Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Stz Induced Hyperglycemia And Hyperlipemia On Ppargamma And Abca1 In A Hamster Model Of Atherogenesis, Craig Lamarca

Master's Theses and Capstones

Diabetes mellitus accelerates atherogenesis, but the exact mechanisms involved are unknown. This study examined the effects of hyperglycemia on the inflammatory transcription factor peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), known to be involved in atherogenesis, and the ATP binding cassette A1 (ABCA1) protein that is a downstream product of PPARgamma. ABCA1 is a membrane bound transporter that is involved in reverse cholesterol transport via high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Hamsters were divided into two groups; hyperlipemic animals fed a high fat/high cholesterol control diet (C) and hyperlipemic/hyperglycemic animals that received the high fat diet and were administered streptozotocin. Half of …

Conformance Testing Of Epon Devices, Eric Lynskey

Master's Theses and Capstones

In June of 2004, the IEEE Standards Association approved IEEE 802.3ah-2004, which defined Ethernet for subscriber access networks, or Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM). Part of this standard contained a new type of Ethernet technology, that of Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON). EPON devices have introduced new and challenging requirements for both conformance and interoperability testing. This thesis lays the foundation, to be used by the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), for comprehensive conformance testing of EPON devices. A series of recommendations are put forth that allow for the creation and implementation of EPON test suites and …

Augmented Reality Device For First Response Scenarios, Robert Andrzej Bogucki

Master's Theses and Capstones

A prototype of a wearable computer system is proposed and implemented using commercial off-shelf components. The system is designed to allow the user to access location-specific information about an environment, and to provide capability for user tracking. Areas of applicability include primarily first response scenarios, with possible applications in maintenance or construction of buildings and other structures. Necessary preparation of the target environment prior to system's deployment is limited to noninvasive labeling using optical fiducial markers. The system relies on computational vision methods for registration of labels and user position. With the system the user has access to on-demand information …

Talking About Abortion: A Qualitative Examination Of Women's Abortion Experiences, Diana L. Dumais

Master's Theses and Capstones

The sociological literature on women's responses to the experience of abortion is remarkably sparse. This thesis seeks to contribute to redressing that research gap. I use semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twenty women from relatively diverse social backgrounds who have had abortions to explore the range of factors that they saw as being influential in their abortion decision and experience. Although the ages and the family circumstances of the women interviewed varied, and although some had more than one abortion, nevertheless, common themes emerged in their accounts of their abortion experiences. Among the most salient influences on my interviewees' experiences was …

Power And Punishment In Nietzsche, Jacob Skinner

Master's Theses and Capstones

Nietzsche appears to hold contradictory views about punishment. Uncompromising in his commitment to noble ideals, Nietzsche often decries punishment as small-minded resentfulness and implores readers to look away. Though at times he describes it as an exalted flexing of the will, making the case that punishment plays a necessary role in social life. This paper argues that Nietzsche's views are not incompatible and that he holds a coherent theory of punishment which permits these clashing positions.

I argue that Nietzsche's theory of punishment is predicated as follows. Power is the objective measure of value. The single justification for punishing is …

Effects Of Essential Oil Supplementation Of A Corn Silage Based Diet Fed To Lactating Holstein Dairy Cows, Carly Ann Crawford

Master's Theses and Capstones

Thirty multiparous early lactation Holstein cows were used in a randomized complete block design to determine whether the addition of VERTAN (a specific blend of essential oils, major components: thymol, eugenol, vanillin and limonene) to corn silage based diet would increase alter protein metabolism in the rumen and increase milk yield and alter milk composition. Dietary treatments were 0 (control) and 0.08% VERTAN in diet DM. The pretreatment diet (fed 0 to 20 DIM) contained (DM basis) 32.1% corn silage, 14% grass silage, 7.7% alfalfa hay, 0.53% grass hay, 19.4% finely-ground corn, 1.8% beet pulp, 1.8% citrus pulp, 3.6% soybean …

Group 12 And Group 13 Metal Complexes Of Cross-Bridged Tetraamine Macrocycles, Wei-Chih Lee

Master's Theses and Capstones

The use of radiometal-based radiopharmaceuticals for the therapy and diagnostic imaging of various diseases is rapidly increasing. Metal complex stability in vivo is an important factor to keep the metal chelate intact under physiological conditions for the radiopharmaceutical application. A novel class of cross-bridged tetraazamacrocycles with nonadjacent nitrogens bridged by an ethylene unit was developed to make metal complexes with good thermodynamic stability and higher kinetic inertness towards dissociation. Complexes of Ga(III) and In(III) radionuclides are widely used in diagnostic imaging and their respective half-lives are convenient for specific diseases. The new complexes [In-CB-DO2A]+ and [In-CB-TE2A]+ have been prepared by …

Understanding Changes In Aboveground Biomass And Height With Elevation At Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Mariya Schilz

Master's Theses and Capstones

A better understanding of carbon stocks and fluxes is a priority of many national and international agencies, including NASA, NACP, IPCC, and IGBP. (Asrar et al. 2001, IGBP Annual Report, 2003, IPCC Third Assessment Report: Climate Change 2001). Patterns of carbon stocks and fluxes on the land surface are important for studies of the carbon cycle, climate change, and terrestrial ecology. One source of heterogeneity is associated with elevation. In systems around the world, patterns in carbon stocks, fluxes, and the factors that underlie them have well documented relationships with elevation (Korner 1999, Schwarz et al. 2003, Waide et al. …

Swing Voters? Roman Catholics From 1992 To 2004, Lori Gula Wright

Master's Theses and Capstones

This thesis evaluates whether Catholics are swing voters, how their voting behavior has changed from 1992 to 2004, and what issues are influencing their voting behavior. National Election Survey datasets from 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 are used. Two models are evaluated, the ethnoreligious model and the culture wars thesis. In addition, this thesis looks at whether Catholics tend to be single-issue voters.

The research and analysis of this thesis support the conclusion that Catholics are not swing voters and that their voting patterns are more similar to the general electorate than ever before. Although religious, class and cultural issues …

The Power Of Film: A Model For The Use Of Group Cinematherapy In The Therapeutic Treatment Of Clinically Depressed Adolescents, Erin E Farrell Bowen

Master's Theses and Capstones

The following thesis proposes a model for the use of cinematherapy as part of treatment for clinically depressed adolescents. The thesis outlines the rationale for such a model, including the relative convenience and potential benefits of using movies as a therapeutic technique. This thesis also examines the professional literature regarding the topics of cinematherapy, bibliotherapy, group therapy, therapeutic metaphor, metaphoric techniques in therapy, and adolescent depression. A model is proposed to offer a specific framework in which cinematherapy may be used in the group treatment of adolescent depression, as well as tools that may assist clinicians in monitoring treatment outcomes. …

Transesterification Of Triolein By Solid Catalysts, Robert Coggon

Master's Theses and Capstones

In this thesis, biodiesel was produced by the transesterification of triolein. Initially a method utilizing gas chromatography was developed to monitor the Novozym 435 catalyzed transesterification. After the procedure was established, experiments were conducted to determine the effect and existence of interactions between reaction parameters including catalyst mass, agitation speed, methanol to triolein ratio, and temperature on yield. A split plot design showed that all single parameters were significant except methanol to triolein ratio. Several two way interactions were found including temperature over ratio, temperature over catalyst mass, and extent of agitation over catalyst mass. The extent of agitation over …

Investigation Of A Submerged Four-Bay Mooring System For Aquaculture, Glen Rice

Master's Theses and Capstones

The August 2003 deployment of a second generation mooring system for fish cages at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) open ocean aquaculture site, south of the Isles of Shoals, NH, is described and evaluated. The new system, a submerged four bay grid similar to those used in inshore aquaculture, uses submerged flotation to maintain its depth and tension. The system's depth and line tensions are sensitive to the deployed anchor locations. Anchors that are not positioned correctly can have reduced holding power or result in problem snap loads.

The mooring system deployment process and its resulting geometry was examined …

Effects Of Forest Clear Cutting On Spotted Salamander ( Ambystoma Maculatum) Migration, Jessica Susannah Veysey

Master's Theses and Capstones

Upland buffer zones are a proposed management tool for vernal-pool-breeding amphibians. Substantial validation of buffers, via experimental upland habitat disturbance, is lacking. Specifically, no studies have examined immediate effects of clear cutting on spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum ) migration. I used clear cutting to experimentally manipulate upland buffer widths at 11 vernal pools. I then radiotracked 40 adult spotted salamanders at these pools, and modeled their migration with mixed-effects regression. Mean maximum distance from the pool was 106.0 +/- 15.4 m (range = 1.6 to 427.6 m). At clear cut-treatment pools, mean percent of time in the cut was 27.2 …

Elite Perceptions And The Adoption Of An Extremist Policy Of Genocide: A Comparative Case Study Of Armenia And Rwanda, Nicole Powell

Master's Theses and Capstones

The events leading up to the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 are similar to the events that led to the genocide that occurred in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Economic and political crises plagued both states, international pressures to democratize weighed on both states, and both states were subject to ethnic polarization. This project examines those common factors preceding the Rwandan and Armenian genocides; and looks at elite's perception of a threat to their power because of the existence of those factors. Furthermore, the paper examines the relationship between the perception of a threat to elite power and …

Native Gastropods And Introduced Crabs: Shell Morphology And Resistance To Predation In The New England Rocky Intertidal Zone, Sarah Joanne Teck

Master's Theses and Capstones

The impact of non-native species is one of the most critical issues facing management and conservation today. When these invaders are generalist predators, their impacts on native communities can be a major restructuring force for ecosystems. A new voracious predator the Asian crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus , joins another non-native established species, Carcinus maenas, along the majority of the New England coastline. What remains poorly understood is how the two introduced predators may modify local communities, especially considering their impact on native prey, such as the rough periwinkle snail, Littorina saxatilis. The goal of this research is to investigate the vulnerability …

Evaluation Of Characterization Techniques For Beneficial Use Of Underutilized Slag Materials, Thomas Sandy Weymouth

Master's Theses and Capstones

Wisely using byproduct materials in beneficial use applications such as highway construction is becoming more important in the United States as virgin materials are depleted and landfill capacity declines. Slags are byproducts of the steel and iron industries found in the Midwestern United States. Historically, many of these materials have historically been used in construction applications, but methods for characterizing their environmental risk are limited. This research considers a series of steps used to identify whether a particular slag poses an environmental or human health risk. The first step involves identifying the appropriate use of the material. The second step …

Comparing The Xam Api With File System Programming, Stephen J. Todd

Master's Theses and Capstones

XAM is an application programming interface (API) currently being standardized by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). XAM stands for "eXtensible Access Method". The XAM API will allow application developers to store content on a new class of storage systems known as "fixed-content" storage systems. This new class of storage system is optimized for the storage and retrieval of unstructured data that changes infrequently.

While it is anticipated that SNIA will eventually ratify a XAM application programmer's interface (API), it is important that the new API presents an interface that is useful yet offers the richness of the XAM protocol …

Television Exposure, Feelings Of Fear And Confidence In The United States Government: Is The Government Using Media To Create A Culture Of Fear?, Janine Marie Soule

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study examines the relation between television media and fear as it pertains to the trust or confidence in the United States government. Using the fundamental hypothesis of cultivation theory (i.e., heavy viewers of television are more likely to believe that the world is a "mean and scary" place), the relation between the amount of television one watches, one's corresponding level of fear, and one's level of confidence in each branch of the United States federal government is examined. It is hypothesized that fear will have a mediating effect on the relation between heavy television consumption and respondents' confidence in …

How Kant Would Choose To Die: A Kantian Defense Of Euthanasia, Jennifer A. Bulcock

Master's Theses and Capstones

Legalizing euthanasia could have a serious impact on society and therefore requires careful attention be paid to the ethical issues involved. The two arguments advanced in this essay are: (1) that a consensus needs to be reached as to how to define the concept of autonomy in the euthanasia debate and (2) the application of Kantian autonomy to the euthanasia debate is only appropriate in making an argument that advanced directives, made by a present rational self for a future arational self, can legitimately specify conditions under which euthanasia should occur. To effectively make these arguments, an examination of Immanuel …

Can Less Mean More In International Aid: Public Opinion Of International Assistance In Ghana, Michael Bena

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study examines public opinion of international aid in Ghana with a focus on a multivariate ordinary least squares regression model. It first examines the country of Ghana and the events that led to involvement with the International Monetary Fund under the Economic Recovery Program. After analyzing existing literature on satisfaction with government and economic programs, the study goes on to suggest what might drive citizen satisfaction with these programs. Using information from the Afrobarometer survey, this thesis proposes that public opinion of international aid programs is related to the tangible benefits they provide and the publics' perceptions of inequality …

An Evaluation Of The Effect Of Terrain Normalization On Classification Accuracy Of Landsat Etm+ Imagery, Jesse B. Bishop

Master's Theses and Capstones

More than 60% of land in New Zealand has been converted from native forests to residential areas, agriculture, or forest plantations. Settlers brought many species of plants and animals to New Zealand. Many native species were unable to protect themselves from these new predators, causing numerous extinctions. In light of this rapid decline in biodiversity, the New Zealand government has attempted to mitigate the destruction of endemic flora and fauna through both new environmental policies and intensive land management. Land management techniques include the restoration of developed land and the protection of remaining areas of native forest. Monitoring of restoration …

Current Intrapartum Care Practices In India, Rizwana Rizwana

Master's Theses and Capstones

According to the annual report of the Government of India, 100,000 women annually continue to die because of childbirth related complications (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of India), 2000-2001). In India, over 90% of women become mothers and a majority of them deliver without skilled assistance during delivery. This translates to approximately 30 million women in India experiencing pregnancy every year, and 27 million having live births (Bakshi, 2006). Of these, 136,000 maternal deaths occur every year due to childbirth complications, most of which can be prevented. Literature reveals that lack of appropriate care during pregnancy and childbirth, …

Development And Characterization Of A Side Scan Sonar Towfish Stabilization Device, Rebecca Ann Conrad

Master's Theses and Capstones

The attitude of a side scan sonar towfish may introduce artifacts into the imagery when the towfish attitude exhibits a significant mean offset from horizontal and/or exhibits significant variations over time. The Smart Tail was designed by Boeing Australia for stabilizing the attitude of a Klein System 5000 towfish. This report describes the development and testing of a closed-loop controller for towfish attitude based on the Smart Tail's movable elevators. Transient and steady state response of the towfish pitch and roll motion were evaluated in a tow tank at speeds up to 6 knots. Mathematical modeling and simulation were used …

Environmental Effects On Early Life Stages Of American Shad (Alosa Sapidissima) And Rainbow Smelt (Osmerus Mordax ), Kristen Fuda

Master's Theses and Capstones

Recruitment of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) and rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) has steadily declined over the last few decades, possibly due to the construction of physical impediments to migration and increases in anthropogenic pollution. In order to elucidate environmental parameters influencing early life stages of anadromous fish, both laboratory and field studies were conducted. The effects of abiotic factors, including dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, salinity, nitrate, and phosphate, on hatch and survival of larval and juvenile American shad and rainbow smelt were examined in laboratory studies. Field studies on shad emigration were conducted in the Exeter River, and studies on …

Properties Of Asphalt Mixtures Containing Rap, Aaron Marc Lachance

Master's Theses and Capstones

As the space available in landfills and the amount of high quality virgin aggregate has declined, the use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) in new asphaltic concrete mixtures has become common. This research examines how RAP affects virgin mixtures. A Superpave 19 mm mixture containing 0% RAP is used as the control for evaluating properties of mixes containing 15%, 25%, and 40% RAP. Volumetric analyses identified increases in both voids in the mineral aggregate (VMA) and voids filled with asphalt (VFA) at the 25% and 40% RAP levels, and that the amount of pre-heating of RAP prior to mixing influenced …

Synthetic Approaches To Cis,Cis-1,3,5-Triaminocyclohexane (Tach) And Tach-Based Ligands, Allison Lisa Lindell

Master's Theses and Capstones

Cis, cis-1,3,5-triaminocyclohexane (tach) has been synthesized according to various routes, and the methods were evaluated on the basis of product yield, number of steps, and expense of reagents. The conversion of cis, cis-1,3,5-cyclohexanetricarboxylic acid to the desired product by the Curtius rearrangement, as previously described in the literature, was found to be the most suitable procedure based on yield and number of steps. From the standpoint of cost, the reagents of the Curtius rearrangement were derived from inexpensive, commercially available starting materials. The yields of the synthesis are variable, and preliminary studies of yield optimization are described.

Three ligands based …

Performance Assessment Of Porous Asphalt For Stormwater Treatment, Joshua F. Briggs

Master's Theses and Capstones

The objective of this study is to assess the stormwater management capability of porous asphalt (PA) as a parking lot in Durham, New Hampshire. The site was constructed in 2004 and consists of a 4-inch PA pavement course overlying a porous media reservoir, including a fine-grained filter course. Cost per PA parking space ($2,200) was comparable to that for dense mix asphalt ($2,000). Pavement durability has been adequate. The lot retained or infiltrated 25% of precipitation (18 months) and 0.03 lb/sf of chloride (1 year). There was high initial surface infiltration capacity (IC) at two locations (1,000--1,300 in/hr), and moderate …