Daikon, mizuna, mizspoona, and komatsuna are novel Asian vegetables for which a market exists in Oregon, especially in the organic sector. However, these crops are currently not grown widely in the area, despite the favorable growing environment of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Little is known about the appropriate application level of...
Standard larval Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) rearing systems can be described as either static or continuous flow. While rearing oyster larvae in static cultures can be a low-cost and simple method, static systems require significant husbandry effort, floorspace and can produce highly variable results due to environmental variance among cultures....
Over the last several decades, potato production has increased globally as it has been recognized as an important component to improving food security. However, potato production has been continuously challenged by pests. Current pest management practices rely heavily on chemical pesticides. Unfortunately, the overuse of pesticides can be harmful to...
We report the use of MIL-120 as a water-stable and cost-effective metal-organic framework (MOF) for selectively capturing CO₂ from wet flue gas. Synthesized using inexpensive and environmentally benign reagents in water, MIL-120 possesses one-dimensional pores decorated with hydroxyl-bridged Al(III) ions and benzene rings with an interstitial spacing of 4.78 Å....
Nuclear material monitoring systems have long been established at ports of entry. However, there are no standard systems for monitoring points of interest within the country. Therefore, the use of a network of radiation sensors deployed throughout an area of interest is being investigated within this thesis. Before full scale...
Research has shown that emotional connections during lab activities increase learning in chemistry and physics courses. However, little research has examined the effects of emotion in engineering courses, and these studies have recognized a dearth of research examining the ability of students to apply engineering concepts in real-world applications based...
Currently, little work has been performed studying energy consumption in hop kilning. This thesis explores drying with an alternative drying schedule that extends the initially elevated drying temperature currently used by growers and examines its impact on drying time and energy use. Extending the time of the initially elevated drying...
This project covers the construction of a Stereo Camera System, integration with a Velodyne VLP-16 LIDAR and the creation of dataset intended to aid in the development of vision algorithms for forestry applications. This project is the first step in a future multi-stage project to implement computer vision systems for...
Civil engineers frequently use lime to improve the mechanical properties of weak clayey soils. The production of lime is associated with significant CO₂ emissions. Sequestering carbon dioxide into the stabilized soil can effectively reduce the carbon footprint of the lime. In the presence of CO₂, unreacted lime in the stabilized...
Livestock grazing is the prominent land use in Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis [Beetle & A. Young] S.L. Welsh) steppe and has been present since the late 1800’s. There have been calls to remove livestock grazing from rangelands as historic grazing practices resulted in the degradation of some...
This thesis explores the common features that unite postcolonial and posthumanist theories, finding that the Cartesian notion of representationalism has enabled the humanist hierarchy that both fields decry. This humanist hierarchy coalesces in the figure of the author, and as such its most effective criticism takes the form of metafiction....
A chair, once placed, will stay put until moved. Or will it? With the rise of technology being embeddable into everyday objects, what if that chair could move itself? Such robotic furniture has been featured in advertisements, art, and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research. Existing methods for operating robotic furniture have...
This work explores the hypothesis that proton irradiation is a feasible alternative to simulate accelerated thermal aging for Ni2Cr long-range ordered phase formation within NiCr and NiCrFe alloys. In this study, various model alloys and commercial alloys 690 and 690+P (0.01 wt.% P) were subject to 2 MeV proton irradiation...
Directed energy deposition and laser cladding technologies are suitable advanced manufacturing techniques for applying corrosion-resistant claddings to large carbon steel components. In this work, we clad 309L stainless steel wire onto carbon steel substrates and examine the effects of cladding parameters (laser power and travel speed) on metallurgical bonding, composition,...
Agriculture Resource Management Plans (ARMPs) are the primary programmatic-level planning document for the management of tribal rangelands in North America. This project compares a standard ARMP product with a prototype ARMP developed through a Structured Decision Making (SDM) approach for the Navajo Partitioned Lands. The SDM approach provided increased transparency...
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) grants legal standing for any individual or party willing to challenge a species status finding in court. As a result, the legislation has become a controversial, but powerful tool leveraged in political battles and legal disputes that go far beyond the narrow confines of conservation...
Electrostatic gating of nanomaterials allows researchers to control carrier density and shape potential barriers that confine carriers. Lithographic patterning followed by metal deposition is the standard technique to define electrostatic gates; however, the methods of fabricating these devices often involve harsh processing. For example, taking a material to high temperatures...
Wildland urban interface (WUI) communities in the Western United States have recently dealt with historic and devastating wildfires year after year. The fires have cost tens of billions in damage, burned tens of thousands of structures, displaced thousands of residents, and killed over one hundred people. The 2017 Tubbs fire...