Digital Commons Network^™

Safety Net Benefit Access In The Official And Supplemental Poverty Measures By Race And Gender, Nikhail Sinea Maestas

Master's Theses and Capstones

Historically, minority women have made up a disproportionate percentage of the low-income population who receive safety net benefits. However, there has been no previous research that assesses how alternative poverty measures could impact these isolated groups of women. This study aims to determine which groups of people would receive the largest benefit if state and federal agencies used the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) rather than the official poverty measure (OPM) to determine eligibility for various safety net programs. In addition, this study assesses the intersectional effect of gender and race on poverty using the SPM and the official U.S. poverty …

Relating Shell Morphometrics And Heterozygosity To Byssogenesis, Byssal Thread Attachment Strength And Motility In The Blue Mussel, Ellie Daniels

Master's Theses and Capstones

Heterozygote deficiencies have been noted in both wild and farmed populations of Mytilus edulis Linnaeus 1758, yet the underlying causes for this deficit remain unclear. This is especially surprising considering that advantageous fitness traits (i.e., increased fecundity, reduced basal metabolism, higher growth rate in farmed mussels) as well as decreased mortality under environmental stressors (i.e., air exposure, increased water temperature) are positively correlated with heterozygosity in these mussels. The dislodgement hypothesis states that more heterozygous mussels are migrating to the periphery of a rope culture or mussel bed to gain an energetic advantage where they become more susceptible to drop-off. …

Investigation Of Magnitude And Phase Errors In Waveguide Samples For The Nicolson-Ross-Weir Permittivity Technique, Paul Galvin

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Nicolson-Ross-Weir (NRW) technique is a commonly-used method for measuring the electromagnetic properties of low-loss materials. The technique entails placing the material under test in a waveguide, and then inferring the electromagnetic properties of that material from the reflection and transmission coefficients measured at the ends of the guide.

While NRW technique generally provides reliable and accurate results, there are conditions where errors can arise. Some of the known errors are attributed to sample preparation, although errors have been observed even with perfectly-prepared samples. Those errors generally result in an overestimation of loss and unrealistic values for permeability, and they …

Year-Round Management Of High Tunnel Production Systems: Spinach And Tomato, Connor Eaton

Master's Theses and Capstones

As high tunnel production is relatively new to the Northeast, this research has helped understand knowledge-gaps in common warm and cold-season crop systems in the region. High tunnels increase crop yield and quality and extend the growing season, and are most commonly used for tomato in the warm-season and spinach in the cold-season.

Spinach was grown in unheated high tunnels throughout the cold-season to evaluate the effects of cultivar and planting date on yield and sweetness (Brix° levels). Cultivar and planting date had a significant effect on yield, where earlier planting dates resulted in higher yields. Cultivar had a significant …

Fecal Indicator Bacteria Removal By River Networks, Tao Huang

Master's Theses and Capstones

Fecal bacteria have a significant impact on downstream water quality. Removal of fecal bacteria in river systems potentially attenuates downstream impairments and would represent an important ecosystem service. However, few studies aimed to quantify in-stream removal of fecal bacteria. The goal of this study is to understand the ecosystem service of fecal bacteria removal at the river network scale in both water column and hyporheic zone across hydrologic conditions. I developed a module for routing fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) through river networks in the Framework for Aquatic Modeling of the Earth System (FrAMES) model to understand the fate and transport …

A Biological Based Model Of The Human Visual System Incorporating Lateral Subtractive Inhibition With Non-Uniform Sampling And Multiple Spatial Frequency Filters, Nisreen Hanoon Radhi

Master's Theses and Capstones

The human visual system has been an interesting topic of scientific research for decades. It is known that the cone photo-receptors are arrayed in a non-linear fashion and that a lateral subtractive inhibitory process is occurring in the visual pathway. This thesis outlines for the first time how lateral subtractive inhibition manifests itself in the context of a non-uniform sensor distribution where the distance between cone photo-receptors, and size of the receptors, are varying in a log manner when moving radially away from the foveal area. Range limits on the parameters that control the non-uniform sampling and coupling coefficients are …

The Milites Of Orderic Vitalis And The Problem Of Knights, Keith Kempenich

Master's Theses and Capstones

There has long been a debate among medieval scholars over the precise definition of knighthood and how the Latin term "miles," often translated as “knight,” relates to the knight’s identity in the Middle Ages prior to the reign of King Henry II of England (1154-1189). This project offers a systematic analysis of the term miles in the twelfth-century text, the "Historia Ecclesiastica," by Orderic Vitalis. I examine the ways in which the historian refers to "milites," including their varying socio-economic backgrounds, their involvement in the military households of socially prominent men, and their military equipment, among other issues. This paper …

Corrections Corporation Of America Irresponsibility And Investor Behavior, Britney Anne Majure

Master's Theses and Capstones

Prison reformists, lawmakers, human rights activists, lobbyists, investors, government agencies, and other civil and government actors play a large role in the state of the private prison industry’s rate of growth, especially in the past 15-20 years. A 2001 Bureau of Justice Statistics study concluded that big cost savings promised by the private prison industry in the United States “have not materialized.” Corrections Corporation of America’s stock price took its largest plunge in 2000 and never bounced back to its late 90s high. However, despite successful divestment campaigns and legislation against prison privatization after reports of irresponsibility, CCA stock has …

Bacterial And Phage Interactions Influencing Vibrio Parahaemolyticus Ecology, Ashley L. Marcinkiewicz

Master's Theses and Capstones

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a human pathogenic bacterium, is a naturally occurring member of the microbiome of the Eastern oyster. As the nature of this symbiosis in unknown, the oyster presents the opportunity to investigate how microbial communities interact with a host as part of the ecology of an emergent pathogen of importance. To define how members of the oyster bacterial microbiome correlate with V. parahaemolyticus, I performed marker-based metagenetic sequencing analyses to identify and quantify the bacterial community in individual oysters after culturally-quantifying V. parahaemolyticus abundance. I concluded that despite shared environmental exposures, individual oysters from the same collection site varied …

Evaluating Melt Onset Date In The United States Using Remotely Sensed Passive Microwave Derived Brightness Temperature, Douglas Osborne

Master's Theses and Capstones

The timing and magnitude of spring snowmelt events impact riverine flooding and inform reservoir operations. This study evaluates the ability of the Diurnal Amplitude Variation (DAV), Frequency Difference (FD) and Polarization Ratio (PR) melt onset detection algorithms to determine melt onset dates (MOD) in the mid-latitudes of the United States. The methods are evaluated using satellite remotely sensed passive microwave observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – EOS (AMSR-E) sensor and compare against in situ snow measurements from 763 Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) and Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) stations. The DAV method performs best in Alaska, predicting the MOD …

Evaluating The Usage Of Multi-Frequency Backscatter Data As An Additional Tool For Seafloor Characterization, Anderson Barbosa Da Cruz Pecanha

Master's Theses and Capstones

A reliable understanding of seafloor characteristics can have innumerous application in a variety of fields of knowledge, such as ocean mapping and defense. In the last decades, studies associating backscatter intensity to seafloor characterization has increased based on the principle that different types of seabed may provide, a priori, different reflectivity responses patterns. Those differences in intensity can be used to attempt seafloor classification.

This thesis proposes to evaluate the potential usage of multi-frequency backscatter as an additional tool for seafloor characterization. Modern multibeam systems are able to provide high resolution bathymetry and backscatter data. The echosounder used to collect …

Effects Of Salinity On Juvenile Cyclopterus Lumpus (Lumpfish) And Their Temproal And Spatial Distribution In The Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire, Jenna Leigh Rackovan

Master's Theses and Capstones

Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) is a semi-pelagic species that is broadly distributed in the temperate portions of the North Atlantic. The lumpfish is also a commercially important species in Iceland and the Netherlands, where it is fished for roe that is used for caviar. Moreover, several recent studies have shown that lumpfish juveniles are useful ‘cleaner fish’ in the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry. Despite the importance of the species, little is known about its physiology and ecology. The overall goal of this research was to investigate if, and how, salinity affects the physiology and ecology of juvenile lumpfish.

To determine the …

Marker Assisted Selection Of Sex Determination In Kiwiberry (Actinidia Arguta And Actinidia Kolomikta), Haley Gustafson

Master's Theses and Capstones

The selection of phenotypic traits in plant breeding has recently become augmented by the implementation of molecular markers. Marker-assisted breeding strategies are used to develop new cultivars of many important crop plants but have yet to be assimilated into breeding programs for many minor crops with untapped economic potential. In the following chapters, I discuss methods of marker development in crop plants, sex determination as a trait of economic interest in plant breeding, and the identification of two male-dominant, PCR-based markers in the commercially viable Kiwiberry species Actinidia arguta and A. kolomikta.

Extraterrestrial Resource Prospecting Using Particle Swarm Optimization And Conflict Based Search, Michael Andrew Johnson

Master's Theses and Capstones

Extraterrestrial prospecting missions will be an important first step in preparation of the harvesting and extraction of natural resources in space. Additionally, knowledge from a prospecting mission will allow the subsequent harvesting or mining mission to efficiently extract resources. Due to the risk and cost of manned space-flight, these prospecting missions will be robotic in nature, and will enable investors to weigh risk and return of a harvesting mission.

The research presented here explores a hypothetical automated prospecting mission on the Martian surface using landscapes simulated from the Mars Global Surveyor satellite. In this mission, a swarm of autonomous exploration …

Settlement Predictions Of Highway Embankments On Marine Clay Using In Situ Geotechnical Testing, Adam Coen

Master's Theses and Capstones

In the spring of 2014, the University of New Hampshire was approached by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to provide engineering services for future embankments in Dover, New Hampshire. The proposed embankments will be constructed over a compressible marine deposit that can lead to significant settlement and long-term deformations. For one embankment, prefabricated vertical drains will be installed to direct pore water out of the soil and accelerate the rate of consolidation. Several in situ testing methods were performed to characterize the clay, including: flat plate dilatometer, field vane shear and piezocone. In addition to in situ testing, one-dimensional …

Environmental Variables Associated With Invasive Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula Alnus Mill.) And Indirect Control Strategies For Forest Managers, Joshua Glidden Kozikowski

Master's Theses and Capstones

Glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus Mill.) is one of the most prominent non-native invasive plant species affecting New England forests. It quickly invades a forest and can create a dense understory effectively altering the species composition and dynamics of that forest. To gain a better understanding of the environmental variables associated with glossy buckthorn density we sampled forests across New Hampshire with varying degrees of buckthorn invasion. The effect on tree regeneration was analyzed with measurements of height and abundance of glossy buckthorn and native regeneration. Glossy buckthorn was found to be at its highest densities in disturbed softwood forests that …

Interannual Variability Of Mixed Layer Dynamics In The Ecuadorian Ocean, Maria Jose Marin Jarrin

Master's Theses and Capstones

Long time series spanning up to 22 years of monthly CTD profiles are used to examine upper water column ocean temperature interannual variability near the Ecuador coastline along the equator. The sampling program instituted by Ecuador’s National Institute of Oceanography of the Navy (INOCAR) began in 1992 occupying two stations about 8 nm from the coast, and then expanding to an additional 3 stations in 2004 by Ecuador’s National Fisheries Institute (INP) and National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (INAMHI). The stations are located near 80-81° W and extend from 2° S to 1° N. Climatological (seasonal) signals are removed …

Dominance And Experience: Aggression And The Evolutionary Origins Of Social Behavior, Jacob Withee

Master's Theses and Capstones

Sociality as a life history strategy has many overt benefits, but its origin from solitary living is not fully understood. The cooperation necessary for formation of even basic social groups can present natural selection paradoxes that many models are unable to reconcile. Conversely, aggression is a key component to the formation of dominance hierarchies, a very basic form of social group. These hierarchies can give way to reproductive hierarchies, which are in turn the basis for some of the most complex forms of social organization. The focus of this thesis is to use aggression in an incipiently social bee species …

Iron Uptake In Symbiosis: The Role Of Siderophore In The Association Between Vibrio Fischeri And Euprymna Scolopes, Evan Dasilva

Master's Theses and Capstones

Iron acquisition is well studied in pathogens, and successful virulence is often attributed to iron acquisition by siderophore and heme uptake; however, the role of iron uptake in mutual symbiotic interactions is not as well understood. The mutual symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, is a well-characterized system in which iron uptake has been implicated as a symbiotic factor. Four studies have implicated iron uptake in the symbiosis: 1) A TnLux reporter assay revealed that siderophore is more highly expressed by V. fischeri in the light organs of juvenile squid compared to V. fischeri in …

Synthesis Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Studies Of Aryne Cycloaddition, Acid-Catalyzed Rearrangement, And Coupling Pathways, Caitlin Hoffman

Master's Theses and Capstones

Various synthetic routes towards polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons dibenzo[g,p]chrysene (DBC), chrysene, zethrene, and their derivatives were studied. All of these compounds are not readily available and the literature lacks facile, efficient, and scalable syntheses. Microwave flash pyrolysis (MFP) was used for the synthesis of benzyne and phenanthryne, both of which have the ability to undergo a Diels-Alder reaction at the bay region of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Phthalic anhydride was used as a benzyne precursor and 9,10-dicarboxyphenanthrene anhydride as a phenanthryne precursor. DBC was observed after the MFP of biphenyl and 9,10-dicarboxyphenanthrene anhydride, signifying phenanthryne generation. Fluoride-induced elimination and Grignard pathways were …

Click Here: The Influence Of Candidates’ Websites In The 2016 Presidential Nomination Contest, Samantha L. Friedman

Master's Theses and Capstones

This project seeks to answer the question: How did the websites of Republican presidential candidates change over time in order to frame the overall message a candidate is sending potential voters? Subsequently, what information cues or shortcuts that are described by Popkin in The Reasoning Voter were being utilized to target voters in their decision making process? The hypothesis was that Republican candidate websites that employed competitive messages on hot button issues attracted low information, partisan voters, resulting in more traffic on their websites and higher standings in the polls. The data was compiled through a content analysis of the …

Effects Of Mowing And Soil Disturbance On The No-Till Establishment And Productivity Of A Diverse Forage Crop Cocktail In Hayfields, Myers M. Shaiyen

Master's Theses and Capstones

This project examined approaches to establishing a functionally diverse forage crop “cocktail”, a mixture of 15 annual and perennial forage crop species with contrasting functional traits, within a hayfield for the purpose of increasing hayfield forage plant diversity and productivity. The forage crop cocktail was intended to enhance the diversity of the resident hayfield, as well as contribute to enhancements in overall hayfield productivity via biological interactions among the cocktail and resident hayfield species, rather than through external chemical inputs. We examined several strategies for both managing the resident hayfield plant community prior to sowing the cocktail and the timing …

A Comparison Of Macrofaunal And Algal Communities In Oyster Aquaculture Gear, An Eelgrass Bed, Oyster Reef, And A Mudflat In Great Bay, New Hampshire, Megan Elizabeth Glenn

Master's Theses and Capstones

Oysters (Crassostrea virginica) and eelgrass (Zostera marina) are important ecosystem engineers in Great Bay, NH, however despite restoration efforts they have been in decline. In addition to loss of the resource, this degradation results in loss of associated ecosystem services such as habitat provision. It is possible that the recent increase in oyster farming in Great Bay could help mitigate habitat loss. My research objective was to quantify the biotic communities present in three natural habitats (eelgrass beds, oyster reefs and mudflats) in Great Bay NH and compare those to communities living on the type of gear (“racks and bags”) …

Experimental Apparatus For Continuous-Bending-Under-Tension And Experiments On A6022-T4, Timothy John Roemer

Master's Theses and Capstones

An experimental technique called Continuous-Bending-under-Tension (CBT) can produce elongations over two times that of a standard tensile test by preventing the necking instability from occurring. This is achieved by superposing plastic bending on tension along the gauge length of the material using three rollers. The specimen is kept under tension as the rollers apply three-point bending while cyclically traversing the gauge length. This subjects the specimen to plastic deformation only in the region that is visited by the rollers. Details on the design of various subsystems of this unique CBT machine are presented. The results for a variety of CBT …

Evaluation Of Mercury Standard Stability For Analyzing Human Urine Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry, Shing Lau

Master's Theses and Capstones

Quantitation of total mercury has been of great interest not only in environmental fields, but also in medical research. This is because mercury (Hg) is one of the most toxic elements, and is also a well–known global pollutant. Researchers strive to understand how toxic elements bioaccumulate in both aquatic ecosystems and terrestrial systems, along with these effect on human health. Numerous studies and analytical methods have been published for the assessment of mercury in many different sample matrices. Accurate analysis of these complex matrices is dependent on accurate and reliable analytical standards. However, the standards preparation step is time consuming. …

Strawberry Production In New Hampshire Strawberry Root-Lesion Nematode, Matted-Row Production, And Annual Plasticulture Compared To Matted-Row Production In New Hampshire, Matthew Kochka

Master's Theses and Capstones

The dominant strawberry production system in New Hampshire (NH) is the semi-perennial matted-row system. In this system, dormant crowns are planted in the spring and require a full year of maintenance before the first harvest. While as many two additional years of harvests can be realized in this system, strawberry root rot disease effectively limits the productive longevity of matted-row plantings in the state. Root-lesion nematode (Pratylenchus spp.) damage is often cited as a possible factor in facilitating the infection process of the causative pathogen complex of strawberry root rot; but no systematic survey for the presence of Pratylenchus spp. …

Design And Evaluation Of A Force Platform-Type Instrument To Measure Rate Change In Mass And Centroid Of An Ablating Body, Travis Paul Trottier

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study pertains to the design and evaluation of a force-platform type instrument comprised of three strain gauge load cells, intended to measure the rate of change in mass and centroid position of an object undergoing rapid ablation by heated flow of air. The strain gauges are affixed to a steel frame, oriented in a triangle beneath a 25 X 20 cm rectangular platform, into which is machined a 9 X 9 regular grid for the purpose of static calibration. An algorithm derived from first principles is used to convert the distribution of the applied load among the strain gauges …

Nesting Adaptations And Conservation Of A Threatened Tidal Marsh-Nesting Bird The Saltmarsh Sparrow, Bri Benvenuti

Master's Theses and Capstones

Tidal-marsh birds that nest on the marsh surface are faced with numerous reproductive challenges. Most recently, the impact of rising sea-levels threatens to reduce or eliminate reproduction in tidal-marsh nesting birds. One species most vulnerable to sea-level rise is the saltmarsh sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus), an obligate tidal-marsh breeding bird with reproduction that is strongly linked to the tidal cycle. The saltmarsh sparrow is a species of high conservation priority in the northeast United States (USDI 2008) and is globally vulnerable to extinction within the next 50 years (Bayard and Elphick 2011, Wiest et al. 2016). I combined molecular, behavioral, and …

Stabilization Of Compressor Surge Using Gain-Scheduled Controller, Zaid A. Alsayouri

Master's Theses and Capstones

Gain scheduling is a control method that is used in nonlinear systems to optimize their controlled performance and robustness over a wide range of operating conditions. It is one of the most commonly used controller design approaches for nonlinear systems. In this control technique, the controller consists of a collection of linear controllers, each of which provides satisfactory closed-loop stability and performance for a small operating region, and combined they guarantee the stability of the system along the entire operating range. The operating region of the system is determined by a scheduling signal, also known as the scheduling variable, which …

Creating A Conformance Testing Framework For The Unh Extended Sockets Library And Demonstrating Its Usefulness By Implementing New Sendfile() Extension, Maxwell Christopher Renke

Master's Theses and Capstones

The UNH Extended Sockets Library (UNH EXS) was developed at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory to provide an interface to extend the features of the Extended Sockets API (ES-API) specification published by the Open Group to better utilize the asynchronous I/O and memory registration features of Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and provide the programmer with the option to perform operations synchronously as well as asynchronously.

This thesis is focused on building a rigorous testing framework to verify conformance to the published ES-API standards, existing manual pages, and documented UNH extensions of the Extended Sockets Library, and to …