ROSS (Robotic Oceanographic Surface Sampler) is an autonomous boat, equipped with oceanographic sensors, used for studying the ocean’s surface. One of its advantages over traditional research vessels is its ability to sample near glaciers, an area too dangerous for manned ships. In order to properly ascertain deep ocean heat’s effect...
This thesis discusses the African American authors Richard Wright and James Baldwin, and their views regarding how literature should be written. These views are examined as laid out in a selection of each author‟s essays, as well as through an analysis of the characters Bigger Thomas and Rufus Scott in...
Forest harvest practices can impact nutrient concentrations and stream temperatures, altering aquatic ecosystems. To better inform future sustainable forest resource management practices, quantifying the impact of current practices on water quality, particularly in headwater streams is important. In this study, I quantified monthly nitrate-nitrite (N) and orthophosphate (P) concentrations, 7-day...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of wildfire on soil hydraulic properties of forested hillslopes. The study site was located within the Stouts Creek wildfire, which burned approximately 10,705 ha of forest in southwestern Oregon in summer 2015. Three soil hydraulic properties (soil moisture, unsaturated hydraulic...
This study investigated learning in three engineering student clubs at a large public university. This included a small-sized chemical reaction car competition, a large-sized formula racing team, and an international humanitarian engineering club. Research methods included observations of work sessions (N=27) and semi-structured interviews (N=19). Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory...
Metacarcinus magister, the Dungeness crab, is a commercially important species on the Pacific Northwest coast as the most profitable fishery in Oregon and an important ecological player as both predator and prey. Understanding the spatial distribution of Dungeness throughout different life history stages is beneficial both ecologically and economically. Zostera...
Anthropogenic CO₂ emissions are shifting the global climate equilibrium, causing widespread losses in biodiversity. Anthozoan cnidarians are some of the species most vulnerable to environmental change. Environmental stress causes corals and sea anemones to expel their endosymbiotic algae, which constitute a primary source of nutrition for some Anthozoa. Carbonic anhydrase...
Falls in older adults are a significant issue in the United States. Many older adults are advised to participate in fall prevention exercise programs in an attempt to increase strength and stability, but it is unclear what role limb dominance and potential limb asymmetry has in exercise performance. The purpose...
Every year, hundreds of low-income families on the Oregon Coast are forced to choose between putting food on the table and paying the bills. A local, non-profit agency on the Oregon Coast is working to alleviate the level of crisis that many families face, by offering a holistic approach to...
The primary goal was to characterize the adsorption of a recombinant therapeutic protein
in the presence of selected surfactant species at the air-water interface. For this purpose,
dynamic interfacial tensiometry was used to determine the surface tension kinetics
exhibited by protein solutions containing either Tween 80 or the poly[ethylene oxide]-...
The thermal cross sections and resonance integrals for neutron capture by ⁷⁴,⁷⁸,⁸⁰,⁸²Se were measured using the same procedure and equipment for all of the isotopes. Uncertainty and absence of accurate previous values for several isotopes introduces a need of measuring these parameters using similar techniques. This was done using OSU’s...
Ocean acidification has led to many issues regarding the decline of calcifying organisms, such as
coralline algae. Acidified sea water inhibits precipitation of CaCO3 that affects the structure and
growth of coralline algae. Therefore, non-calcifying algae may outcompete calcifying algae in the
intertidal systems with future acidic ocean condition. Variety...
The present study examined whether attention capture is driven by object saliency or contingent on top-down control setting using a go/no-go paradigm. Specifically, we investigated whether salient color singletons capture attention only when the target itself is also a singleton. We used a go/no-go task. Participants were told to search...
Juniper (Juniperus spp.) encroachment into the sagebrush steppe ecoregion is one of the main causes of sagebrush degradation and can alter the understory vegetative community by outcompeting native shrubs and grasses, which reduces the available forage and cover for small mammals. Coyotes (Canis latrans) are generalist, omnivorous predators in the...
The agricultural industry in the Western United States continues to possess issues of overwatering, accounting for over 80% of consumed water per year in the country. While technologies such as satellite imaging and sensor networks have slowly improved irrigation Best Management Practices to reduce superfluous water consumption, limitations associated with...
This study used a factorial mesocosm design to quantify American bullfrog (Lithobates castebeianus) eDNA to assess the relationship between body size, density, and eDNA shedding rates.
Understanding ecological interaction strengths is one of the main objectives of ecology. Recently, two methods for estimating interaction strengths of predator-prey interactions in nature have been proposed: a field observation approach proposed by Novak and Wootton (2008) and stable isotope analysis. The field observation method estimates feeding rates based on...
The push towards higher performing and more sensitive mixed signal circuitry has required the parallel development of increasingly more complex and sensitive test and calibration harnesses. Current off-chip methods of test and calibration may require higher pin counts or induce unwanted parasitic interference.
In this thesis, the design of a...
Oxytocin is a hormone well know for the stimulation of childbirth and milk letdown in mammals. Large levels of the hormone are also released during angiogenesis in the growth of the corpus luteum (CL), a temporary endocrine gland that forms on the ovaries following ovulation. Levels of oxytocin decline after...
This study seeks to examine the participation and representation of stakeholders involved in the Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force during their first year, culminating in the publishing of their Year One Report and Recommendations for actions with the goal of moving the Southern Resident killer whales toward recovery. This...
The doctor-patient relationship is one of the most unique and privileged relations
a person can have with another human being, and having access to a well-developed and
effective association is important for the experienced and objective quality of health care.
Yet, over the past few decades a number of cultural...
The doctor-patient relationship is one of the most unique and privileged relations a person can have with another human being, and having access to a well-developed and effective association is important for the experienced and objective quality of health care. Yet, over the past few decades a number of cultural...
Sex education plays a critical role in the development of youth sexual health and wellbeing. An ideal program is taught with honesty in an inclusive and respectful environment where students learn strategies to lower their risk of unwanted sexual outcomes, communication skills to build and navigate relationships, and necessary knowledge...
The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, to investigate the occurrence of displacement, adult word count (AWC), and child vocalization (CV), for two brothers, one with Down syndrome and one who is typically developing, on a minute level basis, in an inclusive play setting, over the course of two...
Gold nanostars are a relative newcomer to the nanoparticle scene, and their unique properties make them very desirable for spectroscopic applications. These nanoparticles, with their sharp tips, create electric field enhancements that interact with light in an advantageous way. This Thesis outlines our in-depth study of gold nanostar synthesis, the...
An experimental setup has been partially developed to investigate the impact of an actively controlled trailing edge component upon the energy harvesting performance of an oscillating airfoil in a pitching and heaving regime. While previous and current efforts have and continue to
function to characterize the performance of such a...
A long running problem in mathematical biology is the prediction of extinction events, a specialized case of the larger global stability problem found in differential equations and dynamical systems theory. A central technical question is how to introduce the randomness observed in real ecological systems not accounted for in deterministic...
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...
The public health framework of harm reduction was evaluated in one care setting to determine its potential for use in other fields of healthcare. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 clients of the HIV Alliance’s needle exchange program. Analysis of client responses revealed three themes: 1) harm reduction methods work...
Dutch elm disease (DED) is a disease of elm trees caused by three species of Ascomycota fungi: Ophiostoma ulmi, Ophiostoma novo-ulmi, and Ophiostoma himal-ulmi. There are also two subspecies of O. novo-ulmi: subsp. americana and subsp. novo-ulmi. The pathogen is spread by bark beetles, which inhabit and traverse different elms....
Pollen, the male product of the flower, is a crucial component in plant reproduction, as it transmits the sperm cells to the female structures, enabling fertilization and subsequent seed production. A major transition of the pollen life cycle, triggered upon pollination of female floral tissue, is from a dormant pollen...
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Anne-Marie Girard-Pohjanpelto, Committee Member, representing the Center for Genome and
This study focuses specifically on the investigation of a new, inexpensive geophone system and its application to monitor wave activity. Studies of seismic observations of coastal cliffs suggest that ground motions generated from local ocean waves may provide a surrogate to limited wave buoy data to quantify the wave contact...
Dry-hopping has grown from a novel to widespread technique in commercial craft beer production. It yields large returns in aroma that cannot be emulated with kettle hopping. However, it also leads to beer refermentation post-dry-hopping, a phenomenon colloquially referred to by U.S brewers as “hop creep.” This is a result...
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Christopher D. Curtin, Committee Member, representing the Department of Food Science
and
Hydrogels have been attractive for use as a medium in porous flow studies,
but have always been limited in this role because of their poor mechanical properties.
This project analyzes and tests two recently developed hydrogels,
poly(methacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) (PMM), and a heat-treated long chain
PVA hydrogel. Particle image velocimetry (PIV)...
Anime and manga’s general lack of brown and black characters may not seem unusual at first considering that the medium is produced in Japan by Japanese creators for Japanese audiences, and thus chiefly features Japanese characters. However, its significant proportion of white characters necessitates a more critical investigation of racial...
Rapid changes in global climate have put many species at risk, particularly niche
specialists. The Chisel-toothed kangaroo rat, Dipodomys microps, is thought to specialize on the desert shrub Atriplex confertifolia. Because of this close relationship, D. microps was presumed to have tracked the shrub as its distribution shifted south during...
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited genetic disease caused by a single gene mutation in the CFTR protein. Affecting 70,000 people worldwide, this disease is debilitating to patients, resulting in persistent lung infections and decreased quality of life. Due to the various mutation types, there is not currently a single drug...
The purpose of this thesis was to understand the relation between the actual performance and the design performance of the manufacturing plane which was designed for the 2016 Design/Build/Fly competition. The actual performance was determined using an Arduino Uno based system with data from an accelerometer, gyroscope and pitot tube....