Since at least the 1970s, rural areas in the western United States, as elsewhere across the country and world, have been subject to social, economic, and political forces that have resulted in novel demographic and land tenure trends when compared to previous decades. Collectively, these processes of restructuring have created...
The primary purpose of this study was to (1) develop methods for the analysis of and (2) provide information on the chemical nature of reducing ends in typical cellulose substrates used for the study of cellulolytic enzymes. The studies were designed such that values obtained for cellulose substrates were compared...
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a globally traded staple food crop. The diverse and pleasing nature of wheat-derived products is a result of the complex interactions of the polymeric components from the wheat endosperm. Changes in the functionality of these polymeric components, as a result of changes in growing conditions or...
Wheat is a globally traded staple crop. Wheat is important in human diets because of its agronomic adaptability, physical characteristics, functionality for the production of leavened products and nutritional value. Two significant characteristics make wheat an important staple food-crop. First, the proteins present in wheat endosperm have attributes that enable...
Drawing on Deborah Brandt’s “literacy sponsorship,” this thesis examines ways English language learners (ELLs) in the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center (CMLC) act as literacy sponsors, sharing their expertise in language, textiles, and cooking, based on nine in-depth interviews with ELLs at the center. The findings of this thesis are presented...
Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models impact our daily lives with applications in natural language modeling, image analysis, healthcare, genomics, and bioinformatics. The exponential growth of biological sequence data necessitates accompanying advances in computational methods. Although deep learning is highly effective for detecting and classifying biological sequences, challenges...
Mental health among student athletes has gotten much more attention in the world of sport today. However, there has been a lack of research focusing on how the socioeconomic backgrounds of Division 1 student athletes can play a role in their mental health and their desire to seek out help...
The introduction of non-native species can negatively impact native species through reduced genetic fitness resulting from hybridization. The lack of spatiotemporal data of hybrids occurrences makes assessing hybridization risk difficult. Here, I developed a spatially-explicit GIS Hybridization Risk Model (HRM) between native ESA-listed Bull Trout and introduced Brook Trout by...
The Hippo signaling pathway is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis. A key function of the pathway is to regulate the subcellular distribution and activity of Yorkie in Drosophila or Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcription co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) in mammals. The dysregulation of the...