Theses & Dissertations

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Open Access
1 + 1 Is Not Always 2: Variation in the Relations Between Mathematics Self-Efficacy Development and Longitudinal Mathematics Achievement Growth
(University of Oregon, 2015-01-14) Shanley, Caroline; Biancarosa, Gina
Creating an educational program that results in positive post-secondary and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-oriented outcomes for all students is a national goal and federal policy directive. Recent research has shown that in addition to measures of academic proficiency, intra- and interpersonal skills are important factors in college and career readiness. Likewise, mathematics proficiency is an important skill for successful STEM outcomes and post-secondary success, but these achievements and outcomes frequently vary based on demographic characteristics. This study utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 to examine the relationships between mathematics achievement growth in Grades K-1 and Grades 3-8, mathematics self-efficacy development in Grades 3-8, and demographic factors including sex, socioeconomic status (SES), and race/ethnicity. Various models of mathematics achievement growth were tested, and the relationships between both early and middle grades mathematics achievement growth and self-efficacy development were also explored. Sex, SES, and race/ethnicity differences in both mathematics achievement growth and self-efficacy development were discovered, and findings were consistent with familiar achievement gaps favoring white and Asian males from above median SES households. In particular, SES was found to be a ubiquitous factor in both mathematics achievement and self-efficacy development, and sex moderated some of the relationships between mathematics achievement and self-efficacy. Implications for future research, instructional design, and intervention development are discussed.
Open Access
$1 CEO Salaries and R&D Spending as a Form of Extreme Incentive Compensation and Investor Signaling
(University of Oregon, 2019) Gardner, Brooke L.
While gaining popularity in mainstream media, the $1 CEO salary is a trend whose motives and impact remain largely misunderstood. This paper examines a dataset of 155 companies that have implemented the $1 salary. Statistical testing is used to analyze the relationship of $1 salaries to several variables including company financial measures and descriptive CEO attributes. The trends in research and development spending, capital expenditures, and stock price that result before and during the $1 salary period are also examined. The goal of this research is to understand the relationship between $1 CEO salaries and long-term spending in the form of research and development and capital expenditures. The secondary goal is to understand how the $1 salary acts as a form of extreme incentive compensation and investor signaling by using long-term spending as a proxy for managerial belief in future firm performance. The findings in this thesis suggest that $1 CEOs have strong beliefs in their firms as demonstrated by the $1 salary and increases to long-term spending. However, investors do not appear to share this same belief in the firm which suggests the $1 salary may be an ineffective attempt at signaling.
Open Access
1816: "The Mighty Operations of Nature": An Environmental History of the Year Without a Summer
(University of Oregon, 2012) Munger, Michael; Munger, Michael; Dennis, Matthew
The catastrophic eruption of the Indonesian volcano Mt. Tambora in April 1815, which ejected a cloud of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, plunged the world into a rapid temporary climate change event. A series of bizarre weather anomalies, including snowstorms in June and repeated heavy frosts throughout the rest of the summer, earned 1816 the moniker "the Year Without a Summer." This paper examines the various ways in which Americans reacted to the climate change--seeking causation explanations through science and superstition, political and religious responses, and the efforts to appreciate what the events meant in terms of the world's changing climate. Through these various reactions, a picture emerges of Americans' incomplete understanding of science and nature, as well as an uneasy reckoning with the impossibility of fully explaining their environment and the potential dangers it presented to them.
Open Access
A 2-D Magnetotelluric Investigation of the Cascadia Subduction Zone
(University of Oregon, 2016-06) Wogan, Nicholas
I have produced four 2-D magnetotelluric conductivity inversions of MOCHA data roughly between the latitudes of 43N and 46N that indicate fluid variation along strike in the Cascadia subduction zone. I directly compare these results to Wannamaker et al. 2014 EMSLAB inversion and find the models to be very similar despite the use of different data sets and inversion methods. Conductivity structure along the plate interface supports the hypothesis that there is "partial creeping" occurring in the locked zone in central Cascadia, as well as the possible presence of a secondary, inboard locked zone at 44.5N in the ETS region. The variability of conductivity along strike also suggests a more permeable crust in the northern region of Cascadia directly overhead the ETS zone, and more fluid accumulation in this same region. This study indicates that a more permeable overlying crust, combined with larger amounts of fluid present may be critical components of rapid ETS occurrence.
Open Access
21st Century Skills Development: Learning in Digital Communities: Technology and Collaboration
(University of Oregon, 2012) Short, Barbara; Short, Barbara; Scalise, Kathleen
This study examines some aspects of student performance in the 21st century skills of Information and Communication (ICT) Literacy and collaboration. In this project, extant data from the Assessment and Teaching for 21st Century Skills project (ATC21S) will be examined. ATC21S is a collaborative effort among educational agencies in six countries, universities, educational research groups, high tech innovators and the multinational corporations Cisco, Intel and Microsoft. ATC21S demonstration tasks explore the use of digital literacy and collaborative problem solving constructs in educational assessment. My research investigates evidence from cognitive laboratories and pilots administered in one of the ATC21S demonstration scenarios, a collaborative mathematics/science task called "Global Collaboration Contest: Arctic Trek." Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, I analyze student work samples. Specifically, I (i) develop a rubric as a measurement tool to evaluate the student assessment artifact "Arctic Trek Notebook" for (a) generalized patterns and (b) trends that may indicate skill development in collaborative learning in a digital environment and (ii) conduct descriptive studies among the variables of student age and student notebook characteristics. Results are intended to inform instructional leaders on estimates of student ability in virtual collaboration and to make suggestions for instructional design and professional development for online collaborative learning assessment tasks in K-12 education.
Open Access
3D COACHING: SPORTS BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS (TRACK & FIELD)
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-09) ADENIJI, OLA; Halliwill, John
Athletic (Track & Field) championships have showcased globally the great strength, power, and speed of athletes in a myriad of disciplines. Notably over the last 30 years, steady improvements in championship performances have intrigued the Athletics community—athletes, coaches, spectators—sparking interest to look further into how this caliber of athletes perform and what the training demands are to continue the pace of progress. Coaches, by nature, focus on what is familiar to them until the next ‘phenomenon’ in development and training becomes recognizable. In consequence, sports science research sources are perceived with complexity, and unused or misused by the Athletic community. Efforts led by leading sports scientists have been made in the live capture of world-class competitors during world championships to better understand, discuss, and use science within the current state of Athletics in published biomechanical reports. Although athletes have a critical role in whether achievements are met, coaching efforts are to serve the athlete's needs within the demands of each discipline. Balancing what an athlete can do biomechanically and the mechanism within a discipline is the challenge. Coaches often turn to the experiences that have built their coaching philosophy for guidance on the best approaches. With a focus on the NCAA collegiate championship, this project served as a biomechanical-driven evidence-based collection to better understand championship performance. The results justified achieving season-best sprint times and jump marks for higher seeding purposes. Furthermore, results underscored the high individuality in step characteristics during the development of acceleration and velocity of sprinters and jumpers. NCAA championships feature arguably the best collegiate and world-class competitors in Athletics. When the coaching and scientific views are taken into consideration at this level, an improved attempt at defining and appropriately applying mechanical principles to the technique and skills used can be established. Assessing kinematic parameters captured during these championships provides insight into biomechanical contributions in performances for coaches to evaluate and improve training design that will shape an athlete’s performance. An opportunity is available to add to the sports science narratives on the mechanics of Athletic disciplines using a biomechanics lens to magnify the coaches’ eye.
Open Access
44 Minutes: Showcasing Issues in Journalism Through Screenwriting
(University of Oregon, 2014-05) Schauffler, Mia
This thesis is an attempt to discuss contemporary issues in journalism in the form of a screenplay. This script builds upon the classic films that preceded it, but differs by engaging in a dialogue of contemporary issues in journalism. This work focuses on two main issues in journalism: how modem business models affect journalistic content; and the current, widely-debated topic of net neutrality. This thesis attempts to discuss these issues, while using the classic narrative screenplay structure.
Open Access
6A School District: A Case Study Correlating Content Standards to Teacher Practice
(University of Oregon, 2015-06) Gleason, Greta
In light of new legislation defining society’s newest standards for math learning, my research aims to observe how teachers are adapting to put these mandates into practice. Through a case study of one high school Algebra 1 teacher, I analyzed how differences in pedagogical practices affected student learning outcomes. In observing the shifts in teacher practices in the facilitation of math discourse and the building of procedural fluency from conceptual understanding, I have found a strong correlation between the change in teaching practices and the shifts from the McDougal & Littell (M&L) and College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) textbooks. In this study, “Conceptual Understanding” is defined as the ability for a student to “understand why a mathematical ideal is important and the contexts for which it is useful”, and “Procedural Fluency” means that “students understand when to use certain procedures and how to perform them with both flexibility and precision.” (National Research Council, 2001, p. 118) By creating a more encouraging environment where students are unafraid to ask for help, and providing more opportunities for students to justify their reasoning, the changes in Cornelia’s teaching practices are a positive adaption to meet the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) standards, and highly aligned to the shift in textbooks. As the CPM lesson specifically dictates that students work in groups, there is an explicit emphasis on student communication as members must check-in with each other to verify their solutions. Additionally, CPM provides a higher percentage of problems that do not have solutions to reinforce the idea that students must justify when they can use a procedure. Overall, the shifts between Chapter ten of McDougal & Littell textbook and Chapter eight of College Preparatory Mathematics textbook are moderately aligned to the change in content standards. While CPM presents students with more opportunities to justify their understanding in writing and via peer communication, many improvements to Chapter 8 of the CPM text can be made to fully align the text to the CCSSM standards regarding quadratic equations. These changes include limiting the use of Learning Logs, (notebooks where students explain their conceptual understanding), until students can fully prove a hypothesis, including more sections that begin with contextual problems like Sections 8.2.1 and 8.2.4, and better connecting the 8 Standards of Mathematical Practice (Practices students should use in the math classroom) to each lesson. Because the curriculum shifts are moderately aligned to the changes in content standards, we can conclude that the changes in student standards have made a moderate impact on teacher practices.
Open Access
A 7500-Year Paleolimnological Record of Environmental Change and Salmon Abundance in the Oregon Coast Range
(University of Oregon, 2012) Kusler, Jennifer; Kusler, Jennifer; Gavin, Daniel
Pacific salmon
Open Access
8 on Market | An Eco-conscious Housing Development in Downtown San Diego
(University of Oregon, 2015-06) Motahari, Kiana
The world around us is changing and this time we are the ones to blame. From melting glaciers to disappearing lakes, climate change is no longer a problem our children & children’s children will have the privilege of ignoring. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), buildings consume nearly half of all energy and seventy-five percent of all electricity produced in the United States and were responsible for nearly half of U.S. carbon (CO2) emissions in 2010. This places architects, the puppeteers of the built environment, in a very unique position to mitigate the progression of climate change and adapt to its onset. This creative thesis presents a viable example of environmentally sensitive architecture. The vehicle for this exploration takes the form of a mixed-use building in heart of Downtown San Diego. A fundamental goal throughout the design process was the integration of green strategies in a way that not only improved the buildings economic and environmental performance, but also enhanced the aesthetics of the building.
Open Access
A Bacterial Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenase GbpA Promotes Epithelial Proliferation in Drosophila melanogaster
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-26) VanBegue, STEPHANIE; Guillemin, Karen
Animals are colonized by a consortium of microbes that sense and respond to their immediate environments. These microbes, collectively called the gut microbiota, promote epithelial proliferation in a diversity of animal hosts. While the effect of this relationship is well established, the mechanism underlying this response is less understood. In this work, we establish a molecular connection between colonization by the microbiota and the resulting increase in gut epithelial proliferation. We show that different homologs of a highly conserved chitin degrading enzyme promote epithelial proliferation in both zebrafish and fruit flies. Probing the mechanism of this conserved relationship in flies, we show that other enzymes that compromise the chitin lining of the gut will also stimulate epithelial proliferation. Finally, we find that proliferation is a result of innate immune sensing of increased concentration of luminal GlcNAc monomers which are the product of chitin-cleaving enzymes. The comparative work presented in this dissertation explores a new way of thinking of host-microbiome relationships that focuses on microbial function over identity or abundance of specific species.
Open Access
A Beautiful Death: Visual Representation in Death With Dignity Storytelling
(University of Oregon, 2016-10-27) Staton, David; Bivins, Thomas
This dissertation takes as its central topic visual narratives in Death with Dignity Storytelling and posits the author’s ideas of a beautiful death and the heard gaze. Its methodology includes a textual analysis of such images, which in turn leads to a typology, and the use of a digital tool to “sum images” to test the veracity of the typology. What creates the impulse to look at images of pain, suffering the withering body, the compulsion to bear witness to misery? That question is in part answered by Sontag (2003) Regarding the Pain of Others—“we are spectators of calamities” (p. 18)—and is evident in the indefinite pronoun that hangs at the end of the slim volume’s title. Because it is in those others, that we see ourselves. A Beautiful Death: Visual Representation in Death With Dignity Storytelling considers two case studies as examination and proofs of its claims.
Open Access
A Better Tomorrow: Examination of International Students’ Success in Higher Education
(University of Oregon, 2017-09-06) Shen, Yue; Bullis, Michael
International student enrollment in U.S. higher education has increased and diversified over the past decade. The unique needs and challenges international students face in pursuing higher education in the U.S. need a systematic investigation. Previous research literature has identified cultural diversity as one main challenge against international students’ success. There needed to be a systematic approach in investigating the role of cultural values in predicting success of international students in higher education. The present study applied Cultural Dimensions theory to the cross-cultural context of international student experience at the University of Oregon. It sought on one hand validation of the theory-based measurement model of cultural values in the abovementioned context. On the other hand, it explored predictive relations between patterns of cultural values based on the measurement model, and academic outcomes of international students at the institution. Results of the study indicated that a Cultural Dimensions theory-based measurement model of cultural values had potential in further delineating the essential of cultural diversity in the higher education. Multiple patterns of cultural dimension values found in the study indicated the uniqueness of cultural disposition within both and between international and domestic student population. Although no statistically significant relations were found between certain cultural dimension pattern and academic outcomes, future research could be conducted in refining the measurement model, mapping the patterns of cultural values within international student population, and track change of such patterns of individual students over time, and in relations to cross-cultural interaction.
Open Access
A Biogeochemical Study of Groundwater Arsenic Contamination in the Southern Willamette Basin, Oregon, USA
(University of Oregon, 2016-11-21) Maguffin, Scott; Jin, Qusheng
The mobilization and transformation of arsenic within the critical zone is a major cause of human suffering worldwide. Microorganisms, as they grow and utilize organic matter, accelerate redox processes that can transform and mobilize arsenic within aquifers on a large scale. As such, naturally occurring groundwater arsenic is a particularly hazardous problem that is chronically poisoning over 100 million people annually. Historically, groundwater arsenic research has been focused on the two principal inorganic arsenic species: arsenate [As(V)] and arsenite [As(III)]. Recently, organic arsenic species have garnered more attention due to their mobility, toxicity, and contemporary recognition of the ephemeral yet significant role they have in the global arsenic cycle. Here, I discuss laboratory and in situ experiments focused on exploring how microorganisms transform, mobilize, and sequester arsenic within a biogeochemically complex aquifer system. In my laboratory experiments, I collected aquifer sediments from a naturally contaminated bedrock aquifer and incubated a series of laboratory microcosms. Our results show that simultaneously robust iron and sulfate reduction temporarily mitigated arsenic contamination but then directed arsenic to an unstable adsorbed phase were it was later mobilized. Second, I discuss two aquifer injection experiments designed to examine in situ microbial redox processes and the further explore the potential to stimulate arsenic sequestration through arsenic-sulfide precipitation. Our results show that in situ stimulation of microbial metabolisms accelerated the reduction of arsenic bearing iron (oxy)hydroxides as well as sulfate and arsenic reduction. Within 3 weeks of these contemporaneously occurring redox reactions, 90% of the dissolved inorganic arsenic was removed (~2000 ppb) and an effective long-term, anaerobically stable, sequestration of arsenic was observed by way of a significant increase of arsenic-sulfide precipitate. Finally, using both the laboratory and field experiments, I explore the potential of organic arsenic production rates under stimulated conditions. We report new methylation rates that are consequential to the potential efficacy of enhanced, biologically-driven arsenic remediation and the reconsidered significance of biomethylation pathways in aquifers. These results expand our current understanding of the metabolic reach aquifer microorganisms potentially have over the fate of arsenic.
Embargo
A Bioorthogonal Approach to Studying Platinum Drug Targets Using Modified Platinum (II) Complexes With Alkyne- and Azide-Containing Handles
(University of Oregon, 2015-08-18) White, Jonathan; DeRose, Victoria
The compound cisplatin and related FDA-approved Pt(II) therapeutics have been used ubiquitously to treat a variety of cancers since the late 1970’s. Despite the success of Pt therapeutics, their use is limited by undesirable side-effects such as hearing loss, peripheral neuropathy, and severe kidney damage, in addition to intrinsic and acquired resistances. Despite the need to further study and understand this important class of compounds, we lack a comprehensive understanding of global Pt drug targets which would lend vital insight into the molecular mechanisms of action of Pt. This dissertation describes a novel technology using modified Pt(II) drug analogues which contain bioorthogonally reactive handles to study Pt drug targets using post-binding covalent modifications. Chapter I describes the history of Pt anticancer therapeutics and early efforts made to elucidate their mechanism of activity. New methods to track and analyze Pt in biological systems are needed to further study Pt therapeutics, for which we have chosen to modify Pt compounds to contain small, minimally invasive bioorthogonally reactive handles. These handles allow for subsequent fluorescent detection or isolation via the azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction, or prototypical “click” reaction. Chapter II describes the synthesis of the first difunctional click-modified Pt(II) complex capable of post-binding covalent click modification. Both rRNA and tRNA were identified as targets of Pt in vivo. Chapter III describes the use of another azide-appended Pt chelate complex in post-binding target studies. Click labeling of Pt-bound model protein was demonstrated, along with the further characterization of Pt-rRNA targets, which are shown to be relatively long-lived in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Chapter IV describes the first alkyne-appended Pt(II) complex capable of post-binding click modification, which undergoes a re-arrangement to form the stable N-sulfonyl amide upon fluorescent “turn-on” ligation with dansyl azide. Chapter V reports the azide analogue of the aforementioned Pt-alkyne complex and demonstrates fluorescent localization studies in triple-negative human breast cancer cell lines, observing significant nucleolar and nuclear Pt localization. Finally, Chapter VI summarizes miscellaneous work in developing additional syntheses to generate small, azide-appended ethylenediamine and peptide-coupled alkyne derivatives of cisplatin. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.
Open Access
A Broad and Multifaceted Examination of Advertising in News on Ad Performance
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-10) Canfield, Jessica; Henderson, Conor
Advertising media planners worry that the negative content in news media creates an inhospitable advertising context. The present research investigates if this concern is well founded. I find that advertisements placed in news media can actually outperform advertisements placed in entertainment media (e.g., dramas, comedies, sports, etc.) because news media attracts audiences in a mental state that is more receptive to advertisements’ informational content. This advantage is fragile, however. Upsetting news can spoil the audiences’ information appetite, their eagerness to consume and readiness to digest information. Analysis of Nielsen television viewership data for the weeks surrounding the 2016 United States Presidential Election merged with Google Trends search activity data for advertised brands reveals effects of brand advertisement viewership on brand search that are consistent with these propositions. Advertising viewership effect sizes are the smallest for ads on entertainment media, especially around the election, presumably because entertainment viewers sought to escape, rather than consume, information. The relatively more positive advertising effects on news disappeared around the election for liberal news channels, presumably because shocking election results ruined Democrats’ information appetite. Two preregistered controlled studies bolster confidence in these interpretations and inform the advertising and news industries’ partnership. A series of theory-in-use based interviews affirms the opportunities news provides as an advertising context and highlights the potential negative consequences of news avoidance strategies. These findings support of the importance of understanding news as advertising context with implications for advertisers, news publishers and providers, and consumers.
Open Access
A Broader Spectrum of Habitus: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Adolescents, Technology, and Media in the Domestic Field and the Field of Public Education
(University of Oregon, 2021-04-29) Anderson Wright, Kristen; Chavez, Christopher
The implementation of technology is inherently flawed in the field of public education, affecting the ability to operationalize technology in a way that is effective for teachers and students. This unfortunate predetermination is beholden to social, economic and political issues that are deeply rooted in bureaucracy. This autoethnographic qualitative communication and media studies study utilizes social field theory and a Bourdieuian framework by exploring adolescent identity, relationships, habitus, cultural capital and interaction with technology in the field of public education and the domestic field through a cultural, political and economic prism. If we expand the notion of habitus beyond the influence of family and as we get older, school, to include technology and media, we can better understand how to best serve our students. Instead of remaining in the rut of antiquated institutionalized systems and understandings of how things are, we must open up our perceptions, awareness, insight and compassion to include a broader spectrum of habitus. This, in turn, requires a major shift in acknowledging the cultural capital of young people.
Open Access
A Case Study Evaluating the Fidelity of Implementation of Constructing Meaning Training at a Local Middle School
(University of Oregon, 2016-10-27) Sica, Brian; Zvoch, Keith
The purpose of this study was to understand the implementation of practices derived from Constructing Meaning (CM) training by teachers (n = 30) at a local middle school. The study took place in two phases. Phase one was primarily quantitative. Implementation fidelity was measured for each critical component of CM training, and component and aggregate indices were constructed and analyzed. The second phase, primarily qualitative, investigated teachers’ perceptions of the conditions that favored or hindered implementation. Results indicated that certain components were implemented to a greater degree than others and that the overall implementation fidelity was approximately 50%. Key conditions for implementation were identified as collaboration (both with peers and CM trainers), sufficient time, and clear connections to other programs.
Open Access
A Categorical sl_2 Action on Some Moduli Spaces of Sheaves
(University of Oregon, 2020-09-24) Takahashi, Ryan; Addington, Nicolas
We study a certain sequence of moduli spaces of stable sheaves on a K3 surface of Picard rank 1 over $\mathbb{C}$. We prove that this sequence can be given the structure of a geometric categorical $\mathfrak{sl}_2$ action, a global version of an action studied by Cautis, Kamnitzer, and Licata. As a corollary, we find that the moduli spaces in this sequence which are birational are also derived equivalent.
Open Access
A Categorification of the Positive Half of Quantum sl3 at a Prime Root of Unity
(University of Oregon, 2019-04-30) Stephens, Andrew; Elias, Ben
We place a differential on $\dot\UC_{\mathfrak{sl}_3}^+$ and show that $\dot\UC_{\mathfrak{sl}_3}^+$ is Fc-filtered. This gives a categorification of the positive half of quantum $\sl_3$ at a prime root of unity.