Learning latent space representations of high-dimensional world states has been at the core of recent rapid growth in reinforcement learning(RL). At the same time, RL algo- rithms have suffered from ignored uncertainties in the predicted estimates of model-free or model-based methods. In our work, we investigate both of these aspects...
Back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, entailing a significant socioeconomic impact. A primary source of back pain can be attributed to intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration allowing nerve ingrowth, facet joint arthritis, disc bulging, and osteophyte formations that press on nearby nerve roots or the spinal cord. While...
This arts-based autoethnography explores the experience of a graduate student of mathematics at a mid-sized research university through a collection of collage, songwriting, and personal essays. This research identifies issues in the mathematics academic pipeline associated with gender, burnout culture, perfectionism, mental health, qualifying exams, and isolation. The present research...
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...
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...
3D volume segmentation is a fundamental process in many scientific and medical applications. Producing accurate segmentations, in an efficient way, is challenging, in part due to low imaging data quality (e.g., noise and low image resolution), and ambiguity in the data that can only be resolved with higher-level knowledge of...
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...
Commercial fishing is a culturally and economically significant industry on the Oregon coast. The importance of this industry to human communities is often neglected in fisheries research, with economic and ecological data being favored by managers and decision makers. Recent observations in many coastal communities have indicated aging of fishermen...
Following a history of tensions surrounding concubinage in medieval and early modern Spain, the Church sought greater control of religious life, particularly over the sacrament of marriage, via the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The Church exercised its strengthened restrictions and prosecuted these relationships with more frequency, as did civil...
The Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington in the United States and British Columbia in Canada) is one of the major producers of red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) and blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) in the world. The expansion of growing area with these crops has resulted in the emergence of new...
Plant pathogenic Rhodococcus species are persistent pathogens able to cause severe growth deformities on a large range of hosts. The most well studied species, R. fascians is predicted by current models to synthesize a mixture of cytokinins that act to directly perturb the hosts' hormone balances, which results in abnormal...
Viruses and other selfish genetic elements are dominant entities in the biosphere, with respect to both physical abundance and genetic diversity. Various selfish elements parasitize on all cellular life forms. The relative abundances of different classes of viruses are dramatically different between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In prokaryotes, the great majority...
Blackberry (Rubus sp.) fruit are a good source of phenolic compounds and anthocyanins, and are consumed in fresh and processed forms. Though organic products become more popular, limited information is available about how different organic production methods affect the post-harvest quality of blackberry fruit. The objective of this project was...
In real networks, identifying dense regions is of great importance. For example, in a network that represents academic collaboration, authors within the densest component of the graph tend to be the most prolific. Dense subgraphs often identify communities in social networks. And dense subgraphs can be used to discover regulatory...
“Making Connections” is about helping students see the “big picture”; to understand the web of overlapping causes and effects of attitudes, beliefs, actions, behaviors, and habits that connect people and the natural world in community. With these exercises, we hope students will become more aware of how their decisions affect...
Examination of all known U.S. Third Wave feminist literature reveals that there is no coherent unitary theory. Explication of the Third Wave addresses the generational and cultural strife within the feminist family and provides a modern feminist response to the changing faces and locations of the isms. Identification of the...
This dissertation has two objectives. The first objective is to determine where best to situate the study of mentoring (i.e. the 'making of scientists') on the landscape of the history of science and science studies. This task is accomplished by establishing mentoring studies as a link between the robust body...
Protection of the quality and integrity of food supplies is of global concern. Crops can accumulate non-nutritive and sometimes toxic metals and metalloids. Accumulated metals/metalloids can come in part, from fertilizers, which may contain variable levels of non-nutritive metals or metalloids such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel...
This thesis details my investigation of some pharmaceuticals and natural products on the transport of drugs which are substrates of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), such as cyclosporin A (CSA) and digoxin by using Caco-2 and MDCKII-MDR1 drug transport models. Three objectives were performed to address this goal. The first objective was to...
Passage through The Vagina Monologues: A College Anti-Violence Rite examines the ways in which the audience at Oregon State University (OSU) responds to the annual production of the play in connection with the international college campaign to raise awareness about violence against women and to raise money for community organizations...