edited The aggregation-induced enhancement (AIE) of fluorescence exhibited by group-14 metalloles is of considerable theoretical and practical interest. We are using dynamic light scattering to measure the size of aggregates in mixed solvent systems, and correlating these measurements to changes in luminescence. Recent work suggests that in some solvent systems, the aggregates undergo a rapid growth and settling, while in other solvents the aggregate size is relatively stable for short (3-6 hours) periods of time. We present stability studies of tetraphenyl siloles in a variety of mixed solvent systems.

edited The Briggs-Rauscher oscillating reaction, first reported in 1973, is one of the most visually striking chemical demonstrations. The Chemistry Club at the University of Southern Maine (USM) often employs the reaction in its chemical demonstration shows for middle school students. While the kinetics and mechanism of the reaction have been well studied, a straightforward and complete description is lacking. Our presentation describes each point of the reaction chronologically, from when the solutions are first combined, to when the oscillations cease. We emphasize the reactions that account for each color change as the oscillations proceed. Furthermore, we offer a mechanism for the initial production of iodous acid when the reactants are first combined, which is needed in the subsequent radical sequences of reactions. We believe a complete and concise discussion of the reaction organized is essential for the reaction's utility as a powerful and exciting chemical demonstration.

edited In its 17 year history, the University of Southern Maine (USM) chemistry club has been extremely active in its outreach programs to local elementary and middle schools. This year, we have broadened our scope in an effort to reach high school students as well. Focusing on honors and advanced placement students who are most likely to continue their study of chemistry, our primary goal is to expose students to opportunities in chemistry available to them in college. Activities include visits to the high schools to speak with the students, perform demonstrations, and for students in an online advanced placement course, tutor and assist with laboratory activities. Students also visit USM to tour the laboratories, sit in on college chemistry courses, and shadow undergraduate research students. This exposure goes a long way toward helping students narrow their educational and career goals and encourages students to continue their study of chemistry.

Edited Demographics are a basic tool in determining the status of harvested fisheries. Fish length, weight, gonad weight, and age are critical pieces of information used to determine harvesting pressure and "health" of anadromous, marine and freshwater fish runs. Alewives were collected from two Maine rivers in 2008, the St. George and the Eastern, for demographic analysis. Collected fish were intercepted on their way to spawning grounds. Samples were sexed, length (mm) and weight (g) recorded. Scale and otoliths were extracted. Aging of fish was accomplish using a microfilm projector. Scales were aged three times, once each by independent agers, and, where agers disagreed, a third time by both agers. Figures generated included length at age and weight at age for combined samples and by sex. Demographic data were compared to data collected for alewives from across the state by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

edited In October 2005, Sherman Lake (Newcastle, Maine) drained when the dam was breached by flood waters, revealing a salt marsh that had been submerged for 70 years. In July 2007, researchers collected benthic invertebrate and sediment samples from 8 sites within the tidal creeks of the newly revealed salt marsh, and 5 sites in the adjacent Marsh River. In this project, we assessed the suitability of sediments for benthic invertebrate re-colonization by measuring sediment grain-size composition and percent organic content, and related sediment characteristics to the location in the marsh.

edited When protein natural structure becomes modified due to oxidative stress, the innate biological functionality becomes compromised. Consequently, high levels of oxidized proteins have been implicated in neuro-degeneration, aging, heart disease, and other deleterious effects. Students enrolled in CHY116 are undertaking the synthesis and characterization of model compounds that are designed to label proteins at the oxidatively damaged site. Ultimately, a target molecular probe will be synthesized employing the optimal reaction conditions discovered while preparing model compounds, and the resulting molecular probe will be used to label, isolate, and aid characterization of proteins that are susceptible to oxidative stress.

edited Used cigarette filters (i.e. butts) are the largest form of litter worldwide. Our research studies the environmental contaminants in cigarette waste (filters and ash) and the fate of contaminants after improper disposal in the environment. Levels of heavy metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in solid cigarette wastes have been analyzed for different cigarette brands. Metals concentrations were determined using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). XRF allowed the determination of a broad range of metals in cigarette ash and used filters. Analysis of cigarette ash samples showed relatively high concentration levels of Hg (4.989 ppm), Pb (10.921 ppm), Zr (25.224 ppm), Sr (225.999 ppm), Zn (42.495 ppm), and Cr (6.301 ppm). Data collected from XRF analyses was compared with ICP data for cadmium, chromium, lead and arsenic; known to be very toxic for the environment even at low concentrations. This study also investigated levels of PAHs in cigarette waste using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry. All of our results have shown the presence of relatively high concentrations of metals and PAHs in used cigarette filters and ash, indicating that improperly disposed of cigarette wastes poses a threat to our environment.

edited Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants produced from predominantly anthropogenic sources. PAHs originating from petrogenic and pyrogenic sources each have distinct characteristics and compositions that allow for the identification of specific sources at each sampling site. This study investigated the sources of PAHs in street dust, which include deposition of ash and littering of filters from cigarettes, application of driveway sealant, leaching from asphalt, car exhaust, and gasoline and oil spills. Street dust samples were collected from varying locations on or nearby to the USM Portland campus. These include samples collected from campus walkways, campus building entranceways, and campus parking lots. In addition, curbside dirt was collected along Forest Avenue and Falmouth Street in Portland, as well as residential driveways in close proximity to the campus. Analytical results obtained from each of the samples indicate that each sampling sites is impacted with PAHs. These results also indicate that the levels and characteristics of the individual PAH compounds indicates that the sources vary among the locations. Characterization of PAHs in each sample allowed us to determine the major sources impacting each area. 

Edited Cancer biomarkers are molecules that are associated with malignancy. They are either not detectable or present in significantly lower level in individuals without cancer. Osteopontin (OPN) is a secreted phosphoprotein that is associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease, renal injury, and inflammation. It has been consistently found at elevated levels in patients with cancers of various tissue origin including breast, lung, prostate, gastric, esophageal, neural and oral cavity. In the recent years, there has been much interest in investigating the potential of osteopontin as a cancer biomarker. In our laboratory, we have attempted to develop antibody-based immunoassays for detection and quantification of osteopontin in cancer specimens. Several monoclonal antibodies have been raised against osteopontin and its fragments and are currently used in development of various formats of immunoassays for quantification of osteopontin and their N-terminal and C-terminal fragments.

Edited This study compares the genotoxicity of hexavalent chromium and its repair in whale cells and human cells. Phosphorylated gamma-H2AX histone protein repair foci have been photographed using the confocal microscope. Specialized software has been used to count the foci, and the results interpreted in terms of our hypothesis that whale cells have better DNA repair than human cells.

Edited Group 14 metalloles exhibit a striking enhancement of fluorescence on aggregation, which makes them ideal candidates for solid state optoelectronic devices. For a variety of metalloles, the aggregate size and fluorescence will be measured as a function of the percentage of water in a mixed solvent system.

Edited Group 14 metalloles have attracted much interest due to their unusual solid-state fluorescence behavior. Synthetic efforts have been made to tailor these molecules to specific purposes such as electro-optic devices, analytical sensors, and probes of protein environments. Using the Research Computing Group's computing cluster and the ADF/ADF-BAND program, metallole band gaps as a function of structure and environment have been examined in this study.

Edited The Ttc7 gene was discovered as a result of characterizing the mouse flaky skin (fsn) mutation. The defective gene results in an autoimmune disease in the affected mice that is similar to human Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Ttc7 has no known function and therefore it is important to define the function of this protein to gain understanding of the development of SLE. The purpose of this project is to recombinantly express the protein and purify it from the cell extracts by affinity chromatography. The purified proteins will be characterized by polyacrylamide gele electrophoresis and spectroscopy. Isolating purified protein will be necessary for the biochemical characterization of the protein function.

edited Group-14 metallacyclopentadienes (metalloles) are the subject of intensive investigation due to their striking luminescence characteristics. These compounds are atypical of most luminescent compounds in that the intensity of luminescence increases when forced to aggregate in mixed solvent systems containing poor solvent, whereas most compounds experience self-quenching. This aggregated-induced fluorescence (AIE) phenomenon has lead to their use in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and other applications. We present the synthesis of a group-14 metalloles via an efficient synthetic scheme using standard Schlenk techniques. The product will be characterized by infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, and luminescence spectroscopy.

Dietary components influence the fatty acid composition of triglycerides in farm animals. Omega-3-fatty acids, essential in the human diet, are thought to be present in varying amounts depending on what livestock and fish are fed. These fatty acids will be analyzed in pasture and industrially raised pork.

DUPLICATE -- DELETE

Edited Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are being developed for flat panel displays and lighting applications. These devices can be tailored to emit specific wavelengths of light by passing a current of electricity through them. Construction of these devices requires a photoactive species, often embedded in a polymer matrix, sandwiched between two electrodes. Thin films of photoactive molecules dispersed in a series of polymers and record the devices photoluminescence spectra have been fabricated. The next step was to apply a current to the devices and record the electroluminescence of the devices. The results of the tests of several photoactive molecules and several polymer matrices completed in this research project will be presented.

DUPLICATE -- DELETE

Edited Dietary components influence the fatty acid composition of triglycerides in fish. Omega-3-fatty acids, essential in the human diet, are thought to be present in varying amounts depending on what livestock and fish are fed. These fatty acids were analyzed and compared in farm raised and wild caught fish.

Dietary components influence the fatty acid composition of triglycerides in farm animals. Omega-3-fatty acids, essential in the human diet, are thought to be present in varying amounts depending on what livestock and fish are fed. These fatty acids will be analyzed in pasture and industrially raised chicken.

Ethanol, a potential biofuel, can be produced from wood, paper pulp, and paper. Paper, composed primarily of cellulose, can be enzymatically broken down into its constituent glucose units. Glucose can then be converted to ethanol via fermentation processes. Low quality paper - newsprint – will be analyzed to explore its potential as an ethanol precursor.

Ethanol, a potential biofuel, can be produced from wood, paper pulp, and paper. Paper, composed primarily of cellulose, can be enzymatically broken down into its constituent glucose units. Glucose can then be converted to ethanol via fermentation processes. Low quality paper - mixed office waste – will be analyzed to explore its potential as an ethanol precursor.

edited Group-14 metalloles exhibit a dramatic increase in luminescence when forced to aggregate in binary solvent systems containing a poor solvent. A thorough understanding of the properties of these aggregates, most importantly stability, is essential for fully exploiting this aggregation-induced enhancement (AIE) phenomenon in practical applications. We studied the AIE effect of 1,1,2,3,4,5-hexaphenylgermole in mixed solvent systems containing tetrahydrofuran and varying percentages of deionized water with the goal of characterizing how the aggregates change with age. The emission intensity decreased over time and the wavelength of maximum emission became more and more blue-shifted. Evaluation of aggregate size via dynamic light scattering revealed that size does not change significantly for several hours after the solutions are prepared. Additionally, our initial results suggest there may be some correlation between aggregate size and metallole concentration.

Edited This study is an evaluation of photocatalytic degradation of chlorinated hydrocarbons in wastewater using titanium oxide. Chlorinated hydrocarbons are persistent pollutants not easily removed from water supplies using conventional water treatment methods. As a result, alternative treatment methods may be necessary to remediate these contaminants from potable water supplies. Photocatalysis using TiO2 is an inexpensive, efficient and nontoxic means of remediating water supplies impacted with chlorinated hydrocarbons. This research studies the effectiveness of TiO2 in degrading chlorinated hydrocarbons under various conditions, including different UV wavelengths, varying time exposure to light, and the addition of various metal compounds. Water samples spiked chlorinated hydrocarbons were mixed with TiO2 and exposed to both sunlight, as well as UV light of varying wavelengths (254 nm and 365 nm). Samples were exposed to these light sources for varying durations to determine the extent of degradation with extended light exposure. In addition, copper (II) sulfate and zinc (II) chloride were added to TiO2 spiked samples to determine if the addition of metal contaminants would inhibit or enhance photocatalytic degradation of certain organic compounds.

Edited Dietary components influence the fatty acid composition of triglycerides in farm animals. Omega-3-fatty acids, essential in the human diet, are thought to be present in varying amounts depending on what livestock and fish are fed. These fatty acids will be analyzed and compared in grass fed and corn fed beef.

Does personal relevance of discussion topic influence student participation and quality of discussion? This study is the fourth study in a program of research comparing online and face-to-face discussion in college courses. We had previously determined that: (1) higher levels of critical thinking did not occur in online or face-to-face discussion; (2) the addition of a teaching assistant did not affect the quality of discussion in an online course. This study explored the idea that personal relevance of discussion topics might influence student participation and the quality of discussion. At the end of the fall 2008 semester, students in two online courses anonymously responded to a survey that asked questions about personal relevance, trust, professor involvement, comfort in disagreeing, reasons for participating and student involvement. Demographic variables of traditional/nontraditional student and gender were also considered. One course was required of majors and the other an elective. Likert Scale, Multiple Choice, and Essay format questions were used.

A J2ME mobile ticketing client is being developed to interface to a help desk system. This application currently enables workers in the field to create and edit tickets using a mobile device. A mobile geospatial framework adhering to the Open Geospatial Consortium's standards was developed to establish communication between a mobile device and GeoServer using HTTP connectivity. GeoServer allows an application to manage and display geospatial data. It supports Web-Feature Service Transactions (WFS-T) and Web Map Services (WMS) which enable users to edit and retrieve data contained on the server. The framework also provides a location determination component using the J2ME JSR 179 specification. This project integrates the mobile geospatial framework into the J2ME mobile ticketing client. Technicians in the field will be able to update their locations to a PostGIS datastore in GeoServer from a mobile device. They will be able to filter tickets based on their location and expertise and view a map of the results.

We have created a real-time agent that plays Ms. PacMan. Our program has access to the same visual information and controls that a human player has, and makes split-second decisions based on screen captures from the game, just as a human does. In previous work, our agent was able to achieve scores better than human novices (including the researchers who developed it), using a hand-coded strategy. This agent went on to win a competition at the 2008 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence in Hong Kong, outperforming 11 competitors and scoring 15,970 points. In the work presented here, the goal is to develop an evolutionary computation approach to learning the basic strategy for playing the game as well as learning parameters that affect behavior. We will also conduct experiments to compare the learned versions with the previous hand-coded version. Learning to play the game involves learning different situations to pay attention to, such as that a ghost is nearby, and appropriate actions to take in that situation, such as heading in the opposite direction. Learning parameters involves refinements, such as learning that "nearby" means 3 squares away. Through these experiments, it should be possible for the agent to learn to play the game itself, and possibly, to play better than the human-designed strategy.

The goal of this project is to develop an agent to play the first-person shooter game Unreal Tournament 2004, a fast-paced and dynamic environment that demands that the agent must be capable of making decisions quickly. An additional goal of this project is to explore evolutionary computation as a means for learning the rule sets used to control the game-playing agent. The agent's behavior is controlled by a rule-based system, which looks at multiple high-level conditions, such as whether the agent is weak, and determines a single high-level action, such as whether to head for the nearest known healing source. Using an evolutionary computation approach, in which the behavior is evolved over a number of generations, the agent learns increasingly better strategies for its environment. Through the work in this project, we are exploring several research questions including the development of successful vocabulary of high-level conditions and actions for the rule set, the challenges of rapid decision-making, and the trade offs between hand coding a rule set and using the evolutionary process to hone a rule set.

The goal of this project is to develop an agent to play the first-person shooter game Unreal Tournament 2004, a fast-paced and dynamic environment that demands that the agent must be capable of making decisions quickly. An additional goal of this project is to explore evolutionary computation as a means for learning the rule sets used to control the game-playing agent. The agent's behavior is controlled by a rule-based system, which looks at multiple high-level conditions, such as whether the agent is weak, and determines a single high-level action, such as whether to head for the nearest known healing source. Using an evolutionary computation approach, in which the behavior is evolved over a number of generations, the agent learns increasingly better strategies for its environment. Through the work in this project, we are exploring several research questions including the development of successful vocabulary of high-level conditions and actions for the rule set, the challenges of rapid decision-making, and the trade offs between hand coding a rule set and using the evolutionary process to hone a rule set.

The goal of this project is to develop an agent to play the first-person shooter game Unreal Tournament 2004, a fast-paced and dynamic environment that demands that the agent must be capable of making decisions quickly. An additional goal of this project is to explore evolutionary computation as a means for learning the rule sets used to control the game-playing agent. The agent's behavior is controlled by a rule-based system, which looks at multiple high-level conditions, such as whether the agent is weak, and determines a single high-level action, such as whether to head for the nearest known healing source. Using an evolutionary computation approach, in which the behavior is evolved over a number of generations, the agent learns increasingly better strategies for its environment. Through the work in this project, we are exploring several research questions including the development of successful vocabulary of high-level conditions and actions for the rule set, the challenges of rapid decision-making, and the trade offs between hand coding a rule set and using the evolutionary process to hone a rule set.

The Gulf of Maine Biogeographical Data Explorer is a Web-based application that was developed as a means to search, visualize and distribute biogeographical and physical oceanographic data collected from the Gulf of Maine. It aims to give users the ability to quickly determine what data are available and to obtain specific data they are interested in analyzing. The Data Explorer is one of two data and mapping portals for the Gulf of Maine Area Program (GoMAP) of the Census of Marine Life, the goal of which is to gain enough knowledge of biodiversity patterns and ecological processes to enable ecosystem-based management in a large marine environment. GoMAP will advance knowledge of both biodiversity and ecological processes over a range of trophic levels—from microbes to the top predators in the system—and the Data Explorer is one gateway through which that knowledge will be disseminated.

edited The use of a test item database can facilitate the creation of unique exams for teachers. Our advanced website class was charged with developing "real-life" web-applications for clients. This project was suggested by the professor as a response to such a need by teachers. With a focus on using a single development language, we attempted to create a dynamic and feature rich application that could be easily distributed and used. The development language used was PHP along with standard SQL, HTML with CSS. The outcome was a powerful yet simple application framework that is highly customizable and well documented for easy adaptation to individual teacher, school, or curriculum needs.

In this project we are computationally searching for candidate functional regions in noncoding DNA (formerly called “junk DNA”), so called because it does not code for genes. Over 95 percent of the approximately 3 billion base pairs composing human DNA is noncoding, but now it is understood that some of the noncoding DNA affects gene expression. Our approach is to look for non-coding DNA regions that appear to have been conserved across evolution; these are good candidates as functional elements. Our results are promising, identifying both previously characterized and novel candidate elements.

This project develops an online GIS portal to provide access to FGDC standard metadata and its associated spatial data for the State of Maine Library of Geographic Data (GeoLibrary) Board. The public will be able to use the portal to search and access these data. Users of the portal will be able to upload their own metadata and shapefile data which will be hosted for free. The project builds on existing open-source GIS software such as GeoNetwork, GeoTools, and MapServer. All of the metadata and spatial data have been stored in a PostGIS spatially enabled database. Spatial data have been provided in various formats including Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Standard Web Map Service (WMS), and Keyhole Markup Language (KML) for viewing. One goal of this project is to provide users with spatial data in modern formats without requiring them to learn new skills. Another goal is to provide greater access to spatial data by providing the data hosting service for users and also providing the portal as an interface to the data. The chief purpose of the project is the provision of a publicly accessible centralized spatial data repository for the State of Maine. Such a repository promotes the dissemination and employment of spatial data throughout the state via its hosting and cataloging services. This work is done through support from USM's Research Computing Group and the School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology.