization of financial activities and political influence.

The Politics Of Normativity And Globalization: Which Spanish In The Classroom?, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

This articles explores linguistic ideologies in teaching Spanish in the United States. It focuses on debates surrounding questions of normativity and correctness in the Spanish language classroom and curriculum design.

Accounting For Accountability, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Review of the book Open Budgets: The Political Economy of Transparency, Participation, and Accountability, edited by Sanjeev Khagram, Archon Fung, and Paolo de Renzio.

Talking About Open Access: Smash And Subtler Tactics, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

This slideshow covers different ways of answering the question “Why open access?” It reviews the knee-jerk reactions many people have when they hear about open access, describes the many benefits of open access, invokes @openaccesshulk’s strategy of SMASH, and discusses what arguments work best with different populations (students, faculty, administrators, etc.). Finally, it addresses why librarians should try to talk about open access without resorting to constant use of the term “open access” and describes a few ways to sneak open access advocacy into other conversations.

Theorizing More Inclusive Cities: A Relational Model Of Boundary Transformation And Urban Research Agenda, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

To generate more inclusive environments for marginalized urban communities of color demands a strategy that privileges symbolic boundary change and uses it as the inroad towards spatial changes. This paper theorizes a three step relational process of a) communicative democratic activism, b) "multicultural" capital brokers providing access to the policy making process, and c) practices of community building that reflect the role of cities as key sites for sociospatial boundary transformation. An emphasis on discursive and ideational change, relying on communicative democratic processes steeped in historical, comparative analysis opens up our minds towards different classification schemes for stigmatized groups. Participating …

Pioneering Digital Sociology, Jessie Daniels, Heidi Knoblauch

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Review: Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles, And Politics, Stephen Brier

Publications and Research

Review of Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles, and Politics, edited by Brett D. Hirsch, multiple authored collection of articles on the theory as well as the practices and principles of the digital humanities and how DH can and has begun to reshape pedagogy in college teaching and learning.

Does U.S. Macroeconomic News Make Emerging Financial Markets Riskier?, Esin Cakan, Nadia Doytch, Kamal P. Upadhyaya

Publications and Research

This study analyzes the impacts of US macroeconomic announcement surprises on the volatility of twelve emerging stock markets by employing asymmetric GJR-GARCH model. The model includes both positive and negative surprises about inflation and unemployment rate announcements in the U.S. We find that volatility shocks are persistent and asymmetric. Asymmetric volatility increases with bad news on US inflation in five out of the twelve countries studied and it increases with a bad news on U.S. unemployment in four out of twelve countries. Asymmetric volatility decreases with good news about US employment situation in eight countries out of twelve countries. Such …

Variance Predicts Salience In Central Sensory Processing, Ann M. Hermundstad, John J. Briguglio, Mary M. Conte, Jonathan D. Victor, Vijay Balasubramanian, Gašper Tkačik

Publications and Research

Information processing in the sensory periphery is shaped by natural stimulus statistics. In the periphery, a transmission bottleneck constrains performance; thus efficient coding implies that natural signal components with a predictably wider range should be compressed. In a different regime—when sampling limitations constrain performance—efficient coding implies that more resources should be allocated to informative features that are more variable. We propose that this regime is relevant for sensory cortex when it extracts complex features from limited numbers of sensory samples. To test this prediction, we use central visual processing as a model: we show that visual sensitivity for local multi-point …

The Impact Of Global Trends On Ilds, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

There are a variety of important developments in digital information, globalization, demographics, economics, education, technology and more affecting all aspects of 21st century life. These trends are also reflected in changes in new ways that libraries are facilitating the discovery and delivery of information. Using the 2014 New Media Consortium’s “Horizon Report: Library Edition” and the discussion draft of the American Library Association Policy Revolution! Initiative’s “Trends Report: Snapshots of a Turbulent World” this article examines several key trends and disruptions impacting libraries and the world and how these are likely to influence the ways libraries facilitate the discovery and …

Total Voice Leading, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

The total voice leading between sets X and Y is defined as the complete collection of ordered pc intervals formed between the pcs in X and the pcs in Y. These interval multisets (imultisets) describe the sonic signature of the motion from X to Y, and they always have the property of transpositional combination. In some cases, the same total voice leading may be produced by different pairs of X and Y (Cohn 1988 refers to this as “multiple parentage”). In such cases, the total voice leading may remain the same even though the generating chords differ.

An Analytical Example For Bob, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

In the fall of 1981, I was the greenest, most naïve young music theorist you can possibly imagine. The ink on my doctoral diploma was still wet, and I had just started my first job, at the University of Wisconsin. It was a simpler, less demanding time for music theorists: I had never attended a conference, much less presented at one. But I found myself at the 1981 meeting of the newly formed Society for Music Theory in Los Angeles, giving my first-ever theory paper. I recognized Milton Babbitt, the keynote speaker for the conference, sitting right in front of …

Proceedings Of The 1st Annual Cuny Games Festival, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Francesco Crocco, Carlos Hernandez, Kathleen Offenholley, Leah Potter, Maura A. Smale, Cuny Games Network

Publications and Research

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 17-18, 2014, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Topics in Game Design - Teaching with Virtual and Augmented Realities - Writing with Games - Breaking the Magic Circle: Games & Real Life - Interactive Game Design (What's Your Game Plan? - Designing Ethical Games - Games and Gender - Gaming English Language and Literature - Game, Narrative, Literacy - Teaching with Games - Games, Storytelling, and Narrative - Games and STEM - Learning by Design - Students as Game Designers - Experiencing Reality in Popular Games …

Buenos Aires, Fernando Degiovanni, Fernando Rosenberg

Publications and Research

One of the most important city ports of the Western Hemisphere, Buenos Aires has a history inextricably connected to the fluctuations of the Atlantic economy as well as to its strategic position as a gateway to vast and fertile flatlands that extend far beyond the city limits. Founded and re-founded in the 16th century as a secondary colonial outpost, Buenos Aires was dramatically transformed by the demands of the European markets at the turn of both the 18th and 19th centuries. In this context, two crucial developments are decisive for understanding the physical, social, and cultural fabric of the city: …

The Risks Of The Rose City: Assessing The Social Vulnerability Of Communities To Multiple Environmental Hazards In The Portland Metropolitan Area, Daniel R. Logan

Geography Masters Research Papers

In the past three decades, research in the geography of hazards and disasters has expanded beyond the response to hazard events and incorporated the concepts of preparedness, recovery, and mitigation. These issues require a complete understanding of the vulnerability of places to hazards, not only in regards to hazard characteristics but in regards to social and economic conditions as well. This paper offers a case study in hazard exposure and social vulnerability analysis which incorporates the methodology of two previous studies on the same topics. A geographic information system was used to determine vulnerable areas and populations exposed to five …

The Cully Park Inter-Tribal Gathering Garden: Place-Making Through Indigenous Eco-Cultural Reclamation, Randall Morris

Geography Masters Research Papers

Portland's history and geography are patterned, like any city, by spatial imaginings both utopian and dystopian. This examination of the raw landscape of the city’s nascent garden space in Cully Park is an attempt to research a third manifestation of space, one that might be called heterotopia. This research into the Inter-Tribal Gathering Garden is a search for a more complete accounting of place, one which also acknowledges the variety of non-human agencies (a list which would include streets, planning documents, various plants, historical accounts, and even the consistent boundaries of the space itself) found in all heterogeneous …

Consciousness And Mental Qualities For Auditory Sensations, Adriana Renero

Publications and Research

The contribution of recent theories of sound and audition has been extremely significant for the development of a philosophy of auditory perception; however, none tackle the question of how our consciousness of auditory states arises. My goal is to show how consciousness about our auditory experience gets triggered. I examine a range of auditory mental phenomena to show how we are able to capture qualitative distinctions of auditory sensations. I argue that our consciousness of auditory states consists in having thoughts that organize our experience. Although my proposals could be adapted to fit with other theories of consciousness, here I …

Recent Publications

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Group To Individual (G2i) Inference In Scientific Expert Testimony, David L. Faigman, John Monahan, Christopher Slobogin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Relying On Government In Comparison: What Can The United States Learn From Abroad In Relation To Administrative Estoppel, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.