Turbulent flows with suspended, non-spherical particles are common in many natural and industrial processes. To identify the effects of anisotropic geometry on particle dynamics, a one-way coupled Lagrangian direct numerical simulation solver was written, verified, and used to collect data on particles simulated in multiple flows. This thesis explains the...
T. pseudonana biosilica and live cells was explored as a biosensor for detection of the explosive compound 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in aqueous solution. The diatom frustule is an intricately nanostructured, highly porous biogenic silica material derived from the shells of microscopic algae called diatoms. This material emits strong visible blue photoluminescence...
Red raspberry markets in both Chile and Oregon are affected by factors in each other‟s production processes. As seen in the late 1990‟s changes in pricing and supply can hinder the competitive edge of markets, pushing producers into economic hardship. Thus, the need to know the competition‟s methods is presented....
As new cost-effective cultivation methods are needed for macrophytic red algae, this experiment expands upon a previously studied land-based approach. The experiment aimed to determine how the fluid dynamics of a previously researched land-based method affected the growth of the macrophytic red alga, Gracilaria Vermiculophylla. A clonal culture of G....
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline porous material distinguished for high free empty volume and pore tunability. MOF-74(Ni) was previously shown to be effective in adsorbing carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen. Microwave-assisted synthesis of MOF-74(Ni) was shown to lower reaction time from days to hours. In this thesis, experimental conditions of...
Water-soluble quantum dots obtained through ligand exchange are widely applicable for biological imaging and marking, LEDs, and photovoltaics. Lipoic acid (LA) was reduced to dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) using 365-nm soft UV light in a process known as photoligation, and ligand exchange with dodecanethiol-capped CuInS₂-ZnS core-shell quantum dots occurred. The reaction...
Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has potential applications as a low-cost catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Defects on MoS2, such as edge sites and sulfur vacancies, are known to be the major active sites for HER. Controlling the formation of these defects allows for the enhancement in reactivity of MoS2...
Organic aggregates and transparent amorphous metals are transforming opto-electronic devices such as highly efficiency solar cells and flexible displays. We present a fundamental optical study of how local morphology critically impacts the device performance of both stacked, conjugated organics and In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) transparent metallic materials. Derivatives of anthradithiophene (ADT): ADTTES-F,...
The symbiotic sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana (Aiptasia) is a model organism used to better understand cnidarian-algal symbiosis and coral bleaching (dysbiosis). Many biological processes are hypothesized to be involved in coral dysbiosis, and the innate immunity is a key area of interest. Rab proteins are small proteins with GTPase domains,...
Childhood obesity is an extensively research topic as it effects a large number of individuals and has serious consequences on those effected. Current statistics estimate roughly 17% of the youth population is now obese. However, the spread of these cases is not equally distributed. Certain populations are at increased risk...
There is significant evidence that an increase in social media usage causes changes to mood and feelings about the self. It has also been found that there is a significant relationship between the extent of social media usage consumption and self-perception. Mimicking social media exposure, I focused on how participants...
Platinum and palladium surfaces are utilized as catalytic surfaces in the chemical industry. Understanding how hydrogen atoms interact with the metal surfaces will allow for further advancement in this area. Specifically, the interaction of hydrogen on the surface and subsurface of these metals was investigated using density functional theory calculations...
ASD is characterized primarily by deficits in social and communicative skills, however recent studies show differences in motor skills as well when compared to typically developing children. Because of these differences, parents of children with ASD may portray different behaviors than parents of typically developing children. This research aims to find...
Introduction: Swim-up has been considered a preferred method for separating non-motile sperm in an ejaculate. However, the long incubation time and equipment necessary for swim-up make this process clinically impractical. It was hypothesized that these problems could be avoided for canine applications with a shorter incubation time at room temperature...
Freeze desalination poses as a potential solution to many of the issues that accompany current desalination methods. The research detailed in this manuscript involves creating and analyzing a numerical model of the freezing operation of an indirect contact freeze-melting (FM) desalination system. In this initial analysis, pure water is frozen...
Ovarian steroidogenesis is heavily controlled by the formation and function of the theca cells. A condition known as polycystic ovarian disease in humans and cystic ovarian disease in cattle is due to abnormal steroidogenesis. Knowing more about theca cell formation and function can aid in gaining further knowledge about polycystic...
We found that a strains of Yersinia pestis (KIM5) which lacked the nhaA gene was fully attenuated in a plague model. This gene produces a protein of the sodium-proton antiporter family which expel sodium ions from the bacterial cytoplasm in exchange for hydrogen ions, or protons, from the surrounding environment....
The fundamental physics of turbulence in plasma is not well understood. Recent studies of the plasma deflagration accelerator in the High Temperature Gasdynamics Lab at Stanford University have demonstrated the presence of small scale instabilities that limit the lifetime of the jet/Z pinch and are not reproduced by coaxial plasma...
I investigate the feasibility of a micron-sized biosensor designed to measure neural activity. The circuitry of the biosensor is composed of graphene, some photodiodes, and a light-emitting diode. Many of these biosensors would be injected into a subject’s brain, and when powered by near-infrared light, they would glow in response...
Plant litter decomposition plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, and contributes large amounts of carbon to soils, which store more carbon than any other terrestrial pool of organic matter. Decomposition plays a fundamental role in nutrient cycling and alters soil properties that shape plant community composition and...
This study investigated the effect of captivity on the chemical profiles of the female sexual attractiveness pheromone of the red-sided garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis). Dorsal skin lipids were extracted from female garter snakes collected from the Interlake region of Manitoba, Canada. A comparison of captive and wild snakes was...
The Supreme Court Bar-the lawyers who argue before the US Supreme Court-has historically been an elite and exclusive group. This investigation examines the demographic make-up of the Supreme Court Bar in the Roberts Court and compares it to previous iterations of the Supreme Court Bar, as well as the national...
Ornithology is an exciting field with novel research emerging everyday. Researchers in bioacoustics often spend hours within the wilderness recording bird calls to analyze later in their lab. The burden of sifting through hours of audio recordings from the field continues to remain a time-consuming and manual task, despite the...
Drosophila suzukii was a known pest of berries, grapes, and stone fruits in East Asia for almost a century. Yet in recent years it has successfully migrated throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe due to globalized fruit trade. The invasive success of D. suzukii is causing unrest for fruit...
The current study investigated the way in which gender of a character and the presence or absence of a male stereotype affect the perceived masculinity of said character. Forty undergraduates from Oregon State University completed a questionnaire rating the masculinity of one of four possible characters – one male without...
Endophytes, foliage inhabiting fungi, are an unexplored source of fungal biodiversity and a potential resource for the production of bioactive natural products. In this research, leaf tissues from the species Arbutus menziesii, Rhododendron macrophyllum and the genus, Ilex and Salix were collected for the isolation of endophytic fungi. Fungal extracts...
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are used in ecosystem-based management (EBM) to increase the abundance and biomass of targeted species and protect their ecosystems by restricting certain human activities. Marine reserves (i.e. no-take MPAs) aim to achieve this by prohibiting harvest in the area. While MPAs are currently evaluated through assessments...
The largest source of uncertainty among climate models simulating the climate system response to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is the cloud feedback, the amplification or dampening of the warming from the carbon dioxide forcing by clouds. Refining our knowledge of the cloud feedback is therefore essential to gaining a...
Meso- and microplastic debris is becoming a rising coastal issue as more research highlighting the detrimental impacts this material has on marine organisms and the environment is performed. This research, however, continues to be conducted in a non-standardized manner meaning that the data being collected cannot be compared spatially or...
................................................................................................................ 13
V. REVIEW OF MESO- AND MICROPLASTIC SAMPLING METHODS ........... 14
VI. 5 GYRES PLASTIC BEACH
Introduction Over the past century, great technological advances have enabled high-speed communication and transportation across the globe. This technology trend combined with the needs of continuous expansion of market place has motivated major corporations not to restrict their business activities to within a single principality. Engineering design activities can take...
For centuries economists have attempted to explain what causes the ebb and flow of the economy. None thus far have been able to perfectly explain the nuances of the economy as a whole. In this paper, I explore the relationship between consumer lending volume and economic growth. Consumer lending is...
Ocean deoxygenation is predicted to increase in severity over the next few decades, posing a threat to marine life and fishing economies. Improved predictions of ocean deoxygenation depend on a better understanding of the biogeochemical mechanisms that underly this process. Within the realm of biogeochemical mechanisms, this project specifically investigated...
The relationship between physicians and patients is undeniably unique. To understand the qualities of a healing relationship, it is essential to analyze the perceptions that influence physician behavior. Metaphors and relationship models are often used in bioethics to analyze the construction of perceptions. The goal of this study is to...
Christian communities vary widely in their degrees of acceptability or apprehensiveness toward newly developing technologies, ultimately aiming to help individuals optimally grow in their relationships to God and with others. Technologies viewed as conducive to accomplishing these goals are more likely to be accepted by Christian communities. Technologies viewed as...
Most young musicians are taught to read music as early as they learn to play or sing. The first few pages of any beginning band book show a circle on a set of lines and spaces, declaring, “This is an A.” Of course, the circle is not an A. “A”...
With human activity causing increases in turbidity in coastal marine waters, it is of economic and ecological importance to understand how this increase will affect organisms living in these areas. At most risk may be predators, such as many teleosts and cephalopods, reliant on vision to detect and capture prey....
Sperm competition is the post-copulatory analog of male-male combat, wherein sperm
from more than one male coincide in a female’s reproductive tract and compete with one
another for fertilization of a limited number of ova. Post-copulatory sexual selection,
such as sperm competition, can be a powerful driving force for the...
Loop quantum gravity is a theoretical framework which aims to quantize general relativity. One of the unique aspects of this theory is that it imposes a discrete structure on space-time. One toy model of loop quantum gravity is loop quantum cosmology, which maintains the idea of a discrete spatial structure...
Background: While males generally outperform females in athletic tasks, the underlying mechanisms for this difference remain unclear. Explosive neuromuscular performance of the triple extensors, often investigated via rate of torque development (RTD), is crucial for athletic tasks such as a vertical jump. Purpose: To assess sex differences in rapid torque...
This work introduces the design and fabrication of a green-sourced and mostly biodegradable microbial fuel cell for use in soft robotic applications from environmental sensing to wastewater remediation. Theorized from other biodegradable fuel cells, this prototype achieved maximum power densities of 4.0 x 10−4 W/m2 in the single-chambered design and...
Slowly and half-heartedly the people of America have come to atone for past neglect of a poet who, under painful circumstances, produced the most distinctive and original contributions to American literature. They realize that the follies of his unfortunate life can be put aside and the weight of criticisms let...
Oysters are a large part of the American aquaculture market, and the oyster farming industry was valued at over 1 billion dollars in 2021. However, oyster farmers often face issues surrounding the mortality rates of their stock. One cause of this is infections caused by Vibrio coralliilyticus (Vcor), a bacterium...
This thesis analyzes different aspects of the Oregon foster care system. It does this first by looking at racial/ethnic disparities across counties. Then it analyzes the relationship between foster care rates and child poverty rates, childhood food insecurity rates, free and reduced lunch eligibility rates, and unemployment rates for Oregon’s...
Background: The use of a lower extremity injury prevention program (IPP) by female athletes before the completion of puberty may mitigate movement changes that develop during puberty and contribute to greater injury risk. It is unknown whether player age influences coaches’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding IPPs. Methods: Fifty-four female...
In the United States, 58.7% of the spinal cord injuries that occur each year result in some degree of tetraplegia, this leads to reduced control of upper limb muscle. One surgery that can restore some upper limb function is a brachioradialis (BR) to flexor pollicis longus (FPL) tendon transfer surgery,...
Koi herpesvirus (KHV) is a new emerging viral pathogen of koi and common carps. It has been demonstrated that KHV becomes latent in the white blood cells in the recovered koi. The latent KHV can be reactivated under stressful conditions, such as heat and injury, and the reactivated viruses can...
The Harderian gland (HG) of the red-sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis, is a secretory structure that plays a role in the vomeronasal system by solubilizing semiochemicals such as prey chemoattractants and the female sexual attractiveness pheromone. The HG produces secretions containing pheromone-binding proteins that form a complex with pheromone...
Over the last ten years, clinical, pre-clinical and animal studies have shown associations between the microbiota and neurological functions. Recent work by the scientific community on the gut-microbiome-brain axis have revealed that gut dysbiosis and specific microbial taxa are associated with a myriad of neurological conditions, such as autism spectrum...
Old-growth dry-mixed conifer forests are valued as habitats for late seral forest species, for the
ecosystem services and landscape diversity they provide, and for their aesthetic appeal. The
structure of these forests has been heavily altered by historic logging of overstory ponderosa
pine and Douglas-fir. Additionally, changes in fire regime...
This project investigated transient photoconductivity in organic donor-acceptor (D-A) systems, where a flourinated anthradithiophene, ADT-TES-F, acts as the donor. Various acceptor molecules were used, with different sidegroups, and different HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital) and LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) energy level offsets relative to the acceptor. Thin film composites...
This study explores the extent to which the United States has conformed to the tenets of classical liberalism and/or civic republicanism with regard to private property and takings law. Mainstream scholarship suggests that classical liberal theory has played a dominant role in American property law since the founding. In the...
As far back as History goes we have conclusive proof
that man has traded commodities with his fellow-men. At
first these exchanges were in the form of barter, a man
would trade something which he had and did not care much
for,with another man who had something he desired more....
North American bird populations have declined throughout the past half century. The majority of studies quantifying these declines have focused on spring and summer breeding birds; not the season of scarcity, winter. We re-surveyed 7 large study plots in Douglas fir forests initially surveyed in winter during the late 1960s...
Diatoms are single celled eukaryotic microalgae that self-assemble complex SiO₂
nanostructures by sillafin proteins within their cell wall. There has been increasing
interest in mimicking the diatom’s silica self-assembly process for fabricating metal
oxide nanoparticles, namely germanium dioxide (GeO₂). GeO₂ has a higher refractive
index than silica, enabling it to...
The proper way to order knowledge and find truth about the natural world in the eighteenth century lay in one’s ability to correctly learn and employ the quality of reason. While all had the right to seek reason, only a privileged few achieved its proper use, creating an intellectual elite...
Treatment of extrahepatic portosystemic shunts provides many options, including cellophane banding. These cellophane bands are secured with a ligation clip. Weck® offers two forms of these: the stainless steel Hemoclip, and the polymer Hem-o-lok. This in vitro study compares the mechanical strength of these two of types of clips by...
Zero valent iron nanoparticles effectively remediate groundwater contaminants due to their catalytic properties and enhanced surface area. However, these properties contribute to particle agglomeration, decreasing their effectiveness. In this study, we examined the effect of two stabilizing agents (gum arabic (GA) and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)) on particle stability, toxicity,...
This project discuses the design of a novel apparatus for measuring the interfacial rheological properties of a complex interface while measuring the concentration of redox species within the sub-phase. Preliminary measurements made using the apparatus are also presented. The objective of the preliminary experimentation was to simultaneously measure the interfacial...
It is well known that in-stream large wood affects river channel shape, sediment deposits, stream flow, and available habitat for aquatic species. However, less is known about how wildlife interact with this large wood. Previous research has shown that small mammals and birds utilize woody debris in river channels for...
Investigating the insectivorous diet of the Trowbridge’s shrew (Sorex trowbridgii) across forest types can illustrate how forest management affects biotic communities. I used DNA metabarcoding methods with ANML primers to identify stomach and intestines contents from shrews caught in pitfall traps in the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest (HJA) and Willamette...
Coastal dunes provide many functions and services including coastal protection, recreation, and habitat. Vegetation contributes to dune growth and stability, thereby increasing the coastal protection value of dunes. On the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast, the dominant dune grasses are the introduced non-native American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata) and the native American...
Anthropogenically-induced increases in the acidity of the ocean have the potential to seriously harm marine calcifying organisms by decreasing the availability of carbonate (CO32−) used to make shells. I tested the effects of lowered pH on juvenile Pisaster ochraceus, an intertidal sea star and keystone predator in the eastern Pacific...
The motor protein dynein is responsible for cellular processes such as axonal transport and cell division by delivering vital information along the microtubule track. A failed delivery can cause severe damage to the cell’s functionality and lead to neurological diseases. Despite dynein’s rich history in cellular research, the mechanism of...
The dynein molecule is a peculiar motor protein recognized for its unique stepping behavior. Sometimes it steps forwards. Other times it steps backwards. It has even been observed to occasionally shuffle by beginning a step with the same domain many times in row. These motions make dynein an interesting object...
Food insecurity is a common issue among college students in the United States with recent research suggesting that between 10-75% of college students are food insecure. In comparison, an estimated 10.2% of U.S. Households are food insecure. Food insecurity is associated with many negative health outcomes. The purpose of this...
In this work we propose a curve approximation method that operates in the curvature
domain. The curvature is represented using one of several different types of
basis functions (linear, quadratic, spline, sinusoidal, orthogonal polynomial), and the
curve's geometry is reconstructed from that curvature basis. Our hypothesis is that
different curvature...
St. Augustine was an influential member of the early Christian Church, establishing many doctrines of the Christian faith. One of his most significant contributions to Christianity was a Christian philosophy of history. Augustine defined the purpose of history as God providing salvation to humanity after the fall of Adam. This...
Polystyrene thin film surfaces are commonly used to study the interactions of macromolecules, such as proteins, with surfaces. Polystyrene films oxidized in UV light become more hydrophilic, however these surfaces have a limited shelf life because they are reduced over time. Experiments were performed to determine the effect of radiation...
Microbial activity within elevated CO2 and oxygen depleted environments changes with
density driven stratification overturn in the seasonally anoxic region of Devil’s Hole,
Bermuda. The temperature gradient developed during the summer months creates a
natural laboratory to study bacterial and virus population density and microbial
community dynamics in the anoxic...
Microbial activity within elevated CO2 and oxygen depleted environments changes with
density driven stratification overturn in the seasonally anoxic region of Devil’s Hole,
Bermuda. The temperature gradient developed during the summer months creates a
natural laboratory to study bacterial and virus population density and microbial
community dynamics in the anoxic...
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...