Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Research Proposal For Study: Can Artifical Emulation Of Synesthesia Aid Visual Word Recognition?, Lucas Charles

Anthós

The field of synesthesia has largely been unexplored beyond mere analysis of the condition and only a few papers on the topic of new applications have been published within the last decade. The condition can potentially provide great benefits to the study of the psychology of language along with its role in language use itself. As understanding of this condition continues to grow, one can draw links between it and its effect on language use, thereby enabling a greater understanding of the language process itself. Synesthesia involves the stimulation of one sense along with involuntary activation of another sensory pathway. …

Entanglement: Health, Healing And Society In Africa, Haley Noel

Anthós

As a continent, Africa has been explored, exploited, and largely abandoned by the West. During the colonial era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, foreign powers encountered diverse cultures, superstitions and disease before promptly labeling the entire continent a dangerous and primitive place. For early explorers and colonialists, disease and the threat of ill health is what defined Africa. They overlooked the pre-existing strategies and practices that Africans had adapted to guard against certain diseases, either ignoring them or labeling the misunderstood safety nets as primitive. Also overlooked was the importance of societal organization and communal cooperation among …

Toward A Culture Of Healing: Why Alternative Therapies And A Feminist Framework Are Needed In The Care Of Pregnant Women And Treatment Of Postpartum Mood Disorders, Angela Leonardo

Anthós

Pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood are areas of human development that have systematically migrated away from their roots as a series of natural life events to a highly, and perhaps unnecessarily, medicalized arena. This shift has been detrimental for women, especially for poor, socially isolated, single, and/or ethnic minority women. In this paper, I outline my concerns with the increased medicalization of birth and postpartum care, as well as with the status of mothers in the United States, and critically examine the patriarchal context in which this shift has occurred. My focus is on maternal health and mortality, including depression …

It’S Not What You Do, It’S Who You Are: Adjectives As Identity-Conferrers, C.B. Rodgers

Anthós

To see how positive identity assessments are created, I investigated two statements, both released by organizations that can broadly be described as part of Portland’s liberal or left community. Each statement responds to assertions that the actions of the organization, or one of its members, provides a platform for anti-Semitic, white supremacist, and/or fascist political organizers to make inroads in Portland. One set of data is a statement from Citybikes, a workerowned cooperative, that was published on Portland IndyMedia, a web-based independent media center; the other is a statement from a Portland community art space, The Variant, that was published …

Using System Dynamics To Contribute To Ecological Economics, Takuro Uehara, Yoko Nagase, Wayne Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper demonstrates the usefulness of the system dynamics approach to the development of ecological economics, the study of the interactions between economic systems and ecological systems. We build and analyze an ecological economic model: an extension of a population–resource dynamics model developed by Brander and Taylor and published in American Economic Review in 1998. The focus of the present paper is on the model building and analysis to contribute to theory building rather than eliciting policy implications from the model. Hence, this is an example of model-based theory building using system dynamics. Our analysis sheds light on several problems …

Getting The Most Out Of Healthcare As An Autistic Adult, Dora Raymaker, Christina Nicolaidis, Amelia E.V. Baggs, Cody Boisclair, Clarissa Kripke, Elesia Ashkenazy, Katie Mcdonald, Kirby Erickson, Marcie Tedlow

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE), a partnership between academic researchers and members of the Autistic community, has conducted a series of studies to understand the healthcare experiences of autistic adults. We are using what we learned from these studies, as well as the lived experiences of our team members, to create information and tools to improve healthcare for autistic adults. After sharing what we learned from our studies, we will offer tips, ideas, information, and tools that may enable more effective self-advocacy in healthcare settings and reduce barriers to healthcare, including care for acute and …

The End Of The Honeymoon: Cbpr, Positional Privilege And Working With Community Coalitions, Ann Curry-Stevens

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter tells a story about the CBPR research project, "Making Communities of Color Count" which partners researchers at the School of Social Work with the Coalition of Communities of Color in Multnomah County. It is not the only story about this project, as the voices of community partners and the rest of the research team are quiet in this retelling, but it is the one that centers the experience of the lead academic in this partnership. I center the joys and challenges of CBPR research, and the avenues that such opportunities offer for academically-based researchers, replete with avenues for …

A Study Of Headway Maintenance For Bus Routes: Causes And Effects Of “Bus Bunching” In Extensive And Congested Service Areas, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Wu-Chi Feng, Gerardo Lafferriere, Wei Feng

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A healthy and efficient public transit system is indispensable to reduce congestion, emissions, energy consumption, and car dependency in urban areas. The objective of this research is to 1) develop methods to evaluate and visualize bus service reliability for transit agencies in various temporal and spatial aggregation levels; 2) identify the recurrent unreliability trends of bus routes (focusing on high-frequency service periods) and understand their characteristics, causes and effects; and 3) model service times using linear regression models.

This research utilized six months of archived automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) data from a low-performance route (Route …

Narrative Processes In Urban Planning: A Case Study Of Swamp Gravy In Colquitt, Georgia, Ronald David Pate

Dissertations and Theses

In 1990 many in Colquitt, Georgia considered themselves to be a dying town due to the loss of jobs and outmigration that occurred when labor intensive farming transitioned to the machine. In response citizens brought in a theater director from Chicago who helped them launch a performance series of inclusive stories that were acted by local volunteers. The resulting series called Swamp Gravy has run from 1992 to present (2012), and has led to purported claims of community revitalization. The purpose of this study was to discover what this ongoing narrative community engagement meant to the people of Colquitt in …

The Landscape: Goose Hollow, Michael Burnham

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Michael Burnham looks at the rich history of Goose Hollow.

Periodic Atlas Of The Metroscape: The Dream Of The 90s Is Alive In Portland. Really?, Vivek Shandas, Ryan Dann

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Is the dream of the 90s alive in Portland? Vivek Shandas and Ryan Dann look at how we've changed over the last 20 years.

Crime In The News: How Do People Feel About Crime Reporting In Portland, Oregon?, Kris R. Henning, Brian Renauer, Greg Stewart

Criminal Justice Policy Research Institute Research Briefs

This research brief summarizes the results of a recent survey with residents in Portland, Oregon assessing public opinions on the local news media’s coverage of various crime topics.

Analyzing And Quantifying The Impact Of Congestion On Ltl Industry Costs And Performance In The Portland Metropolitan Region, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increased congestion during peak morning and afternoon periods in urban areas is increasing logistics costs. In addition, environmental, social, and political pressures to limit the impacts associated with CO2 emissions are mounting rapidly. A key challenge for transportation agencies and businesses is to improve the efficiency of urban freight and commercial vehicle movements while ensuring environmental quality, livable communities, and economic growth. However, research and policy efforts to analyze and quantify the impacts of congestion and freight public policies on carriers operations and CO2 emissions are hindered by the complexities of vehicle routing problems with time-dependent travel times and the …

A Proposal Request For A Native American Task Force On Student Success At Portland State University, Cornel Pewewardy

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This is a proposal request for a Native American Task Force on Student Success by the Director of Native American Studies Cornel Pewewardy.

Educating Citizens, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Usability Study Of A Library’S Mobile Website: An Example From Portland State University, Kimberly D. Pendell, Michael S. Bowman

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

To discover how a newly developed library mobile website performed across a variety of devices, the authors used a hybrid field and laboratory methodology to conduct a usability test of the website. Twelve student participants were recruited and selected according to phone type. Results revealed a wide array of errors attributed to site design, wireless network connections, as well as phone hardware and software. This study provides an example methodology for testing library mobile websites, identifies issues associated with mobile websites, and provides recommendations for improving the user experience.

The Demand Driven Acquisitions Pilot Project By The Orbis Cascade Alliance: An Interview With Members Of The Demand Driven Acquisitions Implementation Team, Jill Emery

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Portland State University collection development librarian Jill Emery talks with members of the Orbis Cascade Alliance demand driven acquisitions implementation team, EBL, and YBP Library Services about their participation in a pilot project to acquire e-books that are accessible to and jointly owned by the thirty-seven member libraries of the Orbis Cascade Alliance.

Educating Citizens Summary, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Categorizing Cyclists: What Do We Know? Insights From Portland, Or, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the Velo-City Global 2012 conference in Vancouver, BC, in June 2012. Discusses the different kinds of urban cyclists, issues that encourage or hinder cycling choices, and summarizes research research around cycling and cycling behavior.

In Search Of Opportunity: Foreign-Born Residents In Oregon, Jason R. Jurjevich, Ryan Dann

Publications, Reports and Presentations

From our earliest beginnings and to present day, the social fabric of the United States continues to be shaped by immigration. Americans are generally aware of their families’ personal stories and the inextricable link to immigration, but they are likely less familiar with historical and current trends. Focusing in Oregon and more specifically, the Portland metropolitan area, we provide a statistical portrait of the foreign-born population by examining recent growth patterns, identifying geographic origins, and describing individual-level characteristics.

Complexity Theory And Political Change: Talcott Parsons Occupies Wall Street, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Complexity theory can assist our understanding of social systems and social phenomena. This paper illustrates this assertion by linking Talcott Parsons' model of societal structure to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Parsons' model is used to organize ideas about the underlying causes of the recession that currently afflicts the US. While being too abstract to depict the immediate factors that precipitated this crisis, the model is employed to articulate the argument that vulnerability to this type of event results from flaws in societal structure. This implies that such crises can be avoided only if, in Parsons' terms, structural change occurs …

System Dynamics Implementation Of A Model Of Population And Resource Dynamics With Adaptation, Takuro Uehara, Yoko Nagase, Wayne Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

We build and analyze a dynamic ecological economic model that incorporates endogenous innovation on input substitutability. The use of the system dynamics method allows us to depart from conventional equilibrium thinking and conduct an out-of-equilibrium (adaptation) analysis. Simulation results show that while improvement in input substitutability will expand an economy, this change alone may not improve sustainability measured by indicators such as utility-per-capita and natural resource stock. It could, however, be possible that in combination with other technological progress, improvement in input substitutability will contribute to sustainable development. Sensitivity analysis also indicates a possible complication with the use of exogenous …

Complexity Theory And Political Change: Talcott Parsons Occupies Wall Street [Presentation], Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Complexity theory can assist our understanding of social systems and social phenomena. This paper illustrates this assertion by linking Talcott Parsons' model of societal structure to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Parsons' model is used to organize ideas about the underlying causes of the recession that currently afflicts the US. While being too abstract to depict the immediate factors that precipitated this crisis, the model is employed to articulate the argument that vulnerability to this type of event results from flaws in societal structure. This implies that such crises can be avoided only if, in Parsons' terms, structural change occurs …

What Can Physicians Learn From The Neurodiversity Movement?, Christina Nicolaidis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

An op-ed piece that describes the author's experiences parenting an autistic child, describing how her thinking and opinions of autism and autistic individuals have changed over time.

An Exploration Of Fiscal Resources And Systems Needs Related To Autism Spectrum Disorder Services And Supports In Ohio: Fiscal Analysis And Parent/Caregiver Interview Results, Dawn Anderson-Butcher, Hilary Drew, Amber Moodie-Dyer, Jill A. Hoffman

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In order to advocate for policies that align and leverage funding streams in service to the needs of families and individuals affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESCCO) and the Center for Systems Change at the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence disorders (OCALI) commissioned the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University to conduct a fiscal analysis of ASD funds and to explore parent / caregiver perceptions of the ASD service delivery system in Ohio. There were two purposes of this work:

• To identify federal and state funding streams …

Student Loans, For-Profit Colleges, And Traditional Colleges: Some Things You Should Know Before Borrowing, Research And Training Center For Pathways To Positive Futures

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many students complete programs at for-profit colleges and launch new careers. However, many other students do not have such successful experiences, ending up without the career they envisioned and/or with large debts they cannot repay. This FAQ is designed to help prospective college students become better informed about student loans, particularly those used to finance education at for-profit institutions.

Levels Of Altruism, Martin Zwick, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

The phenomenon of altruism extends from the biological realm to the human sociocultural realm. This paper sketches a coherent outline of multiple types of altruism of progressively increasing scope that span these two realms and are grounded in an ever-expanding sense of “self.” Discussion of this framework notes difficulties associated with altruisms at different levels. It links scientific ideas about the evolution of cooperation and about hierarchical order to perennial philosophical and religious concerns. It offers a conceptual background for inquiry into societal challenges that call for altruistic behavior, especially the challenge of environmental and social sustainability.

This talk was …

American Cuerpos, Devan Schwartz

Dissertations and Theses

On election night 2008, a child is conceived by two Barack Obama campaign staffers--Daniel from Seattle, Anza from Honduras. American Cuerpos is a novel about the body and the body politic, about what it means to give birth through the eyes of both mother and father.

Technology In Practice. The Guide On The Side, Meredith G. Farkas

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

The article discusses the use of active learning in library online instruction through the Guide on the Side software, allowing librarians to develop tutorials for users. Developed by Leslie Sult, Mike Hagedon, and Justin Spargur, members of the scholarly publishing and data management team at the University of Arizona's library, the software enabled librarians to create a tutorial for using JSTOR, an academic journals archive system, which allows users to actively use the database.

Religion And Infant Mortality In The United States: A Community-Level Investigation Of Denominational Variations, Ginny Garcia-Alexander, John P. Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A burgeoning body of scholarship has explored the influence of community-level religiosity (religious ecology) on various health outcomes. In this study, we enlist data from the Glenmary Census of Churches, county-level infant mortality rates from the NCHS, and select Census data to investigate the relationship between infant mortality and religion. Our study employs both aggregate analyses of major faith traditions (conservative Protestant, mainline Protestant, Catholic, and other religions) as well as decomposition analyses that subdivide conservative Protestants into four variants: fundamentalist, evangelical, Pentecostal, and other conservative Protestant. Our preliminary findings suggest that counties with a high prevalence of Catholic and …