The National Park Veracruz Reef System was declared a marine protected area by the Mexican government in 1992. It contains 23 reefs presenting different degrees of environmental deterioration mainly due to the influence from nearby rivers, its proximity to the port city of Veracruz-Boca del Río and the currents patterns....
Understanding sandbar dynamics and variability is integral to developing a predictive capacity for nearshore flows, sediment transport, morphological change, and ultimately for determining coastline exposure to damaging storm waves. Here we report on a nearshore bathymetric data set from the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) that stretches from Point Grenville, Washington...
Understanding sandbar dynamics and variability is integral to developing a predictive
capacity for nearshore flows, sediment transport, morphological change, and
ultimately for determining coastline exposure to damaging storm waves. Along the
high-energy U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) coast, sandbars typically dominate the
bathymetry of the active zone. Here we report on...
It has been established that intercollegiate sport is an important social institution for student athletes of color in the United States (Coakley, 2012). White intercollegiate coaches have a prominent influence on the academic, athletic, social and emotional development of student athletes and therefore must be tuned into variation in cultural...
Title IX has increased opportunities for women academically and athletically. This research assessed the impact that Title IX has had in the Pac-12 Conference in the development of women’s intercollegiate athletics within the male-dominated world of sports and how female and male athletes have been impacted by Title IX implementation....
MOCNESS plankton tows, sediment traps and sedimentary material are used to determine
the linkage between bio-physical forcing and foraminiferal response over a range of time
scales from the event scale to the glacial interglacial cycle. The annually averaged planktic
foraminiferal fauna of the modem California Current is a diverse community...
The bioavailability of vitamin B₆ in four selected foods
(bananas, filberts, soybeans and beef) was determined in five men,
aged 22 to 25 years, who were saturated with pyridoxine. The study
consisted of a five-day adjustment period followed by a 28-day experimental
period. All subjects consumed a constant diet containing...
This study concerns the use of a discrete-event
simulation model for analyzing the production of a
mechanized forest harvest system. The simulation models a
field collection data set of a harvester-forwarder system
which was previously collected by the Forest Engineering
Department of Oregon State University. The computer
software consisted of...
Characterizing the behaviors of sea turtles and identifying high-use areas as they
vary in time and space is important for conservation planning, particularly when turtles overlap
with fisheries that may unintentionally harm them. Between July 2006 and March 2010, 27 satellite
transmitters were deployed at sea on juvenile loggerheads Caretta...
A one-dimensional (1D) hydrologic-hydraulic model for simulating dual drainage in urban areas is presented. It consists of four modules: (1) rainfall-runoff transformation, (2) 1D flow routing on a street network, (3) flow interception at street inlets, and (4) flow interaction between surface water on the streets and the underground storm-water...
High-resolution infrared absorption spectra have been analyzed for two bicyclo[111]pentane isotopologues, C₅H₈ (-d₀) and C₅H₇D (-d₁), where in the latter the D-atom replaces a hydrogen on the C₃ symmetry axis such that the molecular symmetry is reduced from D₃ₕ to C₃ᵥ. Two (a"₂) parallel bands, v₁₇ and v₁₈, of bicyclopentane-d₀...
Research has shown that African Americans/Blacks, especially those with low socioeconomic status, acknowledge athletics as an avenue for upward mobility (Coakley, 2011). Although the chances of becoming a professional athlete might seem unachievable through sports, athletes develop tangible and intangible abilities that transfer and are useful in the years following...
The purpose of this study was to provide exploratory understanding of the nature of academic prestige in the field of sociology, and to provide insights into the history of the discipline. The primary research question was: does academic prestige act as a factor in controlling academic knowledge production in the...
The Cone Penetration Test (CPT) has been widely-adopted for rapid, cost-effective exploration of the subsurface and reduction in the effort associated with drilling, sampling, and laboratory testing of soil. The adoption of the CPT has stemmed in part to the correlation of measurements to preliminary soil classification, stress history, drained...
This dissertation investigates diverse techniques to support multithreading in modern high performance processors. The mechanisms studied expand the architecture of a high performance superscalar processor to control efficiently the interaction between software-controlled and hardware-controlled multithreading. Additionally, dynamic speculative mechanisms are proposed to exploit thread-level-parallelism (TLP) and instruction-level-parallelism (ILP) on a...
In taking a multidimensional approach to selected areas of the much neglected sport marriage, this article identifies and examines the survival strategies used by wives in coping with stressful occupational events in the careers of their husbands. Using a control management perspective, the idea of control work is introduced and...
Perdeutero-spiropentane (C₅D₈) has been synthesized and infrared and Raman spectra are reported for the first time. Wavenumber assignments are made for most of the fundamental vibrational modes. Gas phase infrared spectra were recorded at a resolution (0.002 cm⁻¹) sufficient to resolve individual rovibrational lines and show evidence of strong Coriolis...
Perdeutero-spiropentane (C₅D₈) has been synthesized, and infrared and Raman spectra are reported for the first time. Wavenumber assignments are made for most of the fundamental vibrational states. Gas phase infrared spectra were recorded at a resolution (0.002 cm⁻¹) sufficient to resolve individual rovibrational lines and show evidence of strong Coriolis...
Disturbance and microclimate interact to play a central role influencing the composition and structure of plant communities. In this thesis, I examined plant community composition and structure twenty years after high severity wildfires with and without post-fire management (salvage logging, fuel treatment, tree planting, and shrub release) under contrasting microclimatic...
We evaluate the reliability of statistical estimates of sea surface temperature (SST) derived from planktonic foraminiferal faunas using the modern analog method and the Imbrie‐Kipp method. Global core top faunas provide a calibration data set, while modern sediment trap faunas are used for validation. Linear regression of core top predicted...
Cutaneous melanoma remains the deadliest form of skin cancer arising from malignant transformation of pigment-producing melanocytes, with a diagnosis of metastasis indicating a median survival rate of less than a year. Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, especially childhood sun exposure, is an important etiological risk factor of melanoma. This DNA damage...
By conducting a comparative case study of Tunisia and Jordan this essay seeks to add to the Arab Spring literature addressing why outcomes varied so significantly among countries in the region, especially given seemingly comparable demographic, socio-economic and political environments in the region as a whole. However, in contrast to...
The objective of this workshop was to identify studies that should be conducted to properly
determine potential effects from power generating buoys on marine mammals of the Oregon
coast, with emphasis on cetaceans and focal discussion on gray whales. Special emphasis was put
on the acoustic output from both the...
Full Text:
-Ortiz and Barbara Lagerquist, Oregon State University
On behalf of Oregon Wave Energy Trust
The objective of this workshop was to identify studies that should be conducted to properly
determine potential effects from power generating buoys on marine mammals of the Oregon
coast, with emphasis on cetaceans and focal discussion on gray whales. Special emphasis was put
on the acoustic output from both the...
Full Text:
:
Joel Ortega-Ortiz and Barbara Lagerquist
Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute
Hatfield
The stable isotopic signature of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ¹³CDIC) in the northeast Pacific Ocean is lower in near-surface waters by 1.1‰ relative to values predicted from global oceanic trends of δ¹³CDIC versus nutrients. A combination of anthropogenic carbon uptake from the atmosphere and thermodynamic, air-sea gas exchange processes in different...
Coastal environments are characterized by complex feedbacks between flow, sediment transport, and morphology, often resulting in the formation of nearshore sandbars. In many locations, such as Hasaki (Japan), the Netherlands, and the Columbia River Littoral Cell (CRLC, USA), these sandbars exhibit a net offshore migration (NOM) cycle whereby these features...
Sediment spectral reflectance measurements were generated aboard the JOIDES Resolution during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 162 shipboard operations. The large size of the raw data set (over 1.3 gigabytes) and limited computer hard disk storage space precluded detailed analysis of the data at sea, although broad band averages were used...
Plankton tows from the northern California Current constrain biological and physical
influences on living planktonic foraminifera. In this region, the dominant factors controlling the
size and distribution of symbiotic and asymbiotic species are light and food. Food decreases offshore.
Light, needed for symbiont photosynthesis, increases offshore as water turbidity lessens....
Multiple paleoceanographic proxies in a zonal transect across the California Current
near 42°N record modern and last glacial maximum (LGM) thermal and nutrient gradients. The
offshore thermal gradient, derived from foraminiferal species assemblages and oxygen isotope data,
was similar at the LGM to that at present (warmer offshore), but average...
Diffuse reflectance records from Feni Drift in the North Atlantic faithfully record sediment percent carbonate. A high-resolution, reflectance-based age model for these sediments derived from an orbitally tuned age model for western equatorial Atlantic, Ceara Rise sediments was generated by spectral frequency mapping. Power spectra of the Feni Drift record...
To guide the future development of CO₂-atmospheric inversion modeling systems, we analyzed the errors arising from prior information about terrestrial ecosystem fluxes. We compared the surface fluxes calculated by a process-based terrestrial ecosystem model with daily averages of CO₂ flux measurements at 156 sites across the world in the FLUXNET...
Fennema and Sherman (1976) defined math anxiety as "feelings of anxiety, dread, nervousness, and associated bodily symptoms related to doing mathematics" (p. 326). The longitudinal impact that math anxiety has on adolescent students can include their experiencing reduced math achievement, avoiding majors that involve large amounts of math, and choosing...
The goal of this project is to better characterize particle movement in a multi-channel fluidized bed. Fluidized beds are commonly used for heat transfer with the rapid fluidization and homogeneous heat distribution. By characterizing this particle flow, it would allow for an improved understanding of the heat transfer mechanisms within...
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life for populations all over the world. One population that has been uniquely impacted by the pandemic is the student-athlete population. Over the last two years, universities took safety precautions by first sending students home and moving teaching and learning to a remote format and...
Each year, numerous people attend cultural events in the United States, be they large celebrations such as New Orleans’ Mardi Gras or one of many numerous Cinco de Mayo festivals throughout the country or smaller, more specialized events. Many times, the cultural aspects take a backseat to profits, which leads...
This study discusses common struggles of first-generation Polynesian football players’ university experiences with cultural adaptation. There is little research on this topic. Because of the importance of these issues and the exploratory nature of this study, a qualitative approach was needed. Interviews were conducted with 15 first-generation Polynesian football male...
Solar thermal energy can be stored and later converted to electrical energy using a combination of thermochemical energy storage (TCES) and a thermoelectric generator (TEG). This TEG and TCES combination illustrates a potential route for clean electricity storage from renewable energy. TCES allows for thermal energy from the sun to...
The aim of this study is to explore how women who identify as both active, believing Mormons and as feminists negotiate the contradictions between an ideology that values equality (feminism) and a religion that values patriarchy (Mormonism). Data were gathered through recorded and transcribed interviews with women who identify as...
The reliable simulation of gross primary productivity (GPP) at various spatial and temporal scales is of significance to quantifying the net exchange of carbon between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. This study aimed to verify the ability of a nonlinear two-leaf model (TL-LUEn), a linear two-leaf model (TL-LUE), and a...
The objective of the study is to generate accurate, current data on distribution (distance to shore, travel path) and behavior (travel speed, migration timing) of gray whales migrating along the central Oregon coast (Pacific Ocean). Migration paths of tracked whales seem to follow a constant depth rather than following the...
Outcrops of old strata at the shelf edge resulting from erosive gravity‐driven flows
have been globally described on continental margins. The reexposure of old strata allows
for the reintroduction of aged organic carbon (OC), sequestered in marine sediments for
thousands of years, into the modern carbon cycle. This pool of...
Gammaherpesviruses (GHVs) have been identified in many species and are often associated with disease. Recently, we characterized three novel felid GHVs in domestic cats, bobcats, and pumas. In this study we sought to determine whether free ranging ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) are infected with additional GHVs. We...
As the aging population continues to grow worldwide, age-related complications are becoming more apparent within the aging population. One of the first age-related complications to become apparent is age-associated memory impairment and it can make the elderly more dependent on caregivers early on. The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor is important to...
Interesting rovibrational characteristics of two D_(3h) oblate symmetric top molecules were studied. Hamiltonian models for the fine rovibrational level structure of [1.1.1]propellane (propellane) were obtained for many low-lying modes. Ground state parameters (GSP) that are not exclusively K^(2n) dependent were obtained. Initially, the GSP were used in conjunction with density...
During the transition to motherhood, postpartum women undergo immense changes in all areas of life. Of particular interest are the changes at the cognitive and emotional level with regards to one's physical self. After giving birth, postpartum women would benefit from a caring perspective in how they relate to their...
Despite policies implemented by the NCAA with the intention of increasing student-athlete academic success and persistence to graduation, student-athlete graduation rates still remain low, with only 65% of student-athletes receiving their college degree. Certain non- cognitive variables, including the availability of a strong support person, have been shown predict persistence...
The purpose of this thesis is to propose swiveling behavior as a potential speech transitioning device and to discuss the methodology behind qualitative and quantitative analysis of swivels in relation to subjects’ partners. Due to the impacts of gaze and body orientation direction on speech transitioning, it is deduced that,...
Honey bees mark artificial flowers with scents that
advertise about the previous history of the flower to
subsequent foragers. Unrewarding flowers are marked with a
scent, after a single visit, that makes the flower less
attractive to subsequent foragers. Previously rewarding
flowers are initially less attractive than unvisited
flowers but...
Quantification of macroscale transport phenomenon in microfluidic systems is important to many science and engineering disciplines. In part, this is because fully resolved solutions to microscale balance laws over large domains are out of reach with current computational technology. Additionally, engineers are most often interested in some upscaled quantity and...
When Biosand filters cannot be constructed with crushed quarry rock due to resource limitations, a suitable alternative filter media is needed. In this research, two crushed quarry rock alternatives were examined. Three bench-scale Biosand filters with crushed rock, beach sand, and heat-treated beach sand media were simultaneously dosed with Willamette...
Black male student-athletes in revenue-producing sports encounter multiple stressors at predominantly White institutions (PWI). These stressors can include identity conflicts, role confusion, feelings of exploitation as revenue producers, academic imposter syndrome, heavy workloads, and racial microaggressions. This study explores how Black male student-athletes in revenue-producing sports define their roles within...
Biological invasions and climate change represent two preeminent threats to ecological communities and biodiversity, altering the distribution and abundance of species, disrupting existing species interactions and forming unprecedented ones, and creating novel ecological communities. Many of the most successful invasive species are also ecosystem engineers, species that physically modify the...
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Sally D. Hacker
Biological invasions and climate change represent two preeminent
Recent developments in the field of clinical echocardiography allow the ultrasonographer to objectively quantify both regional and global myocardial function. Regional deformation (Strain) and deformation rate (Strain Rate) are novel indices of ventricular function that can be estimated non-invasively by ultrasonographic interrogation of the heart. Deformation Imaging (DI)represents a family...
The lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) is an important groundfish species in both recreational and commercial fisheries of the Northeastern Pacific. It is a large, fast-growing, generalist predator of invertebrates and fishes. In response to concerns that lingcod may limit populations of rockfishes (Sebastes spp.), I compared the diets of 375 adult...
Surface and subsurface data from the Sulaiman thrust belt show that nearly all
the 10 km thick sequence of dominantly platform (>7 km) and molasse strata is detached
at the deformation front. These strata thicken tectonically to a minimum of 20 km in the
hinterland of the Sulaiman fold belt...
The extent and severity of wildfires in forested regions are increasing throughout many regions on the planet, including western North America. High-severity wildfires directly affect soils and vegetation by altering soil hydraulic properties, reducing soil organic matter, exporting carbon and nitrogen, and killing trees and understory vegetation. These impacts can...
This research details laboratory assessment of bacterial hydrophobicity, variations in bacterial adhesion properties with growth and extended starvation as well as extension of this assay to colloidal hydrophobicity measurement. Hydrophobicity is an integral component of surface interactions and has been studied extensively for its role in a number of engineering...
In recent decades, the occurrence of large, high severity wildfires has increased substantially in many parts of the world, including the western United States. These fires have the potential to impact water quality, aquatic ecosystems, and downstream communities for many decades. As such, it is increasingly important to understand the...
An asymmetric approach to the synthesis of byssochlamic acid (1) is
described. Regioisomeric enzymatic differentiation is described in the selective
hydrolysis of dimethyl ester 30 by porcine liver esterase. Chiral dimethyl ester 42
was prepared by desymmetrization of cyclopentene 34 using porcine liver
esterase. A key intramolecular [2+2]cycloaddition-cycloreversion
photometathesis of...
Recently, there has been an expansion of large-scale studies looking at strain variation of Brettanomyces. These studies have found variation between strains in terms of utilization of maltose and production of volatile phenols. While there is research going into this subject, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the differences...
Thomas Stearns Eliot’s 1922 modernist poem The Waste Land presents itself as an alternative to the decaying society Eliot found himself inhabiting. It begins as a personal means of pulling together one’s fragmented consciousness, but in doing so Eliot manages to present a solution to a world of selfishness—looking beyond...
Dissociation between catabolism and anabolism, generically termed “metabolic uncoupling”, has been studied for aerobic cultures of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Under conditions promoting metabolic uncoupling, the cell yield diminishes while the substrate utilization rate remains largely unchanged. The effects of excess substrate conditions and TCS addition on the metabolism of pyruvate...
Oomycetes form a deep lineage of eukaryotic organisms that includes a large number of plant pathogens which threaten natural and managed ecosystems. We undertook a survey to query the community for their ranking of plant-pathogenic oomycete species based on scientific and economic importance. In total, we received 263 votes from...
Forests are some of the most ecologically diverse and dense habitats on the planet. Research shows that the endophyte community, or the fungi, bacteria, and viruses within a forest ecosystem is highly diverse. Fungal endophytes are defined as fungi that live within the tissues of host plants. Relationships between fungal...
The Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion of southwest Oregon and northern California is greatly departed from its historic, mixed-severity fire regime. This departure manifests in larger wildfires, greater proportions of high burn severity within wildfire perimeters, and decreased diversity of post-fire vegetation successional stages and trajectories across the landscape compared to historical norms....
As global atmospheric carbon emissions continue to rise, scientists and land managers are increasingly looking to natural ecosystems to sequester and store carbon to buffer the impacts of climate change. Despite their small geographic size, many coastal ecosystems such as salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangroves sequester large amounts of...
The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico was home to one of the most intensively-studied archaic states in the New World. Centered at the hilltop city of Monte Albán, the Zapotec State first arose around 500 BC and eventually encompassed much of the present-day state of Oaxaca. But by the Late Classic...
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Leah D. Minc
The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico was home to one of the most intensively-studied
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...
Reducing future fire severity is a proposed ecological benefit of salvage logging following wildfire disturbance. Considerable debate continues over the ability of such management practices to achieve this objective given limited understanding of coarse woody detritus (CWD) dynamics, fuel bed alterations, and post-fire vegetative growth. The objective of this study...
Atomically-thin graphene sheets have unprecedented characteristics for biosensing applications. These characteristics include mechanical flexibility and strength, optical transparency, electrical sensitivity and biocompatibility. The primary theme of this dissertation is the characterization and application of graphene field-effect transistors (FETs) in biologically-relevant physiological environments.Understanding the interface that forms between an electrolyte and...
Incidental bycatch in commercial fisheries has been identified as a threat to black-footed albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes) and Laysan albatrosses (P. immutabilis). Effective long-term conservation of these albatrosses necessitates a thorough understanding of their marine distribution, which marine habitats are selected during foraging, and where they are most likely to interact...
The evolutionary relationship between Frankia and actinorhizal plants was evaluated
by reconstructing molecular phylogenetic trees from nifH, 16S rDNA, and rbcL
nucleotide sequences. Subgroupings in Frankia phylogenetic trees reconstructed from
nifH and from 16S rDNA sequences were consistent in terms of plant origins of Frankia
strains. Although the branching order...
The budding yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis has the potential to spoil fermented beverages and cause financial losses, but also contribute positively to certain products such as Lambic beer. It is most notorious for causing “Brett” spoilage of wine, which is characterized by undesirable aromas such as “bandaid” and “barnyard”, therefore most...
This qualitative study explored the experiences of self-identified White students currently enrolled at a predominantly White institution who were cross- racially involved for at least ten weeks in a multicultural association, club, or organization that had students of color as the racial majority. This study also examined students' consciousness of...
Water bodies act as chemical data loggers that contain tens of thousands of molecules that represent the sum of the biological, chemical, and physical processes occurring within a watershed. We hypothesize that unique chemical signatures present within a water sample can be informative of upstream processes. By extracting non-polar organic...
A low pressure halide transport chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD) system to grow ZnS:Mn electroluminescent phosphors is characterized. Reactor parameters such as gas composition, gas flow rate, and source and substrate temperature are investigated. Crystal structure is investigated using x-ray diffraction, electron spin resonance, and transmission electron microscopy. Chemical characterization includes...
In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of English Language Learners (ELL) in the United States. According to the Education Commission of the States, ELLs have significantly lower achievement levels than their non-ELL peers. Further, numerous research studies report that teacher education programs lack ELL...
Wildfire impacts have intensified in many ecosystems across the western United States due to the combined impact of fire exclusion, climate change, and land management practices. However, on many of these landscapes, fire is a fundamental ecological process that has shaped vegetation structural and compositional diversity, ecosystem function, landscape pattern,...
There is growing evidence that children develop science-related interests in early childhood, before they enter school, and that these interests may have long-term implications for science participation and achievement. Although researchers have made headway in describing interest development in the preschool years, little is currently known about the proximal processes...
Metal and hydrogen ion acidity and extreme nitrate concentrations typical of
Department of Energy (DOE) legacy waste sites pose formidable challenges to
successful implementation of in situ bio-immobilization. Intermediate-scale (~ 2.5 m),
flow through models of an in situ bio-barrier were constructed to investigate U and Tc
removal from groundwater...
Sandy beaches and dunes cover approximately one-third of the world’s ice-free coastlines and provide ecosystem services including coastal protection, recreation, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration. These dynamic interface habitats are variably shaped by wind, waves, sedimentary processes, and vegetation feedbacks. Positive biophysical feedbacks lead to the formation of vegetated coastal...
The phylum Cnidaria contains three main branches: Anthozoa (corals, sea anemones) Medusozoa (jellyfish, hydra), and Endocnidozoa. This latter branch is characterized by parasitism and contains the microscopic fish-parasites Myxozoa. Myxozoa are highly simplified, consisting of only a few cell types, however they have retained the nematocyst stinging cells and complex...
Research overwhelmingly suggests that Black and Brown students face unjust and inequitable environments in K-12 schools in the United States (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Carter et al., 2017; Coles & Powell, 2020). These injustices often occur as a result of systemic racism and are replicated because of embedded racist policies...
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Karen D. Thompson
Abstract
Research overwhelmingly suggests that Black and Brown students face
Coastal and marine ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean are undergoing a rapid and drastic transformation. Dense human populations are concentrated in coastal areas, leading to increased coastal development, destruction of near-shore habitats, pollution, and overexploitation of marine resources. For most Latin American and Caribbean countries, the deterioration of...
This thesis analyzes the efficacy of emancipatory (critical) pedagogical practices in an educational climate of standards-based reform. Using two films noir of the blacklist era--Body and Soul and Crossfire--as the core texts of a unit in a secondary school curriculum, I argue that an emphasis on student agency and a...
Interest is expanding for the potential role of estuaries, particularly seagrass and salt marsh habitats, to sequester carbon, mitigate ocean acidification, and support abundant fisheries. The important functions of estuaries are part of a broader set of ecosystem services, or benefits to humans, which are regulated by ocean and watershed...
”Until relatively recently, mankind was not aware that there was a separable binocular depth sense. Through the ages, people like Euclid and Leonardo understood that we see different images of the world with each eye. But it was Wheatstone who in 1838 explained to the world, with his stereoscope and...
The monolithic (plate type) Uranium 10 wt.\% Molybdenum (U-10Mo) fuel system is promising for a variety of applications, most notably for the replacement of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuels with low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel in United State High Performance Research Reactors (U.S. HPRRs).
Phase transformations and secondary phase formation...
Given the many significant roles that bacteria play in modern food manufacturing, it is crucial that we have a fundamental understanding of how bacterial communities assemble and behave in the food manufacturing environment. The focus of this dissertation was to investigate both the spatial and temporal distributions of microbial communities...
Until now the topic of motion estimation, as used in video compression, has been dominated by search methodologies which are modifications of an exhaustive search. This research takes a completely new approach by applying two evolvable search algorithms, the Genetic Algorithm and the Genetic Program, to the area of motion...
This dissertation uses manipulative experiments to explore amphibian-Bd infection dynamics. Although there has been almost two decades research since the discovery of Bd, many questions still remain regarding what conditions mediate chytridiomycosis virulence. My research shows how certain host and pathogen factors can influence disease virulence. Identifying how host and...
Literacy is often considered to be a basic set of skills to be mastered by the student; the conventional wisdom maintains that the individual who has mastered these skills is then literate. Scholars in the field of literacy studies, however, argue that such assumptions about literacy fail to take into...
Diverse scientific fields collect multiple time series data to investigate the dynamical behavior of complex systems: atmospheric and climate science, geophysics, neuroscience, epidemiology, ecology, and environmental science. Identifying patterns of mutual dependence among such data generates valuable knowledge that can be applied either for inferential or forecasting purposes. Vector autoregressive...
Differences in the chemical composition of calcified structures can be used to reveal natal origins, connectivity, metapopulation structure, and reconstruct the environmental history or movement patterns of many marine organisms. Sharks, skates, and rays (elasmobranchs) lack the calcified structures, known as otoliths, that are typically used for geochemical studies of...