Ceramides are a group of lipids in the sphingolipid family that are potent cell signaling molecules. Elevations in ceramide levels above the norm generally lead to apoptosis. Evidence from in vitro studies suggests that accumulation of ceramides within mitochondria leads to dysfunction of the mitochondria. This includes inhibition of the...
Real-time PCR assays using locked nucleic acid (LNA) probes and high resolution melt (HRM) analysis were developed for molecular differentiation of Pseudoperonospora cubensis and P. humuli, causal agents of cucurbit and hop downy mildew, respectively. The assays were based on a previously identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the cytochrome...
There is an urgent need to lower the concentration of sulfur in diesel fuels. Growing concern over environmental effects caused by burning sulfur-containing diesel has led the world to higher standards in fuel refinement. Because of these lower standards, many techniques have been researched to remove sulfur containing compounds or...
There is a growing US interest in UAVs for many applications ranging from agriculture to military. One area of improvement that can be realized in each category is propulsion. Engines with greater efficiency would result in longer mission duration, leading to cost savings and increased usefulness for UAV owners and...
The work described herein details the synthesis and application of
biphenyls that probe the effects of hydrogen, Cl / Br, and methyl substituents
on the aryl ring of the terminal acetylenic carbon. From this work, we
successfully developed the rapid synthesis of phenyl acetylenes in 3-4 steps
from inexpensive commercially...
Pseudomonas is a diverse, ubiquitous, and widely studied genus of bacteria. As Pseudomonas species occupy a wide range of niches in the ecosystem, they have made remarkable biological impacts. Better understanding of Pseudomonas biology, genetic diversity, and functional interactions with other organisms and the environment will provide valuable insights into...
Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is a pest of small fruits and cherries, and has also been noted to infest a variety of wild, ornamental, and uncultivated hosts. Identifying alternative hosts is critical for pest management. Research objectives were to: 1) survey fruits in the field for natural infestation of...
Wastewater epidemiology is an emerging discipline that requires collaborative research involving analytical chemists, drug epidemiologists, and wastewater engineers. Wastewater epidemiology involves the sampling and quantitative analysis of raw wastewaters from communities for illicit drugs and their metabolites. Mass loads (mass per day) and per capita (mg per day per person)...
Mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, is a primary agent of forest disturbance in western North America. Episodic outbreaks occur at the convergence
of favorable forest age and size class structure and climate patterns. Recent outbreaks have exceeded the historic range of variability of D. ponderosae-caused tree
mortality affecting ecosystem...
In eukaryotes, RNA silencing pathways utilize 20-30-nucleotide small RNAs to regulate gene expression, specify and maintain chromatin structure, and repress viruses and mobile genetic elements. RNA silencing was likely present in the common ancestor of modern eukaryotes, but most research has focused on plant and animal RNA silencing systems. Phytophthora...
Spotted wing Drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae), is a pest of small and stone fruits that is widely distributed across much of the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. Unlike other members of the Drosophilidae that only lay eggs in overripe or rotting fruit, SWD infest ripening and ripe...
Earth’s mantle extends to nearly 3000 km depth, comprises >80 % of Earth’s total volume, and has the largest influence on the primordial and radiogenic heat budget. Despite its importance, the structure and composition of the mantle is still debated. There are three primary models for Earth’s mantle structure that...
Phytophthora infestans, the cause of the devastating late blight disease of potato and tomato, exhibits a clonal reproductive lifestyle in North America. Phenotypes such as fungicide sensitivity and host preference are conserved among individuals within clonal lineages, while substantial phenotypic differences can exist between lineages. Whole P. infestans genomes were...
With the recent advent of commercial laser absorption spectrometers, field studies measuring stable isotope ratios of hydrogen and oxygen in water vapor have proliferated. These pioneering analyses have provided invaluable feedback about best strategies for optimizing instrumental accuracy, yet questions still remain about instrument performance and calibration approaches for multi-year...
Identifying the inhibition of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) by emerging organic contaminants is crucial due to the importance of AOB in wastewater treatment, the widespread use of antibacterial agents such as triclosan (TCS) in consumer products, and the sensitivity of N. europaea to inhibitors. Triclosan inhibition of nitrification by AOB...
Due to the high cost of precursor materials, complex oxides of 4d and 5d transition metals are under-studied compared to their 3d counterparts. Recent studies have shown that oxides containing heavier transition metals can exhibit exotic electronic states due to presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. The goal of this dissertation...
It is estimated that more than 95% of organic production is based on crop varieties that were bred for the conventional high-input sector. Recent studies have shown that such varieties lack important traits required under organic and low-input production conditions. This is primarily due to selection in conventional breeding programmes...
Cytoplasmic dynein is an ATP-dependent, microtubule-based molecular motor involved in the positioning and trafficking of cellular cargo. The cargo binding sub-domain of dynein contains the natively disordered intermediate chain (IC) and the homodimeric light chains (Tctex1, LC8 and LC7). The structure and stoichiometry of this complex, how the light chains...
Oomycetes form a deep lineage of eukaryotic organisms that includes a large number of plant pathogens which threaten natural and managed ecosystems. We undertook a survey to query the community for their ranking of plant-pathogenic oomycete species based on scientific and economic importance. In total, we received 263 votes from...
Here we investigate sedimentary records from four small inland lakes located in the southern Cascadia forearc region for evidence of earthquakes. Three of these lakes are in the Klamath Mountains near the Oregon–California border, and one is in the central Oregon Coast range. The sedimentary sequences recovered from these lakes...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most widely known and studied environmental contaminants, originating from a range of natural and anthropogenic sources. PAHs are known to occur in the environment as complex mixtures, containing both unsubstituted PAHs, as well as a range of PAH derivatives. Among the less-studied of...
The purpose of this review is to stimulate new ideas regarding low-dose environmental mixtures and carcinogens and their potential to promote invasion and metastasis. Whereas a number of chapters in this review are devoted to the role of lowdose environmental mixtures and carcinogens in the promotion of invasion and metastasis...
The Toba Caldera Complex is the youngest resurgent caldera in the last 100 kyrs, formed from four overlapping eruptions starting 1.2 Myrs ago. The last caldera-forming eruption, the Youngest Toba Tuff eruption, occurred ~74 kyrs ago, emitting 2800 km3 of ash and pumice into the atmosphere and forming the caldera...
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) encompasses a spectrum of lymphoid progenitors that have undergone malignant transformation and clonal proliferation at various stages of differentiation. Some cases of ALL have been documented to have prenatal origins and in particular neonatal exposure to various environmental pollutants is associated with increased disease risk, including...
There are more than 87,000 chemicals in current use with little to no toxicity information available. Assessing such a large number of chemicals using traditional methods would take an unreasonable amount of time and money, and require the use a large number of animals. The incorporation of high-throughput in vivo...
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an environmental bacterium as well as an opportunistic pathogen that primarily infects immunocompromised individuals, including those suffering from cystic fibrosis. The density-dependent regulation of gene expression via cell-to-cell communication, also termed quorum sensing (QS), is an important virulence determinant in this organism. Generally, P. aeruginosa uses three...
Over the past century, life expectancy in the United States has dramatically increased leading to an increasingly aging population with people reaching, and spending more years in ‘old age’. While this unprecedented shift in population demographics represents great strides for humanity, it is not without cost. One consequence of longer...
The implementation and construction of Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls has undergone substantial expansions in recent years, owing to its relatively low cost, ease of construction, and high efficiency compared to conventional retaining methods. As a result, MSE walls are being constructed to greater heights with complex features (e.g. multiple...
Classic biological control can be a powerful option for those tasked with managing biological invasions; however, some biocontrol releases lead to non-target attack – feeding, damage or development on species other than the target species. The cinnabar moth, Tyria jacobaeae L. (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) was introduced to Western Oregon as a...
The twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), is a
worldwide pest of numerous agronomic and horticultural plants. Conservation
biological control of this pest can be unreliable due to asynchrony of natural enemies
and certain horticultural practices that have a direct or indirect affect on natural
enemies and the...
Numerous studies have explored how alluvial channel size and morphology are adjusted to different sediment and flow conditions, yet we still know very little about how and to what degree the flow regime controls channel form and processes. We use the term ‘channel form’ to refer to the size and...
Functional traits of vascular plants have been an important component of ecological studies for a number of years; however, in more recent times vascular plant ecologists have begun to formalize a set of key traits and universal system of trait measurement. Many recent studies hypothesize global generality of trait patterns,...
A spectral fitting routine was developed to analyze X-ray emissions in neutron capture decay
processes that produce ¹⁹⁷Hg and ¹⁹⁷Pt. Through correcting for X-ray emissions, the
77.3 keV γ gamma ray intensities were analyzed. The thermal cross sections for the production of
¹⁹⁷Hg and ¹⁹⁷Pt were found to be 2088...
Cystic ovarian disease (COD) is an anovulatory condition in cattle
that afflicts between 6-18% of all dairy cows in the US. Ovulation is
dependent on the plasminogen activator (PA) family of proteases
and protease inhibitor for proteolysis, culminating in follicular rupture.
Failure of the follicle to ovulate suggests an aberration...
Most of today’s Internet of Things (IoT) applications assume that data will be moved offdevices into centralized cloud platforms. While existing IoT systems leverage cloud-based analytics for meaningful data reasoning, the assumption that data should always be moved off the devices is problematic. The amount of data to be moved...
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide with human papillomavirus (HPV) being the main cause of the disease. Currently available treatment methods are limited and emphasize the need for discovery of new therapies that improve patient outcome. Chromosomal amplifications have been identified as a source of...
Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae) are small invasive flies that in the past five years (2009-2014) invaded berry and stone fruit production regions in Europe and the Americas. Evolutionary adaptations, biological traits, and anthropogenic factors have contributed to its current status as a global pest. Females oviposit eggs into ripe...
Flexible electronics processing techniques were applied to integrate a glucose sensor with a hormone-delivery catheter in order to create a cheap and minimally invasive method for patients with type 1 diabetes to continually monitor and control their blood sugar levels. Ultimately, this work intends to move toward the development of...
The trans-Pacific atmospheric transport of particulate matter (PM)-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to remote sites in western North America has been well documented and has triggered research questions regarding to atmospheric transformation of PM-bound PAHs and the potential impacts on human health from their inhalation exposure. In this dissertation, field...
Silicon carbide is an important and versatile nonoxide ceramic. Powder injection molding (PIM) is a method of high-speed fabrication of complex near-net shapes of SiC and other powders. Green micro-machining (GMM) is used to extend the shaping capability of green ceramics and powder metallurgy to smaller feature sizes. Debinding--removal of...
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are prevalent among surgeons due to a variety of risk factors. Various subjective tools have been used to investigate the associations between these risk factors and their contributions to the development of WMSDs. This study aimed to provide a summary of a collection of popular subjective...
Due to a lack of grain boundaries, an amorphous metal thin film (AMTF) possesses advantageous mechanical properties and enhanced chemical stability that is potentially useful for thermal inkjet (TIJ) printing applications. The use of an AMTF as a TIJ resistor or cavitation plate could lead to a thinner TIJ cavitation...
Billions of pounds of bisphenol A (BPA) are produced annually around the globe for the manufacture of numerous consumer products, including polycarbonate food and water containers, the protective resin linings of food cans, thermal printing paper, and dental fillings. BPA exposure during nervous system development has been associated with learning...
Drilled shaft foundations provide significant geotechnical resistance for support of structures, such as highway bridges, traffic sign, and signal pole structures, and are used widely to meet their structural foundation requirements. The amount of steel reinforcement in drilled shaft foundations has increased over the past several decades to account for...
Funk’s (1991) cockpit task management (CTM) theory is structurally consistent with cognitive multitasking models: it addresses managing multiple and concurrent tasks in three stages: situation awareness, response selection, and response execution. Based on CTM theory, Colvin, Funk and Braune (2005) hypothesized that the following six factors may affect task prioritization:...
In this dissertation, my research work on excited state dynamics of small organic molecules in solutions is presented. Using femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) as the main experimental tool, the excited state hydrogen-bonding dynamics (ESHBD) of Coumarin 102, a common laser dye molecule, in ethanol solution is examined with <150...
This dissertation investigates livelihood and land use change dynamics in a community at the farm-forest periphery in highland Ethiopia. I use interviews and livelihood assessment data to compare the strategies used by members of different wealth groups to negotiate and maintain access to forest resources, and integrate socioeconomic, bio-physical and...
This dissertation presents results from three studies that address major scientific questions in glacial geology and paleoclimatology for the late Pleistocene and Holocene using relatively new geochemical and statistical techniques. Each of the studies attempts to answer a longstanding question in the respective field using geochemical or statistical methods that...
Forests play an integral role in the global carbon cycle, regulating the atmospheric CO₂ concentration by sequestering nearly one third of anthropogenic carbon emissions and storing carbon for centuries. Forest ecosystems are integrated into the culture, ecology, and economy of western North America, supporting wildlife habitat, local economies, recreation, and...
Fungi in the genus Tolypocladium are diverse in their host associations, but the predominant ecologies include parasites of the ectomycorrhizal genus Elaphomyces and pathogens of insects. The aim of this dissertation research is to examine the evolution of these fungi and their host associations. To accomplish this several lines of...
This is the 4th edition of a book that was initiated with the annotation of the function of all the genes in the most commonly studied baculovirus, AcMNPV. It has been almost six years since I reviewed this literature. As a measure of the research that has occurred over this...
Urban areas currently cover a small fraction of Oregon’s landscape but will expand to accommodate an increasingly large proportion of the state’s growing population and economic activity. Residential developments on rural lands now cover more than twice the area occupied by Oregon’s urban developments and are growing rapidly. Oregon urban...