An Honors thesis is a research project and scholarly piece of work completed under the guidance of a faculty mentor. The thesis is orally defended and approved by a committee of at least two additional committee members.
Monitoring phenylalanine (Phe) levels in the blood of individuals with phenylketonuria (PKU) is a critical component of therapy. Existing tests for PKU require high-resource laboratories, which are not available to many populations and cannot provide the real-time feedback required for effective therapy monitoring. It would be ideal to develop an...
Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) technology has been growing in the EU and Canada
since the early 1990's and utilizes the mechanical properties of structural grade
lumber to create a strong panel product for use in floor, ceiling and wall systems. The
hypothesis of this project was that CLT panels made...
Blueberry pomace (BP) and cranberry pomace (CP) are good sources of dietary fiber and phenolics. This study aimed to develop berry fruit pomace-fortified specialty mustard with elevated bioactive compounds. Wet BP and CP were ground and incorporated into Dijon-style mustard at concentrations of 15, 20, and 25% (w/w). Total dietary...
A period of over forty years (1913-1954) of gold dredging dramatically changed
the landscape of Sumpter Valley, Oregon into a rocky, uninhabitable terrain. The Defrees
Ranch LLC used cattle feeding to increase top soil, vegetation, and habitat on the dredge
tailings. This thesis investigated the use of feeding cattle as...
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between physical activity level and motor skill proficiency in school-aged children ages 9-18 with developmental disabilities. Physical activity level was assessed using Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometers, which participants wore for all hours of the day for seven days. Motor skill proficiency...
Past healthcare reform has been blinded by the presence of competing philosophies and
ideologies that ultimately yielded ineffective compromises or short-terms solutions. With
the ever-shifting political and economic landscapes, the future of our nation’s healthcare
is in great peril. This paper is a meta-analysis on obstructions to healthcare reform that...
The relationship between physicians and patients is undeniably unique. To understand the qualities of a healing relationship, it is essential to analyze the perceptions that influence physician behavior. Metaphors and relationship models are often used in bioethics to analyze the construction of perceptions. The goal of this study is to...
An experimental framework for investigation of the effects of Micro Pin Fin Arrays (MPFA) on the fuel oxidation efficiency of catalytic combustion is presented in this thesis. Complete combustion of the fuel is essential for operation at maximum efficiency and high standards of environmental cleanliness desired in existing microscale combustion...
For wood beams, it is often assumed that the neutral axis is located at the centroid of the
beam. The neutral axis of isotropic, homogeneous materials is located at the centroid of the
material, but wood is neither isotropic nor homogeneous. The varying grain patterns and
knots located throughout wood...
Robotic global navigation is often based on the assumption that the world is static. It assumes that obstacles present in maps will be there later and new obstacles will be dealt with by a local planning algorithm. When robots interact in an environment inhabited by people, this assumption does not...