This study examined the culture of Earth First!, an environmental
activist movement. The study was limited to two groups of Earth
First! in the Northwest, Corvallis and Eugene. The goal was to
discover what it is to be a communicatively competent member of Earth
First! The method used to address...
The Columbia River Treaty has been in effect for over 45 years, but its future is uncertain. Starting in 2014, Canada and the United States will have the opportunity to announce ten years’ notice for termination of the current arrangement. As this artificial deadline approaches, stakeholders are working to determine...
This project is a series of handmade books, utilizing various binding methods and artistic mediums, exploring the subject of interpersonal relationships. The project’s purpose is twofold: first, to explore the utilitarian side of bookbinding as a craft, as well as the different mediums (including printmaking, drawing, painting, and stitching) that...
Glioblastoma Multiform
• Type of aggressive brain cancer
• Five year survival rate of 4.70%
• Not often detected until it’s in the later stages when
the symptoms appear
• Surgery is not an effective option due to invasion and
proliferation of glioblastoma cells outside of the tumor
mass before...
Glioblastoma is a malignant brain tumor that has extremely poor prognoses with a 5 year survival rate of less than 5%. The low survival rates of glioblastoma patients is attributed to glioblastoma cells being extremely resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy as well as being very invasive. We previously identified calpain...
Mechanical property degradation due to isothermal ageing is of potential concern for alloys based on the Ni-Cr binary system (e.g., Inconel 690, 625), particularly in nuclear power applications where component lifetimes can exceed 40 years. In the present research, the disorder-order phase transformation, which is the primary mechanism of ageing,...
The thermal degradation of structural materials is considered to be a key factor for evaluating the lifetime of current nuclear power plants. Ni-based and Fe-based alloys, such as 690, 625, 304, and 316, are widely used in nuclear industry as structural components due to the extraordinary corrosion resistance and mechanical...
CPM-M4 tool steel is a commonly used knife blade material due to its high strength and wear resistance. The goal of this thesis is to understand how heat treatment parameters affect blade performance and microstructure.Five heat treatments were applied to CPM-M4 steel by varying austenitizing and tempering temperatures. The microstructures...
New low enriched uranium (LEU) fuels are being developed for replacement of high enriched uranium (HEU) fuels in high power research reactors. U-Mo LEU plate fuels have been identified as a candidate for replacement of current HEU fuels. However, U-Mo fuels tend to exhibit accelerated swelling typically at fission densities...
The corrosion behaviors of carbon and stainless steels were investigated in supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂ ) containing H₂O and O₂ simulating conditions that exist in direct sCO₂ power cycle heat exchangers. Thermodynamic properties of CO₂-H₂O-O₂ systems related to the corrosion phenomena were determined using NIST software. The exposure tests of the...
The corrosion resistances of several alloys were investigated to optimize performance and cost in seawater and supercritical CO2 environments. Many alloys are prone to corrosion in seawater and/or supercritical CO2 containing impurity environments. Exposure and electrochemical experiments were conducted in both environments to evaluate alloys’ corrosion resistance. In seawater corrosion...
Using supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) as a working fluid has increasingly gained attention in the energy industry. sCO₂ power cycles has various advantages, such as high cycle efficiency, compact turbomachinery, and potential zero CO₂ emission. Along with these benefits, materials degradation issues have also been emphasized in the last decade. Aqueous...
Artificial collectives are useful for accomplishing tasks that require teamwork from multiple simple robots. Multiple robot and collective testbeds have been developed, yet none stay committed to leverage the local interactions, group size, and imperfect information assumptions that strengthen biological collectives. A review of the collective and multiple robot literature,...
Commercial and public safety usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the National Airspace is currently restricted by federal regulation. The Federal Aeronautics Association is interested in modifying the restrictions; however, research is needed to study the human factor and required aptitude for a single human operating multiple UAVs. This Master’s...
Mountain search and rescue is a vital form of emergency response to assist people in austere environments (e.g., extreme terrain, poor weather). Volunteer mountain search and rescue teams in the United States have begun adopting consumer- grade unmanned aerial vehicles to assist a variety of tasks (e.g., search, resource delivery);...
Collective migration in animal groups is often guided by distributed leader agents that influence their peers by modulating their motion behaviors. Distributed leadership is a promising navigation strategy for artificial swarms, but designing the leaders’ controllers is difficult due to the swarm’s collective emergent behaviors. The presented research formulates a...
This dissertation incorporates coalition formation and probabilistic planning towards a domain-independent automated planning solution scalable to multiple heterogeneous robots in complex domains. The first research direction investigates the effectiveness of Task Fusion and introduces heuristics that improve task allocation and result in better quality plans, while requiring lower computational cost...
Human-robot teams involve humans and robots collaborating to achieve tasks under various environmental conditions. Successful teaming requires robots to adapt autonomously in real-time to a human teammate's state. An important element of such adaptation is the ability for the robot to infer the tasks performed by their human teammates. Human-robot...
Disaster response and surveillance operations will increasingly incorporate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)s due to their cost-effectiveness and maneuverability. This trend has driven the research on small-sized quadcopters for varying indoor applications. Small-sized quadcopters' payload and computational capacity limit the usage of complex vision-based collision avoidance algorithms that are employed by...
Demanding task environments (e.g., supervising a remotely piloted aircraft) require performing tasks quickly and accurately; however, periods of low and high operator workload can decrease task performance. Intelligent modulation of the system’s demands and interaction modality in response to changes in operator workload state may increase performance by avoiding undesirable...
How are academic libraries organizing themselves in order to engage in the content selection and digitization of local collections? Are libraries creating new positions or units, assigning responsibilities to existing departments, setting up cross-functional collaboration among existing departments, or using a combination of these strategies? Who holds responsibility for the...
This work explores the hypothesis that proton irradiation is a feasible alternative to simulate accelerated thermal aging for Ni2Cr long-range ordered phase formation within NiCr and NiCrFe alloys. In this study, various model alloys and commercial alloys 690 and 690+P (0.01 wt.% P) were subject to 2 MeV proton irradiation...
This dissertation works towards determining the mechanisms driving the Mo isotopic composition of soils, and how these signals may be used to refine the use of Mo as a proxy of biogeochemical processes. The first step towards quantifying Mo fractionation in soils is to determine the mechanisms controlling Mo accumulation,...
In the spring of 2005 Oregon State University librarians conducted an undergraduate survey and focus groups that confirmed Reeb and Gibbons’ assertion that our students want library sources targeted to their specific courses. In response to this need we considered how to best design assignment focused web pages that were...
Molten salts have been targeted as a promising coolant for next generation reactors due to their high boiling point, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity. Despite these benefits, molten salt systems present unique materials compatibility issues, highlighted by the aggressive corrosion attack and dealloying typically seen on materials in these environments....
Cephalopod-inspired soft robot arms have been studied as a new type of manipulator. These arms have been proposed for reach and grab tasks, underwater locomotion via swimming and walking, and robotic surgery. However, the capabilities of existing soft arms are limited to simple motions and light loads. Arm design has...
In this paper, we derive the fundamental solution to the heat equation with a discontinuous diffusion coefficient in the free space, with an absorbing boundary, and with a reflecting boundary. We use the fundamental solution with an absorbing boundary to make connections with the transition probability density of absorbed Skew...
The use of credit cards by young families, their money management
practices, and the relationship between money management
practices and their control of credit card use was researched in this
study.
A sample of 60 Oregon families was drawn from the 1975 Johnson's
Albany Area City Directory. These families were...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with a molecular weight (MW) of 302
and oxygenated-PAHs (OPAHs) have demonstrated toxicity beyond that of
frequently monitored and known carcinogenic PAHs. Airborne particulate matter
(PM) was characterized for MW 302 isomers to evaluate risk and air quality
indices and OPAHs in order to fill data...
A program, Color Choropleth Mapping System (CCMS), has
been developed to provide high quality color choropleth maps at
the Geography Department at Oregon State University. The program
operates interactively and is menu-driven. When developing the
software for mapping programs, programmers need to be aware of
cartographic theory, as well as...
In 1987, Congress authorized a 5 year $150 million dollar research program called
the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP). SHRP was divided into four major
areas, including the asphalt research program. The asphalt research program was divided
into six major research contracts, one such contract, SHRP-003A was called Performance
Related...
Molybdenum is an essential component of biogeochemical cycling, most notably as a component of the nitrogenase enzyme used in biological nitrogen (N) fixation. While the important role of phosphorus (P) in limiting N fixation in ecosystems has been well documented, occurrence and prevalence of molybdenum (Mo) limitation is largely unknown....
The influence of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) on
populations of general taxonomic and functional groups of naturally-occurring
rhizosphere bacteria and actinomycetes associated with
roots of sweet corn (Zea mays var. rugosa) and subterranean clover
(Trifolium subterraneum L.) was assayed using selective media.
Sporangial production by Phytophthora cinnamomi was also used as...
The aim of this study is to explore how women who identify as both active, believing Mormons and as feminists negotiate the contradictions between an ideology that values equality (feminism) and a religion that values patriarchy (Mormonism). Data were gathered through recorded and transcribed interviews with women who identify as...
This paper will address Oregon's ability to regulate and manage its wetland resources as a means for protecting and enhancing salmon habitat. After identifying the importance of wetland environments the paper will look into OWRF to assess its effectiveness. Ultimately the paper will conclude that OWRF's design is an effective...
Seasonal emergent wetlands in the Pacific Northwest have not been regarded traditionally as fish rearing habitat, despite access to such habitat when river flows overtop riverbanks and connect to the floodplain. As a result, restoration and enhancement projects to remediate for the loss of such wetland habitat are being implemented...
The Middle Fork of the John Day River (MFJD) in Northeastern Oregon contains important spawning grounds for spring Chinook and summer steelhead of the Columbia River Basin. In the summer of 2008 phase one of a river restoration project was completed which included the addition of engineered log jams (ELJs)...
The Middle Fork of the John Day River (MFJD) in Northeastern Oregon contains important spawning grounds for spring Chinook and summer steelhead of the Columbia River Basin. In the summer of 2008 phase one of a river restoration project was completed which included the addition of engineered log jams (ELJs)...
Students are entering college heavier than ever before and some are gaining weight faster than the general population. Weight studies have been conducted, but are limited in scope about how behavior related choices are made. This study was an effort to determine weight stability and to explore the influences of...
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a
power lifting weight training program on the dynamic strength, static
strength and body composition of college females. Thirteen college
females volunteered for the study. The subjects trained three days
per week for a total of nine weeks which...
Antimicrobial coatings used to reduce the risk of infection caused by tissue-contacting medical devices must address specific biocompatibility requirements including prevention of thrombosis and rise of bacterial resistance. An antimicrobial-loaded poly(ethylene-oxide) (PEO) coating has been tentatively shown to be non-fouling with sustained antimicrobial activity. However, the presence of the antimicrobial,...
Nisin, an amphiphilic, antimicrobial peptide, has been shown to integrate into the hydrophobic inner region of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) brush layers; however, the presence of integrated nisin may compromise the protein repulsive character of the PEO layer. In particular, the introduction of fibrinogen to nisin-loaded brush layers has been observed...
This study quantified the frequency of simple versus
complex races of Puccinia striiformis Westend. in mixtures
of wheat cultivars possessing different race-specific
resistance genes. A simple race of a pathogen can infect
only one component, and a complex race of the pathogen can
infect two or more components of an...
This internship project (Dr. Dawn Wright—Department of Geoscience) was a synthesis of several aspects of the research process. The documentation of methods consisted of: primary data collection of soil samples, geographical coordinates, georeferencing, basemap creation, laboratory machine operation, laboratory methods, laboratory quality control planning, statistical analysis, and geo-statistical analysis using...
Current public health guidelines for physical activity (PA) were primarily formulated using evidence collected from a series of prospective cohort epidemiological investigations that measured self-reported PA. In light of this observation, and the known discordance between self-reported and objectively-monitored PA, it remains common for researchers to assess compliance to current...
Four experiments were carried out with broiler chicks from day-old to three or four weeks of age to assess the effects of nitrates and nitrites from calcium, potassium, and sodium salts in the drinking water of broilers on growth, body weights, feed utilization, blood chemistries, liver tissues, and lipid oxidation...