In advanced integrated circuit (IC) processes, the metal fill inserted to meet foundry imposed density requirements degrades the performance of interconnects and passive components which ultimately affects the overall circuit performance. Accounting for this degradation through electromagnetic and equivalent circuit modeling is becoming a critical aspect of IC design. However,...
BCL11B is a transcriptional regulatory protein that plays essential roles during mouse embryonic development. BCL11B is expressed and functions in the immune and nervous systems as well as within ectodermal organs. Multiple studies have characterized the roles of BCL11B in T cells, brain, and skin. However, very little is known...
Novel donor-type graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) containing tetra-n-alkylammonium (TAA) cations have been synthesized by using both ion-exchange and electrochemical methods. Structural and compositional data of the resulting TAA-GICs are investigated by using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), one-dimensional electron density calculations, thermogravimetric and elemental analyses, and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). A...
Carbon Nanotubes are a unique family of nanostructures that have shown remarkable promise for mechanical, electrical, and optical applications. Fundamentally similar to the earlier discovered Buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀), carbon nanotubes are hollow cylinders formed from a single sheet of carbon atoms. The research presented in this dissertation investigates several carbon nanotube...
The influence of the physical environment on organisms has long been a subject of ecological research. But, the complex drivers of environmental variation, and the multiple scales at which this can occur, make studying this topic a difficult challenge. In rocky intertidal habitats, oceanographic- and climate-scale variability influence benthic communities...
Subduction zone earthquake and tsunami hazards affect tens of millions worldwide and the recurrence of these disasters can be evaluated with paleoseismic techniques, because earthquake cycles (and their supercycles) typically span many millennia. In these three chapters, I discuss a suite of analyses I use to evaluate the sedimentary record...
Vessel disasters (e.g., vessels capsizing, sinking, grounding, burning) are the leading contributor to occupational fatalities in the U.S. commercial fishing industry. Vessel disasters are a vital area to target prevention efforts, yet it has been suggested that results produced in scientific studies are not efficiently exchanged between researchers, regulatory bodies...
Analogous to ocean surface waves, waves in the ocean interior also experience steepening, breaking, and dissipation as they approach the coastline. Much less is known about this internal beach. In this work, extensive moored Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and temperature/salinity data together with optical remote sensing are combined to describe...
This thesis describes the development of a new enantioselective synthetic method employing chiral cis-2,5-diaminobicyclo[2.2.2]octane-based organometallic catalysts. The significance of this new method to organic synthesis is illustrated with preparation of enantioenriched products that are transformed to important pharmaceutical agents. Chapter 1 provides a brief historical overview of asymmetric catalysis, especially...
The genus Phytophthora contains some of the most destructive pathogens of forest trees, including the most destructive pathogen of alder in recent times, Phytophthora alni. Alder trees were reported to be suffering from canopy dieback in riparian ecosystems in western Oregon, which prompted a survey of alder health and monitoring...
There is no doubt that adhesive penetration plays an important role in wood bondline joint performance and durability; yet, to date there is no direct experimental evidence linking penetration depth with bond performance. This is, in part, because adhesive penetration is commonly assessed with various 2D microscopy techniques that are...
Surface transient storage (STS) and hyporheic transient storage (HTS) have functional significance in stream ecology and hydrology. Both provide refugia for aquatic communities and their longer mean residence times (compared to the main flow) increase the potential for biogeochemical reactions that can improve water quality. As STS and HTS have...
The production of hydrogen has been one of the most heavily studied, energy related fields over the past half century, yet few methods are commercially or economically viable and none are currently sustainable. Of those aiming at the sustainable production of hydrogen using renewable resources, perhaps the most widely studied...
SAR11 Alphaproteobacteria are the most abundant aerobic chemoheterotrophs in ocean surface waters. Previous studies have indicated SAR11 cells play an important role in marine carbon cycling and consume up to half of some common dissolved organic compounds, such as amino acids. During sequencing of the first SAR11 genome, genes for...
A more quantitative understanding of peptide entrapment and elution from otherwise protein-repellent polyethylene oxide (PEO) brush layers will provide direction for development of new strategies for drug storage and delivery. Here we describe criteria for peptide integration and structural change within the PEO brush, and discuss the reversibility of peptide...
The purpose of this study was to explore the issues involved with implementing and using pedagogies of engagement in community college STEM courses. The rationale for this study was based on current and emerging STEM education policy directives calling for an updated approach to teaching undergraduates, focused on student engagement,...
This dissertation focuses on the behavior of security returns around certain events that occurred in the Saudi stock market. In the first study, we measure and analyze the reaction of security returns around a major horizontal merger that occurred in the banking industry in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this...
IC designers are continuously facing the challenges from reduced CMOS feature sizes and supply voltages. ADCs that deliver satisfactory resolutions/speeds while utilizing the state-of-the-art technologies to save power are in high demand. The analog circuits are more and more assisted by various digital calibration techniques to get boosted performances. This...
The potential for electric energy generation from ocean waves is substantial and much research is being conducted on the conversion process as a renewable, grid-connected, power source. Some of the same attributes that make wave energy harvesting attractive as a grid-connected source also make it attractive as a remote, or...
Research indicates that enduring interparental conflict before, during, and after divorce has negative effects on children. Parental conflict can be reduced utilizing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes such as mediation and collaborative divorce. The purpose of this dissertation was to produce two manuscripts examining the role of the child specialist...
Photobiological hydrogen production -- the use of photosynthesis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen -- presents an opportunity for efficient and large-scale solar biofuel development. One of the major challenges in this area is competition for reductant between the hydrogen-evolving hydrogenase enzyme and other metabolic pathways. In this work...
Synthesis and discovery lies at the core of every field in chemistry. The investigation of the structure-property relationships in compounds known or new is the fundamental purpose of solid state chemistry. Mixing related solid state compounds to form solid solutions can lead to exciting new and/or unexpected properties. Layered compounds...
The three studies that comprise this dissertation seek to answer significant
questions in paleoclimatology through unconventional applications of ice core
greenhouse gas data. These studies involve different gases and span the interval of time
between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Industrial Revolution, but are united by their
nontraditional use...
This study lays the groundwork on potential techniques that could be employed to improve the post-thaw wash processing of cryopreserved human red blood cells. Transfusion of red blood cells is one of the most commonly practiced procedures in clinical medicine. Millions of red blood cell units are transfused to patients...
VCO-based ADCs have recently emerged as attractive alternative to conventional DeltaSigma (ΔΣ) modulator architectures. Few salient features of a VCObased ADC are: 1) the quantization noise is 1st order noise shaped, 2) it is an open loop architecture, and, 3) its implementation is mostly digital in nature. Hence, they are...
Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) and Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni; hereafter elk) populations in northeast Oregon have declined in the past 10 to 20 years. Concurrent with these declines, cougar (Puma concolor) populations have apparently increased, leading to speculation that predation by cougars may be responsible for declining...
To become a competitor for fossil fuels such as coal, solar installations will need to be produced and installed at a price equal to or below grid parity. This price can be approached by either reducing the overall system cost or increasing system efficiency. The focus of this paper is...
Quantifying the mass transport through marine sediments, and the geochemical response to such flow with numerical models has become a common and powerful approach for geochemical data interpretation. In this dissertation, I developed and applied transport-reaction models to unravel complex and interdependent reactions involving carbon, sulfur and silica transformations in...
With the growing popularity of kinesiology at the undergraduate level, one would expect the field to be influential. Kinesiology, however, appears to be in a paradox. The undergraduate popularity is not reflected in the rest of academia, or even the general public, many of whom feel kinesiology is not a...
Discussions around adapting water management systems to climate change often express the need to increase the flexibility and adaptive capacity of current systems, and to implement robust strategies going forth. While these topics lie at the center of many climate change discussions, transforming adaptation recommendations into tangible tools and information...
Deep foundations are necessary for the construction of many structures, such as bridges and buildings, located in areas unsuitable for shallow foundations. Owing to the inherent variability of soil and the complex changes that occur in the soil adjacent to deep foundations as they are installed, the ability to accurately...
Imazamox-resistant wheat (Clearfield®) cultivars carry the Imi1 gene, which confers resistance to the imidazolinone (IMI) herbicide imazamox. Imazamox provides selective control of jointed goatgrass and other weeds in IMI-resistant wheat. Imi1 gene flow between IMI-resistant wheat and jointed goatgrass may occur via hybridization and backcross events. In 2009 and 2010,...
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the major crops produced in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, a region known for its wheat production for international export. Wheat production in the region is threatened by diseases such as Cephalosporium stripe and stripe rust. Cephalosporium stripe is a vascular wilt disease of...
While water scarcity and energy demand are continuously increasing in the world, alternative sources are needed to meet the requirement of a growing population. Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a sustainable technology that converts organic matter in wastewater into electricity, thus it can be a potential alternative source for water...
Estimating the hydraulic conductivity of earth materials is important for many water resource modeling efforts, including predicting the transport of pollutants in ground water, computing surface runoff for flood control, and computing water budgets. This research implicitly used topography, soil, and climate data to estimate plausible continuous hydraulic conductivity values...
This thesis considers the problem in which a teacher is interested in teaching action policies to computer agents for sequential decision making. The vast majority of policy
learning algorithms o er teachers little flexibility in how policies are taught. In particular,
one of two learning modes is typically considered: 1)...
Multiagent learning with cooperative coevolutionary algorithms is a critical area of research, and is relevant to many real-world applications including air traffic control, distributed sensor network control, and game-theoretic applications such as border patrol. A key difficulty in multiagent learning is the credit assignment problem, where the impact of each...
Passive sampling is a popular technology for environmental monitoring, and silicone is an ideal choice for a variety of passive sampling applications. The silicone work described here encompasses laboratory and field studies that demonstrate the use of this polymer in novel environments, for new applications, and for emerging compounds. Unique...
Influences of tidal and slower (subtidal) oceanic flows over the continental shelf and slope off Oregon are studied using a high-resolution ocean circulation model and comparative model-data analyses. The model is based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), a fully nonlinear, three-dimensional model (using hydrostatic and Boussinesq approximations). The...
There is a knowledge gap concerning the outcomes of early adolescent sexual initiation (ASI). In particular, the influence of early ASI upon adult attachment is unknown. A multiple regression study was conducted to address this knowledge gap. Adult partner/spouse attachment was the criterion variable, and the predictor variables included both...
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, arising from malignant transformation of pigment-producing melanocytes. The primary risk factor for melanoma and other skin cancers is DNA damage resulting from unprotected solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). If incorrectly repaired, this damage can result in incorporation of mutations that cause aberrant cell...
Background: A particular health inequity that has drawn national attention is obesity in persons with disabilities (CDC, 2011). Estimates suggest that as many as 80% of adults with mild to moderate intellectual disability (ID) are overweight or obese (Stanish & Draheim, 2005). Despite the benefits of being active (e.g. controlling...
Research on higher education during the period 1990 to 2013 has suggested that U.S. higher education institutions were significantly impacted by a number of global forces, including an increase in the movement of goods, information, and people across borders. During the same period, a measurable increase occurred in the number...
We studied the problem of resource allocation in large scale distributed applications such as Online Social Networks (OSN) and Cloud Computing. In such settings, resource allocation schemes need to efficient as well as adaptive to the time-varying environments. The abstract resource allocation problem concerns with how to optimally use resources...
The structure–property relationships of solid solutions within the YbFe₂O₄ family of compounds have been studied in relation to their optical, dielectric and magnetic properties. This family of compounds is of recent interest because of the trigonal bipyramid coordination that is rarely observed in transition metal oxides. The systematic study of...
Adult development and social experiences are intertwined, which has implications for social policy, health, and well-being across the lifespan. This dissertation explores the benefit and risk that close social partners bring to adults' lives, and the efficacy and consequences of engaging social resources to maintain well-being in the face of...
The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that may influence students' motivation or choice to attend their institution's intercollegiate athletic events and also to relate the lived experiences of administrators of athletic programs at a university in Korea. The research design included both quantitative and qualitative approaches....
Advances of colloidal nanomaterials for societal benefit have been hampered by the high cost and low quality of nanoparticles (NPs). The production of high quality nanoparticles within colloidal suspension has two related concerns; (1) current high production rates methods of synthesizing nanoparticles result in a larger range of particle size,...
Tensegrity structures are composed of pure compressional elements that are connected via a network of pure tensional elements. The concept of tensegrity promises numerous advantages to the field of robotics. Tensegrity robots are, however, notoriously difficult to control due to their oscillatory nature and nonlinear interaction between the components. Multiagent...
In real networks, identifying dense regions is of great importance. For example, in a network that represents academic collaboration, authors within the densest component of the graph tend to be the most prolific. Dense subgraphs often identify communities in social networks. And dense subgraphs can be used to discover regulatory...