In Oregon perennial and annual grass seed cropping systems conservation management practices and their impacts on soil health and soil microbial community is not well understood. There is strong motivation to employ conservation tillage and other conservation practices to curb atmospheric carbon levels and improve soil health. However, the few...
This study is an ethnographic investigation of residential turnover, organizational memory, and the persistence of Lost Valley, an Oregon ecovillage founded in 1989. Literature on organizational turnover, memory, and persistence is reviewed and integrated with scholarship on intentional communities and ecovillages, generating a theoretical framework for data collection and analysis....
Null networks are a type of random graph that is favored for the analysis of a wide variety of real-world networks, including gene-regulatory networks, food webs, and species co-occurrence matrices. As a hypothesis-generating tool, null networks are invaluable because they can reveal network motifs and unusual large-scale properties of networks...
This ethnographic study addresses the concerns of Oregon based Community Health Workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through their shared perspectives on the importance of mental health and self-care, CHWs highlight the critical need to learn practical skills in their training in order to better support their communities. Recommendations made by...
This project is a personal exploration of happiness and optimism through the lens of a queer and transgender subject who experiences gender dysphoria, depression, and suicidality. Taking inspiration from Ann Cvetkovich’s (2012) Depression: A Public Feeling, this work incorporates both analysis of affective theory, especially Lauren Berlant’s theory of cruel...
Cultivated plants are often living artifacts that can aid in evaluation of historic or cultural landscapes. However, a working definition for “culturally significant plant” is currently lacking in the guidance literature for the cultural resource management practitioners. Based on a review of the literature on cultivated plants as indicators of...
In his July 31, 1996 remarks on welfare reform, President Clinton signaled his intent to sign into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), bipartisan legislation aimed at reforming federal welfare policy. During the press conference, Clinton framed welfare as necessary but ultimately temporary relief, stating its...
Climate change is increasing the severity of pest and pathogen infestations affecting forests. Resulting shifts in disturbance patterns can have substantial ecological, social, and economic impacts on forested ecosystems and their dependent communities. Researchers are actively investigating methods to improve tree resistance to specific pests and pathogens and enhance forest...
Pasture legumes that persist under challenging agro-ecological conditions are crucial to ensure high lamb growth rates in dryland pastures. Pasture and lamb production from white clover (TF-Whc), birdsfoot trefoil (TF-Bft), balansa clover (TF-Bc) and subterranean clover (TF-Sc) planted with tall fescue either as binary mixtures or as a diverse combination...
Cinder cones are useful geomorphic features for geological analysis because they generally have known initial states and follow a similar pattern of degradation as they are exposed to erosive processes. This is largely because cinder cones are produced by monogenetic eruptions. Characterizing large cinder cone fields in terms of age...
This project performs a style analysis of three sentences from three military manuals written across an 80 year time-period. I first discuss the history of style within academic discourse and how it has impacted the study of style within the field of writing and rhetoric. Using this background, I then...
A large, multi-year experimental program has been conducted to develop a strain gaging program for application to the flow testing of prototypic, plate-type fuel for high performance research reactors. This test program has resulted in the selection of appropriate strain gage construction, adhesives, and protective coatings to allow the
acquisition...