Agave salmiana is a native plant species harvested for the commercial production of mezcal (Agave spirits) in the highlands of central Mexico. The objective of this study was to identify vegetation changes in natural communities where A. salmiana has been differentially harvested for commercial purposes. Three plant community categories were...
Forest vegetation management (FVM) is an important component of reforestation in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of vegetation management on planted conifer growth and survival. However, few reports have been published on the long-term effects of FVM treatments on total ecosystem biomass accumulation and aboveground...
In light of water scarcity and the impacts of climate change, there is an increased need to understand the interaction between land use characteristics and ecohydrologic processes in semiarid regions. Additionally, many semiarid and arid regions face various land management challenges, including woody plant encroachment, decreased snowpack, and increased stream...
Software systems are becoming an essential part of the lives of both individuals and organizations, and as a consequence, these systems are getting bigger and more complex. Because of this, the tasks of maintaining the quality in these complex software systems are becoming increasingly difficult. Furthermore, these systems are subject...
This thesis presents the results from Monte Carlo calculations on classical vector spins in
face-centered-cubic (FCC) lattices. The goal of the study was to understand the effect of
interlayer coupling, dilution of magnetic atoms in the lattice, and symmetry-changing
strain.
Experimental work by T. M. Giebultowicz et al. and J....
The dehumanization of Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and marginalized communities does not end once an individual is released from an institution. The dehumanization process is kept alive with ineffective community supervision and the stigma associated with an individual’s incarnation history. Evidence of this continual dehumanization process is reflected...
The Peruvian cocoa sector has been growing quickly since the beginning of this century due to international demand for this commodity together with concentrated international cooperation, including NGOs and governmental agencies. Similarly, certification among cocoa producers has been growing quickly. Little is known regarding how certification impacts environmental and socioeconomic...
Random fields are frequently used in computational simulations of real-life processes. In particular, in this work they are used in modeling of flow and transport in porous media. Porous media as they arise in geological formations are intrinsically deterministic but there is significant uncertainty involved in determination of their properties...
Professional software engineers have an arsenal of techniques such as unit testing and assertions to check their specifications, but these techniques require tools, motivation, experience and training that programmers without professional software engineering training may not have. As a result, professionals in other fields, such as scientific modelers, face greater...
Covering half of South America, Brazil is one of the largest agricultural and commercial forest producers globally, with a correspondingly complex road network necessary to support the production and marketing processes of such goods. Contrary to global statistics, almost 90% of the country’s road network is classified as unsealed or...