Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 61 p. : ill. (some col.), col. map. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-30).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of California. Aug. 1925. / Bibliography: vi p.

In this study, over two hundred furniture manufacturers throughout China were surveyed regarding their raw wood material use in 1996 and their estimated use in 1999. Personal interviews were conducted after a mail survey to get interviewees' perceptions of the Chinese furniture market and raw wood material use. Forty-one overall responses were obtained which included 26 from personal interviews. The results from this study indicate general trends in the industry, and provide some important insights into China's furniture industry. In 1996, total wood materials used by responding firms were approximately 140,000 cubic meters. On average, hardwood dimension accounted for 25% of the total volume of the wood materials used by wood furniture makers. This was followed by particleboard (24%), hardwood lumber (22%), and medium density fiberboard (MDF) (17%). Domestic species grown in temperate regions were found to be the dominant types used in all responding firms. Chinese oak, ash, and birch were the major species used in 1996. U. S. red oak was the most popular temperate hardwood species imported. Interviewees reported that they prefer temperate over tropical hardwood species because they are predominantly light color. Sampled furniture manufacturers purchased hardwood lumber/dimension either from domestic sawmills or from wholesalers. On average, imported wood materials accounted for less than 7% of the total by volume. Most companies thought that price and quality of materials were most important factors affecting their importing decision. Delivery terms and species availability were important to a lesser degree. Approximately one-half the responding firms reported that their wood material demand would increase 5 to 10% annually through 1999. The other half estimated that their wood material needs would remain at or near the 1996 level. In the near future, high quality hardwood lumber, dimension, and wood veneer will need to be imported to supply upper-end solid furniture manufacturing. However, panel products, such as MDF and particleboard will retain their dominant positions in furniture making to meet the needs of consumers with low to middle incomes. / Master of Science

Innovation research in the wood products industry has historically focused on factors that the firm can influence or control, as opposed to factors external to the firm. The purpose of this research is to understand how the external factors of the firm (i.e., social, technological, economic, ecological, and political or STEEP factors) impact Schumpeter's five-factors of innovation (i.e., sources of supply, methods of production, markets, products and services, and business models) in decorative hardwood veneer producing firms. Case studies of hardwood veneer firms in Austria and the United States were conducted to understand these impacts from individual firms' perspectives. Innovation strategies of the companies were identified based on their use of innovation resources, leverage of those resources and capabilities to serve customers and markets, and deliberateness or emergence. Interviews of experts in each of the environmental areas from both geographic regions also were conducted to qualify and validate the impacts. An online survey was conducted with hardwood veneer companies in Austria, Germany and the United States to quantify the impacts in these regions, and results were analyzed via cluster analysis to better understand the environmental impacts to innovation and the strategies firms were employing to innovate. The results of the study identified American firms as being most impacted by economic environmental factors and Austrian firms most impacted by social factors. Austrian/German and US firms both made more deliberate than emergent attempts to innovate. US firms most attempted to innovate their business models, while Austrian and German firms most attempted source of supply and product and service innovations. The major implications of this research are the awareness firms in the hardwood veneer industry can gain from understanding the innovation strategies their firms employ, how the environment they function within impacts their innovation, and what they can do about it. By helping this niche industry create sustainable competitive advantages, the industry can overcome the adversities of the mature industry lifecycle phase, including competitive threats from substitute products and increased competition from foreign log buyers, and shift back into a growth phase of the lifecycle. / Ph. D.

A mail survey of wood cabinet, furniture, dimension, and flooring manufacturers was undertaken across the US to assess the market potential for automated lumber grading technology in the secondary wood products industry. Two hundred and nine usable responses were received providing information related to the identification of adopters of scanning technology, the optimum benefit bundle to increase the marketable success of automated lumber grading technology, and the best methods of promotion to this industry. The results indicate that potential adopters of automated lumber grading technology will most likely be larger companies both in terms of annual sales and number of employees. In addition, adopter companies will be more likely to market their products in international markets. Results show that dimension and flooring manufacturers perceive this technology as more beneficial to their industries than cabinet and furniture manufacturers. Analysis showed that significant differences existed between the four industry sectors on various machine attributes. In addition, dimension and flooring manufacturers rated machine attributes higher than cabinet and furniture manufacturers where significant differences were detected. This indicates that dimension and flooring manufacturers place more importance on various machine attributes than cabinet and furniture manufacturers when considering the adoption of automated lumber grading technology. Optimal benefit bundles were characterized for each industry sector. While these benefit bundles differed among sectors, the differences where slight. Machine accuracy, simplicity of operation, technical support, and reduction in labor costs were important attributes to most sectors. The best methods of promotion to the secondary wood products industry included trade shows, peer discussions, and plant visits. In addition, these three methods were most effective in promotion for the individual industry sectors as well. Advertisements, meetings and symposiums, scientific journals, and unsolicited sales literature were not rated as highly effective methods of promotion to the cabinet, furniture, dimension, and flooring industries. / Master of Science

The failure of regeneration of oak (Quercus spp.) and other hardwood species has been noted throughout eastern North America as well as on the eastern Edwards Plateau of central Texas. Previous research has suggested that two factors—prolonged periods of fire suppression and high densities of white-tailed deer—may be particularly influential in preventing seedlings of certain species from reaching the adult size class. It is also possible that these two factors interact, and the success of reintroducing fire to promote hardwood regeneration may depend on local deer density. This study, composed of observational and experimental components, first compared browsing frequency on woody plants in burned and unburned plots at six sites in central Texas. We found that although fire history did not affect browsing frequency, browsing frequency varied significantly among sites (likely due to differences in local deer densities) and among species. In our experimental study, we used cages to protect woody plants from deer herbivory in burned and unburned areas and compared growth after one year to plants of similar size and species that were exposed to herbivory. Plants in burned areas were significantly more likely to increase in height than plants in unburned areas. Similarly, plants protected from herbivory were more likely to increase in height after one year than plants that were browsed. There were no significant differences in the amount of growth woody plants in burned and unburned areas or plants that were caged or uncaged put on during one year. This is likely due to the extreme hot and dry weather that occurred across central Texas during the course of this study. These results support previous research showing that deer are currently limiting hardwood growth of multiple species on the eastern Edwards Plateau. Further, although it appears that fire can be used to stimulate hardwood growth (particularly during a non-drought year) successful hardwood regeneration is unlikely at current deer densities. / text

This thesis describes the design of an image interpretation system for the automatic detection of internal hardwood log defects. The goal of the research is that such a system should not only be able to identify and locate internal defects of hardwood logs using computed tomography (CT) imagery, but also should be able to accommodate more than one type of wood, and should show potential for real-time industrial implementation. This thesis describes a new image classification system that utilizes a feed forward artificial neural network as the image classifier. The classifier was trained with back-propagation, using training samples collected from two different types of hardwood logs, red oak and water oak. Pre-processing and post-processing are performed to increase the system classification performance, and to make the system be able to accommodate more than one wood type. It is shown in this thesis that such a neural-net based approach can yield a high classification accuracy, and it shows a high potential for parallelism. Several possible design alternatives and comparisons are also addressed in the thesis. The final image interpretation system has been successfully tested, exhibiting a classification accuracy of 95% with test images from four hardwood logs. / Master of Science

Bottomland hardwood forests provide forage and other important resources for wintering and breeding waterfowl in the Southeastern United States. My objective was to conduct an initial investigation of possible influences of habitat features, flood events, and human disturbance on relative abundances of wintering ducks in Delta National Forest (DNF), Mississippi. I surveyed 65 wetlands in DNF 17 times from November 2012 to March 2013 and analyzed abundance data from wood ducks (Aix sponsa), mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), gadwalls (Anas strepera), and hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus). Waterfowl abundance varied by species but generally increased during major flood events and on wetlands having an approximately equal interspersion of scrub-shrub and open water consistent with the “hemi-marsh” concept. I recommend partial removal of scrub-shrub from selected wetlands to promote emergent plant communities and increased duck use and experimental evaluation of waterfowl responses to management of wetlands and human activities during winter in DNF.

The objectives of this study were: 1) To evaluate short-term composting of hardwood bark with combinations of poultry litter and ammonium nitrate and 2) To determine the suitability of composted material for ornamental plant media. In a 3-month accelerated composting study, hardwood bark was amended with (20% & 40%) poultry litter, (1% & 2%) ammonium nitrate, or unamended. Composting was run in fifteen 35- gallon containers and samples were collected at day 0, 45, and 90 for pH, moisture content, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, compost maturity, toxicity, and green house evaluations. The amendment containing 40% poultry litter showed significantly higher weight reduction than others at days 45 and 90. Also, this treatment showed significantly higher mass weight in transplanted zinnia and gardenia than other treatments and was comparable to commercial media. Overall, results indicated that the amendment of hardwood bark with poultry litter could produce comparable product to currently used commercial container media.

The objective of this study was to examine some mechanisms of bottomland hardwood afforestation and their impacts on above- and belowground carbon sequestration. Six combinations of bottomland hardwood species and two levels each of fertilizer and herbicide were applied in a completely randomized design on two sites in the LMAV. Survival, ground line diameter and total height were monitored for two growing seasons. Soil carbon and nitrogen to a depth of one meter, herbaceous biomass, and tree biomass were sampled in the first and second years of establishment. Species mixes, fertilizer, and herbicide application significantly affected survival, growth, above- and belowground tree biomass carbon after two years of establishment. Survival was generally average, while growth for most species mixes was below expectation. Species mixes E (green ash/oak mix) and F (NRCS species mix) had the highest tree vegetation carbon both above- and belowground. Soil carbon and nitrogen were not significantly affected by any treatments.