Studies that have examined watershed groups have lacked the analysis of an empirical national data set to account for the factors that affect watershed groups growth and variation. This has made it difficult to assume any particular relationship between the presence of watershed groups and any environmental, social or political...
Connecting with nature is associated with social, physical, and emotional benefits such as stress relief, improved physical health, and lower crime. Parks and other natural areas offer spaces in which to connect with nature and reap these and other benefits (e.g., family bonding, social events, learning). Despite increasing populations of...
State-of-the-art, high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques for acquisition of metabolomic and lipidomic data coupled with advanced computational methods provide new opportunities for interpreting large and complex datasets and comprehending the underlying biological processes of diseases. Both metabolomics and lipidomics strive to obtain comprehensive analyses of small molecules, i.e., metabolites and lipids,...
Each year the United States: Forest Service (USFS) spends billions of dollars fighting forest fires. One strategy used by the USFS to prevent catastrophic fires is through forest restoration programs, in which potential forest fuel is removed through mechanized thinning. This program is expensive and generates high volumes of small-diameter...
Pin and hanger assemblies are a common type of connection used in past engineering practice for steel girder bridges. The connection consists of pins, hanger plates, and girder ends. The connection detail was used widely between 1930 and 1980. The connections are considered fracture critical and nonredundant because connection failure...
Science is one of the fundamental building blocks of modern societies, and though some science topics are easily accepted by public audiences, others generate intense social controversy by challenging beliefs that are fundamental to a person’s, or group’s, identity. The Theory of Evolution is one of these “hot-button” issues, as...
The aim of this thesis is to study past 10 years of security vulnerabilities reported against Linux Kernel and all existing mitigation techniques that prevent the exploitation of those vulnerabilities. To systematically study the security vulnerabilities, they were categorized into classes and sub-classes based on their type.
This thesis first...
Vibrio parahaemolyticus infections in the United Stated have been linked to consumption of raw shellfish, particularly oysters, with symptoms of headache, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting. Depuration, as a post-harvest process, has a long history of being applied in shellfish industry to reduce sewage bacteria. In order to reduce the...
Mixed-initiative programming entails collaboration between a computer system, and a human to achieve some desired goal or set of goals. Often these goals change or are amended in real time during the course of program execution. As such, the plans these programs are based on must adapt and evolve to...
Phase change memory materials are a set of chalcogenide or pnictogenide materials systems currently being researched for use in optical and resistive based memory systems due to their large change in optoelectronic properties between the amorphous and the crystalline states. For these materials systems to be considered as a suitable...
Modern plant pathology benefits from integrating methods and concepts from evolutionary biology. For example, evolutionary concepts are used to identify and examine species boundaries of plant pathogens, recognize processes underlying pathogen biogeography, identify traits that characterize emerging species, and discover new molecular interactions that originate under processes of selection. In...
Cross-seasonal effects, where conditions in one season can have consequences in a following season, can have population-level implications for migratory species. To assess the presence of cross-seasonal effects on a migratory dabbling duck population, we examined the relative importance of habitat conditions in multiple seasons on the subsequent productivity of...
Successfully predicting an accurate estimated cost is important in the assembly planning process. When designing an assembly plan, an accurate estimation ensures that the proposed plan can be achieved within the predetermined budget. However, achieving an accurate prediction is a challenge since it requires professional judgment, which is dependent upon...
The developmental milestones of Sustainability are consistent with the post-normal versus traditional science, where transdisciplinary and policy/action research are among the important approaches to be added to traditional analysis. This shift requires a new perspective to look at the problem at hand: we are no longer considering a group of...
Parasites are ubiquitous members of ecological communities, capable of contributing to the decline of vulnerable populations. Therefore, monitoring parasite level is a critical component for host management. Molecular tools, such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), can be valuable additions to monitoring protocols that assess parasitic disease risk to hosts....
Methanotrophic bacteria are promising means of producing value-added products as they have the ability to transform methane under atmospheric temperature and pressure. Efforts to develop methanotrophs to produce value-added products are hoped to incentivize a decrease in methane flaring operations. The data collected during this study was used to inform...
Dynein is a motor protein which transports cargo along tracks inside the cell. Like related motor proteins kinesin and myosin, dynein uses cellular energy to take steps with its two foot domains. Unlike kinesin or myosin, dynein’s stepping pattern is highly varied: it can take steps between zero and 60nm...
In recent years, zoos and aquariums have become prominent centers for environmental education and have focused much of their organizational efforts towards conservation and inspiring conservation action among visitors. However, there is little research available to support the efficacy of these efforts, especially in relation to the behavioral outcomes associated...
Resulting from the action of wind over open water surfaces, water waves contain colossal amounts of energy that has not yet been harnessed. Seen as a very promising source for renewable energy generation, many studies have tried to make wave energy a cost competitive source by investigating optimal designs of...
Coastal and estuarine flooding and erosion events are usually driven by the cumulative effect of multiple individual processes like waves, streamflow, storm surge, and/or tides. This dissertation focuses on separating the influence of the regional and local-scale geomorphologic and hydrodynamic processes driving variability in the magnitude and impacts of extreme...
One assisted reproductive tool used to propagate highly desirable genetics from elite sire and dam matings is embryo transfer. Superovulation is the first part of the overall protocol and it is a required yet costly and biologically stressful procedure in cattle embryo transfer. The process of superovulation results in high...
Although the seafood processing industry is vital to Alaska’s economy, limited research has addressed workers’ safety and health. Federal and state regulators have classified both offshore and onshore seafood processing worksites in Alaska as high-hazard environments; however, there is a dearth of published information on safety and health outcomes in...
Shortnose Sucker (Chasimistes brevirostris) and Lost River Sucker (Deltistes luxatus) are endemic to the Upper Klamath Basin of Southern Oregon and Northern California. Populations of these fishes have been dwindling since the 1960’s and both species where listed to as endangered in 1988. Poor recruitment is thought to be a...
Although dam construction has been an integral tool in development initiatives for nearly a century, dams can have significant negative impacts on local residents, particularly those who are permanently displaced from their homes and must be resettled elsewhere. Dams have unique impacts on indigenous peoples. As a result, many dam...
Our understanding of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) variability in forested stream systems with minimal disturbance is confounded by the complex interactions of hydrologic and biogeochemical controls. In this thesis, our studies evaluate the variability of stream water N and P in a forested, headwater system in the Oregon Coast...
Demands of today's integrated society dependent on communication systems have driven the creation of ever more efficient analog-to-digital converters. For the same reasons, digital circuitry has rapidly expanded to serve all the different systems and needs of consumers. The trend of technology development has been to make these digital circuits...
Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are the key building block for sensor applications, such as wireless communications and digital electronics. These applications require ADCs to have medium to high accuracy (normally from 10-14 bits) and relatively low signal bandwidth (ranging from 100Hz-150kHz). Since these applications are often powered by batteries, high power...
Federally designated wilderness areas in the United States are uniquely required to provide opportunities for particular types of recreational experiences. According to the Wilderness Act of 1964, the law that governs the management of designated wilderness in the U.S., wilderness areas are to provide “outstanding opportunities for solitude or a...
Despite its promise as a potentially beneficial new source of energy, the ocean-based renewable energy industry is still in its infancy, and like any new idea there are many unknowns with the potential to affect both people and our natural environments. A permit for marine renewable energy (MRE) must cut...
The solution chemistry and kinetic behavior of hafnium peroxy sulfate solutions ("HafSOx") is described in terms of peroxide content and solution speciation. Additionally, thin film behavior, including thermal behavior and solubility, is characterized, and a mechanism of patterning is presented, as well as parameters that should be considered when looking...
War and persecution have devastating consequences, and the United States (U.S.) has a time-honored commitment to providing refuge to those most afflicted. Over the last four decades, the U.S. has provided sanctuary to more than 3.2 million refugees through its resettlement programs (U.S. Department of State, 2015a). Burma’s long-standing civil...
The history of a software project plays a vital role in the software development process. Version control systems enable users of a software repository to look at the evolution of the source code, and see the changes that led to newer versions. Currently, version control systems provide commands that can...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental contaminants produced mainly from the incomplete combustion and pyrolysis of organic matter. PAHs are among the major contaminants at over 800 Superfund sites, nationwide. Thermal remediation is used as a method to remediate soils contaminated with PAHs through the use of heat to mobilize...
Data variations are prevalent in real-world applications. For example, software vendors have to handle numerous variations in the business requirements, conventions, and environmental settings of a software product. In database-backed software, the database of each version may have a different schema and content. As another example, data scientists often need...
Laser Scanning represents a new opportunity in forestry to effect meaningful change in the methods used for collection and analysis of inventory data. With the ability to collect spatial information in 360 degrees, while fluidly tracking the sensor and building the final point cloud, large tracks of terrestrial LiDAR based...
In genome-wide association studies, it is often challenging to have consistent findings from independent studies. This "lack of reproducibility" issue is partially caused by the relatively small sample size compared to the number of genetic markers in every single study. Therefore, researchers have developed statistical methods to integrate multiple studies...
Environmental magnetic techniques have been used to discriminate sources of sediments from a variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. In many studies, magnetic properties such as susceptibility, have served as a proxy for heavy metal concentrations. In these cases, there tends to be enhancement of magnetic minerals. The study presented...
The work of engineering education researchers has resulted in the development of research-based instructional strategies (RBISs) aimed at providing educators with means to increase student learning. Research has shown that there is a disconnect between the development of RBISs and their use by educators. Means to make new practices more...
Queer birthing parents in the Pacific Northwestern United States have multifaceted and variable paths when it comes to conceiving a family. With the innovations in assisted reproductive technology accompanying the wider acceptance and recognition of gender and sexual difference in mainstream society, a greater number of queer birthing parents are...
The corrosion and degradation of Ni and its alloys in supercritical carbon dioxide (Sc-CO2) is an emerging issue for material selection and implementation of Sc-CO2 thermal cycles in industry. In this study, we apply density functional theory (DFT) to study the initial steps of carburization of the Ni (111) surface...
This thesis addresses the problem of temporal action segmentation in videos, where the goal is to label every video frame with the appropriate action class present. We focus on the domain of NFL football videos, where action classes represent common football play types. For action segmentation, we use a temporal...
Fungi are the primary biological agents of wood deterioration and cause major economic losses of wood products globally. Wood in outdoor applications tends to remain wet for extended time periods, making it susceptible to fungal attack. Understanding the factors involved in fungal colonization of wood is important for developing improved...
Skeletal muscle is the largest organ in the body by mass, comprising roughly 40% of total bodyweight in adults. It plays diverse and unique roles that include movement, locomotion, and support for posture and internal organs, among others. The structural foundation for all skeletal muscle in adults is formed early...
Differential expression (DE) analysis allows us to identify genes that respond differently under varying experimental conditions, therefore granting us an understanding of the molecular basis of phenotypic variation. Following the identification of significantly differentially expressed genes, it is often of the researcher's interest to elucidate hidden patterns or groups in...
An analysis on the work of Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" and his ability to create powerful imagery and contextualize the unknown of war for the those who have never taken part.
--Vietnam Experience Final Paper
Steel Slit Panel Frames (SSPFs) are an innovative and resilient lateral force resisting system. Steel Slit Panels (SSPs) are bolted to the beams and act as replaceable seismic fuses, dissipating energy through flexural yielding in links between vertical rows of slits. SSPFs have shown promise as a lateral force resisting...
The recent increase in the number of wireless devices has been driven by the growing markets of smart homes and the Internet of Things (IoT). Consequently, current research has focused on efficient utilization of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum to accommodate such an increase in wireless bandwidth. Alternatively, latest free-space...
A large, multi-year experimental program has been conducted to develop a strain gaging program for application to the flow testing of prototypic, plate-type fuel for high performance research reactors. This test program has resulted in the selection of appropriate strain gage construction, adhesives, and protective coatings to allow the
acquisition...
In many traditional computer graphics applications, rendered scenes typically utilize 3D meshes to represent objects within an environment. As the demand to further improve the realism of graphics applications increases, such as for movies and games, it is becoming more important to represent the inner volumes of object meshes. In...
This brochure educates international travelers about the risks associated with bringing certain types of food, plants, and agricultural items in passenger luggage into the United States.
Since its inception in 1985, the Tri‐State variety development program has primarily focused on the development of processing and dual‐purpose (process and fresh) russets. Recent breeding efforts have focused more on improving genetic resistance to various pests and diseases as a means of lowering production costs. During the past decade,...
Background: Tidal wetlands are important habitats for salmon and a diversity of other fish and wildlife species. They also trap sediment, buffer coastal communities from flooding and erosion, and perform other valued ecosystem services. Tidal wetlands currently exist just at and above sea level, and healthy tidal wetlands are able...
We monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) along the central and south coast of Oregon from 5 April – 14 September 2017. The project area surveyed and monitored for plover activity from north to south included Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River...
This presentation summarizes the MidCoast Watersheds Council's project on the impacts of SLR on tidal wetlands in Oregon. Please see the project report for details (linked in Related Items below).
Total emissions from the US contribute 15% to the global emissions. The construction industry is a major source of the exhaust emissions produced. Use of light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty trucks for various construction activities contributes 83% to the total greenhouse gases produced. Construction equipment comprises of on-road and non-road equipment,...
When wheat is exposed to rain in the period before harvest, it sometimes causes the problem of pre-harvest sprouting (PHS). Wheat that undergoes sprouting has poor end-use quality and is less valuable. In recent years, the U. S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) has experienced increased summer showers sometimes causing widespread PHS....
The red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) of Manitoba, Canada, have been extensively studied for decades with little investigation into their immune system. These animals live very close to the arctic circle and spend over half of the year underground brumating. The annual cycle of the red-sided garter snakes make...
Collaborative decision-making is often promoted as a means to achieve socially acceptable and enduring solutions to natural resource management issues, and one that holds promise for resolving “wicked” problems. However, success rates for implementation of collaborative recommendations are unknown. This paper explores challenges to collaborative salmon fishery management in Prince...
This work describes the design and modification of a commercial children’s ride-on car to effectively collect usage data. The design is cheap and could be easily modified to gather more information. This will serve as a viable way to collect information about how motorized independence can help children with developmental...
Rising human populations and climate change are putting increasing demands on our already-limited freshwater sources. In response to these concerns, homeowners and municipalities have been encouraged to replace turfgrass – a plant with relatively high irrigation needs – with drought-tolerant plants that do not require frequent irrigation. However, the many...
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, iron was commonly used to provide tensile resistance for preservation and restoration of historical buildings. A major factor contributing to increasing the deterioration and degradation of historic structures is corrosion of ferrous materials. One approach to avoid long-term degradation of iron and...
The nursing profession has long sought more diversity in registered nurses (RNs) to reflect the populations served. One way to enhance RN diversity is through diversity in community college (CC) associate degree in nursing (ADN) programs.
Since ADN programs lead to professional employment with middle-class wages, they form an important...
Marine sediments are one of the largest habitats for microbial life on earth. These microorganisms play critical roles in biogeochemical cycling both within the subsurface and between the sediment and water columns. However, microbial communities in sediments are highly heterogeneous and the factors defining microbial community structure and metabolic function...
Congenital hearing loss is a common disorder and over 60 mutations in the sensory hair cell protein, otoferlin, have been linked to pre-lingual deafness. Although otoferlin is essential for hearing, the large size and low solubility of the protein have limited approaches to study its function on a molecular-level. To...
Dry reforming of methane to syngas using CO2 was performed in a solar-driven milli-scale reactor, which converts solar energy to chemical energy. The process aims to upgrade the energy content of the feed stream using sustainable energy. The effect of mean residence time, temperature and CO2:CH4 ratio on conversion and...
Coastal communities throughout the US West Coast and elsewhere are facing the daunting task of preparing for climate change impacts, particularly the hazards from increased flooding and erosion. With sea-level rise, changing storminess patterns, and possible changes to the frequency and severity of major El Niño events, communities are already...
Data centers have been charged a great amount of electric bill by the power company and demand charge can contribute up to 40% of the electric bill due to the "random" workload. This phenomenon can be avoided by using the existing Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) as the assistant power source...
Urban green space is associated with multiple physical and mental health outcomes. Several benefits of green space, such as stress reduction and attention restoration, are dependent on visual perception of green space exposures. However, traditional green space exposure measures do not capture street-level exposures. In this project, we apply deep...
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are RNA molecules that are at least 200 nucleotides long and do not encode proteins. lncRNAs have roles in gene regulation, chromatin epigenetics, and molecular scaffolding. In light of mounting evidence implicating species-specific noncoding RNAs and gene regulatory mechanisms in species adaptations, it is reasonable to...
During the 1400s – 1600s, spalted wood was an expensive commodity used in marquetry style artworks across primarily Germany and Italy. It fell out of favor during the Industrial Revolution, but is currently experiencing resurgence in popularity with US woodturners. How spalted wood is used, and what types of spalted...
Research has shown that African Americans/Blacks, especially those with low socioeconomic status, acknowledge athletics as an avenue for upward mobility (Coakley, 2011). Although the chances of becoming a professional athlete might seem unachievable through sports, athletes develop tangible and intangible abilities that transfer and are useful in the years following...
Using a combination of population‐ and individual‐based analytical approaches, we provide a comprehensive examination of genetic connectivity of Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) along ~1,200 km of the California Current System (CCS). We sampled individuals at 33 sites in 2012 to establish a baseline of genetic diversity and hierarchal population genetic...
The study and utilization of Danio rerio (Zebrafish) as a model organism has increased greatly in recent decades. They are used in many areas of biological research, but one field that has used them extensively is immunology. Since zebrafish have been found to possess many orthologs to human genes, study...
This dissertation addresses object recognition in challenging settings, where distinct object classes are visually very similar (e.g., species of birds and insects) and/or access to training examples of object classes is limited (e.g., due to the associated high costs of data annotation). In this dissertation, we present a variety of...
The advancement of new manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacturing enable significantly greater freedom of design compared to conventional techniques. Of significant interest is what improvements could be made in the design of cold plates and heat sinks for electronics cooling. Greater design freedom could potentially enable new designs that...
Chronic disease is costly to treat and burdensome for those living with its impacts. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2017), 117 million Americans currently live with chronic disease, and one in four adults live with two or more chronic diseases. The burden placed on the U.S....
Femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) is a powerful ultrafast technique which can track photoinduced excited state structural events on femtosecond (fs) to picosecond (ps) timescales. In addition to high temporal and spectral resolutions, FSRS provides a broad spectral window from ca. 100—2000 cm-1 for detection, enabling the direct mapping of...
Complex information environments are often organized as hierarchies. However, computational models of Information Foraging Theory (IFT) have almost entirely ignored this fact. Models and tools for predicting programmer navigations have ignored people’s foraging behavior across hierarchies —called hierarchical foraging. Without modeling hierarchical foraging, our ability to build tools to support...
Large amounts of energy are wasted when conditioned air in buildings is exhausted to meet ventilation requirements. There are several technologies to recover some of this energy, including the recent development of membrane based energy recovery ventilators (ERVs). ERVs exchange sensible heat and moisture between incoming fresh and outgoing exhaust...
Assessing and understanding intelligent agents can be a difficult task for users who may lack an artificial intelligence (AI) background. A relatively new area, called “explainable AI,” is emerging to help address this problem, but little is known about how to present and structure information that an explanation system might...
In recent years, many studies have focused on the molecular and biochemical mechanisms regulating the development of wine grapes. The course of grape berry development is directed by genetic design and is mediated by phytohormones, which regulate grape berry growth and development by orchestrating a complex network of interacting genes,...
The purpose of this thesis is to propose swiveling behavior as a potential speech transitioning device and to discuss the methodology behind qualitative and quantitative analysis of swivels in relation to subjects’ partners. Due to the impacts of gaze and body orientation direction on speech transitioning, it is deduced that,...
The prison abolition movement has made some significant headway in fighting the prison industrial complex in the United States over the past several years. However, the primary focus of the movement remains on the existence of prison facilities. There is a crucial need to address the role that local law...
Foot pathology is a real problem in captive elephants. Osteoarthritis is the major concern among musculoskeletal disorders and foot health problems for elephants in North America zoos with one-‐half of Elephants in captivity showing foot health care problems in zoos. A higher ratio of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) is...
Igneous oceanic crust encompasses ~60% of Earth’s surface and is composed of basalt glass and mafic, ultramafic, and felsic minerals. A vast marine aquifer lies within the crust, exchanging geochemically altered fluids with seawater from the overlying ocean at ridge crests, flanks, seamounts, and outcrops where permeable crust is exposed....
Guest lecture delivered to ALS 199 class.
Provides an overview of OSU athletics with specific focus on football, men's basketball, wrestling, baseball, track and field, and women's athletics. Presentation includes a discussion of the history of recreational sports at Oregon State as well as the ways in which women's athletic...
Mastering the art and craft of cinematography is a lifelong endeavor requiring an unfaltering amount of passion and commitment to developing creative and technical skills of visual storytelling. Like authors of literature, cinematographers are writers. However, instead of words a cinematographer speaks a visual language using light and camerawork. In...
Calls for reform within engineering education frequently cite the need to better prepare the future workforce for the imminent challenges that they will face. The focus in preparing students for the workforce is often on the educational system and not on understanding the actual workplace. But if we are to...
Thin foil samples of special nuclear materials (SNMs) were irradiated for 60s using a Mark TRIGA II reactor, and their associated gamma emissions were recorded with a count time of 60s following irradiation. A rapid pneumatic transfer system was used to irradiate the samples in front of beam port #4....
Many of Earth’s terrestrial large carnivore species are threatened with extinction. As a result, some of the ecological effects associated with these species may be lost. With the goal of furthering large carnivore conservation research, I conduct three global scale analyses involving these species. First, I explore prey depletion as...
Drilled shaft foundations provide significant geotechnical resistance for support of structures, such as highway bridges, traffic sign, and signal pole structures, and are used widely to meet their structural foundation requirements. The amount of steel reinforcement in drilled shaft foundations has increased over the past several decades to account for...
Many marine mammal predators, particularly pinnipeds, have increased in abundance in recent decades, generating new challenges for balancing human uses with recovery goals via ecosystem-based management. We used a spatio-temporal bioenergetics model of the Northeast Pacific Ocean to quantify how predation by three species of pinnipeds and killer whales (Orcinus...
Many marine mammal predators, particularly pinnipeds, have increased in abundance in recent decades, generating new challenges for balancing human uses with recovery goals via ecosystem-based management. We used a spatio-temporal bioenergetics model of the Northeast Pacific Ocean to quantify how predation by three species of pinnipeds and killer whales (Orcinus...
The researcher investigated Chinese older adults’ (defined here as 50 and over) housing needs and evaluated their perceptions on senior cohousing. The main purposes of the project were to understand the basic and long term housing and elderly care demands of older adults; to identify desirable amenities and services in...
The research presented herein focuses on electrical assessment of oxide thin films as insulators. The current density-electric field (J-E) characteristics of four insulators of dramatically different electrical quality are assessed in terms of their operative electronic conduction mechanisms. Conduction in the two high-quality insulators is dominated by Ohmic conduction and...
Despite decades of cleanup efforts, chlorinated solvents are some of the most common groundwater and subsurface contaminants of the industrialized world. These compounds include chlorinated ethenes (CEs) such as trichloroethene (TCE) and chlorinated methanes (CMs) such as carbon tetrachloride (CT). Dehalococcoides mccartyi belongs to a class of microorganisms called organohalide-respiring...
Context: Regular physical activity has increasingly been recommended to promote human health and wellbeing. However, information on participation in physical activities by people with disabilities is relatively scarce. The aim of this article is to conduct a systematically review of studies on physical activity among people with disabilities in mainland...
The aims of this study were to determine university students’ reasons for enrolling in physical activity courses (PACs) at institutions with different course policy arrangements, and to determine whether those reasons were associated with students’ motivation, competence, and weekly exercise METs. University students (N = 612) enrolled at two universities...