Open Source software gives users the freedom to copy, modify and redistribute source code without legal entanglements. The evolution of these software communities usually depend a lot on how the participating developers and users interact and co-operate with each other. Over the past few years, open source software have become...
As managers of agricultural and natural resources are confronted with uncertainties in global change impacts, the complexities associated with the interconnected cycling of nitrogen, carbon, and water present daunting management challenges. Existing models provide detailed information on specific sub-systems (e.g., land, air, water, and economics). An increasing awareness of the...
Rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, barley and the other
major crop grasses from the family Poaceae
(Gramineae) are mankind’s most important source
of calories and contribute tens of billions of dollars
annually to the world economy (FAO 1999, http://www.fao.org; USDA 1997, http://www.usda.gov).
Continued improvement of Poaceae crops is necessary
in order...
It is difficult to treat the heartwood of many wood species with liquid preservatives using conventional liquid processes. Supercritical fluids (SCF) used as carriers of preservatives to impregnate refractory wood species may be an attractive alternative to conventional liquid carriers. While SCF impregnation has many potential advantages, some wood species...
Supercritical fluid (SCF) impregnation is a promising preservative treatment method, however, the development of SCF processes has been slowed by a limited understanding of the process. Developing a better understanding of the effects of various process parameters on treatment results would allow for a more rational development of SCF impregnation....
Deep Learning methods have been gaining a lot of significance for various Biomedical applications for diagnosing several types of diseases. Two applications considered here are: 1) Diabetic Retinopathy Detection and 2) ECG signal Classification (or Arrhythmia Detection). Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a major cause of blindness in Diabetic patients, and...
Increased dependence on fossil fuels and concerns of anthropogenic climate change have led to increased interest in alternative energy sources. Liquid fuels derived from renewable raw materials have gained attention in recent years due to their similarity to petroleum-based fuels. Biofuels derived through hydrodeoxygenation have been found to be one...
As mass-timber building construction rises around the globe, there exists the need to verify the long-term, in-situ behavior and performance of these structural systems. Structural health monitoring (SHM), generally defined as a damage detection strategy consisting of a network of sensors, a data acquisition system, and algorithms for data analysis,...
The effect of supercritical fluid treatment on superficial gas permeability of Douglas-fir was investigated by using carbon dioxide either alone or amended with methanol. Permeability increased in a majority of samples, although nearly one-third of the specimens declined in permeability. Improvements in permeability appeared to be unrelated to variations in...
This dissertation focuses on personal privacy in human-robot interaction, which we call "privacy-sensitive robotics." Our understanding of "privacy" is very broad, including not just information privacy but also physical, psychological, and social privacy. We begin by surveying the scholarly literature on privacy and talking about why it applies to interactions...