Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

When Pets Become Pests: The Role Of The Exotic Pet Trade In Producing Invasive Vertebrate Animals, Julie I. Lockwood, Dustin J. Welbourne, Christina M. Romagosa, Phillip Cassey, Nicholas E. Mandrak, Angela L. Strecker, Brian Leung, Oliver C. Stringham, Bradley Udell, Diane J. Episcopio-Sturgeon, Michael F. Tlusty, James Sinclair, Michael R. Springborn, Elizabeth F. Plenaar, Andrew L. Rhyne, Reuben Keller

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The annual trade in exotic vertebrates as pets is a multi-billion- dollar global business. Thousands of species, and tens of millions of individual animals, are shipped both internationally and within countries to satisfy this demand. Most research on the exotic pet trade has focused on its contribution to native biodiversity loss and disease spread. Here, we synthesize information across taxa and research disciplines to document the exotic pet trade’s contribution to vertebrate biological invasions. We show recent and substantial worldwide growth in the number of non-native animal populations introduced via this invasion pathway, which demonstrates a strong potential to increase …

Floodplains Provide Important Amphibian Habitat Despite Multiple Ecological Threats, Meredith Holgerson, Adam Duarte, Marc P. Hayes, Michael J. Adams, Julie A. Tyson, Keith A. Douville, Angela L. Strecker

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Floodplain ponds and wetlands are productive and biodiverse ecosystems, yet they face multiple threats including altered hydrology, land use change, and non-native species. Protecting and restoring important floodplain ecosystems requires understanding how organisms use these habitats and respond to altered environmental conditions. We developed Bayesian models to evaluate occupancy of six amphibian species across 103 off-channel aquatic habitats in the Chehalis River floodplain, Washington State, USA. The basin has been altered by changes in land use, reduced river–wetland connections, and the establishment of non-native American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana = Lithobates catesbeianus) and centrarchid fishes, all of which we hypothesized could …

A Dc Programming Approach For Solving Multicast Network Design Problems Via The Nesterov Smoothing Technique, Wondi Geremew, Mau Nam Nguyen, A. Semenov, V. Boginski, E. Pasiliao

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper continues our effort initiated in [19] to study Multicast Communication Networks, modeled as bilevel hierarchical clustering problems, by using mathematical optimization techniques. Given a finite number of nodes, we consider two different models of multicast networks by identifying a certain number of nodes as cluster centers, and at the same time, locating a particular node that serves as a total center so as to minimize the total transportation cost through the network. The fact that the cluster centers and the total center have to be among the given nodes makes this problem a discrete optimization problem. Our approach …

Contingent Requirements For Artifical Intelligent Systems Development, Gary Langford, Herman Migliore

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

A substantial portion of project failures are due to poorly defined requirements before enough is known about pragmatic end-item product capability, technology maturity, or development strategy. Process models either start with requirements or are weakly structured to elicit and derive actual stakeholder needs and to establish incontrovertible requirements. Existing process models are used acceptably for systems but are wholly inadequate for system and system of systems requirements that involve interactions with humans at a personal level. Problems with products and services are notable when artificial intelligent systems are put into use. Rather than establishing a technology baseline then working up …

The Changing Moral Mirror Of Society: From Human To Artifical Intelligent Systems, Gary Langford, Teresa Langford

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Management of technology and its development carry along the responsibility and consequences for interactions between Human and Artificial Intelligent Systems (AIS). In spite of all good intentions, the effects and repercussions of conflicts between Human and the systems built with intent to assist Human may be proceeding along the path that will recognize a dismal mistake in judgment. Dreadful and intolerable impositions on Human behavior may arise regardless of how AIS is designed. That is not to say progress should cease, but rather to make the case that intensely determined efforts need to delve into the uses and implications of …

Limited Sequence Diversity Within A Population Supports Prebiotic Rna Reproduction, Ryo Mizuuchi, Niles Lehman

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The origins of life require the emergence of informational polymers capable of reproduction. In the RNA world on the primordial Earth, reproducible RNA molecules would have arisen from a mixture of compositionally biased, poorly available, short RNA sequences in prebiotic environments. However, it remains unclear what level of sequence diversity within a small subset of population is required to initiate RNA reproduction by prebiotic mechanisms. Here, using a simulation for template-directed recombination and ligation, we explore the effect of sequence diversity in a given population for the onset of RNA reproduction. We show that RNA reproduction is improbable in low …

Imaging Technologies And Strategies For Detection Of Extant Extraterrestrial Microorganisms, Jay Nadeau, Manuel Bedrossian, Chris Lindensmith

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is no reductionist definition of life, so the way organisms look, behave, and move is the most definitive way to identify extraterrestrial life. Life elsewhere in the Solar System is likely to be microbial, but no microscope capable of imaging prokaryotic life has ever flown on a lander mission to a habitable planet. Nonetheless, high-resolution microscopes have been developed that are appropriate for planetary exploration. Traditional light microscopy, interferometric microscopy, light-field microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, and electron microscopy are all possible techniques for the detection of extant micro-organisms on Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This article …

Developing A Framework To Assess Renewable Energy Options For Higher Education Institutions: Values-Based Recommendations For Portland State University, Emily Quinton

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Taking voluntary action to increase renewable use is necessary for higher education institutions to meet carbon reduction goals. Options for increasing renewable energy are largely defined by state-level utility regulation as well as local and institutional electricity providers. This project contained three major stages: 1) determine renewable energy procurement and development options available to Portland State; 2) evaluate these options using a values-based assessment; and 3) develop recommendations and next steps for University stakeholders. Final recommendations include pursuing the Portland General Electric green tariff, directly sourcing renewable energy through PSU's direct access contract, and more.

Targeting Mitochondria In Cancer Therapy Could Provide A Basis For The Selective Anticancer Activity, Dmitri Rozanov, Anton Cheltsov, Aaron Nilsen, Christopher Boniface, Isaac Forquer, James Korkola, Joe Gray, Multiple Additional Authors

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

To determine the target of the recently identified lead compound NSC130362 that is responsible for its selective anti-cancer efficacy and safety in normal cells, structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies were conducted. First, NSC13062 was validated as a starting compound for the described SAR studies in a variety of cell-based viability assays. Then, a small library of 1,4-naphthoquinines (1,4-NQs) and quinoline-5,8-diones was tested in cell viability assays using pancreatic cancer MIA PaCa-2 cells and normal human hepatocytes. The obtained data allowed us to select a set of both non-toxic compounds that preferentially induced apoptosis in cancer cells and toxic compounds that induced …

Conformational Communication Mediates The Reset Step In T6a Biosynthesis, Amit Luthra, Naduni Paranagama, William Swinehart, Susan Bayooz, Phuc Phan, Vanessa Quach, Jamie M. Schiffer, Boguslaw Stec, Dirk Iwata-Reuyl, Manal A. Swairjo

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The universally conserved N 6-threonylcarbamoylade nosine (t 6 A) modification of tRNA is essential for translational fidelity. In bacteria, t 6 A biosynthesis starts with the TsaC/TsaC2-catalyzed synthesis of the intermediate threonylcarbamoyl adenylate (TC-AMP), followed by transfer of the threonylcarbamoyl (TC) moiety to adenine-37 of tRNA by the TC-transfer complex comprised of TsaB, TsaD and TsaE sub-units and possessing an ATPase activity required for multi-turnover of the t 6 A cycle. We report a 2.5-˚ A crystal structure of the T. maritima TC-transfer complex (TmTsaB 2 D 2 E 2) bound to Mg 2+-ATP in the AT-Pase site, and substrate …

Elq-331 As A Prototype For Extremely Durable Chemoprotection Against Malaria, Martin J. Smilkstein, Sovitj Pou, Alina Krollenbrock, Lisa A. Bleyle, Rozalia A. Dodean, Lisa Frueh, David J. Hinrichs, Multiple Additional Authors

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The potential benefits of long-acting injectable chemoprotection (LAI-C) against malaria have been recently recognized, prompting a call for suitable candidate drugs to help meet this need. On the basis of its known pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic profiles after oral dosing, ELQ-331, a prodrug of the parasite mitochondrial electron transport inhibitor ELQ-300, was selected for study of pharmacokinetics and efficacy as LAI-C in mice.

Four trials were conducted in which mice were injected with a single intramuscular dose of ELQ-331 or other ELQ-300 prodrugs in sesame oil with 1.2% benzyl alcohol; the ELQ-300 content of the doses ranged from 2.5 to 30 …

Aerosol Gas-Phase Components From Cannabis E‑Cigarettes And Dabbing: Mechanistic Insight And Quantitative Risk Analysis, Jiries Meehan-Atrash, Wentai Luo, Kevin J. Mcwhirter, Robert M. Strongin

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Consumption of cannabis by nontraditional methods has surged since the advent of legalization in North America and worldwide. Inhaling cannabis extracts using vaporizers and via dabbing has risen in popularity, while concerns over product safety have not hindered their proliferation. The work herein is the first step toward assessing the safety of vaporizing and dabbing concentrated cannabis extracts as a function of gas-phase reaction products. The gas-phase thermal degradants of Δ9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have not been previously investigated. It was found that users may be exposed to concerning degradants such as methacrolein, benzene, and methyl vinyl ketone when using cartridge …

Synthesis Of 4-Methylbenzoate(2ʹ,4ʹ,6ʹ-Trimethoxyphenyl) Iodonium Tosylate, Thomas Ludwig Seidl, Aaron Moment, Charles Orella, Thomas Vickery, David R. Stuart

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hypervalent iodine continues to intrigue organic chemists with its diverse breadth of reactivity. The use of diaryliodonium salts as aryltransfer reagents has increased dramatically in the past decade as they have become more available by the development of efficient “one-pot” synthesis methods. Unsymmetrical diaryliodonium salts that selectively, and predictably, transfer one aryl group over the other are particularly desirable reagents, especially for the transfer of elaborate aryl groups to nucleophilic moieties. While the mesityl (Mes; 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl) group effectively serves as a general auxiliary in metal-catalyzed reactions of diaryliodonium salts, a broadly applicable auxiliary has not been adopted in metal-free reactions. …

Classification Of Aerosol Population Type And Cloud Condensation Nuclei Properties In A Coastal California Littoral Environment Using An Unsupervised Cluster Model, Samuel A. Atwood, Sonia M. Kreidenweis, Paul J. Demott, Markus D. Petters, Gavin Cornwell, Andrew C. Martin, Kathryn A. Moore

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Aerosol particle and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) measurements from a littoral location on the northern coast of California at Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory (BML) are presented for approximately six weeks of observations during the boreal winter–spring as part of the CalWater-2015 field campaign. The nature and variability of surface (marine boundary layer, MBL) aerosol populations were evaluated by classifying observations into periods of similar aerosol and meteorological characteristics using an unsupervised cluster model to derive distinct littoral aerosol population types and link them to source regions. Such classifications support efforts to understand the impact of changing aerosol properties on precipitation …

Attitudes Of U.S. Wind Turbine Neighbors: Analysis Of A Nationwide Survey, Ben Hoen, Jeremy Firestone, Joseph Rand, Debi Elliot, Gundula Hübner, Johannes Pohl, Ryan Wiser, Multiple Additional Authors

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

Experts predict continuing deployment of wind turbines in the United States, which will create more interactions between turbines and surrounding communities. Policymakers can benefit from analyses of existing wind projects that enable them to better understand likely effects on residents around proposed projects. Our analysis of a randomly drawn, representative national survey of 1705 existing U.S. wind project neighbors provides previously unavailable detail about factors influencing the attitudes of these neighbors toward their local wind projects. Overall, we find positive-leaning attitudes, which improve over time as individuals self-select into communities near existing wind projects. Hearing wind turbines leads to less-positive …

A Recent Systematic Increase In Vapor Pressure Deficit Over Tropical South America, Armineh Barkhordarian, Bahareh Saatchi, Ali Behrangi, Paul C. Loikith, Carlos R. Mechoso

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show a recent increasing trend in Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) over tropical South America in dry months with values well beyond the range of trends due to natural variability of the climate system defined in both the undisturbed Preindustrial climate and the climate over 850–1850 perturbed with natural external forcing. This trend is systematic in the southeast Amazon but driven by episodic droughts (2005, 2010, 2015) in the northwest, with the highest recoded VPD since 1979 for the 2015 drought. The univariant detection analysis shows that the observed increase in VPD cannot be explained by greenhouse-gas-induced (GHG) radiative warming …

Active Learning In Computer-Based College Algebra, Steven Boyce, Joyce O'Halloran

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We describe the process of adjusting the balance between computerbased learning and peer interaction in a college algebra course. In our first experimental class, students used the adaptive-learning program ALEKS within an emporium-style format. Comparing student performance in the emporium format class with that in a traditional lecture format class, we found an improvement in procedural skills, but a weakness in the students’ conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas. Consequently, we shifted to a blended format, cutting back on the number of ALEKS (procedural) topics and integrating activities that fostered student discourse about mathematics concepts. In our third iteration using ALEKS, …

A Bayesian Nonparametric Multiple Testing Procedure For Comparing Several Treatments Against A Control, Luis Gutiérrez, Andrés Barrientos, Jorge González, Daniel Taylor-Rodríguez

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose a Bayesian nonparametric strategy to test for differences between a control group and several treatment regimes. Most of the existing tests for this type of comparison are based on the differences between location parameters. In contrast, our approach identifies differences across the entire distribution, avoids strong modeling assumptions over the distributions for each treatment, and accounts for multiple testing through the prior distribution on the space of hypotheses. The proposal is compared to other commonly used hypothesis testing procedures under simulated scenarios. Two real applications are also analyzed with the proposed methodology.

Stability Conditions For Coupled Oscillators In Linear Arrays, Pablo Enrique Baldivieso Blanco, J.J.P. Veerman

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we give necessary conditions for stability of flocks in R. We focus on linear arrays with decentralized agents, where each agent interacts with only a few its neighbors. We obtain explicit expressions for necessary conditions for asymptotic stability in the case that the systems consists of a periodic arrangement of two or three different types of agents, i.e. configurations as follows: ...2-1-2-1 or ...3-2-1-3-2-1. Previous literature indicated that the (necessary) condition for stability in the case of a single agent (...1-1-1) held that the first moment of certain coefficients governing the interactions between agents has to be …

Four-Fold Increase In Solar Forcing On Snow In Western U.S. Burned Forests Since 1999, Kelly E. Gleason, Joseph R. Mcconnell, Monica M. Arienzo, Nathan Chellman, Wendy M. Calvin

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forest fires are increasing across the American West due to climate warming and fire suppression. Accelerated snow melt occurs in burned forests due to increased light transmission through the canopy and decreased snow albedo from deposition of light-absorbing impurities. Using satellite observations, we document up to an annual 9% growth in western forests burned since 1984, and 5 day earlier snow disappearance persisting for >10 years following fire. Here, we show that black carbon and burned woody debris darkens the snowpack and lowers snow albedo for 15 winters following fire, using measurements of snow collected from seven forested sites that …

A Comparison Of Neighborhood-Scale Interventions To Alleviate Urban Heat In Doha, Qatar, Salim Ferwati, Cynthia Skelhorn, Vivek Shandas, Yasuyo Makido

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent evidence suggests that many densely populated areas of the world will be uninhabitable in the coming century due to the depletion of resources, climate change, and increasing urbanization. This poses serious questions regarding the actions that require immediate attention, and opportunities to stave off massive losses of infrastructure, populations, and financial investments. The present study utilizes microclimate modeling to examine the role of landscape features as they affect ambient temperatures in one of the fastest growing regions of the world: Doha, Qatar. By modeling three study sites around Doha—one highly urbanized, one newly urbanizing, and one coastal low-density urbanized—the …

Improved Drought Resilience Through Continuous Water Service Monitoring And Specialized Institutions—A Longitudinal Analysis Of Water Service Delivery Across Motorized Boreholes In Northern Kenya, Nick Turman-Bryant, Corey L. Nagel, Lauren Stover, Christian Muragijimana, Evan A. Thomas

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasing frequency and severity of drought is driving increased use of groundwater resources in arid regions of Northern Kenya, where approximately 2.5 million people depend on groundwater for personal use, livestock, and limited irrigation. As part of a broader effort to provide more sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene services in the region, we have collected data related to site functionality and use for approximately 120 motorized boreholes across five counties. Using a multilevel model to account for geospatial and temporal clustering, we found that borehole sites, which counties had identified as strategic assets during drought, ran on average about 1.31 …

Rescaling Air Quality Management: An Assessment Of Local Air Quality Authorities In The United States, Kelsea A. Schumacher, Vivek Shandas

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Institutional design for local air quality management is an underdeveloped area for research and practice. Although the United States has more than a century of organizational experience managing air quality at the Federal level, the recent years have seen a surge of interest in addressing municipal-scale solutions. Without information about the institutional designs, governance structures, and implications of localizing air quality management, practitioners may face challenges reducing population exposure to air pollutants. We offer a US national perspective on managing local air quality by assessing and surveying 117 local air quality authorities identified by the National Association of Clean Air …

Context-Aware Synthesis For Video Frame Interpolation, Simon Niklaus, Feng Liu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Video frame interpolation algorithms typically estimate optical flow or its variations and then use it to guide the synthesis of an intermediate frame between two consecutive original frames. To handle challenges like occlusion, bidirectional flow between the two input frames is often estimated and used to warp and blend the input frames. However, how to effectively blend the two warped frames still remains a challenging problem. This paper presents a context-aware synthesis approach that warps not only the input frames but also their pixel-wise contextual information and uses them to interpolate a high-quality intermediate frame. Specifically, we first use a …

Good Similar Patches For Image Denoising (Poster), Si Lu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Patch-based denoising algorithms like BM3D have achieved outstanding performance. An important idea for the success of these methods is to exploit the recurrence of similar patches in an input image to estimate the underlying image structures....

Joint Stabilization And Direction Of 360° Videos, Chengzhou Tang, Oliver Wang, Feng Liu, Ping Tan

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Three-hundred-sixty-degree (360°) video provides an immersive experience for viewers, allowing them to freely explore the world by turning their head. However, creating high-quality 360° video content can be challenging, as viewers may miss important events by looking in the wrong direction, or they may see things that ruin the immersion, such as stitching artifacts and the film crew. We take advantage of the fact that not all directions are equally likely to be observed; most viewers are more likely to see content located at “true north,” i.e., in front of them, due to ergonomic constraints. We therefore propose 360° video …

High-Speed Video From Asynchronous Camera Array (Poster), Si Lu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Poster presented at: 2019 IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV)

Mechanics And Historical Evolution Of Sea Level Blowouts In New York Harbor, Praneeth Gurumurthy, Philip Orton, Stefan A. Talke, Nickitas Georgas, James F. Booth

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wind-induced sea level blowouts, measured as negative storm surge or extreme low water (ELW), produce public safety hazards and impose economic costs (e.g., to shipping). In this paper, we use a regional hydrodynamic numerical model to test the effect of historical environmental change and the time scale, direction, and magnitude of wind forcing on negative and positive surge events in the New York Harbor (NYH). Environmental sensitivity experiments show that dredging of shipping channels is an important factor affecting blowouts while changing ice cover and removal of other roughness elements are unimportant in NYH. Continuously measured water level records since …

The Isotopic Composition Of Meteoric Water Along Altitudinal Transects In The Tian Shan Of Central Asia, John Bershaw, Alex R. Lechler

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Tian Shan in Central Asia are a unique mountain range in that they are in the world's most continental location. Seasonal precipitation in the northern Tian Shan is segregated into distinct elevation bands where high elevations receive precipitation primarily during summer and low elevations to the north receive precipitation primarily during the late winter and spring. In this study, we sampled stream water along multiple altitudinal transects to determine the effect unique seasonal patterns of precipitation have on the isotopic composition of surface water. Our results suggest that the northern Tian Shan exhibits an isotopic lapse rate for waters …

Volcanic Glass As A Proxy For Cenozoic Elevation And Climate In The Cascade Mountains, Oregon, Usa, John Bershaw, Elizabeth J. Cassell, Tessa Boe Carlson, Ashley R. Streig, Martin J. Streck

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

After deposition, volcanic glass hydrates with ambient water, recording the average hydrogen isotope ratio (δD or δ2H) of local meteoric water during the hydration period. Previous researchers have used ancient glass δD values to reconstruct paleotopography and paleoclimate, while others have questioned the long-term reliability of the proxy as a recorder of ancient meteoric water. In this study, we sampled volcanic glasses ranging in age ~33 Ma to(east) side of the Oregon Cascade Mountains. Our results strongly suggest that volcanic glass acquires and preserves δD values that are proportional to the stable isotopic composition of environmental water at the time …