Assembly time estimation is a key factor in evaluating the performance of the assembly process in an automated assembly process. The overall goal of this study is to develop an efficient assembly time estimation method by generating the prediction model from an experimental design. In order to estimate these times,...
Bone strength and fracture resistivity are related to a variety of factors encompassed in what is referred to as bone quality. However, bone quality is not a well-defined concept; therefore individual fracture risk cannot be predicted accurately, and osteoporosis treatment monitoring remains di cult. Clinically available imaging modalities use bone...
This study uses an existing database of dynamic loading tests of driven piles installed in the Puget Sound Lowlands to improve the reliability of axial performance. First, the unit shaft resistances developed from stress wave signal matching to dynamic records of pile installation are used to develop an effective stress-based...
The ternary system (Bi₀.₅Na₀.₅)TiO₃-(Bi₀.₅K₀.₅)TiO₃-Bi(Mg₀.₅Ti₀.₅)O₃ (BNT-BKT-BMgT) was explored along the [75-(x 2) ]Bi₀.₅Na₀.₅TiO₃ - [25-(x 2)]Bi₀.₅K₀.₅TiO₃ - [x]Bi(Mg₀.₅Ti₀.₅)O₃ composition line. Thin films were fabricated using chelated mixing route solutions spin cast onto platinized silicon substrates. Processing parameters such as: excess cation molar%, solution molality, and crystallization temperatures, for composition where x=0,...
Soft robots are designed to utilize their compliance and contortionistic abilities to both interact safely with their environment and move through it in ways a rigid robot cannot. To more completely achieve this, the robot should be made of as many soft components as possible. Here we present a completely...
The effects of alfaxalone (A-HPCD), propofol (P), ketamine-diazepam (KD) and tiletamine-zolazepam (TZ) administered IV in dogs on cardiovascular and respiratory systems, acid-base balance and electrolytes have been reported in the literature, but a study that compares IV TZ to the other induction protocols (IP) is needed. Six dogs enrolled in...
This thesis provides a comparison of advanced econometric frameworks to account for unobserved factors in crash reported data (also referred to as unobserved heterogeneity) while identifying contributing factors by roadway classification for heavy vehicle injury severity and crash rates. The presented thesis provides two manuscripts that expand the literature regarding...
Hereditary variation is a vital component in the development of new and improved cultivars of landscape plants. Sources of hereditary variation include naturally occurring variation, recombination due to controlled crosses, artificial mutagenesis, and genetic modification via biotechnology. Here I explore all methods with the exception of genetic modification via biotechnology....
This project determines the short term and long term effective stiffness values for Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) with a reinforced concrete topping. The reinforced concrete was attached to the CLT panels with interface connections, and different types of interface connections were tested. Throughout this project, there are 31 tests with...
Forest soils and topography have long been known to influence forest productivity in complex terrain such as Oregon’s Coast Ranges. Incorporating physical site characteristics into predictions of forest growth and yield, however, has been problematic because of the high spatial variability of soil properties and the challenges associated with representing...
Quantitative assessments of post-fire effects are key to improving our understanding of ecosystem resilience. While remote sensing technology has allowed us to assess post-fire landscape effects, we are often limited by the lack of information related to pre-fire forest attributes. As a result, our ability to interpret fire effects in...
As the effect of ocean acidification (OA) on marine calcifiers is better understood, a range of potential mitigative strategies have been proposed, many of which are plagued by concerns of scale and feasibility. One oft-cited option is to increase the biomass of photosynthetic organisms to remove CO₂ from the water...
We demonstrated a low-cost and high-sensitivity DNA detection method using quantum dot-fullerene based molecular beacons (MBs) and magnetic nanoparticles. The MB tethered magnetic nanoparticles can be well dispersed in analytes for efficient DNA capture and concentrated by an external magnetic field for enhanced fluorescence signal detection. The detection requires only...
The metal-organic–framework MOF-5 is used as an adsorbent in advanced systems for vehicular hydrogen storage that are currently under development. Presently, these systems are limited by poor thermal conductivity of the adsorption bed, and thus our research addresses how the interfaces between grains of MOF-5 can be engineered to improve...
High purity niobium metal is used in the construction of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities in superconducting particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN or the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The usual method for characterizing the impurities in this niobium, the...
Several radioxenon isotopes (¹³¹ᵐXe, ¹³³Xe, ¹³³ᵐXe, ¹³⁵Xe) are characteristic byproducts of nuclear explosions, and due to their chemically nonreactive nature can easily escape from tests occurring underground and enter the atmosphere. It has been shown that by utilizing beta-gamma coincidence techniques, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) can...
Engineering applications often require fast, accurate solutions of fluid flow around freely moving bodies. The massive parallelism enabled by graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture enables high performance, offering a promising alternative to traditional solver acceleration via multicore central processing units (CPU). However, fully harnessing GPU parallelism requires specialized algorithms and...
Prepreg is widely used in composite manufacturing with advanced composites such as carbon and aramid. The material is characterized by a degree of flexibility (drape) and stickiness (tack), which allows an efficient layup on molds with complex shapes. However, axial instability of compressed fibers during the molding process may occur,...
The perception of a long-term cost advantage of synthetic infill turf systems relative to natural grass systems has contributed to a rise in their popularity in the USA. However, few comprehensive cost assessments of natural grass and synthetic infill systems exist. There are also no studies looking at interactions between...
Drought is expected to increase in many parts of the world and has been shown to affect tree physiology and growth, with seedlings being particularly vulnerable. Seedling drought responses are often species dependent, and even within species different populations may demonstrate a spectrum of responses to drought, from susceptibility to...
Observations of the Oregon coast’s physical oceanography over the last few decades have revealed falling dissolved oxygen levels associated with seasonal upwelling, as well as rising water temperatures. In extreme cases, these changes have been associated with die-offs, redistribution, and decreased abundance and diversity of benthic fish and invertebrates. Many...
A significant number of historically existing wetlands that naturally stored rainwater and attenuated flood peaks have now been drained and employed as new farming areas. Beyond the water quality and flow problem, this has resulted in loss of natural habitats of diverse ecological species. Restoring wetlands have hence been proposed...
Phytoplankton and microzooplankton comprise the base and the first link of the marine food web, respectively. These microbes are key drivers of marine carbon and nutrient cycles. Phytoplankton convert atmospheric CO₂ into organic carbon, and microzooplankton consume phytoplankton, packaging phytoplankton carbon into particulate forms that have a variety of fates:...
Photoluminescence (PL) materials have attracted a lot of attention in last several decades. Recently PL materials, which can convert low-efficiency Ultraviolet (UV) or Infrared (IR) light to high-efficiency visible light, have been widely applied in the research of improving conversion efficiency of solar cell. As one of the most common...
Real time networks (RTNs) have become popular for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) surveys because highly accurate positions can be derived in seconds to minutes compared to hours as required with static sessions. To evaluate the accuracy of these shorter-duration, RTN GNSS observations and their potential for use as a...
Effective management of urban forests is vital to society due to the numerous ecological, economic, and social benefits they provide. In many cities, management efforts are commonly supported by citizen advisory groups, which are often generically referred to as “tree boards” within the urban forestry context. Very little is known...
The marine environment is under increasing pressure from human activities worldwide, particularly in coastal waters, creating a need to better understand fine-scale distributions of highly mobile species that occur in the area, as they are frequently most threatened. Harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) occur frequently in Oregon’s nearshore habitat, but due...
Most benthic marine organisms have a bipartite life with an early pelagic stage that enables dispersal of offspring, connecting spatially separated populations, and a late stage where individuals reside in a benthic habitat. Settlement of pelagic offspring to bottom associated substrates is the process that connects the two life history...
Recently, there has been peaked interest in developing high energy producing and optimized power take-off topologies for Wave Energy Converters (WEC). As large as the potential of the oceans may seem, harnessing that energy and effectively converting it to electricity in significant amounts is a challenge. Currently, there are no...
Current research on the topic of advanced reactor fuel types include the use of ultrahigh density Uranium-Molybdenum fuels, towards their use in high-performance research reactors. These reactors operate with high power densities, and the increased cooling requirements therefore place high relevance on the fluid-structure interaction with these fuel elements; therefore...
A scaling analysis of the Oregon State University (OSU) - Multi-Application Small Light Water Reactor (MASLWR) system has been developed, and an existing RELAP5-3D model of the facility was improved. The purpose of this study is to support the research of hybrid energy systems, being led by Idaho National Laboratory...
A year-long, bench-scale treatability study was performed to assess whether an activated sludge sequencing batch reactor could be used to treat an influent stream of 50/50 (v/v) municipal wastewater and landfill leachate to discharge standards established by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. One primary obstacle that was exposed during...
Plants often encase seeds in a nutritional reward to incentivize seed dispersal by birds and mammals, but these seeds may also be removed and destroyed by seed predators. Although birds are typically thought to be the primary seed dispersers of berries in temperate systems, in southeast Alaska and other salmon-bearing...
All nuclear reactors rely heavily on the use of level sensing instrumentation to detect the behaviour of liquid in vessels. The majority of level sensing instruments are differential pressure sensing meters, which are invasive and could be the failure source in the pressure boundary of the primary coolant system. In...
Flaxseed is a rich source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Feeding laying hens flax seed can increase n-3 fatty acids content (FA) in eggs, thus increasing human intake of n-3 FA. However, non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), which decreases digestibility of dietary lipids and proteins. Addition of carbohydrase enzymes to flax-based layer diets...
The use of an antibiotic as a growth promoter (AGP) began in the 1940’s with the discovery of growth responses from Streptomyces aureofaciens in the monogastric diet. However, resistance and residue problems have increased the negative consumer perception of growth promoting antibiotic use in animal diets. Although no direct link...
Non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) are found at low levels in fresh raw milk and are important to the dairy industry because of their potential impact on the flavor and texture of yogurt, sour cream, and cheese. The purpose of this study was to evaluate three methods for the identification...
Reed Canarygrass (RCG) is an aggressive invader in aquatic ecosystems that swiftly modifies the environment and decreases biodiversity. A physical model was used to investigate the mechanisms by which RCG spreads. Experimental trials were implemented to examine feedbacks between a mid-channel patch of the flexible RCG, hydraulics, and bedform evolution...
Forest soils contain a substantial portion of global terrestrial carbon stores. Forest management can influence the soil carbon pool and how soil organic matter functions. The long-term productivity of forests is an ongoing goal where land managers utilize biomass and timber. A site-specific understanding of intensively managed forests can ensure...
Cobalt germanides have been widely studied as semiconductor contact materials, but recent theoretical studies suggest that they may also be excellent catalysts for methane steam reforming with stabilities and activities comparable to noble metal catalysts. In order to study the catalytic activity of cobalt germanides, it is critical to first...
The need for less toxic quantum dots (QDs) has led to a significant number of investigations related to copper indium sulfide (CIS) QDs. Lower toxicity and broad band absorbance width makes CIS QDs appealing for light emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, sensors, bio-imaging, solar cells, and computing. The optical and electronic...
With the development of technologies in genome sequencing and variant detection, a huge number of variants are detected. To further analyze the variants, it requires an efficient tool to annotate the functional effect of variants. This project managed to develop an efficient program to annotate the functional effect of variants...
Debugging, an integral part of software development, is difficult for end-user programmers, especially in the case of complex programs. The process of isolating errors is time consuming without the help of debugging support provided by the tool. For example, the visual programming tool LondonTube supports creation of custom mobile-cloud-web applications,...
This research investigates shape optimization process, using b-spline models and panel methods, to achieve a high lift to drag ratio for an aerodynamic structure. This research is a proof of concept for further research in aerodynamic shape optimization. The coupled process, involving the design and optimization of a random shape,...
The corrosion behaviors of carbon and stainless steels were investigated in supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂ ) containing H₂O and O₂ simulating conditions that exist in direct sCO₂ power cycle heat exchangers. Thermodynamic properties of CO₂-H₂O-O₂ systems related to the corrosion phenomena were determined using NIST software. The exposure tests of the...
Boiling heat transfer is studied for its ability to dissipate high fluxes and achieve heat transfer coefficients two orders of magnitude greater than single-phase heat transfer systems. Heater surface enhancement with increased surface area, varied geometry, wettability contrast and micro/nano-structures can further enhance boiling heat transfer performance through bubble nucleation...
The current state of research on gossip techniques for wireless broadcasting is very limited because past research efforts have mostly focused on using gossip techniques for multicast communication. On the other hand, those research efforts that have focused on using gossip techniques for wireless broadcast communications ignore energy efficiency and...
The Steel Plate Shear Wall (SPSW) system, is an innovative seismic lateral force resistant system, which has experienced increased use over the last three decades. The SPSW system is composed of boundary elements which anchor web plates that develop diagonal tension fields. A number of SPSW buildings have been built...
Measuring surface heat flow at the Hikurangi Trough is key toward characterizing the local thermal regime and the influence of thermally sensitive processes such as fluid flow and slow slip. Marine heat flow data were collected during May– June 2015 in the northern Hikurangi Trough at sites seaward and landward...
Large-hydrocarbon fuels are used for ground and air transportation because of their high energy-density and will be for the foreseeable future. However, combustion of large-hydrocarbon fuels in a turbulent environment is poorly understood and difficult to predict. The turbulent flame speed, which is the velocity at which a flame front...