This thesis evaluates pre-construction auditing procedures used in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand in order to help create post-construction auditing procedures for the state of Oregon. It was funded as part of the development of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Safety Investigation Manual, and also evaluates content...
This dissertation provides a comparison of statistical and econometric frameworks, using a previously unused freight data source, to study crash frequency by crash type and heavy-vehicle hard braking in Oregon. Hard braking can serve as a proxy for several factors, one of which is safety. Therefore, with the hard braking...
Past research on Head Start has focused on child outcomes, yet Head Start services also target the behaviors of parents. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (FFCW), the current study examined the effect of Head Start on mother (n = 3,575) and father (n = 1,812)...
Increasing numbers of individuals aspire to, seek out, and need a college degree in order to be competitive in the job market (Goyette, 2008; U.S. Department of Education, 2013). College degrees provide access to economic, social, and health benefits (Abel & Deitz, 2014; Autor, 2014). The United States also needs...
School interventions have typically focused on academic and psychological outcomes for children, but can children carry positive effects home from school to influence their parents and home environments? Developmental research typically focuses on how parents influence development in their children, but this study flips this lens to ask whether children...
How can healthcare providers, particularly pharmacists, help palliative care patients cope with the inevitability of death? This thesis reviewed how spirituality and religious beliefs can be utilized as key coping strategies for many patients and their loved ones regarding various stressors associated with facing mortality in palliative care. In the...
Throughout Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East, hundreds of Roman ruins lie scattered about. Many Roman aqueducts, bridges, roads, and even buildings remain standing over two thousand years after their construction, as functional as the day they were built. In the modern United States, however, many public works projects...
Increasing regulation and costs of soil fumigation to manage diseases such as
Verticillium wilt caused by soil-borne pathogens have prompted a search for
management alternatives. Single-year microplot experiments were conducted in 2002
and 2003 in central Oregon to evaluate the effects of Austrian winter pea, broccoli,
and Sudan grass green...
The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a versatile approach in the utilization of waste heat in the production of electricity, clean drinking water, and cooling. The efficiency of these cycles must be maximized to make them economical. Parameters for the optimization of ORCs such as evaporator and condenser temperature have...