Digital Commons Network^™

A Question Of Belief: The Narrative Of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, Madison Wegener

University Honors Theses

The structural complexity of Lord Jim has received a wide array of critical attention. My research aims to address this issue, with special attention to how the changes in narrative reflect the larger political problem of locating authority that emerged at the turn of the century when the novel was published. I argue that by presenting multiple conflicting sources and narratives, Lord Jim actively involves readers in an illustration of this dilemma.

How Felon Disenfranchisement Legislation Alters Citizenship And How It Can Be Challenged, Shanae Jung

University Honors Theses

Elements of "civil death" were put into heavy practice in the reconstruction era, as the U.S. sought to use disenfranchisement as a means of restricting the integration of "undesirable" groups, specifically the recently emancipated African-Americans. Many states have since done away with restrictions on the voting rights of ex-offenders beyond completion of their sentence and sentence requirements; however, Iowa, Florida, and Kentucky employ strict standards for granting re-enfranchisement—nearly impossible for most to complete. Elsewhere in the U.S. there has been a move from disenfranchisement; Virginia’s Governor recently reinstated franchise rights to ex-offenders through executive order and has continued to do …

Regarding The Treatment Of Women, Where Did Jesus Set The Bar?, Katerina Paetzhold

University Honors Theses

This thesis crafts an argument for greater female education, teaching, and leadership within modern day Christian churches. By examining three key interactions between Jesus and women as recorded in the four canonical gospels, a clear example for gender equality within Christianity emerges. The manner in which Jesus speaks with the Samaritan Woman, Mary of Bethany, and the women at the resurrection, as well as the roles and responsibilities he places on them demonstrates that Christ saw women as capable of learning, teaching, and leading. As the canon of Christianity, Jesus' life on earth is the template that sets the bar …

Pre-Roosting Assemblages In Birds: An Observation Of American Crows In The Portland Park Blocks, Katherine Hendricks

University Honors Theses

The first objective of this study is to describe the seasonal patterns of variation in crow numbers and to assess the extent to which crow numbers vary with weather over the course of the winter in the Portland State University Park Blocks. The second objective of this study is to draw on current literature to help determine a possible explanation for the crow gatherings that occur at the Portland State University Park Blocks. I observed the population of crows from October 23^rd 2016 to March 31^st 2016 with a restricted survey area around Millar Library on the Portland …

Fetal Stress And Neurogenesis In Thamnophis Sirtalis Parietalis, Kalera Stratton

University Honors Theses

Little is currently known about normal brain development and the growth of new nerve cells, known as neurogenesis, in most species, let alone how exposure to prenatal stress affects these processes. Using red-sided garter snakes as our animal model, we have a unique opportunity to study the impact of exposure to elevated maternal glucocorticoids, commonly known as "stress hormones", on brain development. This species is viviparous, with a proto-placental structure through which developing fetuses receive nutrients from the dam. Adult snakes also exhibit high rates of seasonal changes in neurogenesis. We captured mated female snakes and treated one-third of them …

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Mbsr) As An Alternative Therapy For Chronic Pain, Kayla Ohlgren

University Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the possibility of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) as an alternative therapy for chronic pain in contrast to traditional medical care. It examines 18 peer-reviewed scholarly articles and identifies benefits for chronic pain patients in terms of pain severity, quality of life, psychological distress, and duration of benefits. This thesis also identifies practical benefits of MBSR such as cost, implementation, no negative side effects, and the creation of life-long skills to be used after treatment has ended. In conclusion, there is a significant gap in the current academic literature pertaining to chronic pain patients who are minorities, men, …

The Politics Of Water In Mexico City, Richelle Van Dusen

University Honors Theses

The privatization of water in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area is a long and complex process that continues today. The city’s greatest privatization effort, the National Water Law of 1992, was imposed by the federal government with assurances of improvement in accessibility, quality and sustainability. The resulting system that exists today has been largely ineffective in achieving these initial goals. Despite some progress in infrastructure, the partially-private system has aggravated the very social inequalities it aimed to alleviate, further marginalizing the poorest citizens through their water’s high costs, far-reaching inaccessibility, and poor quality. In the decentralized water system, contradictions become …

Aquell Estiu Del 66. L'Actuació De Merce Cunnigham A Sitges, Ara Fa 50 Anys, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

El desembarcament a Sitges de la MCDC ara fa cinquanta anys exactes, es considera un punt crucial en la cultura catalana i espanyola tant en art com en música. Carles Santos ha titllat aquella actuació de «traumàtica» pel que va suposar per a la música espanyola. I a més a més, molts estudis erudits recents sobre l’art conceptual, la música electrònica i la dansa experimental consideren l’actuació a Sitges com un dels inicis de tots aquests moviments a l’estat espanyol. Al final, Clive Barnes va acabar per tenir raó: al Departament d’Estat l’havia subvencionat un pintor europeu, almenys la gira …

The Ethics And Evolution Of Library Information Sharing: Lessons From Interlibrary Loan Services For Library Open Access Publishing, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

One of the most essential missions of academic research libraries is to facilitate access to information. Librarians do this by sharing their print collections, as well as digital information, with members of their local communities. They also share this information, with each other, through interlibrary loan (ILL) services.

A fundamental belief in the mission of information access and the value of sharing information is why so many librarians also support the open access movement. In addition to this shared mission and value, there are also lessons the open access movement can learn by exploring how traditional ILL services – and …

Healing Through Language: Positive Physical Health Effects Of Indigenous Language Use, D. H. Whalen, Margaret Moss, Daryl Baldwin

Publications and Research

This article summarizes existing work that indicates language maintenance and revitalization efforts result in health-related benefits for Native Americans and other indigenous populations. Although forced loss of ancestral language has been a feature of life in most indigenous communities since the first contact with Europeans, the pace of loss has accelerated in the past 50 years. Among the many hardships such communities face, an especially troubling one is lowered health status. There are indications, however, that language maintenance and revitalization efforts have positive effects on physical and communal health among indigenous populations. The types of language programs currently in place …

Teaching Music History With Your Mouth Shut, Anne Stone

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Cryptography With Right-Angled Artin Groups, Ramon Flores, Delaram Kahrobaei

Publications and Research

In this paper we propose right-angled Artin groups as a platform for secret sharing schemes based on the efficiency (linear time) of the word problem. Inspired by previous work of Grigoriev-Shpilrain in the context of graphs, we define two new problems: Subgroup Isomorphism Problem and Group Homomorphism Problem. Based on them, we also propose two new authentication schemes. For right-angled Artin groups, the Group Homomorphism and Graph Homomorphism problems are equivalent, and the later is known to be NP-complete. In the case of the Subgroup Isomorphism problem, we bring some results due to Bridson who shows there are right-angled Artin …

The “Burnout” Construct: An Inhibitor Of Public Health Action?, Bianchi Renzo, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

The prevention and treatment of the “burnout syndrome” within the critical care community is an important objective of the Moss et al. Burnout in the occupational area is based on the idea that burnout is especially common in individuals who care for critically ill patients. We think that the authors’ observations and recommendations are diminished by the fact that studies of burnout’s prevalence are methodologically problematic. The current definition and use of the burnout construct may in fact be detrimental to public health decision making.

Comparing Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas) Structure-From-Motion Digital Surface Modeling To Laser Imaging Detection And Ranging (Lidar), Joshua D. Schane

Geography Masters Research Papers

UAS (unmanned-aerial systems) mapping is an emerging technology in spatial science. UAS, more informally referred to as “drones,” are small, radio-controlled or autonomous aerial platforms outfitted with camera sensor systems that can be deployed to fly missions for mapping terrain and structures. With the use of a photogrammetry technique called structure-from-motion, overlapping aerial images can be developed into high-resolution spatial data (< 5-cm). These data are georeferenced by GPS location information assigned to aerial targets which act as ground-control points (GCPs). This research explores the accuracy of the UAS-derived digital surface model (DSM) as it relates to a LIDAR DSM of the same study area in St. Helens, Oregon.

The site that was chosen to be mapped was a large wastewater treatment plant, with surrounding natural areas, residential, and industrial properties. The site was mapped using a small quadcopter-style UAS which was programmed autonomously; the overlapping aerial …

The Conflict Resolution Case Study In Urban Life: Bull Run Watershed Case, Chang-Yu Hong

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The City of Portland and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service are working together, along with citizens, to formulate a comprehensive new policy to guide joint management of the Bull Run watershed at Mt. Hood National Forest. This process has brought about four decades of conflict, resulting from differences between the federal view of multiple use and the local view of exclusive use for producing high quality water. The new policy is being formulated by the City of Portland and the Forest Service through negotiation of a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding that structures the parties’ roles, responsibilities, …

Hedging Default And Price Risks In Commodity Trading, Norifumi Kimura

Agribusiness and Applied Economics

Many risk factors exist in the commodity markets, especially those related to price and quantity. Recently, the risk of counterparty default has been increasing. The purpose of this study is to develop a portfolio-hedging model to hedge both price and default risks using exchange traded commodity futures and option contracts. Two approaches are taken to determine the optimal hedge ratios (HR) using futures and options: an analytical approach that mathematically derives closed-form mean-variance (E-V) maximizing solutions, and an empirical approach that uses stochastic optimization and Monte Carlo simulation under mean-value-at-risk (E-VaR) framework. Based on the analytical approach, we proved that …

Understanding Changes In The Distribution Of House Prices In Beijing, China, Yimin Yi

Agribusiness and Applied Economics

This thesis provides some evidences in understanding house price in Beijing. The rst part examines appreciation rate of house price across the distribution from 2013 to 2015. Similar temporal patterns of appreciation for different parts of price distribution are shown, while the rates of appreciation of low-priced homes are found to be higher than higher-priced homes over almost the full research period. The second part analyzes changes in the distribution of house price between 2012 and 2015. We disentangle temporal changes into a composition effect attributed to altered house characteristics and a coefficient effect driven by varying regression coefficients. Mean …

Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Outer Membrane Vesicles Triggered By Human Mucosal Fluid And Lysozyme Can Prime Host Tissue Surfaces For Bacterial Adhesion, Matteo M. E. Metruccio, David J. Evans, Manal M. Gabriel, Jagath L. Kadurugamuwa, Suzanne M. J. Fleiszig

Faculty Publications & Research of the TUC College of Pharmacy

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of human morbidity and mortality that often targets epithelial surfaces. Host immunocompromise, or the presence of indwelling medical devices, including contact lenses, can predispose to infection. While medical devices are known to accumulate bacterial biofilms, it is not well understood why resistant epithelial surfaces become susceptible to P. aeruginosa. Many bacteria, including P. aeruginosa, release outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) in response to stress that can fuse with host cells to alter their function. Here, we tested the hypothesis that mucosal fluid can trigger OMV release to compromise an epithelial barrier. This was tested using …

Motivations And Predictors Of Cheating In Pharmacy School, Eric J. Ip, Kathy Nguyen, Bijal M. Shah, Shadi Doroudgar, Monica K. Bidwal

Faculty Publications & Research of the TUC College of Pharmacy

Objective. To assess the prevalence, methods, and motivations for didactic cheating among pharmacy students and to determine predictive factors for cheating in pharmacy colleges and schools.

Methods. A 45-item cross-sectional survey was conducted at all four doctor of pharmacy programs in Northern California. For data analysis, t test, Fisher exact test, and logistic regression were used.

Results. Overall, 11.8% of students admitted to cheating in pharmacy school. Primary motivations for cheating included fear of failure, procrastination, and stress. In multivariate analysis, the only predictor for cheating in pharmacy school was a history of cheating in undergraduate studies.

Conclusion. Cheating occurs …

Absolute Pitch And Tone Identification, Gilead Bar-Elli

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Absolute pitch (AP), besides the psychological and neurological interests it has, raises some conceptual difficulties that can teach us about the richness of our notion of musical tone and various aspects of its identification. It is argued that when AP is conceived under a slim notion of identifying the pitch of a crude sound, it is hardly meaningful and has no significance in music comprehension. The rich notion, which is the meaningful and important one, involves knowing the position of a tone in a tone-space and its relations. This is presented as experiential: hearing and identifying tones under concepts and …

The Importance Of The Artist's Intent, Daniel Conrad

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Does considering artists' aesthetic intentions enrich our experience of art and enhance art’s aggregate value for human culture? By examining non-aesthetic intent, working motivations, biographical/historical context, and cases in which an announced intent drives aesthetic transformation, I argue that, while its specific value varies from case to case, aesthetic intent is a key part of our cumulative experience of art, correlates with specific neuroanatomical loci, and raises interesting and compelling questions specific to this age of automatized thinking.

Chinese Love Stories From Ch'ing-Shih, Hua-Yuan Li Mowry, Menglong Feng

Dartmouth Scholarship

About the Book

Ch'ing-shih is a lovingly made anthology of love stories, provided we push the limits of definition of "love story" just a little wider than they are usually set. The stories are classified into twenty-four major categories, each further divided into subsections and concluded with a paragraph of commentary. Professor Mowry provides a sampling of the contents of each category but not of each subsection, though the headings themselves are enough to pique our curiosity: shall we turn next to "incomplete resurrections," or "unusual degenerates"? The stories were collected in the early seventeenth century, just a decade or …

Estimates Of Population Age Groups (Ages Under 18 Yrs., 18-64 Yrs., And 65 Yrs. And Over) For Oregon And Its Counties, July 1, 2015, Risa Proehl, Portland State University. Population Research Center

Oregon Population Estimates and Reports

Estimates of Population Age Groups (ages under 18 yrs., 18-64 yrs., and 65 yrs. and over) for Oregon and Its Counties, July 1, 2015. Prepared by Population Research Center, Portland State University, January 2016.

Visionary Compacts: American Renaissance Writings In Cultural Context, Donald E. Pease

Dartmouth Scholarship

About the Book

In a major contribution to American literary culture, Donald E. Pease reassesses the works of a number of major writers of the American Renaissance, including Hawthorne, Whitman, Emerson, Melville, and Poe. He argues that the Revolutionary mythos, used to explain and organize American Renaissance literature for a century, was not used as an organizing principle by these writers. Pease succeeds in showing that the literature of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s addressed specific concerns about the fate of the nation under the political challenges of abolition and secession, the tensions between nationality and locality, and the threat …

Assessing Differences Between Early And Later Adopters Of Accountable Care Organizations Using Taxonomic Analysis, Frances M. Wu, Stephen M. Shortell, Valerie A. Lewis, Carrie H. Colla, Elliott S. Fisher

Dartmouth Scholarship

Objective. To compare early and later adopters of the accountable care organization (ACO) model, using the taxonomy of larger, integrated system; smaller, physician-led; and hybrid ACOs. Data sources. The National Survey of ACOs, Waves 1 and 2.

Studydesign. Clusteranalysisusingthetwo-stepclusteringapproach,validatedusing discriminant analysis. Wave 2 data analyzed separately to assess differences from Wave 1 and then data pooled across waves. Findings. Compared to early ACOs, later adopter ACOs included a greater breadth of provider group types and a greater proportion self-reported as integrated delivery systems. When data from the two time periods were combined, a three-cluster solution similar to the original cluster …

Functional Mechanisms Underlying Pleiotropic Risk Alleles At The 19p13.1 Breast–Ovarian Cancer Susceptibility Locus, Kate Lawrenson, Siddhartha Kar, Karen Mccue, Karoline Kuchenbaeker, Kyriaki Michailidou, Jonathan Tyrer, Jonathan Beesley, Susan J. Ramus, Qiyuan Li, Melissa K. Delgado, Janet M. Lee, Kristiina Aittomäki, Irene L. Andrulis, Hoda Anton-Culver, Volker Arndt, Banu K. Arun, Brita Arver, Elisa V. Bandera, Monica Barile, Rosa B. Barkardottir, Daniel Barrowdale, Matthias W. Beckmann, Javier Benitez, Andrew Berchuck, Maria Bisogna, Line Bjorge, Carl Blomqvist, William Blot, Natalie Bogdanova, Anders Bojesen, Stig E. Bojesen, Manjeet K. Bolla, Bernardo Bonanni, Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale, Hiltrud Brauch, Paul Brennan, Hermann Brenner, Fionna Bruinsma, Joan Brunet, Shaik Ahmad Buhari, Barbara Burwinkel, Ralf Butzow, Sandra S. Buys, Qiuyin Cai, Trinidad Caldes, Ian Campbell, Rikki Canniotto, Jenny Chang-Claude, Jocelyne Chiquette, Ji-Yeob Choi, Kathleen B.M Claes, Gemo Study Collaborators, Linda S. Cook, Angela Cox, Daniel W. Cramer, Simon S. Cross, Cezary Cybulski, Kamila Czene, Mary B. Daly, Francesca Damiola, Agnieszka Dansonka-Mieszkowska, Hatef Darabi, Joe Dennis, Peter Devilee, Orland Diaz, Jennifer A. Doherty

Dartmouth Scholarship

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P = 9.2 X 10^-20), ER-negative BC (P = 1.1 X 10^-13), BRCA1 -associated BC (P = 7.7 X 10^-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff = 2 X 10^-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P = 2 X 10^{-3 …}

The Pacific Sentinel, January 2016, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Alex Skousen

Articles in this issue include:

• Video Games;
• Portland State to Hypocritically Renew Aramark Contract;
• Film Review;
• Tech in the Modern Age;
• Paris: A Spectacle of Hope?;
• The Soul of Higher Education Under Corporatization

Placental Epigenetics In Children’S Environmental Health, Carmen Marsit

Dartmouth Scholarship

There is a growing interest in understanding the mechanisms that drive the developmental origins of health and disease, and the role of epigenetic regulation has risen to the forefront of these studies. In particular, the placenta may be a model organ to consider as a mediator of the impact of the environment on developmental programming of children's health, as this organ plays a critical role in directing development and regulating the fetal environment. Several recent studies have begun to examine how environmental toxicant exposures can impact the placental epigenome, focusing on studies of DNA methylation and microRNA expression. This review …

Center For Real Estate Quarterly, Volume 10, Number 4, Portland State University. Center For Real Estate

Center for Real Estate Quarterly

Table of Contents:
-- Can Rent Control and Rent Stabilization Solve Portland's Housing Affordability Problem? by Mackenzie Kisiel (p. 5-19)
-- State of the Economy by Andrew Crampton (p. 20-27)
-- Residential Market Analysis by Alex Joyce (p. 28-53)
-- Multifamily Market Analysis by Marc Strabic (p. 53-66)
-- Office Market Analysis by Melissa Beh (p. 67-76)
-- Industrial Market Analysis by Andrew Crampton (p. 77-81)
-- Retail Market Analysis by Melissa Beh (p. 82-91)

To Branch Out Or Stay Focused?: Affective Shifts Differentially Predict Organizational Citizenship Behavior And Task Performance, Liu-Qin Yang, Lauren S. Simon, Lei Wang, Xiaoming Zheng

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We draw from personality systems interaction theory (PSI; Kuhl, 2000) and regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) to examine how dynamic positive and negative affective processes interact to predict both task and contextual performance. Using a twice-daily diary design over the course of a three-week period, results from multi-level regression analysis revealed that distinct patterns of change in positive and negative affect optimally predicted contextual and task performance among a sample of 71 individuals employed at a medium-sized technology company. Specifically, within persons, increases (upshifts) in positive affect over the course of a work day better predicted the subsequent day’s organizational …