There is a growing need for individualized instructional designs in 4-year institutions due to: 1) growing undergraduate enrollment trends across the U.S., 2) broader diversity in students backgrounds, and 3) the growing prevalence of asynchronous remote learning. With the growth in computer technology in education, tools such as adaptive intelligent...
Oregon's estuaries are important ecosystems for scientific study. Consequently, knowledge of what research has been conducted helps us identify benchmarks and plan new projects. A comprehensive bibliography of published research, technical reports, local documents, and data sets is one means of recording this knowledge. For these reasons, the Guin Library...
The agricultural sector is one of the largest contributors to global climate change but is also one of the most vulnerable to its impacts. Farmers are at increasing risk of livelihood loss, which produces risks for their physical and emotional wellbeing on a global scale. Swift and effective adaptation is...
The utility of high-throughput, computational screening has become an invaluable asset to the field of materials science. In the hierarchy of computational methods, the most accurate methods are often the most computationally expensive. However, as both the efficiency and fidelity of numerical techniques advance, high-quality screening of large materials datasets...
The red tree vole (Arborimus longicaudus) is an arboreal Arvicoline rodent endemic to conifer dominated forests of western Oregon and northwestern California. While commonly associated with old forests, often inhabiting stands over 80 years old, tree voles have also been found in young forests between 20 and 80 years old....
Southeast Alaska is located on the traditional territory of the Lingít, Haida, and Tsimshian People. It is comprised of the largest temperate rainforest in the world, with subregions receiving over 500 cm of rain annually. Climate change is predicted to alter the region's timing, type, and magnitude of precipitation and...
In this dissertation, I examine emerging economic issues which intersect outdoor recreation, environmental quality, public land use, and public health advisories. First, I explore the potential impacts of social media on visitation to public land. Social media, and in particular Instagram, has been suggested by journalist and land managers as...
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...
Wildfires are increasing in frequency. One area of research interest centers on the pollutants within wildfire smoke, including but not limited to particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These chemicals are associated with exacerbation of respiratory, cardiovascular, dermatological, reproductive, oncological, gastrointestinal, and infectious conditions. As wildfires becoming increasingly prevalent, it...
Skeletal muscle mitochondria are highly plastic organelles, integral to whole-body health. High-fat diet (HFD) and exercise remodel the skeletal muscle mitochondria. Whereby, altered skeletal muscle mitochondrial function is linked to decreased skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity which can be reversed by exercise. However, the mechanisms that contribute to skeletal muscle remodeling...
Persistent reading difficulties are prevalent in U.S. schools and can lead to lower student performance across all subjects as well as distress, anxiety, and depression. In 2022, only 32% of fourth graders in the United States tested as proficient in reading. While there are many factors which affect reading progress...
In recent years, model-free Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) has become an increasingly popular alternative to more traditional model-based or optimization-based control methods in solving robotic legged locomotion. However, deploying RL in the real world can be a significant undertaking. Constructing reward functions which compel controllers to learn the desired behavior...
Suffix trees are a well known data structure for facilitating a variety of queries on strings. Construction of the trees requires a considerable number of choices concerning the implementation. Several of those choices are examined in this paper. Performance studies are presented that reveal the consequences of these choices. The...
Consistent with its charge under Oregon House Bill 3543, the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) conducts a biennial assessment of the state of climate change science, including biological, physical, and social science, as it relates to Oregon and the likely effects of climate change on Oregon. This fifth Oregon...
This report, required by state law under HB3543, provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of science of climate change as it pertains to Oregon, covering the physical, biological, and social dimensions. The first chapter summarizes the current state of knowledge of physical changes in climate and hydrology, focusing on...
Agrivoltaic systems promote dual use of land by combining solar energy and agricultural production. Grazing sheep in these systems is popular but research on intentionally designed pastures to increase production is lacking. This study seeks to compare the herbage growth and lamb production in simple, diverse, and legume pasture mixes...
The Java programming language is a recent entry in the family of object-oriented languages and like all new languages has yet to achieve widespread standardization of coding styles for the unique aspects it possesses. This paper and project address this issue by presenting a complete and rationalized style guide for...
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...
Robotic Bipedal locomotion holds the potential for efficient, robust traversal of difficult terrain. The difficulty lies in the dynamics of locomotion which complicate control and motion planning. Bipedal locomotion dynamics are dimensionally large problems, extremely nonlinear, and operate on the limits of actuator capabilities, which limit the performance of generic...
Fiber reinforced polymers have gained considerable attention due to their wide range of applications, leading to significative concerns for end-of-life recyclability and disposal. Natural fibers and recycled carbon fibers, coupled with thermoplastic matrices can provide a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional materials.
This study focused on experimental materials...
Developed coastlines provide a variety of recreation opportunities to coastal residents and visitors but are also the first line of defense for oceanfront development against chronic hazards like erosion and sea level rise. In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, oceanfront homes also face an additional severe but very...
Since the mid-nineteenth century, different waves of feminism have shaped a more fair, equitable world for women. Today, the fourth wave of feminism brings about a new initiative that focuses on menstruation. This traditionally taboo topic has formed failing policies that neglect the care, empowerment, and importance of women’s bodies,...
Through comparison and analysis of selected holidays in countries with significantly different features (Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and the United States), this study aims to gauge the impact of holiday celebrations in influencing cultural values in those countries studied. K. Zygulski’s classification system for holidays was applied to divide the holidays of...
Assessing AI systems is difficult. Humans rely on AI systems in increasing ways, both visible and invisible, meaning a variety of stakeholders need a variety of assessment tools (e.g., a professional auditor, a developer, and an end user all have different needs). We posit that it is possible to provide...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are complex mixtures that form when organic matter is burned. Humans are primarily exposed to PAHs via air pollution from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass, such a motor vehicle exhaust, cigarette smoke, wood smoke, or industrial emissions; or via ingestion of PAHs bound to...
The South Pole ice core (SPC14), drilled in the field seasons of 2014/2015 and 2015/2016, is an intermediate length, 1,751-m ice core which preserves a 54,000-year record of past climate and atmospheric composition. The SPC14 ice core adds to the spatial grid of ice cores in Antarctica extending into the...
In this study, I investigate how target value uncertainty may lead to acquirer mispricing of an acquisition target and how the mispricing may be a determinant of goodwill impairment. To the extent the mispricing leads to both high and low industry-adjusted purchase price multiples (PPMs are my proxies for overpayment...
CALTRANS does not currently allow Portland-Limestone Cements (PLC) to replace Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) in concrete. PLC has been proposed for consideration in CALTRANS specifications due to potential benefits in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This report outlines a comprehensive plan to provide both experimental and computational analysis results to...
Habitat restoration projects are vital for recovering ecosystems, but they can be expensive. One way to help justify the price tag is to value the economic benefits provided by the restored habitat. The issue is that many ecosystem services and the flow of benefits they produce are complex, requiring careful...
The fermentation of honey-based musts has been a feature of civilization for millennia. Typically comprised of 75-90% (w/w) simple (i.e. fermentable) sugars, the glucose and fructose present are readily fermented by either pitched or adventitious micro-organisms. Nevertheless, despite its venerable heritage, honey-based fermentations are prone to inconsistency, and it is...
Causal inference is an important analytical tool to bridge the gap between prediction and decision-making. However, learning a causal network solely from data is a challenging task. In this work, various techniques have been explored for a better and improved causal network learning from data. Firstly, the problem of learning...
Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic explosions in the Universe, producing up to $\sim10^{53}$ ergs of energy in the first few seconds of their emission -- the so-called prompt phase that is dominated by high energy X-ray and $\gamma$-ray photons. The very large luminosities released in these events...
With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in every sphere of life in today's day and age, it has become increasingly important for non-AI experts to be able to comprehend the underlying logic of how AI systems work, assess them and find faults in these systems, particularly when they are...
Plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) pose a severe threat to crop production with the economic losses due to nematode parasitism in excessive of US$ 80 billion each year. Meloidogyne incognita, a globally distributed pest with a diverse host range, contributes significantly to this economic loss. The most reliable way to manage PPN...
Climate change and other anthropogenic impacts are threatening the existence of millions of species around the globe. On western continental boundaries, the large-scale secondary process of upwelling, which brings low pH, deoxygenated, high nutrient seawater to the surface, is compounded by climate change, that together could drive some species to...
Humboldt Redwoods State Park in southern Humboldt County, California is a coastal redwood forest, a highly unique and valued ecosystem. It has many social, cultural, ecological, and economic values, including recreational benefits, heritage and aesthetic values, high biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. However, Humboldt County is at risk of...
Cultivated plants are often living artifacts that can aid in evaluation of historic or cultural landscapes. However, a working definition for “culturally significant plant” is currently lacking in the guidance literature for the cultural resource management practitioners. Based on a review of the literature on cultivated plants as indicators of...
This thesis focuses on the investigation of extraterrestrial tracers Ir, Pt and 3He in polar ice cores. These tracers may be used to identify characteristics of interplanetary dust particles, and to quantify the flux of extraterrestrial material during impact events, certain volcanic eruptions, and stable background periods. In the first...
This thesis uses a hedonic price model to estimate the value of water for irrigation in Deschutes County, Oregon. The analysis uses a dataset comprising information on 2,274 agricultural parcels across the County. Uniquely, the analysis successfully utilizes assessor-determined real market values in the place of actual land sales. A...
Most energy policies that are implemented in the United States dictate how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed, but policies generally neglect to fully investigate how these decisions impact population health. Individuals who live near energy sector components are often different to those that reside further away and change over...
The work presented here is the culmination of efforts in describing complex chemical systems with statistical methods, thereby providing relatively simple quantitative models and easily comprehensible qualitative insights. The following investigations have various goals, such as development of new methods, fundamental understanding, molecular control of chemical species, and advancement of...
Pollination is an essential ecosystem service that sustains functioning ecosystems and aids in food production. In response to recent, widespread declines of managed and native bee populations, many land managers have shown interest in developing conservation and restoration plans for enhancing native bee habitat. However, there is a lack of...
Shallow lakes exist in either a clear or turbid state, with the clear state characterized by an abundance of aquatic macrophytes, diverse aquatic biota, low water column nutrients and phytoplankton biomass, whereas the turbid state is characterized by the opposite. These two distinct states are maintained by reinforcing (positive) feedback...
Objective. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit substance in the United States and in 2018 alone, an estimated 40.3 million adults reported using marijuana in the past year. As legalization for medical and recreational marijuana has been expanding, perceived risk of using marijuana has been steadily declining since the...
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in the United States (US) and research suggests that CVD morbidity and mortality disproportionately impacts Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) older adults. However, the prevalence on CVD and underlying mechanisms for CVD disparities among disaggregated Asian American...
The rise of digital streaming has largely impacted the way the average listener consumes music. Consequentially, while the role of album art has evolved to meet the changes in music technology, it is hard to measure the effect of digital streaming on modern album art. This research seeks to determine...
The National Park Service has a dual mission of providing public access to exceptional natural resources, but in a manner such that these resources are left “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Human activities in parks undoubtedly affect wildlife, but the degree to which such activities cause impairment is...
Biogeochemical mechanisms employed by key organisms, or symbiotic associations of organisms, transform the function and structure of their environment through processes recognized as ecosystem engineering. This dissertation seeks to investigate organism-ecosystem interactions that serve globally significant ecological functions in marine systems and impact how systems respond to environmental change. Using...
Despite numerous techniques for measuring and estimating water depth, bathymetry in the nearshore zone is notoriously difficult to map. Dangerous sea states, noisy environmental conditions, and expensive survey operations, particularly in remote areas, contribute to the difficulties of obtaining data along the coast. Global datasets, derived mainly from satellite altimetry...
The 8th Annual Oregon Coastal Caucus Economic Summit was held August 21-22, 2019 in Florence, Oregon. Over 600 people attended the event which promotes the economic development of rural coastal regions, promotes relationships across regional and political spectrums, and pursues a balanced approach that can unite all Oregonians. Oregon Sea...
Oregon’s Coastal nearshore ecosystems are a nexus between living marine resources and coincident human recreational, industrial and socio-economic development. These nearshore regions also provide habitats vital to early life history stages of commercial non-whiting groundfish species, which supplied 21% of the Oregon fishing economy in 2018. The very shallow portions...
At a time of rapid global change, a socio-ecological system (SES) approach can provide a framework through which to quantify and communicate the risks and uncertainties of coupled human-natural systems. Islands, and tropical coral reef islands in particular, can be excellent models for SES research since they may be considered...
As obligate intracellular parasites, viruses rely on host machinery for their own reproduction. Viruses are therefore required to interact with a wide variety of host proteins, despite limitations in viral genome size. The most parsimonious method of success is to hijack central and essential proteins, known as hub proteins. LC8...
In August 2012, Oregon began enrolling Medicaid beneficiaries in coordinated care organizations (CCOs), a unique mandatory-enrollment accountable care organization (ACO) model with payment methods strongly tied to preventive care; care coordination; and integration of physical, mental and dental health care through patient-centered medical homes. This dissertation, consisting of two studies,...
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...
With the growth of Internet technologies, online-based foreign language curricula are being introduced at large numbers of institutions internationally. This peer-reviewed volume, geared towards a broad audience, presents innovative research on online language teaching, with chapters by highly engaged scholars and practitioners from the U.S. and Europe, with a strong...
The economic analysis of land use decisions provides insight into incentive structures faced by landowners and the impacts of landowner decisions on others. Qualifying and quantifying these incentives and impacts offers insight into the relevant characteristics of decision-making. In turn, this allows the researcher to model and predict land use...
A widely held belief is that the pre-2018 U.S. repatriation tax has led to stockpiles of cash of multinational corporations being trapped overseas, but there is evidence showing that firms are issuing debt to access cash. Standard and Poor has documented this phenomenon as “synthetic cash repatriation.” This study examines...
This dissertation aims to elicit how a neo-colonial context shapes maternal and infant heath (MIH) outcomes by describing how they are socially, politically, historically, and culturally produced. Using a multi-level critical biocultural, medical anthropological research approach, the purpose of this research was to investigate maternal stress in the United States...
Forests play an integral role in the global carbon cycle, regulating the atmospheric CO₂ concentration by sequestering nearly one third of anthropogenic carbon emissions and storing carbon for centuries. Forest ecosystems are integrated into the culture, ecology, and economy of western North America, supporting wildlife habitat, local economies, recreation, and...
Efficient and effective climate policies require cost estimates supported by empirical analysis at multiple spatial scales. Fine-scale spatial analysis of climate impacts for rural land markets represents a gap in the current climate change economics literature. In this dissertation I estimate relationships between climate, risk and parcel-level land values for...
During the eighteenth century, diagrams increasingly became an important aspect of scientific inquiry. Diagrams employed simplification as a strategy for representing complex information, played a role in standardizing scientific language, and served as instruments of reason to think through and communicate problems and findings in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, natural...
Year-round habitat use of marine predators provides knowledge of important marine areas throughout different life stages. Large-scale, environmental variability, both in space and time, causes changes in the behavior and distribution of marine predators that are important to quantify for conservation. In the Northern California Current System (NCCS), common murres...
Research Objective: Nearly 60 million people in the United States reside in a rural area. Residents in rural areas have higher rates of chronic disease, risky health behaviors, disability, infant mortality, and age-adjusted mortality than their urban counterparts. Health insurance and access to care mitigate those risks, in part because...
My work has focused on investigating synthetic organic reactions using applied computational methods. Non-covalent interactions are critical to catalysis, mechanism, and stereoselectivity, with the most prominent interaction for isothioureas being the S···O contact between the catalyst sulfur atom and the oxygen of the acyl group. A comprehensive joint experimental and...
Characiform fishes form one of the most diverse freshwater fish clades in the world. Comprising more than 2000 species and distributed primarily in South America and Africa, characiforms vary dramatically in their ecomorphology. However, the evolutionary processes responsible for the immense ecomorphological diversity remains unknown. Recently, a study postulated that...
This report and especially the accompanying Detail Files and MapFiles provide relatively detailed information on status, trends, distribution, limiting factors, and conservation needs of all of the Willamette’s wildlife species, listed plants, and vulnerable habitats. Data on habitat suitability for each species is provided by watershed (170 HUC6s), elevation (6...
The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management propose to adopt coordinated ecosystem management direction for the lands they administer within the range of the northern spotted owl. This Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SETS) presents as alternatives the options, with slight modifications, developed by the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment...
This document provides the latest science and best biological judgment to assist in making management decisions. Fortunately, recent emphasis on sage-grouse conservation has resulted in a substantial number of publications dealing with a variety of aspects of sage-grouse ecology and management, summarized in the 2010 listing petition (75 FR 13910),...
Methane is a product of biogeochemical processes which respond to changes in climate. The history of atmospheric methane is recorded by ice cores providing insight into past changes in these biogeochemical processes. This dissertation is comprised of three studies which focus on centennial- and millenial-scale variability of methane from ice...
During rapid variations of the atmospheric mixing ratio of a trace gas, diffusive transport in the porous firn layer atop ice sheets and glaciers alters the isotopic composition of that gas relative to the overlying atmosphere. Records of past atmospheric trace gas isotopic composition from ice cores and firn need...
We report a decadally resolved record of atmospheric CO₂ concentration for the last 1000 years, obtained from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide shallow ice core. The most prominent feature of the pre-industrial period is a rapid ∼7 ppm decrease of CO₂ in a span of ∼20–50 years at...
Decision support systems (DSS) have been used to a very limited extent in pond aquaculture. This study documents the development of a DSS (POND) which allows representation of an entire pond aquaculture facility, and provides analysis capabilities in the form of simulation models and an economics package. Simulation tools in...
During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ∼ 21 ky before present) the atmospheric CO2 concentration was about 100 ppm lower than its pre-industrial (PI)value. The missing carbon from the atmosphere must have been stored in thedeep ocean during this period, but the mechanisms driving such re-distribution ofthe carbon cycle are...
This study presents a comparison of differences in cognitive mapping as a result of navigating an unfamiliar space with GPS or with Google Glass. Using the Yerkes-Dodson law and attenuation theory, the study attempts to uncover how attention is diverted or focused through each of these wayfinding platforms. In addition...
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is an iconic North American high-elevation tree species currently threatened by climate change, mountain pine beetle, and white pine blister rust (WPBR), a lethal disease caused by the non-native fungal pathogen Cronartium ribicola. In collaboration with the USDA Forest Service Dorena Genetic Resource Center, germplasm was...
The goal of dissertation research was to use geochemical, statistical and geological methods to constrain and understand climate variability over several different time scales. Specifically, I have addressed three questions regarding past climate change: (1) how does the record of Irish cirque glaciers constrain the dimensions of the Irish Ice...
The three studies that comprise this dissertation seek to answer significant
questions in paleoclimatology through unconventional applications of ice core
greenhouse gas data. These studies involve different gases and span the interval of time
between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Industrial Revolution, but are united by their
nontraditional use...
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completely
at home at the CIC every time I visited. David Balslev-Clausen was a willing and
Interpretation of ice core trace gas records depends on an accurate understanding of the
processes that smooth the atmospheric signal in the firn. Much work has been done to understand the
processes affecting air transport in the open pores of the firn, but a paucity of data from air trapped...
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other compounds [McConnell,
2002], and a laser-based atmospheric
analyzer for measuring black carbon (BC
In recent years, depletion of sands in the nearshore environment along the northern Oregon and southwest Washington coasts has been documented. This erosion raises concerns about protection of economic and ecological resources in the area. The Columbia River Nearshore Beneficial Use Project was initiated to engage public and private sector...
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to about River Mile 17
(McCabe et al. 1985, 1986; McCabe and McConnell 1989).
In estimating the
We present the WD2014 chronology for the upper
part (0–2850 m; 31.2 ka BP) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
(WAIS) Divide (WD) ice core. The chronology is based on
counting of annual layers observed in the chemical, dust
and electrical conductivity records. These layers are caused
by seasonal changes...
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, T. A., Clow, G. D., Cheng,
H., Edwards, R. L., Sigl, M., McConnell, J. R., and Taylor, K. C.: The
We present the WD2014 chronology for the upper
part (0–2850 m; 31.2 ka BP) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
(WAIS) Divide (WD) ice core. The chronology is based on
counting of annual layers observed in the chemical, dust
and electrical conductivity records. These layers are caused
by seasonal changes...
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. Fudge3, Mai Winstrup3,a, Jihong Cole-Dai4, David Ferris5, Joseph R. McConnell1,
Ken C. Taylor1, Kees C
Data, pedigrees, reports and manuscripts herein are from an investigation conducted with coho salmon of the Umpqua River in southern Oregon from 2001-2009. They relate to a study investigating several areas of uncertainty about the use of salmon hatcheries to increase the abundance of wild populations. At that time, there...
A technique was developed in the present study to determine
fault-plane solutions for small earthquakes. The method uses the
direction and amplitude of initial P-wave motions recorded at a
small number of seismic stations for epicentral distances less than
2000 km.
Seismic arrivals recorded on short-period seismograms were
identified as...
Honey bee colony losses are a major concern in the USA and across the globe. Long-term data on losses
are critical for putting yearly losses in context. US colony loss surveys have been conducted yearly since the winter
of 2006–2007. Here, we report the results from the eighth annual survey...
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, Michael E. WILSON3,
David R. TARPY4, Dewey M. CARON5, Robyn ROSE6, Keith S. DELAPLANE7,
Kathy BAYLIS8
Social communicative deficits are the hallmark characteristic of autism, also referred to as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Given the depth of these social communicative deficits, the role of movement skills in development has gone relatively underexplored, by comparison. However, children with ASD demonstrate impaired performance of fundamental movement skills early...
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children with autism
(for review see McConnell, 2002; Rogers, 2000).
Adaptive skills have been noted as