Computer science is, at its core, about solving problems. The "Carry out the Plan" portion of problem solving is often examined and emphasized in CS 1 and CS 2, forgetting to emphasize the other important aspects of the problem solving process. This study focuses on the other problem-solving steps, which...
Seven cerebral palsied children living in the home and their
mothers were involved in this study. The mothers attended eight
weekly sessions and were instructed in basic nutrition and feeding
skill development. A Food and Nutrition Education Curriculum was
developed for this instruction. Each of the eight lessons in the...
The social aspects of older adults lives are strongly linked to well-being outcomes. Social relationships in older adulthood are rewarding, but also complex, and to maintain a positive social environment, older adults must reconcile long relationships histories, negotiate changing roles, and deal with increasing dependencies. Older adults are known to...
The undisputed cost-effectiveness of the anti-homelessness program “Housing First” is well established in the empirical literature, but fewer studies have considered the impact of the program on individual residents. This mixed-methods study examines the lives of a cohort of residents in a Portland-based Housing First project, seeking to determine whether...
End-user programming has become widespread. The increasing size of this population and the prevalence of barriers that they face has sparked the development of approaches that promote end-user programing by helping them overcome barriers and teaching them programming. Despite the fact that these approaches have done well in achieving those...
Previous work introduced the GenderMag method, a software inspection method used to help software creators identify features within their software that are not gender-inclusive. Inclusiveness of software (gender or otherwise) matters because supporting diversity matters—it is well-known that the more diverse a group of problem-solvers, the higher the quality of...
Adaptive ecosystem management is a new paradigm for managing federal forests which requires regular monitoring of ecosystem function and diversity to measure the effects of management. Managers need new strategies and tools to help them assess their progress in maintaining healthy, productive and biologically diverse forests. Biomonitoring of select forest...
How should reinforcement learning (RL) agents explain themselves to humans not trained in AI? To gain insights into this question, we conducted a 124 participant, four-treatment experiment to compare participants’ mental models of an RL agent in the context of a simple Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game. The four treatments isolated...
In previous work, the Idea Garden was created to help those relatively new to programming overcome their barriers in CoScripter. The goal of this thesis was to generalize the Idea Garden's success to other users and environments. We present a set of principles on how to help EUPs like this...
How can software practitioners assess whether their software supports diverse users? Although there are empirical processes that can be used to find “inclusivity bugs” piecemeal, what is often needed is a systematic inspection method to assess software’s support for diverse populations. To help fill this gap, this thesis introduces InclusiveMag,...
Emerging research shows that individual differences in how people use technology sometimes cluster by socioeconomic status (SES) and that when technology is not socioeconomically inclusive, low-SES individuals may abandon it. To understand how to improve technology’s SES-inclusivity, we present a multi-phase case study on SocioEconomicMag (SESMag), an emerging inspection method...
Gender issues have recently received increased attention in human robot interaction (HRI). Because robots are becoming part of our homes and daily lives, it is important to understand how different groups of people use them. To the best of our knowledge, almost no research has been done that investigates gender...
Functional programming is concerned with referential transparency, that is, given a certain function and its parameter, that the result will always be the same. However, it seems that this is violated in applications involving uncertainty, such as rolling a dice. This thesis defines the background of probabilistic programming and domain-specific...
University students first learning about computer science (CS) can be intimidated and frustrated by programming. In addition, the general-purpose programming languages chosen for introducing students to programming contain several features that have the potential to overwhelm and distract them from focused curriculum topics, which can lead to reduced retention of...
With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in every sphere of life in today's day and age, it has become increasingly important for non-AI experts to be able to comprehend the underlying logic of how AI systems work, assess them and find faults in these systems, particularly when they are...
Relations between the diversity of juvenile anadromous salmonids and pool features
were examined in a managed and a pristine watershed in Oregon during the summer of
1990. There were no differences (p>0.05) in pool depth, velocity or pool wood volumes
between streams. However, the pristine system had twice the number...
It is generally accepted in stream ecology that habitat heterogeneity and patchiness at multiple scales increases ecosystem resilience through niche diversification. Heterogeneous stream habitats include a complex mosaic of hydraulic features, large woody debris, anabranches, substrata and channel forms - this complexity tends to increase as streams progress towards later...
Uneven-aged management has been suggested as a method for balancing biodiversity conservation and wood production goals from managed forests in a variety of regions. In coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests of the Pacific Northwest, implementation of uneven-aged management is hindered by a lack of experience with uneven-aged silvicultural systems, including...
Recreational and Commercial fisheries and the quality of aquatic habitats in which the fish live are an important part of the livelihoods and economy of the Oregon Coast. The composition of important juvenile fish assemblages in estuaries can bring a unique view into the needs of different species on a...
While individual portfolio diversity analysis is a well-studied problem in visualization, the visual analysis of individual or groups of portfolios, over time, has received little attention. Such analysis, however, is important to researchers who are interested in better understanding portfolio management behavior of experts as well as novices. We conducted...
The severity of carbonate chemistry changes from ocean acidification is predicted to increase greatly in the coming decades, with serious consequences for marine species- especially those reliant on calcium carbonate for structure and function (Fabry et al. 2008). The Northern California Current Ecosystem off the coast of US West Coast...
Across from the Memorial Union on Oregon State University’s campus sits Milam Hall, the former site of the Department of Home Economics. The building is named for Ava Milam Clark, the dean of home economics for thirty-three years, from 1917 to 1950. I aim to understand Ava Milam’s early career...
Hunger is among the greatest contemporary social problems in the United States. An incredible 48 million people, or 14% of households, experienced food insecurity during 2014. At the same time, public responses to food insecurity, such as the Emergency Food Assistance Program, have increasingly relied on the “emergency food network,”...
In this thesis, I examine composition scholarship on the intersections of religious faith and writing pedagogy over the past twenty years, tracing the origins of compositionists' discomfort with religion and focusing on pedagogical approaches for working with religiously-committed students. In particular, I emphasize the way in which these approaches are...
The 134-year old Frantz-Dunn House in Hoskins, Oregon is an intact, well-preserved example of rural Gothic architecture in the Willamette Valley. The old farmstead sits on a former Civil War Fort site and represents a link in the history of the region to the larger patterns of expansion in America...
The Greenbelt Land Trust (GLT) (a grass-roots conservation group in
Oregon) is interested in a conservation plan for the Marys River Corridor. To
facilitate this effort, a resource inventory was required and a Geographic
Information System (GIS) data base used to compile the inventory (called the
Marys River Project (MRP))....
The relationship between the public and new technologies has historically been a tumultuous one, with public perceptions ranging from excited rapid adoption to standoffish pessimism. In 2011, IBM tried to use competition as a means of showcasing a new technology to the public. This thesis is a work of rhetorical...
Boron deficiency or toxicity can reduce yield and
quality of vegetables. Seven vegetable crops, varying from
low to high boron requirements were grown in field plots at
Corvallis in 1987. Leaf-B and yield components of green
bean, cucumber, potato, carrot, tomato, broccoli and table
beet were examined under conditions of...
Studies on prison contracting have typically focused on the privatization of entire facilities and carceral services offered to inmates. There has been limited research, however, as to how political ideology influences the extent to which state prisons contract out health care services. There also appears to be a need for...
This thesis uses both feminist and new historic theories to argue that the women's romance novels The Last September (1929) by Elizabeth Bowen and The Country Girl's Trilogy (1960, 1962, 1964) by Edna O'Brien are tragic bildungsroman that subvert and challenge the Irish patriarchal marriage expectations of their respective time...
This thesis explores the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at the Corvallis and Albany, Oregon Farmers' Markets and its role in food access for SNAP participants. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach combining a farmers' market survey and household interviews, the study investigated who uses SNAP at the farmers'...
Old women face a unique set of obstacles in their
quest for empowerment. In this study the concept of
empowerment is explored by politicizing issues of personal
safety. The most significant factors that impede an old
woman's sense of safety and control include oppression,
primarily ageism and sexism, along with...
Mainstream local food systems focus on environmental and individual health, but labor is out of sight and out of mind. We begin with a story that introduces the immigrant in the room, the locavore’s blind spots, and the need to move beyond mainstream environmentalism and embrace social justice. In the...
This research explores and aligns a postmodern method in line with a theoretical lens of "strategic political queer/feminism" to understand the construction and positioning of the issue/ problem of same-sex marriage. The method takes shape through a theoretical framework that leads to a political maneuver opening access to the rights...
Humboldt Redwoods State Park in southern Humboldt County, California is a coastal redwood forest, a highly unique and valued ecosystem. It has many social, cultural, ecological, and economic values, including recreational benefits, heritage and aesthetic values, high biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. However, Humboldt County is at risk of...
The importance of active-entry drift at a community-scale
was evaluated by testing whether the placement of wood
in streams affected the abundance of Baetis spp. mayflies in
drift. Baetis were chosen because they use drift as a
behavioral strategy and are important in salmonid diets. The
density of woody debris...
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is the largest developer of wetlands land in the state of Washington. Consequently, they are also the largest wetland mitigation developer in the state. Through various federal legislation, state and county environmental policies, and legal court decisions, all negatively impacted wetlands must be...
Homelessness has many faces, several of which society will never truly see. The homeless population has begun to change during the recession, as families lose their homes to foreclosures due to high interest mortgages or become evicted from rental dwellings as one or both wage earners lose employment. The initial...
Most parents want their children to grow into independent adults,
able to make decisions with which they can live, and able to cope with
the pressures and problems of a world different from that which the
parents have known.
Parents are teachers of their children and as such they need...
Composition scholars who have written about trauma have typically focused on creating classrooms that are conducive to healing and learning. In doing this work, however, they have considered neither how PTSD nor other people’s responses to it can impact one’s perceived rhetoricity in the college classroom. In other words, they...
This thesis merges the fields of Ecology and Anthropology by applying Habitat Suitability Modeling to the relationship between people and plants in the Pacific Northwest. In it, I create and optimize two Maxent habitat suitability models for camas (Camassia spp.) in Oregon. The first model describes the physical environment of...
Large-scale safety-net programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have been shown to alleviate the negative effects of low-wage jobs and unemployment on poor American households. However, less is known about the role of “emergency” safety net programs, such as rental...
The decision to attend a university creates many important decisions for a young adult, with one of the most important being the choice of where to live while they make the transition into independent adults. Many choose to live on campus during this critical time. The differences that exist, and...
Understanding the impact of humans on the environment has long been a topic of scholarly interest and debate. As environmental problems mount, accounts of historic ecological conditions and the factors of change become increasingly useful. This study considers competing schools of interpretation about human impacts on ecological landscapes and develops...
The purpose of this investigation is to explore gender role attitudes among Thai
college students and to determine whether differences in gender role attitudes among
Thai college students are related to the sex of students, college major and family
structure. To investigate this problem a Gender Role Attitude Inventory is...
The shallow water benthic habitat of the SW Beaufort Sea is frequently
gouged by the keels of ice pressure ridges. This natural physical
disturbance was hypothesized to be an important factor affecting the
structure of the benthic community. Smith-McIntyre grab samples were
taken from three discrete gouge axes and from...
Acidulants are an important functional ingredient group in the food industry, providing sourness, lowering pH, ensuring safe processing, and extending shelf life. Hence, understanding the effect of acids on sensory characteristics of foods is critical. Of the many topics dealing with acidulants, sourness is a topic where considerable research has...
Approximately $1 billion a year is spent on salmon in the Pacific
Northwest. Spending has escalated, yet the number of wild runs
placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act has
increased, creating social and political controversy. For more than 100
years, salmon management in the Pacific Northwest has...
Most studies suggest that LGBTQ+ young adults make up between 20 and 40 percent of the houseless young adult population (Edidin, Ganim, Hunter, and Karnik 2011; Nolan 2006). However, LGBTQ+ young adults compose only 1.3–3.8% of the general young adult population (Rosario, Schrimshaw, and Hunter 2012). Thus LGBTQ+ young adults...