Growing trees as a green manure crop together with an annual food crop is a new technology for farmers in Oregon. To promote farmer participation and to acquire a broad knowledge of the processes involved in species interactions, three feasible alley cropping and two sweet corn monocrop planting patterns were...
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the most productive and nutritious food crops. Due to its adaptability to cool climates, production in Sri Lanka has been restricted to erosion-prone highlands. Vast potential exists for expansion of potato cultivation in the lowlands while production areas in the highlands are limited...
Cereal residues suppress the development of small seeded, summer annual weeds. The focus of this study was to determine whether cereal residues can be used to suppress weeds in cucumber production systems in the Pacific Northwest. In the first of three experiments, cereal residues of fall-planted, spring-killed cover crops suppressed...
The experiment was conducted to compare multiple pest (weed, soil arthropod and diseases) suppression by cereal cover crops in 'Selva' and 'Totem' strawberry. In addition, perlite was used to compare improvement of soil and root aeration which might modify strawberry black root rot complex. Small-seeded summer annual weeds were suppressed...
Cultural practices in snap bean production were evaluated at the Oregon State University Vegetable Research Farm Corvallis, Oregon. In addition, decision-making in snap bean production was assessed on five farms in the Coburg-Junction City-Harrisburg regions of the Willamette Valley, Oregon. A field experiment with cover crop and tillage techniques was...
Vegetable production with a living mulch may reduce soil erosion and compaction, increase organic matter levels, and decrease the requirement for chemical inputs. Competition between the vegetable and mulch, however, has limited the development of successful living mulch systems to realize these benefits. In a field study, interference between pak...
When treating highly infectious diseases, patient compliance with caregiver recommendations is crucial. Many patients who contract Ebola Virus Disease have symptoms including vomiting and severe diarrhea and die from the resulting dehydration if they do not drink enough fluids. Telepresence robots are useful in the context of Ebola treatment for...
A small eddy viscosity or mass diffusivity that varies with height has been found to have unexpected effects on the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability of a stably stratified shear layer near the neutral stability boundary. In particular, varying viscosity can increase the growth rate of the instability in contrast to the...
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...
Robots have the potential to protect health care workers, provide patient care, and ultimately save lives in infectious disease outbreaks. Nevertheless, infectious disease outbreak scenarios present unique technological and social challenges for robotics. This work explores what robots can and should do in the fight against infectious diseases. We present...