Digital Commons Network^™

Assigning Students To Groups Based On Preference And Traits, Brendan William Mcguirk

Master's Theses and Capstones

The University of New Hampshire Chemistry Department has been organizing study groups for students called Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) for years now. However, assigning hundreds of students into groups manually is a non-trivial task, and doesn't guarantee the best possible solution. Each student will have certain times that they can meet, and more specifically, certain times that they prefer to meet. Additionally, when assigning students to groups, the students' traits should be taken in to account (e.g. preventing having only one freshman in the group). In this thesis, we devise a mathematical formulation of this problem, and apply an …

Horizontal Calibration Of Vessel Lever Arms Using Non-Traditional Survey Methods, Casey Thomas O'Heran

Master's Theses and Capstones

Knowledge of offset vectors from sonars, mounted on vessels, to systems such as Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is crucial for accurate ocean mapping applications. Traditional survey methods, such as employing laser scanners or total stations, are used to determine professional vessel offset distances reliably. However, for vessels of opportunity that are collecting volunteer bathymetric data, it is beneficial to consider survey methods that are less time consuming, less expensive, and which do not involve bringing the vessel into a dry dock. Thus, this thesis explores three alternative methods that meet this criterion for horizontally …

Innovation Station, Krysten Godfrey Maddocks

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

The Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre, Stefaan Poedts, Andrey Kochanov, Andrea Lani, Camilla Scolini, Christine Verbeke, Skralan Hosteaux, Emmanuel Chane, Herman Deconinck, Nicolae Mihalache, Fabian Diet, Daniel Heynderickx, Johan De Keyser, Erwin De Donder, Norma B. Crosby, Marius Echim, Luciano Rodriguez, Robbe Vansintjan, Freek Verstringe, Benjamin Mampaey, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert, Piers Jiggens, Ralf Keil, Alexi Glover, Gregoire Deprez, Juha-Pekka Luntama

Coronal Mass Ejection Research Group

Aims. Our goal is to develop and provide an open end-to-end (Sun to Earth) space weather modeling system, enabling to combine (“couple”) various space weather models in an integrated tool, with the models located either locally or geographically distributed, so as to better understand the challenges in creating such an integrated environment. Methods. The physics-based models are installed on different compute clusters and can be run interactively and remotely and that can be coupled over the internet, using open source “high-level architecture” software, to make complex modeling chains involving models from the Sun to the Earth. Visualization tools have been …

Living In A World Where Seeing Is No Longer Believing: Artificial Intelligence As A Disinformation Engine, Dylan Wheeler

Inquiry Journal 2020

With the help of my mentor, Professor Nick Smith, during the summer of 2019, I researched how new developments in artificial intelligence are enabling the mass manufacture and distribution of fake news. Looking specifically at deepfakes, a form of fake news that uses picture-perfect face swapping, I examined how new computer software makes it trivial for anyone in the world to manufacture disinformation, false information spread deliberately to deceive the masses. I believe that, if we are not careful, we could enter a post-truth future, where the truth about issues becomes overshadowed by emotionally charged headlines and discourse. With few …

Indolic Glucosinolate Pathway Provides Resistance To Mycorrhizal Fungal Colonization In A Non-Host Brassicaceae, Mark A. Anthony, J. L. Celenza, A. Armstrong, Serita D. Frey

Faculty Publications

Most terrestrial plants form mycorrhizas, but a number of agricultural plants, including the Brassicaceae, are non-mycorrhizal. Brassicaceae can still be colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), but species like Arabidopsis thaliana experience growth reductions following AMF colonization at similar magnitude to that of fungal pathogen infections and lack key genes necessary for nutrient exchange. Arabidopsis also produces specific secondary compounds via the modification of tryptophan, including indolic glucosinolates (IGs), which have anti-fungal properties and may therefore be involved in reducing AMF colonization. This study therefore addressed whether the ability to produce IGs facilitates resistance to AMF colonization and growth suppression. …

Views Of A Fast-Moving Pandemic: A Survey Of Granite Staters’ Responses To Covid-19, Thomas G. Safford, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Carsey Publications

In this brief, authors Thomas Safford and Lawrence Hamilton report the results of a Granite State Panel survey (March 17-26), asking New Hampshire residents about their views concerning government responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and whether they changed their daily routine because of the pandemic. They report that New Hampshire residents who approve of President Trump’s handling of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and those who regularly watch Fox News are less likely than others to have made major changes in their routines due to COVID-19. Granite Staters have polarized opinions about President Trump’s handling of the pandemic: 40 …

Ramped Thermal Analysis For Isolating Biologically Meaningful Soil Organic Matter Fractions With Distinct Residence Times, Jonathan Sanderman, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

In this work, we assess whether or not ramped thermal oxidation coupled with determination of the radiocarbon content of the evolved CO2 can be used to isolate distinct thermal fractions of soil organic matter (SOM) along with direct information on the turnover rate of each thermal fraction. Using a 30-year time series of soil samples from a well-characterized agronomic trial, we found that the incorporation of the bomb spike in atmospheric 14CO2 into thermal fractions of increasing resistance to thermal decomposition could be successfully modeled. With increasing temperature, which is proportional to activation energy, the mean residence time of the …

Connecting Composting And Greenhouses: An Energy Capture And Usage Model, Dena Hoffman

Inquiry Journal 2020

At the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Organic Dairy Research Farm in Lee, New Hampshire, I researched the practice of aerated static composting for potential heat capture. In early 2019, I created an Excel model to illustrate the ability of greenhouses to retain heat during a cold January and calculated the total energy balance for each day. This model shows that an average greenhouse, based on the dimensions of the greenhouse at nearby Kingman Farm, requires an additional, external heat source to supplement its heating needs during this time. By adding the heat generated by the aerated static composting pile …

Correcting Tree-Ring Δ13c Time Series For Tree-Size Effects In Eight Temperate Tree Species, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Katie A. Jennings, Andrew P. Ouimette, Heidi Asbjornsen

All Materials

Stable carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C) in tree rings have been widely used to study changes in intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), sometimes with limited consideration of how C-isotope discrimination is affected by tree height and canopy position. Our goals were to quantify the relationships between tree size or tree microenvironment and wood δ¹³C for eight functionally diverse temperate tree species in northern New England, and to better understand the physical and physiological mechanisms underlying these differences. We collected short increment cores in closed-canopy stands and analyzed δ¹³C in the most recent 5 years of growth. …

Long-Term Evidence Shows That Crop-Rotation Diversification Increases Agricultural Resilience To Adverse Growing Conditions In North America, Timothy M. Bowles, Maria Mooshammer, Yvonne Socolar, Francisco Calderon, Michel A. Cavigelli, Steve W. Culman, William Deen, Craig F. Drury, Axel Garcia Y Garcia, Amelie C. M. Gaudin, W. Scott Harkcom, R. Michael Lehman, Shannon L. Osborne, G. Philip Robertson, Jonathan Salerno, Marty R. Schmer, Jeffrey Strock, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

A grand challenge facing humanity is how to produce food for a growing population in the face of a changing climate and environmental degradation. Although empirical evidence remains sparse, management strategies that increase environmental sustainability, such as increasing agroecosystem diversity through crop rotations, may also increase resilience to weather extremes without sacrificing yields. We used multilevel regression analyses of long-term crop yield datasets across a continental precipitation gradient to assess how temporal crop diversification affects maize yields in intensively managed grain systems. More diverse rotations increased maize yields over time and across all growing conditions (28.1% on average), including in …

The Analytics Managers Ultimate Guide For Working With Universities, Robert J. Mcgrath

Faculty Publications

The challenges organizations are having related to finding (and retaining) deep analytical talent did not materialize out of thin air…or overnight. Analytics and Data science – and the role of the analytics professional – has evolved over the last several decades and has been fueled by our ability to capture and process increasingly larger and more complex variations of data and our desire to gain increasingly granular insights to fuel innovation and creativity. While many organizations recognize that a partnership with a university can be a resource to many of these challenges, the best way to start a conversation with …

Eelgrass Health Survey And Results, Nicholas B. Anderson, Catherine M. Ashcraft, Dante D. Torio, Frederick T. Short

Natural Resources & the Environment

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire designed, tested, and conducted an eelgrass health survey. The primary goal of the survey was to collect health ratings from respondents who had viewed pre-selected images of eelgrass representing a wide range of health conditions. Survey results were used as a calibration and validation to a novel eelgrass health index developed using video-monitoring. Two secondary goals of this this survey were the identification of plant-specific and environmental characteristics important to respondents and the introduction of the new eelgrass health index. This published dataset includes de-identified survey respondent background and demographic data, the survey …

2019-2020 Faculty Senate Xxiv - March 2, 2020 Minutes Summary, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas & Minutes

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Forest-To-Silvopasture Conversion And Drought On Components Of Evapotranspiration, Adam P. Coble, Alexandra R. Contosta, Richard G. Smith, Nathan W. Siegert, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Katie A. Jennings, Anthony J. Stewart, Heidi Asbjornsen

Natural Resources & the Environment

The northeastern U.S. is projected to experience more frequent short-term (1-2 month) droughts interspersed among larger precipitation events. Agroforestry practices such as silvopasture may mitigate these impacts of climate change while maintaining economic benefits of both agricultural and forestry practices. This study evaluated the effects of forest-to-silvopasture (i.e., 50% thinning) conversion on the components of evapotranspiration (transpiration, rainfall interception, and soil evaporation) during the growing season of 2016. The study coincided with a late-summer drought throughout the northeastern U.S., which allowed us to also evaluate the effects of forest-to-silvopasture conversion on drought responses of multiple tree species, including Pinus strobus, …

10 Weeks With Doe, Jody Record

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Improving Predictions Of High-Latitude Coronal Mass Ejections Throughout The Heliosphere, Camilla Scolini, E. Chane, J. Pomoell, L. Rodriguez, S. Poedts

Coronal Mass Ejection Research Group

Predictions of the impact of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the heliosphere mostly rely on cone CME models, whose performances are optimized for locations in the ecliptic plane and at 1 AU (e.g., at Earth). Progresses in the exploration of the inner heliosphere, however, advocate the need to assess their performances at both higher latitudes and smaller heliocentric distances. In this work, we perform 3-D magnetohydrodynamics simulations of artificial cone CMEs using the EUropean Heliospheric FORecasting Information Asset (EUHFORIA), investigating the performances of cone models in the case of CMEs launched at high latitudes. We compare results obtained initializing CMEs …

Are New Hampshire’S Winters Warming? Yes, But Fewer Than Half Of State Residents Recognize The Trend, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Elizabeth Burakowski

Carsey Publications

In this brief, authors Elizabeth Burakowski and Lawrence Hamilton review some basic evidence about winter warming in New Hampshire, explore to what extent state residents are aware of this trend, and ask who is aware, in terms of characteristics such as age, education, or participation in winter sports. Results from two statewide surveys find limited awareness of the trend overall, and no significant differences by age, education, or winter sports participation. Instead, perceptions of this winter trend depend on political identity: conservatives are much less likely than other groups to recognize that warming has occurred.

Provost Of Invention, Beth Potier

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Instilling Proof And Reason, Unh Communications And Public Affairs

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Standardized Geomorphic Classification Of Seafloor Within The United States Atlantic Canyons And Continental Margin, Derek Sowers, Giuseppe Masetti, Larry A. Mayer, Paul D. Johnson, James V. Gardner, Andrew A. Armstrong

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Accurate seafloor maps serve as a critical component for understanding marine ecosystems and guiding informed ocean management decisions. From 2004 to 2015, the Atlantic Ocean continental margin offshore of the United States has been systematically mapped using multibeam sonars. This work was done in support of the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) Project and for baseline characterization of the Atlantic canyons, but the question remains as to the relevance of these margin-wide data sets for conservation and management decisions pertaining to these areas. This study utilized an automatic segmentation approach to initially identify landform features from the bathymetry of the …

Carbon Use Efficiency And Its Temperature Sensitivity Covary In Soil Bacteria, Grace Pold, Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta, Eric W. Morrison, Serita D. Frey, Seeta A. Sistla, Kristen M. Deangelis

Faculty Publications

The strategy that microbial decomposers take with respect to using substrate for growth versus maintenance is one essential biological determinant of the propensity of carbon to remain in soil. To quantify the environmental sensitivity of this key physiological trade-off, we characterized the carbon use efficiency (CUE) of 23 soil bacterial isolates across seven phyla at three temperatures and with up to four substrates. Temperature altered CUE in both an isolate-specific manner and a substrate-specific manner. We searched for genes correlated with the temperature sensitivity of CUE on glucose and deemed those functional genes which were similarly correlated with CUE on …

A Ceps Mainstay, Unh Communications And Public Affairs

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Seaweed Research Benefits Region’S Dairy Farmers, Lori Tyler Gula

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Unh Scientists Expand Seaweed Research To Benefit Region’S Dairy Farmers, Lori Tyler Gula

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Annual Report Town Of Nelson For The Year Ending December 31, 2019., Nelson Town Representatives

Nelson, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

07 Intern Assignment Biological Adaptations, Christopher F. Bauer

Student Work Products

WELCOME to WINDOWS on the INQUIRY CLASSROOM!

You have landed on a piece of a National Science Foundation Project (DUE 1245730) directed by Professor Chris Bauer, Chemistry Department, University of New Hampshire. This is one part of a completely documented inquiry-based university science course called “Fire & Ice” which explores the nature of heat and temperature. There are multiple video perspectives and commentary from instructors and students, and documents of all course materials (agenda, instructions, student work). It’s too complicated to explain here. Take a look at the user orientation document at this link.

08 Intern Assignment Chemical Reactions, Christopher F. Bauer

Student Work Products

WELCOME to WINDOWS on the INQUIRY CLASSROOM!

You have landed on a piece of a National Science Foundation Project (DUE 1245730) directed by Professor Chris Bauer, Chemistry Department, University of New Hampshire. This is one part of a completely documented inquiry-based university science course called “Fire & Ice” which explores the nature of heat and temperature. There are multiple video perspectives and commentary from instructors and students, and documents of all course materials (agenda, instructions, student work). It’s too complicated to explain here. Take a look at the user orientation document at this link.

Kindergarten Entry Assessment Tools And Transition Practices: A Review For New Hampshire's Preschool Development Grant Birth To Five, Nh Preschool Development Grant

Preschool Development Grant

No abstract provided.

Student Survey End Of Course, Christopher F. Bauer

End of Course Student Feedback

WELCOME to WINDOWS on the INQUIRY CLASSROOM!

You have landed on a piece of a National Science Foundation Project (DUE 1245730) directed by Professor Chris Bauer, Chemistry Department, University of New Hampshire. This is one part of a completely documented inquiry-based university science course called “Fire & Ice” which explores the nature of heat and temperature. There are multiple video perspectives and commentary from instructors and students, and documents of all course materials (agenda, instructions, student work). It’s too complicated to explain here. Take a look at the user orientation document at this link.