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University of Maine Professor of Mechanical Engineering Mick Peterson, who also is a cooperating professor of animal and veterinary sciences and co-founder of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory in Orono, is listed by BloodHorse.com Thoroughbred horse-racing magazine as being among 12 influential people improving the Thoroughbred racing industry, but not often recognized for their contributions. Through his work analyzing track surfaces with a biometrical track-testing device, Peterson can assess factors affecting both track safety and performance. A profile of Peterson in the Feb. 16, 2013 edition of Blood Horse, notes that Peterson’s laboratory and track analysis equipment have become “an invaluable component in the industry’s wide-ranging efforts to improve the safety of its athletes.” Others on the list include philanthropists who have contributed to improving training and working conditions of “backstretch” employees behind the scenes, supported and strengthened horse farms and breeding programs, created safe havens for retired racehorses, and establishing a fund for permanently disabled jockeys.

Graduate students in the University of Maine College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture will showcase their research at a free public Graduate Students Research Awards Competition from 10 a.m.–1:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 21, in Room 57 of Stodder Hall. Topics being explored include mathematically predicting global oceanic carbon dioxide uptake; migrating songbird stopover habitat use in the Gulf of Maine; optimum tree-cutting standards for productivity; forest-based sustainable bioenergy development; drying cellulose nanofibrils, the effect of wild blueberries on health risk factors in rats, using dung beetles to suppress pathogens in wild blueberry crops; gentrification and vulnerability of Maine fishing communities; and processing polymer nanocomposites with cellulose nanofibrils. For information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.3205.

Channel 2 (WLBZ), Channel 7 (WVII) and the Bangor Daily News reported on the Feb. 12 swearing in ceremony held in Hermon for the new five-member Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which includes University of Maine School of Social Work Director Gail Werrbach. The commission will report to the Maine Legislature on an earlier practice by state government and churches of placing Native American children in foster care or special schools, ostensibly to accelerate their integration into a broader society.

Channel 5 reported on the Feb. 12 celebration of Mardi Gras in the Dexter Lounge in the Harold Alfond Sports Arena, which included food, music and beads. Lisa Michaud, communications coordinator for the Franco-American Centre at UMaine, said Franco Americans make up 40 percent of the state’s population and also share enthusiasm for the celebration normally associated with New Orleans.

Comments from Habib Dagher, director of the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, were included in a news report on the Co.EXIST innovative energy, education, food and health website about the feasibility of harnessing some of the untapped energy potential in offshore wind. UMaine is collaborating with Norway’s Statoil North America corporation and with a public-private DeepCwind consortium to place an experimental offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine. SustainableBusiness.com also carried an article about the University of Maine leading the trend toward offshore floating wind turbines and a $4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant the university received to advance the research and development of offshore turbine materials. A Bangor Daily News article about UMaine’s wind energy research quoted Maine Public Utilities Commission Chair Thomas Welch as saying that even though the project cannot guarantee economic benefits, it would be a bonanza for the state as a leader in an evolving industry if the planned demonstration wind project is successful.

A Maine Public Broadcasting Network report on the contributions of Karen Mills of Brunswick, who announced this week she will step down as administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, a Cabinet-level appointment in the Obama administration, included comments from Jim McConnon, University of Maine Cooperative Extension business and economics specialist and professor of economics, who said Mills’ appointment in 2009 was “very, very positive.”

A Bangor Daily News feature story about the University of Maine Virtual Environment and Multimodal Interaction (VEMI) Laboratory in Boardman Hall included comments from Nicholas Giudice, a UMaine School of Computing Information Sciences assistant professor in spatial information science and engineering, and Richard Corey, VEMI laboratory manager, who discussed a head-mounted device that can simulate a variety of virtual realities. The device could be used for emergency training or, eventually, to augment navigation for people with diminished spatial recognition.

Posted February 11, 2013

Master of Science in Ecology and Environmental Science student Matthew Jones is leading a $50,000 grant funded by the California Center for Produce Safety at the University of California. The grant is titled "Evaluation of the level of white-tailed deer fecal colonization by E. coli O157:H7 and the ecological role of dung beetles with the pathogen in produce farms.” Jones’ research is intended to evaluate the association between E. coli in wildlife feces and agricultural fields, whether there are native insects that can reduce the risk of human contamination via agricultural products, and if so, how those insects might be managed. His study will focus on the low-bush blueberry crop in Maine, but will have wider implications for agriculture beyond the state. Franics Drummond, Jones’ advisor and a Co- Investigator, called the grant, “a very unique project, one that was pioneered by Matt Jones. There isn't anyone else in the country that is trying to understand the field ecology of the human pathogen, E. coli O157:H7 (in this way).” For more information and the abstract of the grant, please go here.

Click here to view the “SPA students find Spring Awakening” video on YouTube.

Click here to view the “How to Keep Food Safe After a Power Outage” video on YouTube.

Artist Caroline Robe describes the past year in two words: tough love. Tough, because she began a self-study of one of the most archaic, difficult painting mediums — egg tempera. Love, because the arduous journey resulted in unequivocal success in an art form that she says suits her personality and her voice.

“I’m inclined to be less urban, off the beaten path,” says Robe, a University of Maine student from Waterville, Maine, who completed her studio art degree last December. “Egg tempera is an old painting style that’s not common and not designed for ease. But it’s a very conceptual medium.

“Using a medium that requires so much preparation indulges my interest in manual processes and allows for a great range of expression — from the earliest stages of building the birch panel to the final thin glazes.”

In fall 2011, Robe discovered her passion for what is considered one of the oldest painting mediums when she studied abroad at the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts in Greece.

“The experience opened me up to following my own path and trusting my intuition,” she says. “I realized this is something I could do for the rest of my life.”

For a month, Robe also traveled through Italy, studying pre-Renaissance and Renaissance art, with particular interest in the egg tempera works that used pigments mixed with a binder — egg yolk — to make paints that were applied in multiple glazes to rigid support surfaces, such as boards. When she returned to UMaine, she established a studio in her Orono apartment and started her honors thesis — an exploration on modern-day egg tempera painting.

“Egg tempera is a technical process that results in unparalleled beauty. It has a romance to it,” says Robe. “In the 13th to 15th centuries, it was meant to be a literary art. And that’s what I wanted to do through my artwork — tell stories.”

In her self-study of the technically difficult egg tempera painting process, Robe consulted her thesis adviser Ed Nadeau and took an independent study with James Linehan, both UMaine artists and professors. She read countless books on the medium.

She also studied the works of the 20th-century master of egg tempera — Andrew Wyeth. And she trusted herself “to find my own way in this medium.”

“Egg tempera doesn’t imitate the lushness of reality like oil. It’s linear, flat and smooth, inviting the viewer to interact with the painting in a more intellectual, conceptual way,” Robe says.

Within a year, Robe found her own means of expression in egg tempera — from making her own paints to building her 8-foot by 5.5-foot narrative panels.

“In the large narrative works like my thesis painting (titled “For you I bring with reverent hands, beauty won from darkest hours”) there’s a lot of symbolism and personal mythology,” Robe says. “It is a narrative of transformation. It’s about falling in love with vernacular space.

“This also is feminist artwork — a narrative about women and my own empowerment. Creating this large egg tempera was a feminist act. There are few egg tempera female painters. Even when it was particularly challenging, I felt it necessary to go past self-censoring to show that young females can make big paintings, do big things, too.”

Robe admits that there were times early on in her year of self-guided study that the challenges seemed insurmountable and she contemplated switching mediums.

“When (Sandro) Botticelli was doing it (in the 15th century), he had a shop full of assistants helping him,” she says. “There’s a lot in the process that takes time, but I needed a challenge.

“Now it’s transformed my identity, from an average level of commitment by a college art student to an artist who is rabidly invested in doing this work,” says Robe, who hopes to return for more study in Europe and eventually to pursue a Master of Fine Arts. “For me, it is the intersection of daily life, peace and women’s activism.”

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745

The University of Maine School of Performing Arts production of the powerful Broadway smash-hit rock musical Spring Awakening opens Feb. 15 and runs through Feb. 24.

Shows will be at 7:30 p.m. February 15–16 and Feb. 21–23; 2 p.m. Feb. 17 and Feb. 24 in Hauck Auditorium on the UMaine campus. Admission is $15; free with a student MaineCard. Tickets are available online at umaine.edu/spa or at the door unless sold out.

The musical contains explicit adult content and language.

Based on a controversial 1891 German play by Frank Wedekind, Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater, has been produced worldwide since its 2006 Broadway debut. The story follows teenagers as they grow up and struggle to understand their sexuality in repressive 19th-century Germany. The winner of eight Tony Awards, Spring Awakening includes high-energy rock music, combined with edgy, bold and elegant choreography.

Director Tom Mikotowicz, a UMaine professor of theatre, chose this demanding production because it includes dozens of challenging opportunities for students to act, sing and dance.

“I liked the energy of the rock music juxtaposed with the historical context of topics directly related to our current students,” Mikotowicz says. “This is a version of the Romeo and Juliet story, set simultaneously in the 19th and 21st centuries.”

UMaine graduate student Craig Ouellette is the musical director. Leading the high-energy, choreography — emotionally charged movements with a modern, urban twist — are UMaine dance faculty member Birdie Sawyer, who teaches hip-hop, and Hip-Hop Club president Sam Borer.

The entire production involves more than 20 students, including Austin Erickson, an anthropology major from Bangor as Melchior, and Hope Milne, a vocal music education major from Hamilton, Mass., as Wendla.

The artistic team is rounded out by costume designer Kathleen Brown, lighting designer Shon Causer and set designer Dan Bilodeau.

Contact: Monique Hashey, 207.581.4721

Modern crime prevention would benefit from a greater biosocial approach to delinquency and offending that is rooted in family, school and community intervention strategies, according to a research team led by University of Maine sociologist Michael Rocque.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, criminologists contended that deviant behavior was biologically or mentally predisposed — that some people were “born” to commit crimes. It wasn’t long before those theories, which went so far as to include calls for eugenics, were considered unethical and immoral, and lost favor as socially unacceptable.

Today, there is again a growing body of literature on the importance of biological risk factors in crime prevention — cognitive deficits; impulsivity and negative temperament; conduct disorder and aggression; and mental and physical health. But unlike criminological theories in the 1900s, crime prevention research now focuses on the importance of social context and the need to address biological/psychological risk factors early in life.

In a paper published in the Journal of Criminal Justice, Rocque, a UMaine alumnus and a sociology instructor, and two colleagues — Brandon Welsh of Northeastern University and Adrian Raine of the University of Pennsylvania — examine the relevance of biology in modern crime prevention.

In particular, the research team looked at the newest form of crime prevention — developmental prevention — that focuses largely on early biological risk factors for delinquency and criminal offending that result from the interaction between the person and the environment.

Developmental crime prevention recommendations are in keeping with traditional sociological approaches — from improving the family environment to address risks of antisocial behavior, to stepping up prenatal care to ensure healthy child development. This biosocial approach looks at crime prevention strategies rooted in programs focused on families and parenting, preschool, mental and physical health, and nutrition.

“Today’s bio-crime prevention approaches recognize the importance of the environment and of early intervention,” according to the research team. “These strategies seek to improve lives rather than remove people from society. In that sense bio-crime prevention is a positive development — one that deserves more attention from the criminological community.”

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745

Juvenile wood frogs emigrating from their birthplaces in vernal pools into the terrestrial ecosystem may transfer mercury they accumulated during larval development into the food web, according to a team of University of Maine researchers.

The team, led by U.S. Geological Survey and UMaine wildlife ecologist Cynthia Loftin, conducted its study at four short-hydroperiod (likely to dry by mid-June) seasonal woodland pools in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine.

The researchers found mercury levels in the 1- to 2-week-old embryos were near or below detectable amounts, indicating that transfer of mercury from mother to eggs was absent or minimal. However, mercury accumulated rapidly in the 6- to 8-week-old tadpoles.

Mercury, a heavy, toxic metal, occurs naturally and is introduced into the environment by metal processing, coal burning and mining. People are exposed to mercury by eating contaminated fish and wildlife. Over time, low-grade mercury exposure in people can impact cognitive thinking and fine motor skills.

While concentrations of total mercury differed among the pools and were greatest in the unburned softwood-dominated setting, the levels increased in all pools throughout the season. The pools dried in June and refilled with September and October rain.

Wood frogs can travel some distance from their natal pools. During summer, fall and winter, they live in wetlands and on land. In the winter, they hibernate underneath leaf litter, woody debris and soil. They return to pools in the spring to mate.

For a better understanding of the transport of this contaminant from seasonal pools into the surrounding environment and potential for uptake into the terrestrial food web, future studies should focus on the ratio of total mercury to methylmercury (produced by burning of fossil fuels) in embryos, tadpoles and juvenile frogs leaving natal ponds, according to the research team, writing in the journal Northeastern Naturalist.

Loftin teamed with Aram Calhoun, professor of wetland ecology; Sarah Nelson, assistant research professor at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center; Adria Elskus, associate professor of biological sciences; and Kevin Simon, assistant professor in the School of Biology and Ecology, to conduct the study.

Due to uncertain weather conditions, the UMaine School of Performing Arts Cadenzato concert scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 9 in Minsky Recital Hall has been changed. The concert will now be split into two parts. At 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 10, faculty musicians will perform works by J.S. Bach, Hillary Tann and Walter Rabl. The performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire”, in recognition of the work’s 100-year history, has been rescheduled for 8 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 12. Both performances will be held in Minsky Recital Hall. Admission is free. For information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.4703.

Due to uncertain weather conditions, the UMaine School of Performing Arts Cadenzato concert scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 9 in Minsky Recital Hall has been changed. The concert will now be split into two parts. At 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 10, faculty musicians will perform works by J.S. Bach, Hillary Tann and Walter Rabl. The performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire,” in recognition of the work’s 100-year history, will be rescheduled for a later date. Both performances will be held in Minsky Recital Hall. Admission is free. For information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.4703.

Several news organizations, including Channel 7 (WVII) and Channel 5 (WABI) reported on a visit to the University of Maine Advanced Manufacturing Center and UMaine’s Virtual Environment and Multimodal Interaction Lab Feb. 6 by members of the Maine Legislature’s new Workforce and Economic Future Committee. Maine Public Broadcasting Network carried an Associated Press report on the visit.

In her Bangor Daily News blog “Pollways,” University of Maine Professor of Political Science Amy Fried discusses the Affordable Care Act and Gov. Paul LePage’s objections to it, and the potential consequences of legislative inaction for Maine residents.

In his Bangor Daily news blog “Education: Future Imperfect,” University of Maine Professor of History Howard Segal discusses the apparent proliferation of educational consultants hired by institutions of higher education.

Yong Chen, professor for fisheries population dynamics in the UMaine School of Marine Sciences, was interviewed for an article published by Voice of America about declining fish stock in the Gulf of Maine and researchers’ attempts to accurately monitor population changes.