This dissertation addresses issues of oligopoly markets where advertising plays a prominent role. The first study empirically investigates the effect of advertising regulations on equilibrium consumption of an addictive commodity using U.S. cigarette industry data. The results of the first study show that the advertising regulations reduced cigarette consumption by...
The thesis focuses on model-based approximation methods for reinforcement
learning with large scale applications such as combinatorial optimization problems.
First, the thesis proposes two new model-based methods to stablize the
value–function approximation for reinforcement learning. The first one is the
BFBP algorithm, a batch-like reinforcement learning process which iterates between...
Quantitative resistance (QR) to disease is usually more durable than qualitative resistance, but its genetic basis is not well understood. We used the barley/barley stripe rust pathosystem as a model for the characterization of the QR phenotype and associated genomic regions. As an intermediate step in the preparation of near-isogenic...
Vegetation provides food for many insects, and many insects serve as food for bats. We investigated the linkages among these three trophic levels in riparian areas throughout the Oregon Coast Range by examining the influence of vegetation cover, composition, and structure on the activity of nocturnal insects and bats, the...
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C. Candidate models relating number of insects captured per order to
vegetation
This qualitative study examined the experiences and perceptions of males aged 16 – 19 who did not complete a traditional high school diploma program because of feeling alienated from the school system. Five participants described their school experiences from elementary school through the point in high school when they decided...
To increase the knowledge needed to successfully implement the ecosystem-based approach to fishery management, this dissertation investigates important issues within the economics of choice and the economics of displacement. In particular, a discrete choice model of the fishing location decision in the Newport, Oregon bottom trawl groundfish fishery is estimated...
The number of women diagnosed with diabetes, including gestational diabetes, will continue to increase in the face of epidemic rates of obesity. The concurrent rise in obesity and diabetes makes it important to determine the risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and the nature and extent of care offered...
Overtly non-toxic doses of organochlorine (OC) insecticides perturb lipid homeostasis
in mice and rats. To increase understanding of how chlordecone (CD), an OC
insecticide, modulates cholesterol (CH) homeostasis, we determined the effect of CD
pretreatment on the tissue and hepatic subcellular distribution of exogenous [¹⁴C]CH. Corn oil alone or CD...
The Pacific Northwest has become one of the nation’s premier sweet cherry,
Prunus avium, production areas. As production of sweet cherries has flourished in
Oregon and Washington, so has powdery mildew, caused by the fungus
Podosphaera clandestina, which infects both foliage and fruit causing severe
economic damage to growers. Sweet...
A. W. N. Pugin was a driving force in the Gothic Revival movement in England during the first half of the nineteenth century. He was an architect and a writer who expounded on the virtues of reviving Gothic architecture, not only for its reflection of the sacred mystery of ancient...