The nature of upper plate deformation along the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) is poorly understood. Systematic covariation among topographic relief, geodetically determined uplift rates, decadal to millennial erosion rates, and the frequency of episodic tremor and slip (ETS) along the Cascadia forearc suggest a genetic association between forearc topography and...
In this paper, we discuss two possible modifications to a numerical solution method for a model of microbiologically induced calcite precipitation (MICP). MICP provides a means to seal cracks in the surfaces of geological structures. From a mathematical and computational point of view MICP has very interesting features which make...
This thesis aims to determine the impact that Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices have on social interactions, and then improves the AAC user experience through a user focus design process. AAC devices enable people who cannot speak to communicate with others. Unfortunately, they are tedious to use and make...
Introduction: Youth in foster care face greater rates of trauma and subsequent mental health challenges (Bruce et al., 2009; O’Neill et al., 2012; Seltzer et al., 2012; etc.) that place increased burden on their caregivers (Daniel, 2011; McKeough et al., 2017), suggesting that these specific groups of youth in foster...
Spot fires caused by lofted embers (i.e., firebrands) can be a significant factor in the spread of wildland fires. Embers can be especially dangerous near the wildland-urban interface (WUI) because of the potential for the fire to be spread near or on structures. Many studies have investigated the transport of...
Natural dyes have been used to color textiles for centuries, but with the shift to mass production, the use of synthetic dyes has increased due to their lower cost and easy manufacturing volume. However, synthetic dyes (such as disperse blue dyes 106 and 124) have been reported to cause skin...
New MS in CS students in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science school at OSU are required to file their Program of Study by the end of their 2nd term. Many of them, especially international students, are in a totally new ecosystem, so they find it overwhelming to choose the...
Modifications of an ocean model are described, as the objective for which the model was used changed to study the kinematics and dynamics of an eastern-boundary poleward undercurrent.
Environmental crime around the world, such as trafficking in illegal timber, is directly related to political instability. Traffickers exploit weak, fragile, and chaotic political circumstances to illegally extract high-value commodities, challenging the extent to which conservation goals are achievable in resource rich developing countries. Rosewood is the largest traded endangered...
Commercial fisheries are coupled human-natural systems that cross state borders and integrate private, public, academic sectors and interests. These systems integrate complicated relationships between coastal socioeconomics, resource management and environmental realms. Previous findings from West Coast-based studies have identified aging trends in commercial fisheries participation, commonly referred to as the...
The frontlines of climate change adaptation will occur in rural, impoverished regions of the world where households engage in climatically dependent livelihoods, such as peasant agriculture or pastoralism. As changing climate and changing markets affect the suite of household livelihood assets (environmental, social, and economic) which enable a household to...
Although the concept of breeding crops for organic agricultural systems has been around for decades, few studies have been reported for vegetable crops to quantify and compare how conventional and organic systems differ in their selection pressures on genotypes advancing through the breeding cycle; especially research utilizing modern sequencing capabilities....
The western purple martin (Progne subis arboricola) is a species of conservation concern throughout the Pacific Northwest. In western Oregon, the purple martin nests in three major ecosystem types: inland open-water, coastal, and upland forest. The availability of suitable breeding habitat is a major limiting factor for western purple martin...
The Walla Walla Subbasin (WWSB) in Oregon is underlain by formations of the extensive Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) which have been deformed by post-Miocene folding and faulting. Extensive irrigation with groundwater from these basalt groups, as well as sedimentary aquifers and surface water diversions from the Walla Walla River,...
Junior level physics students are familiar with a few types of vector field derivatives, such as divergence and curl, but are typically unfamiliar with how to take a general derivative of a vector field. Three junior-level physics students were interviewed with the open-ended prompt, “How would you think about taking...
Aluminum and copper and their alloys have been widely used due to relatively high strength-to-weight ratios compared with conventional steels. Processing of these alloys is typically conducted at high temperatures over extended time periods. High-pressure torsion (HPT) is a promising processing technique for introducing significant grain refinement leading to excellent...
International development programs are often implemented with the goal of building community resilience, but without a clear articulation of how this goal will be met, or any consideration of if or why the effort was successful after it has concluded. This thesis considers three different activities implemented by the U....
This report details ocean water salinity and stable isotope measurements (deuterium (D) and 18O) in water collected from April 17 2018 to April 21 2018 in the coastal waters of Oregon, USA. Measurements were made from surface, ship flow-through, and CTD rosette bottle samples collected as part of a student-led...
Polyoxoniobates (PONbs) are attracting great attention in recent years due to its novelty as well as a variety of geometrical presentations in different pH conditions. In this paper we are reporting the reaction of tetramethyl-decaniobate ([(CH3)4N]6[Nb10O28]) with alkaline carbonates to observe the periodic trend of alkaline ions interacting with the...
This study investigated the effects of diversification strategy through the inclusion of forb and legume based pastures in the feedbase of dairy cows on annual forage production, botanical composition, spring milk yield, N partitioning and methane emissions from dairy cows in Western Oregon. Using a randomized complete block design, 3...
The persistent color (pc) trait in snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) belongs to a member of the cosmetic stay-green gene family. It is considered very desirable by snap bean breeders for its impacts on pod quality. Persistent color imparts a uniform dark-green color to pods and expresses in seeds as...
In the event of a mid-flight flameout of a gas turbine engine, reignition is paramount to occupant safety. Ignition at high altitude can be challenging, due in part to the potentially lower ambient pressures. An understanding of the effects of sub-atmospheric pressures on the temperature evolution of spark kernels is...
In order to support the growing satellite propulsion industry, a hybrid Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulation with fluid treatment of electrons and neutral particles was developed to model the SPT-70 Hall thruster. The 2D, C++ code assumes azimuthal symmetry and a uniform magnetic field in the radial direction with the simulation domain...
Mass timber is emerging as a viable form of construction around the world in new markets for wood buildings. The entrance into these markets has driven the demand for more knowledge to enable designs alongside other structural materials such as steel and reinforced concrete.
Large, in-plane tests on cross-laminated timber...
Hydrogeologic systems in the southern Cascade Range develop in volcanic rocks where volcanic morphology, stratigraphy, extensional structures and attendant basin geometry play a central role in groundwater-flow paths, groundwater/surface-water interactions, and spring discharge locations. High-volume springs (> 3 m3/s) flow from young (< 1 Ma) volcanic rocks in the Hat...
The purpose of this study was to understand the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of shellfish stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest who are adapting to ocean acidification (OA). This study developed a geovisualization tool of existing environmental data for assessing species-specific risk profiles to OA (based on their exposure and sensitivity),...
The anadromous Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) is a biologically and culturally important species native to the North Pacific Ocean and its adjacent freshwater tributaries. Pacific Lamprey have experienced declines in abundance and distribution throughout their native range, highlighting a need for further research on the species to better inform conservation...
This study examines how three measures of child health: overall health status, access to health insurance and dental checkup status, predict the likelihood of a child experiencing higher number of absences in children eligible to attend Head Start, and how that association is influenced by the presence of a depressed...
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...
Olive production potential in Oregon was researched in a multi-disciplinary approach, including a grower survey, a propagation greenhouse study, and a field study, from 2018 through 2020. The Oregon Olive Grower Survey was designed to collect information relating to orchard establishment and management practices, knowledge and understanding of these practices,...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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....
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...
Archaeological investigations at the Cooper's Ferry site in Western Idaho have recovered cultural remains dating to 16,000 years ago, suggesting the oldest human occupation recorded in North America. However, many archaeologists have argued the initial peopling of North America occurred no earlier than the opening of an ice-free corridor between...