The knowledge about the intensive agricultural irrigation is very limited, but the use of irrigation is rapidly increasing. As an outcome, the sympathetic ecosystem is accepting modern irrigation that will play an essential function in the present and future for agricultural products. My dissertation will display the modification for investigation...
This dissertation is separated into two parts according to the two major distinct research projects. In Part I, the full account of synthetic studies toward C10-functionalized lycopodium alkaloids is described. In Part II, the detailed discussion on the exploration of the Pummerer cyclization methodology and its application to the total...
The dataset here is used as a document file for presenting supplementary videos in the dissertation Tao, K. (2018). Investigating protein-lipid-membrane interactions in Plant Cells using Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (Doctoral dissertation).
Keywords: Protein, Lipid, Membrane, Plant Cells, Fluorescent Imaging
Background. As part of the nationwide student completion agenda, the Achieving the Dream (ATD) national reform network was established to help community colleges quickly institute sustainable change scaled to impact all students at the institution in a short period of time. Although ATD has been in existence for over a...
Femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) is an ultrafast vibrational technique which allows rapid collection of Raman spectra with simultaneously high temporal and spectral resolution. With the recent development of FSRS methodology, three FSRS techniques (conventional, tunable, and anti-Stokes) have been implemented in our laboratory to dissect the excited state structural...
Soils have a critical role in global carbon (C) cycling, containing one of the largest fast-cycling carbon stocks on earth. Robust representation of soil organic matter dynamics in Earth System Models is critical for future climate prediction. Current C cycling models assume that all C cycling in non-hydric (i.e. ‘upland’)...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread environmental contaminants that occur in complex mixtures. These environmental mixtures can consist of both parent PAHs and their derivatives. Several parent PAHs are known or suspected mutagens and/or carcinogens, and a handful of PAH derivatives are known to be more potent mutagens and/or carcinogens...
Relationship health has many benefits, from physical and emotional health of the partners to their children’s wellbeing. Early intervention programs protect relationships from decline. These programs represent growing public health initiatives. However, most studies on wellness or early intervention overlook lesbian and gay male couples. Research that assumes lesbian and...
Novel donor-typed ternary graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) are synthesized and characterized containing (1) pyrrolidinium cations with DMSO co-intercalates; (2) alkali metal cations with crown ether co-intercalates; and (3) alkali metal cations with polyethylene glycol co-intercalates. Structural and compositional data are obtained for the stable products. A new ether-amine co-intercalate exchange...
Denitrifying bioreactors are an edge-of-field treatment technology particularly well suited for nitrate removal from subsurface (tile) drainage effluent of agricultural lands. The effectiveness of a proposed denitrifying bioreactor is site-specific and depends upon the complicated interplay of field and environmental parameters controlling discharge events, nitrate concentrations, subsurface temperatures, dissolved oxygen...
Leads are long fractures wide enough for a ship to travel through the ice pack. Sea ice acts as a barrier between the ocean and the atmosphere, whereas leads allow the transfer of heat and moisture between the two. Leads play a role for marine mammals and are hunting grounds...
Previous work introduced the GenderMag method, a software inspection method used to help software creators identify features within their software that are not gender-inclusive. Inclusiveness of software (gender or otherwise) matters because supporting diversity matters—it is well-known that the more diverse a group of problem-solvers, the higher the quality of...
Alaska pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) is a schooling whitefish native to the Bering Sea that is prized for its fillets, surimi, roe, and milt. Fillets are frequently used for popular products such as fish and chips. If collected, roe and milt are commonly exported to South Korea and Japan. However, no...
In this work we will analyze branching Brownian motion on a finite interval with oneabsorbing and one reflecting boundary, having constant drift rate toward the absorbingboundary. Similar processes have been considered by Kesten ([12]), and more recently byHarris, Hesse, and Kyprianou ([11]). The current offering is motivated largely by the...
The objectives of this research is to advance human health by evaluating interventions to minimize the detrimental effects of acute whole body gamma irradiation on bone metabolism, bone architecture and bone reconstruction using a mouse model. Total body irradiation (TBI) followed by adoptive transfer of bone marrow from donor animals...
Background: Prior research has shown that distance learning courses have higher failure rates at community colleges then equivalent face-to-face to courses. There are a few programs and courses, however, that consistently achieve completion rates as high as or higher than their equivalent face-to-face courses. The research to date has not...
The first part of this manuscript is about the total synthesis of the Arundo donax bis(indole) natural products. The A. donax alkaloids were prepared using the first example of an ynindole Diels–Alder reaction. Each were then separated, isolated, and determined to have stable enantiomeric conformations at room temperature (Chen, J.;...
This work is a culmination of a series of published works related to the use of the Material Point Method (MPM) in modeling wood adhesive bonds. The use of wood as construction material has the potential to play a small role in the solution to the current CO2 and climate...
Significant progress has been made over the past 20 years in developing models to estimate the service-life of reinforced concrete systems. The basic understandings of the mechanisms that control the transport of ions and moisture in concrete systems have been well researched and models for determining corrosion initiation, specifically chloride-induced...
Background: The United States has been under-producing college graduates since at least 1980, with many challenges suppressing students’ self-efficacy. One approach to improving student outcomes is through mentorship. This dissertation applied Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Kram’s Mentor Relationship Development Theory (MRD) to discover whether students’ campus mentorship experiences...
Many applications require not only representing variability in software and data, butalso computing with it. To do so efficiently requires variational data structures thatmake variability explicit in the underlying data and the operations used to manipulate it.Variational data structures have been developed ad hoc for many applications, but thereis little...
This study examines different fate and transport processes of N and P based on uncultivated grass, contour crop, and livestock management across different topographies (i.e. 5% vs. 30% slope) found within the tropical mountains of volcanic pedogenesis in the Ambato river catchment. The hydrologic, cultural, and agricultural properties of the...
This thesis is about visual relationship detection. This is an important task in computer vision. The goal is to detect all visual relationships in a given image between objects. This thesis presents a new approach to this problem. Our approach does not use an object detector as a common pre-processing...
A significant number of Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings exist in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America that is a region of high seismicity, which could be subjected to both crustal and subduction zone earthquakes. The catastrophic and brittle failures associated with URM buildings in the past...
Douglas-fir provides social, economic, and ecological benefits in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). In addition to timber, forests support abundant plant and animal biodiversity and provide socioeconomic viability for many rural communities. Products derived from Douglas-fir account for approximately 17% of the U.S. lumber output with an estimated value of $1.9...
Additive manufacturing and 3D printing have become household names as both hobbyistsand industrial manufacturers utilize fast, inexpensive prototyping and production of functionalparts. Additive manufacturing is being revolutionized with 3D printers such as theMulti Jet Fusion 3D from HP, Inc., where each volume pixel, or voxel, can be independentlyfunctionalized. Voxel-by-voxel printing...
Seafood is one of the most diverse and highly traded natural resources worldwide. Widespread evidence of increased seafood fraud and IUU fishing has placed enormous pressure on industry and governments to determine the authenticity, safety, and sustainability of seafood. The recently established US National Ocean Council has addressed several gaps...
Atomically-thin graphene sheets have unprecedented characteristics for biosensing applications. These characteristics include mechanical flexibility and strength, optical transparency, electrical sensitivity and biocompatibility. The primary theme of this dissertation is the characterization and application of graphene field-effect transistors (FETs) in biologically-relevant physiological environments.Understanding the interface that forms between an electrolyte and...
Old-growth forests are structurally complex in both vertical and horizontal dimensions. This complexity arises from biological characteristics, typically branch and leaf structure, but also includes epiphytes with varying form and function. I characterized the biomass and species composition of epiphytes along the vertical axis of an old-growth Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)...
Shrapnel is an exploration through memory. It’s a work that bends and twists upon itself and, as memory often does, lands within worlds and experiences only for a moment before jumping to the next story or thought. This text is a hybrid work that doesn’t fit neatly within any specific...
In this thesis, high resolution ocean models are used to evaluate and forecast coastal ocean variability in two different applications. In the first study, the 2-km resolution ocean circulation model for the Eastern Bering Sea is utilized to understand whether slope-interior exchange along the path of the Aleutian North Slope...
Transportation systems are facing safety and operational challenges with a cost of billions of dollars annually in lost production time and wasted fuel. Infrastructure expansion, previously held as a panacea to most transportation challenges has lost its appeal due to financial, land-use and environmental constraints. Interest is surging in intelligent...
Among the suite of water resources management strategies, water banking can be a tool for water resource management in areas with high water demands or localized water scarcity. This research aims to further the understanding of water banking by conducting a review and analysis of relevant state legislation. This research...
The role of ground motion duration on the seismic performance of civil engineering structures remains unclear. Thus, the role of earthquake strong ground motion duration is assessed in a three manuscript thesis, which includes: (1) assessment of the effects of ground motion duration on the seismic performance of a model...
The electrical stability of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thinfilmtransistors (TFTs) is investigated for flat-panel display applications. Althoughproducts incorporating a-IGZO TFT backplanes are already commercially available,e.g., iMac with 5K retina display, technical challenges need to be addressed for nextgenerationapplications, e.g., active-matrix organic light-emitting diode displays.Device stability is one crucial issue. The...
Organizations are significantly influenced by corporate cultures of the interacting organizations. Both the construction industry and engineered wood products (EWP) manufacturing industry are generally known for operating in a traditional environment maintaining conservative corporate cultures, which can create friction when they try to interact with a more liberal architectural industry...
Silicon integrated circuit (IC) technology has enabled numerous electrical and optical sensors used in biological and chemical assays, where they can increase performance while decreasing cost and size compared to traditional detectors. There is significant potential to further leverage IC technology for lab-on-chip applications, creating affordable and portable medical diagnostic...
Electrochemical capacitors and batteries are two major electrochemical energy storage technologies, which have been investigated extensively to meet the rapidly-growing demand for higher energy, higher power, lower cost and enhanced safety in the past few decades. With the charge storage mechanism of electrostatic charge adsorption desorption via electrical double layers,...
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may exert profound influences on ecosystem resilience and invasion resistance in western North American sagebrush steppe and other arid rangeland plant communities. Maintenance of plant community structure through ecological feedbacks such as facilitation of nutrient cycling and uptake by host plants, physical and chemical contributions to...
Traditional faculty development programs aimed at disseminating research-based pedagogy and innovations at potential adopters have helped increase awareness of these innovations; however, their adoption into engineering classrooms has been limited. This paper aims to present an alternative, pull-oriented approach to faculty development where faculty participants co-develop curricular innovations with engineering...
The need to detect trace amounts of target molecules is great, particularly when it comes to biosensing. With the early detection of a disease, the odds of the successful treatment of an individual increases significantly. To enhance the capability of biomolecular detection, we have created an optical biosensor capable of...
The growth of Brettanomyces bruxellensis is a major cause of wine spoilage due tothe production of the volatile phenols 4-ethylphenol (4-EP) and 4-ethylguaiacol (4-EG), derivatives of p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid. During the winemaking process,some microorganisms can impact the concentration of the 4-EP precursors pcoumaricand coutaric acid (tartaric acid-esterified p-coumaric...
Biological invasions and climate change represent two preeminent threats to ecological communities and biodiversity, altering the distribution and abundance of species, disrupting existing species interactions and forming unprecedented ones, and creating novel ecological communities. Many of the most successful invasive species are also ecosystem engineers, species that physically modify the...
Sepsis is an inflammatory reaction occurring throughout the human body to infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and or other forms of pathogens. It is essential to find an alternative treatment method for sepsis, to lessen the dependence on antibiotics. Hemoperfusion is an absorbent device that removes select targets from blood,...
Physical experimentation in various scientific and engineering areas continues to be a useful and often necessary approach that is applied in research, development, and for general problem solving. The experimental design process however, is iterative and often involves trial and error. Alternative designs are proposed and evaluated on cost and...
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUASs) equipped with optical sensors are capableof remotely sensing landscapes and wildlife at spatial and temporal resolutions that werepreviously inaccessible due to technical and budgetary limitations. Conventional remotesensing and photogrammetric workflows can be applied to the resulting high resolution imageryto facilitate new types of scientific inquiry....
This project examines the production histories of two films that Alfred Hitchcock directed, his Hollywood debut Rebecca (1940) and the memorable Psycho (1960). The first chapter explores how Hitchcock succeeded and failed at influencing the picture as he, despite directing the movie, had to follow the vision that his producer,...
In the light of the changing climate, the importance of designing effective watershed management plans that are likely to be implemented is becoming ever more important. This research introduces a new concept, consensus, for incorporation into stakeholder-guided interactive optimization of watershed management plans. User preferences were mathematically simulated based upon...
Several frequency and amplitude estimation algorithms are presented for balanced and unbalanced three-phase power grid systems. All the estimators are dynamic in nature and are implemented in the complex domain by transforming the three-phase power signals using Clarke’s transform. Specifically, we first construct a non-linear dynamic model of the complex...
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosion tests for military or civilian purposes. The International Monitoring System (IMS) was established to verify compliance with the treaty. It consists of several monitoring stations that detect: seismic activities, hydrocoustic activities, infrasound waves, and radionuclide particles and noble gases. Radioxenon detection...