Visitor behavior research has become an essential component to many museum programs. Since its opening to the public in 1965, Oregon State University's Mark O. Hatfield Marine Science Center Aquarium in Newport, it has been visited by millions of people. A clear understanding of who this audience was and what they actually did while viewing the exhibits in the aquarium had never been achieved. This descriptive study describes fall season visitors and their circulation patterns. The goal of the study was to understand the interrelationships between visitors, exhibits and the physical layout of the aquarium. One purpose of the study was to provide information that would aid staff members with long range planning decisions that include the design of new exhibits and the renovation of older displays. Besides identifying the aquarium's fall audience, demographic data on visitors was desired to gain a clearer understanding of populations that did not visit the museum. Two-hundred and forty participants responded to a survey questionnaire administered by HMSC volunteers and the author. Forty unobtrusive observations of visitors were collected by the author. Respondents included all age groups; however, the young adults (late teens, early twenties) were underrepresented. Over half of the respondents had visited HMSC before; 81% of repeat visitors were from Oregon. A positive correlation was shown to exist between group size and the length of visit. The larger the group the longer the group tended to visit in the aquarium. The average time spent in the aquarium was 30.6 minutes. Most (82.5%) respondents overestimated the length of their visit by an average of 22 minutes. Overall, visitors were found to spend over 77% of their time at HMSC viewing the exhibits. Only 7.3% of the visitors observed traveled through the aquarium the way it was designed. The average amount of time spent at exhibits ranged from 16.6 seconds to 212.5 seconds; however, standard deviation and range indicate a great deal of variability in visitor behavior. Visitor traffic patterns and competition between exhibits was shown to influence the visitor experience. Survey and observation results were consistent with examples at other museums, zoos and aquariums cited in the literature. / Graduation date: 1992

Salmonella causes gastrointestinal illness in humans. The purpose of the study was to determine the relative contribution of different food commodities to sporadic cases of salmonellosis (attribution analysis) caused by Salmonella Newport (SN) using Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns and antimicrobial sensitivity (AST) data submitted by public health laboratories and regulatory agencies from 2003 to 2006. The genetic relationship between isolates from non-human (348) and human (10,848) sources was studied by two unique clustering methods: UPGMA and Ward. Results show poultry was the highest contributor of human SN infections, followed by tomatoes and beef. Beef was the largest contributing food commodity of multi-drug resistant (MDR)-AmpC infection patterns. Results from this pilot study show that PFGE and AST can be useful tools in performing attribution analysis at the national level and that SN MDR-AmpC patterns are decreasing and seem to be restricted to isolates from animal sources.

Over the past decade, the Eastern Shore of Virginia (ESV) has been implicated in at least four outbreaks of Salmonellosis associated with tomato all originating from the same strain, Salmonella enterica serovar Newport.  In addition to S. Newport contamination, the devastating plant disease, bacterial wilt, caused by the phytopathogen Ralstonia solanacearum threatens the sustainability of ESV tomato production.  Bacterial wilt is present in most ESV tomato fields and causes devastating yield losses each year.  Due to the ESV\'s endemic population of R. solanacearum and S. Newport, the relationship between the two pathogens is of interest and has never been investigated.  Two separate studies were conducted to assess the relationship between these two bacteria.  One study consisted of a series of greenhouse trials that involved root-dip inoculations of tomato plants with one of four treatments: 1) S. Newport, 2) R. solanacearum, 3) a co-inoculation of S. Newport + R. solanacearum, and 4) a control group with no inoculation. Leaf, stem, and fruit samples were collected from the plants and S. enterica presence from the internal tissues was observed.  S. enterica was recovered from a low percentage of fruit and leaf samples.  There were significantly more stem samples from plants co-inoculated with S. Newport + R. solanacearum positive for S. enterica (17.46%) than from other treatments.  Another study examined the relationship between the two bacteria via vacuum infiltration inoculations of tomato fruit collected from commercial production fields on the ESV with S. Newport.  Tomato fruit were collected from plants expressing symptoms of bacterial wilt (symptomatic) and plants not expressing bacterial wilt symptoms (asymptomatic).  After fruit infiltration with S. Newport, recovery concentration of S. enterica from internal tissues was measured.  S. enterica populations were greater in fruit originating from asymptomatic (5.15 log CFU/g) versus symptomatic (4.91 log CFU/g) plants across five studies.  Fruit collected from asymptomatic plants had a significantly higher internal pH (4.60) than fruit collected from symptomatic plants (4.37).  These results suggest that R. solanacearum can influence S. enterica survival and transportation throughout the internal tissues of tomato plants as well as the influence internal tomato fruit pH, which could potentially impact S. Newport survival in the fruit. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

No description available.

No description available.

Fresh market tomatoes have been associated with 15 multistate Salmonella outbreaks between 1973 and 2010. While, S. enterica survival has been studied in tomato plants, field studies have been limited. To understand pathogen growth and survival, in crop fields, surrogate or attenuated organisms must be developed and validated. The purpose of this study was to compare the growth and survival of seven attenuated S. enterica Typhimurium and Newport strains against virulent strains S. Typhimurium ATCC14028 and S. Newport J1892 in optimum (TSB and TSB+kan) and minimal M9 growth media, and in commercial, red ripe tomatoes. Bacterial growth in media was assessed via BioScreen. Tomatoes were separately inoculated with 7 Log CFU/g of each isolate via vacuum infiltration, surface spot inoculation, or diced inoculation. Populations of each strain were determined on Days 0, 1, 3, and 5. In media, there were few differences in overall growth and growth rates between mutant isolates and wild-type (P<0.05). Growth in M9 was less (P<0.01), while growth rates were higher (P<0.01) than in TSB. In tomatoes (per treatment), there were no significant differences between growth rates of each isolate compared to WT (P>0.05); however, Salmonella strains in diced tomatoes had a higher growth rate than that in spot treated tomatoes (P>0.05). The growths of all the isolates in tomatoes indicated that under the tested conditions, isolates acted similarly to their WT counterparts. Thus, these strains may be able to be used as surrogate organisms in field studies. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

Architecture cannot target only a particular age group or type of person worthy of its attention, but rather must respond to the entire human condition. I chose to design a project that would allow me to consider architecturally the span between birth and death, with both segregated and interactive spaces for the various age groups. The site echoes the human condition in complexity—a steep, wooded slope partially encircling a flat open area, separated by a large, flat stream, further disrupted by a tiny, steeply falling stream. Located on the outskirts of Newport Virginia, the project is a small, self-contained community intended to relate to the existing town in spirit as Le Corbusier’s La Tourette relates to the nearby town of Eveaux—felt and glimpsed but not seen. The building is organized around a series of major concrete walls, paired for circulation and containing volumes between the pairs, spaced in multiples of two and three. These walls are oriented to the geologic strike of the rock beds, perhaps the most permanent of all site qualities. Bridges link portions of the project on both sides of the stream, and the center is carved out to form an open plaza; a microcosm of the valley and surrounding ridges which make up the landscape. / Master of Architecture

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Project (D. Ed. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-102, 41-45). Includes copy of "Connections: new member orientation" and final project proposal.

Project (D. Ed. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes abstract and vita. "October, 2004." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-102).