Image feature detection and matching are two critical processes for many computer vision tasks. Currently, intensity-based local interest region detectors and local feature-based matching methods are used widely in computer vision applications. But in some applications, such as biological object recognition tasks, within-class changes in pose, lighting, color, and texture...
Adolescent pregnancy is a major social problem which results in negative psychological, medical, developmental,
economic and educational consequences for both mother and child. A review of the literature examined psychological and sociocultural factors and negative consequences associated with adolescent pregnancy. There has been little research on age specific differences between...
The influence of large-scale processes on natural communities has become one of the central issues of modern ecology. I combined field and laboratory studies to investigate the effects of variation in coastal upwelling on rocky intertidal communities along the central Oregon coast. I examined whether the growth of intertidal barnacles...
The importance of wind-driven latent heat fluxes for supporting tropical intraseasonal precipitation variability is analyzed. Tropical
intraseasonal variability in the west pacific and Indian ocean is analyzed for northern and southern hemisphere summer during 1999-2005 using
satellite and buoy observations. A composite analysis of QuikSCAT ocean vector winds and TRMM...
Historically, researchers have used surveys, focus groups, and anecdotal evidence to evaluate consumer response to environmentally certified, ecolabeled forest products. These methods generally measure consumer attitudes toward certified forest products. Since the strength of the correlation between attitudes
and behavior has long been questioned, consumer response to certified forest products...
There has been an increasing realization of the value of innovativeness, the orientation toward innovation, for firms thriving to gain competitive edge. The US forest products industry is no different in this respect and many companies have active initiatives to bring about creativity from their own employees. At the same...
Innovativeness, or the propensity of a firm to create and/or adopt new products, process and business systems, has been measured using several methods in previous research. Examples of theses methods include current technology, self-evaluation, research and development funding, the number of new products, and intellectual property. In addition to the...
Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), commonly known as type 2 or
delayed onset diabetes, is a recognized growing global epidemic, which is connected to cultural and behavioral factors, such as diet, exercise, obesity, and genetics. In a recent survey of both men and women in Mexico City, the prevalence of...
People often grow increasingly culturally confused when spending significant amounts of time in a foreign land. Identity can become lost only to reform in the image of the host society. This thesis presents a creative nonfiction series of essays that explore the author’s loss of self and contextual identity, the...
In ecological restoration, species that are sown to increase the native plant
diversity range in establishment ability. Some species readily establish, while others
rarely do. This study set out to investigate some of the potential processes influencing
species establishment, as well as the traits that are associated with the success...