The objectives of this study were to determine the extent of absorption of functionalized
single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) across the gut epithelial cells in Daphnia magna.
Several microscopic techniques were utilized, including micro-Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution
transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and selective area diffraction (SAD). In an
effort to examine the...
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et al. (2007) reported an increased
Correspondence: AaronJamesEdgington, Aquatic Toxicology Labora
The objectives of this study were to determine the extent of absorption of functionalized
single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) across the gut epithelial cells in Daphnia magna.
Several microscopic techniques were utilized, including micro-Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution
transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and selective area diffraction (SAD). In an
effort to examine the...
The objectives of this study were to determine the extent of absorption of functionalized single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) across the gut epithelial cells in Daphnia magna. Several microscopic techniques were utilized, including micro-Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and selective area diffraction (SAD). In an effort to examine the...
This thesis focuses on the fundamental behavior of CLT floor-to-wall connections during a fire.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) panelized structures rely on floor-to-wall connections for the load path and stability of the structure. Additionally, the fire performance of these connections is critical to prevent horizontal or vertical fire spread within these...
With 97% of the world’s freshwater resources stored underground, the connection between groundwater resources to the metrics of space, scale and time common to the geographic study of natural resources has not been extensively investigated by geographers. While nearly 240 transboundary aquifers are mapped across the world, a potential “tragedy”...
The Wadi el Far'a catchment is a tributary of the Jordan River located entirely the West Bank in the Middle East. Increasing population in the catchment, with economic development, is likely to increase water needs in this water region. In the water management of the region, agriculture is an essential...
Collaboration between scientists and decision makers is a critical element in mobilizing science into action. Likewise, the United Nations defines collaboration between scientists and policymakers as a requisite component in the process of sustainable development. Despite the UN sustainability movement beginning in 1983, scientists may still be frustrated by their...
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Aaron T. Wolf
Collaboration between scientists and decision makers is a critical element
Dams are often promoted as a tool to reduce poverty and spur economic development. Dam construction worldwide, and particularly in China, which has built nearly half the world's large dams since 1949, remains contentious due to the potential for negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Despite numerous case studies, there is...
Plantago ovata Forssk. (Plantaginaceae) is a winter annual species which, in North America, inhabits desert and Mediterranean habitats of the southwest United States, northwest Mexico and the Channel Islands of California and Mexico. In the eastern hemisphere P. ovata inhabits desert regions ranging from the Canary Islands, across northern Africa...
North America, with over 400 species of Astragalus (Fabaceae), is one of three major centers of diversity, all of which comprise the majority of the nearly 1750 species of Astragalus worldwide. One of the most diverse species, Astragalus lentiginosus of Section Diphysi, is a polymorphic complex of over 40 varieties,...
Human security is a framework related to the stability and sustainability of political, environmental, economical, and socio-cultural areas of concern. Water resources around the world are under increased pressure from increased development, growing populations, pollution, and global climate change. Large-scale dam development while still popular for political and economic development...
The climate of the Pacific Northwest is in flux, and existing forest ecosystems are stressed and poised to shift in fundamental ways, with or without human intervention. This dissertation probes the nature of forest responses to environmental change through investigations of morphology and genetics of three species of alder co-occurring...
Groundwater tables are dropping quickly in many regions of the world. Central Asia is an arid region where groundwater abstraction rates often exceed recharge rates. The Pretashkent Aquifer is a crucial transboundary groundwater resource for the Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Both countries rely on the aquifer as a primary...
The U.S. Forest Service on the Willamette National Forest currently employs the “Disturbed Water Erosion Prediction Project” (WEPP) model to determine potential suspended sediment delivery from timber harvests or other treatment scenarios given user-defined hillslope parameters. At the time of this study there was no known calibration or testing of...
Despite their significance, physical interactions between surface and
groundwater have largely been ignored in international water law. While surface water
has been given considerable attention as a transboundary natural resource, groundwater
has not received the same recognition. International legal doctrines regarding water, such
as the 1997 United Nations Convention on...
With the increasing international focus on transboundary cooperation as a part of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Framework, there is global recognition of transboundary water cooperation as a tool for improved governance and management of transboundary surface and groundwaters. Yet, there is not an agreed upon definition of transboundary water...
The Seeds of Success (SOS) is a wildland seed collection program in support of the interagency Native Plant Materials Development Program (NPMP) and in partnership with the global conservation initiative, the Millennium Seed Bank Project of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. SOS collections follow a set protocol with consideration for...
In the face of the global climate crisis, paired with current and future risks over water resources, the importance of effective water resources management cannot be overstated. However, there is a significant lack of specific metrics used to track water stewardship on a broad scale. Thus, in order to track...
At a time when the biodiversity on Earth is being rapidly lost, new technologies and methods in genomic analysis are fortunately allowing scientists to catalog and explore the diversity that remains more efficiently and precisely. The studies in this dissertation investigate genomic diversity within the milkweed genus, Asclepias, at multiple...
We are witness to an ever tighter coupling between natural hazard-related disasters ("disasters") and violent social conflict ("conflict"). Previous research has established that disaster has the propensity to lead to conflict, and conflict, in turn, has been found to contribute to disaster vulnerabilities. The field of disaster diplomacy, by contrast,...
Floods are the most frequent and damaging of all types of natural disasters and annually affect the lives of millions all over the globe. However, researchers seem to have overlooked the fact that floods do not recognize national boundaries. Therefore, the phenomena of shared, or transboundary floods occurring in international...
River basins provide essential services for both humans and ecosystems. Understanding the connections between ecosystems and society and their function has been at the heart of resilience studies and has become an increasing important endeavor in research and practice. In this dissertation, I define basin resilience as a river basin...
Snap beans are the vegetable form of dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) with low fiber, stringless and round, succulent pods that are eaten in the immature stage. Seed companies commit significant resources to maintaining purity and uniformity of snap bean cultivars. While some variability may be introduced through outcrossing (beans...
Earthquakes a . tsunamis pose significant threats to port and harbor
communities in the Pacific Northwest. Developing effective mitigation and
preparedness plans requires a comprehensive understanding of community
vulnerability. Research presented here focuses on the vulnerability of ports and
harbors to earthquake and tsunami hazards and includes a regional study...
Circulating fuel reactor (CFR) kinetics are characterized by delayed neutron precursor (DNP) drift in addition to the neutronic and thermal hydraulic phenomena typical of other reactor types. This environment can be computationally challenging to model, given that the multiphysics phenomena generally have non-linear interdependencies requiring the use of iterative solution...
The purpose of this thesis is to engage in a linguistic-conceptual inquiry into what it
proposes might for analytical purposes be conceived—and which it hence stipulatively
defines—as Applied Value Words. After constructing the conceptual framework through
which to identify, and within which to characterize Applied Value Words, this thesis then...
There is an urgent need to lower the concentration of sulfur in diesel fuels. Growing concern over environmental effects caused by burning sulfur-containing diesel has led the world to higher standards in fuel refinement. Because of these lower standards, many techniques have been researched to remove sulfur containing compounds or...
Using a plastic bottle, we explore the capabilities of a reflective phase-only Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) in removing wavefront aberrations using a Zernike polynomial phase mask, with the modulators phase depth limited to 0.8π radians. Wavefront aberrations, which can be modeled with Zernike polynomials, distort image transmission through various optical...
This thesis uses a series of non-fiction vignettes to explore objects, agencies, and networks, applying theories of rhetoric and composition directly to experience and vise versa. Focusing on agency--as understood through sociology's actor-networks, post- humanism’s Object Orientated Ontology, and Ecocriticism's ecological approach--I look at events, landscapes, and partnerships that have...
Senator Al Gore Jr. was elected Vice-President of the United States
on November 3, 1992. During many of his public speeches, Gore utilized
a speaking style that differed radically from the style he used in other
political campaigns of his life. This style, which will be called the "rhetoric
of...
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...
Fire is an important disturbance mechanism in big sagebrush (Artemisia
tridentata) communities, yet little is known about wildlife population dynamics during
post-fire habitat succession. I estimated the abundance of small mammals and birds in
relation to fire history in mountain big sagebrush (A.t. spp. vaseyana) communities on the
Sheldon National...
How can an agent generalize its knowledge to new circumstances? To learn
effectively an agent acting in a sequential decision problem must make intelligent action selection choices based on its available knowledge. This dissertation focuses on Bayesian methods of representing learned knowledge and develops novel algorithms that exploit the represented...
During the past few decades, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made significant investments to improve nuclear data libraries, as the quality of this data impacts nearly all analyses of nuclear systems. Nuclear fission product yields are one component of these libraries, and are important for the analysis of...
The Klamath River Basin (KRB) is one of the most contested basins of the Western U.S. with respect to water. Multiple stakeholders, including Tribes, farmers, state and federal agencies, and environmental advocates, are in frequent conflict over water rights and water use. Removal of the four hydroelectric dams is one...
Kincaid's lupine (Lupinus oreganus Heller) is a federally listed threatened species native to remnant grassland of western Oregon and southwestern Washington, and is the primary larval host plant of a once thought extinct butterfly, Plebejus icarioides fenderi Macy. Past studies concerning Kincaid's lupine reproduction
suggested that populations may suffer reductions...
Pollination ecology may play an important role in the maintenance of selfing in populations of self-compatible hermaphroditic plants where both selfing and outcrossing occur (mixed mating). Behavior and abundance of pollinators can influence the two major modes of selfing; autogamy (selfing within a flower) and geitonogamy (selfing between flowers on...
A fossil-calibrated phylogenetic framework based on exemplars from each of the four taxonomic sections within Pinus was created using multiple nuclear and chloroplast loci. Calibration at the well-defined subgeneric split within Pinus with either fossil leaves and cones (ca. 45 million years ago) or fossil wood (ca. 85 million years...
Ambiguity is a typical element of treaty documents. Its success in accommodating divergent interests, creating boundary conditions leading to dispute prevention and facilitating the conclusion of agreements has been widely recognized, yet less is known whether or not intentional ambiguity or unintentional ambiguity, or perhaps both, lead to challenges or...
Data from nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer regions (nrITS) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) have failed to resolve phylogenetic relationships in Pinus. To provide greater interspecific resolution, five low-copy nuclear genes were developed from mapped conifer anchor loci. Four genes were sequenced from species representing all Pinus subsections. Individual loci do...
Protected natural areas are important reserves for biodiversity, and in the tropics, often play a role in deterring deforestation. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a protected-area with a
two-tiered management regime in Bolivia, Amboró National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area (IMNA), in deterring clearance of forest. Four satellite...
Identifying mechanisms that determine who lives and dies is the first step in developing successful restoration techniques for rare species and endangered habitats. We studied interactions that affect establishment of native plant forbs of conservation concern at the seedling stage to support the theoretical basis for restoration activities in Pacific...
The nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region has been characterized in the sister genera Larix and Pseudotsuga (Pinaceae). Complete sequences were obtained for seven species of Larix from North America and Eurasia and five species of Pseudotsuga from western North America and eastern Asia. ITS region lengths...
This dissertation works towards determining the mechanisms driving the Mo isotopic composition of soils, and how these signals may be used to refine the use of Mo as a proxy of biogeochemical processes. The first step towards quantifying Mo fractionation in soils is to determine the mechanisms controlling Mo accumulation,...
Monophyly of the gomphoid-phalloid clade was confirmed based on multigene phylogenetic analyses. Four major subclades (Hysterangiales, Geastrales, Gomphales and Phallales) were also demonstrated to be monophyletic. The interrelationships among the subclades were, however, not resolved, and alternative topologies could not be rejected statistically. Nonetheless, most analyses showed that the Hysterangiales...
Global surface water quality has been degrading with predictions of negative trends in meeting the Sustainable Development Goal ambient water quality targets (Mead, 2019; WWAP & UN Water, 2019). These water quality impacts can cross borders and impact populations in world’s 204 transboundary lake and reservoir basins (ILEC & UNEP,...
America is said to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. With the unfair treatment of people of color in this country, however, one would believe that somewhere in the fine print, they were excluded from that phrase. The very foundation of this country was...
Adaptive collaborative (co-) management has received increased recognition as a novel approach to environmental governance that combines the dynamic learning features of adaptive management with the linking and network features of collaborative management. This approach is concerned with fostering sustainable livelihoods and ecological sustainability in the face of uncertainty and...
Stein's Pillar area, central Oregon / Aaron C. Waters -- Seismic reflection studies of buried channels off the Columbia River / Joseph W. Berg, Jr., John M. King, and Paul R. Carlson.