Digital Commons Network^™

A Novel Deliberative Multicriteria Evaluation Approach To Ecosystem Service Valuation, Georgia Mayrommati, Mark E. Borsuk, Richard B. Howarth

New Hampshire EPSCoR

Although efforts to address ecosystem services in decision making have advanced considerably in recent years, there remain challenges related to valuation. In particular, conventional economic approaches have been criticized for their inability to capture the collective nature of ecosystem services, for their emphasis on monetary metrics, and the difficulty of assessing the value of ecosystem services to future generations. We present a deliberative multicriteria evaluation (DMCE) method that combines the advantages of multicriteria decision analysis with a deliberation process that allows citizens and scientists to exchange knowledge and evaluate ecosystem services in a social context. Compared with previous applications we …

Rule Breaking In Corporations: Does Leadership And Seriousness Make A Difference?, Marissa T. Montagna, Ellen S. Cohn

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Solutions From Across The United States To Improve Language Access In Child Care Systems, Evan England, Carlos Pérez-Espitia, Rachel Filippone, Early Childhood Equity Movement

Carsey Publications

This brief is the first brief in a series that examines barriers to language access in early care and education systems and presents actionable solutions in partnership with the Early Childhood Equity Movement. This brief identifies publicly documented approaches learned throughout the United States that could be considered in New Hampshire and beyond. Future briefs in this series will explore how these external solutions correspond to New Hampshire-specific experiences.

Fall 2026 Environmental Sciences Seminar Series, Bianca Lopez, Bianca Lopez

NRESS Seminars

Bianca has a PhD in ecology from UNC Chapel Hill and was a postdoc at the National Socio- Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), the New School, and UMass Amherst, studying plant community ecology, urban ecology, and invasive species. She has been a professional editor at Science for 5 years, handling papers in community and ecosystem ecology, biogeography, paleoecology, sustainability, and environmental economics. In this talk, Bianca will discuss her work at Science and the inner workings of publishing research in this journal.

Enhancing Structural Design Methodologies For Pavements Incorporating Engineered Emulsion Stabilized Cold Recycled Materials, Ebubechukwu Uche Al-Ihekwaba

Doctoral Dissertations

The transportation sector is confronted with the necessity of sustainability, and the utilization of recycling techniques in the construction and rehabilitation of asphalt pavements has emerged as a viable strategy for preserving pavement infrastructure. Among the various recycling methods, cold recycling is distinguished by its efficient reutilization of existing pavement materials, ease of mix preparation & construction, and reduced dependence on virgin materials and fossil fuels, thereby contributing to lower emissions. The three primary cold recycling techniques, cold in-place recycling (CIR), cold central plant recycling (CCPR), and full-depth reclamation (FDR), differ in their construction methodologies, material processing approaches, and the …

Influence Of Material Composition And Constitutive Representation Of Cold Recycled Asphalt Mixtures On Mechanical Response And Pavement Performance, Fausto Bisanti

Doctoral Dissertations

Cold recycling technologies provide a sustainable approach for pavement rehabilitation by reusing existing materials while reducing the consumption of virgin resources, transportation requirements, production temperatures, and construction-related environmental impacts. However, the mechanical response of cold recycled mixtures (CRM) differs from that of both conventional hot mix asphalt and unbound granular materials and is influenced by material composition, volumetric characteristics, confinement, curing, and stress state. These characteristics create uncertainty regarding material selection, mechanical characterization, and the prediction of the structural contribution of cold recycled layers. Further opportunities to enhance the sustainability of cold recycling lie in the incorporation of alternative recycled …

Reliable Gait Analysis With Context-Aware Wearable Sensor Systems, Stella Abena Ansah

Doctoral Dissertations

Accurate gait analysis is important for clinical assessment, rehabilitation monitoring, fall-risk evaluation, sports performance analysis, and the control of assistive devices. While wearable sensor systems offer practical solutions for estimating key gait parameters outside the laboratory, their accuracy is often affected by sensor noise, drift, activity-dependent movement patterns, and changes in sensor response over time. These challenges limit their practical use in real-world settings, where continuous ground-truth validation and repeated laboratory calibration are not always available.This study addresses these challenges by developing context-aware wearable sensing methods for reliable gait analysis during everyday activities. The proposed approaches use information about the …

Multiaxial Characterization And Machine Learning – Enhanced Modeling Of Anisotropic Materials For Forming Applications, Abrar Salam Ebrahim

Doctoral Dissertations

Reliable prediction of material deformation in forming processes requires constitutive models that accurately capture anisotropy while remaining practical to calibrate. This dissertation combines mechanical testing, full-field deformation measurements, finite element (FE) analysis, and artificial neural networks (ANNs) to address three complementary requirements: representation of complex material behavior, characterization across an expanded multiaxial loading space, and experiment-efficient identification of advanced anisotropic yield functions using machine learning. Chapter 2 develops a hybrid ANN-enhanced constitutive framework for Grade 1 commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) sheet metal to describe temperature and strain rate-dependent hardening and anisotropy. Implemented in an Abaqus user material subroutine, the framework …

Systems Analyses For Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management: Road- Stream Crossings And Urban Drainage Networks, Koorosh Asadifakhr

Doctoral Dissertations

Road-stream crossings (RSCs) and municipal storm sewer networks convey water across and beneath the built environment, and their failure carries consequences for flood risk, aquatic habitat, and public safety. Much of this infrastructure is aging and incompletely characterized, and it is managed under simultaneous budget, coordination, and data constraints. Replacement needs exceed available funding, responsibility is divided among agencies with differing mandates, and asset inventories are maintained for operational rather than analytical purposes. Decisions with large and long-lived consequences are therefore made without the systematic analysis that would inform them. This dissertation develops systems analyses directed at that gap, combining …

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Mental Health Impacts As Co-Benefits Of Flood Risk Mitigation, Sebastian Rowan

Doctoral Dissertations

Flooding is the most perilous natural hazard in the United States. Flood risk has historically been mitigated by constructing flood defenses such as sea walls or levees that are designed to prevent flood waters from reaching developed areas. However, climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of flood events beyond the magnitude for which many flood defenses were designed, and the presence of flood defenses has incentivized development within floodplains significantly increasing the consequences of flooding when these systems fail. Total annual flood risk in the U.S. has been estimated in the tens of billions of dollars; however such …

Enhancing Implementation Of Balanced Mix Design For Asphalt Mixtures Through Improved Material Selection, Cracking Characterization, And Performance Prediction, Shubham Harishbhai Modi

Doctoral Dissertations

Balanced Mix Design (BMD) has emerged as a promising approach for improving asphalt mixture performance by balancing rutting and cracking resistance through performance tests rather than relying solely on volumetric criteria. Therefore, its application is increasingly being explored by transportation agencies for both highway and airfield domains. Despite its advantages, several challenges still limit the widespread implementation of BMD. These challenges include uncertainties associated with the compatibility of asphalt mixture components, the limited practicality of existing cracking performance tests, and the lack of performance prediction tools suitable for process control during mixture production. This dissertation addresses these critical challenges by …

Cultural Food Security And Alternative Food Network Participation: Participatory Research With Sub-Saharan African Immigrants In The Northeastern United States, Luyue Zheng

Doctoral Dissertations

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) immigrants are a growing population in the U.S. and experience a high prevalence of food insecurity. As many report challenges accessing healthy and culturally appropriate foods after migration, cultural food security is a growing concern. Alternative food networks (AFNs), such as farmers markets and community gardens, provide opportunities for immigrant communities to produce and access culturally important foods to support their cultural food security. Beyond improving food access, AFNs may also enhance the agency and sustainability dimensions of food security by creating opportunities for immigrants to produce, distribute, and access culturally appropriate foods through local food systems, …

A Systematic Study Of Solar Wind Tangential Discontinuity Inclination And Their Impact On Dayside Magnetospheric Dynamics Using Global Mhd Simulations, Neha Srivastava

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a systematic investigation of how the inclination of solar wind tangential discontinuities controls the dayside magnetospheric response using global MHD simulations conducted with the OpenGGCM model. This study is motivated by the need to understand how TD orientation controls dayside magnetospheric response, and adopts the view that the bow shock (BS) and magnetopause (MP) can be treated as large-scale discontinuities, such that their interaction with an interplanetary TD may be interpreted as a nonlinear discontinuity–discontinuity interaction. Within this framework, the role of TD orientation in governing the coupled evolution of disturbances across the dayside magnetospheric system is …

Soil Microbial Recovery From A Pulse Disturbance Following A Press Disturbance, Gretchen Bahmueller

Master's Theses and Capstones

Though a natural phenomenon, disturbance events like drought and freeze-thaw cycles are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change. At the forefront of these disturbances are soil microorganisms, which provide essential ecosystem services like carbon and nitrogen cycling. Previous work has reported responses of microbial communities to either a long-term press disturbance or a short-term pulse disturbance, with few studies examining how these disturbance types interact to influence microbial activity. This work sought to understand how soil microorganisms recover from a one month-long simulated moisture or freezing disturbance after experiencing 30+ years of soil warming. Heated and control …

Using The Plasma Dose-Response Technique To Determine The Bioavailability Of Commercial Rumen-Protected Amino Acids, Tessa Mae Baillargeon

Master's Theses and Capstones

There continues to be gaps in comparing the bioavailability of different rumen-protected methionine and lysine products. Many techniques have been developed to analyze these products with in vivo techniques considered the gold standard. The following three studies were proposed to determine the relative bioavailability value of products containing lysine and various forms of methionine using the plasma dose-response method as described by Whitehouse et al., 2017. Trial one compared two levels (18 g/d and 36 g/d) of L-Met infusion and fed LipoActiv L-Met 60. Trial two compared infusions of, and products containing, DL-Met and HMTBa (2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio)butanoic acid). Trial three used …

Understanding The Functionality Of Tuberculate Ectomycorrhiza Of Quercus Species Within The Context Of Soil Warming, Andre David Chiang

Master's Theses and Capstones

Tuberculate ectomycorrhizae (TECM) of oak are understudied, morphologically unique ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal structures whose initial observation at the Harvard Forest long-term ecological research site (Petersham, MA) were confined strictly to warmed plots. This study provided the first quantification of oak-associated TECM under experimental warming, characterizing their lifecycle and ecological role. We quantified and characterized TECM over three sampling periods during the growing season (May, June, August) of 2025 at two soil warming experiments at Harvard Forest: Barre Woods and Prospect Hill. We also identified the fungi associated with TECM structures, along with sclerotia found in the same samples. We quantified …

High Spatiotemporal Snow Cover Mapping With Multiscale Observations In A Transitional Montane Forest, Rashik Raj Koirala

Master's Theses and Capstones

Accurate estimation of fractional snow-covered area (fSCA) in forested areas is critical for understanding snowmelt dynamics and meltwater inputs to streams, yet snow cover mapping in forested areas is still challenging using ground-based and satellite-based snow observations. This thesis develops and evaluates multi-scale approaches for monitoring fSCA using field cameras, upscales it to watershed scale using unoccupied aerial systems (UAS), and develops a framework to extract snow cover in forests using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery in mixed deciduous and coniferous forests of New Hampshire, USA.

In the first study, machine learning classifiers’ ability to extract fSCA from field camera RGB imagery …

Linking Vegetation Phenology To Dissolved Organic Matter Wet Deposition, Paola Miramontes Gonzalez

Master's Theses and Capstones

Atmospheric wet deposition delivers important inputs of organic and inorganic compounds to ecosystems, yet the drivers of dissolved organic matter variability in wet deposition remain poorly understood. Dissolved organic matter (DOM), composed of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), can make up a substantial fraction of total carbon and nitrogen delivered through wet deposition and may play a role in shaping ecosystem nutrient inputs. Although vegetation emissions have been hypothesized as drivers of DOM wet deposition due to increased concentrations of DOC and DON during the growing season, no study has directly evaluated whether metrics of vegetative …

Impacts Of Storms On Great Bay Water Quality And Estimating Discharge In Great Bay Tributaries, Jody D. Potter, William H. Mcdowell, Michelle Daley Shattuck, Kalle Matso

PREP Reports & Publications

No abstract provided.

Lessons From A Medically Tailored Meals Program, Rachel Filippone, Evan England, Tyrus Parker, Harshita Sarup, Jess Carson

Carsey Publications

After a pilot program in 2021, the New Hampshire Food Bank launched a full medically tailored meals program in 2023, which is evaluated in this brief.

Leadership In Higher Education Amid Demographic Shifts: Implications Of Campus Event Management, Marrissa J. Williams

M.S. in Leadership

This study focuses on how demographic shifts within higher education have influenced leadership practices, specifically within enrollment management and campus event programming. As student populations become increasingly diverse, institutions are challenged to change their recruitment, engagement, and support strategies to meet the needs of first-generation, low-income, and non-traditional learners. The research explores the role of leadership in shaping these responses, with a focus on how decisions related to admissions events, like campus visits, outreach initiatives, and multicultural programming, have contributed to student engagement and enrollment outcomes. Using a qualitative approach grounded in the analysis of peer-reviewed articles and case studies, …

Olli Fall 2026 Catalog, Toniann Leavitt

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Isabelle Silva

UNH Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tier 2 Monitoring In The Great Bay Estuary, Nh/Me Field Season 2025, Christopher Whitney, Amanda Giacchetti, Lara M. Martin, Trevor Mattera, Kalle Matso, David M. Burdick, Thomas K. Gregory

PREP Reports & Publications

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of Options Contracts In Sports, The Post-Murphy Regulatory Conundrum, And Implications On Federalism, Scott Barboza

UNH Sports Law Review

The Supreme Court’s decision in Murphy v. N.C.A.A. dismantled the federal prohibition on state-authorized sports betting and returned its primary regulatory authority over to the states. Following Murphy, states adopted widely varying sports-betting regimes. At the same time, advances in financial technology and the growing popularity of prediction markets created a new form of event-based speculation operating outside the traditional sportsbook model. Platforms such as Kalshi began offering “yes-no” contracts tied to sporting outcomes through federally regulated exchanges overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, framing such products not as wagers, but as financial derivatives governed by the Commodity Exchange …

Institutional Influences And The Governance And Administration Of The Programa Produtor De Água Payment For Ecosystem Services Program In Brazil, Thomas G. Safford

Faculty Publications

Payment-for-Ecosystem-Services (PES) has been promoted as an innovative approach to environmental governance capable of simultaneously advancing conservation and sustainable development objectives. While studies commonly assess the ecological and economic performance of PES schemes, less attention has been given to their organizational and administrative effectiveness. This study examines these governance dimensions of one of Latin America’s most prominent PES initiatives—the Water Producer Program (WPP) in Brazil. Drawing on a meta-synthesis of 125 publications, the analysis investigates how regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutional forces shaped WPP implementation. Guided by neo-institutional theory and institutional bricolage, findings show that WPP governance operated through hybrid …

A Simple Guide To Responsible Management And Sharing Of Research Data At Unh, Julie Simpson, Patricia Condon, Bonnie Brown, William C. Clyde, James J. Connell, Ramonda Kindle, Nathan A. Schwadron, John E. Sparrow, Xueting Sun, Engin Taze, May-Win Thein, Anita R. Tucker, Karen T. Vangundy, James Wible

Integrity in Research and Scholarship

We developed this simple guide to help researchers navigate the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) Policy on Ownership, Management, and Sharing of Research Data (“UNH research data policy”). It can be challenging for researchers to translate policy into workflows, and we recognize a need for more actionable and user-friendly guidance to help researchers apply the policy in their everyday work. The UNH research data policy outlines institutional responsibilities related to data ownership, retention, recording, and sharing, as well as roles and responsibilities of principal investigators and students. This resource was adapted from a training module intended to translate the UNH …

Aging Actively, Jada Lindblom, Guangzhou Chen

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Senior Farewell: Chandler Blaisdell, Chandler Blaisdell

Digital Edition

No abstract provided.

Senior Farewell: Sophia Schlichtmann, Sophia Schlichtmann

Digital Edition

No abstract provided.