Dinoflagellate blooms and physical systems in the Gulf of Maine

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution May 1990Numerous studies have shown dinoflagellate blooms to be closely related to density discontinuities and fronts in the ocean. The spatial and temporal patterns of the dinoflagellate population depend on the predominant mode of physical forcing, and its scales of variability. The present study combined field sampling of hydrographic and biological variables to examine the relationship of dinoflagellate population distributions to physical factors along the southwestern cost of the Gulf of Maine. A bloom of Ceratium longipes occurred along this coast during the month of June, 1987. A simple model which coupled along-isopycnal diffusion with the logistic growth equation suggested that the cells had a growth rate of about 0.1 d-1 , and had reached a steady horizontal across-shelf distribution within about 10 d. Fur~her variations in population density appeared to be related to fluctuations of light with periods of -10 d. To our knowledge, this was the first use of this simple diffusion model as a diagnostic tool for quantifying parameters describing the growth and movement of a specific phytoplankton population. Blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate, Alexandrium tamarense have been nearly annual features along the coasts of southern Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts since 1972; however the mechanisms controlling the distribution of cells and concomitant shellfish toxicity are relatively poorly understood. Analysis of field data gathered from April to September, 1987-1989, showed that in two years when toxicity was detected in the southern part of this region, A. tamarense cells were apparently transported into the study area between Portsmouth and Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in a coastally trapped buoyant plume. This plume appears to have been formed off Maine by the outflow from the Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers. Flow rates of these rivers, hydrographic sections, and satellite images suggest that the plume had a duration of about a month, and extended alongshore for several hundred kilometers. The distribution of cells followed the position of the plume as it was influenced by wind and topography. Thus when winds were downwelling-favourable, cells were moved alongshore to the south, and were held to the coast; when winds were upwelling-favourable, the plume sometimes separated from the coast, advecting the cells offshore. The alongshore advection of toxic cells within a coastally trapped buoyant plume can explain the temporal and spatial patterns of shellfish toxicity along the coast. The general observation of a north-to-south temporal trend of toxicity is consistent with the southward advection of the plume. In 1987 when no plume was present, Alexandrium tamarense cells were scarce, and no toxicity was recorded at the southern stations. A hypothesis was formulated explaining the development and spread of toxic dinoflagellate blooms in this region. This plume-advection hypothesis included: source A. tamarense populations in the north, possibly associated with the Androscoggin and Kennebec estuaries; a relationship between toxicity patterns and river flow volume and timing of flow peaks; and a relationship between wind stresses and the distribution of low salinity water and cells. Predictions of the plume-advection hypothesis were tested with historical records of shellfish toxicity, wind speed and direction, and river flow. The predictions tested included the north-south progression of toxic outbreaks, the occurrence of a peak in river flow prior to the PSP events, the relationship of transit time of PSP toxicity along the coast with river flow volume, and the influence of surface wind stress on the timing and location of shellfish toxicity. All the predictions tested were supported by the historical records. In addition it was found that the plume-advection hypothesis explains many details of the timing and spread of shellfish toxicity, including the sporadic nature of toxic outbreaks south of Massachusetts Bay, and the apparently rare occurrence of toxicity well offshore on Nantucket Shoals and Georges Bank.This research was supported by ONR contract N00014-87-K-0007 and ONR grant N00014-89-J-111 to Donald M. Anderson, and NOAA Office of Sea Grant contract NA86AA-D-SG090

Reimagining collaboration through the lens of the posthuman: Uncovering embodied learning in noise music

While education research has largely avoided posthumanist scholarship, this analytic lens challenges the ways in which researchers have conceptualized educational technologies, i.e. collaboration and embodied learning, as primarily humanist endeavors that overtly center on human subjects within educational processes. By exploring sites of research that overtly enact posthumanist conceptions of learning, education researchers can address this oversight. In this article, I investigate posthumanist collaboration within the noise music genre, positioning noise music as a posthuman musical tradition and, in turn, a posthuman educational context. In doing so, I reframe noise (in the broad sense of the term) as a tool for engaging the posthuman through multiple educational praxes both in and outside of this specific genre. To construct this argument, I place extant literature on posthumanism and noise in conversation with descriptions of performances from the 2017 Experimental Education Series, a quarterly workshop and concert series that features a broad spectrum of noise musicians, and interviews with teaching artists from this series

The Collaborative Pedagogies of Solo Improvisation: Learning through Performance in Noise Music

Although extant literature has argued for the pedagogical value of free improvisation within music education settings, these studies have largely overlooked how musicians develop their musical and sociocultural knowledges through this process of making music. In response, I use this paper to examine the mechanisms of learning within Thomson's notion of the performance as classroom. To do so, I situate this analysis within the noise music genre and analyze a video of American noise artists Crank Sturgeon to unveil how musical knowledges form within this performance. In doing so, I assert that the distributed and non-anthropocentric understanding of collaboration at the heart of noise music expands the borders of performance as classroom to engage not only the performer on stage but the audience and music making technologies in the process of developing a supposedly individual artistic practice

The Pedagogy of Gear Touchers: Unearthing Modes of Teaching Within and Through DIY Venues

Background: Within the body of literature on do-it-yourself (DIY) music scenes, researchers have routinely placed an emphasis on the role of material space in shaping the sociocultural and musical practices of punk music and other related genres. Scholars have also examined the teaching and learning processes of these musical subcultures under the banner of "punk pedagogy" scholarship. However, investigations into the intersection between these two strands of research need to occur as theories of punk pedagogy have largely overlooked the role of physical space within the educative practices of DIY music. Research into the thematically related space of the maker movement amplifies this need, as maker education scholars have repeatedly shown the multiple ways that materials and space shape how individuals learn through DIY production. Research Questions: In response, I use this paper to attend to the following questions: how do DIY music venues shape the pedagogical practices of DIY music scenes? And in what ways do those pedagogies align with the ideological and ethical aims of these communities? By focusing on learning within DIY venues, I consider multiple forms of musical production outside of the context of a specific genre (i.e. punk). This study therefore provides insight into the mechanisms through which individuals learn and how those mechanisms relate to the physical affordances of these spaces. Research Design: To address these questions, I conducted a year long comparative case study into two intertwined music series centered on noise music (an experimental subgenre within DIY music's broad umbrella) and located in two separate DIY venues. While each of the thirteen events in this series included both a workshop and concert, I focus my analysis on the concert portion of the series to explore a common site of interaction within DIY scenes. Through open and iterative qualitative analyses of field notes generated from observations of concerts in the series and interviews with featured artists and audience members, I provide a nuanced understanding of learning within DIY music venues and the role that both material space and technologies play in shaping that process. Conclusions: Drawing on this analysis, I contend that the stageless design of DIY venues provides a physical affordance that allows "gear toucher conversations" to occur. These conversations involve audience members engaging performers in discussions about the music technologies they use mere seconds after they finish performing, thus linking this pedagogical moment to the material attributes of the venue. However, these conversations reinscribe masculine notions of technology and undermine DIY music's egalitarian politics, a finding that mirrors critical research into maker education. This work therefore calls on both researchers and practitioners to contend with the pedagogies of place and the educative processes that emerge out of situated technologies to further the liberatory praxes that DIY production can produce

Learning to make noise: toward a process model of artistic practice within experimental music scenes

Emerging at the intersection of industrial, punk, electronic music, and avant-garde jazz, noise music represents a niche subgenre reliant on loud, discordant, and arhythmic sounds to make music. Yet despite its place within the (broadly defined) experimental music tradition, research into experimental music education has largely overlooked the genre. In response, I explore noise music through the lens of situated learning theory by addressing the following research question: how do noise musicians develop their artistic practice? To do so, I present findings from a comparative case study centered on two intertwined experimental music concert and workshop series focused on noise music. I begin by analyzing interview data from seventeen featured artists to construct a process model of artistic practice shared between musicians. I then employ bidirectional artifact analysis to trace the development of one novice participant in the series through this model. In turn, these findings not only illuminate how experimental musicians learn within informal settings but provide a potential model of learning for informal learning communities more broadly. This study also holds implications for situated learning theory by asserting the influence of non-anthropocentric actors within communities of practice

Players chatter and dice clatter: exploring sonic power relations in posthuman game-based learning ecologies

Responding to both recent interest in sound within qualitative education research and sound studies literature that conceptualizes sound as a posthuman technology, we use this paper to explore the following research questions: How does sound both enact and unveil posthuman learning ecologies? And how can education scholars engage sound within posthuman research? Through a posthuman framework, we take noise up as an analytical tool for exploring and unveiling more-than-human relations. We then draw parallels between posthuman qualitative research into sound (via noise) and the ideological foundation of experimental music, a musical tradition deeply invested in working with sound as an agentic actor. Within this alignment, we propose using graphic scores to transcribe sonic data without reinscribing humanist research aims. To illustrate, we provide a micro-analysis of preservice teachers engaged in a role-playing game activity and uncover the ways sound asserts its agency within learning ecologies

Factors of resilience in informal caregivers of people with dementia from integrative international data analysis

Background/Aims: Although caring for a person with dementia can be stressful, some caregivers appear to experience few negative consequences to their well-being. This study aimed to examine what proportion of caregivers demonstrates resilience under different challenging circumstances and to identify factors related to their resilience. Methods: Baseline data from 4 studies from the Netherlands and UK among informal caregivers of people with dementia were harmonized and integrated. Caregiver resilience was defined as high levels of psychological well-being despite different types of high caregiving demands. Multivariate regression analyses identified factors significantly related to caregiver resilience. Results: The integrated data set included 15 harmonized variables with data from 1,048 caregivers facing a high care demand. The prevalence of resilience varied between 35 and 43%, depending on the demand for high care. Being a male caregiver, caring for a female, living apart from your relative, and low caregiver burden were positively related to caregiver resilience. Conclusion: Caregivers have the capacity to demonstrate resilience despite significant challenges. This study demonstrates how harmonization of data from multiple existing studies can be used to increase power and explore the consistency of findings. This contributes to a better understanding of which factors are likely to facilitate caregiver resilience and offers insights for developing services