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...