Digital Commons Network^™

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

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Research And Innovation Update, October 14, 2026, Office Of The Vice President For Research And Innovation

Office of Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach

No abstract provided.

2025 - Nh Forest Products Industry Report, Andrew J. Fast, Basanta Lamsal, Jagdish Poudel, Raju Pokharel

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Fall 2026 Environmental Sciences Seminar Series, Jingyan Huang, Jingyan Huang

NRESS Seminars

This seminar presents a game-based social simulation of emergency response to water contamination, in which large language model (LLM) agents represent stakeholders with diverse roles, information, incentives, and constraints.

Through unfolding crisis scenario, the simulation explores how communication, coordination, and decision making shape collective outcomes under uncertainty. In this seminar, I will discuss the game’s design, the use of LLMs to model social interaction, and opportunities and limitations for research, training, and practical policy experimentation.

Movement Patterns, Habitat Usage, And Apparent Survival Of Alewife And Blueback Herring In The Bellamy River And Great Bay Estuary, Nh, Usa, Ryan Christopher Adams

Master's Theses and Capstones

Anadromous river herring, including alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) provide critical ecosystem services across freshwater, estuarine, and marine habitats on the Atlantic coast. Population declines in recent decades have led to research and management efforts to improve adult survival and increase access to spawning habitats, primarily focusing on the freshwater phase of migration via barrier removal or remediation projects. Comparatively less research and management effort have investigated post-spawning movement behaviors and habitat usage, which may provide insight into developing successful management strategies. We used telemetry methods to assess barrier passage and track movements of adult river herring …

Transcriptomic Profiling Of The Actinorhizal Symbiosis: A Dual-Species Approach, Javier Arambula Rascon

Master's Theses and Capstones

The actinorhizal symbiosis, formed between the nitrogen-fixing actinobacterium Frankia and its host plant, depends on a highly coordinated molecular dialogue that governs the transition from initial bacterial perception to the development of functional nitrogen-fixing nodules. Despite decades of progress in characterizing the legume- rhizobia association, the molecular underpinnings of actinorhizal symbiosis establishment remain poorly resolved, particularly the nature of the Frankia signaling molecule and the transcriptional programs that guide both partners toward nodule formation. This thesis narrows this gap through three complementary transcriptomic studies in the model actinorhizal plant Casuarina glauca and its symbiont Frankia casuarinae strain Ccl3. The first …

Childbearing In The Anthropocene: Gendered Fertility Intention In The Context Of Climate Change, Ila Bartenstein

Master's Theses and Capstones

As anthropogenic climate change intensifies, recent studies have observed the extent to which individuals choose to remain “environmentally childfree,” or voluntarily childfree due to the impact the child may have on the environment, and their worry about the child’s wellbeing under climate change. Additional lines of research have noted that pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) – actions taken to reduce environmental harm – follow gendered patterns, with women being more likely than men to engage in PEB. Further, when presented with personal dilemmas that involve refraining from harmful actions, women have been found to express stronger moral reasoning than men. By connecting …

Integrating Unpiloted Aircraft System (Uas)-Based Thermal, Lidar, And True-Color (Rgb) Imagery With Random Forest For Land Cover Classification At A Northern Peatland, Darlyn Chavez

Master's Theses and Capstones

Background: Understanding the impacts of climate change on the Arctic is critical given the sensitivity of its ecosystems. As global temperatures rise and permafrost collapse, significant changes in land cover, hydrology, and carbon dynamics will occur across these vulnerable regions. Because methane emissions are directly influenced by vegetation communities in permafrost peatlands, accurate land cover classification is important for understanding greenhouse-gas (GHG) dynamics. However, these landscapes are highly heterogeneous at fine spatial scales, requiring high-resolution imagery capable of distinguishing simple and complex vegetation and land cover classes relevant to GHG dynamics. Technological advancements in remote sensing offer modern tools for …

Survival And Behavior Of Intertidal Eastern Oysters In Great Bay, New Hampshire, Selina Luo Cheng

Master's Theses and Capstones

Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are ecologically and economically important reef-building bivalves that support estuarine habitats as well as United States fisheries and aquaculture farms. While eastern oysters occur subtidally throughout their range, intertidal oysters are uncommon north of the Chesapeake Bay. Recent research has shown that rockweed Ascophyllum nodosum may facilitate eastern oyster expansion into the intertidal zone at northern latitudes, but mechanisms underlying this interaction are poorly understood. Characterizing intertidal oyster survival and behavior is key to better understanding their distributions in the northeastern United States. In Chapter 1, we conducted a full-factorial field experiment across seasons in Great …

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 …

Progressive Growth Decline Following Beech Leaf Disease Detection In American Beech, Patrick Lemis

Master's Theses and Capstones

Beech leaf disease (BLD) is an emerging forest disease affecting American beech (Fagus grandifolia), yet its effects on tree growth remain incompletely quantified. This study used dendrochronological methods to evaluate patterns of growth decline associated with BLD across multiple sites in the northeastern United States. Basal area increment (BAI) and relative BAI (relBAI) were used to quantify growth, with relBAI standardizing beech growth to co-occurring non-beech species to account for site-level environmental variation. Mixed-effects models were used to assess growth decline as a function of time since county-level BLD detection, disease severity, and hierarchical variation among trees and sites. The …

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 …

Cfd Simulations Of A Gas Turbine Combustor For Automotive Applications Using Openfoam, Philip Mather

Master's Theses and Capstones

A 9-burner annular micro gas turbine combustor designed by Brayton Energy for use as a range extender in a hybrid vehicle is modeled in OpenFOAM (V2412). The primary goal of this work is to obtain a reliable and computationally efficient OpenFOAM model for future analysis by Brayton Energy. Two primary simplifications are considered: a single-burner model and an artificial heat addition model.

The single-burner (40°) sector utilized cyclic (periodic) boundary conditions and the inherent symmetry of the combustor to reduce the simulation domain and hence decrease simulation time. The single sector was compared against a three-burner (120°) sector to assess …

Using Remote Sensing And Field Observations To Assess The Stability Of A Restored Cobble-Bedded River, Ryan Omslaer

Master's Theses and Capstones

Flooding is one of the most dangerous natural disasters in the United States, posing serious risks to human lives, damaging infrastructure, and necessitating costly repairs. Human modifications to rivers have led to channel incision and disconnection from floodplains, increasing fluvial erosive power and driving channel instability. The incised cobble-bedded Zealand River, located in northern New Hampshire, was recently reconnected to its historic floodplain via a diversion in hopes of restoring form and function. This study combines high-resolution remote sensing data and field observations to assess the stability of the restoration during the first year after project completion. UAS-based LiDAR and …

Dipy-Acenes: A New Family Of Air-Stable, Water-Soluble Organic Semiconductors, Linda Phan

Master's Theses and Capstones

ABSTRACTDiPy-Acenes: A New Family of Air-Stable, Water-Soluble, Small Molecule Organic Semiconductors

By Linda N. Phan University of New Hampshire, July 2026 This thesis describes a new class of acene derivative called DiPy-Acenes, short for dipyridinium acenes. DiPy-Acenes are air stable, water soluble dications composed of an acene core that is covalently attached to two separate pyridinium ions. A series of DiPy-Acenes containing naphthalene, anthracene, tetracene, and pentacene cores were studied both computationally (density functional theory calculations) and experimentally. Synthesized compounds were characterized using NMR spectroscopy, high-resolution mass spectrometry, UV-visible spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The electron-deficient pyridinium groups reduce the HOMO …

Rapid Assessment Of Steel Girder Bridge Safety Using Drone-Based Remote Sensing Data, Ethan Thomas Payne

Master's Theses and Capstones

The importance of bridge infrastructure is significant within the world of transportation. They provide quick and safe passage over obstacles that would otherwise impede the movement of goods and people. As bridges begin to age, it is important to perform inspections to assess the continued capabilities of the bridge’s performance. In some cases, lack of historical data and/or difficulty in accessibility can make it difficult to determine the reliability of the bridge. An efficient way to get information about bridge components and dimensions is to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) fit with cameras and Light Detection Ranging (LiDAR) sensors. This …

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 …

Characterization Of Coronal Mass Ejections Near 1 Au Using Simultaneous Measurements From Multiple Spacecraft, L1 And Stereo-A: 2022 To 2025, Sahanaj Aktar Banu

Doctoral Dissertations

In this thesis, we construct a database of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed by Windand STEREO-A between January 2022 and May 2025, near the maximum of Solar Cycle 25. During this interval, STEREO-A moved from 35◦ east to 35◦ west of the Sun–Earth line, providing a unique opportunity to investigate the longitudinal extent of CMEs near 1 au. A total of 106 CMEs were identified, of which only 39 events (∼ 37%) were detected by both spacecraft. The probability of simultaneous detection decreases rapidly with increasing angular separation, dropping to about 50% at separations of 14◦—20◦. These results suggest that …

Individual Differences In The Granularity, Complexity, And Diversity Of Bodily Sensations, Alexandra L. Ecker

Doctoral Dissertations

The majority of theories of emotion posit that the body is central to the experience of emotion (see, e.g., Barrett & Bar, 2009; Barrett, 2006; Lindquist, 2013; James, 1884; Schacter & Singer, 1962; Gendron & Feldman Barrett, 2009; Stemmler, 2004; Kreibig, 2010; Russell, 2003). Thus, it is no surprise that body awareness, or the subjective awareness of internal sensations (Mehling et al., 2009), has gained much attention in emotion research. There is some evidence that body awareness (BA) is related to both affective experience (i.e., general feelings of pleasantness/unpleasantness and activation/deactivation; MacVittie et al., 2025a), emotional intensity (i.e., the strength …

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 …

Uv-Vis Spectrophotometric Strategies For Stormwater Analysis: Lab- And Field-Verified Multivariate Regression, Monte Carlo Assessment Of Sampling Protocols, Cost And Power Budgets, And Field-Validated Best Practices, Daniel Macadam

Doctoral Dissertations

Stormwater runoff conveys nutrients, sediments, and pollutants to receiving waters. Conventional monitoring produces temporally sparse observations that introduce substantial uncertainty in pollutant load estimates. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry offers a continuous, high-resolution alternative but lacks a standardized calibration framework, formal comparison with conventional protocols, and field-validated operational guidance for stormwater applications. This dissertation addresses these three gaps.The first chapter developed and compared multivariate regression models (principal component regression, partial least squares regression, and artificial neural network) for predicting the concentrations of total nitrogen, nitrate, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus, reactive orthophosphate, and total suspended solids from UV-Vis absorbance spectra. The calibration …

Improving Physical And Biochemical Properties Of Gelatin Microgels For Tissue Engineering, Ziqiang Guan

Doctoral Dissertations

Gelatin-based microgels are modular biomaterial building blocks that can be injected and assembled into three-dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering. Their performance, however, is limited by the transport properties of individual particles, the difficulty of directly encapsulating cells while preserving viability and secondary crosslinking capacity, and the limited ability of passive scaffolds to provide externally controlled physical stimulation. This dissertation investigated three complementary strategies to expand the structural and functional capabilities of gelatin-based microgel systems. First, thermally stable porous gelatin/alginate microgels were produced using calcium-mediated ionic crosslinking and subsequently annealed with microbial transglutaminase. The resulting assemblies maintained internal porosity at physiological …

Baseline Studies To Quantify Microplastic Pollution In Living And Non-Living Estuarine Resources In Selected U.S. Atlantic Coast Estauries, Taja Sims-Harper

Doctoral Dissertations

Global plastic pollution is increasing in part because more than 90% of plastic is discarded and not recycled. Plastic travels from rivers, shorelines, coastal soils, and estuaries, ultimately reaching the open ocean, where it now represents the most abundant form of marine debris. Degradation of plastic polymers has resulted in smaller particles <5mm in size termed microplastics (MP). Attempts to quantify the amount of MP, especially in the oceans, are stymied by the variable interpretations of MP in samples. Their ability to remain suspended in the water column for long periods, means marine species are likely to accumulate MP over time in their muscles and organs and thus, marine MP have been reported to have multiple lasting effects in marine organisms around the world. The aim of this dissertation was to build a baseline of microplastic (MP) concentrations for Great Bay Estuary (GBE) and evaluate MP distribution patterns in the GBE water column and living resources.Surface water samples were collected May to November, 2018-2022 at multiple sites. The body burden of MP in three ecologically important taxa of Great Bay Estuary, NH (GBE) was determined from 310 specimens of each collected through the months of May through October in 2021 and 2022. and oysters were collected throughout the months of June and August of 2022 from two regions, Rehoboth Bay, Delaware, and Casco Bay, Maine. Microplastic burdens were quantified in gut content from European green crabs, Carcinus maenas, whole body preparations of Eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, and gut, gill, and muscle tissues from Atlantic silverside fish, Menidia menidia. Oysters collected throughout the months of June-August 2022 from two regions, Rehoboth Bay, Delaware, and Casco Bay, Maine, were analyzed for MP content to 1 determine if there were consistent predictable differences between farmed and wild. All three studies used standardized methods of separation, chemical digestion of biogenic matter, and filtration of MP, after which MP were quantified and analyzed using laser direct infrared (LDIR) spectrometry on all samples and specimens. Across 389 water samples, MP were detected in GBE waters at an average of 248±23 particles m-3. Particle quantity and morphology varied significantly across sites on any particular sampling day. On average, MP shapes were nearly circular. The most commonly identified particles were polyvinyl chloride (the third most common synthetic plastic used for packaging and construction), polypropylene (the most used thermoplastic polymer in food containers, automotive parts, and packaging), and polyamide (mostly known as nylon and used for automotive and machinery parts). Simulations using velocity fields obtained from hydrodynamic modeling and offline particle tracking algorithms showed significant spatial variation of MP particles sampled high and low tide, and particle distributions changed rapidly at all sites and at most sampling stations, usually by day two of a simulation. Most MP extracted from tissues were approximately 10-50 μm in diameter and had aspect ratios close to 1-1.5, indicative of rounder shapes. Most polymers detected (88±2%) were biogenic as opposed to anthropogenic, and 40±5% of biogenic particles were rubber. In living resources, the predominant anthropogenic MP among 14 total MP polymer types detected across all 40 specimens were polyurethane and polypropylene. European green crabs, C. maenas (n=20), had a gut MP range from 0-3 ́104 MP. Eastern oysters, C. virginica (n=10), had a whole-body range of 257-8 ́103 MP. Tissues from Atlantic silverside fish, M. menidia (n=10), had MP ranging from 725 to 11 ́104 in their guts, MP ranging from 11 ́104 to 32 ́104 in their gills, and MP in muscle tissue ranging from 2 ́103 to 3 ́103 MP. 2

Microplastics were found in 100% of farmed and wild oysters collected from Rehoboth and Casco Bays. The MP were predominantly circular, £ 50 μm in size, round (very few fibers), and consisted of many types of polymers. Numbers of MP g-1 wet tissue in Casco Bay oysters ranged …

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 …

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 …

Reed Retains Leads In Primary, General Election Matchups In Race For U.S. Senate From Rhode Island 8/26/2026, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Incumbent Democratic Senator Jack Reed continues to lead challenger Connor Burbridge in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, fueled by higher support from the center-left and older voters. Reed supporters most often cite his past experience as the reason for their support, while Burbridge supporters most often mention his policies. Reed continues to hold a comfortable lead over presumptive Republican nominee Raymond McKay, who is largely unknown in the state. A majority of Rhode Islanders believe Reed is mentally and physically capable of serving another term at the current age of seventy-six.