Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Study Of Traditional Activities In The Exit Glacier Area Of Kenai Fjords National Park, Douglas Deur, Karen Brewster, Rachel Mason

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ) occupies roughly 1,760 square miles on the Kenai Peninsula in southcentral Alaska. Sitting adjacent to the community of Seward, the park was established in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA). The central portion of the park contains the Harding Icefield, from which no fewer than 38 active glaciers exit into valleys and tidewater locations surrounding the park. Of these glaciers, Exit Glacier is the most publicly accessible, and the only park glacier with road access from the town of Seward. A number of individuals and families from the Seward …

Pine Creek Conservation Area: 2013 Mapping And Monitoring Report, Eric M. Nielsen, Matthew D. Noone, James S. Kagan, Matthew T. Lee

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Pine Creek Conservation Area (PCCA), just northeast of the John Day River in Wheeler County, Oregon, was acquired in 1999-2001 by the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs with support from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), to mitigate for wildlife losses created by the large, hydropower Columbia River Dams, particularly the Bonneville, Dalles and John Day Dams. Many thousands of acres of grassland, shrub steppe and riparian habitats were lost due to inundation, and the objectives of the acquisition included restoration of similar habitats. As part of an interagency agreement created in 2002, the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center established a …

Wet Meadow Plant Associations, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon, John A. Christy

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

In July 2012, we sampled 131 plots in wet meadow habitat at the southern end of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Analysis of the data identified eleven different plant associations: Alopecurus pratensis, Carex aquatilis var. aquatilis, Carex nebrascensis, Carex pellita, Carex praegracilis, Carex sheldonii, Distichlis spicata, Juncus balticus, Leymus triticoides, Phalaris arundinacea, and Sparganium eurycarpum. Plant associations spanned a wetland gradient from seasonally moist to seasonally or perennially flooded, but surface water had left most stands at time of sampling. Mean Wetland Indicator Status scores help to place the plant associations within gradients in soil moisture and alkalinity. The Alopecurus …

The Value And Propriety Of Reintroduction As A Conservation Tool For Rare Plants, Edward O. Guerrant Jr.

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Three recent reviews of reintroduction for conservation purposes, which draw on substantial and largely non-overlapping data sets, have come to strikingly different conclusions about its value. One concludes that “reintroduction is generally unlikely to be a successful conservation strategy as currently conducted.” Another that “…this review cannot conclusively comment on the effectiveness of re-introductions…” The third concludes there is “strong evidence in support of the notion that reintroduction, especially in combination with ex situ conservation, is a tool that can go a long way toward meeting the needs it was intended to address.” The argument over the conservation value of …

Aqueous Red-Emitting Silicon Nanoparticles For Cellular Imaging: Consequences Of Protecting Against Surface Passivation By Hydroxide And Water For Stable Red Emission, Sheng-Kuei Chiu, Beth Ann Manhat, William J.I. Debenedetti, Anna L. Brown, Katye Fichter, Tania Vu, Micah Eastman, Jun Jiao, Andrea Mitchell Goforth

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Stable, aqueous, red-to-near infrared emission is critical for the use of silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) in biological fluorescence assays, but such Si NPs have been difficult to attain. We report a synthesis and surface modification strategy that protects Si NPs and preserves red photoluminescence (PL) in water for more than 6 mo. The Si NPs were synthesized via high temperature reaction, liberated from an oxide matrix, and functionalized via hydrosilylation to yield hydrophobic particles. The hydrophobic Si NPs were phase transferred to water using the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) with retention of red PL. CTAB apparently serves a double role …

Evolution Of Multispectral Aerosol Optical Properties In A Biogenically-Influenced Urban Environment During The Cares Campaign, Madhu Gyawali, W. Patrick Arnott, Rahul A. Zaveri, C. Song, Mikhail Pekour, B. Flowers, Manvendra K. Dubey, Ari Setyan, Qi Zhang, Joseph Harworth, James Gregory Radney, Dean B. Atkinson, S. China, Claudio Mazzoleni, Kyle Gorkowski, R. Subramanian, B. Tom Jobson, Hans Moosmüller

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ground-based aerosol measurements made in June 2010 within Sacramento urban area (site T0) and at a 40-km downwind location (site T1) in the forested Sierra Nevada foothills area are used to investigate the evolution of multispectral optical properties as the urban aerosols aged and interacted with biogenic emissions. Along with black carbon and non-refractory aerosol mass and composition observations, spectral absorption (ᵝabs), scattering (ᵝsca), and extinction (ᵝext) coefficients for wavelengths ranging from 355 to 1064nm were measured at both sites using photoacoustic (PA) instruments with integrating nephelometers and using cavity ring-down (CRD) instruments. The …

Robust Visible Light Photoswitching With Ortho-Thiol Substituted Azobenzenes, Subhas Samanta, Theresa M. Mccormick, Simone K. Schmidt, Dwight S. Seferos, G. Andrew Woolley

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction of S-ethyl groups in all four ortho positions of azobenzene prevents reduction of the azo group by intracellular glutathione, while enhancing the absorptivity to ∼10000 M⁻¹ cm⁻¹ in the blue and green regions of the visible spectrum. cis-to-trans isomerization occurs thermally on the minutes timescale. Further, this substitution pattern permits switching with red light, a color that is more penetrating through biological tissues than other parts of the visible spectrum.

Modules And Dialects As Objects In Grace, Michael Homer, James Noble, Kim B. Bruce, Andrew P. Black

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Grace is a gradually typed, object-oriented language for use in education; consonant with that use, we have tried to keep Grace as simple and straightforward as possible. Grace needs a module system for several reasons: to teach students about modular program design, to organise large programs, especially its self-hosted implementation, to provide access to resources defined in other languages, and to support different “dialects”—language subsets, or domain specific languages, for particular parts of the curriculum. Grace already has several organising constructs; this paper describes how Grace uses two of them, objects and lexical scope, to provide modules and dialects.

Interactive Ambient Visualizations For Soft Advice, Emerson Murphy-Hill, Titus Barik, Andrew P. Black

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Some software packages offer the user soft advice: recommendations that are intended to help the user create high quality artifacts, but which may turn out to be bad advice. It is left to the user to determine whether the soft advice really will improve quality, and to decide whether or not to adopt it. Visualizations can help the user in making this decision, but we believe that conventional visualizations are less than ideal. In this paper, we describe an interactive ambient visualization to help users identify, understand and interpret soft advice.

Our visualization was developed to help programmers interpret code …

The Grace Programming Language Draft Specification Version 0.3.1261, Andrew P. Black, Kim B. Bruce, James Noble

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is a specification of the Grace Programming Language. This specification is notably incomplete, and everything is subject to change.

On The Role Of Shape Prototypes In Hierarchical Models Of Vision, Michael David Thomure, Melanie Mitchell, Garrett T. Kenyon

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate the role of learned shape-prototypes in an influential family of hierarchical neural-network models of vision. Central to these networks’ design is a dictionary of learned shapes, which are meant to respond to discriminative visual patterns in the input. While higher-level features based on such learned prototypes have been cited as key for viewpointinvariant object-recognition in these models [1], [2], we show that high performance on invariant object-recognition tasks can be obtained by using a simple set of unlearned, “shape-free” features. This behavior is robust to the size of the network. These results call into question the roles of …

The Problem Of Semantics In The Metadata Mess, Veronika Margaret Megler, David Maier

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation addresses problems related to the volume of available scientific data, and its accessibility or inaccessibility to researchers who seek it. Topics addressed include metadata and reducing semantic diversity, especially as they refer to geospatial and other architectures

Taming The Metadata Mess, Veronika Margaret Megler

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rapid growth of scientific data shows no sign of abating. This growth has led to a new problem: with so much scientific data at hand, stored in thousands of datasets, how can scientists find the datasets most relevant to their research interests? We have addressed this problem by adapting Information Retrieval techniques, developed for searching text documents, into the world of (primarily numeric) scientific data. We propose an approach that uses a blend of automated and “semi-curated” methods to extract metadata from large archives of scientific data, then evaluates ranked searches over this metadata. We describe a challenge identified …

Online Learning In A Chemical Perceptron, Peter Banda, Christof Teuscher, Matthew R. Lakin

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Autonomous learning implemented purely by means of a synthetic chemical system has not been previously realized. Learning promotes reusability and minimizes the system design to simple input-output specification. In this article we introduce a chemical perceptron, the first full-featured implementation of a perceptron in an artificial (simulated) chemistry. A perceptron is the simplest system capable of learning, inspired by the functioning of a biological neuron. Our artificial chemistry is deterministic and discrete-time, and follows Michaelis-Menten kinetics. We present two models, the weight-loop perceptron and the weight-race perceptron, which represent two possible strategies for a chemical implementation of linear integration and …

Development Of Dynamic Thermal Performance Metrics For Eco-Roof Systems, Seth Sinclair Moody

Dissertations and Theses

In order to obtain credit for an eco-roof in building energy load calculations the steady state and time-varying thermal properties (thermal mass with evapotranspiration) must be fully understood. The following study presents results of experimentation and modeling in an effort to develop dynamic thermal mass performance metrics for eco-roof systems. The work is focused on understanding the thermal parameters (foliage & soil) of an eco-roof, further validation of the EnergyPlus Green Roof Module and development of a standardized metric for assessing the time-varying thermal benefits of eco-roof systems that can be applied across building types and climate zones. Eco-roof foliage, …

Model For Acid-Base Chemistry In Nanoparticle Growth (Mabnag), Taina Yli-Juuti, Kelley Barsanti, L. Hildebrandt Ruiz, Antti-Jussi Kieloaho, U. Makkonen, Tuukka Petäjä, Taina Ruuskanen, Markku Kulmala, Ilona Riipinen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Climatic effects of newly-formed atmospheric secondary aerosol particles are to a large extent determined by their condensational growth rates. However, all the vapours condensing on atmospheric nanoparticles and growing them to climatically relevant sizes are not identified yet and the effects of particle phase processes on particle growth rates are poorly known. Besides sulfuric acid, organic compounds are known to contribute significantly to atmospheric nanoparticle growth. In this study a particle growth model MABNAG (Model for Acid-Base chemistry in NAnoparticle Growth) was developed to study the effect of salt formation on nanoparticle growth, which has been proposed as a potential …

Do Cryoconite Holes Have The Potential To Be Significant Sources Of C, N, And P To Downstream Depauperate Ecosystems Of Taylor Valley, Antarctica?, Elizabeth A. Bagshaw, Martyn Tranter, Andrew G. Fountain, Kathleen A. Welch, Hassan J. Basagic, W. Berry Lyons

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nutrient recycling occurs in hydrologically isolated cryoconite holes on the glaciers of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Biogeochemical processes enrich the cryoconite holes with solute and nutrients compared to the source sediment and glacier ice. The position of the glacier within the landscape affects the physical and biogeochemical character of the cryoconite holes, with those found in more biologically productive areas of the valley having higher concentrations of C, N, and P and higher pH. Comprehensive assessment of the quality and quantity of bioavailable C, N, and P shows that the cryoconite holes represent a significant store of nutrient in …

Impacts Of Predicted Global Sea-Level Rise On Oregon Beaches And Tidelands, Curt D. Peterson

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forward by:

Phillip Johnson, Executive Director Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition

The Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition’s "Coastal Climate Change Adaptation Project" is under development as an experiment in grassroots organizing for adaptive planning for expected climate change impacts. Oregon Shores is a regional conservation group with a 40-year history of working to protect marine, shoreline, estuarine and other coastal habitats. The organization’s board and staff came to recognize that the likely effects of climate change—rising sea levels, more intensive storm surges, increased erosion, lower-river flooding, among others—would affect every aspect of the group’s work. Consequently, a new program, the Climate Action …

Strain Energy Release From The 2011 9.0 Mw Tōhoku Earthquake, Japan, Kenneth M. Cruikshank, Curt D. Peterson

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this paper is to compare the strain energy released due to elastic rebound of the crust from the tragic 2011 9.0 Mw Tōhoku earthquake in Japan with the observed radiated seismic energy. The strain energy was calculated by analyzing coseismic displacements of 1024 GPS stations of the Japanese GEONET network. The value of energy released from the analysis is 1.75 × 1017 J, which is of the same order of magnitude as the USGS-observed radiated seismic energy of 1.9 × 1017 Nm (J). The strain energy method is independent of seismic methods for determining the energy released …

Topographic Signatures And A General Transport Law For Deep-Seated Landslides In A Landscape Evolution Model, Adam M. Booth, Joshua J. Roering, Alan W. Rempel

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A fundamental goal of studying earth surface processes is to disentangle the complex web of interactions among baselevel, tectonics, climate, and rock properties that generate characteristic landforms. Mechanistic geomorphic transport laws can quantitatively address this goal, but no widely accepted law for landslides exists. Here we propose a transport law for deep-seated landslides in weathered bedrock and demonstrate its utility using a two-dimensional numerical landscape evolution model informed by study areas in the Waipaoa catchment, New Zealand, and the Eel River catchment, California. We define a non-dimensional landslide number, which is the ratio of the horizontal landslide flux to the …

Appendix C—Deformation Models For Ucerf3, Tom Parsons, Kaj M. Johnson, Peter Bird, Jayne Bormann, Timothy E. Dawson, Edward H. Field, William C. Hammond, Thomas A. Herring, Robert Mccaffrey, Zheng-Kang Shen, Wayne R. Thatcher, Ray J. Weldon Ii, Yuehua Zeng

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This document describes efforts to best characterize seismogenic deformation in and near California. The rate of hazardous earthquakes in California is expected to be proportional to deformation rates; in particular, the rates at which faults slip. Fault slip rates are determined from offsets of geologic and geomorphic features of measured age and by modeling geodetically determined surface displacement rates. Extensive use of geodesy in the form of Global Positioning System (GPS) observations is a new feature brought into the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP) forecasts for the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, version 3 (UCERF3) model. Geodetic measurements …

Characterization Of Nano-Scale Aluminum Oxide Transport Through Porous Media, Sasha Norien Norwood

Dissertations and Theses

Land application of biosolids has become common practice in the United States as an alternative to industrial fertilizers. Although nutrient rich, biosolids have been found to contain high concentrations of emerging contaminants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, personal care products) while containing a significant fraction of inorganic nano-scale colloidal materials such as oxides of iron, titanium, and aluminum.

Given their reactivity and small size, there are many questions concerning the potential migration of these nano-sized colloidal materials through the soil column and into our surface and groundwater bodies. Transport of emerging pollutants of concern through the soil column, at minimum, is impacted by …

Use Of International Hydrographic Organization Tidal Data For Improved Tidal Prediction, Songwei Qi

Dissertations and Theses

Tides are the rise and fall of water level caused by gravitational forces exerted by the sun, moon and earth. Understanding sea level variation and its impact currents is very important especially in coastal regions. With knowledge of the tide-generating force and boundary conditions, hydrodynamic models can be used to predict or model tides in coastal regions. However, these models are not sufficiently accurate, and in-situ tide gauge data may be used to improve them in coastal regions. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) tidal data bank consists of over 4000 tide gauge stations scattered all around the globe, most of …

Stream-Associated Amphibian Habitat Assessment In The Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Region, Andrew Evans Dietrich

Dissertations and Theses

This study assessed the influence of landscape development on stream-associated amphibians in forested riparian areas within the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region. Human alteration of landscapes may dramatically affect the ecology of neighboring aquatic systems. It was hypothesized that lotic amphibians would be negatively associated with greater amounts of landscape development and positively associated with forested area within the surrounding watershed. Thirty-seven 1st-3rd order streams were sampled between June 21st and September 21st in 2011. Streams potentially providing adequate habitat for stream-obligate amphibians were randomly selected. Amphibians were surveyed along 30-meter stream transects using an active-cover search (ACS). Environmental variables associated with …

Characterization Of The Red Bluff Landslide, Greater Cascade Landslide Complex, Columbia River Gorge, Washington, James Robert Randall

Dissertations and Theses

Located in the Columbia River Gorge, The Red Bluff Landslide (18.8 km2) is one of four large landslides that make up the Cascade Landslide Complex. In its current form, the Red Bluff Landslide is a post-Missoula Flood feature made up of two components: an active upper lobe (8.6 km2) that is translational, creeping to the south at 25 cm/yr and spreading laterally to the east at 6 cm/yr over a semi-fixed portion (10.2 km2) of the Red Bluff Landslide area that has been "smoothed" by Missoula Floods. The upper active lobe is the landslide debris accumulated since Missoula Flood time …

An Investigation Of Urban Mobile Source Aerosol Using Optical Properties Measured By Crdt/N: Diesel Particulate Matter And The Impact Of Biodiesel, Monica Elizabeth Wright

Dissertations and Theses

Mobile source emissions are a major contributor to global and local air pollution. Governments and regulatory agencies have been increasing the stringency of regulations in the transportation sector for the last ten years to help curb transportation sector air pollution. The need for regulations has been emphasized by scientific research on the impacts from ambient pollution, especially research on the effect of particulate matter on human health. The particulate emissions from diesel vehicles, diesel particulate matter (DPM) is considered a known or probable carcinogen in various countries and increased exposure to DPM is linked to increased cardiovascular health problems in …

Sustainable Municipal Operations: Albany, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a City/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

Sustainable County Operations: Yamhill County, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a county/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

Sustainable Municipal Operations: Independence, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a City/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

Engaging The Community Through An Undergraduate Biomedical Physics Course, Grace Van Ness, Ralf Widenhorn

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report on the development of an undergraduate biomedical physics course at Portland State University, motivated by both student interest and the desire of the university?s Physics Department to provide an interdisciplinary intermediate-level physics course. The course was developed through the community engagement of physicians, clinical researchers, and basic science researchers. Class meetings were a combination of regular and guest lectures, hands-on exercises, web-based activities, class discussions, and a student poster information session for patrons at a local science museum. The course inspired students to engage in research projects in biomedical physics that enhance their understanding of science and education …