Digital Commons Network^™

Laboratory Techniques For Measurements Of A Dynamic Water Surface, Vivek Anand Bheeroo

Master's Theses and Capstones

The free surface at an air-water interface can provide information regarding bathymetriccomplexities, as well as the subsurface flow. This work covers an exploration of optical techniques that allow for non-intrusive measurements over a wide domain of the free surface. We present a comparison of the performance of two recent advances in light-based optical techniques for free surface measurements, Total Internal Reflection-Deflectometry and Moon- Glade Background Oriented Schlieren, with the more established method of Free-Surface Synthetic Schlieren. We make use of an optical flow algorithm over the more traditional Digital Image Correlation, in order to obtain higher spatial resolution data across …

Evaluating Growth Patterns Of Beech Bark Disease Fungal Agents Neonectria Faginata And Neonectria Ditissima Under Different In Vitro Conditions, Santiago Rivera Reyes

Master's Theses and Capstones

The co –occurring fungal species Neonectria ditissima and Neonectria faginata are major canker-forming pathogens in the beech bark disease (BBD) systems which has caused restructuring of forests throughout northeastern North America. The role of nutrients in structuring microbial community interactions has been studied in BBD forests stands but has yet to be fully understood and examined under specific in-vitro conditions. This study aimed to investigate how nitrogen, phosphorus, and temperature levels influence the growth, reproduction, and competitive hierarchies between N. ditissima and N. faginata. We performed in-vitro assays where species were first individually and then jointly grown under different concentrations …

Mechanistic Models Of Human Decision-Making And Ecological Dynamics In Small-Scale Fisheries, Sophie Wulfing

Master's Theses and Capstones

Small-scale fisheries are essential to the livelihoods of 40 million people worldwide. They are key sources of nutrients and income for these communities that rely on them. However, understanding the status of these fisheries requires in-depth data collection, often in remote areas. Further, each small-scale fishery is very individualized, and external groups attempting to impose fishing restrictions are often met with low compliance or are unsuccessful in their efforts to conserve fish stocks due to a lack of understanding of either fishing culture or the ecology of the harvested species. In this thesis, I employ various mechanistic models to small-scale …

Meta Echo: Using All-Payers Claims Data Analysis As Part Of A Multi-Layered Approach To Plan An Evaluate Echo Programs, Marcy Doyle, Erica Plante

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Replacing Ground Corn With Liquid Molasses In Diets Of Jersey Cows Fed Red Clover Baleage: Effects On Milk Production, Nitrogen Efficiency, Energy Utilization, And Enteric Methane Emissions, Adam Lee Konopka

Master's Theses and Capstones

Molasses is a food byproduct rich in sucrose commonly added to the diets of cattle which has been reported to enhance milk production, promote rumen microbial growth, and increase digestibility of nutrients. Variable results obtained when partially replacing starch sources with molasses have led to an increased interest in the dietary conditions under which molasses could optimize the production of dairy cows. We aimed to investigate the effect of partially replacing ground corn with sugarcane liquid molasses on dry matter intake, milk yield and composition, enteric methane emissions, and N utilization in lactating Jersey cows fed red clover baleage. Eighteen …

Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach Update, August 30, 2023, Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach

Office of Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Reply To: Contribution Of Carbon Inputs To Soil Carbon Accumulation Cannot Be Neglected, Feng Tao, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Serita D. Frey, Johannes Lehmann, Stefano Manzoni, Yuanyuan Huang, Lifen Jiang, Umakant Mishra, Bruce A. Hungate, Michael W. I. Schmidt, Markus Reichstein, Nuno Carvalhais, Philippe Ciais, Ying-Ping Wang, Bernhard Ahrens, Gustaf Hugelius, Toby D. Hocking, Xingjie Lu, Zheng Shi, Kostiantyn Viatkin, Ronald Vargas, Yusuf Yigini, Christian Omuto, Ashish A. Malik, Guillermo Peralta, Rosa Cuevas-Corona, Luciano E. Di Paolo, Isabel Luotto, Cuijuan Liao, Yi-Shuang Liang, Vinisa S. Saynes, Xiaomeng Huang, Yiqi Luo

Faculty Publications

In the accompanying Comment1, He et al. argue that the determinant role of microbial carbon use efficiency in global soil organic carbon (SOC) storage shown in Tao et al. (2023)2 was overestimated because carbon inputs were neglected in our data analysis while they suggest that our model-based analysis could be biased and model-dependent. Their argument is based on a different choice of independent variables in the data analysis and a sensitivity analysis of two process-based models other than that used in our study. We agree that both carbon inputs and outputs (as mediated by microbial processes) matter when predicting SOC …

Season, Not Long-Term Warming, Affects The Relationship Between Ecosystem Function And Microbial Diversity, Melissa S. Shinfuku, Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta, Mallory J. Choudoir, Serita D. Frey, Kristen M. Deangelis

Faculty Publications

Across biomes, soil biodiversity promotes ecosystem functions. However, whether this relationship will be maintained under climate change is uncertain. Here, using two long-term warming experiments, we investigated how warming affects the relationship between ecosystem functions and microbial diversity across seasons, soil horizons, and warming duration. The soils in these warming experiments were heated +5 °C above ambient for 13 or 28 years. We measured seven different ecosystem functions representative of soil carbon cycling, soil nitrogen cycling, or nutrient pools. We also surveyed bacterial and fungal community diversity. We found that the relationship between ecosystem function and bacterial diversity and the …

The Emergence Of Convergence, Shana M. Sundstrom, David G. Angeler, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Jorge H. Garcia, Joseph A. Hamm, Orville Huntington, Craig R. Allen

Faculty Publications

Science is increasingly a collaborative pursuit. Although the modern scientific enterprise owes much to individuals working at the core of their field, humanity is increasingly confronted by highly complex problems that require the integration of a variety of disciplinary and methodological expertise. In 2016, the U.S. National Science Foundation launched an initiative prioritizing support for convergence research as a means of “solving vexing research problems, in particular, complex problems focusing on societal needs.” We discuss our understanding of the objectives of convergence research and describe in detail the conditions and processes likely to generate successful convergence research. We use our …

Deep Dives And High Tissue Density Increase Mean Dive Costs In California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus), Mason R. Cole, Colin Ware, Elizabeth A. Mchuron, Daniel P. Costa, Paul J. Ponganis, Birgitte I. Mcdonald

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Diving is central to the foraging strategies of many marine mammals and seabirds. Still, the effect of dive depth on foraging cost remains elusive because energy expenditure is difficult to measure at fine temporal scales in wild animals. We used depth and acceleration data from eight lactating California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) to model body density and investigate the effect of dive depth and tissue density on rates of energy expenditure. We calculated body density in 5 s intervals from the rate of gliding descent. We modeled body density across depth in each dive, revealing high tissue densities and diving …

Gender (In)Equity In Global Mental Health Research: A Call To Action, The Women In Global Mental Health Research Group, Kelly Rose-Clarke

Faculty Publications

In this commentary, we build on work by Gurung and colleagues which highlighted gender inequity in the global mental health research workforce in Nepal (Gurung et al., 2021). We seek to increase awareness of the under-representation of women in global mental health research and its consequences, and we call for change. By women, we refer to all people who identify as women, including trans people. The commentary is informed by conversations with women who are global mental health researchers in the Global North and South at various stages of their careers.

Short-Term Responses Of Soil Carbon, Nitrogen, And Microbial Biomass To Cover Crop Mixtures And Monocultures, Igor Alexandre De Souza, Amanda B. Daly, Jorg Schnecker, Nicholas D. Warren, Adalfredo Rocha Lobo Jr., Richard G. Smith, Andre Fonseca Brito, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

Increasingly, cover crops are being adopted for the purpose of improving soil health, yet the timescale and magnitude by which living annual cover crops might modify soil chemical and biological aspects of soil health is not well understood. At the same time, there is growing interest among farmers in cover crop mixtures due to perceptions that species-rich cover crop communities will enhance soil health relative to monocultures. In a field experiment in southeast New Hampshire, we investigated how groups of cover crops grown as monocultures and mixtures for specific seasonal niches (winter/spring, summer, and fall) influenced levels of soil nitrogen …

Olli Fall 2023 Catalog, Toniann Leavitt

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

No abstract provided.

Creating Impact While Nurturing Leaders, Sustainability Institute

Sustainability Institute Blog

No abstract provided.

Creating Impact While Nurturing Leaders, Sustainability Institute

Sustainability Institute Blog

No abstract provided.

Unh: The Magazine Of The University Of New Hampshire, Summer 2023, Unh Magazine

UNH Magazine

No abstract provided.

Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency Promotes Global Soil Carbon Storage, Feng Tao, Yuanyuan Huang, Bruce A. Hungate, Stefano Manzoni, Serita D. Frey, Michael W. I. Schmidt, Markus Reichstein, Nuno Carvalhais, Philippe Ciais, Lifen Jiang, Johannes Lehmann, Ying-Ping Wang, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Bernhard Ahrens, Umakant Mishra, Gustaf Hugelius, Toby D. Hocking, Xingjie Lu, Zheng Shi, Kostiantyn Viatkin, Ronald Vargas, Yusuf Yigini, Christian Omuto, Ashish A. Malik, Guillermo Peralta, Rosa Cuevas-Corona, Luciano E. Di Paolo, Isabel Luotto, Cuijuan Liao, Yi-Shuang Liang, Vinisa S. Saynes, Xiaomeng Huang, Yiqi Luo

Faculty Publications

Soils store more carbon than other terrestrial ecosystems1,2. How soil organic carbon (SOC) forms and persists remains uncertain1,3, which makes it challenging to understand how it will respond to climatic change3,4. It has been suggested that soil microorganisms play an important role in SOC formation, preservation and loss5,6,7. Although microorganisms affect the accumulation and loss of soil organic matter through many pathways4,6,8,9,10,11, microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is an integrative metric that can capture the balance of these processes12,13. Although CUE has the potential to act as a predictor of variation in SOC storage, the role of CUE in SOC …

Six Students, Alumni Receive Nsf Graduate Research Fellowships, Brooks Payette, Sarah Schaier, Beth Potier

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Towards Automation Of Volunteered And Authoritative Bathymetric Data Comparisons, Patrick Debroisse

Master's Theses and Capstones

Towards Automation of Volunteered and AuthoritativeBathymetric Data Comparisons By LT Patrick J. Debroisse, NOAA University of New Hampshire, May 2023 Hydrographic data, including sonar, positioning, and oceanographic data used for sea floor mapping, are used all over the world for many purposes. Large volumes of high-quality hydrographic data are required to create high-accuracy nautical charts and bathymetric models required by national defense, resource management, shipping, and scientific interest groups, among others. However, across the world, the amount of highquality data available is limited. Volunteered Bathymetric Information (VBI) is a relatively untapped data source that could be used in many ways …

Wigner's Theorem For Semi-Finite Von Neumann Algebras, Devin Daley Gent

Doctoral Dissertations

Wigner’s theorem, an important result in quantum mechanics, shows that a transitionprobability preserving bijection on the set of rank-one projections on a Hilbert space H extends to a Jordan ∗-isomorphism ρ on the algebra of all bounded linear operators on H. In this work we consider generalizations of Wigner’s theorem within the context of von Neumann algebras. Let M and N be two semi-finite von Neumann algebras with faithful normal semi-finite tracial weights τM and τN, respectively. Suppose that M has no direct summand of type I2 and is either diffuse or atomic such that every minimal projection in M …

Highly Dispersed Metal Sites On Semiconductor Surface For Small Molecule Activation, Ehab Shaaban

Doctoral Dissertations

Heterogeneous catalysts have been extensively used in various chemical transformations that have important ecological and economical relevance. The rational design of such catalysts, however, is still not effectively implemented due to the ambiguity that encircles their structure-activity correlations. The origin of synergetic effects which make the binary system (metal/metal oxide) distinct from the individual components continues to elude researchers. In this work, binding and structural properties that emerge from metal/metal oxide interaction were investigated using in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Different catalytic structures, including highly dispersed Cu sites on TiO2, were …

On Spectral Density-Based Goodness-Of-Fit Tests For Time Series Models, Biao Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

The goodness-of-fit tests for time series models have been discussed for years. Most of the current goodness-of-fit tests require the calculation of residuals from the fitted model. Such calculations can be tedious, and in some cases, the tests are even unreliable. Furthermore, most of their results require assumptions that rule out long memory processes, whose autocorrelation decays at a hyperbolic rate as the lag increases and has become popular in time series modeling. In this thesis, a new goodness-of-fit test for time series data is proposed. The test statistic is based on the ratio between the periodogram and the parametric …

Ultralight Axion Dark Matter With Self-Interactions, Noah James Glennon

Doctoral Dissertations

Our Universe is filled with an invisible substance, called dark matter, which dominates the ways in which structures like galaxies form. Ultralight axion (ULA) dark matter is a possible alternative to more common cold dark matter models. Self-interactions in ULA models are often discarded because they are constrained to be very small. However, in my research, I have found that including self-interactions in these models can have a significant impact on what we observe, even when the self-interaction is small. I simulate ULA dark matter with self-interactions and quantify how different phenomena, including isolated soliton oscillations, binary soliton collisions, tidal …

Seismic Soil-Structure Interaction And Foundation Rocking In Unsaturated Ground, Matthew Michael Turner

Doctoral Dissertations

Strong earthquake motions often cause severe damage to buildings and foundation systems, during which the interaction between the soil, foundation, and structure may dominate the seismic response. Most shallow foundations are located on, or embedded in, unsaturated and partially saturated soil deposits. Unsaturated soil layers are particularly common in zones above the water table where water can rise through different mechanisms like capillary action. Additionally, the degree of saturation throughout a soil deposit can vary both seasonally and yearly due to groundwater table fluctuation related to infiltration and evaporation. Properties of soil layers below foundations impact the seismic response of …

Influences Of Students’ Use Of Calculus 1 Signs/Symbols On Students’ Assessment Scores, Phuong Wilk

Doctoral Dissertations

Mathematical notations not only contribute to but also confound the development of the understanding of mathematical concepts (Leinhardt, Zaslavsky & Stein,1990). Inaccurate use of calculus notations is likely to have a significant influence on student conceptual understanding and student assessment scores in the Calculus 1 course. This dissertation study aimed to examine whether or not the relationship between student’s ability to correctly write signs/symbols, interpret signs/symbols and interpret concepts using signs/symbols (students’ use of signs/symbols) and student assessment scores is statistically significant. The relationship between students’ use of sign/symbol and students’ grade performance was also examined under the effects of …

Deep Learning Based Predictive Models For Performance Enhancement In Bio Medical Applications, Sajila Dimagi Wickramaratne

Doctoral Dissertations

The medical field produces large quantities of multidimensional, complex, and often unstructured data. The timely interpretation of medical data is crucial for medical diagnostics. Machine learning applications are increasingly becoming popular with the ever-increasing computational ability and data availability. Machine learning methods can potentially find complicated relationships that may not be apparent in traditional clinical decision rule systems used in medical applications. Models deployed in medical applications need to be reliable, time efficient, and easy to interpret, thus making working with biosignals challenging in some cases.

The first part of the dissertation focuses on building predictive systems using existing data …

Type 3 Adenylyl Cyclase, Neuronal Primary Cilia, And Hippocampus-Dependent Memory Formation, Yuxin Zhou

Doctoral Dissertations

Primary cilia are microtubule-based cellular antennae present in most vertebrate cells including neurons. Neuronal primary cilia have abundant expression of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and downstream cAMP signaling components such as type 3 adenylyl cyclase (AC3). The deflects of neuronal cilia is associated with many memory-related disorders, such as intellectual disability. Thus far, little is known about how neuronal primary cilia regulate neuronal activity and affect hippocampal memory formation. Episodic memory is thought to be encoded by sparsely distributed memory-eligible neurons in the hippocampus and neocortex. However, it is not clear how memory-eligible neurons interact with one another to form …

Using Imagery Collected By An Unmanned Aerial System To Monitor Cyanobacteria In New Hampshire, Usa, Lakes, Christine Bunyon

Master's Theses and Capstones

With the increasing occurrence and growing public health concern that cyanobacteria blooms pose, it is crucial that we continue to explore ways to improve our ability to accurately, efficiently, and safely monitor water quality in impacted lakes. Also known as blue-green algae, cyanobacteria are naturally occurring in many waters globally. Cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (CHABs) release various toxins which can cause skin irritations and dog fatalities while the effects of long-term exposure to the neurotoxins for humans has stirred additional studies. Although possibly harmful if CHABs are present, monitoring this biological component is nonetheless an integral factor when studying freshwater …

Quantifying And Modeling The Effects Of Internal Waves On Synthetic Aperture Sonar, Nicholas Anthony La Manna

Master's Theses and Capstones

Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) is based on synthetic aperture radar, with a number of key factors increasing the complexity of data collection. One of the assumptions made with respect to SAS image reconstruction is the presence of a constant sound speed. As a nearfield imaging system, SAS is sensitive to the breaking of this assumption. The sound speed in the ocean varies with depth. Variations in sound speed can come in the form of internal waves. Internal waves propagating up the slope of the continental shelf are subject to breaking mechanisms that result in the propagation of boluses shoreward. Internal …

Changing Winters And The Vernal Window In Northwestern Wyoming, Julia Olson

Master's Theses and Capstones

The timing of snowmelt and the onset of spring is changing in the Mountain West of the United States. The period between snow disappearance and vegetation green-up, known as the vernal window, is also changing, with implications for ecohydrology, the regional water supply, and the economy. Here, I present the first detailed analysis of the vernal window in the Mountain West at the ecosystem scale, focusing specifically on northwestern Wyoming in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA). I used in-situ and satellite data to address four objectives: 1) to understand how winter intensity and duration are changing, 2) to understand when …