Digital Commons Network^™

Reinforcement Learning Applied To The Shoals Marine Laboratory Smart Grid, Daniel C. Mattson

Honors Theses and Capstones

Reinforcement learning (RL) techniques have been applied to smart grids with a variety of applications. The most common objective is to optimize profit for one actor in the system. The goal of this work is to apply different RL models to the smart grid at the Shoals Marine Laboratory (SML) located on Appledore Island, Maine in an effort to reduce costs and minimize the amount of nonrenewable energy consumed on the island. The RL models implemented resulted in more sustainable practices in simulations, with a linear spline model outperforming the naive policy the SML currently uses. Future work includes extending …

Controls On Carbon Gas Fluxes From A Temperate Forest Soil, Natalie A. White, Ruth K. Varner, Clarice R. Perryman

Honors Theses and Capstones

Forest soils consume atmospheric methane (CH₄), serving as a major global CH₄ sink that uptake an estimated 22 ± 12 Tg of CH₄ per year. Temperature and soil moisture have been identified as key controls of the microbial consumption of CH₄ in forest soils. Climate-driven warming and changing moisture regimes may impact forest soils’ role in the carbon cycle, and recent works suggests that forests could become weaker CH₄ sinks. Long-term monitoring sites can capture these changes, leading to better predictions of CH₄ exchange between the atmosphere and soils under climate change. This study …

Telehealth! Policy, Practice And Patients, Deborah H. Fournier, Marcy Ainslie, Marcy Doyle

All Materials

No abstract provided.

2021 U.S. Globe Partner Yearbook, Globe U.S. Coordination Office

Partner Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

Globe And Natural Inquirer Crosswalk Ms/Hs: Carbon Cycle, Veshell Lewis Phd, Globe U.S. Coordination Office

Teacher Resources

No abstract provided.

Promoting Inpatient Sleep Quality Through The Distribution Of A Sleep-Kit Upon Admission: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Monicka Puchlopek

Master's Theses and Capstones

Background: Hospitals are expected to provide a quiet and calm environment for the promotion of rest, healing, and well-being for their patients. Excess hospital noise levels and disturbances severely interfere with patient sleep and overall patient satisfaction.

Local Problem: Patients have discussed inability to sleep, need for sleeping medications, and lack of appetite due to hindered sleep following admission. An increase in patient withdrawal and decrease in level of participation in the plan of care has recently been observed.

Method: This project followed the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework to facilitate a rapid intervention implementation and change cycle. In addition, the Richards …

Splashing Of Large Helium Nanodroplets Upon Surface Collisions, Paul Martini, Simon Albertini, Felix Laimer, Miriam Meyer, Michael Gatchell, Olof E. Echt, Fabio Zappa, Paul Scheier

Faculty Publications

In the present work we observe that helium nanodroplets colliding with surfaces can exhibit splashing in a way that is analogous to classical liquids. We use transmission electron microscopy and mass spectrometry to demonstrate that neutral and ionic dopants embedded in the droplets are efficiently backscattered in such events. High abundances of weakly bound He-tagged ions of both polarities indicate a gentle extraction mechanism of these ions from the droplets upon collision with a solid surface. This backscattering process is observed for dopant particles with masses up to 400 kilodaltons, indicating an unexpected mechanism that effectively lowers deposition rates of …

Unh Receives $3.5 Million To Develop Innovative Stem Education Programs, Robbin Ray

Media Relations

No abstract provided.

The Language Of Stem, Robbin Ray

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Fungal Community And Functional Responses To Soil Warming Are Greater Than For Soil Nitrogen Enrichment, Mark A. Anthony, Melissa A. Knorr, Jessica A. M. Moore, M. Simpson, Serita D. Frey

Faculty Publications

Soil fungi are key regulators of forest carbon cycling and their responses to global change have effects that ripple throughout ecosystems. Global changes are expected to push many fungi beyond their environmental niches, but there are relatively few studies involving multiple, simultaneous global change factors. Here, we studied soil fungal diversity, community composition, co-occurrence patterns, and decomposition gene responses to 10 years of soil warming and nitrogen addition, alone and in combination. We specifically examined whether there were fungal community characteristics that could explain changes in soil carbon storage and organic matter chemistry in chronically warmed and fertilized soil. We …

Leading The Way For New Hampshire's Children, Debbie Kane

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Law And Sampling Theory, Jack Thorlin

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Law involves a fundamental tradeoff, a sampling problem. In science, sampling problems emerge when trying to understand something complicated by considering discrete, manageable subsets of it—samples. When doing that, scientists must compromise between accuracy and resource-expenditure. Perfect accuracy requires infinite resources, such as a perfect digital image with infinite file size. Perfection being unattainable, scientists must decide what level of accuracy is best for any given case. Every kind of law, from parking regulations to criminal to high constitutional theory, is subject to the same dynamic.

Law’s sampling problem is the tradeoff between accurate representation of a community’s moral preferences …

Monitoring Fine-Scale Forest Health Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas) Multispectral Models, Benjamin T. Fraser, Russell G. Congalton

Faculty Publications

Forest disturbances—driven by pests, pathogens, and discrete events—have led to billions of dollars in lost ecosystem services and management costs. To understand the patterns and severity of these stressors across complex landscapes, there must be an increase in reliable data at scales compatible with management actions. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS or UAV) offer a capable platform for collecting local scale (e.g., individual tree) forestry data. In this study, we evaluate the capability of UAS multispectral imagery and freely available National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery for differentiating coniferous healthy, coniferous stressed, deciduous healthy, deciduous stressed, and degraded individual trees throughout …

Stanley Named Dean Of Online Learning, Unh Communications And Public Affairs

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Adsorption Of Helium On A Charged Propeller Molecule: Hexaphenylbenzene, Siegfried Kollotzek, Florent Calvo, Serge Krasnokutski, Fabio Zappa, Paul Scheier, Olof E. Echt

Faculty Publications

Physisorption on planar or curved graphitic surfaces or aromatic rings has been investigated by various research groups, but in these studies the substrate was usually strictly rigid. Here we report a combined experimental and theoretical study of helium adsorption on cationic hexaphenylbenzene (HPB), a propeller-shaped molecule. The orientation of its propeller blades is known to be sensitive to the environment, with substantial differences between the molecule in the gas phase and in the crystalline solid. Mass spectra of He_nHPB⁺, synthesized in helium nanodroplets, indicate enhanced stability for ions containing n = 2, 4, 14, 28, 42, …

Centering Equity In Sustainable Food Systems Education, Eleanor J. Sterling, Erin Betley, Selena Ahmed, Sharon Akabas, Daniel J. Clegg, Shauna Downs, Betty Izumi, Pamela Koch, Sara M. Kross, Karen Spiller, Lemir Teron, Will Valley

The Sustainability Institute Publications

Sustainable food systems education (SFSE) is rapidly advancing to meet the need for developing future professionals who are capable of effective decision-making regarding agriculture, food, nutrition, consumption, and waste in a complex world. Equity, particularly racial equity and its intersectional links with other inequities, should play a central role in efforts to advance SFSE given the harmful social and environmental externalities of food systems and ongoing oppression and systemic inequities such as lack of food access faced by racialized and/or marginalized populations. However, few institutional and intra-disciplinary resources exist on how to engage students in discussion about equity and related …

Trailblazer, Brooks Payette

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Teaching With Quantitative Data In The Social Sciences At The University Of New Hampshire: An Ithaka S+R Local Report, Patricia Condon, Eleta Exline, Louise Buckley

Faculty Publications

This exploratory study investigated the teaching practices of social science instructors at the University of New Hampshire who engage with undergraduate students using quantitative data in the classroom. The participants interviewed teach both general and discipline-specific data concepts as academic, work, and life skills. Primary challenges discussed by the participants that students face in engaging with these topics are understanding math and statistical concepts, learning new software and computing skills, limited prior exposure to data, and lack of retention of content from earlier courses. Participants addressed challenges in several ways in order to lower barriers to learning, including finding, vetting, …

The Rise Of The Bentley And Broad War Boys: Converting Nascent Automotive And Computer Technologies Into Mainstream Sports, Amee Kim, Elton G. Mcgoun

Journal of Motorsport Culture & History

No abstract provided.

Increasing The Spatial And Temporal Impact Of Ecological Research: A Roadmap For Integrating A Novel Terrestrial Process Into An Earth System Model, Emily Kyker-Snowman, Danica L. Lombardozzi, Gordon B. Bonan, Susan J. Cheng, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Serita D. Frey, Elin M. Jacobs, Risa Mcnellis, Joshua M. Rady, Nicholas G. Smith, R. Quinn Thomas, William R. Wieder, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

Terrestrial ecosystems regulate Earth's climate through water, energy, and biogeochemical transformations. Despite a key role in regulating the Earth system, terrestrial ecology has historically been underrepresented in the Earth system models (ESMs) that are used to understand and project global environmental change. Ecology and Earth system modeling must be integrated for scientists to fully comprehend the role of ecological systems in driving and responding to global change. Ecological insights can improve ESM realism and reduce process uncertainty, while ESMs offer ecologists an opportunity to broadly test ecological theory and increase the impact of their work by scaling concepts through time …

Patterns And Trends Of Organic Matter Processing And Transport: Insights From The Us Long-Term Ecological Research Network, Tamara K. Harms, Peter M. Groffman, Lihini Aluwihare, Christopher Craft, William R. Wieder, Sarah E. Hobbie, Sara G. Baer, John M. Blair, Serita D. Frey, Christina K. Remucal, Jennifer A. Rudgers, Scott L. Collins, John S. Kominoski, Becky A. Ball, Lter Om Working Group

Faculty Publications

Organic matter (OM) dynamics determine how much carbon is stored in ecosystems, a service that modulates climate. We synthesized research from across the US Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network to assemble a conceptual model of OM dynamics that is consistent with inter-disciplinary perspectives and emphasizes vulnerability of OM pools to disturbance. Guided by this conceptual model, we identified unanticipated patterns and long-term trends in processing and transport of OM emerging from terrestrial, freshwater, wetland, and marine ecosystems. Cross-ecosystem synthesis combined with a survey of researchers revealed several themes: 1) strong effects of climate change on OM dynamics, 2) surprising patterns …

Paul Perspectives, Fall 2021, Peter T. Paul College Of Business And Economics

Paul College Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Transport, Species-Specific Resource Competition, And Shallow Water Effects In Coupled Bio-Physical Ecosystem Models For C. Polykrikoides Harmful Algal Blooms Off The Coast Of Korea, Jang-Geun Choi

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis examines the role of transport and environmental variables in determining the occurrence or suppression of harmful algal blooms (HABs). In the first part, a simple 2-D diagnostic model is used to hindcast HABs occurring off the coast of Korea using observations of averaged environmental factors including nutrient concentration. Hindcasting results using the model show that physical transport of HABs is of the same order of importance as the environmental conditions in controlling HABs. The model reproduces the interannual variability of the observe HABs off the coast of Korea. The relative importance of the environmental factors based on limiting …

On The Images Of Braid Group Representations Coming From Braided Fusion Categories, Jason Allen Green

Doctoral Dissertations

Braided fusion categories are algebraic structures with strong ties to the representation theory of finite groups, Hopf algebras, and quantum groups. These structures also have strong connections with braid groups and low-dimensional topology. Recently, braid group representations coming from braided fusion categories have become a topic of interest in areas of condensed matter physics and topological quantum computation. Particularly interesting are the properties of the images of these representations.

Calculations to determine the finiteness of these images have been performed for a few cases. A class of braided fusion categories coming from finite groups (group-theoretical) has been shown to yield …

Path Components And Elementary Orbits Of Um(2,R), Timothy A. Fill

Doctoral Dissertations

For any commutative ring R with identity, Um(2, R) is the set of all vectors α ∈ R^2 such that α^T β = 1 for some β ∈ R^2. Motivated by Hinson and Samuel, we endow Um(2, R) with a pseudo-graph structure and introduce a family of functions on the general ring R defined in terms of graph theoretic distance from a designated base-point or base-set. We propose a particular connected base-set whose quasi-Euclidean function exhibits the most computationally convenient properties. Unlike in Um(n, R), n ≥ 3, the relationship between path components of Um(2, R) and its orbits under …

Merging Ecology And Earth System Modeling: Biotic And Abiotic Controls Drive Soil Carbon And Nitrogen Cycling In Microbial-Explicit Soil Biogeochemistry Models, Emily Kyker-Snowman

Doctoral Dissertations

Ecological processes drive terrestrial biogeochemistry, yet the incorporation of ecology into the Earth system models that we use to understand and project global change remains. My dissertation focuses on expediting the incorporation of ecology into Earth system models, first by laying out a roadmap from initial assessment of ecological insights to eventual ESM incorporation, and then by demonstrating this roadmap using the example of microbially- controlled carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil. The paradigm around SOM formation and loss has shifted in recent decades away from a focus on the chemically recalcitrant leftovers of litter decomposition and towards a paradigm …

Balancing Fracture And Fatigue Performance In Asphalt Pavements: A Hybrid Mechanistic And Statistical Modelling Approach, Danial Mirzaiyanrajeh

Doctoral Dissertations

The asphalt mix design and evaluation approaches are divided into two main categories as empirical and mechanistic-empirical (M-E) methods. The empirical methods are based on empirical observations of in-service pavement performance, and they do not take into account engineering properties or failure criteria. The M-E methods were introduced as a new generation for design and evaluation approaches that consider fundamental mixture properties such as material stiffness to determine the pavement's structural response. However, the need for expensive and time-consuming performance-based laboratory tests and local calibration makes the M-E methods unsuitable for routing design. In addition, during the last few years, …

Economics Of Pest Control And Pollination Conservation: Perspectives From A Bioeconomic Model And A Choice Experiment, Linghui Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

The first chapter focuses on the need to reduce pollinator exposure to harmful pesticides has led to calls to expedite theadoption of integrated pest management (IPM). We make the case that IPM is not explicitly 'pollinator friendly', but rather must be adapted to reduce impacts on pollinators and to facilitate synergies between crop pollination and pest control practices and ecosystem services. To reconcile these diverse needs, we introduce a systematic framework for 'integrated pest and pollinator management' (IPPM). We also highlight novel tools to unify monitoring and economic decision-making processes for IPPM and outline key policy actions and knowledge gaps. …

Learning To Act With Robustness, Reazul Hasan Russel

Doctoral Dissertations

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is learning to act in different situations to maximize a numerical reward signal. The most common approach of formalizing RL is to use the frameworkof optimal control in an inadequately known Markov Decision Process (MDP). Traditional approaches toward solving RL problems build on two common assumptions: i) exploration is allowed for the purpose of learning the MDP model and ii) optimizing for the expected objective is sufficient. These assumptions comfortably hold for many simulated domains like games (e.g. Atari, Go), but are not sufficient for many real-world problems. Consider for example the domain of precision medicine for …

Quantification Of Marine Acoustic Environments, Dylan Charles Wilford

Master's Theses and Capstones

The soundscape is an acoustic environment made up of all sounds arriving at a receiver. A methodology for the analysis of soundscapes was developed in an attempt to facilitate efficient and accurate soundscape comparisons across time and space. The methodology included generating and combining results from a collection of traditional soundscape metrics, statistical measures, and acoustic indices that were selected to quantify several salient properties of marine soundscapes: amplitude, impulsiveness, periodicity, and uniformity. The metrics were calculated using approximately 30 hours using semi-continuous passive acoustic data gathered in seven unique acoustic environments. The calculated values for each candidate metric were …