Met is a prognostic indicator of colorectal cancer patient survival. Therapies that target Met may therefore have beneficial outcomes in the clinic. Recently, EGCG was reported to suppress Met activation, although the mechanisms were not elucidated. HCT116 and HT29 human colon cancer cells were used to examine the relationships between...
A proposed state-and-transition model (STM) for the Deep Sand Savannah ecological site in central New Mexico was developed using historical data and expert knowledge. This STM was tested utilizing data from short and long term one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma (Engelm.) Sarg.) control experiments initiated in 1981 and 1985. Utilizing data...
This dissertation presents an incremental analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with digital digital-to-analog converter (DAC) mismatch correction. A theoretical time-domain analysis technique was developed to predict the noise performance of the incremental ADC, and a new optimization technique was proposed to minimize the output noise.
In the calibration mode, the incremental ADC...
Modern day digital systems employ frequency
synthesizers to provide a common clock to the system.
They are undergoing large scale integration due to which, mitigation
of the effect of noise on power supply has become a major design consideration
in clocking circuits. Rapid scaling of CMOS technology mandates the
design...
This dissertation presents a research series demonstrating the use of pharmacokinetic modeling and simulations as tools to assess drug concentration and disposition in patient populations. For drugs requiring therapeutic drug monitoring, these tools are necessary to ensure patients are receiving a safe and effective dose of medication to address their...
Azaspiracid has generated an enormous amount of scientific interest in the fourteen years since its initial discovery. The structure contains a 6,5,6 bis-spiroketal, a [3.3.1] bicyclic ketal and a 6,5-spiroaminal linkage as key moieties. With 9 rings, 20 stereocenters and three alkenes, the azaspiracid immediately attracted the interest of the...
A relatively new model of error control is the limited magnitude error over high radix channels. In this error model, the error magnitude does not exceed a certain limit known beforehand. In this dissertation, we study systematic error control codes for common channels under the assumption that the maximum error...
Depleted species of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) from the Northeast Pacific experience high discard mortality due to "barotrauma," induced from the rapid change in pressure during capture. Research suggests rockfish have the potential to survive barotrauma if immediately recompressed, but the potential for long-term recovery is unknown. In this project, we...
The development of micro total analysis systems (µTAS), also called “lab-on-a-chip”, or microfluidic analysis systems, is presented in this dissertation. Various research areas, covering subjects from magnetic particles synthesis to novel microchip fabrication techniques, are explored to develop a lab-on-a-chip system capable of performing magnetic bead-based bioassays. These devices are...
Nonindigenous species are a major threat to the ecological integrity and biodiversity of marine and estuarine ecosystems. To become a successful invader, species must pass through four phases: (1) survive transport, (2) survive release, (3) establish a population, and (4) expand their range. To better understand these processes, an integrated...
Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have the potential to de-repress epigenetically silenced genes in cancer cells, leading to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Dietary HDAC inhibitors derived from natural phytochemicals are promising anticancer agents. In this thesis, metabolites from natural organosulfur and organoselenium compounds, i.e. allyl mercaptan (AM), β-methylselenopyruvate (MSP) and...
This dissertation describes the application and development of molecular tools that have great potential for use in studying variation in strawberry germplasm. The first study evaluated 91 microsatellite (simple sequence repeat, SSR) markers for transferability in 22 Fragaria species and their utility in fingerprinting octoploid strawberries. Out of the transferable...
The number of endangered species is rapidly increasing while paucity of adequate information and resources delays establishment of conservation actions. The IUCN’s listing system is insufficient to determine conservation priorities and many species lack information even to be evaluated (i.e., “data deficient”). Here I proposed and tested the Rapid Endangered...
Little, if any, quantifications have been made on the contribution of the vertebral column during jumping in quadrupedal mammals. Previous studies of jumpers have focused on the morphological and physiological specializations of the hindlimbs. In this study, such specialization was measured during the supramaximal jumps of the Pacific jumping mouse...
In the Pacific Northwest, multiple studies have found negative effects of
timber harvest on stream amphibians, but the results have been highly variable and
region-specific. In this collection of studies, I examined the short term effect of timber
harvest using a field study, and used lab work to examine a...
Kenyan women exhibit a pattern of unequal access and participation to education, particularly Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT) subjects and careers. This is the result of documented challenges that include cultural attitudes that overburden girls with chores to the detriment of their school work, and a preference by parents to...
This dissertation outlines two approaches for improving the efficiency and reducing the cost of photovoltaic energy generation. First, the structures of known binary copper and iron compounds are used to choose the promising compositions Fe₂XS₄ (X = Si, Ge), Cu₃TaQ₄ (Q = Se, Te), and BaCuQ'F (Q' = S, Se,...
Transient liquid-phase diffusion brazing is used in precision, hermetic joining applications as a replacement for diffusion bonding to reduce cycle times, reduce bonding pressure and improve yields. Studies showed that the interlayer used in diffusion brazing can be detrimental due to the use of melting point depressants (MPDs). The goal...
Since the 1980s, industrial forest restructuring has resulted in the divestment of industrial timberlands across the U.S. Emerging tenures have benefited from the divestment, including conservation-based tenures that manage for multiple objectives such as restoration, recreation access, and forest and habitat contiguity. Deschutes and Klamath Counties, Oregon, have three proposed...
Ceratomyxa shasta is a myxozoan parasite that infects salmonid fishes causing the disease ceratomyxosis that is characterized by severe hemorrhage and necrosis of the intestine and death of the fish host. Ceratomyxa shasta is endemic to the Pacific Northwestern United States and Canada, where epizootics are reported for both wild...
The forest alpine tundra ecotone (FTE, also known as alpine treeline or subalpine parkland), is a conspicuous feature of mountain landscapes throughout the world. Climate change-driven increases in temperature are believed to result in FTE movement and tree invasion of subalpine meadows, which have been documented throughout the Northern Hemisphere...
One of the most common practices regarding estimation of forest attributes is
the partitioning of large forested subpopulations into smaller areas of interest to
coincide with specific objectives of present and future forest management. New
estimators are needed to improve estimation of selected forest attributes in small areas
where the...
American Indians and Alaska Natives have disproportionately high rates of diabetes, and it is not known if perceived medical discrimination is associated with diabetes health measures and poorer health for this population. This study examined the
effect of perceived medical discrimination (PMD) in American Indian women on health care decisions,...
With women comprising nearly 50% of HIV/AIDS infections globally, the development of new woman-initiated HIV prevention methods has become a public health imperative. To date, the female condom and the diaphragm are the only woman-initiated prevention methods available on the consumer market. Recent research has focused on two HIV/AIDS prevention...
Currently, the only anthrax vaccine licensed for human use in the United States is the Anthrax-vaccine-absorbed (AVA or Biothrax®). AVA suffers from several drawbacks, including a complicated and lengthy dosing schedule that requires six initial injections administered over eighteen months, followed by annual boosters. Therefore, a new generation anthrax vaccine...
Dramatic and ongoing changes pervading the Arctic and subarctic seas over
recent decades have motivated this effort to track and better understand hydrographic
variability using chemical tracers. Particular emphasis has been paid to differentiating
freshwater contributions to upper layers: namely Pacific water, meteoric water, and
sea-ice melt/formation.
Data collected in...
Quantum mechanics provides a conventional theory of scattering that is limited in
at least two ways: it focuses exclusively on the asymptotic regime and, in a more general
sense characteristic of all quantum descriptions, provides no concrete account of individual
particle evolution in spacetime. This is particularly true during the...
More women than ever before survive breast cancer with 89% of those diagnosed becoming survivors (NCI, 2008). However, according to the National Cancer Institute (2005) some groups of women bear a greater burden of difficulty in survivorship. Sexual minority women (SMW), or women who partner with other women in romantic...
The effect of anthropogenic disturbance on river systems is gaining attention, and concerns about the state of freshwater natural resources are increasing globally, as are efforts to restore habitat that has been degraded by disturbance. In rivers, non-point source pollution affects the physical characteristics of the habitat and the endemic...
Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are important in the teaching of undergraduate students (Golde & Dore, 2001). However, they are often poorly prepared for teaching (Luft, Kurdziel, Roehrig, & Turner, 2004). This dissertation addresses teaching effectiveness in three related manuscripts:
1. A position paper...
Vertebrates communicate with one another and coordinate intraspecific reproduction by using a variety of sexually dimorphic signals, such as plumage, ornaments, sounds, and/or scents. These sexual dimorphisms are maintained by physiological factors, typically sex-specific hormones (though see Chapter 3 for an exception). The purpose of the research in this dissertation...
Error correction codes (ECCs) have been widely used in communication systems and storage devices. Nowadays, the rapid development of integrated circuit technologies makes feasible the implementation of powerful ECCs such as turbo code and low-density parity-check (LDPC) code. However, these high-performance codes require complex decoding algorithms, resulting in large hardware...
Recent advances in wireless technologies have helped the proliferation of wireless devices, ranging from hand-held devices such as cellular phones to more powerful mobile computing platforms as such laptops [1]. Along with that, the end users’
applications running on these devices, ranging from text message to multimedia applications such as...
BaCuChF (Ch = S, Se, Te) materials are chalcogen-based transparent conductors with wide optical band gaps (2.9 – 3.5 eV) and a high concentration of free holes (10¹⁸ – 10²⁰ cm⁻³) caused by the presence of copper vacancies. Chalcogen vacancies compensate copper vacancies in these materials, setting the Fermi level...
This dissertation focuses on the predator-prey relationship between two species of avian predators, Caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia) and double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus), and one of their important prey types, juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.), in the Columbia River estuary of Oregon and Washington states during the period 1998 – 2007. I...
Dense hyphal mats formed by ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi are prominent features in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forest soils and have been estimated to cover up to 40% of the forest floor in some stands. Although previous studies have examined various aspects of EcM fungi, little is known about their associated microbial...
Recent estimates indicate that over 50% of gay men acquire HIV from their
main sexual partners while in their relationship (Sullivan et al., 2009). Despite this
statistic, the majority of research has focused on individual factors as predictors of
unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) and not on relationship factors. The few...
In this dissertation, I posited the need to understand how an invented community (the Society for Creative Anachronism) constructs symbolic meaning in material objects and value systems. Using ethnographic methods, I focused on the Knights and their regalia as this is the most widely accepted material symbolism. People go to...
The purpose of the study was to investigate practical guidelines based on empirical evidence for effective website design, including both home page and product pages. This research consists of two consecutive empirical studies. Study 1 was one factor (home page design: image- vs. text-oriented home page) between-subjects design with two...
Limnanthes floccosa ssp. floccosa and L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora are two of five subspecies of Limnanthes floccosa endemic to vernal pools in southern Oregon and northern California. Three seasons of monitoring natural populations have quantified that L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora is always found growing sympatrically with L. floccosa ssp. floccosa...
For cell-like upper semicontinuous(usc) decompositions G of finite dimensional manifolds M, the decomposition space M/G turns out to be an ANR provided M/G is finite dimensional ([Dav07], page 129 ). Furthermore, if M/G is finite dimensional and has the
Disjoint Disks Property (DDP), then M/G is homeomorphic to M ([Dav07],...
Literature on classroom management asserts that the best discipline is preventive, with studies on teacher variables such as empathy or enforcement of consequences, as well as student variables such as peers reporting positive behaviors with group contingencies, among others. However, there is little in the research that specifically targets regular...
Probability-based reliability methods have placed an increased emphasis on realistic simulation of structural behavior in bridge engineering. Uncertainty is present in every aspect of structural analysis. Aleatory uncertainties in the loading and load-carrying capacities, and epistemic uncertainties in mathematical idealization of bridge systems are the major contributors to uncertain structural...
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...
In wireless sensor network applications, low-power operation of the wireless receiver is critical. To address this need an ultra-low power Binary Frequency Shift Keying (BFSK) receiver using the super-regenerative architecture is developed.
A prototype receiver is built and tested for operation in the 900 MHz ISM band. Lab measurements show...
Distractions and interruptions are common occurrences in an operating room (OR), but little is known about their effects on surgical task performance. Based on human factors research, it was hypothesized that realistic distractions and interruptions in an OR would adversely impact surgical task performance. Because of the concern of patient...
Multiple-input multiple-output wireless systems promise significant capacity gain
and/or diversity gain over single antenna systems. If channel state information (CSI)
is available at both the transmitter and the receiver, the performance can be further
improved. In this thesis, first, we study binary index feedback problem in beamforming
systems when the...
Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are dominant peroxide-reducing enzymes with two important roles: they protect all organisms from oxidative damage induced by peroxides, and in eukaryotes, they participate in hydrogen peroxide signaling pathways. This dissertation presents studies aimed at the biophysical characterization of select Prxs and a Prx reductase to elucidate their structure-function...
New acceptor-type graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) containing perfluoroalkyl anions have been synthesized by using both chemical and electrochemical methods and characterized by elemental and thermogravimetric analyses. Investigation into these graphite intercalation compounds can provide novel materials and a detailed understanding of their properties.
GICs of composition Cx[FB(C₂F₅)₃]·δF are prepared for...
Better Bones and Balance (BBB) is a community-based exercise program to improve bone health and reduce fall risk among older adults. Prior research has shown that when the program is delivered by researchers under controlled conditions, participants improved strength and balance, and maintained bone mineral density (BMD) at the hip....