Organic bread-wheat in New England, USA

In October 2010, researchers, farmers and millers from Maine and Vermont, USA, organized a trip to Denmark, in order to learn about local bread wheat production, milling and use from their more experienced counterparts with climates similar to their own. They have received a grant over four years for the project antitled Enhancing Farmers’ Capacity to Produce High Quality Organic Bread Wheat in which they will carry out research, development and education to improve the production and quality of organic bread wheat in the two states

Assessing the Performance of the Diffusion Monte Carlo Method as Applied to the Water Monomer, Dimer, and Hexamer

The Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) method is applied to the water monomer, dimer, and hexamer, using q-TIP4P/F, one of the most simple, empirical water models with flexible monomers. The bias in the time step ($\Delta\tau$) and population size ($N_w$) is investigated. For the binding energies, the bias in $\Delta\tau$ cancels nearly completely, while a noticeable bias in $N_w$ still remains. However, for the isotope shift, (e.g, in the dimer binding energies between (H$_2$O)$_2$ and (D$_2$O)$_2$) the systematic errors in $N_w$ do cancel. Consequently, very accurate results for the latter (within $\sim 0.01$ kcal/mol) are obtained with relatively moderate numerical effort ($N_w\sim 10^3$). For the water hexamer and its (D$_2$O)$_6$ isotopomer the DMC results as a function of $N_w$ are examined for the cage and prism isomers. For a given isomer, the issue of the walker population leaking out of the corresponding basin of attraction is addressed by using appropriate geometric constraints. The population size bias for the hexamer is more severe, and in order to maintain accuracy similar to that of the dimer, the population size $N_w$ must be increased by about two orders of magnitude. Fortunately, when the energy difference between cage and prism is taken, the biases cancel, thereby reducing the systematic errors to within $\sim 0.01$ kcal/mol when using a population of $N_w=4.8\times 10^5$ walkers. Consequently, a very accurate result for the isotope shift is also obtained. Notably, both the quantum and the isotope effects for the prism-cage energy difference are small.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 36 references. Submitted to the Journal of Physical Chemistr

Assessment Process of EBD Students: Professional Perspectives

There are an increasing number of students labeled as Emotionally or Behaviorally Disordered (EBD) each year (Seidman, 2005). Less than one half of students labeled as EBD graduate (Lehr & McComas, 2005). Early identification is crucial in order to get EBD students the resources and supports that they need to succeed in school. Previous research shows that early identification and early provision of services leads to better outcomes (Kauffman, 1999). This places importance on the properly and timely assessments of students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. The current qualitative study seeks to examine whether current special education assessment processes, along with eligibility regulations, provide an adequate way to target the proper interventions in a timely manner. This research looks at the assessment process from the view point of the professionals who work closest to the students. Findings indicate for school social work are also explored

The Impacts of Maturation and Experience on Volumetric Neuroplasticity in Solitary and Social Bees

Some animals are incredibly social, living and working together as one cohesive group. Alternatively, many animals are solitary, never living with and rarely interacting with others. A large body of biological research has focused on understanding the role that brains play in promoting these behavioral differences across species. Even so, it remains unclear why some brains facilitate social behavior while others do not. My dissertation aims to advance our understanding of this concept by characterizing bees’ brains and how they change over a lifetime. Bees are beneficial for investigating relationships between the brain and social behavior because some species are solitary while others are highly social. However, sociality in bees is more dynamic than that; a blending of these two extremes can also occur. This enables us to explore how brains change with social context within a single group of organisms. My first chapter uses a solitary bee to understand how simple social interactions can impact the brain. I found that—even in a solitary bee—certain brain regions grow in size in response to the presence of other bees. This trait may have been important in the evolutionary origins of social behavior. My second chapter investigated the effects of aging in the brains of two bee species, one that is sometimes social while the other is always social. I found that the brains of these species naturally change over time, a feature common to highly social species, e.g., honey bees. This suggests that having brains that change with age may be an important feature of sociality. My final research chapter made comparisons between queen and worker bees to investigate if their colony roles and behaviors dictated the relative size of different regions of their brains. I found that queen and worker brains respond differently to removing offspring care, a trait fundamental to defining their role in the colony. This highlights a potentially unique relationship between the brain and social life. Collectively, my dissertation used bees to enhance our understanding of what it means to have a social brain

The dark side of reactive attitudes: From persons to compatibilism

This thesis contains two independent papers that both address the problems associated with the reactive attitudes. The first paper, presented in Chapter 2, discusses the negativities of the reactive attitudes in debates regarding skepticism about the moral notion of persons. The second paper, presented in Chapter 3, presents the negativities associated with the reactive attitudes in debates concerning compatibilism about moral responsibility. Neither chapter deals solely with presenting the negativities associated with the reactive attitudes. More than present these, both chapters undermine the non-realist or compatibilist philosophical arguments that attempt to save either the moral notion of persons (Chapter 2) or moral responsibility (Chapter 3) from skeptical and incompatibilist arguments, respectively, by appealing to the benefits of the reactive attitudes. Each chapter undermines these arguments by reminding readers that we are using the benefits of the reactive attitudes and ignoring their detriments in order to cling to tightly held philosophical notions