The effect of cosputtered catalyst on growth and alignment of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was investigated. Aligned CNTs were observed using a cosputtered catalytic metal deposited directly on boro-aluminosilicate glass. Catalytic metal alloys were sputtered directly onto the substrate using magnetron sputtering. Deposition...
This thesis will look at Paul Jensen while he was an education professor at Western Oregon State College in Monmouth, Oregon, and his role in Alaska Native education while working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Dr. Jensen's work coincided with the last twenty-five years of Bureau of Indian Affairs...
This thesis investigates the reported communication experiences of married women transitioning to motherhood. The study involves a series of focus groups in which new mothers share their communicative experiences, explaining how they are navigating their new roles as mothers while also performing roles as wives, daughters, and workers. Informed primarily...
Colonization of N. densiflorus tissues by P. ramorum is not well understood. The pathogen is able to colonize nearly all tissues of this host but it is unclear how a tree is ultimately killed. Because this is such a destructive invasive pathogen, it is important to investigate its pathogenic strategy....
Salmon survival and eventual recruitment success have long been thought to be determined within the first summer following ocean migration. Juvenile growth during this period is largely influenced by ocean conditions such as temperature, prey availability, abundance, and quality. Shifts in these conditions due to climatic perturbations are particularly prevalent...
We studied the feasibility of using end-grain characteristics to match individual boards and cants back to their parent Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) logs. After reviewing marking/reading and biometric automated identification systems, we focused on end-grain biometrics because they appear to have the most promise for sawmills. Biometric identification requires that every...
As the demand for real-time information in engineering and health care systems keeps increasing, the need for wireless sensor nodes is also continuously increasing. As a result, the cost and effort involved in installing and maintaining batteries to power the numerous sensor nodes is growing exponentially. Providing a cost effective...
Nest counts from the largest subpopulation of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) in the Atlantic, peninsular Florida, have been declining since 1998. Analyzing trends of nests and adult females is insufficient to determine the overall status of a sea turtle population, due to variation in nesting frequency and a...
Virtual environments and simulations are being used increasingly to both visualize and understand data as well as to create scenarios for training and analysis purposes. In this paper, we are interested in the use of simulation and visualization of interactive virtual agents to create realistic motions for training scenarios. We...
Solar photovoltaic is considered one among many new alternatives to satisfy
our demand for energy. Solar Cells have undergone changes in the last 50 years or so
since its invention in 1954. Solar power is beginning to challenge conventional
energy sources in terms of mainstream acceptance. Solar power along with...
Tidal wetland channels provide rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook salmon as they emigrate from freshwater habitat and prepare to enter the ocean. Widespread diking and drainage of estuarine marshes for agricultural and urban development may have contributed to a decline in salmon abundance in the Pacific Northwest, prompting efforts to...
This study sought to fill a void in research literature supporting Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and the beneficial effects of exposure to natural, green spaces. The literature predominantly discusses studies with adult and older child participants, finding that exposure to natural environments often produces an attention-restoring effect. ART has been...
In the summer of 2007, a biophysical experiment was conducted to identify physical processes that determine the delivery of invertebrate larvae and juvenile rockfish to rocky intertidal and kelp forest communities in northern Monterey Bay, California. The experiment was sponsored by the Partnership for Interdisciplinary
Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO)...
Sediments of the central Chile margin record changes in ocean circulation and
continental erosion associated with large–scale climate change. Here Antarctic–
influenced Southern Ocean currents flow equatorward, forming a link between the high–
and low–latitude oceans. Part of this link, Antarctic Intermediate Water, is an important
conduit that ventilates South...
The City of Woodburn, Oregon's Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) has been investigating several natural alternatives for improving effluent quality. Based on its current National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, the WWTP will require additional reduction of temperature and ammonia levels in the summer, especially in the critical month of...
Stormwater has traditionally been conveyed off a developed site as quickly as possible, primarily through pipes. This runoff is often stored in large ponds and/or treated in central facilities. As cities grow and development continues, more runoff is generated via impervious surfaces. Excessive runoff impacts the water quality of water...
The adsorption behavior of a human recombinant Factor VIII (rFVIII) in the presence of the nonionic, poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) triblock surfactant Pluronic® F-68 was evaluated by dynamic air-water tensiometry. Surface tension kinetics were recorded for F-68 in the absence of protein at concentrations ranging from 0 to 10,000...
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)...
Coagulation and flocculation are commonly used in drinking water treatment
as a means of destabilizing and aggregating particles and promoting adsorption of
dissolved organic carbon (DOC). In practice, jar tests are used to determine optimal
conditions for the removal of turbidity and DOC. However, beyond the inferences
that can be...
Low concentrations of dissolved copper have been shown to adversely
affect the olfactory system of endangered salmonids, impairing their ability to avoid predators and likely increasing predation. It is believed that only the free ionic (Cu2+ free) and weakly complexed forms are bioavailable to organisms; these forms typically account for...
The ability to non-destructively assess fish condition and subsequently track fish behavior and survival can be vital in understanding natural and anthropogenic stressors and sources of mortality, especially in populations of fish listed as threatened or endangered. I investigated the use of a quick, non-lethal, external examination technique to assess...
In recent times, public policy debates in the United States have been very contentious and dysfunctional. To help improve this situation, a multi-discipline research effort was conducted to look at "solution papers" as a form of public participation. Specifically, the roles of objectivity and mutual respectfulness were under consideration. Foundational...
Religious histories have always appropriated pre-existing symbol systems of religion into newer forms, often with the goal in mind to acculturate a population into a new cultural setting to reach a desired status quo of society. The problem with acculturation theory is that it is filled with teleological and quantitative...
Google Earth has given internet users the power of a virtual globe at their fingertips. It is
a free, easy to use tool that avoids the need for technical training, and uses a simple,
intuitive interface. For this reason, Google Earth appeals to general and more specialized
users. This project...
Interest in nanomaterials is motivated partly by their potential for sensor arrays to detect
different gases. Nanowires in particular are of interest because their high surface-to-volume
ratio promises the possibility of high sensitivity. However, because of their discrete
quasi-one-dimensional geometry, electrical integration of nanowires into photolithographically
defined devices and circuits...
Linear transformation for dimension reduction is a well established problem in the field of machine learning. Due to the numerous observability of parameters and data, processing of the data in its raw form is computationally complex and difficult to visualize. Dimension reduction by means of feature extraction offers a strong...
Degradation of lignin to simpler compounds is desirable for removing residual lignin during paper manufacture and accessing biomass carbohydrates for biofuel production, among other purposes. Lignin transformation using enzymes found in white rot fungi, some of nature's most efficient lignin-degrading organisms, offers a more environmentally benign, selective, and possibly less...
Understanding the impact of humans on the environment has long been a topic of scholarly interest and debate. As environmental problems mount, accounts of historic ecological conditions and the factors of change become increasingly useful. This study considers competing schools of interpretation about human impacts on ecological landscapes and develops...
This thesis is the consequence of a research effort undertaken by the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University and funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA). The principal objective of the effort was to reduce the life cycle cost...
During four cruises in July and September of 2008 and 2009, the shipboard X-band radar was tuned to detect the modulated bands of surface roughness caused by converging and diverging currents associated with high-frequency nonlinear internal wave (NLIW) packets. The data collected was used to quantify the propagation direction (ϴp),...
Japanese knotweed is an invasive perennial shrub that dominates riparian
ecosystems. Effective management techniques are currently limited to repeated annual
herbicide applications and there is little science-based information about which control
tactics result in the greatest management success. Restoration of invaded sites to a
functioning riparian plant community is needed...
The results of a machine learning from user behavior can be thought of as a program, and like all programs, it may need to be debugged. Providing ways for the user to debug it matters because without the ability to fix errors, users may find that the learned program’s errors...
This study focused on people’s emotional responses to curvilinear and rectilinear lines in interior environments. Emotional reactions towards simulated interior settings were tested by having subjects complete an online survey. The survey tested respondents’ emotional reactions triggered by different forms of furniture. The survey included questions about six simulated interior...
Micro energy and chemical systems (MECS) are microfluidic systems where energy and chemical processes can be intensified by decreasing the characteristic length. This project focused on bulk fluid processing using MECS technology to intensify the mass transport of a dialyzer. The objective of this project was to
design a model...
Epichloë typhina (Ascomycetes: Clavicipitaceae) is an endophytic fungus that
infects perennial Pooid grasses and is the causal agent of choke disease. It is endemic
to Europe and was inadvertently introduced into orchardgrass seed production fields in
western Oregon. Choke disease, which was first recorded in Oregon in 1996, currently
infects...
Quadrotors are unique among Micro Aerial Vehicles in providing excellent maneuverability (as opposed to winged flight),while maintaing a simple mechanical construction (as opposed to helicopters). This mechanical simplicity comes at a cost of increased controller complexity. Quadrotors are inherently unstable, in the sense that they are essentially unflyable by a...
Quantitative procedures were developed to determine the effect of variability in the model parameters required for the estimation of microbial shelflife and thermal processing time. Monte Carlo simulations combined with these predictive models were implemented in Microsoft Excel™. In the first study,
predictive models were used for shelf-life predictions based...
Since 2006 Oregon has promoted the development of wave energy off its coast. While the state may be well suited for the technology because of an abundant wave resource and supporting coastal infrastructure there remain potential barriers to implementing this policy, including uncertainties about the technology and concerns for impacts...
Communicating dynamic motion content, such as exercise, with a static medium, such as paper, is difficult. The technology exists for presenting 3D animated exercise content to patients; however, the tools for allowing exercise domain experts to effectively author the content do not exist. We conducted two formative studies with exercise...
I assessed potential barriers to dispersal using homing tendency and investigated the movements and settlement site selection of pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) after short distance translocations in southeastern Oregon from June – December 2008. I captured, radio marked, and translocated 59 pygmy rabbits 1-2 km across landscapes with (1) continuous...
The myxozoan parasite, Ceratomyxa shasta, is the most significant pathogen of juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Klamath River, CA, USA. This parasite requires two hosts - a freshwater polychaete (Manayunkia speciosa) and a salmonid - to complete its life cycle. The complex life cycle and large geographic area...
Effective methods for the enantiopure formation of substituted piperidine rings are significantly important due to their presence in alkaloid products. A valuable method to form these ring systems would be via an intramolecular heteroatom Michael addition from the corresponding enone or enal. Described herein is a methodolgy that has been...
Successful conservation management requires an understanding of how species respond to intervention. Native and exotic species may respond differently to management interventions due to differences arising directly from their native or exotic origin (i.e., provenance) or from differences in life-history or phylogenetic lineage that are associated with provenance. Thus, selection...
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) standard specifications require a minimum density for the construction of dense-graded hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements. Currently, the standard specifications call for density measurements for quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) testing to be made using nuclear density gauges that are calibrated using...
Low levels of copper have been shown to impair the olfactory system of threatened and
endangered (T&E) salmon, decreasing their predator avoidance behavior and likely
increasing mortality. However, only dissolved copper (dissCu) present as the cupric ion
(Cu2+) and weakly complexed species are truly bioavailable. Previous studies indicate the
vast...
In this thesis, I conduct an analysis of paradigmatic background assumptions deployed in engineering decision-making processes, in order to understand how these assumptions, operating tacitly and in tension with each other, contribute to decisions that are ethically less effective and less substantial than they would otherwise be. I do so...
The internship I performed was with Rural Community Development Program (RCDP), a domestic non-governmental organization in the country of Nepal. This organization focuses on community development goals in rural communities, utilizing the efforts of volunteers within the context of environmental conservation ideals. I primarily worked with the associated community plant...
This study evaluated the influence of cattle stocking density on botanical composition of diet, diet preference, and cattle performance on the Zumwalt Prairie in Northeastern Oregon. In each of two years, 192 cow-calf pairs (549.27 kg, BCS = 4.89) and 48 yearling heifers (383.34 kg, BCS = 5.02) were stratified...
The parallel implementation of a large number of functional units is necessary for
any industrial scale microfluidic process. The concept of a 'numbering up'
strategy where a single highly optimized functional unit that has a low individual
production is replicated a large number of times to create a device that...
Variability in circuit performance due to process defects is a major concern in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication. Advanced IC manufacturing processes employ Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) for planarization of oxide and metal layers. CMP defects result in variations in the oxide and metal topographical profile. To reduce these topographical variations, electrically...