As laws regarding medical and recreational cannabis use are changing across the United States, one must begin to understand the effects among individuals with chronic pain. Specifically, it is unclear how legalization may change their use of marijuana and opioids to self-medicate or for recreational use. To address these questions,...
In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began. This prompted quarantines, mask mandates, and stopped many businesses and services. This study asked the question of what people decided to do in terms of their recreation habits in response to the pandemic. We took a sample of Oregon State University...
This study looked at the impacts of climate change on medicinal plants, and how these impacts are viewed and understood in the herbalism community. Two literature reviews were conducted, to look at each of these two ideas: the first was a review of peer-reviewed literature describing research on climate change...
The case of Mongolia’s democratization remains unexplained by the various theories of democratization and democratic consolidation. The purpose of this thesis is to consider the unique case of Mongolian democratization, how well this case is described by various theories of democratization and reach both a description of how Mongolia’s democratization...
Ocean deoxygenation is predicted to increase in severity over the next few decades, posing a threat to marine life and fishing economies. Improved predictions of ocean deoxygenation depend on a better understanding of the biogeochemical mechanisms that underly this process. Within the realm of biogeochemical mechanisms, this project specifically investigated...
Blue light exposure has been on the rise over the past several years as artificial light in the form of light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been increasing. These LEDs emit predominantly blue light through TVs, computer monitors, smartphones, tablets etc. Previous research in our lab determined that blue light accelerated...
Mental health services are vital during this time where mental health issues in college students have been increasing in prevalence and in severity around the world. However, mental health care is not always accessible to all. This project explores the needs of students at Oregon State University who identify as...
An electrically driven propellant pump (HALE E-Pump) was analysed and tested to determine its viability for use in a bi-propellant launch vehicle for the High-Altitude Liquid Engine (HALE) student rocket team at Oregon State University (OSU). The pump, manufactured in 2022 by students in OSU machine shops, was hydrostatically tested...
Red Crossbills (Fringillidae: Loxia curvirostra), irruptive finches which feed on conifer seeds, have long presented an evolutionary conundrum. Variable morphology and vocalizations in the species can be classified into several flight call types, which may be discrete lineages. The key conifer hypothesis suggests that each type diverged by specializing on...
Water availability is a controlling factor in stream ecosystems with direct influences on habitat and aquatic ecosystem process, but little work has been done evaluating how biota respond to natural variations in low flow conditions during summer, and which biotic or abiotic features in the system may link most closely...
Chlamydia possesses an immense importance within both human and animal medicine when looking at pathogens. Chlamydia trachomatis infections have been shown to affect both the eye and genital tracts in millions of humans and animals every year [13]. As C. trachomatis strains are highly conserved in patients, it has made...
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as promising candidates in novel cancer therapies due to their unique properties, including high surface area, tunable crystal size, and exposed metal ion active sites for catalysis. The MOF NH2-MIL-88B has shown potential use in cancer theranostics. Its open metal active sites catalyze the reduction...
Nitrate is a toxic surface and ground water contaminant that poses human-health and ecological hazards. Contamination is anthropogenically sourced to over-amendment of ammonia-based fertilizers, in turn generated by the most carbon intensive chemical process in use today. Electrochemical approaches offer a green alternative to transform harmful waste nitrate into value-added...
Over the last two centuries, Pilsner beer has become a symbol of Czech national identity. Originating in the Western Czech town of Plzeň, the unique color and flavor spread globally, with new styles further branching off the Central European stem. It is with great pride that the Czech people are...
Motivated by my own struggle to find identity and belonging as a transracial adoptee (TRA), I sought to fulfill two thesis purposes: 1) answer the question “How do transracial adoptees find and create identity and belonging in a contemporary United States culture and context?” and 2) establish a) a rationale...
Intuitively, it seems as though natural language processing tasks might benefit from explicit representations of the syntactic and semantic properties of text. Ontonotes is a dataset which attempts to annotate texts, to represent as much as possible of the meaning of the text explicitly within the annotation. Many tools exist...
Loop quantum gravity is a theoretical framework which aims to quantize general relativity. One of the unique aspects of this theory is that it imposes a discrete structure on space-time. One toy model of loop quantum gravity is loop quantum cosmology, which maintains the idea of a discrete spatial structure...
Music performance and education faced unique barriers during the COVID-19 global pandemic which made it nearly impossible to effectively implement online learning. To better understand these barriers and what improvements might be made during future pandemics that entail periods of isolation, I collected the oral histories of eight Oregon State...
Is there a core set of concepts in psychology? Early work identified keywords in psychology by asking textbook authors what concepts were most important to them to understand what was essential for college students' psychological literacy (Boneau, 1990). Much of the early work showed there is little consistency in the...
Bees play a crucial role in pollinating crops, supporting biodiversity, and maintaining ecosystem health. Despite their importance, the decline in bee populations has become a global concern due to various factors including habitat loss, urbanization, and climate change. The purpose of this thesis is to write an article that highlights...
Unintended pregnancy has been found to be one of the most prominent challenges that the public health system is forced to overcome due to the financial and social burdens that accompany it (Yazdkhasti et al., 2015). With nearly 48% of reproductive-age American female patients having experienced at least one unintended...
Loop quantum gravity is a framework for quantizing general relativity which imposes a discrete structure on space. In exploring the structure of loop quantum gravity, researchers have investigated loop quantum cosmology, a toy model with reduced degrees of freedom while maintaining a discrete space. Polymer quantum mechanics is a framework...
Following their extirpation due to the maritime fur trade, northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) reintroduction in the 1960s has facilitated their recolonization in southeast Alaska. Sea otters are now sympatric with wolves (Canis lupus), which are widespread in southeast Alaska, and a colonizing coyote population (Canis latrans). Recent studies...
Childhood tooth decay is a prevalent and concerning public health issue that is often misunderstood or dismissed. In Oregon specifically, over 50% of children have experienced at least one instance of tooth decay and these rates are even higher for marginalized communities such as children living in poverty, children of...
As new cost-effective cultivation methods are needed for macrophytic red algae, this experiment expands upon a previously studied land-based approach. The experiment aimed to determine how the fluid dynamics of a previously researched land-based method affected the growth of the macrophytic red alga, Gracilaria Vermiculophylla. A clonal culture of G....
There is high projected growth for STEM-based job fields; however, a significant barrier to students entering those fields is the requirement to take Introductory Calculus. This thesis summarizes the current research done to improve university level math education, specifically calculus courses. It then uses the MAA Instructional Practices Guide to...
With growing awareness of the negative impacts of the built environment, solutions for dramatic environmental, economic, and social improvements are sparking in all sectors, especially within the construction industry. The work of this thesis aims to quantify and compare social, economic, and environmental impacts of a three-story mass timber structure...
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 exists to protect the disabled community from discrimination in order to give people with disabilities the opportunity to live their lives to the fullest extent (What Is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? | ADA National Network, n.d.). When the ADA was signed...
This thesis will compare former OSU Professor Bernard Malamud’s life in Corvallis through primary sources and documents with his parallel experience in his 1961 novel A New Life. A close examination of Malamud’s literature and investigation of his life at OSU exposes an uneven balance between academic censorship and the...
ZIF-8, a zeolitic imidazolate framework that consists of zinc ions and imidazolate linkers, is of great interest due to its simple synthesis methods, low-cost raw materials, chemical and thermal stability, as well as its stability in moist environments. Furthermore, due to its unique structure, it contains well-defined pores that have...
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, most colleges and universities around the world were forced to switch to remote learning. Many instructors were provided little guidance regarding how to restructure their courses for the remote classroom. The purpose of this study was to understand how the shift from in-person...
Spent hemp biomass (SHB) is a byproduct of the cannabinoid oil production which currently is not approved as a livestock feed ingredient. The 2018 Farm Bill defined the difference between varieties of the cannabis sativa plant as either non-hemp cannabis or hemp which has equal to or less than 0.3...
The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers maintains a taxonomy of their discipline known as the Industrial and Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge, or ISEBoK. A previous Honors College thesis by Thomas William Murphy mapped the knowledge areas within the ISEBoK to the stages of a scientific endeavor, and concluded...
Previous literature consistently demonstrates a link between binge drinking and sexual assault among college students. State alcohol control policies, particularly tax policies, are established as important predictors of college binge drinking but have not been examined in relation to sexual assault. This study used merged data on student demographics and...
This project uses field recordings to examine the levels of noise pollution present in both rural and urban areas by creating an artistic translation of these soundscapes, representative of how wild birds experience different environments. The field recordings capture not only what is present in a given soundscape, but what...
Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3), also known as koi herpesvirus (KHV), is a pathogenic and highly contagious virus that affects the Cyprinus genus. The mortality rate of the KHV infection is around 80-100%. KHV can become latent in the recovered koi and reactivate under stressful conditions. KHV can reactivate under various...
Simulation has provided much design inspiration for the field of robotics. While many astute ideas can be computationally formulated, there are some good structures in animals that people call “biologically-inspired”. Many robots are designed based on natural creatures such as crabs, spiders, etc. Before we can take full advantage of...
Ornithology is an exciting field with novel research emerging everyday. Researchers in bioacoustics often spend hours within the wilderness recording bird calls to analyze later in their lab. The burden of sifting through hours of audio recordings from the field continues to remain a time-consuming and manual task, despite the...
Wildfires are increasing in frequency. One area of research interest centers on the pollutants within wildfire smoke, including but not limited to particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These chemicals are associated with exacerbation of respiratory, cardiovascular, dermatological, reproductive, oncological, gastrointestinal, and infectious conditions. As wildfires becoming increasingly prevalent, it...
In "Level Number Sequences for Trees" Flagotet and Prodinger investigate the problem of counting the number of level number sequences associated to binary trees of $n$ binary nodes. I convert this problem into terms of exterior nodes or "leaves" and leaf number sequences. "Polynomial representation" is then defined to address...
I researched depictions of dragons in several works of modern literature to conceptualize what a dragon looks like and how they generally function in popular media. From there, I researched several key characteristics of dragons to see how they work with science’s current understanding. I looked into size and scaling,...
Throughout history, royal wedding gowns have symbolized wealth, high fashion, along with representing what is going on in society at the time. The royal wedding gowns throughout history have been the most talked about dresses. Leading up to the wedding, people are left guessing the designer and the style, and...
Acid whey is the largest byproduct of the dairy industry but to date has few useful applications and is frequently discarded as a result. However, acid whey has a high carbon content, making it a suitable co-substrate for anaerobic co-digestion with raw sewage sludge. The synergistic effect of co-digestion has...
Supply chain disruptions and their propagating effects often result in negative impacts on supply chain performance, reduced profit, and an overall decrease in supply chain health. To mitigate these risks, it is important to understand the behavior of specific disruptions and to identify mitigation strategies that would be the most...
This study examines the relationship of ADHD with quality of life (QoL) and peer relations in college students. Specifically, this study analyzes how ADHD impacts QoL and peer relations and how other variables can impact these relationships. The current study was conducted through an online survey on Qualtrics which included...
Self-regulation skills in children are an important indicator of positive life outcomes such as health and wealth. Techniques to improve self-regulation are important, as well as understanding what factors influence child development of self-regulation. This study investigates the connection between total minutes of physical activity per day, as well as...
Water splitting is a green method being researched to produce green hydrogen in order to combat greenhouse gases emitted by the most popular energy source; fossil fuels. Water splitting involves two half reactions: hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Of these two, OER is the bottleneck water...
After over two decades of advocacy and planning, the four hydroelectric facilities on the Klamath River will be decommissioned and removed starting in 2023. Significant positive changes are expected to result, from reduced severity of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) to nearly a two-fold increase in accessible habitat for native salmonid...
This thesis explores the relationship between design cycle models and knowledge management systems applied to various physical prototypes that the author developed from 2020 to 2023. The author walks through the process of prototyping a potty-training device in OSU’s Prototype Development Lab and an automated testing fixture for her Senior...
Latinas in engineering face discrimination on the intersectionality of their two identities, Latinx and woman. The barriers that happen to them as an indirect effect of previous or existing institutional systems of oppression are called systemic barriers. Coming from the lens of four subjects, in a ranking of the barriers...