Digital Commons Network^™

Mobilizing Indigenous Research Methodologies And Wabanaki Knowledge In Biophysical Research To Restore Wabanaki Sweetgrass Harvesting In Acadia National Park And Identify Basket Quality Black Ash Habitat For Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus Planipennis) Preparedness, Suzanne Greenlaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black ash (wikpiyik/Fraxinus nigra) and sweetgrass (suwitokolasol/Anthoxanthum nitens) are two culturally important species to Wabanaki (Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, and Abenaki) people, and to many other Native American tribes across the species’ ranges. Wabanaki relationships with black ash and sweetgrass include creation stories, generational stewardship practices, important economic markets, and cultural identity. Land use patterns, changes in access, invasive species, and climate change are negatively affecting both the health of black ash and sweetgrass and Wabanaki people’s relationship to these species. This dissertation consists of five chapters that mobilize Wabanaki knowledge and address Wabanaki access to sweetgrass and an invasive …

Estimation Of Wood Pulp Fiber Species Composition From Microscopy Images Using Computer Vision, Tyler Seekins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pulp mills and papermakers require careful control of input raw materials. The paper pulp composition, consisting of blends of different wood fiber types, affects multiple final product properties in interacting ways and impacts process operating conditions. Manual estimation of composition by classification and counting using microscopy is time consuming, repetitive, error-prone, and fibers are not always identifiable. Using a dataset of 359,840 fibers from 12,690 images of either hardwood or softwood fibers from 423 microscopy slides with data partitioned into 60% training, 20% validation, and 20% testing splits by slide, and a sequence of principal components analysis, Gaussian mixture, image …

Assessing The Role Of The Microbiome, Parasite Infections, And Movement In Avian Health, Olivia N. Choi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Avian health encompasses the physical, physiological, and behavioral well-being of birds. Assessing avian health is not only important for the conservation and management of wild birds and the recreational economy, but also for the management of infectious diseases that threaten public health and agriculture. Birds, comprising approximately 10,000 species and an estimated 50 billion individuals worldwide, are known to be involved in the spread of pathogens, some of which are zoonotic (from animals to humans), such as avian influenza and West Nile viruses. Individual measures of avian health may include physical measurements (e.g., body mass, wing length), pathogen infection status, …

Quantifying Tidewater Glacier-Fjord Environments In The Rapidly Changing Regions Of West And South Greenland, Sydney Baratta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Greenland Ice Sheet has undergone rapid mass loss over the last four decades, primarily through solid and liquid discharge at marine-terminating outlet glaciers. The acceleration of these glaciers is in part due to the increase in temperature of ocean water in contact with the glacier terminus. However, quantifying meltwater injection and heat transport can be challenging due to iceberg abundance, which threatens instrument survival and fjord accessibility. Additionally, acceleration and eventual retreat of tidewater glaciers onto land can change glacier forcing, completely altering fjord water-meltwater dynamics. Here, we couple in situ and remote sensing methods to quantify the upper-layer …

Forest Management In A Changing Climate: Integrating Social And Biopysical Sciences To Inform Adaptive Responses To Future Uncertainty, Peter Breigenzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forests provide numerous ecological and socio-economic benefits, yet climate change is creating novel and extreme conditions that threaten forests and disrupt traditional management practices. To address future uncertainty about how to manage forests amid a rapidly changing climate, researchers have developed adaptive management strategies that move away from using historical ecological baselines as management goals. However, despite increases in adaptive forest management frameworks, there are still concerns that private woodland owners (PWOs; also known as family forest owners or non-industrial private landowners) are not adopting beneficial practices. Additionally, since tree canopies often buffer understory microclimates (i.e., fine scale variation in …

Using Probe Data To Understand The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Roadway Safety, Ennis W. Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic there was an observed decrease in traffic safety in the United Sates. New England was no exception to this, with traffic fatality rates increasing in Maine and Connecticut. This increase was attributed to the possibility that drivers had more opportunities to speed following the implementation of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on roads with drastically reduced volume and decreased speed enforcement. To determine the state of research into the pandemic's effect on traffic safety around the world, an extensive critical review was conducted. The reviewed studies showed that roadways did indeed become less safe with …

Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Enhances Fluconazole Activity Against Candida During Polymicrobial Infection, Siham Hattab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polymicrobial infections pose a significant challenge in the field of medicine due to our incomplete understanding of how pathogens interact during infection and how these interactions impact the effectiveness of drug treatments. Among the opportunistic pathogens, Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa stand out, as they are often found in similar infection sites, such as burn wounds, the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis and those on mechanical ventilation. Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungus responsible for invasive candidiasis, a condition associated with a high mortality rate of 40% in hospitals. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, on the other hand, is the primary pathogen …

Experimental Measurement Of Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer Between Two Macroscale Planar Media, Md Shofiqul Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Radiative heat transfer between two media separated by a gap smaller than the wavelength of thermal radiation (10 μm at room temperature) is referred to as near-field RHT. Near-field RHT exceeds the RHT between two blackbodies which is the maximum limit for RHT in the far-field regime (i.e., when the separation gap is much larger than the thermal wavelength). Due to this enhanced heat transfer, near-field RHT has found promising applications, for power enhancement of thermophotovoltaic devices, thermal rectification, localized cooling, and photonic cooling to name only a few. Graphene is an ideal material for near-field RHT applications as it …

Effects Of Sous-Vide Processing And Acidic Marination On Physicochemical Quality, Shelf-Life, And Consumer Acceptability Of Blue Mussel (Mytilus Edulis) Meats, Sara Gundermann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sous-vide cooking is a thermal processing method in which a raw food is vacuum sealed in a pouch and then placed into water below 100°C for a controlled amount of time. It is particularly good for cooking meats because of its precise control over temperature and time, which results in an ideal food texture for consumers. This method also prevents the food from coming in contact with oxygen, which can lead to spoilage that reduces product quality and shelf life. Acidification is a food preservation method that utilizes acids to lower the pH of foods, making the environment less conducive …

Nonsmooth Epidemic Models With Evolutionary Game Theory, Cameron Morin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the utilization of game theory and nonsmooth functions to enhance the accuracy of epidemiological simulations. Traditional sensitivity analysis encounters difficulties when dealing with nondifferentiable points in nonsmooth functions. However, by incorporating recent advancements in nonsmooth analysis, sensitivity analysis techniques have been adapted to accommodate these complex functions. In pursuit of more accurate simulations, evolutionary game theory, primarily the replicator equation, is introduced, modeling individuals’ decision making processes when observing others’ choices. The SEIR model is explored in depth, and additional complexities are incorporated, leading to the creation of an expanded SEIR model, the Be-SEIMR model.

A Map-Algebra-Inspired Approach For Interacting With Wireless Sensor Networks, Cyber-Physical Systems Or Internet Of Things, David Almeida

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The typical approach for consuming data from wireless sensor networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT) has been to send data back to central servers for processing and analysis. This thesis develops an alternative strategy for processing and acting on data directly in the environment referred to as Active embedded Map Algebra (AeMA). Active refers to the near real time production of data, and embedded refers to the architecture of distributed embedded sensor nodes. Network macroprogramming, a style of programming adopted for wireless sensor networks and IoT, addresses the challenges of coordinating the behavior of multiple connected devices through a …

The Impact Of Conservation Land On Property Taxes And Municipal Budgets In Maine: A Mixed-Methods Study, Abigail Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is an interdisciplinary project done in collaboration with the Municipal Budget and Conservation Working group, a group of stakeholders that formed in 2018 to study conservation and town budgets. We use mixed methods to explore the impacts of conservation and municipal budgets in Maine. We use regression analysis on 21 years of panel data to identify causal relationships between conservation and mill rates, controlling for economic and town budget factors. We found statistically significant but small effects on average, with a 1% increase in conserved acres in a town associated with average tax bill increases of $1 or …

Spatial And Temporal Variability In Snow Properties And Firn Volume Across The Juneau Icefield In Southeast Alaska, Mikaila Mannello

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glaciers are important freshwater resources which have far reaching impacts on a range of local to global systems and processes, including ecosystems and societies. As global climate continues to change, the response of glaciers has largely been reductions in ice mass and widespread retreat. A high degree of accumulation and ablation occurs in the near surface which is exposed to the atmosphere. The Juneau Icefield (JIF) has, up until the mid-2010s, historically responded climate change anomalously where its main drainage, Taku Glacier (here forward referred to its native name T’aakú Kwáan Sít’i), has been advancing while all other JIF outlet …

Floating Offshore-Wind And Controls Advanced Laboratory Program: 1:70-Scale Testing Of A 15 Mw Floating Wind Turbine, Matthew J. Fowler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents results from the Floating Offshore-wind and Controls Advanced Laboratory (FOCAL) Experiment which performed 1:70-scale model testing of a 15 mega-watt floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) at the University of Maine’s Alfond Wind/Wave Ocean Engineering Laboratory (W2). The experimental campaigns supported the application of controls co-design to FOWTs by incorporating real-time wind turbine control and hull mounted tuned-mass damper (TMD) elements. A performance-matched scaling strategy was proposed and analysis in OpenFAST performed to design the scale models, including integration of the Reference OpenSource Controller (ROSCO) and modeling of the TMDs in the hull. Four test campaigns were conducted, …

Interactions Between Streptococcus Agalactiae And Candida Albicans Affect Persistence And Virulence, Kathryn Patenaude

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus or GBS), a Gram-positive bacterium, and Candida albicans, a polymorphic fungus, are commensal microbes in most of the population they colonize but are also capable of causing severe and sometimes fatal infections in certain patient groups. Both organisms share similarities including the colonization the same tissue environments and causing infections in specific patient groups including those who are newborn, pregnant, suffering from chronic conditions like diabetes and HIV, as well as elderly patients. Previous research discovered that GBS and C. albicans can synergize to enhance the colonization of GBS in the bladders of mice, but …

Population Trends And Trophic Ecology Of The Invasive Peacock Eel (Macrognathus Siamensis) In The Florida Everglades, Grace Kahmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species threaten the ecological integrity of ecosystems worldwide, including the Florida Coastal Everglades. This study investigated the ecological role of the peacock eel (Macrognathus siamensis) within this ecosystem, emphasizing its population trends and the environmental factors that affect its population performance, and the potential for interactions with native fish assemblages and coastal food webs. I used 19 years of electrofishing data to investigate the population trends of peacock eels at the marsh-mangrove ecotone of the Shark River Estuary, Everglades National Park (Florida, USA). I found that peacock eel populations have increased since their first detection in 2002, and their …

Presever, $N$-Potent, And Periodic Operators On Banach Spaces And Function Spaces, Zachary Easley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we investigate certain ``preserver operators" from one Banach space into another. ``Preserver operators" are operators that leave unchanged one or more important properties of the domain space of the operator. Additionally, we explore operators related to or built from these preserver operators. Of importance will be the preserver operator known as an ``isometry," which are ``norm-persevering" operators, and the ``spectral projections" constructed from the elements contained in the spectrum of the isometry. The main results of this dissertation focus on projections (and more generally, $n$-potent operators) in the convex hull of a subgroup of the group of …

Micromagnetic Investigation Of The Dynamics Of Domain Walls And Substructures In Non-Uniform Magnetic Thin Films, Trae Staggers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the discovery of gigantic magnetoresistance and the advent of spintronics, magnetic materials have become ubiquitous in modern technology. As such, a wide range of research areas within this field are being continuously explored for potential means to improve device scaling, decrease energy consumption, or increase speed, as well as to understand the fundamental physics governing spin order at the micro- and nanoscale. One of the avenues under current investigation involves the use of the spin-orbit interaction in systems with broken inversion symmetry through the introduction of interfaces or compositional variations. I will introduce the theory of micromagnetism and demonstrate …

Rupturing Tradition: Theorizing Black Women’S Place In The Discipline Through The Disruptive Rhetoric Of Sanctuary, Celnisha Leta Dangerfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black women need refuge from physical, mental, emotional and rhetorical violence. However, refuge that does not foster liberation can never offer the full protection of sanctuary. Black women uniquely understand that the only way to ensure full access to sanctuary is by circumventing place. Yet, people and scholarly disciplines overlook their valuable, experiential awareness of place. This dissertation takes an intersectional approach to place by analyzing Black women’s contributions to the rich rhetorical tradition. When we look to the past for guidance, it is easy to see Black women’s struggles are not bound by place or time. An analysis of …

Quantifying Current Soil Brine Contamination Within The Smackover Oil Field In Arkansas Using Multispectral Digital Imagery, Victoria Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A remote sensing study was performed to quantify current soil brine contamination across the historic Smackover Oil Field in south-central Arkansas, United States. The oil field was established in 1922 and was not subject to the future waste regulations created by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission. Brine is a waste product of oil manufacturing which contains water with high salt levels. The storage and transport of brine in the oil field created landscape scarring across the study area.

Landsat 9 multispectral digital imagery was utilized to create supervised classification maps based on earthen pits and creek scarring across the …

La Fiesta Del Espiritu Santo: An Original Work For Choir, Soloists, And Small Ensemble Influenced By The Santeria Music Of The African-Dominican Community In The Dominican Republic, Rafael Scarfullery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study examines the role of Santería music as practiced by African Dominicans in Villa Mella, a neighborhood of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. This musical tradition comes from the culture and religion of the Yoruba people who were brought as slaves from Africa, and features complex drum rhythms and call-and-response chants. This paper deals with the historical and social context of Santería music within the Dominican Republic, but its principal objective is to adopt the musical language of this tradition and use it to create a new contemporary work for mixed choir and small ensemble.

One of the most …

Politically Speaking: Participation Of Indigenous Women In Canada And The Importance Of Intersectionality And Indigenous Resurgence, Renee Grozelle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the current political climate, the efforts of Indigenous women in the advancement of Indigenous rights have not gone unnoticed. Particularly, in 2012 the Idle No More movement gained attention across Canada and throughout the world, with Indigenous women front and centre, leading the fight against the destruction of land and working towards advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples. Importantly, the ways in which Indigenous women engage politically has continued to evolve and there is a need to document and understand the changes that are occurring. This research seeks to examine the changes in political participation among Indigenous women by …

Microbial Ecology Of Alpine Snows: Novel Approaches To Assess Spatial And Temporal Dynamics, Avery Ezra Tucker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Snow algae blooms and associated microbial communities play large roles in snow ecosystem processes. Patterns and mechanisms underpinning snow algae bloom spatial distribution and associated microbial community assembly dynamics are poorly understood. To bridge these gaps in knowledge, this dissertation focused on two broad areas: (1) mapping associations of microbial communities and environmental measures between/within snow algae blooms across diverse substrate categories and identifying significant associations between them; (2) metagenome sequencing, offering the first partial genome of Sanguina nivaloides, along with identification of putative functional pathways. Although snow algae are an enigmatic domain in microbial community research, due to the …

In What Ways Does The Proliferation Of Neoliberal Reform Initiatives (Nclb) Perpetuate The Marginalization Of Students In Urban Inner-City Schools? A Critical Discourse Analysis On Supplemental Education Services (Ses) And Adequate Yearly Progress (Ayp) In Izones Schools Cohorts 1 And 2., Rodney Jarrell Rowan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has been cited as the pinnacle of the high-stakes accountability movement. NCLB required all students (subgroups) in public education to achieve 100% proficiency in reading and mathematics by 2014 on individual state-mandated standardized tests. The federal government authorized each state the right to define the measures that constituted proficiency (USDOE, 2002, NCLB ACT, Section 1111(2) B). This study revealed how the proliferation of neoliberal reform initiatives perpetuates the marginalization of urban inner-city school students. Under the guise of student subgroups, NCLB labeled students by race and ethnicity, academic status, and social identity. The …

Root System Response Of Soybean To Microplastics Of Varying Types And Concentrations, Deqa Farow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biosolid fertilizer use causes the input of microplastics into the rhizosphere where they may interfere with root interactions with the soil and microbial community and thereby hinder plant acquisition of nutrients and water. However, it is unclear what microplastic concentration or types affect plant root system and when these impacts manifest. Using the rhizobox method, soybeans were grown in soil was dosed with microplastic mimics (PET sheets and PP beads at 2,000 and 15,000 particles / kg dry soil) and biosolids. A time-series analysis was conducted on plant root traits using non-destructive imaging with an Epson 12000xl scanner of the …

Politics Of Resistance: On Muslim Women Advancing A Collective Critical Faith-Based Epistemic, Ayesha Mian Akram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hegemonic anti-Muslim rhetoric, entangled with global structures of white supremacy, imperialism, and colonialism, constructs Islam as culturally and civilizationally critical to the instability of supposedly peaceful secular western societies. Muslim women’s bodies, specifically, become sites where the Muslim is socio-politically constructed as Other, disconnected from her religiosity and constituted as a racialized Other. This dissertation contributes to the nuanced and intersectional body of scholarship examining the complexities of the Muslim experience in Canada today by analyzing the creation and power of a group of Muslim women engaged in impactful resistances as they seek to create change within and for their …

Ndnhealth: A Secure Mhealth Infrastructure Over Named Data Networking, Saurab Dulal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wearable devices like smartwatches, fitness trackers, and body sensors have become increasingly popular for health and wellness. Mobile Health (mHealth) uses wearable and mobile devices, wireless technologies, and data science to collect and analyze health data to improve health delivery and outcomes. However, privacy and legal concerns surrounding mHealth data make building a secure mHealth infrastructure a challenging task. Moreover, real-time sharing with many data consumers is another challenge in enabling temporally precise mHealth intervention. This dissertation proposes NDNHealth, a secure mHealth infrastructure over the Named Data Networking (NDN) architecture. NDNHealth provides a secure, efficient, and scalable way to share …

Word Made Flesh: Biblicality In Cormac Mccarthy's Appalacian Novels, Brett Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

McCarthy’s Appalachian novels in particular, beginning with his first novel The Orchard Keeper in 1965, show the outline of biblicality, a concept which entails the use of religious imagery, the employment of biblical language, the interplay between religious and secular elements, the profound impact of Appalachian landscapes, along with the thematic exploration of faith, morality, and the human condition. Outer Dark (1968), Child of God (1972), Suttree (1979), and The Road (2005), expound, in more detail, upon these ideas through the use of the themes of darkness, light, and objects of divinity, outsiders, and suicide. McCarthy’s Appalachian novels, showcase biblicality …

Bach's Chaconne, Bwv 1004: A Guide To Historically Informed Performance, Christina Volz-Stomackin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I have decided to explore, from a historical perspective, a piece of music that is well-known to many violinists: J.S. Bach’s masterpiece, the Chaconne from Partita no. 2 in D minor. My goal is for this to be an informative and accessible resource for modern performers who may be interested in experimenting with historical performance practices in their approach to Bach and to Baroque music in general. I have chosen to focus my discussion on Bach’s Chaconne because of the wide-ranging scope of the movement, which affords opportunities for variety and depth in the topics I wish …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And College Attainment: A Moderated Moderation Exploring Safe, Stable & Nurturing Relationships, Race/Ethnicity And Gender, Alicia Vincent Stires

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Statement of the Problem: This study aimed to understand the impact of exposure to ACEs in childhood on college attainment in adulthood and if safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs) in childhood mitigate the risks of exposure to trauma through a contextual lens by exploring results by race/ethnicity and gender. Research: Exposure to adverse and traumatic experiences in childhood can adversely impact learning, behavior, and health outcomes throughout the lifespan (Shonkoff et al., 2012). Supportive adults that provide SSNRs can buffer adverse childhood events and help foster children’s resiliency by buffering or eliminating risk factors. Research has been limited …