Insects are important forest disturbance agents, and mapping their effects on tree mortality and surface fuels represents a critical research challenge. Although various remote sensing approaches have been developed to monitor insect impacts, most studies have focused on single insect agents or single locations and have not related observed changes...
The context of this thesis is a research project focused on the investigation of a renewable biopolymer-poly(lactic acid) (PLA) as a potential replacement of petroleum-based polymers in advanced nanocomposites reinforced with Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC). MFC is extracted from wood, which is a renewable, sustainable, carbon neutral and recyclable material. This...
A flexible flowshop, comprised of one or more stages having unrelated parallel machines, is investigated in this research. Unrelated parallel machines can perform the same function but have different capacity or capability. Since this problem is motivated by industry research, dynamic job release times and dynamic machine availability times have...
This report details preliminary studies towards the development of a microfluidic sensor that exploits ferromagnetic resonance, excited in magnetic bead labels, for signal transduction. The device consists of a microwave circuit in which a slotline and a coplanar waveguide are integrated with a biochemically activated sensor area. The magnetic beads...
This dissertation constitutes a multi-scale quantitative and qualitative investigation of patterns of urban development in metropolitan regions of the United States. This work has generated a comprehensive data set on spatial patterns of metropolitan development in the U.S. and an approach to the study of such patterns that can be...
A new species of Bembidion (Trichoplataphus Netolitzky) from the Ozark Plateau of Missouri and Arkansas is described (Bembidion ozarkense Maddison and Hildebrandt). It is distinguishable from the closely related species, Bembidion rolandi Fall, by characteristics of the male genitalia, and sequences of the genes cytochrome oxidase I and 28S ribosomal...
River flooding is a recurrent threat and its control and management continues to be a challenge. It has been recognized that effective flooding control requires a real-time strategy that combines optimization with a physically-based simulation model. Current real-time frameworks that combine simulation and optimization have two main drawbacks. The first...
Regional ocean circulation along the Oregon coast is studied numerically for forcing fields derived from year 2005 and climatological-mean conditions. The primary object is to study directly the Lagrangian pathways by which fluid arrives in the Oregon upwelling zone. Roughly half of the upwelling fluid is found to arrive in...
The problem of footstep level resolution indoor path tracking and gait velocity
lacks a good solution. The current solutions are either prohibitively expensive [4],
extremely invasive to deploy [1], or too inaccurate to achieve the sub meter level
resolution required to track foot paths. By combining existing pedestrian dead
reckoning...
This qualitative study explores the "coming out" experience of gay males raised in conservative Christian environments. Seven men with varying ethnic and racial backgrounds, between the ages of 20 and 40 years old, participated. Each was raised in a conservative, Christian environment during his formative years and each was now...
The Natural Earth projection is a new projection for representing the entire Earth on small-scale maps. It was designed in Flex Projector a specialized software application that offers a graphical approach for the creation of new projections. The original Natural Earth projection defines the length and spacing of parallels in...
The information contained in this report was prepared as part of NCHRP Project 25-25, Task 67, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board.
SPECIAL NOTE: This report IS NOT an official publication of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, or The National Academies.
Micro- and nanotechnologies are promising advancements across many industrial sectors, including alternative energy, chemical processing, and healthcare. In particular, a focus of research has been in manufacturing process development aimed at microdevice cost reduction and quality improvement. Microdevices take advantage of enhanced heat and mass transfer to improve energy and...
From detailed fieldwork and biotite ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating correlated with paleomagnetic analyses of lithic clasts, we present a revision of the stratigraphy, areal extent and volume estimates of ignimbrites in the Cerro Galan volcanic complex. We find evidence for nine distinct outflow ignimbrites, including two newly identified ignimbrites in the Toconquis...
This paper presents an evaluation and validation of the Naval Research Laboratory's COAMPS® real-time forecasts during the VOCALS-REx over the area off the west coast of Chile/Peru in the Southeast Pacific during October and November 2008. The analyses focus on the marine boundary layer (MBL) structure. These forecasts are compared...
The notion of a normal number and the Normal Number Theorem date back over 100 years. Émile Borel first stated his Normal Number Theorem in 1909. Despite their seemingly basic nature, normal numbers are still engaging many mathematicians to this day. In this paper, we provide a reinterpretation of the...
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...
Ceramides are a group of lipids in the sphingolipid family that are potent cell signaling molecules. Elevations in ceramide levels above the norm generally lead to apoptosis. Evidence from in vitro studies suggests that accumulation of ceramides within mitochondria leads to dysfunction of the mitochondria. This includes inhibition of the...
This issue of the Oregon Library Association Quarterly is dedicated to exploring the multiple meanings of service, the way
we accomplish service through our programs and policies, and the deeply held beliefs and feelings that drive us to serve.
In this report we consider the Debye model along with Maxwell's equations (Maxwell-Debye) to model electromagnetic wave propagation in dispersive media that exhibit orientational polarization. We construct and analyze a sequential operator splitting method for the discretization of the Maxwell-Debye system. Energy analysis indicates that the operator splitting scheme is...
The influence of land use on potential fates of nitrate (NO3-) in stream ecosystems, ranging from denitrification to storage in organic matter, has not been documented extensively. Here, we describe the Pacific Northwest component of Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment, phase II (LINX II) to examine how land-use setting influences fates...
The Middle Fork John Day Basin in Northeastern Oregon is prime habitat for spring Chinook salmon and Steelhead trout. In 2008, a major tributary supporting rearing habitat, Big Boulder Creek, was restored to its historic mid-valley channel along a 1 km stretch of stream 800 m upstream of the mouth....
Small, mountainous river systems have been increasingly studied due to their importance as sources of fluvial sediment and organic matter to the coastal ocean. Thus far, studies of small, mountainous river systems have focused on rivers with very high sediment loads. The well-studied Eel River dispersal system in northern California...
This paper describes a new analog-to-digital converter based on the traditional dual-slope ADC operation. With a small modification to the discharging phase of the dual-slope ADC, first-order quantization noise shaping is achieved. This quantizer is used in a second-order loop filter and results in an overall third-order quantization noise shaping....
Dams are often promoted as a tool to reduce poverty and spur economic development. Dam construction worldwide, and particularly in China, which has built nearly half the world's large dams since 1949, remains contentious due to the potential for negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Despite numerous case studies, there is...
Twentieth century commercial whaling drastically reduced the abundance of great whale populations in the Southern Ocean. Exploitation began on the south Atlantic island of South Georgia, where catch records account for over 175,000 whales killed. Modern whaling within the Southern Ocean depleted populations rapidly, and by 1966, hunting blue whales...
Most existing methods for generating individual task time estimates in production systems where jobs move through various manually operated workstations remain tedious and time consuming. For existing systems, average task times may vary considerably from prior estimates causing system inefficiencies, poor scheduling and poor planning decisions. Accurate and up-to-date estimates...
Reactor modeling is largely limited by the computational time required to perform accurate full core calculations. There are many different methods and techniques employed in different reactor simulation codes, but properly modeling all of the physics that takes place in the system requires extensive computational effort. The Coarse Mesh Finite...
Uveitis is a serious ophthalmological disorder characterized by intraocular infiltration of inflammatory cells. In most cases, uveitis is derived from the adaptive immune response. More specifically, CD4+ T lymphocytes play an important role in the pathogenesis of uveitis by recognizing uveitogenic antigen and orchestrating the immune response. While it is...
During the 2008 and 2009 breeding seasons of murres Uria spp., we combined visual observations of these predators with active acoustics (sonar), fish trawls, zooplankton net tows, and hydrographic measurements in the area surrounding breeding colonies in the southeastern Bering Sea. We acoustically detected thousands of bubble trails that were...
The prevalence of exercise-induced menstrual dysfunction (ExMD) ranges between 6-79% in endurance-trained women and may result from a low energy availability (EA; kcal/kgFFM/d). EA is the energy remaining after planned exercise, which is available for basic physiological processes and daily living activities. One mechanism for energy conservation may be a...
As the number of mobile devices accessing large-scale WLANs such as campus
and metropolitan area networks increases, the need for load balancing among the
cells becomes crucial. In addition, the network must also support some minimum
handoff tolerance defined by an application.
A number of load balancing techniques have been...
OWET convened the second annual OWET Developersʼ Summit on August 2, 2011 in
Portland, Oregon.
The Summit brought together participants, both new and those who had attended the first
OWET Developersʼ Summit 2010, to review the Blueprint for Ocean Energy Development
2010-2015 and to discuss: the progress made in developing...
In 2009, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife initiated a process to incorporate information about climate change and its effects on fish, wildlife, and habitats into the Oregon Conservation Strategy. The agency acknowledged that climate change is already affecting Oregon’s species and habitats and that future climate change represents...
The Internet is growing rapidly in terms of websites, users and uses. People use the Internet for reference, shopping, social networking, communications, business and much more. Though the Internet is useful, there are many risks associated with its use, like malicious websites, identity theft, hateful content and fraudulent practices. Online...
We present a spatially extensive record of dinitrogen (N₂) fixation rates and distributions
of N₂ fixing microorganisms along with the results of exogenous phosphorus (P) addition experiments
conducted during a series of cruises in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG). We measured the
N₂ and carbon (C) fixation rates of...
Little research has been done in the area of adult Hispanics' transition to college, a complex and challenging process which marks a critical period in their lives. Research suggests adaptation difficulty may cause them to drop out of school usually before completion of the first terms. There is a lack...
The volcanic origin of the Samoan archipelago can be explained by one of three models, specifically, by a hot spot forming over a mantle plume, by lithospheric extension resulting from complex subduction tectonics in the region, or by a combination of these two processes, either acting sequentially or synchronously. In...
Euphorbia lagascae (Euphorbiaceae- ‘spurge family’) has been recognized as one of the more promising potential new industrial crops for the drier regions in the temperate zone
(Roseberg, 1996). In the late 1950s and early 1960s the USDA analyzed many plant species in search of novel chemical compounds. They first recognized...
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing has demonstrated potential in measuring forest biomass. We assessed the ability of LiDAR to accurately estimate forest total above ground biomass (TAGB) on an individual stem basis in a conifer forest in the US Pacific Northwest region using three different computer software programs...
We show that Pappus Curves, introduced by R. Schwartz to study his dynamical system in the real projective plane generated by iterated applications of the classical Pappus Theorem, are algebraic exactly in the linear case. Our approach is to use properties of projective curves such as singular points, genus, number...
Within the past several years the technology of high-throughput sequencing has transformed the study of biology by offering unprecedented access to life's fundamental building block, DNA. With this transformation's potential a host of brand-new challenges have emerged, many of which lend themselves to being solved through computational methods. From de...
Alpha tocopherol plays a critical role in preventing lipid peroxidation within the body. Lipid peroxidation within the brain is hypothesized to be a possible mechanism of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. Due to the high amount of DHA, a long chain poly unsaturated fatty acid in the brain,...
Around the globe, an array of alternative agrifood movements has emerged largely in response to the ecological and socio-economic threat caused by industrialized agricultural processes. From organic agriculture, to Slow Food, Locavore, and the Food Sovereignty movement, people around the world are reasserting their right to healthy and culturally appropriate...
Accelerated release of carbon from soils is one
of the most important feedbacks related to anthropogenically
induced climate change. Studies addressing the mechanisms
for soil carbon release through organic matter decomposition
have focused on the effect of changes in the average temperature,
with little attention to changes in temperature variability....
In this thesis, convergence of time inhomogeneous Markov chains is studied using an adiabatic approach. The adiabatic framework considers slowly changing systems and the adiabatic time quantifies the time required for the change such that the final state of the system is close to some equilibrium state. This approach is...
Trichodesmium, a major colonial cyanobacterial nitrogen fixer, forms large blooms in NO₃-depleted tropical oceans and enhances CO₂ sequestration by the ocean due to its ability to fix dissolved dinitrogen. Thus, its importance in C and N cycles requires better estimates of its distribution at basin to global scales. However, existing...