It is commonly accepted that for the analysis of wood beams, the neutral axis coincides with the centroid of the beam. Although this assumption is used in analysis, wood is not an isotropic material, as it has different elastic properties in the tangential, radial and longitudinal directions, nor is it...
The LIGO interferometers have reached their designed sensitivity level which is greater than any other interferometer ever built. At this point, it is important to have a proper understanding of small perturbations that might still exist (until now these issues did not come to the forefront because other more critical...
Rhodococcus fascians is a Gram-positive, pleiomorphic actinomycete that causes leafy gall formation in a wide range of plant hosts. This particular phytopathogen has been a focus of research at the Oregon State University Plant Clinic, a diagnostic laboratory. Phylogeny of R. fascians isolates obtained from Plant Clinic submissions was determined...
Twenty seven modern (top 1-2cm) sediment samples from multicores retrieved from throughout coastal SE Alaska were analyzed for their organic matter content and the source composition. Total organic carbon (TOC) as well as biogenic silica (bioSi), and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) content were analyzed to evaluate the organic matter content and...
DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is an evolutionary conserved process that functions to maintain genomic integrity through the correction of mismatches that have escaped proofreading. Mutations in the MMR gene Mlh1 are associated with approximately 50% of all cases of Lynch syndrome, a hereditary predisposition to colorectal cancer, through varying and...
The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) is a public key cryptosystem used for creation and verification of digital signatures in electronic documents. In this thesis, we created a Java applet that provides the functionality of the ECDSA using all of the NIST elliptic curves over GF(p). This applet was...
Mitochondria provide energy for biological cells to function, but this process is also a source of oxygen radicals that are capable of damaging nearby proteins. Mitochondrial protein damage can eventually lead to cell death, especially in the case of heart cells, where mitochondria are present in the highest concentrations. As...
Dental disease is a very prevalent and costly disease in which the symptoms, not the disease, are currently being treated. The disease is caused by pathogenic oral bacteria, many of which are a part of the Mutans Streptococci. The objective of this thesis was to find a natural substance that...
Celiac disease, an autoimmune response triggered by the consumption of seed storage proteins of cereals, affects an estimated 1% of the human population. In the case of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), one of the world’s most consumed cereals, alcohol-soluble proteins, the gliadins, have been identified as the allergy-eliciting agents. Previous...
Spending time in a German speaking country may aid in vocabulary acquisition and production. This study hypothesized a concrete link between written language use and experiences abroad. Intermediate German students’ vocabulary uses in impromptu essays were evaluated by counting the number of total word, unique words, and content words. This...