If we are conscious beings, what ethical implications might that have? Are there inherent ethical responsibilities in consciousness? If so, what are they? Here we explore the possibility of experience within artificial general intelligence as it relates directly to the essential question of ethical responsibilities implied by human consciousness. By...
Gray wolves are essential keystone species that regulate a biological ecosystem. (Estes, Terborgh, Brashares, Power, Berger, Bond and Wardle, 2011) There are many reasons why maintaining a healthy population of keystone species in the wild is essential. Gray wolves: 1) Are family pack animals that work together as a team,...
This project report presents an implementation of a GenderMag Recorder's Assistant from a semi-working state to a fully working Chrome web store application. In addition, this project report also discusses the persona customization option and limitations and how the persona tool eases the process of persona customization. For results, we...
Explorer At Large (XAL) is an education initiative designed to encourage students and their families to be curious and develop an identity as an explorer. XAL delivers a holistic ecosystem of learning opportunities that model curiosity and exploration skills and consists of the following four primary components: 1) freely distributed...
As remote sensing data continues to proliferate, development and assessment of methods that generate predictions of forest attributes is needed to inform operational use. For several decades, lidar data collected from aerial platforms has informed assessments of forest resources, but many opportunities remain for the technology. We examine and develop...
Diffusion processes in networks are common models for many domains, including species colonization, information/idea cascade, disease propagation and fire spreading. In diffusion networks, a diffusion event occurs when a behavior spreads from one node to the other following a probabilistic model, where the behavior could be species, an idea, a...
As regional climates warm in the Pacific Northwest, USA, flow minima and temperature maxima may become more synchronous in headwater streams over time. The dual stresses from lower flows and warmer temperatures will be energetically costly for cold-water species such as Coastal Cutthroat Trout and Coastal Giant Salamander. Individual fates...
Potato Virus Y (PVY) is an enduring problem for potato production worldwide. Potato varieties that resist the “ordinary” strain PVYO were developed by breeders, but in recent years, recombinant strains of PVY have been able to circumvent this strain-specific resistance and evade growers and seed certification officials by causing fewer...
Background: Latina students are underrepresented and undereducated in rural community colleges. There are gaps in rural community college research specifically focusing on Latina retention. This research identified the factors detracting from and/or enhancing the college experience for Latinas in rural community colleges.
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to...
Counselor self and relational awareness (SRA) is an important aspect of counselor training and development. Counselor education programs engage students in a variety of practices targeted towards enhancing SRA. Although supervision is regularly used to promote SRA, there is no existing research that focuses on how supervisors experience using supervision...
Tall fescue is a perennial forage grass widely used in areas not well-suited to perennial ryegrass due to climatic or edaphic stressors including drought and low or high pH. Although tall fescue has many agronomic attributes that make it well suited to a wide range of environments, it is lower...
Global surface water quality has been degrading with predictions of negative trends in meeting the Sustainable Development Goal ambient water quality targets (Mead, 2019; WWAP & UN Water, 2019). These water quality impacts can cross borders and impact populations in world’s 204 transboundary lake and reservoir basins (ILEC & UNEP,...
The dissertation concentrates on seismicity of the Blanco Transform Fault (BTF), a 350-km-long oceanic transform fault (OTF) in the northeast Pacific Ocean. I analyze data collected during the Blanco Transform Fault OBS experiment, which comprised of a 1-year deployment of 55 three-component seismometers co-located with differential pressure gauges on and...
Nurseries are an important part of the agriculture industry of the United States. The nursery industry provides ornamental, forest, restoration and specialty products to many markets in N. America. The disease sudden oak death, caused by Phytophthora ramorum, has devastating environmental and economic impacts on forested land, the urban-forest interface,...
Natural Language Comprehension is a challenging domain of Natural Language Processing. To improve a model’s language comprehension/understanding, one approach would be to enrich the structure of the model to enhance its capability in learning the latent rules of the language.
In this dissertation, we will first introduce several deep models...
In this research, the possibility of the precessional magnetization switching by focused surface acoustic waves, without external magnetic field, has been demonstrated. The technique of generating an effective magnetic field by applying stress to a magnetostrictive material via a surface acoustic wave is applied to perform field-free magnetization switching. It...
Bimetallic catalysis is a promising way to tune the catalytic properties of heterogeneous catalysts. In particular, bimetallic catalysts are extensively used to enhance the selectivity of monometallic catalysts in a variety of contexts, from oxidation catalysis to oxygenate coupling. In this work, we investigate PdxCuy/SiO2 and PdxAgy/SiO2 catalysts in the...
The Latino K-12 student population in the United States continues to increase. Estimates are that by 2025, one in every three students in the country will be of Hispanic/Latino origin. The challenges to the educational system from such growth are unprecedented. At no other time in U.S. history has there...
Organotin clusters have attracted notable attention for use as inorganic photoresists. This dissertation discerns dimeric and dodecameric organotin clusters, [(n-C₄H₉Sn)(OH)(H₂O)Cl₂]₂ (Sn₂) and [(n-C₄H₉Sn)₁₂O₁₄ (OH)₆ ]+ (Sn₁₂), both of which are stable hydrolysis and condensation products of n-C₄H₉SnCl₃. This work identifies Sn₂ as a superior precursor choice for solution deposition of...
This thesis describes in-vitro and in-vivo evaluation of a transdermal atenolol formulation developed at Oregon State University, College of Pharmacy. The formulation was prepared from carbomer as a gel base with propylene glycol, glycerol, ethanol, polysorbate 80 and dimethyl-isosorbide (DMI) as mixture of penetration enhancing agents. The effect of the...
Minimal research has focused on the social dimension of sustainability in the built environment especially as it relates to the construction workforce. As a result, there are few to no tools available to industry stakeholders to holistically assess and improve the social sustainability of the construction workforce. Given the high...
Microscopic organisms inhabit virtually every niche on this planet, where they perform functions vital to all life on earth. Accordingly, humans host a complex community of microorganisms (i.e. the gut microbiome) that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract and modulate host physiology. Insight into the specific mechanisms through which gut microbes influence...
Community science (also called citizen science) has become an increasingly popular data collection technique for scientists researching nature at a large scale. Many ecologists have also looked to community science as a method for educating the public about science. Over the past several decades, researchers have attempted to define an...
This thesis is the combination of two research publications working towards automating functional modeling. Functional modeling is an underutilized yet critical tool for concept generation and product design. Understanding the difficulty both novice and expert designers have in implementing functional modeling in their design process, this research sets out to...
Twenty-three red clover cultivars and accessions were grown in Boyd, KY, and Philomath, OR to evaluate their tolerance of northern anthracnose [NA; Kabatiella caulivora (Kirch.) Karak.] and drought, dry matter (DM) production, and their agro-morphological characteristics. The key research questions of this study were the influence of NA on yield...
Under-5 mortality has decreased globally, but millions of children still die every year. In Bangladesh, respiratory infection and diarrheal disease remain leading causes of morbidity and mortality for children under-5, despite incredible progress in the past three decades. Immune system development begins in utero and continues into adulthood. Toxic environmental...
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important crops in the world supplying about 18.8 percent of the world's caloric energy supply and 20 percent of the world's protein. In the Pacific Northwest (PNW), over one million hectares of wheat are grown every year. Wheat production is typically...
The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) is a ground nesting gallinaceous bird that requires large contiguous patches of sagebrush. Sage-grouse populations have declined, especially in the Great Basin where changes in wildfire regimes and the invasion of annual grasses have contributed to habitat loss and fragmentation. During the last...
Landscape plants are highly diverse and nursery producers often grow thousands of taxa to satisfy the varied needs and aesthetic tastes of consumers. Related to this diversity, ornamental plant breeders must be nimble and diverse in their approach. Two seemingly disparate studies were conducted to investigate improving ornamental shrubs –...
As robots are becoming more relevant to our lives, they are still having hard time accomplishing simple tasks such as picking and lifting. Problems that include environmental constraints, pose uncertainties and hardware noises restrain robots for grasping an object successfully from a perceivable environment. Many have looked into finding best...
Accurate positioning has become an active research area in recent years. It has a wide range of applications in many fields such as navigation, asset tracking, health care, proximity marketing/location-based advertising, and sport analytics. Transmitter positioning via radio frequency (RF) signals is the most widely encountered scenario, and it uses...
This dissertation proposes the use of advanced time-varying approaches for modeling the dynamics of the multipath channel in wireless communication networks. These advanced time-varying approaches include linear Kalman innovation models in observable block companion form, and neural network-based models. The e˙ectiveness of these type of models is evaluated through three...
The safety of workers in the construction industry is a big concern because of the high number of fatalities and injuries that occur in the industry. Selecting contractors based on safety performance can improve safety and reduce the risks of injuries. However, owners commonly choose contractors based on competitive bidding...
Mold growth on cheddar-style cheese, though not a food safety issue, causes significant loss to the industry due to consumer rejection. For this reason, it is common for at-risk products, such as cheese shreds, to be coated with the mold inhibitor natamycin. While highly effective at extending shelf-life, preferences for...
Utilizing nanocarrier based drug delivery for improving the magnitude of efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents in many diseases has acquired more attention in research applications. It has shown promising results in both preclinical and clinical trials. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved many of these polymeric carriers, and tens...
DNA microarray technology is a powerful tool for analyzing patterns in gene expression data for thousands of genes. Due to a number of systematic variations in microarray experiments, the raw gene expression data is often obfuscated by undesirable technical noises. Various normalization techniques were designed in an attempt to remove...
Using intersectional, matricentric feminist of color approaches, this study interrogates the particularities of Afghan immigrants' mothering experiences—as one of the hidden facets of their lived experience—in the United States from a life-course perspective. Using a combination of feminist oral historical approaches, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, this thesis explores the...
Offshore wind and wave energy have the potential to be significant sources of future global electricity production, reduce carbon emissions, decrease dependence on energy importation, and stimulate economic growth in coastal and remote areas. Fixed-foundation and floating offshore wind and wave energy technologies are at different stages of development, but...
Pasture legumes that persist under challenging agro-ecological conditions are crucial to ensure high lamb growth rates in dryland pastures. Pasture and lamb production from white clover (TF-Whc), birdsfoot trefoil (TF-Bft), balansa clover (TF-Bc) and subterranean clover (TF-Sc) planted with tall fescue either as binary mixtures or as a diverse combination...
In this thesis, we introduce a novel Explanation Neural Network (XNN) to explain the predictions made by a deep network. The XNN works by embedding a high-dimensional activation vector of a deep network layer non-linearly into a low-dimensional explanation space while retaining faithfulness i.e., the original deep learning predictions can...
Medical professionals experience higher rates of burnout than other professions due to the highly stressful nature of their environment. In 2018, 94 percent of physicians reported experiencing burnout – characterized by emotional fatigue, and feelings of depersonalization and low personal accomplishment – at some point in their careers. As emotional...
Increasing calls from stakeholders for a greater role in public decision making has led to the rapid world-wide adoption of multi stakeholder collaboration for policymaking. In line with this emerging trend the Government of Nepal with support from its long-time development partners and bi-lateral donors initiated a policy level experiment...
Nanoparticles have become more prevalent from their use in sunscreen to antimicrobial agents in socks. In light of these applications, gaining a fundamental understanding of how NPs interact with humans is crucial for their future. Specifically, how cells interact with NPs and what factors drive the modes of cellular uptake....
Travel demand has increased due to population growth, increase of vehicle ownership, and development patterns resulting in greater levels of congestion, pollution, and crash frequency. One approach to demand management is to increase the share of trips made by bicycles. With the increase in bicycling rates, there is a critical...
Urban development causes changes in the hydrology, increasing stormwater runoff volumes, which often leads to flooding and ecosystem degradation. This is a common phenomenon in most urban Africa, due to lack of stormwater drainage infrastructures. Green Infrastructure (GI) has been shown to be an effective approach to lessen the effects...
Diverse pastures containing multiple species help extend the grazing season and reduce the reliance on one or two species to meet all the nutritional requirements of livestock. Planting pasture species in spatially separated adjacent strips can increase the proportion of pasture plants with certain agronomic and nutritional attributes such as...
The Fréchet distance is a measure of similarity between curves or surfaces. The Fréchet distance between two polygons can be computed in polynomial time, but it is much harder to compute the Fréchet distance between surfaces. We present the first (1+ε)-approximation algorithm and the first exact algorithm for computing the...
Translation of efficacious programs into real-world settings is an important step in ensuring improved public health outcomes. Yet, the process of translating evidence-based interventions (EBIs) according to fidelity is fraught with challenges. Organizational factors, specifically organizational communication, have been shown to influence translation processes.
To date, there is limited research...
Thermodynamic modeling of cementitious material is an established tool for predicting the hydrated phase assemblages, pore solution pH, and pore solution composition of mixtures of various chemical compositions and water-to-binder (w/b) ratios. However, traditional thermodynamic techniques have major limitations for modeling mixtures containing supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), and when modeling...
The role that anthropogenic and natural habitats in estuaries play in long-term population trends for Oregon’s nearshore marine fishes is poorly understood, in part due to limited temporal sampling. One important nearshore marine group is northeastern Pacific rockfishes (Sebastes spp.), which are highly diverse, with around 96 documented species, and...