Consumers are increasingly turning to farm direct foods for personal reasons, such as fresh and healthy food, and for public reasons, such as supporting local and rural economies and reducing the environmental impact of their food choices. As a result, farmers’ markets and other direct farm marketing has increased substantially...
In 2004, the Transition Mathematics Project (TMP), funded by the state of Washington and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was established to create projects to help high school students gain the necessary skills to become college and work-ready. Aligned to TMP's College Readiness Mathematics Standards, a fourth-year capstone mathematics...
Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the U.S. have exhibited an upward trend over time similar to that observed for GDP and personal income. While conventional wisdom suggests that economic growth leads to more driving and thus higher VMT, it is theoretically possible that the causation could also be the other...
RNA silencing plays a critical role in plant defense against viral infection. Plants use virusderived
small interfering RNA to target and silence invading viruses. The antiviral silencing
pathway can be broken down into three conceptual stages: initiation, amplification, and systemic
movement. The molecular mechanisms of silencing initiation are not well...
Bedrock groundwater dynamics in headwater catchments are poorly understood and
poorly characterized. Direct hydrometric measurements have been limited due to the
logistical challenges associated with drilling through hard rock in steep, remote and
often roadless terrain. Here we develop and use an inexpensive, portable bedrock
drilling system to explore bedrock...
The high productivity of Eastern Boundary Upwelling Ecosystems (EBUE), some of the most productive ecosystems in the globe, is attributed to the nutrient rich waters brought up through upwelling. Climate change scenarios for coastal upwelling systems, predict an intensification of coastal upwelling winds. Associated with intensification in upwelling are biogeochemical...
Current frameworks for analyzing forest carbon offset projects in disturbance-prone western forests often fail to address the dynamic nature of carbon pathways through time. They do not account for the probability of loss due to wildfire, which can influence the prediction of carbon storage at the end of a planning...
Biological invasions pose one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity, but many naturalized invaders coexist with the native community. Community ecology theory provides a framework for understanding the mechanisms by which invaders might coexist with native species or exclude them from the community, thus informing management practices to maximize...
The concept of the "new father" has been discussed in the literature and popular
media for over 25 years. Yet current studies regarding father involvement continue to show that fathers do not contribute equally to childcare and domestic labor, even among parents in dual-income families. Furthermore, as roles within families...
The endemic cyprinids of Lake Lanao, Philippines have been described as a species flock and are thought to be an example of explosive evolution. However, based on historical surveys, 16 of the 18 cyprinid species endemic to Lake Lanao are now believed to be extinct. Furthermore, non-native species have been...
Fire severity is hypothesized as an important driver of bird responses to wildfire. For those species that typically respond negatively to increasing severity, Accessibility of high-severity burned forest may be dependent on the proximity of unburned or low-severity burned forest to meet all of the needs of breeding bird species...
This research considers the availability of the appropriate geospatial data in support of
vulnerability mapping of the Oregon coast. An online experiment, Voicing Climate Concerns,
was developed to give community stakeholders, researchers and other interested parties the
opportunity to voice their concerns on climate change and their perceived vulnerability to...
School counselors are challenged with creating a wide range of programs to
address three developmental domains: personal/social, career, and academic, with an
increasing requirement to provide accurate and sufficient data substantiating their
professional contributions to students’ academic achievement. At the same time, the
professional literature reports that during adolescence there...
This thesis presents the results of an investigation into the measured and modeled
mass balance of the Collier Glacier, a small (0.70 km²), valley glacier located in the
Oregon Cascade Range (44° 10' N, 121° 47' W). Here we present mass-balance
measurements conducted for the 2009 and 2010 balance years...
This collection of loosely-linked stories explores the lives of a set of characters who exist in the margins of society, but quietly so. In the opening story, "Two-Minute Histories," an ostensibly negative act—breaking and entering, among other verifiable crimes—is demonstrated to lead to some positive outcome such as a moment...
The work deals with the subject of designing for Native Americans. The first part of the project broadly examines the field of graphic design as it relates to Native Americans, discussing the lack of Native voices in graphic design, what designing for Native Americans can entail, the role of Native...
Supervised exercise interventions can elicit numerous positive health outcomes in
breast cancer survivors. However, to maintain these benefits, exercise needs to
continue long after the supervised program. This may be difficult, as in this
transitional period (i.e., time period immediately following a supervised exercise
program), breast cancer survivors are in...
In this dissertation, I explore how women and men in later life experience the world of dating and the pursuit of new intimate relationships. Although the mortality gap between women and men at older ages is narrowing, as they enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s, there are still at least...