New perspectives on research

The Graduate Research Session at the conference will be held on Thursday March 1st from 4-5pm. At this session, graduate students from institutions from across the state will present a series of lightning talks where each presenter will briefly share the purpose and findings of their research study, and share a few implications for music education practice. The graduate student panel will be seated in a circle in order to facilitate sharing. Non-presenting attendees will be seated in an outer circle which will then be integrated with the presenters during the Q&A portion of the session, in order promote the free-sharing of ideas between all in ttendance. In order to highlight a few examples of the exciting projects being presented, Yank’l Garcia and Nicholas Quigley, master’s students at Boston University, briefly introduce their research projects below. Please join us to learn about the fresh and exciting topics that graduate student researchers are focusing upon within the field of music education.First author draf

Increased Productivity of a Cover Crop Mixture Is Not Associated with Enhanced Agroecosystem Services

Cover crops provide a variety of important agroecological services within cropping systems. Typically these crops are grown as monocultures or simple graminoid-legume bicultures; however, ecological theory and empirical evidence suggest that agroecosystem services could be enhanced by growing cover crops in species-rich mixtures. We examined cover crop productivity, weed suppression, stability, and carryover effects to a subsequent cash crop in an experiment involving a five-species annual cover crop mixture and the component species grown as monocultures in SE New Hampshire, USA in 2011 and 2012. The mean land equivalent ratio (LER) for the mixture exceeded 1.0 in both years, indicating that the mixture over-yielded relative to the monocultures. Despite the apparent over-yielding in the mixture, we observed no enhancement in weed suppression, biomass stability, or productivity of a subsequent oat (Avena sativa L.) cash crop when compared to the best monoculture component crop. These data are some of the first to include application of the LER to an analysis of a cover crop mixture and contribute to the growing literature on the agroecological effects of cover crop diversity in cropping systems

Cultivar diversity as a means of ecologically intensifying dry matter production in a perennial forage stand

The relationship between genotypic diversity and productivity has not been adequately explored in perennial forage production systems despite strong theoretical and empirical evidence supporting diversity\u27s role in ecosystem functioning in other managed and unmanaged systems. We conducted a two-year field experiment with six cultivars of an agriculturally important forage grass, Lolium perenne L. (perennial ryegrass). Dry matter production of L. perenne and the weed community that emerged from the soil seed bank were measured each year in treatments that ranged from cultivar monocultures to three- and six-way cultivar mixtures, all sown at a constant seeding rate. Mean L. perenne dry matter production increased with increasing cultivar diversity and was highest in mixtures that contained cultivars representing the greatest additive trait range (calculated on rankings of three traits: winter hardiness, heading date, and tolerance to grazing). Mixtures had greater yields than those predicted by the mean of their component monoculture yields, but there was evidence that highly productive cultivars may have dampened over-yielding in mixtures. Weed abundance was correlated with L. perenne dry matter, but not L. perenne cultivar diversity. These results suggest that multi-cultivar mixtures may have utility as an approach to ecologically intensifying perennial forage production. Additional research will be necessary to determine the mechanisms responsible for the over-yielding observed in this study and the generality of these findings

Socrates and Plato on Poetry

This paper contrasts Socrates’ attitude towards poetry in the early dialogues with the sharply critical view of poetry expressed in Plato’s Republic. The difference between these two views constitutes further evidence for a developmentalist interpretation of Plato

Intrusion Detection Systems for Community Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks are being increasingly used to provide affordable network connectivity to communities where wired deployment strategies are either not possible or are prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately, computer networks (including mesh networks) are frequently being exploited by increasingly profit-driven and insidious attackers, which can affect their utility for legitimate use. In response to this, a number of countermeasures have been developed, including intrusion detection systems that aim to detect anomalous behaviour caused by attacks. We present a set of socio-technical challenges associated with developing an intrusion detection system for a community wireless mesh network. The attack space on a mesh network is particularly large; we motivate the need for and describe the challenges of adopting an asset-driven approach to managing this space. Finally, we present an initial design of a modular architecture for intrusion detection, highlighting how it addresses the identified challenges

Improving water heaters for sustainability

posterBuildings use about 40% of the total U.S. energy demand. Water heaters provide hot water for a variety of building uses including sinks, showers, dishwashers, washing machines, and space heating. Water heaters are the second most energy intensive appliances in a common household. Typically a home water heater's energy sources is natural gas. There are other types of tank water heaters including ultra low NOx, and electric resistance. Figure 1 displays the differences in water heater types. Electric resistance water heaters use electrical grid power. Building owners burdent thec cost of water heating through the initial water heater cost, energy bills, and the communal air pollution they breathe. Burning and extracting non-renewable fuels including natural gas leads to climate change. Water heaters noticeably attribute air pollution to winter inversions have adverse affects on human health. Combusted air pollutants include Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Nitorgen oxides (NOx), and Sulfur oxides (SOx). Pushing towards the future Salt Lake City has set a goal to reduce 80% of green house gases emissions by the year 2040 setting a demand for water heater emissions reduction

Socrates\u27 Evil Associates and the Motivation for his Trial and Condemnation

We argue against those who construe the charge made by Polycrates, that Socrates was the teacher of Alcibiades and Critias, to be a substantial feature of the prejudice that Socrates faced as he stood trial for impiety and corrupting the youth