This dissertation examines the impact of the German naturalist and literary figure Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s ideas on twentieth century Anglophone plant morphology and biology. Goethe interpreted the organ forms of flowering plants as metamorphoses of each other. His literary, historical, and philosophical writings suggest themes of alienation from and...
The atomic age was enacted by many scientists as a way to realize health and human rights. Human rights were conceived in this context as rights to economic development, science education, and nuclear medicine. The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) acted hand in hand with UN agencies and educators...
During the first full school year of the Covid-19 pandemic, two central contexts for adolescent development—home and school—changed utterly. In Oregon, most middle- and high schoolers attended school entirely remotely from the beginning of the pandemic, in March, 2020, through the end of April, 2021, removing both the supports available...
Increased globalization has greatly increased the ability for species to travel outside of their native range and reach all parts of the world. While most species do not have an impact in new habitats, a small percentage are able to establish a new population and spread, causing ecological damage and...
Lignocellulosic biomass represents a vast and renewable source of fermentable sugar for
production of biofuels. However, native lignocellulose—comprised of cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin—is refractory to degradation because the crystalline cellulose is
not easily hydrolyzed by cellulases. Standard chemical treatments of lignocellulose to
reduce the crystallinity of cellulose prior to enzymatic...
The United States population continues to increase and diversify. The cultural composition within the United States embodies a multitude of people from a variety of belief systems, religious backgrounds, and ethnicities. Within current biomedical practice, many of these differences are often marginalized, leaving populations with unsatisfactory experiences in seeking health...
Feminist compositionists have long argued for addressing the feminization of composition, or its association with low value “women’s work,” by revaluing caring labor (Enos; Heinert and Phillips; Tuell). However, this argument assumes that writing teachers’ care work is beneficial for all students and teachers. Focusing on responding to student writing...
Currently, the technologies used to separate lignocellulosic biomass into its component parts (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) and enzymatically hydrolyze the cellulose to glucose for conversion to ethanol could be improved economically and in terms of efficiency. A major impediment to utilizing the biomass is the presence of residual lignin. The...
In this thesis, I studied the translation of dengue virus RNA using a luciferase reporter gene system in Vero cells. The dengue reporter mRNA construct, which harbors 5´-terminal viral nts and 3´-terminal nts, could be translated efficiently compared to an alpha globin reporter construct. The 5´-cap structure and 3´-untranslated region...
Diversity literary awards and other sources were used to create a list of high-quality titles written by and about underrepresented groups. This list was used to assess the diversity and inclusiveness of the library collections of a land-grant university. Gaps in the collection and acquisition processes were identified and will...