In pursuit of global sustainability, forestry has witnessed significant shifts in practices and the development of new technologies and ideas. Primary and secondary processing industries have made substantial efforts to increase wood utilization rates, improve occupational safety and the working environment for humans, and have exhibited interest in procuring raw...
Development research and policy aim to improve household welfare by improving access to assets and economic opportunities (Besley & Burgess 2000; Deininger et al. 2003). In rural and agrarian contexts, these goals may be achieved by well-functioning markets for outputs, inputs, off-farm work, and credit. The status of these markets...
In a relay network for full truckload (TL) transportation, facilities known as relay points (RPs) serve as exchange points where truck drivers can exchange trailers. This would help carriers to assign more regular tours to drivers when compared to the excessively long tours that exist in the traditional Point-to-Point (PtP)...
Wavelet analysis is an analytical and modeling tool for optimizing sampling efficiency and accuracy, particularly in the context of designing long-term, large-scale monitoring plans. As a pattern analysis method that accommodates and preserves non-stationarity, wavelet analysis provides novel visualization and analytical capabilities for increased insight into interactions between multi-scalar heterogeneous...
According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2017), Latinx people are the fastest growing ethnic group in the nation but are least likely to enroll in institutions of higher education and fewer eventually earn a degree even if enrolled. Enrollment rates for Latinx students with migrant and seasonal farmworker (MSFW) background...
In the past 10 years we have witnessed the beginnings of the study of soil ecology as a unified science, and the general realization by soil scientists, farmers, and land managers that many of the most important economic aspects of soil health are controlled by biological factors. This research focuses...
This dissertation addresses a number of inter-related and fundamental problems in computer vision. Specifically, we address object discovery, recognition, segmentation, and 3D pose estimation in images, as well as 3D scene reconstruction and scene interpretation. The key ideas behind our approaches include using shape as a basic object feature, and...
Wood-plastic composites (WPCs) are one of the fastest-growing sectors of the
wood composites industry. However, the strengths of WPCs are typically low
because of the poor interfacial adhesion between hydrophilic wood and
hydrophobic thermoplastics. A compatibilizer that can form bridges between wood
and plastics is required to give WPCs desirable...