Digital Commons Network^™

Tales Out Of School: Delineating Student Speech Protections For The Digital Age, Jason Zenor

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The way students communicate has also changed greatly over the last generation, but in the first two decades of 21st Century, the U.S. Supreme Court had yet to answers questions about the extent of power for school administrators to control off-campus speech on digital technologies. Then in the case of Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L (2021) the U.S. Supreme Court finally answered this question by holding that administrators do have the ability to control off-campus speech. The Court did give some specific scenarios in which administrators had power to regulate off-campus, but it did not give a bright-line rule. …

Food Safety For Food Pantries What To Keep & What To Discard Poster, Mikayla Cerney

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Birth Right: Does A Lack Of Access To Health Coverage For Fertility Treatment For Single Individuals And Same-Sex Couples Constitute Discrimination?, Quinn Kobrin

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

There are often great costs associated with receiving fertility treatments such as IVF. Those who wish to overcome infertility and conceive may turn to their health insurance providers to find coverage for such treatments. Currently, many health insurance providers’ policies require that those seeking coverage show infertility either by (1) failing to conceive after six to twelve months of unprotected sexual intercourse; or (2) failing to conceive after six to twelve months of receiving fertility treatment. Advocates argue that such policies are discriminatory because classes of people such as same-sex couples and single individuals1 who wish to conceive cannot do …

Controls Of Benthic Microbial Communities In Headwater Streams Across A Land Use Gradient In Northeastern Usa, Joshua Michael Buonpane

Master's Theses and Capstones

Benthic microbes are important drivers of biogeochemical cycling in streams, influencing the storage, transformation, and emission of carbon and nutrients. While the impact of land use and land cover on water quality has been extensively studied, the connection between water quality and microbial community composition and function remains unresolved. In this study, we examined how the water quality changes accompanying watershed development impact the diversity, composition, and functional potential of benthic bacterial/archaeal, and fungal communities. This was explored in headwater streams across an urbanization gradient in the northeastern US. We did not find a link between urbanization and α-diversity of …

Ratiometric Fluorescent Sensors Based On Non-Covalent Crosslinked Molecular Imprinted Polymers, Yuan Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis describes a series of optical chemosensors based on FRET between fluorophores on the polymer and the substrate. It involved the preparation of the polymer and nanoparticles for the chemosensor, and the sensing behavior based on the preparation methods.A photophysically inert sensor matrix was prepared by a robust and simple emulsion method. Stannic oxide encapsulated silica nanoparticles with diameters between 25 and 70 nm have been prepared by one-pot reverse-phase emulsion methodology. The constituents and core/shell morphology of the nanoparticles were demonstrated by electron microscopic technology, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was …

Exploring The Mechanistic Effects Of Surface Characteristics On Uv254 And Bl405 Disinfection Efficacy, Castine Annastasia Bernardy

Doctoral Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for more robust surface disinfection technologies. Photoinactivation efficacy for microbial pathogens and many surrogates has been well studied for water disinfection. However, there is a limited body of knowledge from research on surface disinfection applications of these technologies. The onset of the global pandemic resulted in a dramatic increase in surface disinfection devices being marketed to consumers, yet regulations for such devices have not been developed. This doctoral research studies the inactivation efficacy of two wavelengths, UV254 and BL405. The objective of this doctoral dissertation was to expand the body of knowledge required to …

Aspects Of Localizing Quantum Information In Diffeomorphism-Invariant Theories, Adam Dukehart

Doctoral Dissertations

Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is often formulated using local operators, i.e., operators defined at points on a fixed background spacetime. However, General Relativity (GR) requires that observables be fully diffeomorphism invariant. This includes invariance not only under passive diffeomorphisms, which change the coordinate system but also active diffeomorphisms, which imply background independence and a dynamical metric. Localizing such systems and observables in quantum gravity has been a long-standing problem. This dissertation makes progress on two facets of this problem. Part I shows that a typical quantum information paradox using local operators cannot be embedded in a self-consistent, low-energy prescription which …

Learning Trajectories From Human Demonstration Via Time Invariant Dynamical Systems, Paul Gesel

Doctoral Dissertations

Learning from Demonstration (LfD) is a powerful approach that enables users to program robots by simply demonstrating how to perform tasks. Rather than just mimicking the task, the robot should capture key characteristics of the task to adapt and generalize in various situations. Given that there is no explicit objective for each demonstrated task, optimal control methods cannot be directly applied. Two primary paradigms have emerged to overcome the limitation: 1) inverse learning and 2) imitation learning. In this dissertation, I formulate several time-invariant and stable dynamic system-based LfD models that leverage both inverse learning and imitation learning in the …

Telehealth In The Wake Of Covid-19: The Impact Of Telehealth Expansion On Healthcare Access, Utilization, And Outcomes, Deirdre Ann Colburn

Doctoral Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented change to the healthcare industry, including a large and rapid shift to providing care through telehealth technologies. Though the expansion of telehealth services was successful in continuing to provide patients with care while preventing the spread of disease, it is less clear how patient sociodemographic characteristics influenced telehealth use during this time. Similarly, less is known about how or if state-level parity laws influenced rates of individual-level telehealth utilization. To address these areas of research, this dissertation does three things. First, I conducted a systematic review of the literature on demographic disparities in telehealth access, …

Exploring Protein Function And Stability: Case Studies On Cryoprotection And Thermal Stability Of Antifreeze Proteins, Enzyme Inhibition Of Sars-Cov-2 Main Protease, And B. Subtilis Protein Stability, Katarina Jovic

Doctoral Dissertations

In this work, I have explored basic questions related to protein structure, function, and stability, which are critical for understanding the fundamental mechanisms of biology. The dissertation is divided into four chapters, which are different topics I have worked on. In Chapters 1 and 2, I will discuss my work on two different antifreeze proteins, in Chapter 3 my work on the main protease from SARS-CoV-2 is presented, while Chapter 4 details the characterization of protein stability of four B. subtilis proteins. While the projects are distinct from one another, they all contribute to deciphering the molecular basis of life …

Developing Genetic Resources Within The Chenopodium Genus To Advance Quinoa Breeding And The De Novo Domestication Of C. Berlandieri, Clayton David Ludwig

Doctoral Dissertations

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), an orphan crop native to South America, is tolerant of drought and saline soils and produces a highly nutritious grain. Given these qualities, the demand for this pseudocereal has been steadily increasing, and quinoa breeding programs can now be found throughout the world. I believe the introduction of quinoa-like cultivars developed specifically for Northern New England (NNE) with the region’s climate and disease pressures taken into consideration will benefit local farmers and consumers. Quinoa breeding efforts must consider its allopolyploid (2n = 4x = 36: AABB) genome composition as well as its reticulate ancestry, having descended via …

Potential Vorticity Dynamics Driving Variability In Mean Tidal Currents Flowing Through Bounded Estuarine Channels, Katherine Anne Kirk

Doctoral Dissertations

Tidally induced pressure gradients in sea level drive mean estuarine tidal currents that can have horizontal spatial variability across a bounded channel or inlet. Strong cross-channel gradients in along-channel mean velocity set up extremums in the background potential vorticity that can support instabilities of tidal currents flowing through narrow, bounded estuarine channels and tidal inlets. In addition, conservation of potential vorticity including frictional terms, results in intensification of along-channel tidal currents over shallow lateral shelves. In the first part of this dissertation (Chapter 2), the dispersion equation of barotropic instabilities of tidal currents is analytically solved for simple bathymetry defined …

Towards Improved Genomic Surveillance Of Organisms, Joseph L. Sevigny

Doctoral Dissertations

DNA and RNA sequencing is an indispensable tool for the surveillance and monitoring of organisms. Technological advances and research opportunities over the past several years have transformed and driven my research questions; from understanding the impacts of environmental perturbations on complex benthic communities, to tracking and understanding emerging pathogens like SARS-CoV-2. All of them revolve around the use of DNA sequencing to ask fundamental questions about our understanding genomes and their relationship to phenotype and the environment. The advent of sequencing-based characterization has revolutionized our approach to studying organismal communities on a large scale, offering the ability to analyze vast …

Understanding The Role Of Impounded Water Bodies In River Network Nutrient Exports In A Dynamic Landscape, Christopher Thomas Whitney

Doctoral Dissertations

Impounded water bodies are a significant component of aquatic networks and various forms have been studied extensively. However, knowledge gaps exist in the research on human-made dams and their reservoirs as well as beaver ponds as both uniquely affect water quality and nutrient exports in different ways. This study fills those knowledge gaps by investigating fluxes of all forms of dissolved nitrogen from small, human-made reservoirs at seasonal timescales. This study found that small reservoirs have a significant effect on nitrogen concentrations but this effect is seasonal and fluxes transported downstream are highly dependent on discharge. Removal of small dams …

Investigating Posttranslational Modifications Of Hsp90 And The Epichaperome In Embryonic Stem Cells, Seth William Mcnutt

Doctoral Dissertations

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a highly conserved and essential molecular chaperone in eukaryotes. Through interactions with various co-chaperones, Hsp90 is able to adapt to meet the specific needs of a structurally and functionally diverse, but specific set of clienteles. The diversity of its clients makes it a key regulator of nearly all cellular processes, and it serves as a central hub for many different signaling networks. One of the major functions of the Hsp90 chaperone machinery is in the modulation of protein homeostasis, a protective function often exploited in cancer cells in order to buffer oncogenic mutations and …

Investigation Of Robust And Adaptive Control Methods For Systems With Uncertain Equilibrium States, Muhammad Hamad Zaheer

Doctoral Dissertations

Equilibrium states represent the natural resting point of dynamic systems in their state-space and provide vital information for the design of stabilizing feedback controllers for these systems. Stabilizing a system at an equilibrium state is desirable as it requires a zero steady-state control signal, resulting in lower energy consumption by the actuator. Mathematical models of real systems usually contain uncertainties that make it difficult to determine the exact values of these equilibrium states. Therefore, control methods requiring precise knowledge of the equilibrium state are ineffective in controlling systems when uncertainties make determining the exact value of the equilibrium state challenging …

Thoughtful Learning: An Investigation Of The Relationships Between College Students’ Achievement Appraisals And Thinking Patterns During Lecture, Shelby Lynn Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

The current set of studies examined whether two common appraisals that students make during learning (whether they have control over their learning and whether they place value into learning the material) give rise to common types of thoughts students also experience (mind wandering, personal connections, and freely-moving thought). Study One naturistically examined students’ appraisals and thoughts while learning in a real classroom. Study Two attempted to experimentally manipulate students’ appraisals and thus their thoughts in an online learning environment. Overall, results suggest that appraisals do seem to influence the thoughts students report experiencing, although results differ between online and classroom …

A Global Gene Expression Approach To Exploring Rock Colonization By Blastococcus Saxobsidens, Ryan Patrick Wilmot

Doctoral Dissertations

Introduction: Blastococcus saxobsidens is an endolithic bacterium associated with biodegradation of stone monuments across the Mediterranean basin. Recently, strains of the bacterium have been isolated from high altitude deserts in Chile, volcanic glass in Iceland, and from masonry of several cultural heritage sites across Europe and the Americas. Blastococcus saxobsidens global dispersion has been linked to patterns of wind distributed dust particles. The physiology that this bacterium uses to colonize a wide range of rock types in such distinct locations has not been previously explored however. This project has established that B. saxobsidens colonizes and respires a variety of chemically …

Displaying Phenylalanine Ammonia Lyases On Bacillus Subtilis Spore Surface For The Treatment Of Phenylketonuria Through Oral Administration, Guo Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

Bacillus subtilis spores are formed in response to adverse conditions as a survival mechanism. These spores are in a dormant state and do not require any nutrients. Their DNA is wrapped with self-assembled multilayers of protective proteins. These spores are highly resistant to various harsh conditions. B. subtilis spores serve as a well-characterized model for studying endospore formation and have been developed as a platform system for displaying heterologous proteins of various functions. It has been demonstrated that proteins displayed on the spore surface can enhance their robustness and extend their shelf-life, including enzymes as robust biocatalysts and antigens as …

Engineering Studies Of An Experimental Open Ocean Seaweed Farm Design, Zachary Moscicki

Doctoral Dissertations

An experimental seaweed cultivation system was designed for offshore and exposed locations. Novel features were incorporated to address major barriers to the expansion of seaweed, including limited nearshore and sheltered marine locations and risk of marine animal entanglement. A novel modular mooring geometry was developed to improve stability, reliability, and spatial efficiency to achieve an economical and robust structure viable in high wave energy environments. Stiff composite (e.g. fiberglass) rods were used to replace components typically made of rope, including mooring lines and seaweed growth substrate (cultivation lines), as a means to mitigate risk of marine animal entanglement.

This dissertation …

Understanding Riverine Plastic Accumulation Along An Urbanization And Spatial Gradient: A Plastics Study In The Ipswich River Watershed, Emily Kathryn Lever

Master's Theses and Capstones

Plastic pollution in marine and freshwater ecosystems is a pervasive issue on regional, national, and global scales. A portion of land-based plastics ends up in the world’s oceans through river transport; some land-based plastics are retained within the surface freshwater network. Little is known about how much plastic pollution entering the surface water network is stored vs. exported to oceans. We studied macro- and microplastic in a suburban coastal watershed, the Ipswich River Watershed of Massachusetts, USA in 2022 to gain a better understanding of plastic accumulation in sediments versus downstream flux during baseflow versus storms in streams of different …

An Exploration Of Conventional Beamforming Applied To A Phase Measuring Sonar, Joao Celso Silva De Deus

Master's Theses and Capstones

Brazilian rivers are a particularly challenging navigation environment because of frequentchanges in bathymetry due to sediment transport. To accelerate the production of hydrographic information for these regions, the Brazilian Hydrographic Office has been investigating efficient ways of riverine surveying. In this context, Phase Measuring Bathymetric Sonars (PMBS) are being considered because of their potential to provide wider swaths than traditional Multibeam Echo Sounders (MBES) in shallow waters. Although these systems historically had severe limitations in sounding quality and nadir density, new models with multiple stave pairs are being built to overcome these issues, including the EdgeTech 6205, which claims to …

Cultural Control Tactics For Managing Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila Suzukii, In New Hampshire Highbush Blueberry, Catherine Doheny Coverdale

Master's Theses and Capstones

Spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), is an economically important pest that damages small, soft-skinned fruits. Female spotted wing drosophila (SWD) have a heavily sclerotized, serrated ovipositor which allows them to lay their eggs in ripe and ripening fruits. Woven polyethylene weed mat has been reported to influence ambient temperature and relative humidity within blueberry canopies. There is a lack of context-specific evidence regarding the mechanisms impacting its efficacy and how it may interact with other control methods, like crop sanitizer sprays containing peroxyacetic acid (PAA) and hydrogen peroxide (HP).This study was a two-year, split-plot field experiment in …

Population Viability Analysis Of A Remnant New England Cottontail Population In Southern New Hampshire, Brett Ferry

Master's Theses and Capstones

ABSTRACT

Population Viability Analysis of a Remnant New England Cottontail Population in Southern New Hampshire

ByBrett Ferry University of New Hampshire, December 2023

Early successional forest in the northeastern United States provides habitat for a rich diversity of wildlife. Historically, weather events, beaver activity, and fires were continually creating a mosaic of early successional habitat. However, with modern land use very little early successional habitat is created, leading to the decline of the species’ that rely on it. New England cottontail (sylvilagus transitionalis) is an early successional obligate species whose population has been in decline since the mid-twentieth century. In …

Parental Bonds And Mental Health Treatment In Adolescence: An Analysis Of Disparities By Race And Sex, Jonni Norman

Master's Theses and Capstones

Awareness of adolescent mental health issues has been rising since the start of the twenty-first century. While certain barriers to adolescent mental health treatment have been alleviated due to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), racial barriers to treatment still exist. Many studies on racial and gendered disparities consider barriers to mental health treatment, such as stigma. Few examine the role of parents and parental bonds with children as key variables in understanding disparities in treatment. This thesis utilizes data from the 2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a cross-sectional nationally representative survey, for the …

Avian Functional Diversity Response To Changes In Forest Structure And Degradation In Northern New England, Michael Christopher Thompson

Master's Theses and Capstones

Exploitative forest harvesting has led to widespread economic degradation of forests across the northeastern United States. Tree species composition and structure vary across degradation categories, which may lead to differences in wildlife communities and the ecosystem functions wildlife provide. Avian communities in particular respond quickly to changes in habitat, are easy to survey, and contribute to a variety of important ecosystem functions. Here, we investigated the relationship between economic degradation and avian functional diversity focusing on the ecosystem functions of seed dispersal, nutrient cycling, and pest control. We found that avian functional diversity responded to degradation in a unimodal manner …

Meet The Students And Organizations Collaborating To Tackle Climate Change, Sustainability Institute

Sustainability Institute Blog

No abstract provided.

The Blueberry Gall Midge Complex And Its Specialist Parasitoids, Monique Michele Raymond

Master's Theses and Capstones

The cosmopolitan blueberry gall midge complex causes serious damage to the terminal vegetation of blueberry plants. The nature of their infestation, paired with prolonged periods of abundance, requires an integrated pest management approach. Of all known parasitoids present in the system, members of the subfamily Platygastrinae are the only oligophagous clade specialized against true gall midges. In this study, we present the results of blueberry gall midge and platygastrid surveys in high- and low-bush blueberry crops in the northeastern and southeastern United States, along with an identification key, with emphasis on blueberry parasitoid Synopeas species to facilitate their identification.

Creating A Supportive Environment For Older Adults In China ——Exploring Factors Associated With The Need For Home Modifications Based On A Cross-Sectional Survey In Central China, Jiajing Li, Bei Wu, Jing Wang

Faculty Publications

A supportive home environment is critical to the safety and quality of life of older adults. Home modification is an effective way to build a supportive home environment for older adults’ aging in place. However, there is a lack of knowledge on older adults’ need for home modifications in China. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in three provinces of China (Hubei, Hunan, and Henan) using stratified and cluster sampling methods in 2021. A total of 5485 older adults aged 60 and over were included. The outcome variables were: need for home modifications, level of need, and type of modification needed. …

Scope Reflects On Another Successful Concert At The Whittemore Center, Owen Mayer

Digital Edition

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