Life Sciences Commons^™

Aligning Food Environments With Institutional Values: A Mixed Methods Study Of Oregon Health Care Organizations, Elizaveta Walker

Dissertations and Theses

A major driver of the obesity epidemic is obesogenic food environments, characterized by nutrient-poor and energy-dense foods that saturate the collective physical, economic and sociocultural conditions that influence nutritional status. Food environments in organizations such as hospitals and public health agencies warrant special consideration given their health-focused mission. Improving food environments within health care settings has been highlighted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as one of seven key strategies to prevent obesity. However, most of the refereed literature examining healthy food environment policies (HFEPs) within hospitals focuses on the inpatient dietary environment, leaving a paucity of …

Sensors And Portable Instruments For Postharvest Agriculture, Ryan M. Lerud

Dissertations and Theses

The sensing needs for the fresh produce industry can be split into two primary stages: during maturation in the field, also referred to as Precision Farming, and during storage and transport of the produce, or Postharvest Storage. This work seeks to improve the accuracy and reliability of commercially available electrochemical and spectroscopic sensors tailored to the sensing needs of the fresh produce industry. For electrochemical sensing, this study proposes the use of an inline filter to remove polar organic compounds, which can interfere with the readings of a platinum-based electrochemical sensor. A 50% improvement in measurement accuracy was achieved when …

Food Waste Diversion Programming In Post-Secondary Education, Manar Arica Alattar

Dissertations and Theses

The urgent need for reform of USA and global food systems is evident in the pervasiveness of both food waste and food insecurity. Such an inefficient system strains the environmental, social, and economic systems on which it relies. Although policy and infrastructure changes are essential, consumers can play a significant role by decreasing their food waste, given that consumer waste represents 60% of the waste along the food cycle in developed countries. Incorporation of food literacy and food waste education in school curricula may provide a meaningful entry point for promoting food waste reduction skills.

This dissertation presents context on …

Combining Systems Methodologies To Reduce Allergen-Related Food Recalls, Jill Marie Sweney

Dissertations and Theses

The risk of poor food safety is a major focus for managers in the food manufacturing industry. Despite industry-led and regulatory efforts to improve the overall food safety of US packaged consumer foods, product recalls and market withdrawals are increasing. This is especially true for the most frequent cause for food recall: the undeclared allergen. With industry trends leaning toward adoption of third-party food safety management certifications, a popular food safety code from the Safe Quality Foods Institute is evaluated using Systems Analysis. Three changes to the food safety code are proposed to address three of the top causes for …

An Evaluation Of The Nontarget Effects Of Transgenic Bacillus Thuringiensis Maize On Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi In The Soil Ecosystem, Tanya Elizabeth Amy Cheeke

Dissertations and Theses

My dissertation research examined the effect of the cultivation of insect-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize on the soil environment with a goal of understanding how to obtain a balance between technological advancement and maintenance of a healthy soil ecosystem. Although Bt plants may help to reduce pesticide use, conferring benefits to farm workers and the environment, there are still unresolved questions about how the cultivation of Bt plants affects soil organisms. For this dissertation project, I used 14 different genotypes of Bt maize and non-Bt maize (Zea mays) to investigate the effects of transgenic Bt plants on the colonization ability, …

The View From The Table: An Analysis Of Participant Reactions To Community-Based Dialogues On Food And Justice, Jennifer Turner

Dissertations and Theses

While Portland, Oregon's sustainable food movement wins accolades for explicitly situating itself in opposition to the industrialized global food system, it often fails to address systems of oppression that are reproduced within the alternative agri-food movement itself. This demonstrated aversion towards the messy, complex, contingent nature of the social world reflects larger processes of "de-politicization" of the overall sustainability agenda, which leads to the favoring of technological and/or spatial solutions that may undermine the social equity and justice dimensions of the "triple bottom line." This thesis focuses on an action research project involving a series of community dialogues that provided …

Feeding And Food Selection In The Japanese Oyster Crassostrea Gigas, Rickey D. Moore

Dissertations and Theses

The Japanese oyster Crassostrea gigas is commercially grown in bays and estuaries of the Pacific Northwest. The oyster's complex, ciliated, plicate gill is responsible for removing particles from surrounding waters for ingestion. In order to determine how this is accomplished, structural interrelationships of gill components were investigated using scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy. Particle movement was observed directly on both isolated gill sections and intact gills. Feeding data were obtained by comparing initial to final concentration and size of algal particles in a Coulter counter.