Mathematical Information Retrieval: Search and Question Answering

Mathematical information is essential for technical work, but its creation, interpretation, and search are challenging. To help address these challenges, researchers have developed multimodal search engines and mathematical question answering systems. This monograph begins with a simple framework characterizing the information tasks that people and systems perform as we work to answer math-related questions. The framework is used to organize and relate the other core topics of the monograph, including interactions between people and systems, representing math formulas in sources, and evaluation. We close by addressing some key questions and presenting directions for future work. This monograph is intended for students, instructors, and researchers interested in systems that help us find and use mathematical information.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1699/thumbnail.jp

Population dynamics, life history characteristics, and environmental drivers of Neomysis americana in the Damariscotta River estuary

Mysid shrimp (Neomysis americana) play a pivotal role in estuarine food webs by linking primary producers to higher trophic levels and serving as an important food source for commercially valuable fish. Despite their ecological significance, mysids are often under sampled, leading to gaps in our understanding of their population dynamics and life history traits. My study investigated N. americana over a full year (June 2023 to May 2024) in the temperate Damariscotta River Estuary in Maine. My research focused on how environmental factors such as temperature, turbidity, salinity, chlorophyll-a, and zooplankton biomass affect mysid density and reproduction. Temperature emerged as a key factor, with warmer temperatures leading to higher mysid density. My results also indicated distinct overwintering cohorts, highlighting that at least a portion of the population remains in the estuary year-round, with seasonal shifts in size distribution. These findings enhance our understanding of N. americana\u27s ecological role in temperate estuaries, building on previous research of this important species

Olefin Metathesis in Water: Speciation of a Leading Water-Soluble Catalyst Pinpoints Challenges and Opportunities for Chemical Biology

The metathetical modification of biomolecules in aqueous environments holds great promise for advances at the interface of chemistry, biology, and medicine. However, rapid degradation of the metathesis catalysts necessitates their use in large stoichiometric excess, resulting in undesired side-reactions promoted by the ruthenium products. Although water is now known to play a central role in catalyst decomposition, the elusive nature of the intermediates has hampered insight into the pathways involved. We describe the detailed speciation in water of AquaMet (AM), the dominant ruthenium catalyst used for aqueous metathesis, and implications for catalysis. Potentiometric and spectroscopic speciation studies reveal that only trace AM is present under the pH-neutral, salt-free conditions routinely employed in synthetic applications of aqueous metathesis. Instead, metathesis-inactive hydroxide species dominate. Even at pH 3, Ru–H2O complexes dominate in 0.01 M NaCl(aq), and the water ligands are readily deprotonated as the pH is increased. Raising NaCl(aq) concentrations to 1 M suppresses deprotonation events below pH 8, stabilizing AM as the dominant solution species at neutral pH, and significantly expanding the metathesis-compatible regime. Hitherto unrecognized catalyst solubility issues are also revealed, pointing toward avenues for advance. More broadly, the capacity to directly link catalyst environment to structure and performance opens new opportunities for olefin metathesis in complex, water-rich settings

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne

A mythic, propulsive novel about the tangled fates of a matriarchal crime family in Maine.Your ancestors breathe through you. Sometimes, they call for vengeance.Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction.When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs’s youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn’t seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath.The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a crime saga like no other, with a ferocious matriarch at its bruised, beating heart. With sharp wit and profound empathy, award-winning author Ron Currie, delivers an unforgettable novel exploring love, retribution, and the ancestral roots that both nurture and trap us.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1697/thumbnail.jp

Maxwell\u27s Fourth Equation: the Ampere\u27s Law

The original Ampere\u27s Law indicated the total magnetic field intensity along a closed loop is equal to the current enclosed. It was Dr. James Clerk Maxwell who introduced the missing term which was the rate of change of electric flux which is also known as the displacement current. As shown in the video of Faraday\u27s Law and the Point form of Maxwell\u27s Equations, the full Ampere\u27s Law says the total magnetic flux along a losed loop is equal to the conduction and displacement currents. In this video Dr. Maxworth uses the original Ampere\u27s Law to derive the inductance of a coaxial cable. The displacement current introduced by Maxwell, showed that a time varying electric field can create a time-varying magnetic field. Combining all of these four equations, comes the electromangetic fields, where a time-varying electric field creates a time-varying magnetic field, and in-turn a time-varying magnetic field creates a time-varying electric field, overall creating a propagating electromagnetic field. In the worksheet, you can observe different modes of a propagating electromagnetic fields inside a rectangular waveguide.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/oer_engineering_maxworth_emfields/1004/thumbnail.jp

The Shape of What Remains

Like all trauma, healing happens on its own timetable, often in surprising ways. Paralyzed by grief ten years after witnessing the violent death of her six-year-old daughter, Teresa Calvano turns to Chaucer, Janis Joplin, and a monthly book group to copehttps://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1703/thumbnail.jp

Comparing Medicaid Enrolment Death Data to State-Wide Death Records in Maine

(1) To compare the date of death of Medicaid enrollees in Maine according to the Medicaid enrolment data to the date of death obtained through an ongoing quarterly death certificate-Medicaid linkage for 2016–2023; and (2) using the death certificate-Medicaid linkage data, to perform an analysis of the risk of drug overdose death in 2023 by opioid use disorder (OUD) status in 2023, as part of monitoring activities required for one of Maine\u27s new approaches to delivering Medicaid services

Sutton Tales

Sutton Tales follows two main characters in the fictional mill town of Sutton from the 1920s through 1960s, exploring life in a small Maine community and the larger politics and history of influence. Dyhrberg joined the University of Southern Maine’s fiction workshop through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Having attended the workshop for eight years, Dyhrberg not only wrote most of his book with the group but is now also a co-facilitator.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1706/thumbnail.jp