The Younger Dryas climatic event is a global phenomenon associated with a 1,000 year return to glacial conditions during the late Pleistocene period between 12,800 and 11,500 cal BP. Because of its significant effects on paleoenvironmental conditions in some parts of the world, archaeologists commonly seek to assess whether the...
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the governing body for collegiate athletics and has regulated the activity of student-athletes with the primary goal of preserving amateurism. In recent years, the restrictions of this principle have been challenged in court. The Supreme Court case NCAA v. Alston (2021) challenged the...
Textiles (including basketry, cordage, woven, knotted, or plaited products) make up a considerable portion of the perishable archaeological record in dry caves of the northern Great Basin region, much of which is created from plants and plant fibers. The archaeological study of precontact textiles greatly informs our understanding of how...
For at least 30 years American culture has failed to provide empowering myths and symbols to its adolescents as they come of age and try to make sense of their selves, sexuality and the culture that surrounds them. This lack of myths and symbols is especially harmful to girls and...
This thesis merges the fields of Ecology and Anthropology by applying Habitat Suitability Modeling to the relationship between people and plants in the Pacific Northwest. In it, I create and optimize two Maxent habitat suitability models for camas (Camassia spp.) in Oregon. The first model describes the physical environment of...
Soil is a valuable medium when investigating the past-- from understanding rates of development, landform evolution, to the construction of various predictive models. Landforms and sediments provide insight into depositional environments and soil morphology indicates pedogenic change within those landforms. The rate at which pedogenesis occurs has been quantitatively measured...
Black male student-athletes in revenue-producing sports encounter multiple stressors at predominantly White institutions (PWI). These stressors can include identity conflicts, role confusion, feelings of exploitation as revenue producers, academic imposter syndrome, heavy workloads, and racial microaggressions. This study explores how Black male student-athletes in revenue-producing sports define their roles within...
Feeding conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) improves reproductive performance in dairy cows; however, the molecular mechanisms by which CLA improves reproduction are not well understood. Therefore, we evaluated whether the CLA isomers, trans-10, cis-12 CLA and cis-9, trans-11 CLA altered synthesis of steroidogenic hormones in bovine luteal cells by measuring concentrations...
The Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are increasingly explored in varies of fields including designing and optimizing computer systems. Recent research, such as optimizing memory/cache prefetching by ML training or predicting traffic pattern in throughput processors, also exhibits a promising future of introducing ML into computer system design and optimization. Throughput...