The objective of this project was to investigate technical efficiency and productivity growth in the Pacific Northwest sawmilling industry over the period 1968-2002. Productivity growth was decomposed into three components: technical change, efficiency change, and scale efficiency change. In addition, using econometric methods, changes in output elasticities and input substitution...
The thesis focuses on model-based approximation methods for reinforcement
learning with large scale applications such as combinatorial optimization problems.
First, the thesis proposes two new model-based methods to stablize the
value–function approximation for reinforcement learning. The first one is the
BFBP algorithm, a batch-like reinforcement learning process which iterates between...
Although the Pacific Northwest has the least proportion of non-native plant species in relation to other regions of North America, exotic species continue to spread into mountainous areas, including the Cascade Range. In a forested landscape, road networks can act as corridors for exotic plant dispersal and establishment, helping species...
Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) display the greatest variability of return times to freshwater of all Pacific salmon. Differential return times to freshwater have segregated populations of Chinook into two broad types or runs, fall and spring, named for the time of year in which they migrate to freshwater. Migration time...
This project combines service learning with narrative writing (fiction and non-fiction) as an effective tool for the discovery and communication of social understanding; more specifically, the project discusses white privilege in literary form. Four short stories and seven vignettes, drawn from service learning experience over the course of three years,...
The LifeKnowledge curriculum is a recent initiative of the National FFA Organization to develop key learning precepts in agriculture education students. This material utilizes cutting-edge teaching techniques in lesson plans designed to develop leadership, teamwork, personal development, and communication abilities in students. This project surveyed current agriculture teachers in Oregon...
This study sought to conduct an in depth analysis of women’s first sexual experiences looking for factors contributing to the experience and the emotional outcomes of first intercourse. Fourteen heterosexual, female, college students were interviewed about their first sexual experience and sexual background using a semi-structured interview format. The narratives...
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a phenotypically variable disorder of hemoglobin that leads to abnormally shaped and dysfunctional red blood cells. Several studies have attempted to construct early predictive models for SCD, including Miller et al.’s (2000) model which uses easily identifiable predictors in early life. The primary aim of...
Un Paseo Encantado, an enchanted walk, is a collection of my observations and experiences in a study abroad program in Oviedo, Spain. My commentary on Spanish culture is based on reading I did prior my departure, in combination with my observations while in Spain. In six chapters, I explore the...
1-km MODIS observations of ship tracks off the west coast of the U.S. are used to characterize changes in cloud visible optical depths, cloud droplet radii, cloud cover fraction, and column cloud liquid water amount as low-level marine clouds respond to particle pollution from underlying ships. This study re-examines the...
Large barite (BaSO4) structures mark cold seeps in the southern San Clemente Basin. Barium flux to San Clemente sediments is two to three times greater than fluxes measured in surrounding California Borderland basins. Analyses of sediment trap material, water column samples, sediments and pore water indicate that expected bariumbearing mineral...
This dissertation addresses issues of oligopoly markets where advertising plays a prominent role. The first study empirically investigates the effect of advertising regulations on equilibrium consumption of an addictive commodity using U.S. cigarette industry data. The results of the first study show that the advertising regulations reduced cigarette consumption by...