A PID controller was designed to control the performance of an oil-heated fractal-like branching microchannel desorber for use in an ammonia-absorption refrigeration system. Both the amount and concentration of ammonia refrigerant generated at the desorber can be controlled by choosing the rectified circulation ratio as the controlled variable in a...
This thesis details my investigation of some pharmaceuticals and natural products on the transport of drugs which are substrates of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), such as cyclosporin A (CSA) and digoxin by using Caco-2 and MDCKII-MDR1 drug transport models. Three objectives were performed to address this goal. The first objective was to...
I studied developmental rates in a suite of temperate and tropical passerine bird species from the New World to test the hypothesis that tropical passerines exhibit slower patterns of growth and development than temperate birds. I also investigated how the expression of several developmental rates varied with life history traits...
Aerobic organisms have evolved many sensory mechanisms that allow
response to oxidants in the environment. One area of interest is the relationship
between the activity of the tumor suppressor protein p53 and the redox state of
thioredoxin. Human p53 activity is severely compromised in budding yeast lacking
thioredoxin reductase. Evidence...
The specific objectives of this dissertation are to determine subsurface flow
behaviors across different antecedent wetness conditions from a top-down perspective
and to mechanistically assess the hydrological controls on DOC and N transport at the
hillslope and catchment scale. The study area is a small catchment where hillslopes
issue directly...
The following two projects have been carried out to clarify the impact of these foam stabilizers, and to compare their foam stabilizing power to one another as well as the cling ability. The first project investigated the impacts of four commercially available hop- derived foam stabilizers; iso-alpha-acid (Iso), rho(dyhydro)-iso-alpha-acid (Rho),...
Benzene is a widespread urban pollutant and monitoring results show concentrations are particularly high in Portland, Oregon. Nationally, benzene air pollution is the largest contributor to total cancer risk from air pollutants. We used data from several data sets including: modeled benzene distribution at the census block group level from...
Tree species directly and indirectly affect soil nutrient cycles. I sought to characterize soils and foliage associated with four common canopy tree species (Douglas-fir, western hemlock, western redcedar, and bigleaf maple) in mixed-species old-growth forests of the Oregon Coast Range and to determine whether and how soils differ among the...
Bathers exposed to microbiological contamination in coastal waters have an excess risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory illness. The disease burden associated with this risk may be considerable in Southern California, where 50 million annual beach visitors recreate in coastal waters that receive billions of gallons of polluted discharges from nearby...
Hydrogels have been proposed as candidates for nucleus pulposus replacement due to
their similarity in mechanical behavior to the native tissue when subjected to transient or
static loading; however, given the viscoelastic nature of soft biological tissues, the lack of
dynamic testing is a significant inadequacy in the studies performed...