Since the late 1880's western juniper has expanded in range and
increased in density in sagebrush-bunchgrass, riparian, and forested plant
communities of the Pacific Northwest. Succession to western juniper
woodland has been shown to reduce the productivity and diversity of the
understory component, result in concentration of soil nutrients beneath...
The objective of this thesis is to assess four winter feeding programs of spring-calving brood cows that may improve profitability to ranching operations of the Harney Basin, Oregon. The four feeding strategies include strip grazed rake-bunched hay, supplemented range grazing, strip grazed meadow pasture, and baled hay feeding. These first...
This study consisted of two research projects in the Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis (Beetle & A. Young) S.L. Welsh) alliance, the most extensive of the big sagebrush complex in the Intermountain West. In the first project, we intensively sampled 107 relatively undisturbed, late seral Wyoming big sagebrush...
In the western United States, sagebrush (Artemisia spp L.) dominated rangelands are extensive, accounting for approximately 63 million ha. The Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young) alliance is found in more xeric environments, occupying the largest area of the big sagebrush complex in areas within...
The expansion of pion-juniper woodlands the past 100 years in the western United States has resulted in large scale efforts to kill trees and recover sagebrush steppe rangelands. It is important to evaluate vegetation recovery following woodland control to develop best management practices. In this study, we compared two fuel...
New technology may have negative, as well as positive, effects on a sociocultural system. Biodiesel is growing in popularity as a fuel alternative that addresses global warming and reduces dependency on petroleum. The biodiesel innovation fits well into the existing behavioral infrastructure of Linn and Benton Counties, Oregon. The introduction...
Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis ssp.
occidentalis Hook) encroachment into mountain big sagebrush
(Artemisia tridentata spp. vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle)
steppe has reduced livestock forage production, increased
erosion risk, and degraded sagebrush-associated wildlife
habitat. Western juniper has been successfully controlled
with partial cutting followed by prescribed burning the next
fall, but the...
The purpose of this progress report is to provide an update of recently completed and ongoing research programs at the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center (EOARC), located in Bums. Oregon. Oregon State University's Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) jointly fund the...
Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis [Beetle & A. Young] S.L. Welsh) plant communities with degraded native herbaceous understories occupy vast expanses of the western United States. Restoring the native herbaceous understory in these communities is needed to provide higher-quality wildlife habitat, decrease the risk of exotic plant invasion,...
Fire has largely been excluded from many mountain big sagebrush communities. Managers are reluctant to
reintroduce fire, especially in communities without significant conifer encroachment, because of the decline in sagebrush-associated
wildlife. Given this management direction, a better understanding of fire exclusion and burning effects is
needed. We compared burned to...
On piñon-juniper encroached sites that lack the understory fuels to carry a prescribed fire, treatment options are limited to mechanical methods. Cutting with chainsaws and leaving the trees on site has been the primary treatment method for such sites, however this method creates a potential fire hazard, particularly in the...
Deep-sea bamboo coral (Isidella sp.) SE000901A from the southern Oregon coast (water depth 1048m) provides a high-resolution record of variability of North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) and carbon rain to the sea floor, related to coastal upwelling, from 1808 to 2000AD. Counting of annual layers in magnesium to calcium (Mg/Ca)...
Full Text:
Appendix D: Stable Isotope Data
Table D1: Carbonate
Background: Against global health disparities and a shortfall of medical personnel, community health workers (CHWs) promise a solution based in lived experience and connection to the health system. To address global and upstream health determinants, CHW programs engage the perspectives of both the workers they employ and the communities they...
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUASs) equipped with optical sensors are capableof remotely sensing landscapes and wildlife at spatial and temporal resolutions that werepreviously inaccessible due to technical and budgetary limitations. Conventional remotesensing and photogrammetric workflows can be applied to the resulting high resolution imageryto facilitate new types of scientific inquiry....
Ground-based assessments of foliar diseases including leaf blight are time-consuming and costly. We investigated the potential for using an unmanned aerial system (UAS) in conjunction with a multispectral sensor to determine whether we could more efficiently and reliably detect and quantify leaf blight in Pacific madrones. Our methods included ground-based...
The re-introduction of large woody debris (LWD) into streams and rivers for stream restoration purposes is rapidly growing. Engineered log jams (ELJs) are man-made structures intended to mimic natural LWD structures, designed and installed to protect stream banks from erosion while increasing habitat diversity. Several studies have evaluated the flow...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between poverty and mental retardation and to place mental retardation in its true perspective as a social condition which thrives especially in poverty areas. More specifically, this study attempted to determine if there was any significant relationship between selected social...
Humans have long suffered the effects of disease causing biological agents. Today bioterrorism appears to be on the rise while at the same time global and ecological changes have resulted in the emergence of new diseases. Potential repercussions of an epidemic pose immense challenges requiring a methodical approach to align...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is known to be a widely distributed, shade-intolerant and short-lived hardwood found in both seral, even-aged and stable, uneven aged stands. There have been reports of extensive aspen mortality, crown thinning, and branch dieback across North America that have been linked to the occurrence of...
The purpose of this study was to determine if passive
peer group presence had a significant effect on the
performance of students on the Test of Gross Motor
Development (TGMD).
Fifty-eight volunteer nonhandicapped children aged
five, eight, and ten years were subjects for the study.
There were 18 subjects aged...
Disease detection through traditional techniques such as scouting fields on foot, molecular assays, or morphological identification of plant pathogens is time consuming and costly. Disease diagnosis in the field can be extremely subjective, and largely depends on the experience and knowledge of pathogen identification and disease quantification. This thesis provides...
Sorting is typically a compute intensive operation used in many
areas of industry. With improved technology, both in the VLSI and CAE
areas, we can afford to develop hardware based database computers to
move the work load off the main computer. In this thesis the
architecture of a VLSI parallel...
The quality of radiation-pasteurized halibut stored at 34°F
was evaluated subjectively and objectively over a period of 18 weeks.
Results of flavor evaluation and chemical analyses showed that the
storage life of halibut irradiated at 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 megarad was
extended more than threefold. Although irradiated samples were
consistently...
This study was developed in order to determine whether substantiation
for Carl Rogers' theory of originality as related to an internal
locus of control could be located among groups of elementary
school children. The setting was in Portland, Oregon, in three types
of city schools: suburban (upper/ upper-middle class); conventional...
This study was designed to discover how beneficiary participation in decision making can be encouraged and enhanced in rural development assistance projects in developing countries. The study sought to increase the understanding about how beneficiary participation occurs through the identification of patterns, processes or techniques in development assistance projects that...
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus: hereafter sage-grouse) abundance and distribution in North America has declined over the last century. Many factors have contributed to this decline, including habitat loss and fragmentation from human development with an associated potential for increased predation. While human development has been connected to lower sage-grouse demographic...
The umbrella species concept is a single-species conservation strategy built on the notion that indirect protections are provided for multiple species that occupy the same area as a single, or umbrella, species. The utility of the umbrella species concept relies on similar associations of abundance, distribution, life history requirements, and...
It is becoming increasingly important to understand fundamental hillslope-scale hydrological processes. Most hillslope-sale transport experiments have generally focused on conceptual findings or other aspect of flow behavior, rather than the quantification of the mass transport mechanisms of advection and dispersion. When the velocities have been quantified, dispersion has been mentioned...
A field study was conducted to determine the applicability of multivariate
geostatistical methods to the problem of estimating and simulating pesticide
concentrations in groundwater from measured concentrations of nitrate and pesticide,
when pesticide is undersampled. Prior to this study, no published attempt had been made
to apply multivariate geostatistics to...
Groundwater resources have become seriously threatened
due to improper use by industrial, municipal, and even public
sectors. Widespread contamination of aquifer systems has
jeopardized human health and the environment and methods for
restoring these systems are needed. Biological and chemical
in situ remediation, where contaminants are degraded within
the natural...
A method was developed for assessing the vulnerability
of groundwater to contamination from contaminant sources
at the soil surface, using a numerical groundwater flow
model linked to a digital map database. The method was
applied using the pcARC/INFO Geographic Information System
(GIS) to input, store, and manipulate base maps, resulting...
ROSS (Robotic Oceanographic Surface Sampler) is an autonomous boat, equipped with oceanographic sensors, used for studying the ocean’s surface. One of its advantages over traditional research vessels is its ability to sample near glaciers, an area too dangerous for manned ships. In order to properly ascertain deep ocean heat’s effect...
Tide-topography coupling is important for understanding surface-tide energy loss, the intermittency of internal tides, and the cascade of internal-tide energy from large to small scales. Although tide-topography coupling has been observed and modeled for 50 years, the identification of surface and internal tides over arbitrary topography has not been standardized....
Estimates of average annual precipitation (AAP) are-needed for hydrologic modeling at
Yucca Mtn., Nevada, site of a proposed, high-level nuclear waste repository. Historical
precipitation data and station elevation were obtained for stations in southern Nevada and
southeastern California. Elevations for 1,531 additional locations were obtained from
topographic maps. The sample...
This dissertation investigates the dynamics of the tidally modulated outflow from the Columbia River mouth using high resolution measurements of velocity, density and turbulent microstructure. At high tide, flow through the river mouth reverses from flood (onshore) to ebb (offshore). During ebb, buoyant fluid issues from the river mouth and...
Understanding the processes involved in the transport of dissolved gas plumes in groundwater aquifers is essential for comprehending the effect that these transport processes can have on site characterization and remedial design applications. Previous laboratory and field studies have indicated that dissolved gas transport in groundwater can be greatly affected...
This research focused on the enhanced reductive dechlorination of trichloroethene (TCE) and its surrogate, trichlorofluoroethene (TCFE), using two bioremediation methods in anaerobic conditions. Two anaerobic bioremediation studies were conducted to investigate the effects of microbial communities in the presence of different electron acceptors and donors during anaerobic reductive dechlorination of...
Understanding the transport and retention of radionuclides in the environment is important for protecting freshwater supplies and minimizing impact to biologic systems. Technetium-99 (Tc⁹⁹) is a radionuclide of interest due to its long half-life (2.13 x 10⁵ years) and toxicity. In the form of pertechnetate (TcO₄⁻), Tc is expected to...
The objective of this study was to develop a numerical model for the movement
and fate of chlorinated phenols in groundwater. In the first part, a numerical model for
several different equilibrium and nonequilibrium sorption processes under isothermal
conditions is developed for one-dimensional, steady-state water flow in soil columns.
The...
In this three-essay dissertation I explore how CEOs’ self-serving motivation, specifically driven by their relative pay standing and celebrity status, is useful for advancing the understanding of executive behavior and strategic decision-making. In the first essay, focusing on CEOs’ motivation to reduce the dissonance caused by pay inequity, I examine...
Metal and hydrogen ion acidity and extreme nitrate concentrations typical of
Department of Energy (DOE) legacy waste sites pose formidable challenges to
successful implementation of in situ bio-immobilization. Intermediate-scale (~ 2.5 m),
flow through models of an in situ bio-barrier were constructed to investigate U and Tc
removal from groundwater...
Studies are currently underway to determine the suitability of Yucca Mountain
in Nevada as the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository. Values of net
infiltration are required to determine pre-waste emplacement groundwater travel times
and the performance of the repository as a waste containment system. The objective of
this study...
Estimating the hydraulic conductivity of earth materials is important for many water resource modeling efforts, including predicting the transport of pollutants in ground water, computing surface runoff for flood control, and computing water budgets. This research implicitly used topography, soil, and climate data to estimate plausible continuous hydraulic conductivity values...
Groundwater at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Field Research Center (FRC) is contaminated with U(VI) and Tc(VII), has pH values as low as 3.3, and nitrate concentrations as high as 120 mM. The objective of this research was to determine if in-situ bio-immobilization is a viable treatment alternative for this water....
The dissertation examines the effect of two separate yet significant individual level factors—physical and cognitive traits—on entrepreneurial outcomes. The physical factor on which the dissertation focuses is the entrepreneur’s vocal cues and the cognitive traits that the dissertation investigates are the entrepreneur’s goal orientation and his/her ability to take perspectives....
Colloids, particles smaller than ten microns in diameter, are ubiquitous in the subsurface. Colloids have an effect on the transport of contaminants that bind to their surfaces, and can reduce the permeability of aquifer materials through deposition. Some microorganisms, including pathogens, are also transported in the subsurface as colloids. The...
The shallow, poorly-confined, sand and gravel aquifer underlying the lower
Malheur River basin is contaminated by nitrate and metabolites of the herbicide
dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA), first detected in 1983 and 1985,
respectively. The aquifer supplies water for the Ontario municipal water system,
domestic and industrial uses, and irrigation. In response...
This study was undertaken to evaluate the spatial and temporal characteristics
of riparian groundwater tables adjacent to beaver ponds. The research was
conducted in two parts; in the first portion a two-dimensional, finite-difference
computer model was developed and utilized to simulate groundwater elevations
through time in pond-adjacent aquifers. Two types...
This investigation examined the possible role of musculoskeletal forces in the
human walk-run transition. In order to measure these forces a treadmill was constructed
which allowed the measurement of vertical ground reaction forces while subjects walked
and ran at prescribed speeds. Validation proved the device to be accurate and reliable...
The development of a novel high temperature space radiator is
described. A Rotating Bubble Membrane Radiator (RBMR) combines the
best features of heat pipes and droplet radiators while avoiding
their negative attributes. The RBMR offers light weight, self
deployment, ease of startup and its performance is less affected by
acceleration....
Over the past decade, it has come to light that many published scientific findings cannot be reproduced. This has led to the replication crisis in science. Many researchers feel that they can no longer trust much of what they read in scientific journals, and the public is becoming ever more...
Bipedal locomotion is a complex phenomenon to understand and control, making it difficult for legged robots to achieve the speed, agility, efficiency, and robustness of their animal counterparts. This thesis argues for the use of numerical optimization to investigate and implement bipedal control as it applies to biology, dynamical models,...
"Collaborative filtering algorithms’ performances have been evaluated using a variety of metrics.
These metrics, such as Mean Absolute Error and Precision, have often ignored recommendations for
which they do not have data. Ignoring these recommendations has provided numbers which do not
accurately represent the user experience. Qualitatively we have seen...
The ATRIAS agile humanoid robot, along with a number of other spring-mass walking
machines, currently have two instabilities: one resulting from inertial forces on the torso
which cause the robot to spin like a top, and another resulting from stiff ground collisions
which cause chattering of the point-contact toes. This...
Practical bipedal robots need to be simultaneously efficient, robust, and versatile machines, but designing robots dynamically capable of these demands has been a significant bottleneck. We designed ATRIAS to be a highly dynamic biped capable of both walking and running untethered in real environments. To meet these goals, ATRIAS is...
"Collaborative filtering has seen considerable success in the areas regarding
information overload and e-commerce, while the current developed systems are
flawed in several respects. Two approaches, the distribution-based algorithm and
the blurring profile solution, are proposed to address several outstanding issues.
The main findings of this research include:
• The...
Accessing information on the Web has become ingrained into our daily lives, and we seek information from many different sources, including conference and journal publications, personal web pages, and others. Increasingly, web-based information retrieval systems such as web-based search engines, library on-line catalog systems, and subscription-based federated search systems are...
We present a novel control strategy for running which is robust to disturbances, and makes excellent use of passive dynamics for energy economy. The motivation for our control strategy is based on observations of animals, which are able to economically walk and run over varying terrain and ground dynamics. It...
The objective of this study is to propose control strategies for legged robots to walk and run naturally like humans and animals. To achieve this goal, we use the spring-mass model for the legged robots to be able to create the same dynamics in the leg as humans and animals....
There are typically two responses to the complex environmental problems of our time: 1) doom and gloom and 2) optimism. There is a lot of doom and gloom in the environmental literature. This literature warns that the future portends danger for humans and their life support systems. But when one...
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_____________________________________________________________________
Jonathan B. King
There are typically two responses to the complex environmental problems of
In this report, I first introduce three areas of interest to collaborative filtering researchers, namely: (a) how to solve the sparsity and scalability problems in recommendation systems; (b) how to rapidly develop and test collaborative filtering algorithms; and (c) how to apply collaborative filtering to unbounded numeric preference data. In...
Current math software provides limited interactivity and dynamics when conveying math
ideas. We are developing prototype Java toolkits to display math-embedded documents
in a more dynamic and interactive way. The core task of current project is to create a
Java implementation of a MathML (in which a math expression is...
In the Capabilities Approach literature “capabilities” are the real freedoms individuals possess to achieve certain “functionings,” which are the doings and beings that constitute a good life. I argue that this approach requires, or at least can benefit from, an account of the psychosocial mechanisms involved in capability limitation. The...
Wire and fiber ropes used in rigorous CBOS (cyclic bend over sheave)
applications were investigated. Small diameter stainless steel, tungsten, and Vectran®
ropes were tested over small sheaves at high loads and cycle speeds. Sheaves were made
with Al6061-T6511 and Al7075-T651 and were coated with 0.002” hard coat anodize;
some...
The purpose of this research is to describe the secondary traumatic stress (STS) levels of early career school based agriculture (SBAE) teachers. Using the professional quality of life (ProQOL) scale (Stamm, 2010) as a theoretical framework, secondary traumatic stress, burnout (BO) and compassion satisfaction (CS) levels were measured among (n...
Objective: To explore the controversial issue of the safety and use of mercury in
amalgam dental fillings. Methods: Using a variety of scientifically oriented studies,
overall trends and conclusions were analyzed. Relevant articles include Children’s
exposure to Amalgam, fetal exposure, environmental mercury, occupational exposure,
and mercury and Multiple Sclerosis. Additional...
A cross-cultural analysis of business practices based on video recordings of interviews with business professionals in both Oregon and Taiwan, with the intent of finding evidence to support or question current beliefs about cultural differences between American and Asian cultures. Particular focus is paid to business practices such as networking,...
In this paper, I examine the relationship between CEO childhood socioeconomic status and the adjustments made to company policies throughout the pandemic. My hypothesis is that the CEOs who come from a low income socioeconomic status will enact less labor friendly policies as a result of their formation of occupational...
This thesis examines the multi-faceted threat Iran poses to the stability of the Middle Eastern region, to U.S. geopolitical interests and to the furthering of democratic principles from a realist perspective. Iran’s failure to negotiate a nuclear accord in good faith coupled with its continued militant role in regional affairs...
In the contemporary U.S., the state, through the Legislative Assembly, the State Board of
Education, and the Department of Education, sets policies for K-12 education. These include goals
and standards that affect the kinds of influences local officials, parents, and students can have
on various education programs, required and elective...
This research aims to identify ways to motivate Fraternity members to contribute towards the
progress of a Fraternity. Motivation theories were explored to guide the process, which led to the question: can the implementation of an effectively crafted vision and mission statement generate positive change within a Fraternity? Several steps...
Identifying the most relevant items in an e-commerce site is becoming more and more
difficult nowadays because of the heavy overload of information. A Java Recommender
System that uses Collaborative Filtering techniques has been developed to reduce such
information overload and even personalize the information to the individual’s preference.
The...
The increasing level of complexity in systems creates a growing challenge
for engineers to design safe and reliable systems. The growing complexity can
lead to possible moments when situations occur that were unanticipated or were
not known that they could occur by designers and leave the system in an
undesirable...
Kinematic tectonic models constrained by Airy isostatic equilibrium demonstrate the crustal-scale evolution of the Brooks Range during ocean basin closure, arc-continent collision, and exhumation of the orogen. The Bouguer gravity anomaly low that develops across the orogen is related by wavelength to the amount of shortening during collision, and by...
Outdoor adventure education (OAE) has long held on to the assumption that learning is transferred to participants’ lives (e.g., Gass, 1985). Recent scholars have contested this assumption, noting that learning transfer may not be a complete lens through which learning is viewed. Transformative learning theory (e.g., Mezirow, 1991) has been...
The purpose of this study was to describe and explore the relationships between work and family domain characteristics, time-based work-family conflict (WFC), and turnover intention of agriculture teachers. This study sought to identify factors influencing agriculture teachers' turnover intentions. An additional focus of this study was to explore differences between...
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Jonathan J. Velez
The purpose of this study was to describe and explore the relationships
This research focuses on the anaerobic transformation of trichloroethylene (TCE) that is occurring in the subsurface of the Evanite site in Corvallis, OR. Two anaerobic studies were conducted to investigate the effects of microbial communities in the presence of different electron donors during the anaerobic degradation of trichlorofluoroethylene (TCFE), and...
Use of basalt aquifers for aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) systems is increasing in the Pacific Northwest due to the large aerial extent of the Columbia River Basalt Group and the suitability of basalts as ASR reservoirs. However, the degradation of trihalomethanes (THMs), potentially carcinogenic disinfection by-products present in the...
Deposition of the Middle Devonian part of the Denay Limestone
and Bay State Dolomite in the northern Antelope Range and Fish
Creek Range, respectively, took place on and in front of a carbonate
platform with a lime sand shoal at the shelf edge. In the Givetian part
of the Denay...
Research exploring methods to improve student learning of leadership, mathematics, and science in the United States is critically important. In this study, I sought to delve into the potential for student learning of leadership, mathematics, and science within the context of school-based agricultural education. Recognizing the teacher as a gatekeeper...
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Jonathan J. Velez
Research exploring methods to improve student learning of leadership
In the wake of nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island Unit 2 and Fukushima, the nuclear power industry’s safety record is scrutinized. Today the main concerns lies with hydrogen production in a nuclear reactor core when the zirconium fuel cladding reacts with the water coolant during an accident, creating...
Livestock grazing occurs worldwide, spanning over 25% of land globally. Effective conservation of biodiversity relies upon understanding the interactions of agricultural management practices and increasingly variable weather associated with climate change. I evaluated grazing, weather and predator-prey interactions within a grazing experiment in the sagebrush ecosystem of southeastern Oregon. I...
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Jonathan B. Dinkins, W. Douglas Robinson
Livestock grazing occurs worldwide, spanning
Wine is particularly vulnerable to infection by Brettanomyces bruxellensis during or shortly after malolactic fermentation (MLF). While different methods and techniques enable winemakers to prevent wine spoilage due to this organism, no single intervention is universally sufficient. Moreover application of sulfur dioxide, the most commonly used of these methods, is...
President Trump’s 2018 announcement of a sixth military branch dedicated to space-defense took many by surprise. Less than two years later, the Space Force was established and given budgetary authority to develop and manage US space-defense assets. Policy narratives surrounded this decisionmaking process, circulating throughout Congress and the Pentagon to...
Contamination of ground water by non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) has
received increasing attention. The most common approach to numerical modeling of
NAPL movement through the unsaturated zone is the use of the finite difference or finite
element methods to solve a set of partial differential equations derived from Darcy's law...
Efficient use of water in agricultural production involves accurate assessment
and control of the quantity and spatial uniformity of excess percolation. Passive
Capillary Samplers (PCAPS), which sample water from the vadose zone have shown
potential to provide superior estimates of soil water flux compared to alternative
methods. In a four-year...
Shallow land burial in vadose zone sediment at the Hanford Site in Washington is being considered for the disposal of Category 3 low-level waste. A series of column experiments were conducted to evaluate and model the performance of the soil surrounding the trench encasement material for iodine-129 and technetium-99 by...
An experimental investigation was conducted for natural convection
heat transfer in an array of uniformly heated vertical cylinders
in mercury. The test section consisted of seven electrically heated
cylinders of 1.365 inch diameter and 3.825 inch heated length
arranged in an equilateral triangular pattern. In order to preclude
side flow...