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...
This study examined relations among early family risk, children’s behavioral regulation at 54
months and kindergarten, and academic achievement in first grade using data on 1,298 children
from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early
Child Care and Youth Development. Family risk was indexed...
Carbonation of Carbon is of concern for reinforced concrete bridges. While long-term environmental deterioration of structures is unavoidable, protective design allows a structure to fulfill its service life without any significant serviceability or strength loss due to deterioration. Understanding the process of concrete carbonation and the effect it has on...
Old-growth dry-mixed conifer forests are valued as habitats for late seral forest species, for the
ecosystem services and landscape diversity they provide, and for their aesthetic appeal. The
structure of these forests has been heavily altered by historic logging of overstory ponderosa
pine and Douglas-fir. Additionally, changes in fire regime...
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%,...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
Suicide attacks are a prevalent topic in modern international media. The devastation in the United States caused by suicide tactics on September 11, 2001 encouraged the development of counter-terrorism policies that could provide effective security and reduce the worldwide sense of vulnerability. The necessity for international collaboration on research regarding...
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...
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...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes the right to clean water, entitling everyone to “sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses”. This rationale is the inspiration for comparing the effects of clean water strategies. A comparison between Tunisian and Egyptian approaches will evaluate...
This study considered collision data for Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon
in order to determine whether or not red light cameras are effective in reducing red light
running collisions. Red light running is extremely dangerous and is a leading cause of
urban automobile collisions in the United States. Red light...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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,...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Among sensory and food scientists, the 9-point hedonic scale has been the most
commonly used scale for measuring liking and disliking of products. Recently, the
Labeled Hedonic Scale (LHS) was developed to overcome some recognized limitations
of the 9-point hedonic scale. One of the claimed advantages of the LHS is...
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...
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...
The copepod Calanus finmarchicus is the most important and biomass dominant mesozooplankter in the temperate-boreal North Atlantic. C. finmarchicus has an overwintering phase, termed diapause, during which it descends to great depths (300-2000m) and is metabolically quiescent for up to ten months. Changes in the currents at depth due to...
Just as prime numbers can be thought of as the building blocks of the natural numbers, in a similar fashion, simple groups may be considered the building blocks of finite groups. Burnside considered the following
questions:
1. Do there exist non-abelian simple groups of odd order?
2. Do there exist...
The effects of precommercial thinning on the understory vegetative cover of 16- to 18-year-old spruce–hemlock (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carrière – Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) stands were studied in seven replicate areas over seven growing seasons postthinning. Vegetative cover was analyzed at the class level, but species-specific effects were examined in...
The Critical Depth Hypothesis formalized by Sverdrup in 1953 posits that
vernal phytoplankton blooms occur when surface mixing shoals to a depth shallower than a
critical depth horizon defining the point where phytoplankton growth exceeds losses. This
hypothesis has since served as a cornerstone in plankton ecology and reflects the...
‘ORCF-103’ is a common soft white winter wheat developed by Oregon State University in cooperation with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. This publication describes the variety, its agronomic characteristics, development, and seed availability.
‘Skiles’ is a common soft white winter wheat developed by Oregon State University in cooperation with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. This publication describes the variety, its agronomic characteristics, development, and seed availability.
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...
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 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...
This thesis develops a manual for interpreters at six National Park Service areas established to preserve and interpret fossils of the Cenozoic Era: Fossil Butte National Monument (Wyoming), John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (Oregon), Badlands National Park (South Dakota), Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (Colorado), Agate Fossil Beds National...