Combined News

Posted February 25, 2013

UMaine History doctoral candidate Rob Gee and Honors College/Maine Studies Program faculty member Katherine O'Flaherty have received an award in recognition of their work in the digital humanities. The 2012 DH Awards recognize excellence in digital humanities in a number of categories. Nominations for DH Awards came from around the digital humanities community and were overseen by the nominations committee.

Gee and Dr. O’Flaherty received their award in the category “Best Professional Resource for Learning About or Doing Digital Humanities Work” for their Digital Humanities Toolbox, which is available here. http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-humanities-tool-box They were also nominated for the “Best Digital Humanities Blog, Article, or Short Publication” for their post "Summer Project: Start a Digital History Toolbox", which can be seen here.  

The Digital Humanities Awards are a new set of annual awards given in recognition of talent and expertise in the digital humanities community and are nominated and voted for entirely by the public. These awards are intended to help put interesting DH resources in the spotlight and engage DH users (and the general public) in the work of the community. Awards are not specific to geography, language, conference, organization or field of humanities that they benefit. The 2012 DH Awards website is available here. 
 

A Bangor Daily News article about the increase in privately owned student housing projects across the nation noted complaints about management, facilities and other issues at The Grove, a new 188-unit private student housing complex in Orono. The article included information about UMaine students living on and off campus. Of UMaine’s 10,900 students, 3,278 of them live on campus and more than 7,500 live off campus, according to university spokesperson Margaret Nagle, senior director of public relations and operations in the Division of Marketing and Communications.

Channel 5 (WABI) and Channel 7 (WVII) reported on the BearFest Dance Marathon in the UMaine Field House, in which hundreds of UMaine students danced overnight Feb. 23–24 to raise money to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network and Eastern Maine Medical Center’s pediatric ward. Students expected to exceed this year’s goal of $35,000.

Several news organizations, including Channel 5 (WABI) reported on the selection by National Geographic magazine of University of Maine marine scientist and cold-water diver Rhian Waller for a select list of New Age of Exploration scientists to be profiled. Waller, an assistant research professor in the UMaine School of Marine Sciences, has been on 40 expeditions around the world and is a cold-water coral expert. The Portland Press Herald carried an Associated Press article about Waller.

UMaine students interested in IT internships and jobs after graduation are invited to a Project>Login networking reception from 5–7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 25, in Room 3, Wells Conference Center. The reception is an opportunity for students majoring in computer science and computer engineering to meet IT professionals and leaders of some of the Maine companies that want to hire them as part of Project>Login, the newest program of Educate Maine.

The networking reception is the first in a statewide series of relationship-building events for aspiring IT professionals and potential Maine employers as part of Project>Login’s goal to double the number of computer and technology degree graduates in Maine in four years.

Among the businesses expected to attend the UMaine reception to talk to students about the role of IT in their companies, the opportunities for internships and co-ops, and the need to hire qualified graduates in these fields: Bangor Savings Bank, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Unum, Tyler Technologies, Cianbro, WEX and Dead River Co.

Project>Login was launched earlier this month with the goal of generating enough trained professionals in computer science, computer engineering and information technology to keep Maine businesses at the forefront of their industries. The initiative is a partnership between the University of Maine System, Educate Maine and private-sector businesses. Educate Maine is a business-led organization whose mission is to champion college, career readiness and increased education attainment.

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745.

Click her to view the “How to Look for and Avoid Bedbugs in Hotel or Motel Rooms” video on YouTube.

Click here to view the “When do I Tap a Maple Tree” video on YouTube.

UMaine Students Rolling Up Sleeves for Spring Break Volunteerism

Dozens of University of Maine students are headed to Honduras, Belize, Florida, the Grand Canyon and New Orleans and other places over spring break, March 4–15, to build houses and a sewage system, clean up parks, deliver health care services to the poor, and help out in rural schools and orphanages.

In the last few months, students from varied academic disciplines have been raising tens of thousands of dollars for travel and living expenses during their service-learning and volunteer projects in the U.S. and Central America. Some leaving Maine for the first time will immerse themselves in diverse cultural and philanthropic adventures while making a difference in the quality of life for the people they will serve.

“I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to be able to make an impact in the lives of people in need,” says Gwen Beacham, a molecular and cellular biology major from Farmington, Maine. She is heading March 2 to the outskirts of Dulce Nombre in western Honduras with the UMaine chapter of Engineers Without Borders. She and four other students, an interpreter, a faculty adviser and a private-sector engineering consultant will spend two weeks finishing a new sewer collection and sanitation system that UMaine student engineers designed and helped build. They’ll also teach the 120 villagers in Dulce Vivir how to operate it.

Beacham, who has never been outside the United States or Canada, isn’t sure what to expect on her first “real” travel experience, she says.

“I can imagine that I will return to Maine with such different eyes,” she says. “I am excited that I am actually able to do something to help, and I especially love that this project is so collaborative, as the community members have played a major role in the implementation of the system. Not only is this more sustainable, but it ensures that our effort is being put into a project that the community wants.”

UMaine’s Engineers Without Borders has won several honors, including a $25,000 award last year from the Newman’s Own Foundation for its work in Dulce Vivir, which started in 2008. The project will help villagers struggling with poor sanitation and overflowing latrines during the rainy season, which contaminates water supplies.

“This project provides valuable lessons in the field of engineering, while allowing me to participate in a humanitarian, life-changing experience,” says Logan Good, a mechanical engineering major from Presque Isle.

Meanwhile, 13 UMaine School of Nursing students in the UMaine Nursing International organization have partnered with International Service Learning to offer medical assistance in rural clinics in San Ignacio, Cayo District of Belize. Accompanied by Nilda Cravens, School of Nursing faculty member, they’ll work over the break with physicians providing health care to underprivileged families and children.

The UMaine Bodwell Center for Service and Volunteerism and UMaine Alternative Break also are organizing dozens of students planning spring break trips in the United States, says Andrea Gifford, assistant dean of students for Student Affairs and director of student and administrative support services. The students will partner with a variety of national organizations to help children victimized by domestic abuse in Virginia; improve housing conditions for low-income families in the coal-camp communities of West Virginia; assisting at a rescue camp for neglected and abused animals in Pennsylvania; provide respite in Florida for vacationing families of children with terminal illnesses; and help with disaster relief and rebuilding homes in New Orleans.

The Bodwell Center also is overseeing student volunteer trips to help with maintenance and trail restoration in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and in the Moody Forest Natural Area in Georgia.

Aaron Cyr, a Bangor native and senior nursing student making his second trip to Belize, says his trip last year was a startling introduction to poverty that many Americans can’t imagine unless they experience it firsthand.

“Things such as clean running water, the availability of limitless amounts of food and small things such as heat or air conditioning, that we take for granted every day,” he says. “I am being given the opportunity to positively affect countless lives for the better.”

Gwen Beacham agrees. “I believe that becoming aware of the different ways people live will lead to positive personal growth and development, and I’m sure I will realize how lucky I am to have some things I have always taken for granted,” she says.

Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756

Small migratory male birds that winter in a stressful environment age faster than those that winter in a high-quality habitat, according to research stemming from a collaborative National Science Foundation grant between the University of Maine and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

The team of biologists, led by former postdoctoral researcher Frederic Angelier working under the direction of UMaine Professor of Biological Sciences Rebecca Holberton, focused on telomeres — the long, repetitive noncoding sequences of DNA at the end of chromosomes that protect chromosomes from degradation and play a role in the aging process.

The researchers found that telomeres of male American redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) that winter in the arid Jamaican scrub habitat shortened significantly faster than telomeres of male American redstarts that winter in a lush Jamaican black mangrove forest.

The findings suggest birds’ nonbreeding environment impacts the rate of telomere shortening and has important indirect effects on migratory bird population, the team says.

The researchers also found males with shorter telomeres are less likely to return to the nonbreeding territory the ensuing year than those with longer telomeres, confirming previous studies that telomere length is related to survival in vertebrates.

American redstarts generally arrive in the Font Hill Nature Preserve in Jamaica in mid-September, where they remain until spring migration in April or May.

The NSF project is part of a long-term collaboration between Holberton and Peter Marra, a research scientist at the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center. Holberton is a migratory bird expert who researches how external and internal factors affect avian survival.

Angelier is now a researcher at Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé in France. Angelier, Holberton and Marra were joined in the NSF research by Carol Vleck, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Iowa State University.

The team’s findings were published in the Jan. 31, 2013 edition of Functional Ecology.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777

St. John Valley Times reported on the discovery through testing at the University of Maine Animal Health Laboratory of a tiny parasitic tapeworm that can exist in the lungs of moose and intestines of canines, both wild and domestic, which could expose humans to the parasite. Excessive lungworm presence can compromise the health of moose. The Maine Center for Disease Control, the Animal Health Lab and UMaine Cooperative Extension, and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife advise people to wear latex or rubber gloves when field dressing game and thoroughly cook game meat, the article said. Channel 7 (WVII) also carried a report on the parasite.

The Bangor Daily News reported on the temporary evacuation Feb. 21 of Hitchner Hall at the University of Maine after a chemical reaction released chlorine gas in a lab in the building. The chemical reaction was contained, no injuries were reported and employees and students returned to the building after several hours.

Hitchner Hall reopened at 2:15 p.m., Feb. 21 after a small chemical reaction in a third-floor hallway caused the building to be evacuated midday.

No injuries were reported. As a precaution, four building occupants were sent to Cutler Health Center for observation.

A laboratory manager was attempting to neutralize chlorine tablets in a five-gallon bucket for disposal when the reaction occurred. The chlorine tablets are used for disinfecting laboratories.

The lab manager added sodium bisulfate, followed by water. The chemicals reacted and offed gas.

The lab manager put the lid on the bucket, pulled the fire alarm and called the University of Maine Police Department, which evacuated building.

An estimated 150 people were in the building when the incident occurred.

The Orono-Old Town Emergency Response Team has verified that the chemical reaction was contained in the bucket and there were no further chemical reactions or residual in the building. The hazmat unit placed the bucket in a separate overpack container and removed it from the building.

The Panhellenic Council at the University of Maine, an organization of UMaine’s seven sororities, received five national awards recently from the Association of Fraternal Leadership Values. The awards are for academic achievement, council management, philanthropy and community service, risk reduction and management, self-governance and judicial affairs. Council members Geena Lucas, president, Elissa Bate, vice president of programming, and Katy Clement, vice president for recruitment, received the awards at a ceremony in Indianapolis.

University of Maine alumnus and Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics Edward F. Johnston Jr. died Feb. 17 in Bangor at age 85, according to his obituary in the Bangor Daily News. A native of Easton, Maine, Johnston spent 37 years with the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station researching potato storage, handling and marketing, and taught statistics at UMaine for 22 years. He retired in 1991. A longtime member of the Maine Potato Board, he was the first archivist and compiled a history of the association. He was named an honorary life member in 1982. Johnston is survived by his wife of 29 years, Jean-Marie Boddy-Johnston of Milford, and children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., Wednesday, March 27 at St. James Episcopal Church, 132 Center St., Old Town. A reception will take place afterward at the University of Maine Buchanan Alumni House. Gifts may be made in his memory to St. James Church, P.O. Box 183, Old Town, 04468.

Andover, the magazine of Phillips Academy, noted in its alumni accomplishments section on page 58 that University of Maine Research Professor of Geological Sciences Ed Grew recently had two newly discovered minerals named after him by Russian geologists.

The international website Fresh Plaza published an article about University of Maine Department of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences graduate student Kristen Brown, who is working to develop a potato variety that is resistant to potato blight. Channel 7 (WVII) also reported on the research.

Orono Town Planner Evan Richert will be the guest speaker from 9 a.m.–noon, Thursday, Feb. 21 at 107 Norman Smith Hall for a free public workshop and discussion on university-community partnerships, presented by CERTS (Community Engaged Research, Teaching and Service) at the University of Maine. The workshop title is “Community Engagement: Co-Determining Needs and Capacities.” To register or to request disability accommodations, contact to Claire Sullivan. A light breakfast and refreshments will be provided.

Jeff Thaler, University of Maine Visiting Professor of Energy Law and Policy with the UMaine School of Economics and the University of Maine School of Law, will join a panel discussion March 2 at a Yale Law School conference on environmental law. Themes to be explored at the “New Directions in Environmental Law: The Power of Voice” conference include resolving conflicts between environmental values.

In late May, Thaler also will present at the Institute for Natural Resources Law Teachers in Flagstaff, Ariz., a three-day conference to discuss environmental law and climate change. The title of his presentation is “Are Our Environmental Laws Obsolete or Unhelpful in our Climate Changed World?”

Terry Porter, UMaine associate professor of management, has been awarded a Fulbright fellowship to spend the spring 2014 semester at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom researching, in collaboration with colleagues there, the social processes by which business organizations navigate toward greater sustainability.

A University of Maine graduate student and a faculty member have received an international Digital Humanities Award for their work in digital humanities, which combines studies and information in liberal arts and humanities with computer technology for storage, sharing or exploring research. In recognition of their collaborative Digital Humanities Toolbox UMaine history doctoral candidate Rob Gee and Honors College and Maine Studies faculty member Katherine O’Flaherty won first place in the category “Best Professional Resource for Learning About or Doing DH Work.” Nominations for the awards, which recognize excellence in digital humanities in six categories, came from around the international digital humanities community. Members of the public chose the winners through online balloting. Gee and O’Flaherty were nominated in two categories: “Best DH Blog, Article, or Short Publication” for their post “Summer Project: Start a Digital History Toolbox,” available online and “Best Professional Resource for Learning About or Doing DH Work” for their Digital Humanities Tool Box.