Irrigated crop production is a stabilizing element in the
agricultural economy of Southeast Ford County, Kansas. The important role
irrigation plays in the local economy creates a need to carefully consider
the potential impact of aquifer depletion. An examination of the spatial
and temporal characteristics of aquifer depletion in relation...
In this thesis, the spatial patterns of vegetation and soils of reference and restored tidal marshes were compared to determine the extent to which restored sites differ from the reference site after 40 years of restoration. Vegetation surveys of 1m x 1m plots were conducted along previously-established transects of salt...
Seascape ecology is an emerging discipline focused on understanding how features of the marine habitat influence the
spatial distribution of marine species. However, there is still a gap in the development of concepts and techniques for its
application in the marine pelagic realm, where there are no clear boundaries delimitating...
Mesoscale surveys to examine the relationship between the physical processes and biological response along the Antarctic Polar Front (PF) were conducted as part of the US JGOFS Southern Ocean Program during austral spring and summer 1997/98. Multiple crossings of the PF near 170° W, using a towed undulating instrument, provided...
Spatial Supervised Learning seeks to learn how to assign a label to each pixel in a spatial grid
such as the pixels of remote-sensed images. The standard approach is to treat each grid cell
separately and to use only the measured features of the grid cell to determine the assigned...
Data generating processes for trip-level commercial fishing data feature endogenous targeting of individual fish species and spatially, temporally varying stock conditions that are unobserved by the researcher but partially observed by fishermen. We present a model and identification strategy to address serious challenges that arise in this setting for obtaining...
The United States (U.S.) has seen dramatic growth in installed wind energy generation capacity in recent years, and that growth is expected to remain strong in the near term. The siting of wind energy facilities poses unique challenges that may be exacerbated by increased buildout. As the number of wind...
This internship project (Dr. Dawn Wright—Department of Geoscience) was a synthesis of several aspects of the research process. The documentation of methods consisted of: primary data collection of soil samples, geographical coordinates, georeferencing, basemap creation, laboratory machine operation, laboratory methods, laboratory quality control planning, statistical analysis, and geo-statistical analysis using...
Dust deposition on ecosystems with highly weathered soils may provide vital rock-derived nutrients that maintain ecosystem productivity. Because of the difficulties in measuring temporally and spatially heterogeneous dust deposition over ecologically meaningful timescales, evaluations of the spatial variability in dust deposition are extremely rare. In the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto...
The variability of heavy metal concentrations (Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu) of the terrestrial moss Orthotrichum lyellii on single trees was evaluated at two sites in the Pacific Northwest, one relatively unpolluted and the other polluted. In addition, a reciprocal transplant of O. lyellii between the unpolluted and polluted sites...
Mangrove forests store more organic carbon across ecosystem carbon pools than most other coastal and forested ecosystems, and are subject to high global rates of deforestation. For these reasons, they are recognized as prime candidates for inclusion in climate change mitigation strategies. However, the ecological drivers of regional and micro-scale...
Estimation of cetacean abundance or density using visual methods can be cost-ineffective under many scenarios. Methods based on acoustic data have recently been proposed as an alternative, and could potentially be more effective for visually elusive species that produce loud sounds. Motivated by a dataset of minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)...
This paper presents a framework for analyzing efficient spatial allocation of forest
management efforts - fuel treatment and harvest - under the risk of fire. The framework
integrates a fire behavior model and a spatially-explicit stochastic dynamic optimization
model. I investigate the effects of spatial interaction across plots during forest...
Abstract: A series of 23 thin, mostly mud-silt turbidites are found interspersed between larger, well-dated and regionally correlated paleoseismic sandy turbidites that extend along most of the Cascadia margin, northwestern United States. Investigation of the structure, distribution, and sedimentology of these thin mud-silt units supports the interpretation of these units...
In order to decide whether or not to develop biomass energy facilities and where to best locate them, developers and investors need accurate assessments of fuel supply. This includes information about the distribution and concentration of fuel throughout the assessment area, the quality of fuel (form, moisture content, contaminant content,...
Droplet and spray impingement cooling are typically used in high heat flux
thermal management. In this thesis, droplet impingement and evaporation heat transfer
characteristics are determined from measured spatially- and temporally- varying fluid
and surface temperatures. Unique to this study is the documentation of the effects of
using a nanofluid...
The rapid decline of marine ecosystems worldwide and the failure of traditional single species management pushed for the development of ecosystem-based conservation measures such as marine protected areas (MPA) to slow the loss of marine biodiversity. One approach to MPA creation advocates targeting marine megafauna (e.g., marine mammals, seabirds, sharks,...
This study investigated the spatial distribution of juvenile North Pacific albacore (Thunnus alalunga) in relation to local environmental variability
[i.e. sea surface temperature (SST)], and two large-scale indices of climate variability, [the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and theMultivariate
El Nino/Southern Oscillation Index (MEI)]. Changes in local and climate variables were...
The marine environment is under increasing pressure from human activities worldwide, particularly in coastal waters, creating a need to better understand fine-scale distributions of highly mobile species that occur in the area, as they are frequently most threatened. Harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) occur frequently in Oregon’s nearshore habitat, but due...
Seasonal mountain snowpack of the western US (WUS) is a key water resource to millions of people. Impurities at the snow surface directly affect snowmelt timing and rate, as they contribute to earlier peak streamflow, snow disappearance, and less water availability in dry months. Predicting the locations, timing, and intensity...
Montane meadows in the Cascade Range of Oregon have been declining due to tree establishment since records began. Montane meadow complexes in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest shrank by 60 to 75% from 1949 to 2005, but fine scale temporal and spatial processes of tree establishment in these meadows are...
Informed conservation of small mammals, ecosystems, and predators requires a detailed understanding of how small mammals species and communities vary in both space and time, as well as the relative cyclicity and synchrony of this variation. This variation can be especially informative to land managers interested in manipulating the abundance...
The waterborne, myxozoan parasite Ceratonova shasta is endemic to the Pacific Northwest and can be lethal to its secondary salmonid host, including the culturally, economically, and recreationally important spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) of the Deschutes River, OR. Previously described genotypes of C. shasta exhibit specificity with their salmonid hosts....
Water quality impacts both human and ecosystem health. Many pharmaceuticals and personal care products are considered contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) due to their bioactive properties. Among these, metformin—the most commonly prescribed drug for treatment of type 2 diabetes—has been reported at high concentrations (μg L⁻¹) in stream, lake, and...
Given the many significant roles that bacteria play in modern food manufacturing, it is crucial that we have a fundamental understanding of how bacterial communities assemble and behave in the food manufacturing environment. The focus of this dissertation was to investigate both the spatial and temporal distributions of microbial communities...
The central Oregon coast was selected as an ideal site for wave energy
development and establishment of the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC). PMEC will consist of two nearshore sites, one north (NETS) and one south (SETS) of the Yaquina River, Oregon. Our study aims to assess how the development...
We examined the spatial and temporal variability of stream carbon dioxide (CO₂) and the drivers of these variations in a headwater catchment. To examine temporal variation and drivers, we measured stream and hyporheic pCO₂ at high temporal resolution over 11 months in a 95.9-ha forested headwater catchment in the Western...
In recent years, many studies have focused on the molecular and biochemical mechanisms regulating the development of wine grapes. The course of grape berry development is directed by genetic design and is mediated by phytohormones, which regulate grape berry growth and development by orchestrating a complex network of interacting genes,...
Continental shelf sediments are sinks for dissolved oxygen and sources of many major and minor nutrients required for oceanic surface primary production, resulting in a strong coupling between benthic and pelagic biogeochemical cycling. However, the influence and spatiotemporal variability of benthic remineralization on bottom-water chemistry and the supply of nutrients...
The dataset is a layer file created in ArcGIS Pro 2.2. The dataset includes digitized outlines of the seaward edges of five Oregon salt marshes (Nehalem, Netarts, Salmon, Alsea, and Coquille). These are roughly decadal from 1939 to 2018 and were hand-digitized using historical aerial photography (1939 to the late...
Spring chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, in the Snake River Basin are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The typical life history of spring chinook salmon is semelparous. An experiment was performed to see if mature male spring chinook salmon parr could be reconditioned after hand-spawning and spawned in...
Recently, there has been concern over the decline of the Pacific lamprey, Lampetra tridentata, in the northwestern United States. However, effective management has been impeded by data gaps in basic biology, especially in the early life stages. Consequently, in 2004 and 2005 I examined reproductive ecology, larval recruitment, and lamprey...
It is often noted that young adults tend to be apathetic towards involvement in the political process. The aim of this study is to scratch the surface of this phenomena and, in a scientific fashion, begin to discover if this can be changed. In the study, press releases from members...
Recently, feminist scholars have begun to question the traditional telling of the history of rhetoric. Dissatisfied with a history which is told in terms of privileged, white males to the exclusion of all other voices, these scholars have worked to recover "lost" female rhetoricians and have begun critically rereading the...
In this project, we have investigated three different techniques for plagiarism detection and have compared its effectiveness against that of an unaided human grader. The techniques investigated were word frequency analysis, sentence inclusion analysis and sub string inclusion analysis. We found that a combination of word frequency analysis and sub...
This SPEC Kit examines current practices, policies, and ethical issues around libraries and learning analytics. It explore how ARL member institutions are navigating the balance between gathering and managing data in support of learning analytics initiatives and attending to the profession’s ethics commitments. To these ends, it seeks to answer...
In the 27 years since the establishment of federal law mandating special education, no state has been fully in compliance. In addition, the voices of school personnel (special education teachers, speech and language pathologists, and school psychologists) charged with implementing these laws and regulations have been largely silent in the...
Following thermal neutron induced fission, supervised machine learning and temporal gamma-ray spectroscopy methods were used to identify differences in the delayed gamma-ray spectra of Pu-239 and U-235. The temporal gamma-ray spectroscopy method takes advantage of the time-dependent decay of fission products. Employing Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient and without prior knowledge...
Improving the methods used for the detection and estimation of fissile material mass content is essential to nuclear security and safeguards to ensure special nuclear material (SNM) accountability, control, safety and security. With the continued expansion of the nuclear industry and the need for safe management of spent fuel, improving...
This report includes information concerning experimental use of unregistered pesticides or unregistered uses of pesticides. Experimental results should not be interpreted as recommendations for use. Use of unregistered materials or use of any registered pesticides inconsistent with its label is against both Federal Law and State Law.
To test the utility of otolith chemical composition as a tool for determining the natal stream of origin for salmon, we examined water chemistry and otoliths of juvenile and adult Chum Salmon Oncorhynchus keta and Coho Salmon O. kisutch from three watersheds (five rivers) in the Norton Sound region of...
Background:
Myxozoans are metazoan parasites whose traditional spore morphology-based taxonomy conflicts DNA based phylogenies. Freshwater species of the genus Hoferellus are parasites of the excretory system, with several members infecting food and ornamental fish species, as well as amphibians. This study aims to increase our understanding of their molecular diversity...
Dramatic changes in the physical and biological conditions off Washington and Oregon, USA, have occurred since 1998, including extreme El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cool) years, high and low Columbia River flow years, a major intrusion of subarctic water, and a low oxygen event on the shelf. The occurrence...
Species distribution models (SDM), which quantify the correlation between the distribution of a species and environmental factors, are increasingly used to map and monitor animal and plant distributions in the context of awareness of environmental change and its ecological consequence. For perfect data, this is a straightforward classification problem from...
Low copy number anonymous nuclear loci were used to search for species markers in four species of Klamath Basin suckers. We sequenced 28 randomly chosen loci representing 10,421 bp; 21 loci were similar to sequences in GenBank. Eight fixed sequence differences were found among Klamath species. Locus 120 contained rare...
Blue-striped Brodiaea or Leach's Brodiaea (Triteleia hendersonii Greene var. leachiae [Peck] Hoover, or Brodiaea hendersonii Wats. var. leachiae ) Lily Family (Liliaceae) is found in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains of Curry, Coos and Josephine Counties of southwestern Oregon. It is occurs in a variety of habitats including meadow...
Corals provide a diversity of ecosystem services, are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth, and directly support ~500 million people globally; however, corals are increasingly experiencing significant threats and are undergoing severe bleaching events as the result of the warming climate. Using a two-year data set surrounding a...
Stands of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii ssp. menziesii Mirb. (Franco)) near the Oregon Coast are showing signs of growth reduction from the foliar pathogen Phaeocryptopus gaeumannii that causes Swiss Needle Cast (SNC) disease. To better understand the mechanisms of needle drop through disease, and to learn the degree of variability in...
Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mineral density (BMD), bone fragility, and an increased risk of osteoporotic fracture. The disease is systemic in nature but potential solutions include exercises prescriptions that target the clinically relevant sites of osteoporosis (hip and spine) to improve bone mass. The aim of this dissertation...
This study provides some guidelines using and comparing the
RGB (red, green, blue), HSV (hue, saturation, value), and HLS (hue,
lightness, saturation) color specification systems to help designers
of computer produced layer tinted maps to select appropriate and
effective colors from the immense palette provided by modern color
monitors. Map...
The specificity of quantitative host resistance to plant disease has long been a controversial issue. We examined interactions between wheat (Triticum aestivum) and Mycosphaerella graminicola, causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch, to determine whether specific interactions occur between host and pathogen genotypes that could be involved in eroding quantitatively expressed...
Interactions between proteins are essential to life, driving and regulating a majority of processes within all living cells. Study of protein-protein interactions reveals that some proteins act as hubs within networks of interactions, binding to many partner proteins. These hubs therefore are of particular importance to understanding protein function, interwoven...
Surface waves play a vital role in air-sea interactions, and being able to easily measure them in-situ validates and improves predictive models. Here, we diagnose surface wave properties in the Bay of Bengal using modified vertical SOLO II profiling floats, which are regularly used as part of the Argo ocean...
The backscattering properties of marine phytoplankton, which are assumed to vary widely with differences in size, shape, morphology and internal structure, have been directly measured in the laboratory on a very limited basis. This work presents results from laboratory analysis of the backscattering properties of thirteen phytoplankton species from five...
In many areas of engineering and applied mathematics, spectral methods provide very powerful tools for solving and analyzing problems. For instance, large to extremely large sizes of numbers can efficiently be multiplied by using discrete Fourier transform and convolution property. Such computations are needed when computing π to millions of...
Spectral attenuation and absorption coefficients of particulate matter and collocated hydrographic measurements were obtained in the Mid-Atlantic Bight during the fall of 1996 and the spring of 1997 as part of the Coastal Mixing and Optics experiment. Within the bottom boundary layer (BBL) the magnitude of the beam attenuation decreased...
Farensoid X Receptor (FXR) is a very flavoring protein for the treatment and prevention of the many conditions related to metabolic syndrome. Our experiment explores the binding activities of FXR when introduced to various natural and synthetic ligands. Currently, an initial assay showing the Stern-Volmer relationship of our date supports...
Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is used to characterize amorphous and crystalline thin films of TiO2. Amorphous precursor films of TiO2 are deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on fused silica and silicon substrates. Annealing the amorphous precursor films induces them to crystallize into either pure or mixed phases of the three...
The design of a novel Tabletop Role Playing Game was conducted with the aim to create a game system that provides both rigid rules and more creative outlets compared to existing games. The project focused on player-developed mystical abilities known as Spells, whereby the rule of the game guides the...
Sperm acrosome associated 3 protein (SPACA3) is a unique, intra-acrosomal, conventional-type lysozyme-like protein of mammalian spermatozoa. SPACA3 is present in all stages of ovarian follicles and is localized to granulosa cells and ooplasma in humans, mice, cows, dogs, and cats. The objective of this study was to determine if equine...
Sperm competition is the post-copulatory analog of male-male combat, wherein sperm
from more than one male coincide in a female’s reproductive tract and compete with one
another for fertilization of a limited number of ova. Post-copulatory sexual selection,
such as sperm competition, can be a powerful driving force for the...
Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center Report.
Sphagnum fens on the coast of Oregon are unique globally and contain a variety of rare plants and animals found nowhere else in the landscape. Evidence indicates that in the absence of disturbance, many open fens have converted to tall shrub and forest stands...
Nanoparticles have become more prevalent from their use in sunscreen to antimicrobial agents in socks. In light of these applications, gaining a fundamental understanding of how NPs interact with humans is crucial for their future. Specifically, how cells interact with NPs and what factors drive the modes of cellular uptake....
The achievements of this thesis are the development of several models for the SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) simulation of alternating-current thin-film electroluminescent (ACTFEL) devices, organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), and polymer light-emitting devices (PLEDs). First, an ACTFEL model based on the built-in HSPICE Fowler-Nordheim tunneling diode is developed,...
Rainfall scarcity and variability present serious challenges to water security for many rural communities throughout the world's drylands. Sand dams--weirs built across ephemeral or seasonal rivers--provide an appropriate water harvesting and storage option for many regions. The structures quickly fill with sediment during rainy season flow events and store water...
Despite years of research, females continue to have a higher incidence of non-contact ACL injuries. One of the major findings of this research is that males and females perform certain tasks, such as, cutting, landing, and single-leg squatting, differently. In particular, females tend to move the knee into a more...
Mechanisms of motor control and function are interesting to those from the medical, athletic training and sports performance professions primarily during the development of conditioning and rehabilitation programs. The aim of this study was to assess spinal control mechanisms in two groups of explosively trained, female athletes from a NCAA...
The nervous system has an integral role in rapid torque production of the lower extremity, which is often necessary for proper motor response to a dynamic environment. The nervous system is complex with numerous pathways, including spinal motor control networks, which influence the ability to move. However, few studies have...
Female athletes exhibit three- to six-fold greater incidence of noncontact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury relative to their male counterparts. The increased risk appears to stem from interactions between several risk factors, that can roughly be categorized as anatomic, biomechanical, hormonal, and neuromuscular. Neuromuscular risk factors have recently gained a...
The purpose of this study is to name and give voice to the spiritual expression of leadership by women community college presidents. The following questions guided the research: (1) How do women community college presidents describe spirituality? (2) How does spirituality convey itself in the reflections, self-expression, and practice of...
The term, spirituality, as used in this study, refers
to that part of our lives that has the deepest meaning,
that which nurtures each of us and moves us toward wholeness.
It is the basis for which we live out our lives,
following our own truths with honesty and commitment....
Many public opinion surveys indicate that patients desire an open dialogue on spirituality/religion with their physicians. What role does spirituality play in the physician/patient relationship and in what contexts do these conversations arise? What do physicians think about the appropriateness of such discussions? Because the role of spirituality in clinical...
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the relationship between the personal spiritual and religious practices of counselor supervisors and their wellness and spiritual competence. A cross sectional survey design was used to collect information about the frequency and importance of both spiritual and religious practices, scores on the...
Dysregulation of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling has been implicated in glioma pathogenesis. Yet, the role of this pathway
in gliomagenesis remains controversial because of the lack of relevant animal models. Using the cytokeratin 5 promoter, we
ectopically expressed a constitutively active zebrafish Smoothened (Smoa1) in neural progenitor cells and analyzed...
Dysregulation of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling has been implicated in glioma pathogenesis. Yet, the role of this pathway
in gliomagenesis remains controversial because of the lack of relevant animal models. Using the cytokeratin 5 promoter, we
ectopically expressed a constitutively active zebrafish Smoothened (Smoa1) in neural progenitor cells and analyzed...
The goal of this project was to investigate the effects and possible developmental disease implication of chronic dietary
TCDD exposure on global gene expression anchored to histopathologic analysis in juvenile zebrafish by functional genomic,
histopathologic and analytic chemistry methods. Specifically, juvenile zebrafish were fed Biodiet starter with TCDD added at...
The goal of this project was to investigate the effects and possible developmental disease implication of chronic dietary
TCDD exposure on global gene expression anchored to histopathologic analysis in juvenile zebrafish by functional genomic,
histopathologic and analytic chemistry methods. Specifically, juvenile zebrafish were fed Biodiet starter with TCDD added at...
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is currently one of the top lethal cancers with an increasing
trend. Deregulation of MYC in HCC is frequently detected and always correlated with poor
prognosis. As the zebrafish genome contains two differentially expressed zebrafish myc
orthologs, myca and mycb, it remains unclear about the oncogenicity of...
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is currently one of the top lethal cancers with an increasing
trend. Deregulation of MYC in HCC is frequently detected and always correlated with poor
prognosis. As the zebrafish genome contains two differentially expressed zebrafish myc
orthologs, myca and mycb, it remains unclear about the oncogenicity of...
BACKGROUND: Zebrafish have been used as a vertebrate model to study human cancers such as melanoma,
rhabdomyosarcoma, liver cancer, and leukemia as well as for high-throughput screening of small molecules of
therapeutic value. However, they are just emerging as a model for human brain tumors, which are among the most...