Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling The Impact Of Adding Cryptocurrency In A Portfolio, Ashley Pineault

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study examines the backgrounds of Bitcoin and Ethereum. How they came about, where they differ from one another in functions, and what investors believe will be a better cryptocurrency stock as an investment to include in an optimized portfolio. It will also study the impact of adding two leading cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, into a hypothetical, optimal investment portfolio. Data collection includes the adjusted closing price of 30 diversified stocks from 2016 to 2021. Those adjusted closing prices are the beginning of determining the optimal portfolio for three separate portfolios. One has the Ethereum cryptocurrencies, the other has Bitcoin …

Barbarians & Heretics: Anti-Greek And Anti-Latin Sentiments In Crusade-Era Chronicles, 1096-1204, Ryan Saputo

Honors Theses and Capstones

Historians have debated the role of stereotypes and hostile language in the diversion of the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople mostly through the outdated "Clash of Civilizations" lens. This work investigates the role of hostile stereotypes in both Western and Byzantine narrative histories discussing the first four crusades through a deep textual and literary analysis. This work argues that contemporary narrative histories from the first four crusades demonstrate that virulently hostile attitudes abounded in both Byzantine and Western sources, and that these attitudes greatly affected diplomatic and political decision making during Byzantine-Crusader interactions from 1096-1204. This work's close textual examination of …

Uncovering The Interest Of Private Landowners In Learning More About Landscaping With Native Plants, Catherine A. Taylor

Honors Theses and Capstones

Increasing populations in New England and the subsequent residential development associated with this growth has had profound impacts on local ecosystems. Residential development often results in habitat loss and fragmentation (Radeloff et al, 2009). Habitat fragmentation, or dividing habitat into smaller, less dense parts, can induce the decline of local populations of native species and interrupt vital ecosystem services. Important services offered by functioning ecosystems include carbon sequestration, flood reduction, and water purification. It has been shown that benefits can be restored to local ecosystems through strategies to restore ecosystem functions (Burghardt et al, 2008). On an individual household scale, …

Morality-Based Messaging? An Examination Of State Health Departments’ Facebook Posts In Advertising Covid-19 Vaccines, Kylee R. Casner

Honors Theses and Capstones

COVID-19 vaccination is an important public health tool in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, but vaccination rates in the U.S. are inadequate for reaching herd immunity, leaving public health officials to develop strategies to increase vaccination rates. The field of public health has historically used stigmatizing messaging to encourage health behaviors. Through a content analysis COVID-19 Facebook posts made by the Alabama Public Health, Mississippi State Department of Health, Rhode Island Department of Health, and Vermont Department of Health, this study explores the types of messaging used to influence COVID-19 vaccination behavior and looks to determine if stigmatization of non-vaccination is …

Enhancing Peripheral Intravenous Line Maintenance Practices Among Nurses In A Critical Care Setting: A Quality Improvement Project, Jaylene Velasquez

Honors Theses and Capstones

Abstract

Background: One of the major risks of infection lies in a patient’s intravenous (IV) access. On a cardiac intensive unit, a Levell II trauma center, preventing adverse events (i.e. infections, sepsis, etc.) is essential within this unit due to the nature of these health conditions. To ensure patient safety, nurses must abide by evidence-based practices and facility guidelines regarding intravenous line management. This quality improvement (QI) project implemented interventions to enhance nursing practices for peripheral intravenous therapy.

Methods: This project included statistical analysis and audits to measure the impact of the interventions. The variables being observed in this project …

Effects Of 3d Printing On Clay Permeability, Morghan Carr

Master's Theses and Capstones

Advances in additive manufacturing create unique opportunities for the investigation of permeability of fine-grained soils. The permeability of fine-grained soils, such as clay, play an important role in various design considerations in the geotechnical, environmental, and stormwater management systems. Additionally, the investigations of flow through fractured clayey soils would benefit the empirical correlations that do not consider flow through macropores. This thesis investigates the feasibility of investigating permeability of 3D printed cylindrical clay specimens for the eventual application for flow through fractured clays. The effect of 3D printing, specifically direct binder jet printing, on the permeability, and other physical properties …

The Liberatory Potential Of Fashion, David Billie Suoth

Honors Theses and Capstones

Fashion has the potential to be liberatory and this can be seen in the ways fashion has been targeted by systems of oppression. Fashion is the use of clothes as a vessel to create a greater social meaning. According to Edward Sapir, the meaning of fashion “while it is primarily applied to dress and the exhibition of the human body is not essentially concerned with the fact of dress or ornament, but with its symbolism” (Barnard, 2007, p. 65). Fashion with the symbolism behind it is able to show the sentiments and attitudes of civilization at different points in history …

Examining The Brand Image Of Paul College, Rebecca E. Milbury

Honors Theses and Capstones

The idea of a company’s brand image is a marketing subject that many companies need to consider. How consumers see or feel about a company is extremely important especially for higher education. Business schools are very competitive and in order to succeed, they need to understand how their students, alumni, faculty, and staff feel about their school. The results of the brand image survey are compared to those from a recent study completed in 2016. There are a few changes made to this survey, including adding alumni, faculty, and staff to the respondent pool. In doing so, this research will …

An Examination Of Effective Length In Moment Frames, Connor Stephen Schott

Honors Theses and Capstones

The honors thesis project I have been working on is called An Examination of Effective Length in Moment Frame. When loaded axially in compression columns experience a failure mode in compression that axially loaded members don’t experience in tension. This failure mode, elastic column buckling, doesn’t involve yielding or rupture; the column changes shape and deforms to the side. In order to come up with a solution to this failure mode, Leonhard Euler developed the critical buckling load equation. However, this equation uses an effective length of columns, which is the distance between two points of zero moment, or …

Nursing Student Self-Efficacy In Clinical Skills, Levels Of Anxiety, And Utilization Of Alternative Education Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, David Hart

Honors Theses and Capstones

Background: Higher education students, especially those studying nursing, faced many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many higher education institutions decided to transition their clinical experiences into a virtual, e-learning format (Chandratre, 2020). As an area of study with high levels of stress and anxiety to begin with, these emotions may have been exacerbated during the pandemic for those studying nursing. Sudden changes in clinical format caused increased anxiety levels in senior nursing students (García-Gonzalez et al., 2021). Graduating students are entering a workforce of healthcare workers who have battled the COVID-19 illness and exposed themselves and their families to this …

Experiential Learning Versus Microcredentials: Educational Needs Of Undergraduate Students And Working Professionals, Hannah Wirth

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper looks at the characteristic differences between undergraduate students and working professionals and whether experiential learning or microcredentials are more effective in satisfying the educational needs of either group of learners. The characteristics used to define undergraduate students, working professionals, experiential learning, and microcredentials are choices, needs, motivation, learning style, and self-awareness. Based on these characteristics, the study predicted that experiential learning would better suit the educational needs of undergraduate students and microcredentials would better suit the needs of working professionals. The study’s hypotheses were designed from observations of the Business in Practice program at the University of New …

The Health Effects Of Anthropogenic Pm2.5 Emissions, Andrew Charles Meyer

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study analyzes the health impacts of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), a common anthropogenic pollutant resulting from vehicles, manufacturing, and wood burning. PM2.5 is an emission of particular concern given its small size of roughly 2.5 micrometers, allowing it to stay in the atmosphere for up to 10 days and penetrate the deepest area of the lungs, the alveoli. This penetration can lead to adverse respiratory and cardiovascular health outcomes, and ultimately lead to an increased mortality rate. This study utilizes data from 1,885 counties in the U.S. between 2001 and 2017, and included health outcome, PM2.5 , and demographic …

Investigating Signs Of Orbital Decay In The Tres-1 Exoplanetary System, Amanda F. Wester

Honors Theses and Capstones

Transit observations of exoplanetary systems can be used to investigate orbital decay. TrES-1b is an exoplanet hypothesized to be experiencing orbital decay due to observed transit timing variations (TTVs) [12]. Numerous transits must be observed to establish a long term pattern to conclusively determine if the planet’s orbit is decaying. Measurements were made using the UNH Observatory where 2 transits were observed of the TrES-1b transiting system on February 27, 2022 and March 5, 2022. A CCD camera was used to image the transit and capture calibration images. The software AstroImageJ (AIJ) was used to calibrate the images and perform …

The Newsworthiness Of Increasingly Expected Murder: Foreign Press Coverage Of The Parkland Shooting, Jasmine Skye Taudvin

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Corporate Tax Rates And Foreign Investment On Unemployment In Tax Haven Nations, Timothy M. Campbell

Honors Theses and Capstones

Corporate tax haven nations are infamous for offering corporations lower tax rates so that they can operate at lower costs and increase their profits. How the tax policies of tax havens impact the citizens of those nations is seldom discussed. This paper aims to determine if the policies undertaken by tax havens to increase foreign investment benefit the welfare of the citizens of those nations in terms of employment rate. Using a small preliminary sample of havens and non-havens, an inverse relationship is observed between corporate tax rate and foreign direct investment, and corporate tax rate and employment. A larger …

Comparing Twins Ion Temperature Maps With Mms, Ampere, And Themis Observations During July 26, 2017 Reconnection Event, Isabella M. Householder

Honors Theses and Capstones

The solar wind releases a constant stream of ionized particles into space which causes complex behaviors to occur within Earth’s magnetosphere. These disruptions can initiate magnetic reconnection and cause flow reversal of ions in the magnetotail. Two flow reversal events were locally detected by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) on July 26, 2017 at 0700 UT and 0730 UT. The Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers (TWINS) provide a global measurement of heated signatures of the magnetic field and detected an increase in ion temperature during these reconnection events without the presence of a geomagnetic storm. Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics …

De-Fi Protocol Token Valuation By Projecting Token Flows And Estimating An Appropriate Risk Premium, Anders C. Brucker

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Location And Calibration Of Lightning Pulses From Lofar Radiation Measurements, Nicholas R. Demers

Honors Theses and Capstones

Lightning has the power to shock and awe as an incredible force of nature, yet so many phenomena surrounding lightning are still not well-understood. In fact, the very physics regarding what actually sparks a lightning strike remain poorly defined. In an effort to understand how lightning initiation is achieved, data collected from the Low Frequency Array in the Netherlands were calibrated and interferometry performed to map the flash in 4D space. The calibration process itself is explored, from choosing lightning sources to calibrate, to the various stages of calibration leading to a fully calibrated flash ready for interferometric analysis. Using …

The Technical Skills Valued By Public Accounting Firms, Nicholas P. Mokas

Honors Theses and Capstones

Accounting firms are continually working to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their work. As part of these efforts, firms adopt new technologies like bots, analytics, and specialized software. As accounting firms become increasingly reliant on newer technologies, colleges need to continually reevaluate their required curricula to ensure that their students are adequately prepared for their future careers in accounting. To fill a gap in the extant literature, the objective of this study is to examine the technologies and skills accounting firms value and the proficiency of new hires with these technologies and skills. To complete this objective, a survey …

Development Of A Fluxgate Magnetometer Model, Eleonora Olsmats

Honors Theses and Capstones

As a part of the UNH SWFO-L1 mission to monitor space weather and the sun’s behavior, the fluxgate magnetometer is an important component to measure external magnetic fields. The basic principle of a fluxgate magnetometer is to detect changes in the ambient magnetic field by inducing a magnetic field in a ferromagnetic material via a drive winding. Each magnetometer is unique due to the ferromagnetic properties of the core material which can be seen in the hysteresis loop which is a relationship between the magnetic field strength (H) and the induced magnetic field (B). Measuring the hysteresis of a fluxgate …

Personal Intelligence And Student Employees, Miah Munro

Honors Theses and Capstones

Personal intelligence involves the capacity of individuals to accurately reason about personality and personality-related information that is related to themselves and others (Mayer, 2008). One setting that may particularly benefit from research on personal intelligence is the workplace. To understand employees’ logic, Peters and colleagues (2021) employed a narrative evaluation tool adapted from Allen (2017) to assess the perceived sophistication employees’ use to describe an interaction they had with a difficult or challenging coworker. They found that judges could reliably detect variations in the sophistication employees used, and that it was related, r = .43, p < .001, to a measure of personal intelligence. Their results were intriguing, but more confidence regarding their findings could be added through replication and extension of the work. Previous findings were replicated, which makes for a more compelling case that personal intelligence is detectable in employees and is related to what we think of as personal intelligence. Understanding personal intelligence in the workplace can enhance the capabilities of the human resource professionals to select personnel, which will ultimately improve their hiring process.

Distributed Partial Differential Equation Solving With Julia Fast Fourier Transform Library, Christopher E. Mottola

Honors Theses and Capstones

Scientific computing relies on advanced computational and mathematical techniques to solve complex problems in scientific domains. For the numerical rendering of spectral, nonlinear, and dynamic phenomena, there is a growing need for greater availability of a broad class of Fourier-based algorithms to perform large scale operations on multidimensional data in distributed and optimized ways. To this effect, the Julia programming language is new and has significant advantages compared to other common languages used in scientific computing. The research presented here formulates a basis for further development in high-performance scientific computing of periodic partial differential equations through the application of distributed …

Narratives About The Role Of Recreation, Place Attachment, And Community Attachment And Their Effects On Youth Future Orientation In New Hampshire, Hannah Joy Falcone

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Mindfulness And Pain Regulation: The Role Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Individuals With Chronic Pain, Ariana C. White

Honors Theses and Capstones

Chronic pain is a significant and widely prevalent health condition which requires comprehensive care to address the many facets contributing to symptomatology. In 2016, 20% of American adults (about 50 million) reported experiencing chronic pain, of which 7.4% indicated that chronic pain frequently limited their life and participation in activities within the past 3 months (CDC, 2018). As a result, many individuals with chronic pain turn to opioid-based medication for pain relief, but long-term use of opioids actually increases pain sensation (Tobin, 2019). Moreover, opioid medication is unable to target underlying mental health components which emerge as part of chronic …

Tinkering With Tinker: Why The Supreme Court Must Protect Student Speech Through Social Media, Alexis Roach

Honors Theses and Capstones

The goal of this paper is to address the failing of the Supreme Court in their decision of the case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.[1]. While the Court defended students’ rights to free speech under the First Amendment in Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)[2], they have since restricted that right through a number of cases. While the Court’s decision in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. protected student speech, the Court failed to provide a standard for application in cases regarding social media in schools. This paper argues that while the Court was correct in …

Reintegration Of Licensed Practical Nurses Into The Acute Care Setting: Impact On Patient Perception Of Care, Darius J. Love

DNP Scholarly Projects

Background: Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) were reintegrated into the acute care setting of a hospital in Florida. The addition of this skill set was implemented in response to the national Registered Nurse shortage, and the need to increase resources at the bedside; with the goal of, maintaining high quality care and not compromising the patient’s perception of care received. Research supports that adequate bedside nursing resources has a direct impact on patient outcomes and patient perception as it relates to the quality of care they received during the course of their inpatient stay.

Objective: The objective of this project is …

Replicating Nature: Functional And Morphological Biomimicry As Blueprints For Synthetic Macromolecular Structures, Erinn Kay Reville

Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to provide insight into synthetic materials that replicate the function and structure of natural materials. First, a comprehensive overview of the challenges and recent advances in tailored synthetic molecular recognition through molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) will be presented. Chapter 2 of this work discusses the synthesis of azlactone-based homopolymers as functional polymers tuned for the detection of opioid molecules. Through the rapid and efficient ring-opening reaction of azlactone pendant chains with primary amines, customized functionalization of the homopolymers with receptor-like moieties was achieved post-polymerization. Chapter 3 explores the use of functionalized diblock copolymers as …

Application Of Signal Processing Techniques For Health Monitoring And Damage Detection Of Memorial Bridge, Forouzandeh Mazaherimeybodi

Doctoral Dissertations

Aging and deterioration and damage to infrastructure elements such as bridges, roads, and tunnels, are some of the biggest concerns to the uninterrupted operation of the US transportation network.Structural health monitoring (SHM) is one of the most powerful tools proposed by the civil engineering research community as an economical and objective method for civil infrastructure management and condition assessment. A typical SHM process consists of continuous or periodic estimations of structural parameters based on a sensor network, feature extraction, and statistical modeling for feature classification to detect any damage that occurred to the structure. Due to the evolution of building …

Synthesis Of Model Oxepin Substrates For Comparative Two Electron Oxidation Studies With Cytochrome P450 And Cerium Ammonium Nitrate To Investigate Benzene Metabolism, Ryan William Fitzgerald

Doctoral Dissertations

Two model oxepins were synthesized in an attempt to model the metabolism of benzene in the human liver. 4,5-Benzoxepin was subjected to similar enzyme reactions that the oxepin metabolite itself would encounter if one was exposed to benzene. In addition, a synthesis of 2,3-benzoxepin was completed in order to compare enzyme and non-enzyme catalyzed reactions with that of 4,5-benzoxepin. In an attempt to test the validity of the enzyme reactions, the model oxepins were also reacted with a two single electron oxidizing inorganic salt, cerium (IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) to see if the intermediates following the enzyme reaction were consistent. …

Enhancing Gdf1 Expression With Devil’S Club (Oplopanax Horridus) Extracts In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Vasiliki Papakotsi

Doctoral Dissertations

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clonal hematopoietic malignancy with highly heterogeneous molecular and clinical profiles. It is one of the deadliest blood cancers, resulting in approximately 10,000 deaths each year. Impaired hematopoiesis is one of AML’s hallmarks. This entails defective erythropoiesis and proliferation of undifferentiated myeloblasts. AML is also characterized by chemoresistance and high relapse rates. Despite significant advances in treatments, there is no cure for AML. Therefore, there is an emerging and unmet need to shift away from traditional chemotherapeutics and focus on targeted therapies with curative potential. Growth/differentiation factor 1 (GDF1) is a member of the TGFβ …