The objective of this project was to develop an analytical model of a light-framed wood structure using a prevalent structural analysis computer program in order to evaluate system effects and define load paths within the structure, especially under extreme wind events. Simplified modeling techniques and material definitions were developed and...
The objective of this thesis is to provide an initial demonstration of two-terminal and three-terminal electronic devices employing amorphous multi-component metallic film
(AMMF) electrodes. Such a demonstration is successfully achieved in the fabrication of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diode and hot electron transistor (HETs) structures employing ZrCuAlNi AMMF electrodes. The ultra-smooth surface...
This thesis explores open questions regarding molecular forms and interactions of natural and synthetic aromatic compounds present in soils and sediments.
Plant biomass-derived black carbon (biochar) generated through incomplete natural and anthropogenic combustion processes is a major source of aromaticity in terrestrial ecosystems. Chapter one represents a detailed account of...
Large areas of non-coniferous communities in southwestern Oregon are thinned to reduce fire hazard and accomplish ecosystem restoration, under the assumption that current fuel loads are unnaturally high. Although Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) woodlands are a characteristic landscape component in this region, little is known about their current or...
Concern over the increasing proportion of juvenile wood grown in second growth plantations has led to a large amount of research on the effects of common silvicultural practices on wood quality. Lacking is research on the effect of timing and
duration of vegetation control on wood quality near the pith...
Oregon’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) (formerly called Food Stamps) rose by 33% between October 2008 and October 2009 as the economy went into recession and the unemployment rate increased. The percentage of Oregon’s overall population receiving SNAP benefits increased from 11.8% in July 2005 to 16.3% in July 2009. With...
In this thesis, I examine composition scholarship on the intersections of religious faith and writing pedagogy over the past twenty years, tracing the origins of compositionists' discomfort with religion and focusing on pedagogical approaches for working with religiously-committed students. In particular, I emphasize the way in which these approaches are...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as companies acting in accordance with societal demands. In recent years, CSR has gradually become a leading issue in business. Heightened corporate attention to CSR has not been entirely voluntary. Many companies awoke to it only after being surprised by public response to...
The primary objective of this research was to determine if native species within the genera Castilleja and Pedicularis are naturally infected by white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) in whitebark pine ecosystems of the Oregon and Washington Cascade Range. Secondary objectives were to monitor the phenology of aecial and telial...
This research sought to explore the implications of different tenure regimes for both
landscape-level ecological processes and the overall resilience of a social-ecological
system in Central Oregon. The purchase by an investor of former industrial timberlands
known as the Bull Springs tract raised the specter of dispersed residential development on...
This paper provides a measurement-based performance evaluation of the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol. Two versions of OLSR, OLSR-ETX and OLSR-ETT, are implemented and evaluated on a mesh network that we built from off-the-shelf commercial components. OLSR-ETX uses the Expected Transmission Count (ETX) metric whereas, OLSR-ETT uses the Expected...
Seasonal wetlands in arid and semi-arid lands provide an important source of surface water in otherwise dry lands. Central Oregon's high desert, located in the Northern Great Basin (NGB) is dotted with hundreds of seasonal pools, locally called playas. The playas hold water or snow during parts of winter and...
This thesis presents an approach to develop innovative methods for decontamination and surface protection applicable to naval nuclear ships and potentially, personnel, replacing antiquated techniques. To accomplish this goal, two products manufactured by CBI Polymers, LLC., DeconGel™ 1101 (1101) and a shampoo, DeconGel™ "prototype" (prototype), were tested.
The prototype was...
This thesis is comprised of two manuscripts based on a laboratory experiment conducted to examine realistic wave forcing on a vertical wall subjected to tsunami loading. The first manuscript examined tsunami force and pressure distributions on a rigid wall that was fronted by a small seawall. Six different seawall heights...
The overall goal of this project was to design a wood frame shear wall that could withstand greater displacement before damage occurred to the Gypsum Wall Board (GWB). More specifically, the objectives of the study were: (1) to evaluate damage to the GWB in alternative shear wall designs at 1%,...
Stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) has been receiving
increased attention in the USA since the appearance of more virulent races
detected in the past decade. These races caused yield losses even in areas
where the disease previously was rarely detected. Host plant resistance is the
most cost effective...
Several states, including Oregon, Massachusetts and California, have been the focus of major health reform efforts in recent years. Oregon utilized a citizen-led commission to generate policy recommendations that led to the enactment of health reform legislation in 2009. This commission helped to create momentum and provide political cover for...
Llamas (Lama glama) appear to have predisposing anatomical features for developing
otitis media such as a long and narrow external acoustic meatus and a trabecular
tympanic bulla. However, there is limited information available about the morphology of
the ear in this species. The aim of this study was to evaluate...
Feeding conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) improves reproductive performance in dairy cows; however, the molecular mechanisms by which CLA improves reproduction are not well understood. Therefore, we evaluated whether the CLA isomers, trans-10, cis-12 CLA and cis-9, trans-11 CLA altered synthesis of steroidogenic hormones in bovine luteal cells by measuring concentrations...
The Clean Water Act imposes Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) limits on pollutant concentrations within wastewater effluent; in Oregon, thermal discharge is one of the pollutants subject to regulation. The City of Woodburn, Oregon, funded a series of pilot scale studies to investigate the utility of natural systems to reduce...
Summertime, wind-driven upwelling off the Oregon coast delivers nutrient rich water to the surface that fuels the autotrophic production of particulate organic carbon (POC). This POC can be transported horizontally by fluid motions and vertically by sinking to the bottom where it can be entrained in the benthic boundary layer...
Computing agents require state information to make coherent and useful decisions. A state representation is a numerical translation of the environment and conditions that are pertinent factors in an agent's decision making. Although many representations, when paired with clever learning algorithms, are able to coordinate and capture prey in specific...
This essay presents a case study of the Regional Gravel Initiative (RGI) workshop, one instance of policy makers using science to inform decision making for sustainable and streamlined processes. The RGI consists of eight agencies, both federal and state, with responsibilities for informing and issuing permits for mining aggregate on...
This study explores the role of classroom use of live organisms as a pathway for the spread of invasive species. The overall guiding research question is “Are behavioral changes necessary to reduce the spread from the classroom pathway?” Using focus groups comprised of key educators, this study seeks to identify...
Proper nitrogen (N) management and variety selection are important for profitable hard red winter (HRW) wheat production in the dryland growing regions of northeastern Oregon. In these dryland systems, N management for grain yield and grain protein concentration (GPC) is challenging due to climatic and year-to-year variation in production environments....
Stand structure in headwater riparian areas of western Oregon is highly variable making quantification of structural attributes within these stands difficult. A reliable sampling design is important to characterize and monitor changes in stand structure over time. This study examined sixteen alternatives for sampling live conifers and six alternatives for...
Bicycle commuting is increasing in popularity due to exercise benefits, cost savings, and environmental concerns. Available specialized cycling apparel does not reflect the aesthetic and expressive needs of the bicycle commuter. Urban bicycle commuters need clothing that allows them to bicycle safely and effectively while maintaining their identity as professionals....
Digital Instrumentation and Detection is becoming the future of radiation detection and measurement. Computers are able to perform digitally what before would have taken an extensive array of analog equipment. The art of teaching radiation detection and measurement is following this same pattern of a shift from purely analog to...
Various applications like wireless UWB communication, fast data acquisition systems and digital storage oscilloscopes needs ADCs with instantaneous input signal bandwidth from 0.1-40 GigaHertz range with 6-10 bits of resolution -- a challenging task and an impressive goal to achieve. Flash ADCs have been conventionally employed to achieve these goals...
Research conducted on humpback whitefish Coregonus pidschian in the Copper River Delta, Alaska has revealed a complex life history involving seasonal migrations and the occupation of a variety of freshwater and marine habitats including lacustrine, riverine, estuarine, and marine. Forty-five whitefish were tagged with radio transmitters in 2006 and 2007,...
Work on individually constructed devices has demonstrated that nanowires (NWs) offer great promise for applications such as sensing and optoelectronics. Despite this work, reliable large scale alignment and integration of these individual nanostructures into a lithographically defined process remains a challenge.
Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a promising alignment method in which...
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...
Dry coniferous forests in the western United States are experiencing severe wildfires, insect outbreaks, forest disease epidemics and a growing presence of invasive species. Policies strongly emphasize reducing hazardous fuels at the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) where communities and forests intersect. However, these areas present restoration challenges as they tend...
The Bolivian government is using a portion of the rent generated from its fossil fuel reserves to fund unconditional cash transfers as a means of redistributing resources. Although some countries have enacted conditional cash transfers in the past, these unconditional transfers are unique since they only have been implemented in...
Despite evidence that juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) utilize North Pacific estuaries for growth and salinity acclimation, research in the Columbia River estuary has lead to opposing hypotheses about the estuary’s importance as a salmon rearing environment. Many contemporary tagging studies indicate that salmon residency within the estuary is short...
The state of Oregon has two distinct climate types bisected by the crest of the Cascade Mountain range. The western side of the Cascades experiences high levels of precipitation and mild temperatures due to the maritime influence of the Pacific Ocean, while the eastern side lies in the rain shadow...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is an important tree species in the western United States and there has been much concern about its persistence. In this thesis, I report on aspen in a portion of its range that has not been previously evaluated: the eastern and western slopes of the Central...
Dietary iodine may play an important role in the nutritional health of freshwater fish larvae. Artemia, commonly used for the culture of larval zebrafish (Danio rerio), contain low concentrations of iodine when compared with wild zooplankton. Water-soluble micronutrients, such as iodine, are difficult to deliver to Artemia due to rapid...
The anaerobic and highly reductive conditions found in the ovine rumen are considered favorable for the degradation of the nitroaromatic explosives such as hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX). In this study, we used stable-isotope-probing to determine the bacteria responsible for the degradation of RDX in the rumen. Results indicate 10 μg mL⁻¹ (45...
Magnetically programmable surface acoustic wave (MP SAW) devices were designed, fabricated and characterized in this thesis using integrated giant magnetoresistive (GMR) bits with interdigital reflectors. This provides a proof of concept of a novel storage element on radio frequency identification tags. Interdigital transducers (IDTs) on a piezoelectric substrate are used...
The goal of Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative program is to efficiently separate and recover actinides in attempts to reprocess irradiated nuclear fuel and reduce the necessary storage volume. In order to facilitate large-scale industrial
applications of liquid-liquid separation processes, knowledge of the thermodynamic constants associated with the distribution of metal...
A Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) application for the coastal region of Kenya and Tanzania (0-10° S, 38.7-46.98° E) was developed with the aim of better resolving the circulation patterns in the coastal region that is poorly represented in global models. The model has a horizontal resolution of 4 km,...
Increasing temperatures in western North America are expected to result in a decline in winter snowpacks, earlier snowmelt, and a shift in the timing of streamflows, with an increasing fraction of streamflows occurring earlier in the water year and drier conditions during the summer. However, few streamflow datasets have associated...
Tourism is an ever-growing economic force across the world, the United States, Oregon, and on the Oregon Coast. In Oregon alone, the tourism industry had an economic impact in the state of $7.9 billion in 2006, up from $6.9 billion in 2004 (OTC, 2007). Though economically beneficial, tourism can be...
Home Afterwhile, a collection of eight short stories and an essay, explores issues of family and maturation from the landscapes of the Midwest. Generations are connected through a sense of place—from small cornfield towns to Chicago and its suburbs—as well as through what gets retold and what goes unspoken. Characters...
This thesis presents two new approaches for the broadband, time-domain modeling of lossy transmission lines. Each approach is based on an alternative derivation of delay extraction in order to separate the line's linear phase from its
attenuation and dispersion. Augmentation networks represent the derived attenuation networks as rational function approximations....
This study addressed the following question: "How does facilitating informal explorations with friends and family outside of a science course help students who are enrolled in the course?" The context was a physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers. This was a qualitative study that analyzed student responses...
The promotion of democracy abroad has become a critical national security objective for the United States. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly independent states have received millions in aid to facilitate their transition to democracy. A significant portion of this funding has been administered by the United States...
Data from a state department of transportation fleet shows that the usage of a typical asset decreases as it ages. One possible explanation for decreasing asset usage with age is operator preference for using the newest available asset. In this research the long-term cost and replacement implications of such a...