Understanding the mechanisms through which stem cells self-renew is important for the development of new therapies to repair and restore damaged tissue. This research explores possible mechanisms of telomere mimic action and seeks to validate a new assay for evaluating telomere binding antagonists and studying the effects of telomere binding...
The wood-based building products industry has experienced significant turbulence over the past several decades as a function of multiple forces including among others globalization, product and process innovation, and shifting customer and consumer interest and demands. Collectively, these changes have challenged the historical tenets which have defined industry strategy and...
Twentieth century commercial whaling drastically reduced the abundance of great whale populations in the Southern Ocean. Exploitation began on the south Atlantic island of South Georgia, where catch records account for over 175,000 whales killed. Modern whaling within the Southern Ocean depleted populations rapidly, and by 1966, hunting blue whales...
Hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae Annand, is a destructive introduced pest of hemlock trees in eastern North America, and management has focused on the use of natural enemies through classical biological control. Two species of chamaemyiid flies, Leucopis argenticollis Zetterstedt and Leucopis atrifacies (Aldrich) have been collected previously from western...
Since the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) in 1994, global competition in Korean agricultural markets has significantly increased. The objective of this dissertation is to identify the effects of trade liberalization on productivity and pricing in the Korean rice market (Essay 1 and 2) and on the entire agricultural...
Distributed deformation in the backarc of Cascadia is complex. Off the west coast lies the Cascadia convergent margin. East of the plate boundary, clockwise rotation of the Oregon Coast Range block with respect to stable North America influences backarc deformation, causing extensional faults in southeast Oregon, contraction folding in southeast...
Ammonia (NH₃) volatilization can result in a substantial amount of surface applied nitrogen (N) being lost into the atmosphere, making it an environmental pollutant as well as reducing plant-available N. However, N can also be easily lost from the soil through leaching,
and nitrous oxide (NO₂). Enhanced efficiency N fertilizers...
Microscale hydropower, facilities that produce between 1 kW and 1 MW of power,
has the potential to revolutionize modern power production. Unlike conventional large scale
operations, these water supplies can be utilized with little impact on the environment.
Hydropower per unit production can be very affordable compared to other renewable...
This thesis presents basic studies, including structural, optical and transport measurements, on novel chalcogenide powders and single crystals. BiCuOSe crystals have been synthesized for the first time. The crystal structure of BiCuOSe has been refined and the optical band gap has been measured to be 0.83eV. Crystal structure refinements of...
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play an important role in the innate immune system. Determining the pathways by which these proteins are regulated allows for modulation of their expression for better health. Two families of antimicrobial peptides have been studied in humans: cathelicidins and defensins. There is a single cathelicidin in humans...
Understanding food webs is fundamental in conserving endangered species and maintaining healthy ecosystem function, particularly in desert spring systems. We identified dominant energy sources in the Muddy River Warm Springs area, Clark County, NV using carbon and nitrogen natural abundance stable isotope analyses. We examined isotopic signatures of specific macroinvertebrate...
Photobiological hydrogen production from live cells of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 encapsulated in silica gel was investigated. Hydrogen is a dense energy carrier with potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, provided a renewable and sustainable means of production can be achieved. Under certain conditions, Synechocystis sp. PCC...
The objectives of this project were to investigate the chemical composition of five varieties of wine grape pomace (WGP) skins obtained in the Pacific Northwest of the United States with the emphasis on dietary fiber (DF) and polyphenolic compounds, and further to evaluate the feasibility of developing WGP extract based...
The Cretaceous Merín aborted-rift basin of eastern Uruguay is composed of sub-alkaline Paraná-Etendeka province basaltic flows and shallow intrusives (~133 to 131 Ma), rhyolitic ignimbrites (~130 to 128 Ma) and associated mildly alkaline to alkaline intrusions and volcanic rocks (~128 to 127 Ma). Four intrusive complexes from 20 to >30...
Five vineyard floor management treatments were evaluated in a young vineyard in western Oregon to better understand the effects on vine growth and nutrition, soil moisture dynamics, and weed control during 2009 and 2010. Treatments included two mulched treatments where mowed alleyway residue was transferred in-row at rates of 1x...
In the past ten years, renewed research interest has shown the benefits of internal curing by incorporating saturated lightweight fine aggregate (LWFA) in high performance concrete (HPC). As a result, the technology of internal curing has steadily progressed from laboratory studies to field applications. To determine the optimum LWFA content,...
Infectious diseases are a growing concern for both humans and wildlife. The negative effects of infectious disease have been exemplified by the recent global amphibian population declines associated with disease outbreaks. Although multiple pathogens and factors play a role in these declines, the aquatic fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has...
Bi-weekly sampling of zooplankton and environmental parameters was conducted along a cross-shelf transect off the coast of Newport, OR, USA (44.65°N) from 1996 to present. Results have demonstrated the feasibility of using copepod community structure as an early indicator of ecosystem response to seasonal and large scale environmental changes in...
With rising fuel costs and enhanced environmental concerns, the use of renewable energy has been steadily considered and widely expounded as a solution to the challenges of global energy security and climate change. The use of woody biomass, in particular, has received considerable attention for energy production due to the...
A method for bandgap energy determination using di use re ection is presented and compared to the traditional integrating sphere method. We have found the bandgap energies of ZnO, TiO₂, Cu₂O, Si, SnZrS₃, SnZrSe₃, Sn₂S₃, and BiCuOSe powders with both methods and found they agree within 0.03 eV. We have...