International development programs are often implemented with the goal of building community resilience, but without a clear articulation of how this goal will be met, or any consideration of if or why the effort was successful after it has concluded. This thesis considers three different activities implemented by the U....
Aluminum and copper and their alloys have been widely used due to relatively high strength-to-weight ratios compared with conventional steels. Processing of these alloys is typically conducted at high temperatures over extended time periods. High-pressure torsion (HPT) is a promising processing technique for introducing significant grain refinement leading to excellent...
Junior level physics students are familiar with a few types of vector field derivatives, such as divergence and curl, but are typically unfamiliar with how to take a general derivative of a vector field. Three junior-level physics students were interviewed with the open-ended prompt, “How would you think about taking...
The Walla Walla Subbasin (WWSB) in Oregon is underlain by formations of the extensive Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) which have been deformed by post-Miocene folding and faulting. Extensive irrigation with groundwater from these basalt groups, as well as sedimentary aquifers and surface water diversions from the Walla Walla River,...
Although the concept of breeding crops for organic agricultural systems has been around for decades, few studies have been reported for vegetable crops to quantify and compare how conventional and organic systems differ in their selection pressures on genotypes advancing through the breeding cycle; especially research utilizing modern sequencing capabilities....
The western purple martin (Progne subis arboricola) is a species of conservation concern throughout the Pacific Northwest. In western Oregon, the purple martin nests in three major ecosystem types: inland open-water, coastal, and upland forest. The availability of suitable breeding habitat is a major limiting factor for western purple martin...
The frontlines of climate change adaptation will occur in rural, impoverished regions of the world where households engage in climatically dependent livelihoods, such as peasant agriculture or pastoralism. As changing climate and changing markets affect the suite of household livelihood assets (environmental, social, and economic) which enable a household to...
Commercial fisheries are coupled human-natural systems that cross state borders and integrate private, public, academic sectors and interests. These systems integrate complicated relationships between coastal socioeconomics, resource management and environmental realms. Previous findings from West Coast-based studies have identified aging trends in commercial fisheries participation, commonly referred to as the...
New MS in CS students in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science school at OSU are required to file their Program of Study by the end of their 2nd term. Many of them, especially international students, are in a totally new ecosystem, so they find it overwhelming to choose the...
Modifications of an ocean model are described, as the objective for which the model was used changed to study the kinematics and dynamics of an eastern-boundary poleward undercurrent.