Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cnh: Fine-Scale Dynamics Of Human Adaptation In Coupled Natural And Social Systems: An Integrated Computational Approach Applied To Three Fisheries, James A. Wilson, James Acheson, Robert Steneck, Yong Chen, Teresa R. Johnson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The purpose of this project is to gain a better understanding of the way competition between individual fishermen lead to the emergence of private incentives and informal social arrangements that are (or are not) consistent with conservation of the resource. These informal arrangements and incentives are important because they help us understand the extent to which private interests might strengthen or weaken on-going resource management and, consequently, the sustainability of coupled human and natural systems. The broad hypothesis driving the study is that the informal social structure that emerges from competitive interactions among fishermen reflects the particular circumstances of the …

Gi Science, Not Giscience, Andreas Christoffer Hall

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Letter to editors

Spatial Mathematics: Theory And Practice Through Mapping By Sandra Lach Arlinghaus And Joseph J. Kerski, Azadeh Mousavi

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Book review

Similarity Of Trajectories Taking Into Account Geographic Context, Maike Buchin, Somayeh Dodge, Bettina Speckmann

Journal of Spatial Information Science

The movements of animals, people, and vehicles are embedded in a geographic context. This context influences the movement and may cause the formation of certain behavioral responses. Thus, it is essential to include context parameters in the study of movement and the development of movement pattern analytics. Advances in sensor technologies and positioning devices provide valuable data not only of moving agents but also of the circumstances embedding the movement in space and time. Developing knowledge discovery methods to investigate the relation between movement and its surrounding context is a major challenge in movement analysis today. In this paper we …

Geocoding Location Expressions In Twitter Messages: A Preference Learning Method, Wei Zhang, Judith Gelernter

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Resolving location expressions in text to the correct physical location, also known as geocoding or grounding, is complicated by the fact that so many places around the world share the same name. Correct resolution is made even more difficult when there is little context to determine which place is intended, as in a 140-character Twitter message, or when location cues from different sources conflict, as may be the case among different metadata fields of a Twitter message. We used supervised machine learning to weigh the different fields of the Twitter message and the features of a world gazetteer to create …

Road Network Selection For Small-Scale Maps Using An Improved Centrality-Based Algorithm, Roy Weiss, Robert Weibel

Journal of Spatial Information Science

The road network is one of the key feature classes in topographic maps and databases. In the task of deriving road networks for products at smaller scales, road network selection forms a prerequisite for all other generalization operators, and is thus a fundamental operation in the overall process of topographic map and database production. The objective of this work was to develop an algorithm for automated road network selection from a large-scale (1:10,000) to a small-scale database (1:200,000). The project was pursued in collaboration with swisstopo, the national mapping agency of Switzerland, with generic mapping requirements in mind. Preliminary experiments …

Twitter Location (Sometimes) Matters: Exploring The Relationship Between Georeferenced Tweet Content And Nearby Feature Classes, Stefan Hahmann, Ross S. Purves, Dirk Burghardt

Journal of Spatial Information Science

In this paper, we investigate whether microblogging texts (tweets) produced on mobile devices are related to the geographical locations where they were posted. For this purpose, we correlate tweet topics to areas. In doing so, classified points of interest from OpenStreetMap serve as validation points. We adopted the classification and geolocation of these points to correlate with tweet content by means of manual, supervised, and unsupervised machine learning approaches. Evaluation showed the manual classification approach to be highest quality, followed by the supervised method, and that the unsupervised classification was of low quality. We found that the degree to which …

Using Migration Monitoring Data To Assess Bird Population Status And Behavior In A Changing Environment, Evan M. Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Across the world, researchers use migration banding stations to document bird migration and study the phenomenon. In this dissertation, I focus on ways of analyzing bird migration banding data and the utility migrating birds as indicators of ecosystem health that make these monitoring efforts more useful to answering ecological questions and managing migratory species. In Chapter 1, we provide background on hierarchical modeling and an overview of our findings. In Chapter 2, we developed and validated new methods to estimate daily changes in migratory population size while controlling for changes in detectability due to environmental conditions. In Chapter 3, this …

Phenology And Effects Of Dams On The Success Of Atlantic Salmon Smolt Migrations In The Penobscot River, Maine, Daniel S. Stich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atlantic salmon Salmo salar populations are diminished throughout their range and high marine mortality is among the drivers of the failure of many stocks to recover. A goal of salmon recovery is to maximize the number of juvenile ‘smolts’ entering the ocean to offset loss therein. Dam removals and changes to hydropower allocation in Maine’s largest river, the Penobscot River, have occurred as part of the Penobscot River Restoration Project (PRRP). These activities, in addition to stocking have the potential to influence the number of smolts reaching the ocean. Telemetry was used to investigate factors influencing initiation of migratory behavior, …

Iii: Small: Information Integration And Human Interaction For Indoor And Outdoor Spaces, Michael Worboys, Nicholas Giudice

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The goal of this research project is to provide a framework model that integrates existing models of indoor and outdoor space, and to use this model to develop an interactive platform for navigation in mixed indoor and outdoor spaces. The user should feel the transition between inside and outside to be seamless, in terms of the navigational support provided. The approach consists of integration of indoors and outdoors on several levels: conceptual models (ontologies), formal system designs, data models, and human interaction. At the conceptual level, the project draws on existing ontologies as well as examining the "affordances" that the …

Development Of A Stakeholder-Driven Spatial Modeling Framework For Strategic Landscape Planning Using Bayesian Networks Across Two Urban-Rural Gradients In Maine, Usa, Spencer Meyer, Michelle Johnson, Robert Lilieholm, Christopher Cronan

Publications

Land use change results from frequent, independent actions by decision-makers working in isolation, often with a focus on a single land use. In order to develop integrated land use policies that encourage sustainable outcomes, scientists and practitioners must understand the specific drivers of land use change across mixed land use types and ownerships, and must consider the combined influences of biophysical, economic, and social factors that affect land use decisions. In this analysis of two large watersheds covering a total of 1.9 million hectares in Maine, USA, we co-developed with groups of stakeholders land use suitability models that integrated four …

Trading Fat For Forests: On Palm Oil, Tropical Forest Conservation, And Rational Consumption, Cindy Isenhour

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

The longstanding butter vs margarine debate has recently become more complex as the links between margarine, industrial palm oil plantations, and tropical deforestation are made increasingly clear. Yet despite calls for consumers to get informed and take responsibility for tropical deforestation by boycotting margarine or purchasing buttery spreads made with sustainably-sourced palm oil, research in multiple contexts demonstrates that even the most aware, engaged, and rational consumers run into significant barriers when trying to reduce their environmental impacts. This paper supplements important critiques of neoliberal conservation at the site of extraction or intended conservation (Carrier and West 2009; Igoe and …

Collaborative Research: Timing And Structure Of The Last Glacial Maximum And Termination In Southern Peru: Implications For The Role Of The Tropics In Climate Change, Brenda L. Hall

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The role of the tropics in climate change has important implications for understanding both orbital-scale and abrupt climate variations. Yet our ability to assess tropical behavior during major climate events, such as the last glacial maximum (LGM), is limited by poor spatial coverage and insufficient control on sample ages. This project will address this problem by developing well-dated records of glacial fluctuations from the LGM through the termination and late-glacial period at Nevados Coropuna and Allinccapac in southern Peru and use these data in numerical simulations of glacier mass balance and local climate. These sites allow an examination of glacier …

Reu Site: Explore It! Building The Next Generation Of Sustainable Forest Bioproduct Researchers, David Neivandt, Darrell W. Donahue

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The major goal of the project is to create the next generation of sustainable forest bioproduct researchers through providing them with an outstanding and relevant research experience.

Reu Site: Explore It! Building The Next Generation Of Sustainable Forest Bioproduct Researchers, David J. Neivandt, Darrell W. Donahue

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This three-year REU Site program builds on the substantial research strengths at the University of Maine. The focus on sustainable forest bioproducts is highly topical and of great global importance in the area of sustainable energy alternatives.

Ten US undergraduate participants will conduct research advancing their knowledge of the field in general and one of the thematic elements in detail, specifically:

1) sustainability and life cycle analysis,
2) feedstock extraction/modification,
3) process control and sensing,
4) nanomaterial production and utilization, and
5) new product development. In addition the program includes an international component whereby, six Chilean students on a mutual …

Sensitivity Of The Antarctic Ice Sheet To Climate Change Over The Last Two Glacial/Interglacial Cycles, Brenda Hall, George H. Denton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This project was designed to develop knowledge of the extent of the Ross Sea ice sheet during the last two glaciations and to develop a chronology for the last glacial maximum and penultimate glaciation. To this end, we had the following goals:

1) Map the extent of the Ross Sea ice sheet along the western coast of McMurdo Sound from Taylor Valley to the southern Royal Society Range.
2) Develop a radiocarbon chronology for the last glacial maximum from dates of algal mats within moraines.
3) Produce a uranium-thorium chronology to gain information on the timing of the penultimate glaciation. …

Sensitivity Of The Antarctic Ice Sheet To Climate Change Over The Last Two Glacial/Interglacial Cycles, Brenda L. Hall, George H. Denton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to investigate the sensitivity of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) to global climate change over the last two Glacial/Interglacial cycles. The intellectual merit of the project is that despite its importance to Earth's climate system, we currently lack a full understanding of AIS sensitivity to global climate change. This project will reconstruct and precisely date the history of marine-based ice in the Ross Sea sector over the last two glacial/interglacial cycles, which will enable a better understanding of the potential driving mechanisms (i.e., sea-level rise, ice dynamics, ocean temperature variations) for ice fluctuations. This will …

Collaborative Research: Globec Panregional Synthesis: Pacific Ocean Boundary Ecosystems: Response To Natural And Anthropogenic Climate Forcing, Andrew C. Thomas

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This is a Collaborative project POBEX (www.POBEX.org) under the the overall direction of M. DiLorenzo, GaTech. A separate FINAL report was submitted by DiLorenzo for the overall project in 2013. Using US and international observational datasets combined with physical and biological models, this project investigates the mechanisms of climate-related variability in three Pacific boundary ecosystems: Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and California Current System (CCS) referred to as the Northeast Pacific (NEP), the Humboldt or Peru-Chile Current System (PCCS), and the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE) region. The research goals of this project can be summarized as follows:

(1) Assess to what extent, …

Collaborative Research:Globec Pan-Regional Synthesis: Pacific Ocean Boundary Ecosystems: Response To Natural And Anthropogenic Climate Forcing, Andrew C. Thomas

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Intellectual Merits: Large-scale decadal Pacific climate indices such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) have been linked to changes across multiple trophic levels of marine ecosystems along the eastern and western boundaries. Recent studies of the Northeast Pacific show that other independent climate modes are equally important in explaining changes in coastal ocean upwelling and transport dynamics ? the fundamental processes controlling regional nutrient fluxes and planktonic ecosystem dynamics. This suggests that the interplay of forcing functions associated with multiple large-scale climate modes must be considered to adequately diagnose the dynamics and mechanics underlying variations in regional ecosystems. With this …

Silence Is The Loudest Sound, Emma Christian

Honors College

Rhinoceros poaching is an act of killing a rhinoceros in order to take its horn, which is then used for human consumption or for cultural traditions. Both the Asian and the African rhinoceros are targets because of the demand from China, Vietnam, Yemen, and other countries around the world. Traditional Chinese Medicine practice is the main demand for rhinoceros horn and this demand in rhinoceros horn has caused an increase in the black market. Conservation of the rhinoceros is decreasing primarily because the price of rhinoceros horn is more than double the average household income in South Africa, thus making …

Mri: Acquisition Of A Squid Magnetometer For Analysis Of Advanced Materials, Robert W. Meulenberg, Robert J. Lad, David J. Frankel, Michael D. Mason, Samuel T. Hess

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Technical Summary: Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry is a non-destructive technique that reveals detailed information about the electron spin interactions in many types of materials. This project will involve a state-of-the-art SQUID magnetometer and Magnetic Property Measurement System (MPMS), which is a critical tool for characterizing several types of materials currently being investigated by researchers within the Laboratory for Surface Science & Technology (LASST) and other University of Maine (UMaine) laboratories. Specific measurement capabilities include DC and AC magnetic susceptibility, magnetoresistivity, van der Paaw conductivity, and Hall mobility. State-of-the-art MPMS capabilities will be especially valuable to several research programs …

Rapid: Effect Of A Very Low Nao Event On The Abundance Of The Lipid-Rich Planktonic Copepod, Calanus Finmarchicus, In The Gulf Of Maine, Jeffrey Runge

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Test the hypothesis that a distinctly lower abundance of the planktonic copepod, Calanus finmarchicus in the Gulf of Maine follows the occurrence of very negative winter phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In 2010, the station-based winter NAO index was -4.64, even more intense than the negative (-3.78) 1996 NAO winter index. If a two-year lagged relationship between very negative NAO winter indices and Calanus abundance in the Gulf of Maine is valid, cooler water from the Labrador Sea should replace Atlantic Temperate Slope Water in the GoM in 2012, inducing a major climatic ecosystem event on the New …

Survey Of Graph Embeddings Into Compact Surfaces, Sophia N. Potoczak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A prominent question of topological graph theory is "what type of surface can a nonplanar graph be embedded into?" This thesis has two main goals. First to provide a necessary background in topology and graph theory to understand the development of an embedding algorithm. The main purpose is developing and proving a direct constructive embedding algorithm that takes as input the graph with a particular order of edges about each vertex. The embedding algorithm will not only determine which compact surface the graph can be embedded into, but also determines the particular embedding of the graph on the surface. The …

Student Application Of The Fundamental Theorem Of Calculus With Graphical Representations In Mathematics And Physics, Rabindra R. Bajracharya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One mathematical concept frequently applied in physics is the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus (FTC). Mathematics education research on student understanding of the FTC indicates student difficulties with the FTC. Similarly, a few studies in physics education have implicitly indicated student difficulties with various facets of the FTC, such as with the definite integral and the area under the curve representation, in physics contexts. There has been no research on how students apply the FTC in graphically-based physics questions.

This study investigated student understanding of the FTC and its application to graphically-based problems. Our interest spans several aspects of the FTC: …

An Inventory Of Student Recollections Of Their Past Misconceptions As A Tool For Improved Classroom Astronomy Instruction, Andrej Favia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My Ph.D. research is about examining the persistence of 215 common misconceptions in astronomy. Each misconception is based on an often commonlyheld incorrect belief by college students taking introductory astronomy. At the University of Maine, the course is taught in alternating semesters by Prof. Neil F. Comins and Prof. David J. Batuski.

In this dissertation, I examine the persistence of common astronomy misconceptions by the administration of a retrospective survey. The survey is a new instrument in that it permits the student to indicate either endorsement or rejection of each misconception at various stages in the student’s life. I analyze …

Dynamics Of Polyelectrolyte Adsorption On Surfaces: Applications In The Detection Of Iron In Water, Madhira N. Gammana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Layer by layer (LbL) self assembly is a simple multilayer thin (nanometer scale) film fabricating technique. The mechanism of film growth remains a topic of much controversy. For example, several models have been proposed to explain the origin of linear and exponential film growth that are attributed to differences in the dynamic processes that occur at the molecular level during film formation. The problem is that there are no methods that directly measure the dynamics of polymer formation during LbL film formation. In this thesis, I describe the essential elements of an ATR-IR spectroscopic method that was developed to enable …

Hudson Museum Collection: Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition, 1933-1935, John L. Herrman, Harold Borns

UMaine Video

Dr. Harold Borns, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, narrates original footage of Richard E. Byrd's second Antarctic expedition, 1933-1935. The footage was filmed by John L. Herrmann of Paramount Pictures. The original footage presented was transferred from 16mm film in January 2002 by Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine, and narration by Dr. Harold Borns added in August 2014. The original film footage is held by the Hudson Museum, University of Maine.

Rapid: Natural Laboratories In The Chilean Fjords: Studying Reproduction And Development In Emergent Deep-Sea Corals, Rhian G. Waller

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The northern Patagonian fjords lie on the interface between the high Andes Mountains in the east and the South Pacific Ocean, formed thousands of years ago through erosive glacial activity and tectonic sinking (Borgel, 1970). Around 12,000 years ago the icefields in the Chiloé Interior Sea began to open, leaving behind over 15,000km2 of fjords, channels and gulfs (Clapperton, 1994). The waters within the fjords are influenced by strong tides, large volumes of freshwater runoff, and upwelling of deep-ocean waters as well as steep climatic gradients from north to south (observed in parameters such as temperature, wind intensity and precipitation; …

Understanding Copepod Life-History And Diversity Using A Next-Generation Zooplankton Model, Andrew J. Pershing, Frederic Maps, Nicholas R. Record

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The main goal of our project is to understand the patterns of diversity and biogeography in marine copepods. To achieve this goal, we developed a unique modeling framework to simulate the trade-offs between growth, development, and fecundity in marine copepods.

We developed a new approach to modeling growth and development in metazoans. We applied this approach to marine copepods, and used it to understand relationships between copepod body size and temperature, copepod biodiversity patterns, and copepod biogeography. This project also provided support for experiments to look at how copepod body size impacts the particle size spectrum.

We used our model …

Understanding Copepod Life-History And Diversity Using A Next-Generation Zooplankton Model, Andrew J. Pershing, Frederic Maps, Nicholas Record

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Evolution has shaped the physiology, life history, and behavior of a species to the physical conditions and to the communities of predators and prey within its range. Within a community, the number of species is determined by both physical properties such as temperature and biological properties like the magnitude and timing of primary productivity, and ecological interactions such as predation. Despite well-known correlations between diversity and properties such as temperature, the mechanisms that drive these correlations are not well-described, especially in the oceans. The investigators will conduct a model-based investigation of diversity patterns in marine ecosystems, focusing on calanoid copepods. …