Unmanned aerial systems (UASs), more commonly known as drones, have recently achieved commercial success for many public and private applications. As with all emerging technologies, new safety concerns and conflicts with existing paradigms are likely to arise. Many potential applications of UASs will result in their operation near roadway infrastructure,...
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are the primary owners of roadway infrastructure in the United States. Many of the employees of state DOTs work on roadway work sites, putting them at disproportionately higher risks of injury or fatality. A review of the literature determined that a combination of policies, standards,...
Drones are being used increasingly in the transportation sector for roadside applications such as surveying, structural inspection, and traffic monitoring, which raises distraction concerns for drivers. This study examines the visual attention of a group of Oregon drivers to determine drones’ potential as distracting roadside elements. Eye tracking data was...
Student engagement has been the focus of much engineering education research, in large part due to its ties to student learning. Widely considered to be a meta-construct, student engagement is often broken down into behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components. Reasons for ongoing research on student cognitive engagement are twofold: educators...
Ensuring sustainable development is a growing societal concern, providing rationale to examine the current role and efforts towards implementing sustainable building initiatives within the United States. Sustainable building initiatives refer to the design, operation, and maintenance of a building while considering its conservation efforts and pollution reduction performance. These initiatives...
The distribution of mobile marine predators often reflects underlying dynamic ecological processes. The geographical focus of this PhD is the South Taranaki Bight (STB) of New Zealand, where wind-driven coastal upwelling generates productivity and prey to support a blue whale foraging ground. The STB is also New Zealand’s most industrial...
A growing number of nonmetropolitan communities have chosen to pursue
nontraditional avenues for economic development including the promotion of the
nonmetropolitan area to older adults who may choose to migrate after retirement. The
purpose of this study was to help community leaders in nonmetropolitan areas make
informed decisions if they...
Species conservation depends on robust population assessment. Data on population abundance, distribution, and connectivity are critical for effective management, especially as baseline information for newly documented populations. I describe a pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) population in New Zealand waters with year-round presence that overlaps with industrial activities. This...
Friends benefit both our psychological and our emotional well-being by increasing overall happiness, life satisfaction, and a positive sense of self among women. Often, however, friendships decrease in the later years. The purpose of this study is to learn more about divorced or widowed, retired women and their friendships, specifically,...
In the construction of a cab-over-engine semi tractor, Freightliner
Corporation of Portland, Oregon uses brackets to make the connection
between the front leaf spring mounts, bumper, front hinges
for the tilt-cab and the longitudinal frame rails. One bracket is used
on each side. The integrity of these brackets is essential...
Symmetric key block ciphers, such as AES, are well known and frequently used. There are five confidentiality modes of operation that are currently recommended for use with a symmetric key block cipher algorithm: Electronic Codebook (ECB), Cipher Block Chaining (CBC), Cipher Feedback (CFB), Output Feedback (OFB), and Counter (CTR). This...
Detonation combustion is of great interest for propulsion devices because of its potential to increase thermodynamic efficiency, reduce the weight of current gas turbine engines, and rapidly accelerate to high Mach numbers. Detonation engines might also have the ability to decrease harmful exhaust products from traditional propulsion methods. In order...
Increased sales of surimi seafood, with the majority as crabstick in the United States indicates that surimi based products are becoming more popular. With growing popularity, there is increased competition for market share. Under these circumstances, some companies may be willing to sacrifice product quality in order to facilitate manufacture...
Juniper (Juniperus spp.) encroachment into the sagebrush steppe ecoregion is one of the main causes of sagebrush degradation and can alter the understory vegetative community by outcompeting native shrubs and grasses, which reduces the available forage and cover for small mammals. Coyotes (Canis latrans) are generalist, omnivorous predators in the...
I argue that Matthew’s seven acts of corporal mercies provide a means of reading Piers Plowman within a framework familiar to medieval audiences, but also exposes the different models of health that are at work within the poem and the soteriological significance of these healths. In chapter one, I focus...
Laboratory experiments were used to investigate the mechanism
of plant response to water stress by determining the sensitivity of leaf
elongation, photosynthesis and transpiration in young corn plants to a
decrease in leaf water potential.
In initial experiments, 9 day old corn plants were grown at soil
water potentials of...
Oomycetes are an important group of organisms with a variety of ecological roles similar to fungi. Although many are well-studied plant pathogens known for their devastating effects on agricultural systems, most are little-studied saprobes and parasites of plants and animals in nearly every ecosystem on earth. The advent of affordable...