Digital Commons Network^™

2026 Favorite Foods Festival Participation Packet For Rockingham And Strafford Counties, Caitlin Wollack

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

New Unh Certificate Prepares Social Workers To Support Student Mental Health, Aaron Sanborn

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Covering The Care: Utilization Rate Trends Among Adults Ages 19-64, Erica-Lyn Plante, Bethany Swanson

All Materials

This data brief presents a retrospective analysis of available medical claims data from NH Medicaid, NH Medicare and commercial insurance plans focusing on the trends of utilization rates for chosen medical interactions over a six-year period (2018-2023) among adults ages 19 to 64. This brief is the first of a three-part series of Covering the Care analytic reports exploring healthcare utilization trends in New Hampshire.

Response: Foreign Affairs Prosecutions And Cybercrime, Mailyn Fidler

Law Faculty Scholarship

A response to Professor Steven Koh's new article on how the U.S. makes global criminal justice policy. Prof. Fidler examines what a decade of cybercrime indictments reveals about America's approach to prosecuting foreign hackers. Three things stand out: * Beyond Attribution - These indictments aren't just about naming and shaming, or about the typical dimensions of criminal alw. They're sophisticated foreign policy tools that coordinate and moderate international sanctions and global norms. * Intertwined with Cooperation - The indictments alternately create space for and slow the tempo of international cooperation on this issue, according to U.S. interests. * Power Projection …

Covering The Care: Impacts Of Labor And Delivery Unit Closures On Maternal Health Outcomes, Bridget Green, Deborah Fournier, Susy Hawes

All Materials

In 2022, more than half of rural hospitals and one-third of urban hospitals in the United States lacked obstetric services, reflecting an escalating trend of hospital labor and delivery (L&D) unit closures across the US. Despite some large-scale studies reporting negligible impacts of L&D closures on maternal health, an analysis of the literature presents a clear net negative impact for vulnerable women, including those who identify as members of a racial or ethnic minority, those who have low-income, and those who are Medicaid members. For many families, the disappearance of local obstetric care is not merely an inconvenience but instead …

Covering The Care: Utilization Rate Trends Among Children Ages 0-18, Erica Plante, Deborah Fournier

All Materials

This data brief provides a retrospective analysis of medical claims from NH Medicaid and commercial insurers, examining trends in utilization rates for selected medical services among children ages 0–18 over a six-year period (2018–2023).1 It is the second of a three-part series of Covering the Care analytic reports exploring healthcare utilization trends in New Hampshire.

Efficient Algorithms For Mitigating Uncertainty And Risk In Reinforcement Learning, Xihong Su

Doctoral Dissertations

Reinforcement learning~(RL) studies the methodologies of improving the performance of sequential decision-making for autonomous agents and has achieved remarkable success in domains such as games, robotics, autonomous systems, finance, and healthcare. The Markov Decision Process~(MDP) is a mathematical framework for modeling agent-environment interactions in sequential decision-making problems. There are two primary sources of uncertainty in RL: epistemic uncertainty and aleatoric uncertainty. In RL, risk refers to the potential for an agent's policy to lead to undesirable outcomes, especially when the environment is uncertain. In many domains, researchers seek policies that maximize the objectives while mitigating the uncertainty and risk in …

Evaluating The Role Of Seaweeds In Dairy Production: Impacts On In Vitro Ruminal Fermentation, And In Vivo Mineral Utilization And Metabolic Status, William Mitchell Sims

Doctoral Dissertations

Dietary inclusion of seaweed in ruminant diets has been studied for more than 5 decades. Early research in seaweed focused primarily on potential health benefits, but recent interest has shifted the paradigm for its use as a nutritional tool to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. As new seaweeds are identified for their ability to reduce gas emissions, the pendulum will swing once more to understand the impact seaweeds have on ruminant health and production. The overall objective of this dissertation is to investigate digestibility and fermentation, as well as alterations in metabolic and mineral status in ruminants fed various seaweed species. …

Focal Engine: Filling A Gap Between Game Engines And Big-Data Scientific Visualization Packages, Kindrat Beregovyi

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents Focal Engine, a novel 3D visualization engine designed to bridge the gap between game engines and scientific visualization tools. Game engines offer accessible interfaces and high-performance rendering but struggle with large-scale scientific datasets, while tools like ParaView and VTK handle complex data structures effectively but lack intuitive editing capabilities and modern rendering features. Focal Engine combines the accessibility and rendering performance of game engines with the data handling capabilities and analytical tools of scientific visualization platforms. The engine's capabilities are validated through multiple applications and projects, for example: HabiCAT 3D performs 3D complexity measurements on ocean floor …

Development And Characterization Of Bulk Dsdna-Based Materials Using Biologically Derived Plasmid Dna, Wynter Amythyst Paiva

Doctoral Dissertations

Double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) exhibits many unique sequence-independent properties that remain underutilized in materials science. The exceptional length, solubility, biocompatibility, imageability, molecular recognition capabilities, and topological control of DNA makes it an ideal candidate for the creation of bespoke biomaterials and investigation of fundamental relationships in polymer physics. Unfortunately, translation of DNA-based materials from the microscale to macroscale has been hindered by source constraints and limitations in chemical modification of biologically derived DNA. This work seeks to expand the utility of dsDNA from the benchtop to real world applications. Establishing dsDNA as a commodity polymer will aid in the development of …

Regional Analysis Changes In The Salt Marsh: How The Past Is Influencing The Present, Elizabeth May Gorrill

Master's Theses and Capstones

Salt marshes are critical coastal wetlands that provide valuable ecosystem services including coastal erosion control, carbon sequestration, water quality improvement, fisheries habitats, and recreational and economic opportunities for coastal communities. To better understand salt marshes and the changes occurring within the systems due to environmental and human factors, monitoring of established sites is conducted to look at variables such as vegetation cover, elevation, fauna, and vertical accretion. Methodological differences amongst monitoring efforts can result in data that has differing implications when analyzed and interpreted, so documentation of protocols (and any deviance from them) is imperative when bringing together datasets. The …

Rapid Incorporation But Contrasting Stability Of Fertilizer Versus Litter Nitrogen In Mineral-Associated Organic Matter, Emma Bergh

Master's Theses and Capstones

Nitrogen (N) is abundant in agricultural soils during early spring due to both decomposing plant residues and initial fertilizer applications before peak crop uptake. This N is vulnerable to loss through leaching and denitrification, but a portion of this N can become stabilized in mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM). However, the short-term incorporation and long-term stability of different N sources within MAOM remain poorly understood. This study examined how fertilizer and litter derived N are incorporated and stabilized in MAOM using a three-week incubation experiment with 15N labeled fertilizer, rye root, and rye shoot additions to paired cropland and grassland soils. …

Potential Predictors Of Nonconductive Wood Column Volumes In Five Maple Species, Tanner Ryan Frost

Master's Theses and Capstones

Maple tapping guidelines rely on the understanding of nonconductive wood column (NWC) formation, but this process has only been studied in sugar maple and may be ineffective at advising producers in their tapping activities due to the variation in wounding between sites and the lack of research into alternative species more recently being brought to market. The goal of this study was to investigate sap sugar concentrations and sap yields as predictors of nonconductive wood column (NWC) volumes in five Acer species: sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (Acer rubrum), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), Norway maple (Acer platanoides), and boxelder …

Quantifying Contributions Of Sonar Systems On Marine Soundscapes: A Statistical And Machine Learning Analysis, Reilly Jacob Lessard

Master's Theses and Capstones

A variety of elements are used to characterize marine soundscapes, including natural and anthropogenic sound. One anthropogenic activity that potentially contributes to marine soundscapes, but is not sufficiently understood, is the use of different types of ocean-mapping sonar systems. Sonar systems are used abundantly in marine environments for purposes such as ocean floor mapping and military security purposes [Ryu et al., 2023] [Marszal and Salamon, 2013]. The systems used to conduct this research are the Kongsberg TOPAS PS40 sub-bottom profiler and the RESON SeaBat T51-R multibeam echosounder, along with SoundTrap recorders, which were deployed in the Gulf of Maine. Periods …

The Effects Of Graded Amounts Of Nicotinic Acid On Cow Health, Colostrum Yield And Quality Of Prepartum Multiparous Jersey Cows And Growth In Their Subsequent Calves, Lydia Joy Valentine

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study evaluated the impact of graded amounts of nicotinic acid (NA) with a negative DCAD diet on cow health, colostrum composition and calf growth performance of Jersey cattle. We hypothesized that NA supplementation would increase IgG concentration of colostrum, increase calf intestinal absorption and growth and improve cow metabolic health. Thirty multiparous Jersey cows were blocked by calving date and assigned to either 0, 8 or 16 g/d of NA supplementation on top of the -40 mEq/kg DCAD dry cow diet. Blood samples were collected weekly for ketone analysis. Urine was collected three times weekly for pH, creatinine and …

Characterizing Sei Whale (Balaenoptera Borealis) Movement Patterns In The Gulf Of Maine, Emma Vergow

Master's Theses and Capstones

Sei whales are difficult to visually monitor due to their cryptic presence and lack of breaching. Passive acoustic monitoring has the potential to expand knowledge of sei whale movement ecology. The present study characterizes sei whale movement patterns related to migration dynamics in the Gulf of Maine. Five bottom-mounted Acoustic Long-Term Observatory landers, each equipped with a tetrahedral array of omni-directional hydrophones, were deployed throughout the Gulf of Maine as part of the Acoustic and Environmental Observation Network (AEON) in the Northwest Atlantic project. A combination of manual and automated detections was used to assess sei whale daily and seasonal …

How Human Personality Will Change With The Use Of Artificial Intelligence, John Mayer

UNH Personality Lab

INTRODUCTION: Human personality changes in response to new habits, situations, and maturation, among other causes. As people interact with artificial intelligence (AI), their personalities are likely to change, from their emotional responses to their self-concept.

METHODOLOGY: This theoretical account draws together empirical studies of how personality changed in response to past technological innovations, changes in personal interactions observed in people’s AI usage, changes that arise from the use and disuse of cognitive skills, and works on the self-concept. Research reports in the review were selected according to their relevance and quality.

THEORETICAL STATEMENT: While AI becomes increasingly human-like, humans increasingly …

Rhode Island Democratic Gubernatorial Primary Muddied By High Number Of Undecided Likely Voters 11/24/2025, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

The 2026 Democratic primary for governor of Rhode Island remains unclear, as a plurality of likely voters are undecided on their choice of candidate. Helena Foulkes currently holds a slight lead over prospective candidate and Speaker of the RI House Joe Shekarchi and incumbent Governor Dan McKee. McKee is very unpopular among likely Democratic primary voters and suffers from low job approval among Rhode Islanders overall. Rhode Islanders would like state officials to intervene to keep Our Lady of Fatima and Roger Williams Medical Center open, with many state residents reporting they or their family used one or both hospitals. …

Karla Armenti Honored For Advancing Workplace Health And Inclusion, Romy Eberle

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

A New Model For Care: Iod Program Grad Takes Innovative Approach To Disability And Health, Romy Eberle

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Nh 4-H Shooting Sports Record Book, Extension

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

User Interface And Watchstation Improvements Required For Multi-Vehicle Usv Operations, Val Schmidt, Joshua Bergeron

Faculty Publications

In October 2024, the University of New Hampshire and NOAA’s Uncrewed Systems Office embarked on a mapping mission in the Gulf of Maine, simultaneously operating two DriX Un-crewed Surface Vehicles. Goals of the project were focused on testing hypotheses related to concepts of operation, including the safety of operations, cognitive loading of operators, management of vehicle endurance, vehicle logistics, maintenance and field support, refueling and a host of others.

Vermonters Wary Of Artificial Intelligence, Expect Detrimental Effect On Jobs, Relationships, And Elections 11/10/2025, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Nearly two-thirds of Vermont residents expect artificial intelligence to have a negative impact on the country over the next decade, particularly on personal relationships, elections, and the news. Despite this, two-thirds of Vermonters say that they use AI in their personal lives at least occasionally, most often for answering questions, web searches, and to help with creativity. Young people report using AI more frequently than others but also are less satisfied with their experiences with it and are more pessimistic about its effects on the country. A majority of workers in Vermont believe AI will make little or no difference …

Granite Staters Happy With Their Artificial Intelligence Experiences But Gloomy On Wider Effects Of Ai 11/10/2025, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

New Hampshire residents largely predict that artificial intelligence will have a negative effect on the United States over the next ten years, particularly regarding elections, personal relationships, and the news. Young people are particularly pessimistic about the effects of AI while older people are most optimistic. Nevertheless, a majority of Granite Staters report currently using AI at least sometimes in their personal lives, and most are generally happy with the experience. State residents most often report using AI to answer questions, as part of a web search, and to assist with writing. Nearly half of working Granite Staters say they …

Only One In Six Mainers Expect Positive Impact From Artificial Intelligence 11/10/2025, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Very few Mainers expect artificial intelligence to have a positive impact on the country over the next decade, with young people particularly pessimistic. Medical care is the lone area where Maine residents are somewhat optimistic about the effects of AI but more than two-thirds predict negative consequences for news, relationships, and elections. While a majority of Mainers say they use AI at least occasionally, only a quarter report using it once a week or more often and only half say that their experience using it has been positive. Web searches and answering questions are the two most common uses for …

Correctional System Involvement And Health Outcomes, Sarah Mason Eck ,Ph.D

All Materials

The Institute for Health Policy and Practice (IHPP) at the University System of New Hampshire commissioned Scientific Health to conduct an evidence-based review of the relationship between criminal justice system involvement and health outcomes. This research synthesized findings from recently published, peer-reviewed academic literature and relevant reports to examine how correctional system involvement affects physical health, mental health, and overall well-being among incarcerated individuals, their families, and communities. The review identified common themes related to behavioral health, chronic conditions, and systemic impacts, providing insight into the broader health implications of mass incarceration and deinstitutionalization. These findings aim to inform policy …

Research And Innovation Update, October 29, 2025, Office Of The Vice President For Research And Innovation

Office of Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Produce Flow Food Safety Plan With Wash Pack Flow Template, Mary S. Choate

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

University Of New Hampshire 2025-2026 Faculty Senate Xxx - October 27, 2025 Minutes Summary, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas & Minutes

No abstract provided.

Research And Innovation Update, October 15, 2025, Office Of The Vice President For Research And Innovation

Office of Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach

No abstract provided.