In this paper, we discuss two possible modifications to a numerical solution method for a model of microbiologically induced calcite precipitation (MICP). MICP provides a means to seal cracks in the surfaces of geological structures. From a mathematical and computational point of view MICP has very interesting features which make...
Historically, the difficulty of obtaining pure cultures of abundant marine
microbial plankton has an obstacle to reconstructing the underlying
mechanisms of biogeochemistry in the ocean. While a number of dominant
marine species from the ocean surface have been cultured, the dominant
microbial plankton of the dark ocean proved far more...
Ensuring sustainable development is a growing societal concern, providing rationale to examine the current role and efforts towards implementing sustainable building initiatives within the United States. Sustainable building initiatives refer to the design, operation, and maintenance of a building while considering its conservation efforts and pollution reduction performance. These initiatives...
In this dissertation, a series of studies in the field of terahertz (THz) science are presented, specifically using nonlinear THz spectroscopy. We exploit huge field enhancement and subwavelength confinement in plasmonic structures. There are three distinct projects which will be discussed: nonlinear THz spectroscopy using plasmonic induced transparency (PIT), THz-triggered...
Relationships between the structure and composition of riparian vegetation
with channel morphology were examined in three montane meadow streams in the
headwaters of the Upper Grande Ronde River and North Fork John Day River in the
Blue Mountains, northeast Oregon. Vegetation composition, root biomass, and
channel morphology cross-sections were sampled...
There is strong interest in the energy community to develop technologies that can diffuse low-cost, renewably generated electricity into difficult and slow to decarbonize sectors. One of the emerging areas of interest is renewable natural gas (RNG). RNG has low or no associated net greenhouse gas emissions and can be...
Drones are being used increasingly in the transportation sector for roadside applications such as surveying, structural inspection, and traffic monitoring, which raises distraction concerns for drivers. This study examines the visual attention of a group of Oregon drivers to determine drones’ potential as distracting roadside elements. Eye tracking data was...
The immune system has been identified as a very sensitive target for the toxic effects of 2,3,7,S-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). Exposure to TCDD has been shown to disrupt the generation of both cell-mediated and humoral T cell-dependent immunity in laboratory animals; however, the mechanism remains unknown. In this dissertation, the hypothesis is...
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...
Increased sales of surimi seafood, with the majority as crabstick in the United States indicates that surimi based products are becoming more popular. With growing popularity, there is increased competition for market share. Under these circumstances, some companies may be willing to sacrifice product quality in order to facilitate manufacture...
In biological models, advection is inherently a non-local process. Coupled with diffusion, it typically models chemotaxis, which is the response of bacteria to the presence of some chemo attractant. For example, E. coli cells use their flagella to probe their surroundings to determine where they should move. The advection-diffusion equation...
Extensions of the fractional Brownian fields are constructed over
a complete Riemannian manifold. This construction is carried out for the full
range of the Hurst parameter α ∈ (0, 1). In particular, we establish existence,
distributional scaling (self-similiarity), stationarity of the increments, and almost
sure H¨older continuity of sample paths....
This dissertation presents some results from various areas of probability theory, the unifying theme being the use of functional analytic intuition and techniques. We first give a result regarding the existence of certain stochastic integral representations for Banach space valued Gaussian random variables. Next we give a spectral geometric construction...
Coastal stream basins are of great importance to efforts aimed at refining our understanding of the earliest populations that inhabited the ancient Oregon coast. However, geomorphic responses to post-glacial sea level rise in these settings has produced depositional environments that destroy or deeply bury late Pleistocene and early Holocene-age archaeological...
Null networks are a type of random graph that is favored for the analysis of a wide variety of real-world networks, including gene-regulatory networks, food webs, and species co-occurrence matrices. As a hypothesis-generating tool, null networks are invaluable because they can reveal network motifs and unusual large-scale properties of networks...
The Tobin Range of central Nevada lies in the Basin and Range extensional
province near the transition between more extended terrane (>50%) to the south and
east, and generally less extended terrane to the north and west. Geologic mapping,
40Ar/39Ar dating and whole-rock geochemical analysis were employed to establish the...
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I conducted a field study using gray wolf and mountain lion urine to investigate white-tailed deer and mesopredator behavioral responses to novel predator cues in a natural setting and to see if any changes in wildlife activity correspond to changes in the local biodiversity of a wetland environment. I created...
Energy development is expanding rapidly across the western US. Negative effects have been documented for some wildlife, but consequences of development are unclear for other taxa, including raptors. We had the opportunity to examine effects of oil and natural gas development on two raptor species of conservation concern, ferruginous hawks...
High energy density ceramic capacitors with temperature stable permittivity across -150°C to 300°C are desired for a wide variety of electronic devices. Traditional dielectrics such as barium titanate provide a high permittivity but that permittivity is strongly temperature dependent over this specified temperature range. The goal of this work is...
Juniper (Juniperus spp.) encroachment into the sagebrush steppe ecoregion is one of the main causes of sagebrush degradation and can alter the understory vegetative community by outcompeting native shrubs and grasses, which reduces the available forage and cover for small mammals. Coyotes (Canis latrans) are generalist, omnivorous predators in the...