Goats were the first livestock species to be domesticated by humans and continue to function as a key source of protein and economic value for many communities. In the sixteenth century, Spanish colonists brought goats to the Americas. Unlike other nations, the United States did not maintain a significant market...
My thesis in Environmental Arts and Humanities concerned the idea of animal language, as well as other posthuman ideas around animality and indistinction. I also explored virtual space as it relates to human identity, our notions of reality and perception, and the way contemporary digital artists approach animal subjectivity in...
Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are medium sized mustelids endemic to North America. Two fisher populations persist in Oregon: an indigenous population in southwestern Oregon, and a reintroduced population in the southern Cascade Mountains. Despite candidacy for listing under the Endangered Species Act, current information on fisher populations in Oregon is scarce....
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. To date, over 60% of current anticancer drugs were inspired by the discovery of chemical structure from nature, commonly known as a natural product. This work represents the biological characterization of several marine natural product compounds and their...
Several hardware-based security improvements to Near Field Communication (NFC) and Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) systems are developed and presented. The improvements are intended to be used in conjunction with software encryption to ensure robust security. Two main implementations for a more secure NFC or RFID system are presented: a jamming system,...
There have been many attempts to characterize and mimic natural fluid-based adhesive systems. However, very few of these studies have examined surface or interfacial interactions between adhesive and substrate. Furthermore, until now no study has used a combination of surface analytical and kinematic techniques to determine the precise chemical mechanisms...
Cementitious materials are often characterized through the use of advanced analytical techniques to understand the macro-, micro-, and nano-scale properties, including phase formation during hydration, and subsequent potential deterioration mechanisms which can affect service life. A major limitation with using such analytical techniques to quantify solid phases in cementitious systems...
Gunung Leuser is a national park in Sumatra Island, Indonesia. This park is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the country. For instance, it is home to endangered and endemic species of Indonesia, such as the Sumatran orangutan, the Sumatran tiger, the Sumatran elephant, and the Sumatran rhino....
The importance of data visualization is becoming increasingly more substantial to the field of optimization and engineering design where a carefully designed visualization of the data on decision parameters (i.e Decision Space) and performance functions (i.e Objective Space) is critical to the success of the decision making process.
One of...
Up to 99.9% of native North American grasslands have been degraded since European settlement, primarily due to agricultural conversion. Today, grasslands are a top priority for restoration as they provide essential habitat for many rare and endangered species; however, the majority of studies in grasslands have focused on vegetation or...