Jellyfish benefit from many of the changes mankind is making to the ocean. Climate change, overfishing, nutrient runoff, the introduction of invasive species, and coastal development all promote these ancient, gelatinous creatures. Because of their familiarity to readers and affinity for degraded places in the ocean, jellyfish are used to...
Maintaining variation in software is a difficult problem that poses serious challenges for the understanding and editing of software artifacts. Although the C preprocessor (CPP) is often the default tool used to introduce variability to software, because of its simplicity and flexibility, it is infamous for its obtrusive syntax and...
Introduction: Youth in foster care face greater rates of trauma and subsequent mental health challenges (Bruce et al., 2009; O’Neill et al., 2012; Seltzer et al., 2012; etc.) that place increased burden on their caregivers (Daniel, 2011; McKeough et al., 2017), suggesting that these specific groups of youth in foster...
Although there is a substantial body of work on the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated processes of water management and water governance (Earle & Bazilli, 2013), these efforts have mostly been concentrated in the Global South and women are still lacking in positions with decision-making power, making water governance...
A label-free, photoluminescence (PL) based biosensor for 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) detection was developed by functionalizing diatom biosiilica with a TNT-specific single-chain variable fragment (scFv). The scFv loading was estimated to be 0.040±0.003 (μg scFv/μg biosilica). In saturated concentration, TNT binding to scFvbiosilica quenched about 13% of its PL. Dose response follows...
The gradient of a velocity vector field is an asymmetric tensor field which can provide critical insight that is difficult to infer from traditional trajectory-based vector field visualization techniques. I describe the structures in the eigenvalue and eigenvector fields of the gradient tensor and how these structures can be used...
Volcanic hazard maps inform the public on the nature and extent of the hazards that threaten them, but these maps are often challenging for those who are not trained in map use or geology. The maps in this study focus on lahars, a dangerous, fast, and far-reaching volcanic hazard that...
Birds perform valuable ecological functions and are useful environmental indicators. Avian distributions and diversity are predicted to change over the next 50 years. Little information exists on the role of local and regional conditions in fluctuations of avian communities over time. Historic datasets present a legacy of information that helps...
As screen resolution and video decoding capability have increased, high-definition (HD) video in resolutions as high as 1920 x 1080 is rapidly becoming the standard. Ad-hoc streaming of HD video over 802.11 wireless networks, e.g., streaming from a mobile device to a television, is convenient for users, but is hampered...
The combined effects of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation pose a serious threat to Earth's biodiversity, imperiling even relatively common species. 'Habitat' is necessarily a species-specific concept, and investigations of bird diversity relationships and subsequent efforts to prioritize conservation areas, are challenged by the difficulty of estimating complex habitat gradients...
Ring amplification has emerged as an efficient technique to drive large capacitive loads in switched capacitor circuits. We propose circuit techniques to demonstrate the first application of a ring amplifier in a non-capacitive feedback system of a LDO. These techniques enable a simple cap-less LDO structure in 180nm CMOS that...
Signals from the R/V Langseth’s tuned airgun array were recorded on an array of 33 EarthScope FlexArray seismometers deployed in the Oregon Coast Range from 43.5° to 45°N as part of the 2012 Ridge2Trench experiment to image the structure of the Juan de Fuca plate. This segment of the Juan...
Burial Lake sediments from the Noatak Basin in the northwest Brooks Range of Arctic Alaska (68.43°N, 159.17°W, 21.5 m water depth) provide the oldest continuous lacustrine record of paleo-environmental change and paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) in eastern Beringia. A precise radiocarbon chronology, determined through accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) allows us...
The increasing demand for higher data-rates is challenging to satisfy with spectrum-deficient indoor WiFi networks. A novel hybrid WiFi Free-Space Optical (WIFO) system has been proposed to enhance the wireless capacity of indoor WiFi networks. In this thesis, an integrated optical wireless receiver is designed and integrated in 65-nm CMOS...
The ability to accurately locate people and objects indoors will enable opportunities for control and automation of indoor environments. Current indoor localization solutions require dedicated hardware which must be custom tailored to each application. There are large technological, societal, and economic benefits in developing a more general purpose system that...
For more than 30 years, researchers have investigated the effects of whole body vibration (WBV) platforms on athletic performance. WBV is a modality in which an individual stands on a vibrating platform to obtain performance effects. Frequency and amplitude of the vibration are the commonly adjusted parameters. The use of...
For the west coast of North America, from northern California to southern Washington, a habitat suitability prediction framework was developed to support wave energy device siting. Concern that wave energy devices may impact the seafloor and benthos has renewed research interest in the distribution of marine benthic invertebrates and factors...
The marine ecosystem provides a broad spectrum of services for a wide array of user groups. Such broad use of marine resources often results in use conflicts between ecosystem elements and human interests. To help mitigate these conflicts, the Bayesian Analysis for Spatial Siting (BASS) tool was developed to incorporate...
Re-establishing connectivity is a primary restoration activity for enhancing the
recovery of migratory fishes, but actions are often limited by lack of funds and
understanding of the benefits of individual projects. The objective of this study was to
develop a Bayesian Network (BN) to assess priorities for restoration of aquatic...
Fire hazards threaten human life and property safety. Since it is unrealistic to study human behavior during a real fire hazard, computational tools are a better choice to computational tools are a better choice to simulate fire growth and human behavior for predicting evacuation performance in chaotic emergency situations. Although...
In this thesis, we propose a Blockchain-based distributed protocol for enabling deployment of dynamic, on-demand IoT networks. Specifically, the proposed protocol leverages Blockchain technology to: (i) enable distributed and secure authentication, registration, and management of IoT devices; (ii) provide fast discovery of IoT resources and scalable and secure instantiation of...
Seafood is one of the most diverse and highly traded natural resources worldwide. Widespread evidence of increased seafood fraud and IUU fishing has placed enormous pressure on industry and governments to determine the authenticity, safety, and sustainability of seafood. The recently established US National Ocean Council has addressed several gaps...
The objective of this study was to develop a decision making tool to determine economic feasibility of artisan cheese operations. A survey of current Oregon artisan cheese companies was used to gain knowledge of the fixed and variable costs associated with cheese production and business start-up. The data from this...
The Mars Hopper is an alternative extraterrestrial vehicle for the collection of samples from the Martian surface. This thesis studied the engine of the Mars Hopper to assess the validity of the current planned launch cycle according to current parameters. To do this, the engine was simplified to an average...
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...
As competing uses of our coastlines increase, natural resource agencies are employing marine spatial planning (MSP) to designate areas for different uses or activities in order to reduce conflicts while achieving ecological, economic and social objectives. A central challenge of implementing MSP is development of a rigorous approach for analyzing...
Several radioxenon isotopes (¹³¹ᵐXe, ¹³³Xe, ¹³³ᵐXe, ¹³⁵Xe) are characteristic byproducts of nuclear explosions, and due to their chemically nonreactive nature can easily escape from tests occurring underground and enter the atmosphere. It has been shown that by utilizing beta-gamma coincidence techniques, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) can...
With the resurgence in the interest of using natural textile dyes, a solution must be found that will overcome the limitations of traditional natural dyes. This solution must also be safer for both humankind and the environment than are synthetic dyes. This study compares the colorfastness of commercially available synthetic...
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...
Detection of both biological and chemical environmental toxicants is essential in the assessment of risk to human health. Cell-based biosensors are capable of activity- based detection of toxicity. Chromatophore cells, responsible for the pigmentation of poikilothermic animal, have shown immense potential as cell-based biosensors in the detection of a broad...
The Cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii minima) population has increased from a low of 20,000 in 1984 to the current population of 220,000-300,000 (Stehn 2012, Sanders 2013). As the Cackling goose population began to recover in the late 1990s, the majority of the population relocated from wintering in California to the...
Distributed Version Control Systems (DVCS) have seen an increase in popularity relative to traditional Centralized Version Control Systems (CVCS). Yet we know little on whether VCS tools meet the needs of software developers when managing software change or whether developers are benefitting from the extra power of DVCS. Without such...
In cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton) cultivation, farmers typically rent colonies of honey bee (Apis mellifera) for pollination. However, the efficiency of this bee at pollinating cranberries in Oregon, as in other regions, is questionable. Bumble bees (Bombus sp.) are reportedly effective in other regions, but their impact in Oregon is...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relative performance of compact ionization chambers as it changes based on the speed of detector motion and collection volume. To quantify changes, multiple scans were made with each of a selection of compact chambers and repeated varying detector speed. Each scan...
The mechanisms of mortality during critical life stages of fish are not well-understood and, for many species, it is not clear if the mechanisms are similar for naturally and artificially propagated individuals. For Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), natural fish potentially face negative interactions, such as competition, and survival disadvantages, such...
Chloride-induced corrosion is one of the primary causes of the degradation of reinforced steel in concrete structures. Currently, the rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT) is the most specified method to determine the concrete’s resistivity to chloride ingress, thus a determining factor in assessing the durability of concrete. While it is...
Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important component of the hydrologic cycle that transfers large quantities of water vapor away from Earth's surface into the atmosphere. In addition to having agricultural water management applications, including monitoring water rights compliance and irrigation scheduling, estimating ET is also important to quantify water used by...
The purpose of this study was to compare the proposed women's college styles for day and evening in selected magazines to the documented apparel of college women from Oregon State College in the 1949-1957 time period. The historic method and visual analysis methods were used to complete this study. An...
Simulated Annealing and Threshold Accepting are two stochastic search algorithms that have been successfully used on a variety of complex and difficult problem sets. Due to their stochastic nature they are not guaranteed to produce the same result for each run. This means that these techniques actually produce a distribution...
There is limited knowledge regarding differential training as it relates to balance. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance and retention of a differential training balance program and a traditional balance program. Thirty-three Division I soccer athletes volunteered to participate and 29 completed the study. Participants were...
The range of different nonvolatile constituents extracted from hops in highly hopped beers suggests that iso-alpha acids may not be the sole contributor to beers’ bitterness. Among brewers producing hop-forward beer styles there is a growing concern that the Bitterness Unit (BU) is no longer an accurate predictor of beer...
The performance of transit networks must be measured on a regular basis to understand how well these complex systems fulfill their intended purpose and to identify potential opportunities for improvement. Measuring transit network performance is only achievable by defining a specific set of transit network performance indicators (TNPIs). Different schemes...
Vibration of nuclear fuel rods is an area of significance for the long-term safe operation of any nuclear power plant. One mechanism of vibration, flow induced vibration (FIV), must be quantified when designing a new core, such as a sodium fast reactor which employs helically-wrapped wire spacers. Experimental work undertaken...
The subject of fluid-structure interactions (FSI) are a matter concerning the design of any element immersed in a fluid. One of the most critical phenomena embedded within the scope of FSI is the creation of vortex-induced vibrations (VIV). These type of vibrations originate in a given body as a result...
Qualitative data analysis (QDA) is a time consuming and, potentially unreliable research activity. In qualitative research, a number of tasks must be repeated for every new research case, even if each case is closely related or is in the same area of study.
Existing QDA applications provide users with a...
Since the introduction of lean manufacturing by Toyota and publication by Womack and Jones, organizations have realized sizeable gains through lean process improvement. The spread of lean practices across organizations and industries – from manufacturing to healthcare and construction – requires adjustments of the lean process and, in the case...
Interannual variability of Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) occurrence in the northern California Current System is largely unknown. In Oregon, the distribution of this versatile predator and what is influencing their range expansion from Mexico is poorly understood due to the recent nature of their "invasion" and a lack of monitoring....
This thesis explored the experiences of four Student Affairs practitioners working within Multicultural Affairs (MA). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how professionals within MA offices were developing and conducting assessment as well as identify barriers they faced and best practices used. Data for this study was...
This thesis presents a low power DC-DC converter suitable for harvesting energy from high impedance thermoelectric generators (TEGs) for the use in body powered electronics. The chip has been fabricated in a 130nm CMOS technology. To meet the power demands of body powered networks, a novel dual-path architecture capable of...
The aim of this thesis is to study past 10 years of security vulnerabilities reported against Linux Kernel and all existing mitigation techniques that prevent the exploitation of those vulnerabilities. To systematically study the security vulnerabilities, they were categorized into classes and sub-classes based on their type.
This thesis first...