Digital Commons Network^™

How Do After-School Staff Use Social Networks To Support At-Risk Youth? A Social Capital Analysis, Katherine Philp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Little is known about the social capital of adults in after-school settings or the ways in which they use social contacts to support youth success, particularly for at-risk youth. Their effectiveness as brokers for learning opportunities may depend on aspects of their social capital: both the quantity and quality of their social networks as well as their attitudes and beliefs related to seeking help from social contacts. This mixed-methods study surveyed 50 after-school program staff serving teens in high-poverty neighborhoods to examine the characteristics of adult social capital and to explore attitudes towards mobilizing social resources to support youth. Surveys …

Imaging Through Glass-Air Anderson Localizing Optical Fiber, Jian Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The fiber-optic imaging system enables imaging deeply into hollow tissue tracts or organs of biological objects in a minimally invasive way, which are inaccessible to conventional microscopy. It is the key technology to visualize biological objects in biomedical research and clinical applications. The fiber-optic imaging system should be able to deliver a high-quality image to resolve the details of cell morphology in vivo and in real time with a miniaturized imaging unit. It also has to be insensitive to environmental perturbations, such as mechanical bending or temperature variations. Besides, both coherent and incoherent light sources should be compatible with the …

Asteroid Surfaces: The Importance Of Cohesive Forces, Keanna Jardine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adhesive forces play a significant role on airless bodies due to their weak gravities. Investigating adhesion at the surface of asteroids and their constituent components is vital to understanding their formation and evolution. Previous research has been done to understand the interaction of micron-sized spheres to planar surfaces and sphere-to-sphere interactions, which have been used to develop models of asteroid surfaces. Our investigation experimentally investigates adhesion through atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements between JSC-1 simulant particles and several AFM tips, including a typical pyramidal gold tip and microspheres of sizes 2 μm and 15 μm. The samples of JSC-1 consist …

Remediation Of Chlorinated Alkanes By Zero Valent Iron With Vitamin B12 And Utilization Of A Modified Gradual Release Of Responsibility Model In A Large Enrollment Chemistry Course, Nicole Lapeyrouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation looks at addressing environmental contaminants in the environment and the integration of an active learning style in an introductory chemistry course. It begins with addressing the concern for chlorinated propanes and ethane in the environment and the importance of looking into environmental remediation applications. This research looks at incorporating vitamin B12 as an environmentally friendly catalyst in the presence of zero valent iron for the reduction of chlorinated propanes and ethane. Chapter 2 presents the analytical methods and conditions in which samples were run. The results from these experiments are discussed in length in Chapter 3. Our …

Exploring Multi-Scale Variation Of Fish Community Diversity In A Dynamic Coastal Estuary, Brittany Troast

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Examining diversity over multiple spatial and temporal scales affords the opportunity to develop a mechanistic understanding of the factors influencing community diversity dynamics, and how these may shift in a changing world. This thesis first examines multi-decadal fish community diversity metrics across a coastal biogeographic transition zone to quantify changes in species assemblages, assess relationships between fish community diversity and the abiotic environment, and capture potential shifts in the location of a putative biogeographic break. Results of this chapter indicate not only a change in fish community composition, but also a shift in the location of the biogeographic transition zone. …

A Complete Approach To Predict Biodistribution Of Nanomaterials Within Animal Species From In-Vitro Data, Edward Price

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smart drug-design for antibody and nanomaterial-based therapies allows for optimization of drug efficacy and more efficient early-stage pre-clinical trials. The ideal drug must display maximum efficacy at target tissue sites, but to track and predict distribution to these sites, one must have a mechanistic understanding of the kinetics involved with the individual cells of the tissue itself. This process can be tracked through biological simulations coupled with in-vitro approaches, which result in a rapid and efficient in-depth understanding of drug transport within tissue vasculature and cellular environment. As a result, it becomes possible to predict drug biodistribution within live animal …

Sub-Terahertz Spin Pumping From An Insulating Antiferromagnet, Priyanka Vaidya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The combination of the spin transfer torque and spin Hall effects, or their reciprocal dynamical spin pumping and inverse spin Hall effects, respectively, enable reading and controlling the magnetization state in spintronics devices which are at the verge of mass commercialization as the next generation of energy-efficient and fast magnetic random-access memory applications with the use of ferromagnetic elements, e.g., the spin valve. However, these effects have remained elusive in antiferromagnetic-based devices up to date, despite the fascinating advantages offered by the absence of stray fields (zero net magnetization), Terahertz spin dynamics, and the widespread availability of metallic, insulating and …

Neurological Reactivity To Personalized Odors And Sounds In Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Michael Gramlich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a neurophysiological procedure that offers immense clinical utility due to its cost effectiveness, ease of use, and mobile application. Using fNIRS to measure neurological reactions to personalized trauma-related cues might strengthen diagnostic screening, tailor treatment planning, and improve detection of remission among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Odors elicit strong emotional responses but remain underutilized in clinical research. This fNIRS study examined whether personalizing combat-related odors and sounds to have a higher or lower match to distressing combat experiences increased the observed neurological effect among combat veterans with and without combat-related PTSD. This study …

A Grounded Theory Survey Study Of Teachers Perception Perpetuating The Deficit Narrative About Marginalized Students Of Color, Cavel Austin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The deficit narrative about marginalized students of color attributes their failure in school to some nature of innate cognitive deficiency, cultural, social, and familial dysfunctions among other schools of thoughts. The purpose of this grounded theory study is to provide a rich description about this phenomenon and to propose theoretical pedagogical adjustments in the classroom as it relates to educating students of color. The study applies Charmaz (2014) Constructivist approach to grounded theory methods to examine the following research questions: (RQ1) How do teachers' narratives about students of color depict their teaching experiences and (RQ2) How do teachers' narratives about …

Nanoplasmonics In Two-Dimensional Dirac And Three-Dimensional Metallic Nanostructure Systems, Alireza Safaei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surface plasmons are collective oscillation of electrons which are coupled to the incident electric field. Excitation of surface plasmon is a route to engineer the behavior of light in nanometer length scale and amplifying the light-matter interaction. This interaction is an outcome of near-field enhancement close to the metal surface which leads to plasmon damping through radiative decay to outgoing photons and nonradiative decay inside and on the surface of the material to create an electron-hole pair via interband or intraband Landau damping. Plasmonics in Dirac systems such as graphene show novel features due to massless electrons and holes around …

Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth Of Large Area 2d Mos2 Layers: Layer Orientation Control, Heterostructure Integration, And Applications For Stretchable Sensors., Md. Ashraful Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two-dimensional (2D)-layered MoS2 layers have exhibited a broad set of unusual and superior material properties unattainable in any traditional bulk materials, drawing significant research interests nowadays. For instance, they present excellent semiconducting properties accompanying high carrier mobility and large current ON/OFF ratio as well as extensive in-plane strain limit and thickness, projecting high suitably for emerging flexible and stretchable electronics. Such properties and applications strongly depend on the physical orientation and chemical composition of constituent 2D layers. 2D MoS2 layers chemically grown in two distinct orientations, e.g., horizontal alignment for electronics and optoelectronics, and vertical alignment for electrochemical and sensing …

Variation In Prospecting Behavior And Drivers Of Post-Fire Habitat Preference Among Juvenile Florida Scrub-Jays, David Sherer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Florida Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens, FLSJ; federally Threatened) are cooperatively breeding birds endemic to Florida and dependent on fire-maintained xeric oak scrub. FLSJs are year-round residents, highly territorial, and rarely disperse far from their natal territory. Lifetime reproductive success is highest among individuals breeding in early-successional habitat, usually less than 9 to 10 years post-fire. However, because scrub burns infrequently such early-successional, high-quality habitat is extremely limited and competition for it as breeding space is likely intense. Because some birds live long enough to experience habitat succession, FLSJs also occupy later-successional overgrown scrub, even though both survival and fecundity decline. Although …

Context-Centric Affect Recognition From Paralinguistic Features Of Speech, Andreas Marpaung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the field of affect recognition has progressed, many researchers have shifted from having unimodal approaches to multimodal ones. In particular, the trends in paralinguistic speech affect recognition domain have been to integrate other modalities such as facial expression, body posture, gait, and linguistic speech. Our work focuses on integrating contextual knowledge into paralinguistic speech affect recognition. We hypothesize that a framework to recognize affect through paralinguistic features of speech can improve its performance by integrating relevant contextual knowledge. This dissertation describes our research to integrate contextual knowledge into the paralinguistic affect recognition process from acoustic features of speech. We …

Role Of Tnfα Antagonists And Genetic Polymorphisms In Modulating Susceptibility To Mycobacterial Infection Among Patients With Crohn's Disease, Ahmad Qasem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha antagonists (anti-TNFα) have been extensively used for Crohn's disease (CD) treatment. Even though they may control CD symptoms initially, treatment response varies among patients, which seems to depend on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TNFα receptors superfamily 1A and 1B (TNFRSF1A/B). Most importantly, M. tuberculosis infection has been strongly associated with these medications, but no studies have elucidated the effects of anti-TNFα on CD associated with MAP (Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis; a possible causative agent of CD, and closely related to M. tuberculosis). Here, we investigated the effects of recombinant inflammatory cytokines and anti-TNFα therapeutics on …

Towards More Reliable Neural Network Learning Models, Navid Kardan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ideally, when a neural network makes a wrong decision or encounters an out-of-distribution example, its predictive confidence should be as low as possible. Three primary contributions in this dissertation address this challenge. The first two contributions are new approaches to mitigate overconfident predictions in modern neural networks. In the first (1), called competitive overcomplete output layer neural networks, several classifiers, as part of the same output layer, are trained simultaneously and later their consensus produces more reliable predictions. The second approach (2) reformulates the original classification problem into several new versions by combining classes together and training a classifier on …

Ribbeting Results: Emergent Infectious Diseases In Wetland Systems, Ariel Horner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

North American amphibians have recently been impacted by two major emerging pathogens, the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and iridoviruses in the genus Ranavirus (Rv). Environmental, seasonal and host factors may play important roles in disease dynamics, but few studies incorporate these components into their analyses. Here, we investigated the role of environmental, seasonal, genetic and location effects on driving Bd and Rv infection prevalence and severity in a biodiversity hot spot, the southeastern United States. We used quantitative PCR to characterize Bd and Rv dynamics in natural populations of three amphibian species: Notophthalmus perstriatus, Hyla squirella and Pseudacris ornata and …

Electronic Reminders To Improve Medication Adherence In Diabetes: A Quality Improvement Project, Lisa Wilson

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Diabetes often contributes to many co-morbid conditions and their complications. Non-adherence to medications is common in patients with chronic disease. The project aimed to improve medication adherence through the implementation of electronic messaging. The project was set in a private medical practice within a critical access hospital. Participants were patients of the practice with diabetes.

METHODS: Baseline assessment included review and documentation of HgBA1cs, prescription requests, and past medical history. The development of an intervention to improve medication adherence utilizing electronic reminders was based on Bandura’s (1989) Social Cognitive Theory and Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior.

INTERVENTION: The …

The Effects Of Eicosapentaenoic Acid (Epa) And Docosahexaenoic Acid (Dha) On Brown Adipogenesis In Stem Cell Culture, Darynne A. Dahlem, Yan Huang

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are major maternal dietary supplements due to their positive benefits on neurological tissue growth during the first 12 weeks of gestation. Previous studies show that EPA and DHA inhibit muscle formation but promote adipogenesis. However, no research has addressed the question whether high intake of EPA and DHA affects brown fat development during gestation. The objective of this study was to measure the effect of EPA and DHA supplement on brown adipogenesis and potential pathways related to mitochondrial biosynthesis using fibroblasts as in vitro model. Using Oil-Red-O staining …

Impact Of Selected Infrared Wavelengths On Inactivation Of Microbes On Rough Rice, Rebecca L. Bowie, Griffiths Atungulu, Abass Oduola, Shantae Wilson, Zeinab Mohammadi-Shad

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Formation of harmful microbes and their associated mycotoxins on rough rice during storage presents negative socioeconomic impacts to producers and consumers. The objective for this study was to investigate the impact of treating rough rice with selected infrared (IR) wavelengths at different IR intensities and heating durations, followed by a tempering step for further inactivation of microbes (mold and bacteria) on the grain. Freshly-harvested long-grain, hybrid, rough rice (XL 745) with initial moisture content (IMC) of 18.4% wet basis (w.b.) was used. Two-hundred grams (200 g) samples of rice were treated at different IR wavelengths (λ), 3.2, 4.5, and 5.8 …

Anthocyanin Stability In Food Products Made With Freeze-Dried Blueberry Powder, Samantha R. Findley, Luke Howard

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

This study evaluated the stability of anthocyanins in six blueberry products (gummy, graham bar, oatmeal bar, rice krispy bar, ice pop and juice) prepared with freeze-dried wild blueberry powder during processing and over eight weeks storage. Total anthocyanins were determined by HPLC before processing and at day 0 and 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of storage. Thermal processing of gummy and graham bar products resulted in losses of anthocyanins (50 and 31%, respectively). An eight-week storage time also resulted in a decrease in anthocyanins (7 to 51%) in products stored at ambient temperature. The ice pop, which was stored …

The Diversity Of Terrestrial Mammals Surrounding Waterfall At Billy Barquedier National Park, Kelsey Johnson, Jason Apple

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Billy Barquedier is a National Park located in the Stann Creek district of Belize that contains Neotropical vegetation and wildlife. This study was performed to provide a baseline inventory and appearance frequency patterns of the terrestrial mammals located within Zone 1 of the park near a waterfall and to gain a greater understanding of the biodiversity and activity patterns of terrestrial mammals within the park. The methods included camera traps, small Sherman live traps, large live traps, and tracking methods. A non-random sampling method of placing camera traps and live traps on or near human-made or animal-made trails was used …

No Lack Of Beds: Sanitationism, Gender, And Hospital Spaces In The Victorian Novel, Elizabeth Sheckler

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

NO LACK OF BEDS:

SANITATIONISM, GENDER, AND HOSPITAL SPACES IN THE VICTORIAN NOVEL

by Elizabeth Sheckler

University of New Hampshire

May 2019

The Victorians wrote extensively about the changes in medical practice between 1800

and 1910, both in public discourse and through their fiction. As a result, Victorian scholarship

often includes medicine. While approaches are varied, they are typically either concerned with

diseases, character models (like doctors), or medical interventions alongside other public

institutions (public health).

Scholars in interdisciplinary fields as well as in Victorian literature have written on medicine in the nineteenth century, including both historiographies on topics …

I. The Binding Of Cu(Ii) And Zn(Ii) To Poly-N-Isopropylacrylamide And Its Effects On The Phase Transition And Ii. The Synthesis And Characterization Of Nickelalactones Chelated By P-N-P Pincer Ligands, Luke Aaron Fulton

Doctoral Dissertations

The responsive material poly-N-isopropylacrylamide phase-transitions from hydrophilic to hydrophobic conformations above 32 °C in aqueous media. Researchers have successfully tied that responsive behavior to other dissolved species such as pH, metal concentrations, and even glucose concentration. From our interests in developing sensor technologies we ascertained that direct interactions between metal ion and polymer had received little to no attention. Our investigations into this literature gap discovered that dissolved metal ion only slightly shifts the lower critical solution temperature. However, metal ion greatly increases the size of polymer aggregates, and is found to bind directly to the polymer. We present a …

Evaluation Of New England Salt Marsh Support Of The American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, And The Impacts Of Hydrologic Restriction, Alyson L. Eberhardt

Doctoral Dissertations

American eels are frequently captured in saltmarsh habitats yet little is known about eel use of these systems. Coastal systems such as salt marshes are vulnerable to habitat impacts due to high rates of coastal development, including impacts from undersized culverts that result in tidally restricted systems upstream. Given the decline in the American eel population, a need exists for a clearer understanding of the functional difference of hydrologically restricted and unrestricted salt marshes in the support of eels. To address data gaps and inform saltmarsh management to support eels, laboratory and field experiments were employed that assessed the value …

Coastal Conflicts And Cross-Sectoral Engagement: Learning From Disputes Over Science In Coastal And Ocean Systems, Lindsey C. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

It is widely accepted that public policy decisions that account for scientific and technical advice are likely to improve outcomes for all. With more data and information available though, it is becoming increasingly difficult to even agree on the baseline facts. This research explores the question: How do cross-sectoral engagement opportunities influence science intensive disputes over the management of coastal and ocean resources? To address this question, I studied two cases in New England: 1) marine fisheries management (Northeast Multispecies Complex aka groundfish) and 2) estuarine water quality management (Great Bay, New Hampshire). Informed by participant observation and semi-structured interviews …

Estimation Of Measurement Uncertainty Of Seafloor Acoustic Backscatter, Mashkoor Malik

Doctoral Dissertations

In the last three decades, Multibeam echo sounders (MBES) have become the tool of choice to study the seafloor. MBES collects two distinct types of data: bathymetry that provides topographic details of the seafloor and backscatter that has the potential to characterize the seafloor. While the uncertainty associated with MBE bathymetry has been well studied, the uncertainty in MBES backscatter measurement has received relatively little attention, hindering the improvements in quantitative analysis of backscatter data. Both acquisition and processing stages can introduce uncertainty in the final seafloor backscatter products. Application of well-established uncertainty quantification principles to seafloor backscatter data is …

The Purpose And Value Of Agricultural Experiment Stations Today: A Perception Study Of The Directors Of State Agricultural Experiment Stations, Lori Wright

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the dynamic relationship of the purpose and value of state agricultural experiment stations today as perceived by a sample of the directors of state agricultural experiment station in the United States funded by the Hatch Act of 1887. State agricultural experiment stations are a fundamental component of the land-grant university system; they are the original model and the first centers for applied research at most flagship state land-grant research universities in the United States (Kerr, 1987; Knoblauch, 1962). The purpose of state agricultural experiment stations has evolved since their inception as new agricultural issues have arisen, new …

Forecasting Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In A Changing Climate, Meghan Ann Hartwick

Doctoral Dissertations

The distribution, transmission and adaptation patterns of infectious diseases are changing worldwide. Though there are many potential mechanisms that can transmit infectious agents to new areas, the ability of pathogens to persist in new locations can be largely attributed to changing climate conditions, especially in temperate regions. Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a naturally occurring bacteria in most marine and estuarine systems, provides a model example of these globally observed climate-related changes to disease dynamics that are occurring locally in the Northeast, US. Like many Vibrio species, pathogenicity in human hosts is believed to be limited to a subset of strains, whereas the …

The Role Of Replication Protein A Large Subunit Family In Pathogen-Induced Dna Damage In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Nancy Lynn Fernandes

Doctoral Dissertations

The DNA of every organism is under continuous attack from both environmental agents, errors in DNA replication, and reactive oxygen species produced from cellular metabolism. The preservation of genome stability and integrity is essential to counteract threats to genome integrity. Eukaryotic organisms have evolved a complex set of mechanisms to sense DNA damage and initiate repair of the damage or death of the cell, collectively called the DNA damage response (DDR).

One of the main causes of detrimental DNA damage is due to microbial pathogens, both in mammals and in plants. In humans Escherichia coli, Helicobacter pylori and Pseudomonas aeruginosa …

Assessing Potential Impacts Of Climate Change On American Lobsters (Homarus Americanus) With Novel Tools And Techniques, Benjamin C. Gutzler

Doctoral Dissertations

The Gulf of Maine is currently experiencing rapid environmental changes, in the form of warming temperatures, increasing acidity, and a benthic ecosystem that is dominated by the American lobster (Homarus americanus) as the sole major predator and most significant fishery. The overall goal of my dissertation research was to investigate how the increased stress from warmer, more acidic, waters might impact individual lobsters, and thus lobster populations. To address this overall objective it was necessary to develop novel methods for investigating lobster behavior and reproduction, a theme that will run throughout this dissertation. In Chapter Two, I developed a new …