Digital Commons Network^™

A Recipe For Feeding Ourselves: New Hampshire’S First-Ever Food System Strategic Plan Is Underway, Robbin Ray

Media Relations

No abstract provided.

Harnessing The Power Of The Sea For Renewable Energy, Beth Potier

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Bauer Recognized For Research Achievement By American Chemical Society, Brooks Payette

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Enhanced Aqueous Formation And Neutralization Of Fine Atmospheric Particles Driven By Extreme Cold, James R. Campbell, Michael Battaglia Jr, Kayane K. Dingilian, Meeta Cesler-Maloney, William R. Simpson, Ellis S. Robinson, Peter F. Decarlo, Brice Temime-Roussel, Barbara D’Anna, Andrew L. Holen, Judy Wu, Kerri A. Pratt, Jack E. Dibb, Athanasios Nenes, Rodney J. Weber, Jingqiu Mao

Faculty Publications

The prevailing view for aqueous secondary aerosol formation is that it occurs in clouds and fogs, owing to the large liquid water content compared to minute levels in fine particles. Our research indicates that this view may need reevaluation due to enhancements in aqueous reactions in highly concentrated small particles. Here, we show that low temperature can play a role through a unique effect on particle pH that can substantially modulate secondary aerosol formation. Marked increases in hydroxymethanesulfonate observed under extreme cold in Fairbanks, Alaska, demonstrate the effect. These findings provide insight on aqueous chemistry in fine particles under cold …

Assessing The Capacity Of Red Algae (Gracilaria Vermiculophylla) And American Oysters (Crassostrea Virginica) To Sequester Ammonia From Shrimp (Litopenaeus Vannamei) In A Land-Based Imta System., Elizabeth Martin

Master's Theses and Capstones

Growing shrimp with extractive species is gaining momentum to reduce effluent waste in aquaculture systems. Preliminary experiments were conducted at the University of New Hampshire’s Spaulding laboratory to calculate total ammonia nitrogen uptake rates by Gracilaria vermiculophylla and output rates by whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Based on these results, oysters and red algae were incorporated into a shrimp recirculating aquaculture system at University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Marine Laboratory to determine their effectiveness in reducing dissolved nitrogen. This is a critical step in mitigating negative impacts to ecosystems surrounding shrimp aquaculture operations, while producing valuable biproducts. An aquatic habitat (AHAB) …

Land Conservation Planning For Flood Resilience In New Hampshire's Coastal Watershed, Michal Zahorik

Doctoral Dissertations

Land conservation plays an important role in managing flood risk. It enhances community resilience and supports multiple ecosystem functions. This qualitative study investigates how local and regional land conservation strategies advance flood resilience in New Hampshire’s coastal watershed. Focusing on the institutional context, this thesis analyzes the effectiveness of local land conservation planning efforts, explores cross-scale interactions between local and regional planning, and identifies barriers and opportunities for flood-focused conservation projects. The data for this research were collected through semi-structured interviews with representatives of municipalities, public and private conservation organizations, regional planning commissions, partnership organizations, and landowners. The secondary data …

Liquefaction Mitigation Of Sands With Plastic Fines Via Microbial Induced Partial Saturation, Maya Norris

Master's Theses and Capstones

Microbial Induced Partial Saturation (MIPS) is a sustainable and cost-effective approach to mitigate liquefaction; however, more research needs to be done to apply MIPS to a variety of different soil types and conditions. The investigation consisted of running a series of undrained strain-controlled cyclic Direct Simple Shear (DSS) tests on fully saturated samples with varying non-plastic fine and plastic fine content. Some tests have been conducted on MIPS-treated samples; however, more tests are needed to verify the results. Previous investigations have been conducted to evaluate the pore water pressure response of sands with added non-plastic fines with and without MIPS …

Neural Retrieval Through Entities And Text Understanding, Pooja Himanshu Oza

Doctoral Dissertations

For various artificial intelligence systems, automatic text understanding algorithms that go beyond mere pattern recognition are helpful. For instance, understanding web pages is beneficial for Information Retrieval (IR) systems to retrieve relevant information. In the most common form, IR systems retrieve relevant information as entities or documents in response to keywords-based queries. Traditional IR models use lexical matching between the query terms and document terms to identify relevant documents. With the emergence of neural networks, Neural IR approaches utilize deep learning techniques to learn high-dimensional representations of documents and queries that go beyond term matching.

On the other hand, with …

Development Of A Layered Unsupervised Classifier Of Plasma Regions And A Bootstrap-Ensemble Neural Network Bow Shock Mode, James Andrew Edmond

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of supervised methods in space science have demonstrated powerful capability in classification tasks, but purely unsupervised methods have been less utilized for the classification of spacecraft observations. We use a combination of unsupervised methods, being principal component analysis, self-organizing maps, and hierarchical agglomerative clustering, to classify THEMIS and MMS observations as having occurred in the magnetosphere, magnetosheath, or the solar wind. The resulting classification are validated visually by analyzing the distribution of classifications and studying individual time series as well as by comparison to the labeled dataset of a previous model, against which ours has an accuracy of …

Evaluation Of Rockfall Trajectories Using Smart Rocks And Measurement While Drilling, Bruma Morganna Mendonca De Souza

Doctoral Dissertations

This doctoral research investigates rockfall movement under laboratory and field-controlled conditions as well as in situ natural field environments in an effort to better understand the movement described by falling blocks. Although previously published research identified several factors that affect rockfall movement (block characteristics, ground characteristics, and impact kinematics), the lack of a standardized methodology to evaluate rockfall behavior upon impact on different ground materials increases the difficulty of establishing realistic parameters in modeling approaches and ultimately in selecting representative model input parameters. In order to measure rockfall movement under different test conditions, concrete fabricated test blocks ranging in mass …

Sustainable Energy Transition In Grid Connected And Off-Grid Communities, Roozbeh Ghasemi

Doctoral Dissertations

Decentralized energy systems, such as solar PV and wind, are often seen as key to improving the sustainability and resilience of energy systems in both urban and remote communities. This research aims to enhance the sustainability of adopting these systems in both grid-connected and off-grid contexts. In urban communities, a choice experiment model was developed for Boston, MA, and Atlanta, GA, and the results were analyzed using latent class analysis to understand household preferences for two decentralized renewable energy systems. For islanded communities, a process-based dynamic model was developed to simulate the operation of the decentralized energy system on Appledore …

Innovative Approaches To Dna-Based Materials: Development Of Bottlebrush Polymers, Supramolecular Hydrogels, And Psoralen-Enhanced 3d Printing Of Dna Bioinks, Nicholas Pierini

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis explores innovative approaches to enhancing the functionality and applications of DNA-based materials through the development of DNA bottlebrush polymers (BBPs), DNA-intercalating supramolecular hydrogels (DISHs), and psoralen-based 3D printing techniques. The first chapter presents the synthesis and characterization of linear and cyclic DNA BBPs using a grafting-to approach. Plasmid DNA (pDNA) is used as the polymeric backbone, grafted with polyethylene glycol (PEG) side chains of varying molecular weights (750 Da, 2000 Da, and 5000 Da) to improve stability and functionality. Achieving high graft densities, up to 24% for mPEG750-CEA, and purifying the PEG-DNA conjugates were significant challenges addressed through …

Oscillatory Boundary Layer And Sediment Dynamics Over And Within Mobile Rippled Beds, Savannah Devoe

Doctoral Dissertations

In nearshore environments, small-scale bedforms, or ripples, are important contributors to net morphologic change by means of bedload and suspended load sediment transport. In this dissertation, new characterizations of boundary layer and sediment dynamics are made using high-resolution observations of mobile, rippled beds subjected to oscillatory flow for the purpose of evaluating existing parameterizations of bedload transport. The spatiotemporal distribution of shear stress at and within a mobile, rippled bed is obtained via the derivation and application of a new Momentum Integral Method (“MIM”) expression for bed shear stress to data from a two-phase Large Eddy Simulation and Discrete Particle …

The Effect Of Woodfiber Additives On Pythium Root Rot And Substrate Microbiome, Isabella Alexandra Borrero

Master's Theses and Capstones

The exponential growth of the greenhouse industry in recent years has led to an increasing demand for economic, “green”, soilless substrates and soilless substrate amendments. To meet this demand, many growers have begun incorporating wood fibers (WFs) into their production systems because they are both economic and renewable. WF’s rise in popularity has motivated an uptick in research focused on understanding how WF amendments affect substrate physical and chemical properties, and how these changes influence plant health, soil-borne disease trends, and microbiome dynamics. Wood fibers have been reported to suppress damping-off of radish caused by Rhizoctonia solani, however, the scope …

Trusted Yet Vulnerable: A Quantitative Analysis Of Trusted Execution Environments (Tee) Security., Lakshmi Sravani Nissankararao

Master's Theses and Capstones

Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) are essential for secure computing across mobile devices, cloud platforms, and IoT, yet they remain vulnerable to exploits. This thesis presents a novel approach to enhancing TEE security through automated vulnerability classification and advanced fuzzing techniques. The research first introduces an innovative methodology for classifying vulnerabilities into Trusted Applications (TA), TrustZone Operating Systems (TZOS), and general categories using machine learning algorithms such as Random Forest, J48, Naive Bayes, Multilayer Perceptron, and Support Vector Machines. Evaluating these on a dataset of 750 vulnerabilities from the NIST database demonstrates accurate characterization and improved efficiency over manual methods. The …

Assessment Of Synthetic Aperture Radar For Classification Of Exposed Coastal Soils In The Great Bay Estuary, Tess Priest

Master's Theses and Capstones

Coastlines around the world are composed of a wide range of sediments. The classification of coastal soil ranges from coarse-grained sediments (gravels and sands, 75 mm to 0.075 mm), to fine-grained sediments (silts and clays, 0.075 mm and smaller). In geotechnical engineering applications, the shear strength of soil is a key characteristic and is commonly influenced by the classification, grain size, and water content of the soil. While site-specific investigation is the best method for obtaining these parameters, information regarding soil type can often be readily accessed from existing literature as a general classification. However, soil type can vary at …

Understanding Ecological Baselines To Inform Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Management Strategies In Southeast Alaska, Melanie Anabel Smith

Master's Theses and Capstones

Vessel disturbance impedes the resilience and recovery of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations. Many management strategies in Southeast Alaska aim to protect whales and their habitat. However, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of management strategies without understanding the state of an ecosystem with minimal vessel traffic. The thesis examines two situations with reduced vessel activity to understand humpback whale behavioral and acoustic ecology. We first use the Beardslee Island Complex and adjacent waters in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (Glacier Bay), an area with minimal vessel traffic, to understand habitat use by foraging and traveling whales. Using …

Automatic-Adjusting Drip Chlorination System Without Electricity, Brian Genet

Master's Theses and Capstones

Developing countries often use open-source water including groundwater, snowmelt, and springsas the primary source of their drinking water. These water sources increase the risk of contamination from bacteria and pathogens from nearby humans and animals. Ingestion of contaminated water can cause illnesses, and in extreme cases, death. While the technology to decrease or even eliminate the risk of contamination in drinking water exists, most of these methods require electricity, which is not necessarily readily available or sustainable in developing countries. The objective of this study is disinfection without electricity as a means to provide disinfected drinking water to developing countries. …

Design Of An Axial-Flow Tidal Turbine Test Bed And Initial Validation And Performance Testing With 1:5 Scale Mhkf1 Rotor, Megan Nicole Andersen

Master's Theses and Capstones

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) and XFlow Energy jointly designed and built a scale axial-flow turbine (AFT) test bed under the Atlantic Marine Energy Center (AMEC) work scope. The test bed was fabricated to fill an infrastructure gap in tidal energy testing equipment at UNH. The combination of rotor size and achievable towing speeds allowed for testing in a regime where turbine performance became independent of Reynolds number effects, while also maintaining reasonable blockage. As a result, data collected from the test bed can be used to predict the performance of full-scale tidal turbines. Results and uncertainty analysis were …

Determining Asphalt Pavement Milling Best Practices Through Enhanced Understanding Of Milling Operations, Kaleigh Miech

Master's Theses and Capstones

Milling of asphalt pavements is a commonly used technique in many cases of maintaining and rehabilitating roadways. That said, implementing these milling operations has potential to cause harm to the layers below the mill line due to it being a relatively high-stress and energy activity. In this study, the impact of milling to the pavement layer directly below the mill line was evaluated for five parameters: the pavement temperature at the time of milling, the amount of time between milling and post-mill overlay construction, the depth of milling relative to the asphalt lift interfaces, the structure of the existing pavement, …

Just Maps? Exploring The Development And Use Of Environmental Justice Mapping Tools In The United States, Claire Emrick

Master's Theses and Capstones

The disparate distribution of environmental risks and benefits is well documented in the United States. In response, interactive mapping tools that attempt to represent and address environmental justice (EJ) issues have proliferated in recent years. By synthesizing socioeconomic and environmental data into a user-friendly interface, EJ mapping tools can inform advocacy and policy decisions that benefit disadvantaged communities. Numerous studies have contributed to the development and assessment of the indices and datasets found in these mapping tools, while other articles have highlighted approaches to and lessons learned from single cases of EJ mapping tool development. However, only a few studies …

Mechanical Properties Of Composite Fiberglass Rods Used For Ocean Structure Tethers To Mitigate North Atlantic Right Whale Entanglement, Louis Gitelman

Master's Theses and Capstones

Entanglements in rope fishing gear significantly threaten the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale’s health and population (Knowlton, 2022; Brooker & Matthias, 2020). This thesis investigates the potential to mitigate the risk of whale entanglements in ocean structure tether components by using stiff fiberglass composite rods instead of rope. This potential was investigated through five main avenues:1. A survey was conducted of the availability, cost, and material properties of available composite rods and their operability in marine structures. 2. Four-point flexure testing was conducted to measure the degradation of the material properties of fiberglass composite rod samples as a function …

Diversification Of New England’S Macroalgae Industry: Introduction Of Nori, Riplee Mercer

Master's Theses and Capstones

The aquaculture of macroalgae is multi-billion-dollar industry globally, but is primarily dominated by Asian production. The US macroalgae industry is relatively small but has grown over the last decade, heavily dominated by kelp aquaculture. The goal of this project is to facilitate the diversification of the US industry by developing nursery and grow-out techniques for the production of Wildemania amplissima, a native species of nori. Following the life history of Wildemania amplissima, a series of experiments were conducted to 1) compare culture initiation methods from wild-collected blades, 2) determine optimum culture conditions for vegetative growth of the conchocelis sporophyte stage, …

Stronger Practical Game-Playing Ai For Duelyst Ii, Bryan Mckenney

Master's Theses and Capstones

Duelyst II is an online collectible card game (CCG) that features a 9 × 5 grid board,making it a cross between the popular CCG Hearthstone and chess. It is a partially- observable stochastic game (POSG) with a large branching factor and the ability to take several actions in a time-limited turn, making it a challenging domain for game-playing AI. On top of that, successor generation is very slow, limiting the effectiveness of traditional planning approaches such as Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS).

In this thesis, I build on my previous work on Duelyst II AI, creating a stronger game-playing agent …

Hardware And Software Optimization For Of Smart Insole Systems For Gait Analysis, Femi John Olugbon

Master's Theses and Capstones

Gait analysis is vital in human biomechanicals, clinical diagnostics, and rehabilitation, providing essential insights into human locomotion. Ground reaction forces play a significant role in understanding gait dynamics, detecting abnormalities, and assessing treatment outcomes. Accurate measurement and analysis of ground reaction forces and other gait parameters are crucial for developing effective interventions and improving patient outcomes.

The first part of this thesis explores methods to optimize and standardize the number of pressure sensors and their optimum placements within the insole for accurate and reliable estimation of temporal gait parameters. Standardization of sensor position for temporal gait analysis is crucial for …

Bioimpedance Smart Needle System For Real-Time Tissue Detection During Intramuscular Injection, Marc Peter Tausanovitch

Master's Theses and Capstones

Injectable drug delivery is an extremely commonplace procedure in the world ofmedicine, with over 16 billion injections administered annually. Due to the high vascularity of muscle tissue, the intramuscular (IM) route is preferred for many antibiotic, biological, and hormonal drugs. Appropriate needle length plays a critical role in the success of IM injection, ensuring that the drug is deposited in the core muscle. Instances of over- or under-penetration are associated with reduced drug bioavailability and vaccine related injury. Unfortunately, guidelines for needle length selection do not always yield positive results due to practitioner error or adverse patient physiology. This thesis …

Evaluating The Long-Term Performance Of Recycling Agents In High-Rap Content Asphalt Mixtures, Zheng Wang

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Utilization of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) has become a pivotal strategy for improving infrastructure sustainability. However, with a high RAP content included in the pavement material, the aged asphalt will decline the mechanical properties of the flexible pavement and thus decrease the durability. Recycling agents (RAs) are products with chemical and physical characteristics designed to restore the rheological properties of reclaimed asphalt material and improve the performance of recycled asphalt mixtures with high RAP content that promote economic and environmental benefits. Plenty of the RA products are proven effective once blended with asphalt; however, the long-term effect of the …

Mitigation Of Road Mortality Of Freshwater Turtles In New Hampshire With An Emphasis On Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea Blandingii), Lauren White

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) is a state-endangered species in New Hampshire that is particularly vulnerable to road mortality due to reproductive life history traits, habitat use, and migration patterns. Successful conservation techniques to mitigate wildlife road mortality include building fences and wildlife crossing structures (eco-passages) at roadkill hot spots. A collaborative research group designed a road mortality risk model to understand turtles' relative road mortality risk at existing wetland crossing sites in New Hampshire and to assess whether culverts at these sites may function as eco-passages. To ground-truth this model, roadkill surveys and wildlife camera monitoring techniques were used …

Conceptualizing Space Environmental Sustainability, Weiwei Mo, Brad L. Kinsey, John Vickers, Henry Helvajian, Ioana Cozmuta, Marissa Herron, Ajay Malshe

Faculty Publications

Recent advancements have significantly enhanced the capabilities for in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM), to develop infrastructure in orbit and on the surface of celestial bodies. This progress is a departure from the traditional sustainability paradigm focused solely on Earth, highlighting the urgent need to define and operationalize the concept of “space sustainability” along with the development of an evaluation framework. The expansion of human activity into space, particularly in low-earth orbit, cis-lunar space, and beyond, underscores the critical importance of considering sustainability implications. Leveraging space resources offers economic growth and sustainable development opportunities, while reducing pressure on Earth’s ecosystems. …

Conceptualizing Space Environmental Sustainability, Weiwei Mo, Brad L. Kinsey, John Vickers, Henry Helvajian, Ioana Cozmuta, Marissa Herron, Ajay Malshe

Faculty Publications

Recent advancements have significantly enhanced the capabilities for in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM), to develop infrastructure in orbit and on the surface of celestial bodies. This progress is a departure from the traditional sustainability paradigm focused solely on Earth, highlighting the urgent need to define and operationalize the concept of “space sustainability” along with the development of an evaluation framework. The expansion of human activity into space, particularly in low-earth orbit, cis-lunar space, and beyond, underscores the critical importance of considering sustainability implications. Leveraging space resources offers economic growth and sustainable development opportunities, while reducing pressure on Earth’s ecosystems. …