According to the Center for Disease Control, 7-in-10 people use their smartphones while driving. This includes behaviors such as sending or reading text messages or emails, taking photos, or using social media. Despite its prevalence amongst drivers, using one’s phone while driving is considered one of the worst types of...
Aggregate piers have been used for centuries, with increasing occurrence in the last few decades. Their usage has been driven by land development demand and enabled through equipment and engineering improvements. Understanding the principles controlling bearing capacities and serviceability performance has been an ongoing area of interest for structures supported...
A significant number of Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings exist in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America that is a region of high seismicity, which could be subjected to both crustal and subduction zone earthquakes. The catastrophic and brittle failures associated with URM buildings in the past...
This dissertation consists of a general introduction, three research manuscripts, and general conclusions regarding the mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for sustainability traits in the Triticeae Coordinated Agricultural Project (TCAP) facultative/winter 6-rowed elite malting barley genome-wide association studies (GWAS) mapping panel, the TCAP FAC-WIN6. The first research manuscript, a...
A crucial factor in determining the accuracy of DNA replication is
maintenance of a balanced supply of deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates
(dNTPs) at replication forks. Perturbation of dNTP biosynthesis can
induce dNTP pool imbalance with deleterious genetic consequences,
including increased mutagenesis, recombination, chromosomal
abnormalities and cell death. Using the T4 bacteriophage system,...
The use of remote sensing techniques in coastal science and engineering has rapidly increased in the past few decades. This dissertation outlines new remote sensing tools using two remote sensing technologies (lidar and X-band marine radar) along with two nearshore hydrodynamic and morphodynamic analyses supported or motivated by these remote...
Catastrophic earthquake and tsunami events that resulted in significant loss of life and property over the past two decades have raised the global awareness regarding the need to understand the response of communities and their built environment to multi-hazard extreme events. In recognition to this impending threat to the coastal...
The Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington in the United States and British Columbia in Canada) is one of the major producers of red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) and blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) in the world. The expansion of growing area with these crops has resulted in the emergence of new...