Abstracts

Peripheral innervation of adipose tissue, both white (energy storing) and brown (energy expending) depots, is crucial for maintaining healthy metabolic function and energy balance. Important processes such as lipid breakdown, production of new adipocytes, thermogenesis, and browning (conversion of w...

Abstract Molecular photoswitches are playing increasingly central roles in interrogating the functions of chemical systems by allowing for selective conversion between two distinct states [1]. With applications in fields including but not limited to; neurobiology [2], chemical synthesis, and even...

    The greatest barrier to growth in the salmon aquaculture industry is infestation by parasitic copepods known as sea lice. Sea lice can render fish unmarketable or vulnerable to secondary infections by feeding on the blood, skin, and muscle tissue of their host. In the infective copepodid stage...

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maine Abstract The goal of this research is to find a process capable of transforming selected biomass, such as eggplant, into a porous three-dimensional (3D) carbon nanostructure. This nanostructure is achieved through a combination of acid trea...

The Gulf of Maine (GOM) is a large, productive ocean basin that is interlinked with the livelihoods of diverse communities and distinct cultures. Unprecedented rates of warming caused by climate change are expected to have severe repercussions for the economic stability of rural fishing communities ...

With the imminent consequences of global warming and a continually rising global population, Earth’s natural resources are dwindling and the sustainability of life on Earth as we know it has become threatened. With the rapid development of technology for space travel the prospect of Lunar and Mart...

Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter which is used as a signaling molecule in the body to carry out a diverse set of bodily functions.1 There are 18 types of serotonin receptors present in the body; 5 of which are ion channels, the remaining are G-protein coupled re...

Alaskan glaciers contributed more to global sea-level rise than any other region in the world from 2003 to 2009. From 1995 to 2013, surge-type glaciers constituted 35% of measured Alaskan glacier mass loss, while only making up 16% of the glacier population. Glacial surges are regularly repeated per...

Polymers Kappa-Carrageenan (KC) and Cellulose Nano Fibers (CNF) were successfully grafted with gallic acid, to yield gallic acid modified polymers with anti-oxidant capacity and polymer films with considerable mechanical properties. The polymers KC and CNF were modified using two different methods u...

  The winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) is increasing in abundance throughout the North, contributing to increased mortality in moose populations across the United States. In this study, we (1) examined the population genetic diversity of winter ticks in Maine, and (2) contrasted winter tick div...

Neurodegenerative diseases are debilitating conditions whose treatment presents a major unmet medical need, limited by our understanding of underlying factors and mechanisms. A hallmark of neurodegeneration is defective protein quality control1,2. When translation stalls specific proteins need to re...

We evaluated the effect of two previously optimized technical lignins, sodium and magnesium lignosulfonate (NaL and MgL, respectively), on the preservation and nutritive value of high-moisture alfalfa hay. Lignins and propionic acid (PRP; positive control) were added to 36 fresh g of sterile alfalfa...

JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) establishes a lifelong, asymptomatic, infection in the kidney of healthy individuals. However, under conditions of severe immunosuppression, JCPyV may reactivate within the brain and cause progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a fatal neurodegenerative disease. Cu...

Evaluating and predicting human health and ecosystem level impacts of rapid environmental change due to anthropogenic pollution and climate change remain a complex challenge. In this research, we integrated biological sciences with big-data statistical approaches to develop a statistical tool for pr...

Ecosystem services are an emergent tool that provide a framework for decision making in managing public lands as a socio-ecological system. Broadly, ecosystem services are defined as the benefits that the environment provides to humans for free. Understanding how new developments on public lands im...

Recent field observations in the Damariscotta River have suggested that floating oyster farms impose surface friction that results in elevated surface mixing and altered tidal flow. The resulting hydrodynamic impact, including its influence on long-term material transport is important to understand....

Camera trapping is one of the best research methods for surveying carnivore populations, and non-invasive survey methods are rapidly increasing in popularity. Detection probability is one of the most important parameters in estimating detection probability. The use of attractants with remote camer...

Introduction. Obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI), may be a protective factor for cognitive decline in late life, specifically for developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and its prodrome, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) [1]. However, obesity has also been fou...

Due to rising oceanic temperatures there is an inherent trend of organisms being forced to either adapt or resign to extinction. Despite significant advances in research focusing on identifying “winners” and “losers” of ocean warming, little is known about developmental susceptibility of org...

Carbonation activated binder is an alternative cementitious system with significantly low carbon footprint compared to those of traditional portland cement. This study wollastonite as the raw binder. Wollastonite reacts with CO2 and form Ca-modified silica gel and CaCO3 which will give strength in c...

Animal models are critical in advancing biomedical research and answering questions to understand the pathogenesis of human disease. Unfortunately, not all diseases can be modeled in a nonhuman host, such as the human-specific virus, JC polyomavirus (JCPyV). JCPyV is the causative agent of the fatal...

Fall incidents are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries in older adults, calling for an innovative system capable of early detection and prevention of such falls (Hu & Qu, 2016). The purpose of this project was to analyze the top causes of falls in elderly individuals and provide a basi...

Research-practice partnerships are an increasingly common form of collaboration among researchers and educators who share a common goal (Coburn and Penuel, 2013). For example, the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education is currently working to establish a partnership between university researche...

Abstract Originally, the team worked to create a methodological approach for analyzing hundreds of Holocaust survivor interview transcripts. Sub-team tasks included correcting spellings, using HTML to correct tagged terms (locations, people), and marking the transcripts temporally. The issues that e...

Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are distributed across northern North America and are a prized gamebird throughout their range. Endoparasitism has been explored as a potential cause of population decline in several regions. Although parasitism was exonerated as the sole cause of specific declines, t...

Identification of habitat conditions driving nest-site selection are essential for the management and sustainability of declining grassland bird populations. Demographic rates and reproductive success alone cannot explain underlying causes driving population decline. Traditionally, habitat is measur...

JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) infects the majority of the human population and presents as an asymptomatic lifelong infection in the kidney. In individuals who are immunocompromised, JCPyV can spread to the central nervous system and result in the incurable and fatal demyelinating disease, progressive ...

Caseous lymphadenitis (CL) is a chronic disease of sheep and goats caused by the pathogenic bacterium, Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (Cp). The disease is characterized by the formation of “caseous” abscesses which cause significant decreases in wool, meat, and milk production of these anima...

This project will work to determine ways to utilize aronia berries for consumption. The abstract explains that, allthough, this berry is packed with numerous health benefits, due to it's large amounts of astrigency, it is rarely consumed. This experiment will use the pomace and juice from the aronia...

Aquaculture in Maine is an industry with an important contribution to the state economy. The most common farming products are shellfish, seaweed, and finfish, where usually farmers deploy catenary mooring systems relying on concrete or granite blocks, mushroom anchors, and drag embedment anchors. Th...

  Our study assessed the long-term ecological effects of riparian management practices on forested headwater streams throughout western Maine in order to provide information that managers can use to balance economic gains from forest harvest while safeguarding freshwater resources. As an undergradu...

Food waste is a complex issue that is situated at the intersection of multiple academic disciplines. For several years the Materials Management Research Group, an interdisciplinary team based out of the University of Maine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, has sough...

  Highly porous aerogels made from cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) are promising candidates for applications in aqueous environments. One of the biggest challenges of high porosity CNF aerogels applications is their propensity to break down rapidly in aqueous environments. Here we explore a method to o...

Ecosystem carrying capacity and aquaculture growth models often incorporate detritus as a diet source for bivalves; however, these models treat detritus as a homogenous entity, which it is not. The purpose of the current study was to assess the viability of detritus from several primary producers to...

Daniel P. Regan,1 Caitlin Howell1,2 1Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, University of Maine 2Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Maine Abstract: Point-of-need (PON) detection platforms provide easy-to-use methods for first responders and scientists fo...

  The cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum L., is a tetraploid crop from the Solanaceae family and the fourth most important food crop in the world. Approximately 40 potato viruses are known to infect potato crops, causing tuber defects and reducing crop yield, which results in a loss of income for...

  The North Pacific is atmospherically complex, such that regional climate is a reflection of both local and far-reaching oceanic and atmospheric conditions. Predicting the ways in which regional conditions will respond to warming global temperatures represents a knowledge gap that must be filled i...

Habitat quality impacts animal vocalizations, which influences their social structure. This relationship is important to better understanding ecosystem dynamics, especially as humans accelerate global climate and ecosystem changes. Studying vocalizations may enhance our understanding of where habita...

    Melt water from Greenland’s glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheet contributes to nearly half of contemporary global sea level rise [1], which impacts coastal human settlements, marine ecosystems, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. While changes to the Greenland Ice Sheet and its m...

Converting biomass to alternative fuels has attracted significant interest in recent decades. Lignin, a principal component of biomass, is composed of phenolic monomers, which can be depolymerized using fast pyrolysis to yield a “bio-oil”. However, bio-oil is not immediately suitable as a biofue...