Current robots are no match for biological organisms when adapting to real-world, dynamic environments. Collective control strategies, such as those used by synergistic biological systems composed of large numbers of identical parts like the human nervous system, provide a novel and alternative approach for the design of fault-tolerant, adaptable robotic...
Modern walking robots have shown that dynamic gaits can be achieved without ankle motors. It seems logical that the additional control authority that they provide can be used to improve the stability of the walking gait against foot placement errors caused by low level control. This thesis develops and compares...
Deburring of machined parts is a crucial task in the aerospace and automotive industry. This process is still performed manually to a large extent due to the unpredictability of burr formation as well as the complex interactions between the human arm and the workpiece. Poor ergonomics, repetitive stress and strain...
Remote-access computer file serials, often referred to simply as electronic serials, possess characteristics that challenge our definition of the term “serial” and our ability to catalog them according to the established cataloging code. These challenges are reflected in the library science literature, where cataloging and indexing issues have generated thoughtful...
Recently, Duke and Jenkins have studied a certain family of modular forms fk,m, that form a natural basis of the space of weakly holomorphic modular forms of weight k on SL2(Z). In particular, they prove that for all but at most [k/12] + 1 values of m, the zeros of...
Let us travel the 65-mile length of the Columbia River Gorge for a closer look at the rock formations and geology of the area. We will supplement our observations with information from the literature on the geology of the Gorge and try to put together a picture of how the...
Fossil woods supplement knowledge of the Succor Creek fossil flora / Wallace Eubanks -- Broken Top breaks : flood released by erosion of glacial moraine / Bruce Nolf.
Seismically active areas exist within Oregon. The seismic history of Oregon is too short to be used as an accurate predictor of earthquake size, number, and distribution. Continual monitoring of earthquakes by seismograph stations during the next several decades should provide a more accurate estimate of the seismicity of Oregon....
Wright's Point, a 250-foot-high, sinuous, flat-topped ridge, projects eastward into Harney Basin, Harney County, Oregon. This 6-mile-long feature ranges from 200 to 600 yards wide and merges with a broad mesa at its western end. The nearest topographic highs are Dog Mountain, 2 miles southwest, and foothills of the Blue...
The following pictorial article on the golden years of eastern Oregon, by Miles F. Potter and Harold McCall, is an abstract from their manuscript of a forthcoming book they are calling "Golden Pebbles."
Potter is a long-time resident of eastern Oregon and an amateur historian of some of the early...
This dissertation presents novel, field-activated smart material systems for the actuation and control of autonomous robots. Smart materials, a type of material whose properties can be changed with an external stimuli, represent a promising direction to expand upon existing robotic control and actuation methods, particularly in the sub-fields of soft...
As editors of the Marine Science and Technology section for the last three editions of Magazines for Libraries (MFL), we developed lists of journals and annotations to help guide marine sciences acquisitions for all types of libraries. We recommended essential titles at the same time we needed to cancel some...
This dissertation focuses on personal privacy in human-robot interaction, which we call "privacy-sensitive robotics." Our understanding of "privacy" is very broad, including not just information privacy but also physical, psychological, and social privacy. We begin by surveying the scholarly literature on privacy and talking about why it applies to interactions...
Hmong women in the U.S. have low rates of breast and cervical cancer screening, and the factors that influence screening in this population are not well-understood. This qualitative study explored family and clan influences on Hmong women’s breast and cervical cancer screening attitudes and behavior. We conducted in-depth interviews with...
The efficacy of DNA extraction protocols can be highly dependent upon both the type of sample being investigated and the types of downstream
analyses performed. Considering that the use of new bacterial community analysis techniques (e.g., microbiomics, metagenomics) is becoming
more prevalent in the agricultural and environmental sciences and many...
The price of gold has risen from $60.35 per ounce in mid-November, 1972, to $91.25 per ounce in mid-April, 1973. The present high price has caused considerable speculation as to the underlying reasons for the sudden increase and what effect it may have on the international monetary situation. This precious...