Corporate employee volunteer programs are redefining "corporate
social responsibility." Community benefits derived from these
programs are well documented. However, there is limited research on
what internal impact such programs have on the sponsoring
corporations.
Kast and Rosenzwieg (1978) define "organizational performance" as
"effectiveness," "efficiency" and "participant satisfaction." The
study focused...
Climate and terrestrial vegetation have had mutual feedbacks for nearly five hundred million years, yet both are now departing from recent historical norms, with uncertain implications for forest ecosystems. This dissertation outlines the current and potential future climate responses of lichen and bryophyte communities in the United States as part...
Sexual and gender minority (SGM) samples report elevated rates of substance use and substance use disorder compared to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts across a wide variety of substances (Connolly & Gilchrist, 2020; Krueger et al., 2020; Rice et al., 2019), in part due to the experience of minority stress....
The influence of the physical environment on organisms has long been a subject of ecological research. But, the complex drivers of environmental variation, and the multiple scales at which this can occur, make studying this topic a difficult challenge. In rocky intertidal habitats, oceanographic- and climate-scale variability influence benthic communities...
Proteins are the metabolic machines of the cell and as such, the study of proteins could illuminate the dominant biological activities that are occurring within cells and reveal how an organism interacts with its environment. Here, we used proteomic techniques to study the abundant marine bacterium SAR11 both as an...
Since 1980, the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults has more than doubled, accompanied by increases in chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. This high prevalence and associated disease burden continues to be a threat to public health. Despite years of efforts to stem the tide of obesity, successful...
Biogeochemical mechanisms employed by key organisms, or symbiotic associations of organisms, transform the function and structure of their environment through processes recognized as ecosystem engineering. This dissertation seeks to investigate organism-ecosystem interactions that serve globally significant ecological functions in marine systems and impact how systems respond to environmental change. Using...
Ceratomyxa shasta is a myxozoan parasite that infects salmonid fishes causing the disease ceratomyxosis that is characterized by severe hemorrhage and necrosis of the intestine and death of the fish host. Ceratomyxa shasta is endemic to the Pacific Northwestern United States and Canada, where epizootics are reported for both wild...
Orchard floor management (OFM) practices can improve soil function and alter
the soil biological community. Soil function is dependent on soil forming materials and
on management practices but little is known about how OFM affect orchard soil quality,
fertilizer N uptake, or tree growth and production.
Research plots were located...
This work proposes a framework of concept generation and evaluation that takes into consideration the benefit of creativity and innovation in current market trends. By educating engineers in how to increase creativity in concept design and assess it quantitatively, the next generation of designers will be a step ahead of...