Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is recognized for its difficulty to diagnose and subjective symptomatology. There is no known cure nor a recommended therapeutic diet to aid in the multidisciplinary treatment for FMS. A systematic review was conducted to investigate if diets can improve the pain symptoms of fibromyalgia. A total of...
This paper looks into the participants in Black Lives Matter-related communication on the social media app TikTok and the content they posted. Using grounded theory, the information gathered from Black Lives Matter TikTok videos was analyzed to determine the goals of the content creators, as well as the feasibility of...
Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have gained much popularity in the search for alternatives to clean sources to harvest energy. Given their capability to harness an electric potential given a temperature differential across their opposing faces, and the foreseeable prevalence of naturally and/or commonly occurring temperature gradients in multiple applications, TEGs are...
The demands of the healthcare system on its employees are heavy and intense. Long working hours, high-stress environments, and emotionally exhausting situations can lead to burnout. This is particularly a constant concern in emergency medicine. Burnout has been associated with impacting well-being and performance. There is also an interest in...
Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths among women, with an estimated 12.4% of American women diagnosed with this tumor type. Evidence suggests that exogenous disruptors can exert epigenetic changes leading to aberrant gene expression, shifting the cellular balance toward oncogenesis. While chemical pollutant exposure is well-studied, light...
Glycomacropeptide (GMP) is a bioactive peptide found in the dairy product whey, along with whey protein isolate (WPI). Past studies have shown that digested GMP retains bioactivity in rodent guts. This study tested whether GMP or GMP-derived peptides or whey protein or whey protein-derived peptides inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokines. THP-1 cells...
Differential access to healthcare contributes to health disparities, and discrimination by language preferences may limit healthcare access to individuals for whom English is not their preferred language. This study looks at whether those who have different language preferences within the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS ) survey reported different...
This study examines healthcare policy preferences of Oregon State University students through the lens of Political Culture Theory, as pioneered by Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky in the 1980’s. The primary goal of this study is to examine the impact of cultural traits as described by Political Culture Theory on...
This paper presents a method of implementing real-time apple detection for closed-loop control to approach apples for grabbing. The approach is to train two known real-time object detection networks–the Faster R-CNN and YOLOv5–on a novel dataset to verify that it is possible to achieve maximum average precision (mAP) above 50\%...
The goal of this project is to create a lightweight radioactive isotope identification program for an embedded system using the C programming language to perform isotope matching on a subset of isotopes. First, the physics behind radioactive spectra and their key features are explained. Next, the characteristics of the spectra...
0.1 Purpose of Report
During my time on this project, I have written two reports. My SAE22 ePowertrain report details last year's design, the design process, design changes, and manufacturing in extreme detail. The capstone course report will be useful for future students looking to educate themselves on everything that...
Projects in forestry and civil engineering depend on accurate information, which is often acquired through remote sensing techniques. One of the remote sensing technologies that has gained importance in the last decade is light detection and ranging (lidar), which describes the surveyed area with 3D points, presented as point clouds....
This project uses a variety of 3D technologies to give a deeper understanding of what it was like to live through the events of World War II. It includes three unique scenes: a Parisian Alleyway, an Underground Air Raid Shelter, and the attic where Holocaust survivor Henry Friedman and his...
Characterizing a mindset landscape within the physics classroom is crucial to portray the variation and context of mindset in the classroom. This paper will be looking at students enrolled in Oregon State University’s PH20x series, which is a series of three algebra-based introductory physics courses. This project is an exploratory...
Although it is the first drug approved for usage to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), riluzole’s mechanism of action is unknown and its therapeutic quality is hampered by its relatively short window of effectiveness. P2X7 is a purine receptor found in astrocytes and other cells, which increases calcium concentrations within...
Asians are a minority group that are scarcely represented throughout Hollywood and the film industry. Even when there is some type of inclusion, they are often subjected to stereotypes that have been perpetuated for decades. This contributes to shaping how Asian and Asian Americans are perceived, as well as the...
This thesis describes an automated method to estimate tree trunk width in a commer-cial apple orchard. Trunk cross sectional area, which is an important consideration with regards to nutrient uptake, is a feature being integrated in a decision support system for precision Nitrogen management. The data used to generate the...
When my mother’s mother sent her over to the new, western world, she sent her with a suitcase full of spices you couldn’t find at an American grocery store in the 90’s: tamarind and turmeric, coriander root and cumin. Ammu, my mother, had truly packed her entire life and everything...
This thesis explores the differences in puppetted and teleoperation control of robotic hands, using the Asterisk test as a benchmark. Two hands were tested, including modified versions of the Model Q and Model Q developed by Yale's GRAB Lab. Small differences were observed between the puppetted and teleoperation control of...
The Jovanovic lab at Oregon State University (OSU) is developing iCore, a versatile blood processing platform which leverages microfluidic process intensification via increased mass transfer efficiency and decreased device footprint with the goal of creating a portable, wearable device. One application of iCore is for the treatment of hyperferremia resulting...
Electron behavior in semiconductor materials critically determines electronic applications. Previous research has shown carrier temperature higher than the lattice temperature of LEDs due to energy differences in the quantum well. Study of these findings requires a novel set-up to dig out weak signal in a thermal-noise filled environment; analytical methods...
With Alzheimer’s disease being the most prominent form of dementia, finding potential treatments for the disease is imperative. This study explored the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen as a potential treatment to normalize the hyperactive N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) within the 5xFAD mice early in the disease pathology before cognitive decline. Female...
Probiotics are defined as “live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit to the host”. A wide variety of putative probiotics exist on the market; however, clinical evidence of their efficacy is lacking. Probiotics have been previously used in the treatment of metabolic diseases like type...
When the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, eligibility for Medicaid was expanded to include people whose income was less than 138% of the federal poverty level. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that states could choose whether to expand their Medicaid programs or not. The objective of this...
Despite the prominence of LEDs in our society, we have limited knowledge pertaining to their long-term effects. These seemingly white LEDs have a large blue light component to them. Recent results have shown that Drosophila living in 12 hrs. of blue light and 12 hrs. of darkness live substantially shorter...
This is a two-part thesis. The first part is a generalization of vector calculus tools to Minkowski Space, a non-Euclidean 3-dimensional geometry that has a distance function that is not positive definite. We orient a cube in Minkowski Space using the generalized Stokes' Theorem to relate a divergence integral to...
For next-generation molten salt reactors, there is a need to be able to characterize the corrosion of the molten salts contained within them. One such tool that may be used to accomplish this is a dynamic ref- erence electrode, or DRE. Here, an aqueous dynamic reference electrode (aDRE) was developed,...
Over 76 cities throughout the United States have already adopted policies to limit the expansion of natural gas, mainly through updates to city codes that ban natural gas infrastructure in new construction. Rising concern over the environmental and public health impacts of methane - a greenhouse gas with a much...
This thesis acts as an artist statement to accompany the series Rose Colored Glass, which is a collection of acrylic paints using mirrors as canvases. Part prose and part autobiography, Queer Tragedy isn’t the Whole Story follows my journey from institutionalization and assualt to healing. Each mirror has a story...
This paper seeks to assess the merits of “Vote With Your Dollar” (VWYD) strategies for consumer and investor activism as a model for changing corporate behavior. A novel framework was constructed to group VWYD strategies and campaigns under shared attributes. To assess one such group, the boycott, the research gathered...
Over 100 years separate the 1918 Influenza and COVID-19 pandemics, and a multitude of science, public health and communication advancements have emerged. With the COVID-19 pandemic still underway, recently reaching the one million death mark in the United States alone (CDC, 2020), researchers are searching for clues as to how...
One of the main ways that one can accurately gain knowledge of the experiences of students on a college campus is to talk to the students themselves. In this study, we used Photovoice, a participatory action approach, to help better understand the experiences of the students at Oregon State University...
The widespread adoption of computerized systems around the turn of the century as a means of more efficiently conducting elections introduced more issues than these computer systems were intended to address. Though many of these flaws were not considered for years or decades after the introduction of digital election infrastructure,...
By studying gravitational waves, we can gain new insights into the merging events between massive objects such as black holes as well as neutron stars. Moreover, studying low-frequency waves allows us to observe merging events between supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, which in turn allows us to...
Reflection on a stage management experience for a musical produced at Oregon State University. Comparison from previous high school experiences in stage managing to the university level of stage management. Reference to the texts and resources examined for the growth of knowledge in stage management. Analysis of each stage of...
Since underrepresented nominees began filling U.S. Supreme Court seats, political scientists have examined the possibility of existing biases towards potential judges based upon their identities or innate characteristics. Some scholars have identified that the gender identification and ethnic affiliations of candidates have affected the behaviors displayed by those involved in...
This study aims to evaluate the relationship between the social determinants of health and substance use disorder (SUD) in Oregon. Data was collected from various public databases to represent the social and environmental conditions of the 18 most populated counties in Oregon. Substance use disorder data was also collected for...
The Vietnamese population that migrated to the United States is largely tied to South Vietnam. As the population settled, their strong opposition to communism has driven many in the community towards political alignment with the alt-right and even white nationalists. The proximity to these movements and their seeming tolerance of...
Industrial waste heat composed of saturated liquid water can be redirected to charge a thermochemical energy storage (TCES) system. This energy can be stored long-term in the inherently energy-dense chemical bonds and used for space heating. Initial reactor scale cycling experiments were conducted in tandem with TCES material improvements. Hydration...
One way to support the transgender and gender diverse (TGD) community is by calling out microaggressions. Bystander readiness to call out microaggressions may be influenced by a bystander’s perception of harm caused by the microaggression and stereotypes surrounding the identity of the microaggressor. In this study, I focused on the...
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the governing body for collegiate athletics and has regulated the activity of student-athletes with the primary goal of preserving amateurism. In recent years, the restrictions of this principle have been challenged in court. The Supreme Court case NCAA v. Alston (2021) challenged the...
This paper seeks to provide a practical answer to the following question: why create a board of directors in a family business? To achieve this, it summarizes the existing research published in the field of family business governance that directly addresses the beneficial role of the board of directors in...
The contributions of Palestinian women have historically been discredited and delegitimized. This has occurred both due to societal patriarchy, and due to patriarchal norms being exacerbated by the conditions of living under the violent Israeli occupation and settler colonialism. Yet in actuality, Palestinian women have played many diverse roles in...
North American bird populations have declined throughout the past half century. The majority of studies quantifying these declines have focused on spring and summer breeding birds; not the season of scarcity, winter. We re-surveyed 7 large study plots in Douglas fir forests initially surveyed in winter during the late 1960s...
The nucleocapsid of SARS-CoV-2 is critical for viral genome packaging through binding to viral genomic RNA. Liquid-liquid phase separation, or LLPS, is the formation of microscopic, rapidly reversible, liquid-like immiscible droplets. There is increasing scientific evidence that LLPS underlies the formation of membraneless compartments within cells and that this process...
Bee populations are declining around the globe, while the need for their pollination services is increasing with growing food demands by an expanding population. There is a need for innovative practices to increase pollination in agricultural environments without harming wild bee populations. However, the use of artificial visual attractants has...
This study assessed suitability of annelid habitats under current baseflow conditions and evaluated the mobility of suitable annelid substrates under a 2-year peak flushing flow. Outputs from a 2020 Bureau of Reclamation SRH-2D model were combined with field measurements of annelid presence/absence and habitat variables including depth, velocity and d50,...
Ice-penetrating radar produces detailed images of the internal ice layers in a glacier. Because the layers form from each year's snowfall, the curving of the internal layers is a record of the climate conditions that the glacier experienced as it flowed throughout the millennia. The Hiawatha Glacier lies on top...
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) times periodic signals from pulsars as a method of detecting gravitational waves. NANOGrav detects waves emitted in the nanohertz frequency range, a range lower than those previously explored by other organizations. This allows for the study of rarely observed sources such...
The phosphoprotein (P protein) in viruses of the Mononegavirales order is known to play an essential role in the completion of viral replication mechanisms. The P protein is involved in stabilizing the viral polymerase and nucleoprotein during RNA transcription and replication, regulating nascent RNA encapsidation by the nucleoprotein, and mediation...