The purpose of this thesis was to gain insight into why female college students initiate smoking. This study examined the major factors influencing the formation of such habit among this group. The tool used to study these factors was the questionnaire. Questionnaires were administered to randomly selected female students on...
Planning is an important kind of policies making. Meanwhile it is considered as activities which specify general development strategies of a nation, sector or even a specific field; it also is the basis for developing and implementing development projects (Huong, 2005). Therefore, it is essential to recognize the challenges, opportunities...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known to cause adverse health effects in the human lung. Here, we evaluated biomarkers relevant for PAH toxicity in a 3D human primary bronchial epithelial cell (HBEC) model collected from normal and asthmatic donors. We previously found that PAHs decrease cellular barrier function integrity, which...
Although Latino students make up more than a quarter of the U.S. public school system, only three percent of children’s literature either features a Latino protagonist or is written by a Latino author (Machado et al.). Latinos are therefore severely underrepresented in children’s books. Additionally, studies have revealed that Latino...
Polyphenolic compounds found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and grains, are an integral part of the human diet. Within polyphenols, proanthocyanidins are referred to as condensed tannins and encompass procyanidins, propelargonidins and prodelphinidins. Among these, procyanidins are the largest group. Recent interest in these compounds is related...
Background: Early and repeated patient–provider conversations about advance care planning (ACP) are now widely recommended. We sought to characterize barriers and strategies for realizing an iterative model of ACP patient–provider communication.
Methods: A total of 2 multidisciplinary focus groups and 3 semistructured interviews with 20 providers at a large Veterans...
Genetic code expansion is a technology that allows for site-specific incorporation of noncanonical amino acids into recombinant proteins at amber stop codons using engineered translational machinery. The technology allows for expanded study into proteins, derived from the integration of novel chemical functions found in noncanonical amino acids, such as fluorescence,...
The studies presented here use the B- to Z-DNA transition and Z-DNA
crystallization as model systems to determine the contribution of solvent interactions to
macromolecular structures. The substituent groups of naturally occurring and modified
nucleotide bases affect the hydration and thus the stability of right-handed B-DNA and
left-handed Z-DNA. The...
Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
Recently, changes in human performance following whole-body vibration (WBV) training have been attributed to enhanced neuromuscular function. However, the exact neural and muscular mechanisms responsible for these changes remain less understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acute and chronic effects of whole body vibration on the...
Lateral heel wedge orthotics are designed to reduce medial tibiofemoral joint loading and pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). To date, the efficacy of long-term lateral heel wedge orthotics use among OA patients has not been determined. This study evaluated the extent to which lateral heel wedge orthotics reduced...
Rapid change-of-direction tasks have been associated with non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and females are more likely to suffer this injury compared to males. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the biomechanical behavior of running and three rapid change-of-direction tasks and determine whether sex differences exist across...
The objective of this study is to investigate the sustainability properties of the stock of the shrimp trawl
fishery in the Tonkin Gulf, Vietnam. Surplus production models of Verhulst-Schaefer and Gompertz-Fox
are applied to the shrimp trawl fishery, which is a typical tropical fishery with the characteristic properties
of small...
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dynamics of exploited fish populations. Chapman &
Hall, London.
CHINH, N., VAN, LV., HUY, LQ., NINH, LV
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of back and seat rest inclination on the
kinematics of manual hand-rim wheelchair propulsion in subjects with spastic type cerebral palsy.
Subjects ranged in age from nine to twenty-one and were classified as USCPAA Class III or IV functional
ability....
Large scale disruption of natural habitats worldwide has led to concern over the
effects of habitat fragmentation on wildlife populations. Small scale experiments may be
a useful tool for discovering effects of fragmentation over larger landscape scales. I
sought to explore the potential for using voles as an experimental model...
Many Gram-negative bacteria use a type III secretion system (TTSS) to establish a relationship with a host. Pathogens can use the secretion system as a way to deliver proteins known as type III effectors (TTEs) into a host cell and block host defense. The variation and redundancy of the type...
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in hrp-inducing
media (Huynh et al., 1989; Rahme et al., 1992; Xiao et al., 1992).
It is a
Understanding the aggregation behavior of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in aqueous environments is essential to understanding their fate, transport, and toxicity. Because naturally occurring colloids will likely be present at much higher concentrations than ENMs in environmental systems, heteroaggregation and attachment with these natural colloids could significantly influence ENM fate and...
Many Gram-negative bacteria use a type III secretion system (T3SS) to establish associations with their hosts. The T3SS is a conduit for direct injection of type-III effector proteins into host cells, where they manipulate the host for the benefit of the infecting bacterium. For plant-associated pathogens, the variations in number...
Conflicts and disasters displace millions of populations worldwide. There is a need for rapid and affordable housing to cater to the needs of the displaced and unhoused population. Experience from previous post-disaster responses shows that temporary housing should be rapidly deployable, planned for months to years, and should be environmentally...
Enzymatic hydrolysis is a critical process in the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels and biochemicals. Achieving high efficiencies and productivity during the enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass is the key for the commercially viable process. Downstream processing challenges require high product titers which in turn require the use of high...
Alaska pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) is a schooling whitefish native to the Bering Sea that is prized for its fillets, surimi, roe, and milt. Fillets are frequently used for popular products such as fish and chips. If collected, roe and milt are commonly exported to South Korea and Japan. However, no...
Northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax) are a dominant forage fish in the California Current large marine ecosystem (CCLME). However, little is known about northern anchovy abundance, distribution, age structure, or population fluctuations relative to ocean conditions in the eastern boundary upwelling system off the U.S. West Coast. This thesis includes three...
The characteristics of Northern squawfish
(Ptychocheilus oregonensis) and the feasibility of utilization
of this species for human consumption were investigated. In
the first experimental phase, the iced storage characteristics
of squawfish were determined. Quality changes were monitored
over 24 days of storage by chemical, physical, microbiological
and sensorial methods of...
Although legumes have been widely studied for their nitrogen-fixing ability, it is uncertain to what extent legume cover crops achieve their nitrogen-fixing potential under the climatic conditions encountered in western Oregon. Furthermore, it is unknown what factors control the proportions of legume cover crop N that are either sequestered into...
Research into the phenomenon of adaptation has surged in recent years as people across the globe face evolving climate situations. The role of women in this adaptation research, and in policy discussions, is often unclear or entirely unaddressed. An array of literature exists on the inclusion of women into environmental...
Previous observations of light levels and phytoplankton abundances along the Oregon coast demonstrated that phytoplankton attenuated light sufficiently to potentially limit the growth of intertidal macrophytes and therefore structure local intertidal communities. Inspired by this observation, in spring 2004, I initiated a study to quantify the direct and indirect benthic...
Natural products (a.k.a. secondary metabolites) are produced by living organisms that are not essential for their growth, development, or reproduction, but may play a role in their survival or adaptability in nature. Many secondary metabolites isolated from plants and microbes have found use as molecular probes, drug leads, or medicine...
The purpose of this study was to examine pressure at
five selected sites on the plantar surface of the foot and
adaptations in running kinematics among fourteen male
varsity collegiate distance runners on five different
surfaces--asphalt, cinders, concrete, grass, and tartan.
Pressure data were collected with an Electrodynogram system
(EDG)...
BACKGROUND: As it becomes increasingly possible to obtain DNA sequences of orthologous genes from diverse sets
of taxa, species trees are frequently being inferred from multilocus data. However, the behavior of many methods for
performing this inference has remained largely unexplored. Some methods have been proven to be consistent given...
Using repositories to store product design information can provide additional and extensive design knowledge to the global design community. Using repository data in the design of new products can be especially impactful for DfX design objectives, such as product sustainability, about which many engineering designers have limited knowledge. Furthermore, repositories...
The dissertation focuses on the engineering of light-matter interaction using plasmonic nanoparticles and metamaterials to achieve enhanced luminescence and based on which to improve the performance of biosensing and light-emitting technologies. We designed and fabricated a spectrum of nanostructures to exhibit particular dispersion relations capable of controlling the spontaneous emission...
For more than 30 years, researchers have investigated the effects of whole body vibration (WBV) platforms on athletic performance. WBV is a modality in which an individual stands on a vibrating platform to obtain performance effects. Frequency and amplitude of the vibration are the commonly adjusted parameters. The use of...
Soluble butane monooxygenase (sBMO), a three-component di-iron monooxygenase complex
expressed by the C2–C9 alkane-utilizing bacterium Thauera butanivorans, was kinetically
characterized by measuring substrate specificities for C1–C5 alkanes and product inhibition
profiles. sBMO has high sequence homology with soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) and
shares a similar substrate range, including gaseous and...
RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is the current method of choice for characterizing transcriptomes and
quantifying gene expression changes. This next generation sequencing-based method provides unprecedented
depth and resolution. The negative binomial (NB) probability distribution has been shown to be a
useful model for frequencies of mapped RNA-Seq reads and consequently provides...
Phytophthora root rot decreases availability and quality of rhododendrons produced in the USA. Symptoms of Phytophthora root rot include root necrosis, leaf chlorosis, stunting, and permanent wilt. The purpose of this thesis was to better understand the impact of root damage, soil moisture, nitrogen fertilizer application, and pathogen species on...
Pseudomonas syringae are plant pathogenic bacteria that cause disease by rapidly multiplying within the aboveground tissues of host plants. Growth of P. syringae within plant host tissues requires the disarmament of host immune defenses that limit microbial growth. To combat host defenses, P. syringae deploys a type III secretion system...
Acetylene is a slow-binding inhibitor of the Ni- and Fe-containing dimeric hydrogenase isolated
from Azotobacter vinelandii. Acetylene was released from hydrogenase during the recovery from inhibition.
This indicates that no transformation of acetylene to another compound occurred as a result of the interaction
with hydrogenase. However, the release of C2H2...
This study represents a novel approach for intraoperative ovarian cancer treatment based on the combinatorial effect of a targeted photodynamic therapy (PDT) associated with suppression of the DJ-1 protein, one of the key players in the ROS defense of cancer cells. To assess the potential of the developed therapy, dendrimer-based...
In this dissertation, I present experimental observations of multiply charged atomic ions (MCAI) generated from interactions of atomic/molecular clusters with moderately intense nanosecond laser pulses. This process is also known as Coulomb explosion (CE) and it has been extensively studied in intense laser fields using ultrashort pulses. Several prevailing theories...
Plasma biochemistry and hematology reference intervals are integral health assessment tools in all medical fields, including aquatic animal health. As sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) are becoming aquaculturally and economically more important, this manuscript provides essential reference intervals (RI) for their plasma biochemistry and hematology along with reference photomicrographs of blood cells...
We studied the problem of resource allocation in large scale distributed applications such as Online Social Networks (OSN) and Cloud Computing. In such settings, resource allocation schemes need to efficient as well as adaptive to the time-varying environments. The abstract resource allocation problem concerns with how to optimally use resources...
Poor aqueous solubility of a large number of newly discovered chemical entities is posing a significant challenge for the formulation industry and is delaying their drug development. The number of formulation techniques available to solubilize these poorly soluble molecules is very limited. In addition to that, traditional formulation methods involve...
2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) and related compounds are well-recognized for their immunosuppressive activity, which is mediated through an intracellular receptor and transcription factor, aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Laboratory animals exposed to TCDD are less resistant to infection and have severely impaired humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. This dissertation addressed the hypothesis that...
As genome sequencing projects begin to come to completion, the challenge becomes one of determining how to understand the information contained within the DNA. DNA is a polymorphic macromolecule; the A- B- and Z-DNA conformations have been observed by a variety of physical techniques. The magnitude of the energetic differences...
The objective of this research is to support DfX considerations in the early phases of design, particularly Design for the Environment. In order to include DfX considerations, especially early in the design process, there needs to be access to knowledge and information that is usually only applicable further downstream in...
The influence of large-scale processes on natural communities has become one of the central issues of modern ecology. I combined field and laboratory studies to investigate the effects of variation in coastal upwelling on rocky intertidal communities along the central Oregon coast. I examined whether the growth of intertidal barnacles...
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) may have the potential to mitigate a significant proportion of serious crashes which are due to human error or poor decision making behind the wheel. However, there are still many concerns associated with SAE Level 3 AVs that require intervention by a human driver after a take-over...
Bacterial mutualists can modulate the biochemical capacity of animals. Highly coevolved nutritional mutualists do this by synthesizing nutrients missing from the host’s diet. Genomics tools have advanced the study of these partnerships. Here we examined the endosymbiont Xiphinematobacter (phylum Verrucomicrobia) from the dagger nematode Xiphinema americanum, a migratory ectoparasite of...
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evolved from free-living nem-
atodes at least three times (Van Megen et al. 2009;
Haegeman et al. 2011
Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen frequently associated with food processing environments. Its presence is particularly concerning in facilities handling minimally processed and ready-to-eat foods. Recent outbreaks associated with fresh produce, such as packaged salads and mushrooms, highlight the need to better understand and control these pathogens in environments that...
The Oregon Long-Term Soil Quality Project was initiated to identify soil
properties that respond rapidly to alternative management practices. Such practices
included winter cover cropping, which was implemented at two experimental research
stations and several grower fields throughout the Willamette Valley. The goal of this
thesis was to identify the...
The quality and availability of forage fishes and invertebrates can affect the behavior and productivity of predators that rely on these resources. This study measures the proximate composition of forage fishes and invertebrates from the southeastern Bering Sea to estimate prey energy density (quality) using a method that is ecologically...
Coastal communities rely on the abundant ecosystem services derived from robust conservation areas in offshore marine waters (Campbell, 2019). United Nations member states support the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework, wherein the 14th guideline asserts the importance of life under water. Protected marine environments are critical to the survival of...
This project discusses the topic of personal names and the cultures of different
peoples and their particularities, specifically in Vietnam and Denmark. The first part of
this paper gives a brief history of naming traditions (mostly relating to Western European
traditions). The second part of the paper compares two families...
Accommodating motor vehicles that are turning (left or right) at signalized intersections requires a careful understanding of the safety and efficiency of design and operational variables. Turning vehicles are the primary collision risk for non-motorized road users at signalized intersections. When turning movements need to be controlled, proper driver response...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary factors affecting colony size, reproductive success, and foraging patterns of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus albociliatus) nesting at East Sand Island in the Columbia River estuary, the largest colony of this species on the Pacific Coast of North America. This colony...
The first goal of this study was to understand the role of u-calpain in skeletal muscle protein degradation in cultured muscle cells. Several strategies were developed to down-regulate endogenous u-calpain activity and m-calpain activity in rat myotubes. These included over-expression of antisense u-calpain (AnsL), dominant negative u-calpain (DN-u-CL), antisense 30K...
Racial/ethnic discrimination and HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs may contribute to disparities in use and satisfaction with healthcare services and engaging in safer sex practices. Previous studies that examined racial/ethnic discrimination and HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs focused primarily on African Americans with few studies focusing on Latinos. This study used longitudinal data from...
The research was conducted in the Fundo Almendra, property of the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP). The objective was to analyze the gross forest loss in the period 2001-2021 in Fundo Almendra, the relationship between forest loss and local surface temperature, and the role of local communities’ demographics...
Heteroaggregation of nanoparticles with naturally occurring colloids has been shown to be an important process in nanoparticle fate and transport in the aquatic environment. The advent of a functional assay to measure heteroaggregation attachment efficiencies has opened the door for further mechanistic studies. It is well known that natural organic...
Met is a prognostic indicator of colorectal cancer patient survival. Therapies that target Met may therefore have beneficial outcomes in the clinic. Recently, EGCG was reported to suppress Met activation, although the mechanisms were not elucidated. HCT116 and HT29 human colon cancer cells were used to examine the relationships between...
Invasion by exotic species can pose a major challenge for developing native
plant communities in wetland restoration projects. Often native plant communities
do not develop as anticipated in restored wetlands due to colonization by exotic
species that dominate the native plant community. Despite the time and expense to
restore wetlands,...
As ecologists are being called upon to predict the consequences of human
perturbations to natural communities, an important goal is to understand what factors
drive variability or consistency in nature.
In the rocky intertidal of San Juan Island, Washington, a comparative
experimental approach was used to investigate spatial and temporal...
Wheat is a staple food crop with many applications. The composition and quantity of major and minor flour components greatly influence functional dough properties, processing quality, and end-use suitability. Seven to 15% of the weight of wheat flour is protein and the gluten proteins comprise 80-85% of that. The gluten...
Symbioses between microbes and multicellular eukaryotes are found in all biomes, and encompass a spectrum of symbiotic lifestyles that includes parasitism and disease, commensalism, and mutually beneficial interdependent host-microbe relationships. Regardless of outcome, these symbiotic lifestyles are governed by a complex molecular "courtship" between microbe and potential host. This courtship...
The solution structure determination of DNA molecules has been an important part of structural biology. NMR solution structures are a complement to structures solved via X-ray crystallography; the two methods are the only ways of obtaining three dimensional coordinates of macromolecules. Because of the nature of the molecule, the solution...
This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of American newspaper coverage of Hồ Chí Minh from 1954-1969. My method is the Pragmatic Attitude, created by Elizabeth and Jay Mechling. My foci of study are the polls and letters to the editor from this same period. These foci of study are used...
Moisture content management is a key requirement to improve forest harvest residue economics for bioenergy production. This dissertation aims to contribute towards better management through these three general objectives (1) Determine average moisture content of fresh forest harvest residues and its changes over the different seasons of the year, focusing...
While replacement of dietary saturated fat with unsaturated fat has been advocated
to reduce cardiovascular disease risk, diets high in polyunsaturated fatty acids
(PUFA) could increase low density lipoprotein (LDL) susceptibility to oxidation,
potentially contributing to the pathology of atherosclerosis. To assess in vivo lipid
peroxidation and susceptibility, of LDL...
Symbiosis is the close and protracted interaction between organisms. The molecular interactions that occur during symbiosis are complex with multiple barriers that must be overcome. Many Gram-negative, host-associated bacteria use a type III secretion system to mediate associations with their eukaryotic hosts. This secretion system is a specialized apparatus for...
One of the important ‘hallmarks’ of cancer is angiogenesis, which is the process of formation of new blood vessels that are necessary for tumor expansion, invasion and metastasis. Under normal physiological conditions, angiogenesis is well balanced and controlled by endogenous proangiogenic factors and antiangiogenic factors. However, factors produced by cancer...
All animals have developed the critical ability to detect, respond to, and detoxify a large array of environmental chemicals and stressors that can cause adverse health effects. Important examples of landmark contaminants around the world are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dioxins, both of which can act via the aryl...
In light of broadening racial/ethnic educational attainment gaps, growing diversity within young populations, and the increasingly critical relationship between higher education and outcomes in adulthood, understanding the factors that shape educational attainment is an especially important task for research. With this goal in mind, the current study examined how national...
This dissertation incorporates coalition formation and probabilistic planning towards a domain-independent automated planning solution scalable to multiple heterogeneous robots in complex domains. The first research direction investigates the effectiveness of Task Fusion and introduces heuristics that improve task allocation and result in better quality plans, while requiring lower computational cost...
Due to a lack of grain boundaries, an amorphous metal thin film (AMTF) possesses advantageous mechanical properties and enhanced chemical stability that is potentially useful for thermal inkjet (TIJ) printing applications. The use of an AMTF as a TIJ resistor or cavitation plate could lead to a thinner TIJ cavitation...
In the past decades, femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) has been gaining tremendous popularity in fundamental sciences stemming from chemistry to biology. It is capable of capturing both equilibrium and non-equilibrium structural information across a broad range of timescales with simultaneously high temporal and spectral resolutions. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy...
Many humans and canines alike suffer from osteosarcoma, which is often metastatic, resistant to chemotherapy, and frequently fatal. The mechanisms through which osteosarcoma cells acquire resistance to chemotherapy are not entirely understood, and the role of exosomes as intercellular mediators of this resistance in osteosarcoma is unknown. Using established canine...
DNA methylation is common in prokaryotes and eukaryotes and has been implicated in various biological roles including gene silencing, X-chromosome inactivation, and genomic imprinting. 5-methylcytosine the "fifth base" of the genetic code comprises 1-3% of the human genome and is primarily found on cytosines within the context of the CpG...
The environmental health science community recognizes polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as a re-emerging class of environmental pollutants due to their persistence and prominence in mixtures of concern. Due to their widespread distribution in the environment, exposure to PAHs often occur as complex chemical mixtures. Exposures are linked to numerous adverse...
Performing autonomous robotic tasks in the field, such as ocean monitoring and aerial surveillance, requires planning and executing paths in dynamic environments. In these uncertain and changing environments, it is not uncommon to see a large difference between the path planned by the robotic vehicle and the path that the...
The rapid growth in the number of roundabouts raises some significant research challenges, especially around safety performance and evaluation in the U.S. Despite the safety advantages that roundabout geometric design brings, crashes still occur. While operationally roundabouts are good at preventing severe crashes, they may lead to more less severe...
Pyrenophora tritici-repentis is a necrotrophic fungus causal to the disease tan spot of wheat, whose contribution to crop loss has increased significantly during the last few decades. Pathogenicity by this fungus is attributed to the production of host-selective toxins ( HST), which are recognized by their host in a genotype-specific...
Pseudomonas butanovora, Mycobacterium vaccae, and Nocardioides sp. CF8 utilize distinctly different butane monooxygenases (BMOs) to initiate degradation of recalcitrant chlorinated ethenes (CEs) that pollute aquifers and soils. BMO-dependent degradation of CEs such as trichloroethylene (TCE) can lead to cellular toxicities. The type and severity of TCE transformation-dependent damage can have...
Listeria monocytogenes is the third most deadly foodborne pathogen in the United States. The young and elderly, as well as pregnant and immunocompromised people are the population most susceptible to serious illness and death from listeriosis infections.
Unlike most foodborne pathogens, L. monocytogenes does not live a solely enteric lifestyle....
Reported here is an investigation to determine if azinphos-methyl (AZM), an
organophosphate insecticide, adducts to hemoglobin, and if so, whether the
hemoglobin adduct could be used as a quantitative marker of occupational AZM
exposure. We hypothesized that AZM, or a metabolite of AZM, binds to hemoglobin
in erythrocytes forming an...
The potential for nanomedicine to reduce toxicity and improve therapeutic response to radiation is vast. Clinically, this potential has thus far only begun to be realized with the recent success of the radioenhancing nanoparticle, NBTXR3 by Nanobiotix. Radioenhancing nanoparticles, however, represent only a small class of nanomaterials that may be...