Altimeter sea surface height (SSH) fields are analyzed to define and discuss the seasonal circulation over the wide continental shelf in the SW Atlantic Ocean (27°–43°S) during 2001–2012. Seasonal variability is low south of the Rio de la Plata (RdlP), where winds and currents remain equatorward for most of the...
The reading of world literature, literary works from cultures other than one’s own, offers
an effective means of creating greater awareness and sensitivity towards others. Research
on the subject makes it clear that world literature can help lay the groundwork for a sense
of world citizenship in students. To what...
My project is designed to determine how the English major and English Studies exist at OSU, through the collection of perceptions and opinions about English Studies at OSU from students and faculty (both inside and outside of the English department) via email surveys. I used secondary research to determine how...
This research explores the mechanisms of Track III diplomacy employed by EcoPeace Middle East, in the context of environmental peacebuilding within the Jordan Basin region. Focusing on how these mechanisms contribute to improving water quality and quantity, the study delves into their processes in facilitating cooperation among conflicting parties—Israelis, Palestinians,...
Doris Lessing and Tsitsi Dangarembga write fiction set in Zimbabwe, the former Southern Rhodesia. Although Lessing grew up as a white settler and Dangarembga, a generation later, as part of the colonized African population, the women sometimes address similar issues. Both write of young girls trying to find a speaking...
The relationship between literature and nation-building has been one of the most
crucial issues in postcolonial studies. The novel in particular is regarded as a means by which writers forge national consciousness among the colonized during the time of colonization. Many African writers themselves, for example, conceive of their work...
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a powerful resource for coastal and wetland managers and its use is increasing. Vegetation density and other land cover characteristics influence the accuracy of LIDAR-derived ground surface digital elevation models; however, the degree to which wetland land cover biases LIDAR estimates of the ground...
A prevalent belief during the Victorian age was that the world was divided between inferior beings governed by passion and superior reasoning beings. On the political level, this idea separated inferior passion-driven natives from superior reasoning Europeans. This division contributed to the maintenance and expansion of imperialist rule in distant...
This thesis examines the current state of the publishing industry in Tunisia in order to understand the nature of writing and publishing in an international context. In discovering the publishing procedure, I have included information on how books are used in education, homes, and libraries as well as the roles...
In The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria argues that there has emerged "too
much democracy" and too little liberty in the world today, and suggests this trend may
lead to a crisis of belief in democracy. However, what Zakaria calls "democratization" in
many cases does not lead to democracy.
The...
Quantification of contemporary sediment and carbon accumulation within Oregon tidal saline wetlands will: (1) fill a critical knowledge gap, and (2) naturally test without complicating variables whether sea level rise or sediment supply primarily control wetland growth. Here we measure vertical accretion rates and carbon burial rates in three Oregon...
This thesis examines the nature of publishing as a political endeavor through a detailed investigation of the feminist publishing movement in the U.S. since the 1970s. Feminist publishers emerged from an activist context of feminist struggle, and they evolved within changing political and social climates, facing ideological and economic challenges...
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Laura P. Rice
This thesis examines the nature of publishing as a political endeavor through
This paper examines the theoretical and empirical differences between the behavior of nonprofit and for-profit hospitals. Considerations are extended to include the possibility of collusion when hospitals make strategic choices. The operating objectives of the firms take into account price, quantity, and quality. Defining the quality of hospital care is...
This paper uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to examine the relative technical efficiency of the Washington State Ferry (WSF) routes operating in Puget Sound. This is the largest ferry system in the country. It is publicly operated and does not face direct competition from any other agency, public or private....
People often grow increasingly culturally confused when spending significant amounts of time in a foreign land. Identity can become lost only to reform in the image of the host society. This thesis presents a creative nonfiction series of essays that explore the author’s loss of self and contextual identity, the...
Much-needed research on Thai adolescents (age 15-19), the fastest growing group
of AIDS victims in Thailand, this study differentiates risk behavior among classes, unlike most AIDS research in Thai society, and focuses on how gender and economic factors among adolescents influence their risk-behavior patterns leading to the contraction of HIV/AIDS....
This report frames the debate over studded tires in terms of economic principles of marginal cost pricing and efficient resource allocation. In the absence of a user tax, the pavement damage caused by studded tires results in inefficient pricing because social costs associated with the damage are excluded from the...
Report on CICEET grant research in coordination with Laura Brophy, Marine Resource Management Program, OSU-COAS September 2009 - June 2011.
Tidal wetlands are a powerful carbon sink. They can sequester an order of magnitude
more carbon than any other type of wetland system, and emit only negligible amounts
of methane...
To help beautify the open water space in front of the National Aquarium, in 2010 the very first floating wetland islands in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor were deployed. Since then, floating wetlands have sprouted up in other parts of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, including the Bond Street Wharf. The National Aquarium’s floating...
Quantification and comparison of morphological changes over the last ~300 y in Oregon salt marshes provide valuable insights into the tectonic, hydroclimatic, and anthropogenic processes shaping this important intertidal zone. Understanding of the rates and drivers of salt marsh change contextualizes intertidal habitats within the sediment routing system (i.e., source...
A massive reduction in historic populations of Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida), the only native oyster found on the west coast of North America, has contributed to a loss of ecosystem and cultural services once provided by this species. Resource management agencies and environmental organizations are working to protect and enhance...
RNA silencing plays a critical role in plant defense against viral infection. Plants use virusderived
small interfering RNA to target and silence invading viruses. The antiviral silencing
pathway can be broken down into three conceptual stages: initiation, amplification, and systemic
movement. The molecular mechanisms of silencing initiation are not well...
Various mollusks, including small bivalves and gastropod snails, are a common food source for intertidal crabs. Prey opening techniques used on hard-shell prey are dependent on claw size and morphology. For example, large, strong claws can crush a snail outright while smaller, weaker claws leave characteristic peels, pulls and upper...
This study reports on the creation and testing of a model concept-mapping process that will aid the development and documentation of ocean science educational content of The Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) Program, a pre-college science and math enrichment program based at Oregon State University. The project uses...
This research investigated the development of a novel canine model to study preeclampsia. Normal canine placental development has morphologic and histologic similarities to the shallow trophoblast invasion occurring with preeclampsia in humans, which makes the dog a particularly good choice for modeling this disease and will be an improvement on...
Molecular genetic and enzymological techniques have been employed to study secondary metabolite biosynthesis. These investigations have focused on two projects: the cloning and heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters from unculturable marine organisms and the characterization of individual enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of the antifungal agent blasticidin S. The...
Loss of wetlands within Oregon has led to strong interest in restoring wetlands that once existed. Restoration practitioners are currently using knowledge they have gained from many years of working with wetlands to design and carry out restoration projects. There is much variability between tidal wetlands within coastal
Oregon and...
The increased US domestic production of surimi from the US Pacific Coast after 1977 is a major consequence of the US's extended fisheries jurisdiction to 200 nautical miles. It is only one consequence, however, whose nature can best be understood by examining the surimi market in the context of what...
A decline in the oxygen cost of exercise enhances exercise tolerance and performance. Substantial research has shown that dietary nitrate lowers the oxygen cost of exercise in sedentary humans; however, the metabolic determinants regarding how dietary nitrate influences oxygen consumption in skeletal muscle is not known. We addressed this gap...
Issues of diversity are receiving significant attention within the National Park Service recently, due in large part to a growing awareness that its future as a relevant and viable agency is dependent upon improving its response to and management of diversity. A diversity assessment of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site...
North American sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems are suffering from
reductions in habitat extent and quality. Only about 50% of sagebrush remains
from pre-settlement conditions, and much of the remaining habitat is
fragmented or degraded by invasive species, fire suppression and overgrazing.
Sagebrush-obligate species are experiencing population declines as a result...
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...
Freshwater systems cycle carbon along a spatial and temporal biogeochemical continuum, across which ecosystem processes contribute to transformations of organic matter (OM). Various ecological constraints impact rates OM transformation and production and consumption of the energetic end of respiration, methane. Microbiological processing and complete reduction of carbon substrates to methane...
This dissertation presents the results of two studies that explored the constructs of compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and self-compassion. Each study employed a cross-sectional survey design to survey elementary, middle, and high school counselors in Oregon. The online questionnaire was developed using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (Stamm, 2009),...
Floods are major disturbance events for riverine ecosystems, directly and indirectly impacting organisms and their habitat. In this study I investigated the role of riverine floods and flow alteration in regulating aquatic macroinvertebrate population and community structure. I examined this problem using a variety of methods: a meta-analytic review of...
The Cretaceous was a period of extreme climatic conditions accompanied
by major perturbations in ocean-atmosphere biogeochemical cycles. One of the
most intriguing features is the sporadic interruption of normal marine pelagic
sediment deposition by organic rich sediments deposited during oxygen-deficient
conditions (ocean anoxic events OAEs). A current model for the...
This dissertation details an experiment designed to identify gender differences in learning using three experimental treatments: animation, static graphics, and verbal instruction alone. Three learning presentations were used in testing of 332 university students. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA, binomial tests for differences of proportion, and descriptive statistics. Results...
Propose a sampling plan to determine Hg contamination in the Nanay river basin.
The sampling plan is for a feasibility pilot, to investigate whether it is possible to safely collect samples for Hg analyses. Future studies will build on these initial results.
Environmental stress can negatively affect the ability of organisms to reproduce. Energetic trade-offs exist in all organisms, and under stress, energy may be allocated away from reproduction and towards physiological defense and repair mechanisms. The rocky intertidal environment is ideal for investigating the influence of environmental stress, as organisms are...
Objectives: Nitrate, found abundantly in green leafy vegetables, may improve exercise performance by increasing the availability and utilization of metabolic fuels that require less oxygen for energy production. However, it is not known if this performance effect occurs at the peak exercise intensity. We hypothesize that supplemental nitrate treatment will...
Vibrio cholerae a major health problem in developing countries because of its ability to cause the disease cholera in humans. As V. cholerae bacteria are common inhabitants of temperate marine and brackish water environments worldwide, they are subject to intense top-down pressure by amoebae, which can affect their survival and...
Full Text:
. Solis-Ruiz
•John Snow postulated Cholera
to be a digestive disease (enters
through oral-fecal route
Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World (1692) has traditionally been dismissed
as a failed missive attempting to defend the controversial Salem Witch Trials. What is
missing from this characterization is an analysis of the degree to which the text, written
at a moment of crisis in Puritan culture, actually...
Comparative morphological and anatomical studies of the dispersal mechanisms
characterizing the wheat complex (Triticum L. and Aegilops L.) have documented
patterns of adaptive radiation which may have significance for evolutionary
relationships. These patterns, which form an array of diverse types of diaspores
among the diploid taxa, appear conceptually to have...
Mukti Ashram is a rehabilitation center in north India that works with ex-child laborer boys. Fieldwork completed at the ashram in 1997-98 centered around the issue of the organization's attempt to enact social change through the engineering of community within the ashram's walls. Several fundamental processes that contribute to this...
Traditionally, research into end-user programming has focused on how to make programming more accessible to end users. However, few researchers have considered providing end users with devices to help improve the reliability of the programs they create. To help improve the reliability of spreadsheets created by end users, we are...
Lodging in cereals can cause significant decreases in yield. It
is both a problem in susceptible cereal cultivars with a tall-stemmed,
weak-strawed growing habit and in lodging-resistant
cereal cultivars when they are grown under high-nitrogen, high-moisture
regimes. Plant growth regulators (PGR's) are chemical
growth retardants that offer a method of...
Numerous studies have explored how alluvial channel size and morphology are adjusted to different sediment and flow conditions, yet we still know very little about how and to what degree the flow regime controls channel form and processes. We use the term ‘channel form’ to refer to the size and...
Until recently, research has not considered whether the design of end-user programming environments, such as spreadsheets, multimedia authoring languages, and CAD systems, affects males and females differently. As a result, we began investigating how the two genders are impacted by end-user programming software and whether attention to gender differences is...