University of Maine

About: University of Maine is a education organization based out in Orono, Maine, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Ice sheet. The organization has 8637 authors who have published 16932 publications receiving 590124 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Maine at Orono.

The temporal coordination of early infant communication.

Abstract: The ability to coordinate expressive behaviors is crucial to the development of social and emotional communication. Coordination involves systematic sequencing of behaviors from two different modalities that have some temporal overlap. A bootstrapping procedure was used to determine whether preverbal 3- and 6-month-old infants sequence vocalizations, gazes at their mothers' faces, and facial expressions into pairs of coordinated patterns nonrandomly. Smiles and frowns were highly coordinated with vocalizations. Smiles were also coordinated with gazes at mothers' faces, which became stronger with age. Vocalizations were not coordinated with gazes at mothers' faces. These findings illustrate the manner in which infants temporally coordinate communicative actions and provide new evidence that facial expressions (particularly smiles) are central to early infant communications.

Hypertension and Cognitive Functioning: A Perspective in Historical Context

Abstract: Our objective is to characterize the development of the literature on hypertension and cognitive functioning from a historical perspective. This goal was stimulated by the review on “Historical Trends and Milestones in Hypertension Research” in the October 2012 issue of Hypertension .1 Our specific aims are threefold: (1) to trace and describe the history of this area of research; (2) to identify milestones in knowledge and methods; and (3) to discuss briefly how this literature translates into patient care. The topic is of major relevance to research and practice because hypertension is a well-known risk factor for decline in cognitive performance within the normal range of cognitive functioning, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. It is important to emphasize 3 features of the review: (1) it is not designed as a critical review of the literature, but rather to describe the historical influences on our current knowledge base (poor, mediocre and outstanding papers from the past have all shaped our present); (2) word-count limitations require that we omit statistical detail except to emphasize effect sizes in pivotal papers; and (3) each milestone topic is addressed by noting the earliest work then followed by examples of papers representing pivotal events. A number of comprehensive reviews of this literature are available,2–6 including a seminal paper summarizing the formative years of this research.7 Please see http://hyper.ahajournals.org for citations to additional reviews of the literature and papers published in Hypertension . We recognize the importance of the emerging literature on hypotension and cognitive function, but refer the readers to previous reviews which include this topic.8–10 ### Measurement of Cognitive Functioning In this paper, the term cognitive performance is used to describe the outcome of studies measuring a full range of ability from low to high. The term cognitive functioning is used …

Antarctic climate variability on regional and continental scales over the last 2000 years

Abstract: . Climate trends in the Antarctic region remain poorly characterized, owing to the brevity and scarcity of direct climate observations and the large magnitude of interannual to decadal-scale climate variability. Here, within the framework of the PAGES Antarctica2k working group, we build an enlarged database of ice core water stable isotope records from Antarctica, consisting of 112 records. We produce both unweighted and weighted isotopic (δ18O) composites and temperature reconstructions since 0 CE, binned at 5- and 10-year resolution, for seven climatically distinct regions covering the Antarctic continent. Following earlier work of the Antarctica2k working group, we also produce composites and reconstructions for the broader regions of East Antarctica, West Antarctica and the whole continent. We use three methods for our temperature reconstructions: (i) a temperature scaling based on the δ18O–temperature relationship output from an ECHAM5-wiso model simulation nudged to ERA-Interim atmospheric reanalyses from 1979 to 2013, and adjusted for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet region to borehole temperature data, (ii) a temperature scaling of the isotopic normalized anomalies to the variance of the regional reanalysis temperature and (iii) a composite-plus-scaling approach used in a previous continent-scale reconstruction of Antarctic temperature since 1 CE but applied to the new Antarctic ice core database. Our new reconstructions confirm a significant cooling trend from 0 to 1900 CE across all Antarctic regions where records extend back into the 1st millennium, with the exception of the Wilkes Land coast and Weddell Sea coast regions. Within this long-term cooling trend from 0 to 1900 CE, we find that the warmest period occurs between 300 and 1000 CE, and the coldest interval occurs from 1200 to 1900 CE. Since 1900 CE, significant warming trends are identified for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Dronning Maud Land coast and the Antarctic Peninsula regions, and these trends are robust across the distribution of records that contribute to the unweighted isotopic composites and also significant in the weighted temperature reconstructions. Only for the Antarctic Peninsula is this most recent century-scale trend unusual in the context of natural variability over the last 2000 years. However, projected warming of the Antarctic continent during the 21st century may soon see significant and unusual warming develop across other parts of the Antarctic continent. The extended Antarctica2k ice core isotope database developed by this working group opens up many avenues for developing a deeper understanding of the response of Antarctic climate to natural and anthropogenic climate forcings. The first long-term quantification of regional climate in Antarctica presented herein is a basis for data–model comparison and assessments of past, present and future driving factors of Antarctic climate.

Knowledge Needed by a Teacher to Provide Analytic Scaffolding During Undergraduate Mathematics Classroom Discussions

Abstract: Using case study analysis and a cognitive theoretical orientation, we examine elements of knowledge for teaching needed by a mathematician to orchestrate whole-class discussions in an undergraduate mathematics classroom. The instructor, an experienced teacher and mathematics researcher, used an inquiry-oriented curriculum to teach a differential equations course for the first time after teaching it with traditional lecture methods for many years. Examples of classroom teaching and interview data demonstrate that, despite having extensive teaching experience and possessing strong content knowledge, some instructors may still face challenges when trying to provide analytic scaffolding to move whole-class discussions toward a lesson’s mathematical goals. We also hypothesize several component practices necessary for the successful use of analytic scaffolding. Our analysis focuses on the relationship between the instructor’s pedagogical content knowledge and specialized content knowledge and his capacity to enact these component practices during whole-class discussions.