Characterizing special nuclear material (SNM) is critical for nuclear security and non-proliferation. Temporal spectroscopy is a novel and efficient method for characterizing relative material content of special nuclear material. Fission products produced by SNM after being irradiated by a thermal neutron beam can have different half-lives, but can contribute to...
Interest in performance specifications has been growing in the civil and construction industry in the past decade. One major focus area has been on understanding how to prolong the service life of concrete structures, since repair and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure have cost many trillions of dollars. Deterioration mechanisms such...
Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are the key building block for sensor applications, such as wireless communications and digital electronics. These applications require ADCs to have medium to high accuracy (normally from 10-14 bits) and relatively low signal bandwidth (ranging from 100Hz-150kHz). Since these applications are often powered by batteries, high power...
Ecological restoration is needed to mitigate losses to biodiversity. Restoration success is enhanced through the use of native plant materials that are genetically diverse and locally adapted. Seed transfer zones have been developed to delineate geographic areas where native seed can be collected and distributed with reduced risk of maladaptation....
Background: Legislators, policy-makers, and leaders in higher education and within communities, are increasingly turning to place-based scholarships, or “promise programs”, to encourage college enrollment and address growing public concerns regarding college affordability. One such program, the Oregon Promise, was implemented across the state of Oregon in the fall of 2016....
Since the 1960s, Vietnamese scholars have written autobiographical literature catered to the American public though they have not gotten as much recognition as soldier accounts and anti-war literature. These Vietnamese literatures shifted in scope and form with the succeeding waves of refugee resulted from the war in Việt Nam. As...
This study examines the ways in which community college transfer students develop a sense of belonging at the four-year institution. This inquiry was guided by a constructivist epistemology and qualitative methodology. Data was collected through conducting one-on-one interviews and focus groups to gather information on how transfer students develop a...
The mangrove ecosystem has served as a life-support system to large populations of coastal dwellers in Ecuador for many generations. Diverse communities comprised of multi-racial and multi-ethnic groups have formed along the edge of the mangrove forests throughout the Ecuadorian coast. These groups self-identify as being part of an “ancestral”...
Natural durability remains one of the most attractive characteristics of wood, and helps wood obtain a premium price. A worldwide shift towards the use of younger trees from intensively managed forests has created greater concerns about wood quality, especially the wood’s resistance to fungi and insects. Wood durability is assessed...
Due to threats of secondary salinization caused by increased saltwater intrusion upstream associated with climate change, this thesis examines how salinity affects the development and oviposition site selection habits of three Oregon coastal breeding amphibians, the Roughskin Newt (Taricha granulosa), the Northern Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora) and the Pacific Treefrog...
This dissertation focuses on indoor free-space optical communications systems for use in short range wireless networks. We propose that current radio frequency wireless links be augmented or replaced with optical frequency links due to overcrowding in the radio frequency spectrum. Optical frequencies contain hundreds of terahertz of unregulated bandwidth and...
Innovation is critical for firm growth and survival. Thus, how much value firms create and capture from their innovative activities has been an interest of scholars. This dissertation explores three important questions on this topic to which extant literature has paid little attention. First, I examine how the external threat...
A study which analyzes the impact of husband's exposure to political violence on intimate partner violence perpetration and identifies factors associated with help-seeking among women in Gaza and the West Bank. Further, a qualitative component examines Gazan women's narratives regarding IPV and help-seeking and barriers faced.
This Thesis examines Brazil’s political and historical context to explore and understand the logics behind the high rates of violence in our society. It focuses in education as one of our main vehicles of disseminating knowledge and therefore culture, language and values that might be contributing and perpetuating sexism, racism,...
Small molecule drugs have been instrumental in our fight against diseases, beginning when some of the earliest ancient cultures used plant remedies to treat illnesses. More recently, the skill of isolating and characterizing the active ingredients within bioactive plants and microbial extracts has led to the isolation and design of...