Vitamin E (VitE) is necessary for vertebrate embryonic development. VitE prevents lipid peroxidation (LPO), which requires detoxification by cellular antioxidant systems subsequently involving reducing power derived from energy metabolism. Thus, VitE protects metabolic networks in the developing embryo and the integrated gene expression networks compensating for and impaired by LPO-induced...
Environmental injustices, defined as inequitable access to fair, safe, and healthy environmental outcomes, are often rooted in issues of land management, policy decision making, and sovereignty. This results from a series of processes, including loss of land ownership, exclusionary and discriminatory zoning, and structural barriers to participation. Black, Indigenous, Communities...
Oregon produces 99% US hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.), occupying 3% world production. To ensure the quality and food safety of hazelnuts (inshells or kernels), industry and federal standards require freshly harvested nuts to be cleaned and dried to reach a final moisture content (MC) of inshells < 10%, MC of...
This dissertation is comprised of four studies on different elements of Populus biotechnology and genomic science: 1) growth improvement by recombinant DNA (rDNA) modification of gibberellin (GA) metabolism; 2) gene editing using zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs); 3) induction of floral sterility by RNA interference (RNAi) of AGAMOUS (AG) gene homologs; and...
Marine sediments are vast sources and reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Most of this methane is anaerobically oxidized by archaea before it can reach the overlying ocean, though the efficiency of this process often depends on methane fluxes and mechanisms of fluid transport. Anaerobic methanotrophic archaea, or ANME,...
Zoos, aquariums and other free-choice/informal education settings offer the public opportunities to interact with live animals in exhibits through animal encounters and/or touch experiences designed to carry a conservation mission. Many of these institutions are accredited by the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and the World Association of...
This dissertation reports on four related, though separate projects. The first project details the process of carrying out a digitally augmented soil mapping (DSM) effort alongside an ongoing survey in Oregon's Ochoco National Forest (ONF) using a Random Forest algorithm. The second chapter describes a initial soil survey in Oregon's...
In the environment, it is the unbound fraction of chemical (Cfree) which is able to diffuse across environmental interfaces and biological membranes. It is therefore Cfree which drives many important biological-environmental processes including contaminant transport, bioaccumulation and toxicity. Passive sampling devices (PSDs) offer a simplified and more accurate approach for...
Globally, as surface water quality and quantity diminishes there is increasing reliance on groundwater to buffer water demands of growing populations. Today in many arid regions around the world aquifer pumping rates far exceed recharge rates. Often the groundwater is nonrenewable, or thousands of years old. Despite the known hydrologic...
Software testing is of critical importance for the success of software projects. Current inefficient testing methods often still take up half or more of a software project's budget. Automatic test data generation is the most promising way to lower the software testing cost. Manually creating testing data is expensive and...