Fecal pollution is measured in surface waters using culture-based measurements of enterococci and Escherichia coli bacteria. Source apportionment of these two fecal indicator bacteria is an urgent need for prioritizing remediation efforts and quantifying health risks associated with source-specific pathogens. There are a number of quantitative real-time PCR (QPCR) assays...
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of DNA from the plastid to the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of higher plants is a common
phenomenon; however, plastid genomes (plastomes) are highly conserved and have generally been regarded as impervious to HGT.
We sequenced the 158 kb plastome and the 690 kb mitochondrial genome...
While Brettanomyces can metabolize nonesterified hydroxycinnamic acids found in grape musts/wines (caffeic, p-coumaric, and ferulic acids), it was not known whether this yeast could utilize the corresponding tartaric acid esters (caftaric, p-coutaric, and fertaric acids, respectively). Red wines from Washington and Oregon were inoculated with B. bruxellensis, while hydroxycinnamic acids...
Data from large-scale biological inventories are essential for understanding and managing Earth's ecosystems. The Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) of the U.S. Forest Service is the largest biological inventory in North America; however, the FIA inventory recently changed from an amalgam of different approaches to a nationally-standardized approach in...
WaRSwap is a randomization algorithm that for the first time provides a practical network motif discovery method for large multi-layer networks, for example those that include transcription factors, microRNAs, and non-regulatory protein coding genes. The algorithm is applicable to systems with tens of thousands of genes, while accounting for critical...
Coherent phonon dynamics in condensed-phase medium are responsible for important material properties including thermal and electrical conductivities. We report a structural dynamics technique, time-resolved surface third-harmonic generation (TRSTHG) spectroscopy, to capture transient phonon propagation near the surface of polycrystalline CaF₂ and amorphous borosilicate (BK7) glass. Our approach time-resolves the background-free,...
The Chukchi Sea is thought to be a globally important sink of atmospheric CO₂ due to the summertime drawdown of surface pCO₂ by phytoplankton and subsequent shelf-to-basin transport of CO₂-enriched subsurface waters into the upper halocline of the Arctic Ocean. Here we show that annually occurring storm-induced mixing events during...
Earth system processes exhibit complex patterns across time, as do the models that seek to replicate these processes. Model output may or may not be significantly related to observations at different times and on different frequencies. Conventional model diagnostics provide an aggregate view of model–data agreement, but usually do not...
A shell model for ferroelectric perovskites fitted to results of first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations is strongly affected by approximations made in the exchange-correlation functional within DFT, and in general not as accurate as a shell model derived from experimental data. We have developed an isotropic shell model for...
During the discovery and description of seven New Zealand methane seep sites, an infaunal assemblage dominated by ampharetid polychaetes was found in association with high seabed methane emission. This ampharetid-bed assemblage had a mean density of 57,000 ± 7800 macrofaunal individuals m⁻² and a maximum wet biomass of 274 g...
Genome-enabled mycology is a rapidly expanding field that is characterized by the pervasive use of genome-scale data and associated computational tools in all aspects of fungal biology. Genome-enabled mycology is integrative and often requires teams of researchers with diverse skills in organismal mycology, bioinformatics and molecular biology. This issue of...
TAML activators promise a novel water treatment approach
by efficiently catalysing peroxide-based degradation of
chemicals of high concern at environmental concentrations.
Green design ethics demands an exploration of TAML
toxicity. Exposure to high concentrations of certain activators
caused adverse effects in zebrafish. At typical TAML
operational concentrations, development was not...
Globodera ellingtonae was detected in Oregon in 2008. In order to make decisions regarding the regulation of this nematode, knowledge of its biology is required. We determined the host status of a diversity of potato (Solanum tuberosum) varieties in soil-based experiments and identified hatching stimulants in in vitro hatching assays....
The effects of solar radiation diurnal cycle on intraseasonal mixed layer variability in the tropical Indian Ocean during boreal wintertime Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) events are examined using the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model. Two parallel experiments, the main run and the experimental run, are performed for the period of 2005–2011 with...
Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an important component of heart-healthy whole grain diets because it contains β-glucan. All current US barley varieties with high β-glucan are spring habit and have waxy starch. Winter varieties have agronomic advantages but require low-temperature tolerance (LTT). Vernalization sensitivity (VS) is associated with higher levels of...
The climate sensitivity uncertainty of global climate models (GCMs) is partly due to the spread of individual feedbacks. One approach to constrain long-term climate sensitivity is to use the relatively short observational record, assuming there exists some relationship in feedbacks between short and long records. The present work tests this...
We demonstrate remarkably strong nonlinear terahertz (THz) effects in an intrinsic GaAs wafer patterned with a nanometer-width slot antenna array. The antenna near-field reaches 20 MV/cm due to the huge field enhancement in the plasmonic nano-structure (field enhancement factor, α ≅ 50). The THz fields are strong enough to generate high density...
A retrospective study of brain lesions in goats was conducted to identify the range of lesions and diseases recognized and to make recommendations regarding the best tissues to examine and tests to conduct in order to maximize the likelihood of making a definitive diagnosis in goats that may have had...
Invasions have increased the size of regional species pools, but are typically assumed to reduce native diversity. However, global-scale tests of this assumption have been elusive because of the focus on exotic species richness, rather than relative abundance. This is problematic because low invader richness can indicate invasion resistance by...
The most damaging foliar disease of pyrethrum in Australia is ray
blight caused by Stagonosporopsis tanaceti. The probability of growers
incurring economic losses caused by this disease has been substantially
reduced by the implementation of a prophylactically applied spring
fungicide program. This has been traditionally initiated when 50% of
the...
For each Cantor set C in R³, all points of which have bounded local genus, we show that there are infinitely many inequivalent Cantor sets in R³ with the complement having the same fundamental group as the complement of C. This answers a question from Open Problems in Topology and...
Inhaled and intranasal corticosteroids (ICS and INS) are among the mainstays of the treatment for asthma and allergic rhinitis, respectively, and also carry the potential to suppress the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Several important factors affect the interpretability of trials investigating the impact of ICS and INS on the HPA axis....
Investigations of the behavior of the geomagnetic field on geological timescales rely on globally distributed data sets from dated lava flows. We present the first suitable data from the Arctic region, comprising 37 paleomagnetic directions from Jan Mayen (71°N, 0.2–461 ka) and Spitsbergen (79°N, 1–9.2 Ma) and five paleointensity results....
The wildland urban interface (WUI) delineates the areas where wildland fire hazard most directly impacts human communities and threatens lives and property, and where houses exert the strongest influence on the natural environment. Housing data are a major problem for WUI mapping. When housing data are zonal, the concept of...
The p-type semiconductor Cu₃PSe₄ has recently been established to have a direct band gap of 1.4 eV and an optical absorption spectrum similar to GaAs [Foster et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 181903 (2011)], suggesting a possible application as a solar photovoltaic absorber. Here we calculate the thermodynamic stability, defect...
The utility of the fatty acid biomarker (FAB) approach in fisheries ecology is limited by our understanding of how biotic and abiotic factors determine dietary markers in fish tissues. An 8-week laboratory experiment was conducted on two species of juvenile gadids (Pacific cod, Gadus macrocephalus and walleye Pollock, Theragra chalcogramma)...
Stressors associated with human activities interact in complex ways to affect marine ecosystems, yet we lack spatially explicit assessments of cumulative impacts on ecologically and economically key components such as marine predators. Here we develop a metric of cumulative utilization and impact (CUI) on marine predators by combining electronic tracking...
Central place foragers, such as breeding seabirds, need to commute between their nests and foraging grounds, thus close proximity of the breeding colony to productive oceanographic features might be beneficial for seabird reproduction. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the at-sea foraging and breeding behavior of thick-billed murres (Uria lomvia)...
In this paper we extend the results of the research started by the first author in which Karlin-McGregor diagonalization of certain reversible Markov chains over countably infinite general state spaces by orthogonal polynomials was used to estimate the rate of convergence to a stationary distribution. We use a method of...
Lampreys (Petromyzontiformes) have persisted over millennia and now suffer a recent decline in abundance. Complex life histories may have factored in their persistence; anthropogenic perturbations in their demise. The complexity of life histories of lampreys is not understood, particularly for the anadromous Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus Gairdner, 1836. Our goals...
PURPOSE—We examined the effects of Positive Action (PA), a school-based social-emotional learning and health promotion program, on the emotional health of predominately low-income and ethnic minority urban youth.
METHODS—The study was a matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled trial involving 14 Chicago public schools. Outcomes were assessed over a 6-year period of program...
We investigated the effect of immunization against gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) using a commercial canine GnRH vaccine on estrus suppression and unwanted estrous behavior in mares. In experiment 1, mares were immunized (n=6) twice with vaccine (5mL) given intramuscularly 4 weeks apart or received a control diluent (n=5). Transrectal ultrasonographic...
Assistive mobile manipulators have the potential
to one day serve as surrogates and helpers for people with
disabilities, giving them the freedom to perform tasks such as
scratching an itch, picking up a cup, or socializing with their
families. This article introduces a collaborative project with the
goal of putting...
OBJECTIVES: To improve understanding of factors that may influence disclosure of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in the U.S.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.
METHODS: Data are from the 2001 Health Care Quality Survey (HCQS), a nationally representative study of adults aged 18 and older living in the continental United States....
The cinema of the GDR has seen a steep rise in popularity since German unification. DEFA is now a popular “brand,” with its films being omnipresent on television, in movie theaters, and on DVD, Blu-ray, and online streaming video. Reasons for this success are located in the current infrastructure of...
Participation in regular physical activity is important for individuals with a mobility disability to decrease risk of chronic disease, improve quality of life, and maintain and improve functional ability. Consequently, there is a need for programs that can facilitate the adoption and maintenance of regular physical activity for adults with...
This thesis addresses a fundamental computer vision problem, that of action recognition. The goal of action recognition is to recognize a class of human actions in a given video. Action recognition has a wide range of applications, including automated surveillance, sports video analysis, internet-based searches etc. The main challenge is...
For more than a decade, feature films produced by the GDR film company DEFA have been popular items in Germany. I analyze these films as commodities, arguing that this success by DEFA cinema needs to be read in conjunction with clever marketing strategies employed by the nonprofit foundation DEFA-Stiftung and...
When intelligent interfaces, such as intelligent desktop assistants, email classifiers, and recommender systems, customize themselves to a particular end user, such customizations can decrease productivity and increase frustration due to inaccurate predictions—especially in early stages when training data is limited. The end user can improve the learning algorithm by tediously...
The Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative (SOFRC), the Model Forest Policy Program (MFPP) and the Rogue River-Siskiyou Forest Service (RRSFS) have a shared vision to enhance the resiliency of our communities and forests. In 2012, the Collaborative took the leadership role to engage in the Climate Solution’s University (CSU) Plan...
Identifying coherent sub-graphs in networks is important
in many applications. In power systems, large systems
are divided into areas and zones to aid in planning and control
applications. But not every partitioning is equally good for
all applications; different applications have different goals, or
attributes, against which solutions should be...
Microzooplankton grazing impact on phytoplankton in the Bering Sea during spring was assessed in 2008, 2009 and 2010 using two-point dilution assays. Forty-nine experiments were completed in a region encompassing shelf to slope waters, including the 70 m line along the edge of the shelf. A variety of conditions were...
We, for the first time, employ magnesiothermic reaction to convert microwave-irradiated graphite oxide to pure graphene. The magnesiothermic reaction raises the carbon to oxygen atomic ratio from 22.2 to 165.7 and maintains a high surface area. The new strategy demonstrates an efficient method for obtaining highly pure graphene materials.
An important improvement in the area of reactor core neutronic modeling is the development and use of the methods based on "quasi-diffusion" (QD) low-order equations. This family of methods takes into account the transport exactly using "functionals" computed by solving transport equations, and is amenable to solution with a variety...
Ammonia (NH₃)-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and thaumarchaea (AOA) co-occupy most soils, yet no short-term growth-independent method exists to determine their relative contributions to nitrification in situ. Microbial monooxygenases differ in their vulnerability to inactivation by aliphatic n-alkynes, and we found that NH₃ oxidation by the marine thaumarchaeon Nitrosopumilus maritimus was unaffected...
The International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments contains detailed descriptions of many different reactor facilities. A large portion of these experiments have not been fully modeled due to the unavailability of computational power at the time of the experiment’s execution. With the advent of renewed interest in Sodium...
Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica) has become a prolific invasive plant of rangelands in Oregon since its arrival in the early 20th century. In 2001, the Oregon Department of Agriculture initiated a release program promoting the distribution of the stem-boring weevil, Mecinus janthinus as classical biological control agent to reduce densities...
This article describes the Latino Health Ambassadors Network (Voceros de Salud) project created to support and mobilize Latino community leaders to address health inequalities in a rural Oregon county. Voceros de Salud is discussed as a model that other rural communities may implement towards strengthening Latino civic engagement for health.
The present study, using a cuing paradigm, reexamined the claim of an attentional bias toward fearful faces. In Experiment 1, participants searched a target display for a letter in a specific color. This target display was preceded by a non-informative cue display, which contained colored boxes (one in the target...
Microsclerotia (MS) production by two isolates of Lecanicillium lecanii on various culture media is described, and the efficacy of MS against western flower thrips is evaluated. High concentrations of MS (2.9-3.1×10⁵•mL⁻¹) were produced in media with C: N ratios of 7.4:1 and 10.3:1 by isolate SN21. Bioassays using soil-incorporated MS...
The spectrum of the interior transmission problem is related to the unique determination of the acoustic properties of a body in thermoacoustic imaging. Under a non-trapping hypothesis, we show that sparsity of the interior transmission spectrum implies a range separation condition for the thermoacoustic operator. In odd dimensions greater than...
OBJECTIVES. Bioactive glass (BAG) is known to possess antimicrobial properties and release ions needed for remineralization of tooth tissue, and therefore may be a strategic additive for dental restorative materials. The objective of this study was to develop BAG containing dental restorative composites with adequate mechanical properties comparable to successful...
BACKGROUND: The illicit use of prescription stimulants (IUPS) has emerged as a high-risk behavior of the 21st century college student. As the study of IUPS is relatively new, we aimed to understand 1) characteristics of IUPS (i.e., initiation, administration routes, drug sources, motives, experiences), and 2) theory-guided intrapersonal, interpersonal, and...
The goal for this study was to examine within-person processes driving individual development related to social goals. We examined how social regulatory processes travel together over time to understand if daily social goal progress is sensitive to variation in experiences of support and hindrance, and the extent to which maintenance...
This research is an effort to explore the nature of good work, a concept that describes work that is beneficial to the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of its stakeholders, including and especially the worker. This effort is divided into four distinct parts. First, the construct of good work is...
Spintronics is an emerging field of research dealing with devices that can potentially exploit the additional degree of freedom provided by the electron spin along with or instead of the conventional electronic charge. One of the most promising aspects of spintronics is the potential use of magnetostatic spin waves as...
The production of cement and concrete results in the production of large amounts of CO₂ emissions which can have significant negative environmental impacts. Using supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) as a cement replacement is an effective solution to reduce these negative environmental impacts, as most SCMs are waste by-products from other...
Controlling competing vegetation with the application of herbicides and increased seedling size at planting has been shown to increase seedling survival and growth. These two important reforestation tools have often been studied independently of each other, limiting comparisons that can be made between them. This study utilized a factorial treatment...
Space radiation biology is an emerging field of research with a focus on improving the
health and safety of astronauts in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and deep-space missions. Eye
health is especially important to astronaut functionality. Recent studies have found an
increased risk of cataract formation in astronauts with higher lens...
Mixed anion compounds that form ZrCuSiAs-type crystal structures exhibit remarkable properties such as superconductivity at low temperatures,
hole conduction with optical transparency in the visible region, and exciton absorption at room temperature. In this thesis, properties of a selected group of materials out of the very large set of mixed...
Flexible electronics processing techniques were applied to integrate a glucose sensor with a hormone-delivery catheter in order to create a cheap and minimally invasive method for patients with type 1 diabetes to continually monitor and control their blood sugar levels. Ultimately, this work intends to move toward the development of...
Seagrass ecosystems are considered some of the most productive coastal habitats in the world. One such seagrass within estuaries of the Pacific Northwest, Zostera marina (eelgrass), is recognized to be an ecosystem engineering species that provides many important ecosystem functions and services. In 2010, construction of the National Oceanic and...
In the U.S. there are increasing energy demands that require an ever-increasing need for the large-scale use of new energy resources. Specifically, sporadic renewable energy sources are being incorporated into utility energy portfolios. Thus, supporting stationary energy storage technologies are needed to make these renewable sources reliable and feasible for...
Semi-volatile trace metals like Li, Cu, Mo, Sn, In, and Pb have the potential to track mobility of a volatile phase in volcanic systems. In this dissertation four studies are presented that either directly investigate or are motivated by observations of trace metal behavior in volcanic systems. A common tool...
Routing from a single source node to multiple destination nodes using node disjoint paths (NDP) has many important applications in parallel systems. For example, if a source node wants to send distinct messages to distinct destination nodes, then the one-to-many NDP routing is useful.
Unlike parallel systems with shared-memory, each...
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a powerful resource for coastal and wetland managers and its use is increasing. Vegetation density and other land cover characteristics influence the accuracy of LIDAR-derived ground surface digital elevation models; however, the degree to which wetland land cover biases LIDAR estimates of the ground...
Auctions are used to solve resource allocation problem between many agents and many items in real-world settings. Unfortunately, in most cases, it is possible for selfish agents to manipulate the system for their own interest at the expense of the social welfare. Such manipulation can be prevented using the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves...
The purpose of this dissertation was to demonstrate research scholarship using the American Psychological Association (APA) manuscript-style dissertation format, in accordance with Oregon State University Graduate School and Counseling Academic Unit guidelines.
Chapter 1 provides explanation for how Chapters 2 and 3 are thematically linked manuscripts intended to extend professional...
By affecting the ecological, pecuniary and aesthetic productivity of ecosystems, invasive species (IS) increase production and management costs to business, while straining public agencies' budgets with monitoring, enforcement and management efforts. Understanding invasion pathways or vectors, and identifying costs and benefits of alternative management strategies are critical to public and...
The purpose of this dissertation was to demonstrate research scholarship using the American Psychological Association (APA) manuscript-style dissertation format, in accordance with Oregon State University Graduate School and Counseling Academic Unit guidelines. Chapter 1 explains how chapters 2 and 3 are thematically linked manuscripts intended to extend professional literature in...
Juvenile Oncorhynchus mykiss migrate extensively in freshwater during fall. We used individual tagging to study the spatial origin, influences, and outcomes of fall migration on fish that emigrated from summer rearing tributaries during fall (early-emigrants) and those that did not (late-emigrants) in the South Fork John Day River, Oregon. Fall...
Twelve years ago I was new to the Oregon coast and eager to learn about the natural setting. Field guides were available to birds, marine mammals, tide pools, seaweeds, and forest plants. Not so geology. I looked at a field guide to rocks and minerals, but it was hard to...
There is a perceived trade-off between fire risk reduction and northern spotted owl habitat protection in dry-conifer forests in southwestern Oregon. Management options for balancing this trade-off need to be sought at the landscape level. Applied landscape ecology suggests three important features to consider are (1) patch size and configuration...
From 26 March – 19 September 2013 we monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally Threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) along the Oregon coast. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River estuary, the Dunes Overlook, North and South...
Deciding which textbook to assign to students is often a very difficult decision. A textbook should offer more than just a synthesis of information, it should inspire curiosity, cause one to reflect, and provide a framework for making decisions. Most reviews reflect a single opinion, sometimes based on personal preferences....
We investigate a search and coverage planning problem, where an area of interest has to be explored by a number of vehicles, given a fixed time budget. A good coverage plan has a low probability of a target remaining unobserved. We introduce a formal problem statement, suggest a greedy algorithm...
Advocates for language minority students depict the movement for language minority students' rights as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement, which focused initially on securing rights for racial minorities. This article examines whether the same conceptions of equality and legal remedies apply for both groups. Building on Berlin's notions...
The Autographa californica M nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) sulfhydryl oxidase Ac92 is essential for production of infectious virions. Ac92 also interacts with human p53 and enhances human p53-induced apoptosis in insect cells, but it is not known whether any relationship exists between Ac92 and native p53 homologs from insect hosts of AcMNPV....
Novelty detection plays an important role in machine learning and signal processing. This
project studies novelty detection in a new setting where the data object is represented as
a bag of instances and associated with multiple class labels, referred to as multi-instance
multi-label (MIML) learning. Contrary to the common assumption...
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of plyometric training on both spinal and supraspinal motor control as well as the rate of torque development (RTD) in healthy active females. Thirty-one subjects were recruited to participate in the study and participated in either the training or control...
The Law of Transboundary Aquifers, introduced to the United Nations General Assembly in December 2008, encourages nations to make multilateral arrangements for the proper management of transboundary aquifers.
This study seeks to answer the question: “What are the main challenges for successful collaboration in assessing and managing Transboundary Aquifer Systems...
Emerging infectious diseases in wild animals threaten global biodiversity as well as domestic animal and human health. Their unprecedented increase in conjunction with anthropogenically induced range shifts of endemic pathogens exposes hosts to novel parasite combinations, lending urgency to research on disease dynamics in wildlife systems. In natural populations, hosts...
Managers and policy-makers across broad disciplines and organizations are calling for a better understanding of public opinion on natural resource issues. One such issue is that of fire and its role in the management of our forests and rangelands. Public perceptions of fuel reduction techniques, with a particular emphasis on...
Characterizing the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles can help us understand their fate and transport in the environment, as well as how nanoparticles may interact with biological systems. However, contact angle and partition coefficient have limitations in measuring the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles, thus promising methods to measuring the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles are...
This dissertation centers on development of two web-based, in class learning tools, the AIChE Concept Warehouse (CW) and the Web-based Interactive Science and Engineering Learning Tool (WISE), and describes the investigation of student learning through their use. The intent of these tools is to promote deeper conceptual understanding in students...
Relaxor characteristic of the solid solution (1-x)BaTiO₃-(x)Bi(Zn₁/₂Ti₁/₂)O₃ (BTBZT) was investigated in this research. X-ray diffraction technique and Raman spectroscopy revealed the crystal structure of BT-BZT at various compositions. For compositions with x ≤ 0.08, the solid solutions exhibited clear tetragonal symmetry and transitioned to pseudo-cubic symmetry as the content of...
A key application of microchannel process technology (MPT) is its implementation in heat exchanger devices, since a larger surface contact area can be realized than in conventional approaches, thus achieving high heat transfer efficiency. To justify high volume production of configurations validated as prototypes, and to select from among the...
People will spend a large amount of their lifetime indoors where the air is filled with both indoor and outdoor allergens. Exposure to allergens can have a range of effects on the health of building occupants. Textiles make up a vast majority of the surfaces, such as draperies, sofas, pillows,...
Positive youth development posits that all youth possess the capacity to change and grow as they interact with their contexts. That capacity is activated and nurtured by a beneficial ecological environment often unavailable for homeless youth. Only a limited number of studies focus on the positive development and strengths of...
The most widely used and versatile medical radioisotope today is technetium-99m. Roughly 30 million people depend on this radioisotope for diagnostic procedures each year, and this demand is expected to grow. Although there are numerous ways of procuring this isotope, the most common and most practical, for reasons to be...
The development of solution-based methods for deposition of different thin film material is presented as an alternative to high cost vacuum-based methods. For certain materials, vacuum techniques are unsuitable for processing. Additionally, vacuum-based processes present high capital costs associated with equipment, and slow processing times. Atmospheric pressure solution based techniques...
Due to the current cultural paradigm that incorporates the desire to be environmentally friendly and mitigate rising fuel costs, arguments about the cost of public transit systems, ridership rates, and methods to increase use are frequent topics of public policy concern. In response to these cultural and economic concerns, the...
This study seeks to explore the relationship between social capital and well-being in the rural Western United States. Mixed methods were employed to understand the concepts from multiple angles, using both profile and process indicators. An econometric approach used profile indicators and relied on data from 414 counties in the...
This dissertation has focused on lignin byproducts that result from the alkali processing of wheat straw. The first study evaluated the application of “standard” lignin quantification methods for summative analyses of alkali-based processes. Mass closure during NaOH processing at 25, 50, and 75°C of wheat straw was evaluated using the...
The University of Oregon Libraries and Oregon State University Libraries have been successfully collaborating on a digital asset management system for four years, OregonDigital.org. OregonDigital.org holds diverse collections of digital archival materials from art slides to faculty research to traditional digitized and born-digital archival collections. In addition, we host unique...
This thesis presents a novel approach for propagation of uncertainty in river systems. Errors in data observations and predictions (e.g., stream inflows), in model parameters, and resulting from the discretization of continuous systems, all point to the need to accurately quantify the amount of uncertainty carried through the modeling process....
The motivation for undertaking this research was to increase the understanding of processing colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals and thin films metallic glasses to enable their wider application in future devices. This research covered two unique materials, lead selenide (PbSe) nanocrystals and thin film metallic glass alloy of zirconium copper aluminum nickel...
This dissertation examines tsunami and hurricane wave loads on bridge superstructures. Tsunamis have caused significant damage to coastal communities in recent years. For example, the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting Tohoku Tsunami destroyed infrastructure along the east coast of Japan including bridge superstructures. Recent hurricanes have also caused...
The steel diagrid structural system is a recent load bearing and lateral resisting structural system for tall building structures that is relatively unexplored in the western United States. One possible reason for the little use of diagrid systems in earthquake prone regions is the lack of guidelines and application examples...