Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Pakistan’S Role In China’S One Belt One Road Initiative, Grant M. Farr

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 2014, China initiated a massive economic development project called One Belt One Road (OBOR). This initiative involves China spending over $3 trillion during the next several decades on infrastructure investments in 68 countries. The goal is to recreate the old Silk Road, which flourished during the Han Dynasty in China between 207 BCE and 220 CE. This ancient Silk Road connected China with the Middle East, Africa, and Europe using caravan routes through Central and South Asia. When completed this new Silk Road initiative will link China to Europe and Africa using roads, railways, airports, fiber-optic connections, and seaports. …

Assessing The Potential Of Land Use Modification To Mitigate Ambient No2 And Its Consequences For Respiratory Health, Meenakshi Rao, Linda A. George, Vivek Shandas, Todd N. Rosenstiel

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding how local land use and land cover (LULC) shapes intra-urban concentrations of atmospheric pollutants—and thus human health—is a key component in designing healthier cities. Here, NO₂ is modeled based on spatially dense summer and winter NO₂ observations in Portland-Hillsboro-Vancouver (USA), and the spatial variation of NO₂ with LULC investigated using random forest, an ensemble data learning technique. The NO₂ random forest model, together with BenMAP, is further used to develop a better understanding of the relationship among LULC, ambient NO₂ and respiratory health. The impact of land use modifications on ambient NO₂, …

Capturing Peers', Teachers', And Parents' Joint Contributions To Students' Engagement: An Exploration Of Models, Justin William Vollet

Dissertations and Theses

Building on research that has focused on understanding how peers contribute to students' engagement, this dissertation explores the extent to which peer group influences on students' engagement may add to and be contextualized by qualities of the relationships they maintain with their teachers and their parents. To focus on how each of these adult contexts work in concert with peer groups to jointly contribute to changes in students' engagement, the two studies used data on 366 sixth graders which were collected at two time points during their first year of middle school: Peer groups were identified using socio-cognitive mapping; students …

Socioeconomic Determinants Of Health Disparities By Race And Ethnicity: The Mediating Role Of Social, Psychological And Behavioral Factors, Amanuel Zimam Melekin

Dissertations and Theses

Socioeconomic status (SES) is inversely related to health status. Disparities in health status among races and ethnic groups are partly attributable to differences in SES, but the indirect pathways by which SES may influence health status are not widely studied.

Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data, this dissertation examined the pathways by which SES, via social, psychological, and behavioral factors predicted physical impairment and overnight hospitalization, and asked whether these indirect relationships differed by race/ethnicity. The HRS is a nationally representative multistage area probability sample administered biennially to respondents over the age of 51 and their spouses. Data …

Scappoose, Liza Morehead

Metroscape

A brief snapshot of Scappoose, Oregon, discussing its history, growth and development, and a look to its future.

When Cities Shrink, Affordability Does Too, Joanna Ganning, Jenna Rosie Tighe

TREC Project Briefs

To better understand the real costs of housing and transportation in a declining urban context, NITC researchers implemented a household survey to determine whether the assumptions made in existing research literature and in the LAI regarding household expenditures and transportation accessibility hold true when analyzing shrinking cities—generally, cities characterized by a long-term loss in occupied housing units. The project was led by Joanna Ganning of Cleveland State University, who has conducted previous research into shrinking cities with the support of the NITC program.

Impacts Of Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) On Surrounding Residential Property Values, Victoria Perk, Martin Catalá, Maximillian Mantius, Katrina Corcoran

TREC Final Reports

As bus rapid transit (BRT) grows in popularity in the United States, a better understanding of the mode’s impacts on land uses and property values is needed. Economic theory suggests, and literature has shown, that people are willing to pay higher housing costs to lower their costs of transportation to areas of economic activity. Does high-quality BRT service reliably provide such access and, thereby, increase residential property values? The hypothesis is that property values are higher closer to BRT stations, reflecting a premium for the access provided by the BRT service to various goods, services, employment, education, and recreation. There …

Spanning The Region: A Survey Of Bridges In The Metroscape, Andrés Oswill

Metroscape

Bridges get us where we need to go. They also have character that contributes to a sense of place. Here we profile a selection of bridges in the Portland Metro area to understand the history and logistics of each bridge. When was the bridge built, how was it funded, who maintains it? The bridges we selected reflect the area’s wide variations in bridge style and management. Some of the bridges are county owned; others are run by a state or city transportation department. The bridges range in age, but all are inspected every twenty-four months. A bridge’s story offers important …

A New Vision For Timber City Usa, Kerry Politzer

Metroscape

A look at the city of Willamina, Oregon, as it attempts to transition from a timber-reliant town to a sustainable future. Provides a brief history of the community and its economic struggles, and its attempts to foster economic development though tourism, arts and winemaking.

Homes Close To Fast Transit: The Value Is Still Rising, Victoria Perk, Martin Catalá, Maximillian Mantius, Katrina Corcoran

TREC Project Briefs

This research contributes to the relatively small body of literature on property value impacts of BRT in the U.S. by conducting a case study on Lane Transit District’s EmX BRT service in Eugene, Oregon, using econometric modeling techniques to estimate changes in property values associated with the BRT. The analysis is based on hedonic price regression analysis, where sale prices are modeled using several property characteristics that contribute to the market or sale price. The findings of this research indicate that the EmX BRT system does positively impact surrounding single-family home sale prices.

New Transit Developments: A Double-Edged Sword, Lisa K. Bates, Aaron Golub, Devin Macarthur, Seyoung Sung

TREC Project Briefs

Researchers analyze the projected impacts of a proposed transit investment on affordability and mobility in a Southeast Portland corridor.

What Do We Know About Location Affordability In U.S. Shrinking Cities?, Joanna Ganning, Jenna Rosie Tighe

TREC Final Reports

In late 2013, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Location Affordability Index (LAI) portal. Their dataset uses models to estimate typical amount households spend on housing and transportation at the block group level, and calculates “H + T Affordability,” the percent of household income spent on these items. In our previous research, we analyzed 81 shrinking cities to determine how location affordability differs across various neighborhoods. Our results suggest that households in declining neighborhoods, as compared to stable or redeveloping neighborhoods, face the greatest H + T affordability challenges in shrinking cities. Furthermore, in declining neighborhoods, …

Planning Ahead For Livable Communities Along The Powell-Division Brt: Neighborhood Conditions And Change, Lisa K. Bates, Aaron Golub, Devin Macarthur, Seyoung Sung

TREC Final Reports

New transit investments can be a double-edged sword for disadvantaged communities (e.g., those included in environmental justice and Title VI protected classes). Transit investments improve communities’ mobility and access, and may improve health with reduced driving. However, there is also the potential for transit-oriented development (TOD) to spur gentrification and displacement if affordable housing is lost. Understanding transit corridor conditions and change with new infrastructure is important for learning how to mitigate negative effects and support inclusive communities with access to transit for lower-income households. The planning of a new bus rapid transit line along the Powell-Division corridor in Portland-Gresham …

Bending The Carbon Curve: Fire Management For Carbon Resilience Under Climate Change, E. Louise Loudermilk, Robert M. Scheller, Peter J. Weisberg, Alec M. Kretchun

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Context: Forest landscapes are increasingly managed for fire resilience, particularly in the western US which has recently experienced drought and widespread, high-severity wildfires. Fuel reduction treatments have been effective where fires coincide with treated areas. Fuel treatments also have the potential to reduce drought-mortality if tree density is uncharacteristically high, and to increase long-term carbon storage by reducing high-severity fire probability.

Objective: Assess whether fuel treatments reduce fire intensity and spread and increase carbon storage under climate change.

Methods: We used a simulation modeling approach that couples a landscape model of forest disturbance and succession with an ecosystem model of …

Focal Point, Volume 31, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Research demonstrates that the prevalence of mental health conditions among justice system involved youth is alarmingly high, coupled with a strong likelihood of multiple traumatic exposures. Unfortunately, while the need for appropriate and timely treatment is acute, the juvenile justice system seems challenged in meeting it. The authors of this issue of Focal Point identify and propose solutions to these challenges with new research findings.

Source Of Down Payment, Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Metroscape

A statistical snapshot of the percentage of owner-occupied housing stock, by major source of down payment, in 2015.

Cultivating The Technology Ecosystem: An Interview With Skip Newbury, Sheila Martin

Metroscape

An interview with Skip Newbury, President and CEO of the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO). He is a frequent speaker on technology trends and topics, economic development, public-private partnerships and civic innovation. Before joining the TAO, Skip served as an economic development policy advisor to Portland Mayor Sam Adams, where he helped create Portland’s first comprehensive economic development strategy in 16 years, recognizing software as a key industry cluster.

Urban Connections: A Comparison Of Connectivity Assessment Methods, Natalie M. Rogers

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Habitat connectivity in urban settings is critical for facilitation of safe species movement, species health, and biodiversity. Predicting the movement of wildlife through the urban environment is difficult due to the presence of barriers - natural or built features in the landscape that restrict or prohibit movement of species. Urban properties and greenspaces can serve as pathways of connectivity for wildlife movement across the complex developed matrix. Thus, land managers should assess their properties for possible connectivity functionality to promote safe wildlife movement. Land managers may not be aware of current connectivity assessment methods, therefore this project provides introductory information …

Caring, Killing, Euphemism And George Orwell: How Language Choice Undercuts Our Mission, David Johns, Dominick A. Dellasala

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

What does George Orwell have to do with Conservation Biology? As one of the foremost critics of how language is used, he has quite a lot to say. He was not just a critic of the imprecise or the dreary, but of the power of language to mislead; he understood the power of language to evoke the passion of a mission-value-morality driven discipline such as conservation biology, or drown it in what he called orthodoxy—a condition that “seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style” (Orwell, 1968: IV: 135). Too often, he noted, speech about values was “the defense of the …

Mobile Augmented Reality: Hyper Contextualization And Situated Language Usage Events, Steven L. Thorne, John Hellermann

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Language use, second-language development, and technology mediated human activity are complex processes situated in, and in some cases demonstrably interwoven with, specific material and social contexts. Our presentation describes a project that focuses on the contextually embedded nature of communicative action. Building upon recent research on ethnomethodological analyses of talk-in-interaction while walking (Haddington et al., 2013), analyses of how communicative activity mediates our understanding of objects and environments (Nevile et al., 2014; Latour, 2005), principles of extended and embodied cognition (Atkinson, 2010), and existing research on the use of mobile place-based augmented reality (AR) techniques for language learning (Holden & …

The Geography Of The Commute, Steven Howland, Randy Morris

Metroscape

It is a common misperception that low-income populations are transit-dependent or typically do without a car because it is too expensive. While much larger proportions of low-income populations use a mode of transportation other than a personal automobile to commute to work, a majority of them still use a personal automobile. In this edition of the Periodic Atlas, we looked at commuting as it relates to people of color and low-wage workers using the most recent reliable Census data as well as data from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LEHD-LODES).

Working Class In The Library, Robert Schroeder

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Portland State University is an urban, access university. This means that students don’t face nearly as many academic barriers, such as entrance exams, in order to attend PSU as opposed to other colleges. Nevertheless, students do encounter many hidden barriers that affect their chances of getting into, staying at, and graduating from PSU—barriers associated with race, gender, citizenship, abilities, and the topic of this article—socioeconomic status. We need to acknowledge that all of these characteristics intersect and play out differently, so it’s hard to look at just one of these characteristics at a time. “Working class” isn’t the same experience …

From Digital Literacies To Digital Problem Solving: Expanding Technology-Rich Learning Opportunities For Adults, Tyler Frank, Jill Castek

Presentations and Publications

A window into an adult basic education (ABE) class shows several learners typing essays on laptops. Suddenly one student throws her hands up in the air loudly exclaiming, “I didn’t do anything! The computer just erased everything! It wasn’t me, it was the computer!” This scenario is all too familiar with new-to-computer users. Over time, this learner has developed more confidence and digital literacies, and has since passed the Language Arts GED test. However the technology skills needed in the workplace and in daily life go beyond those needed for test taking. Yet computers in adult education classrooms are most …

A Simulator-Based Analysis Of Engineering Treatments For Right-Hook Bicycle Crashes At Signalized Intersections, Jennifer Warner, David S. Hurwitz, Christopher M. Monsere, Kayla Fleskes

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A right-hook crash is a crash between a right-turning motor vehicle and an adjacent through-moving bicycle. At signalized intersections, these crashes can occur during any portion of the green interval when conflicting bicycles and vehicles are moving concurrently. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of four types of engineering countermeasures – regulatory signage, intersection pavement marking, smaller curb radius, and protected intersection design – at modifying driver behaviors that are known contributing factors in these crashes. This research focused on right-hook crashes that occur during the latter stage of the circular green indication at signalized intersections …

Time Varying Parameter Models For Catchments With Land Use Change: The Importance Of Model Structure, Sahani Pathiraja, Daniela Anghileri, Paolo Burlando, Ashish Sharma, Lucy Marshall, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rapid population and economic growth in South-East-Asia has been accompanied by extensive land use change with consequent impacts on catchment hydrology. Modelling methodologies capable of handling changing land use conditions are therefore becoming ever more important, and are receiving increasing attention from hydrologists. A recently developed Data Assimilation based framework that allows model parameters to vary through time in response to signals of change in observations is considered for a medium sized catchment (2880 km²) in Northern Vietnam experiencing substantial but gradual land cover change. We investigate the efficacy of the method as well as the importance of the chosen …

Coordinated Population Forecast For Tillamook County, Its Urban Growth Boundaries (Ugb), And Area Outside Ugbs 2017-2067, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Jason R. Jurjevich, Nicholas Chun, Kevin Rancik, Risa Proehl, Julia Michel, Matt Harada, Charles Rynerson, Randy Morris

Oregon Population Forecast Program

Different parts of the county experience differing growth patterns. Local trends within the UGBs and the area outside them collectively influence population growth rates for the county as a whole.

Tillamook County’s total population has grown slowly since 2000, with an average annual growth rate of less than one-half percent between 2000 and 2010 (Figure 1). However, some of its sub-areas experienced more rapid population growth during the 2000s. Nehalem, Manzanita, and Bay City posted average annual growth rates greater than one percent at 2.5, 1.5, and 1.2 percent, respectively, during the 2000 to 2010 period.

Tillamook County’s positive population …

Coordinated Population Forecast For Clackamas County, Its Urban Growth Boundaries (Ugb), And Area Outside Ugbs 2017-2067, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Jason R. Jurjevich, Nicholas Chun, Kevin Rancik, Risa Proehl, Julia Michel, Matt Harada, Charles Rynerson, Randy Morris

Oregon Population Forecast Program

Different parts of the county experience differing growth patterns. Local trends within the UGBs and the area outside them collectively influence population growth rates for the county as a whole.

Clackamas County’s total population has grown steadily since 2000, with an average annual growth rate of 1.1 percent between 2000 and 2010 (Figure 1). However, some of the county’s sub-areas outside of Clackamas County’s Metro boundary experienced more rapid population growth during the 2000s. Sandy and Molalla posted the highest average annual growth rates at 5.6 and 3.8 percent, respectively, during the 2000 to 2010 period.

Clackamas County’s positive population …

Coordinated Population Forecast For Clatsop County, Its Urban Growth Boundaries (Ugb), And Area Outside Ugbs 2017-2067, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Jason R. Jurjevich, Nicholas Chun, Kevin Rancik, Risa Proehl, Julia Michel, Matt Harada, Charles Rynerson, Randy Morris

Oregon Population Forecast Program

Different parts of the county experience differing growth patterns. Local trends within the UGBs and the area outside them collectively influence population growth rates for the county as a whole.

Clatsop County’s total population has grown slowly since 2000, with an average annual growth rate of less than one half of one percent between 2000 and 2010 (Figure 1). However, some of its sub-areas experienced more rapid population growth. Warrenton, the third most populous UGB, and Gearhart, posted average annual growth rates of 2.0 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Clatsop County’s positive population growth in the 2000s was largely the …

Coordinated Population Forecast For Lincoln County, Its Urban Growth Boundaries (Ugb), And Area Outside Ugbs 2017-2067, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Jason R. Jurjevich, Nicholas Chun, Kevin Rancik, Risa Proehl, Julia Michel, Matt Harada, Charles Rynerson, Randy Morris

Oregon Population Forecast Program

Different parts of the county experience different growth patterns. Local trends within the UGBs and the area outside them collectively influence population growth rates for the county as a whole.

Lincoln County’s total population has grown slowly since 2000, with average annual growth rates of 0.3 percent between 2000 and 2010 (Figure 1). However, some of its sub-areas experienced more rapid population growth during the 2000s. Depoe Bay and Siletz posted the highest average annual growth rates at 1.7 and 1.5 percent, respectively, during the 2000 to 2010 period.

Lincoln County’s positive population growth in the 2000s was the result …

Coordinated Population Forecast For Linn County, Its Urban Growth Boundaries (Ugb), And Area Outside Ugbs 2017-2067, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Jason R. Jurjevich, Nicholas Chun, Kevin Rancik, Risa Proehl, Julia Michel, Matt Harada, Charles Rynerson, Randy Morris

Oregon Population Forecast Program

Different parts of the county experience different growth patterns. Local trends within the UGBs and the area outside them collectively influence population growth rates for the county as a whole.

Linn County’s total population has grown steadily since 2000, with an average annual growth rate of 1.2 percent between 2000 and 2010 (Figure 1). However, some of its sub-areas experienced more rapid population growth while others experienced opposite trends during the 2000s. Millersburg and Harrisburg posted the highest average annual growth rates at 7.1 and 2.6 percent, respectively, during the 2000 to 2010 period. Concurrently, the Linn portions of Gates …