I used google scholar in order to find a research example that best fits my topic, my topic is agrochemicals and whether or not they increase the chances of heart disease. I’ve stumbled upon a few articles and online research examples that address the same concept of particulate matter and heart disease. The research article I’m using is titled “Long-Term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter: Association with Nonaccidental and Cardiovascular Mortality in the Agricultural Health Study Cohort” and can be found online in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study focused on nonaccidental and cardiovascular mortality in the U.S. Agricultural Health Study Cohort. The Cohort has 83,378 subjects made up of farmers, their spouses, and pesticide applicators mostly found in Iowa and North Carolina. Estimates of PM2.5 were assigned to each subject at enrollment, this helps determine a correlation between pesticides and heart disease. With different PM2.5 values being assigned to each subject of the cohort, it is possible to determine a correlation by determining whether or not there are more deaths amongst subjects with higher PM2.5 values or vice versa. The results were 5,931 nonaccidental and 1,967 cardiovascular deaths over a follow up time of 13.9 years. However, there were positive associations with PM2.5 amongst men, but inverse relationships among woman. This research example has helped me further understand the effects of pesticides on the nearby population. Furthermore, I have no narrowed my research question to only men, due to the lack of correlation of women, heart disease, and pesticides.

“Long-Term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter: Association with Nonaccidental and Cardiovascular Mortality in the Agricultural Health Study Cohort.” National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1 June 2014, ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1307277/.

The article I selected for this research example is “Consuming Untreated Water in Four Southwestern Alaska Native Communities: Reasons Revealed and Recommendations for Change.” The article is in the Journal of Environmental Health Volume 77, Number 5, December 2014. The authors of this article discuss why some Alaska native people drink untreated water when untreated water is available. The qualitative research was conducted in four Alaska native villages that have treated water available. Eighty-two percent of the people responded to the survey reported that some of their drinking water came from an untreated source such as river and rain water. The authors found that the reasons people drank untreated water could be captured in six categories: chemicals, taste, health, access, tradition, and cost. Many respondents who did not like drinking treated water expressed concerns about the chemicals used in the water treatment process, and they did not like the taste and smell of the treated water. Many of the respondents associated treated water with health problems such as stomachaches, diarrhea, headaches, allergic reactions, dry skin, and even death. The authors believe that understanding why Alaskan native people continue to drink to untreated water when treated water is available is important to design strategies to change behavior towards drinking treated water. They believe that education about the benefits of untreated water and the risks involved with drinking untreated water is critical. It is common knowledge that drinking untreated water exposes a person to a high risk for diseases; however, the Alaska Natives had a completely different view of untreated water. The authors recommend that designing interventions that address the six categories for not drinking treated water will help to change behavior. They also believe that this kind of strategy can be applied to a range of topics in environmental health such as promoting seat belt usage among drivers, encouraging food service workers to wash their hands, and increasing compliance with environmental regulations.

Troy L. Ritter, Ellen D. S. Lopez, Rachel Goldberger, Jennifer Dobson, Korie Hickel, Rhonda M. Johnson, Andrea Bersamin. 2014 “Consuming Untreated Water in Four Southwestern Alaska Native Communities: Reasons Revealed and Recommendations for Change.” Journal of Environmental Health. Vol 77(5): 8-13.

With regards to my topic, the challenges facing today’s American farmers and ranchers, I have found my focus to shift specifically to the environmental challenges. That being said, one of the leading issues regarding America’s beef industry today is the fact that Americans are purchasing beef from international sources instead of local ones. This is an issue on a local level as it takes money away from our own farmers and rancher, but it is also an environmental issue as well.  The online Rural Sociology, June 2012, Volume 75, No. 2 article, “The ‘Hamburger Connection’ as Ecologically Unequal Exchange: A Cross-National Investigation of Beef Exports and Deforestation in Less-Developed Countries” by Kelly Austin goes into the reasons why beef exports are having a detrimental impact on the environment. To explain this issue, Austin describes the concept of unequal exchange and focuses on the deforestation in Latin America that has increased as a result of their growing beef industry.

Austin opens her article by explaining that unequal exchange happens when a less developed country exports goods to a more affluent country. When this happens, the affluent country gains the goods while the less developed country gains hardly anything and continues to lose resources as a result. For example, when beef is exported from Latin America, whatever profit they make needs to go to immediate needs of the ranchers and very little profit is left over. It also means that, with rising demand for Latin American beef, more ranches are popping up meaning that more deforestation is happening. There is an unequal exchange of goods happening whenever North Americans demand beef from Latin America. Based on this concept, Austin poses a hypothesis which can be summarized into two research questions: “is deforestation in less-developed countries positively associated with the relative extent to which beef exports are sent to more-developed nations? Is the impact of the vertical flow of beef exports on deforestation in Latin American nations more pronounced than in other less-developed nations?” (Austin, 2010).

Austin uses ordinary least squares regression to compare the rate of deforestation to the amount of beef being exported out of Latin America as well as how the deforestation in Latin American nations compares to other nations where deforestation happens. To gain her sample she created a list of criteria that the less-developed countries needed to fall under and she used listwise deletion to create her sample of 48 countries. After obtaining data through her research of beef export data and deforestation data, Austin used OLS regression to come to the conclusion that part of her hypothesis was correct. Deforestation in less-developed countries is positively associated with beef exports to more-developed countries and this is predominately seen in Latin America.

While this article provided interesting insights into this environmental issue, I found it incredibly confusing to follow the methods portion of the article. There were many concepts that we have not learned about yet including her methods of analysis and data collection. That being said, I was still able to understand what was being discussed and the results of the research.

Austin, Kelly. 2010. “The “Hamburger Connection” as Ecologically Unequal Exchange: A Cross-National Investigation of Beef Exports and Deforestation in Less-Developed Countries.” Rural Sociology75(2):270–99. Retrieved February 10, 2018 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.redlands.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2010.00017.x/full).

For this research exercise I used JSTOR to find a scholarly article on my topic, which is about the relationship between conspicuous consumption and socioeconomic status. This article is called Low-income Families and Coping through Brands: Inclusion or Stigma? and it is featured in the academic journal, Sociology. This article covers the “coping strategies” used by low-income families in regards to conspicuous consumption. According to the author, low-income families engage in conspicuous consumption of popular brands in order to provide their children with access to these brands. Access to popular brands allows children to feel accepted and apart of a larger group. Without access to such brands, children may feel stigmatized and ostracized, because they are not part of the group. Material items are a form of scrip for children. This allows them to interact with other children, and provides a means for social acceptance. This article uncovers the powerful control that brands have over our lives, especially among children.

I would assume this article’s research topic is conspicuous consumption and low-income families, and the research question is “What are the social effects of conspicuously consuming popular brands among low-income families and single mothers?” Because this study is comprised of 30 in depth interviews with different families, the type of data needed to answer this question is reports of acts, behavior, and events, and the data gathering method is in depth interviews. The method of data analysis is qualitative, because the author did not count the reports of acts, behavior, or events, but rather describe them. Overall, this data appears to be legitimate and trustworthy because it appears in a well respected academic journal, and the conclusions came from deep and thoughtful results that arose from the in depth interviews.

This journal article contained historical research about the repatriation of human remains, discovered in Fort Union National Monument, New Mexico, to the Jicarilla Apache and Ute Mountain Ute Native American tribes.  The researchers wanted to discover if the human remains were erroneously repatriated.  They explore whether a better course of action could have been taken during the evaluation process.  The remains were discovered as part of a mass burial in 1958.  The researchers explain that during their initial analysis by a physical anthropologist the remains were declared to be four adult males who died as a result of gunshot trauma.  The anthropologist wrote that the remains were of “American Indian, Spanish, and possibly Negro,” descent.  “They would be called ‘Mexicans’ in the sense of multiple racial admixture characterized in the Southwest.”  In 1990, the Fort Union National Monument museum began a process of evaluating any indigenous cultural affiliation of the remains as a result of the passing of NAGPRA.  The remains were reexamined and two were declared to be Native American and the other two as “admixed Caucasoid-Mongoloid.”  After further examinations, their heritage was determined to be culturally inconclusive but all four sets were repatriated to the local tribes due to the geography of the grave.  The authors argue that at least one human remain was not Native American and was in fact a New Mexico citizen.

The authors of this article relied on expert and cultural knowledge to perform this historical research.  They utilized reports of acts, behaviors, and events and their form of analysis was descriptive and qualitative.  The article raised an interesting topic of cases of erroneous repatriation and examining how historical cases leave room for error in their process.  However, the researchers’ tone comes off as slightly anti-NAGPRA in their rhetoric.

Spude, Catherine Holder, and Douglas D. Scott. “NAGPRA and Historical Research: Reevaluation of a Multiple Burial from Fort Union National Monument, New Mexico.” Historical        Archaeology 47, no. 4 (February 13, 2013): 121-36.

Focusing on my topic of community and education, I am writing about the article “Youth Development Through Mentorship: A Los Angeles School-Based Mentorship Program Among Latino Children” by Coller and Kuo (2014). This article can be found in the Journal of Community Health, vol. 39. This research evaluates the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP), a school-based mentoring program, among Latino students in Los Angeles. The main reason for this article was Coller and Kuo wanted to test the feasibility of applying a previously validated relationship quality assessment tool a YEP directed toward urban Latino youth. In order to test this, the researchers asked the question: what are the outcomes of a successful mentor-mentee pairing relationship and YEP look like for low-income Latino elementary school children in LA? Coller and Kuo tested the quality of the relationships formed between the mentors, undergraduate students at UCLA, and the mentees, 4th and 5th graders at a Title I elementary school. The type of data needed to answer the question was organizational data and reports of acts, behaviors and events. The organizational data was used to describe the statistics about the elementary school and students. The study used Stoner Avenue Elementary School to collect their data, stating it was a Title I funded school of 376 students, with a 91% Latino student body, 55% classified as English language learners, and the entire student body receives free and reduced lunch (Coller & Kuo, 2014). This was most likely collected through public records. The reports of acts, behaviors, and events analyzed: “relationship length, degree of youth centeredness, emotional engagement and youth satisfaction” (Coller & Kuo, 2014). This data was collected through teacher-administered surveys students, ages 9-10, took. The students rated the statements on a scale from 1-4, which is ordinal data. The survey was a testing rank-order, there is no fixed interval. The YEP directed toward urban Latino youth was highly successful.  The outcomes of this program showed, of YEP’s pairs, 95% lasted at least a year, each year it of it existing demonstrating a higher percentage of relationships lasting at least 2 years. Using the previously validated relationship quality assessment tool was successful in evaluating school-based mentoring directed toward urban Latino youth (Coller & Kuo, 2014).

Coller, J. J., & Kuo, A. A. (2013). Youth development through mentorship: A los angeles school-based mentorship program among latino children. Journal of Community Health, 39, 316-321.

Graves, Scott L, and Ye, Fei Fei. “Are Special Education Labels Accurate for Black Children? Racial Differences in Academic Trajectories of Youth Diagnosed With Specific Learning and Intellectual Disabilities.” Journal of Black Psychology 43, no. 2 (March 2017).

This article explored the impacts of special education designation on the academic trajectories of Black students. They assessed variation in the academic achievement of children who were diagnosed with learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities. This article sought to answer the following research questions: “Do the math achievement trajectories of youth differ by classification (Intellectual Disability and Learning Disability) and racial background? Do the reading achievement trajectories of youth differ by classification (Intellectual Disability and Learning Disability) and racial background?” Demographic data was necessary to conduct this research. The research looked at race, gender, socioeconomic status, and education level of the head of the household, which are all demographic data. The research was conducted nationally. They used existing data from the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study. While this original study, which spanned 2000-2007, used in-depth interviews, surveys, and direct student assessments, this research article showed the results from taking a random sample of 14,000 children from this longitudinal study. The article explains that the data analysis method used was a “growth curve model” which involves “grouping data from the same individuals across time” (Graves & Ye 2017).

This article talks a lot about the history of discrimination against Black students through special education and also the discrimination of IQ testing and other psychological testing on Black students. The authors, Scott L. Graves and Fei Fei Ye do a thorough job of providing historical context, analyzing existing data, and then conducting their own research to deepen the research on this topic. They noticed the gap in research on longitudinal academic outcomes. This study was able to show significant variety in achievement of children diagnosed with learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities. Graves and Ye found that, across time, the academic achievement growth was typically positive. As students got older, the growth plateaued. Black students displayed lowered rates of growth in two of four achievement tests when compared to their White and Hispanic peers. Another finding showed that Black students did not show as clear distinctions between diagnoses of learning disabilities and mild intellectual disabilities, when compared to their White and Hispanic peers. They demonstrated the need for further research on this topic and also demonstrated the importance of assessing the interaction of factors of race and diagnosis on long term academic growth.

The article that I found this week from a scholarly journal, “Medical Care,” titled, “Street Outreach for Homeless Persons with Serious Mental Illness Is It Effective?” The contributing authors to this piece are Julie Lam and Robert Rosenheck.

Lam, Julie A., and Robert Rosenheck. “Street Outreach for Homeless Persons with Serious Mental Illness Is It Effective?” Medical Care 37, no. 9 (1999): 894-907. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.redlands.edu/stable/3767420.

This article focused on the mentally ill homeless who were contacted through street outreach compared to those contacted in shelters and other service agencies. The reason for this study is because the street homeless, especially the mentally ill, are typically the hardest ones to engage in services. There is evidence that if they engaged in the programs it would benefit them, but the problem is the first step – actually getting them to engage. This specific group needs a lot more time and care because they are so vulnerable, which is why street outreach is important since they will take the time to see what services they need. The research question being asked in this study is, “Is it effective for Street Outreach to engage with the homeless suffering with serious mental illness?” There are several types of data that could be used to answer this question. All types vary from acts, behaviors, events, to deep opinions and attitudes, personal feelings, and personal and psychological traits. The data gathering method used took 3 years to gather information from clients – from when the program was first contacted, to the enrollment, to 3 months after enrollment. Those on the street expressed less interest in the course, but those who did end up enrolling did show improvement in the end. I would say this research study was done well because they took time to get proper results. They also took the time to truly help patients to see if that is what they needed – time. For the criteria of this study the client had to have severe mental illness, not currently in treatment, and homeless. There are always several definitions of the word “homeless,” but the definition of “homeless” in this study meant that from the first contact they had to have spent at least 7 out of the past 14 nights in a shelter, outdoors, or a public or abandon building.

It was much easier to find articles that related to my topic when I did the search online. Although I found it easier to read the printed journals, I was thrilled to finally be able to explore my topic more specifically. I found an article in the Infant Mental Health Journal titled “Birth and Motherhood: Childbirth Experience and Mothers’ Perceptions of themselves and their Babies” by Samantha Reisz, Deborah Jacobvitz, and Carol George. The topic that the article covered was childbirth experience, and the question the study hoped to answer was whether or not the childbirth experience had an influence on mothers’ descriptions of their children and their confidence in raising them.

The type of data that was needed for the study was shallow opinions and attitudes, which were gathered from surveys. The researchers asked mothers what kind of delivery they had (cesarean or vaginal), and if it was a good or bad experience. Mothers were then asked to describe their children and to say how confident they feel about how they are raising their child. In order to analyze the data, the researchers used Mplus and looked for correlations in the data from the questionnaires. The study is secondary literature, as the researchers used other studies to help create their methods. The study concluded that vaginal birth leads to a more positive description of the child and that the delivery mode did not have any impact on mothering confidence but the childbirth experience did. 

I think this was a good article and it conduced good research that was presented straightforwardly. There were lots of factors to take into account when performing the study like potential bias women may have about childbirth, or different class issues that may come up. It seems as though these variables were considered when conducting the research because they are described in the study. It would be interesting to now do a study about the different factors that could change the results.

Citation:

Reisz, S., Jacobvitz, D. and George, C. (2015), “Birth and Motherhood: Childbirth Experience and Mothers’ Perceptions of Themselves and their Babies”. Infant Mental Health Journal, 36: 167–178. doi:10.1002/imhj.21500

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.redlands.edu/doi/10.1002/imhj.21500/full

This article, “Islamist Challenges to the ‘Liberal Peace’ Discourse: The Case of Hamas and the Israel-Palestine ‘Peace Process’” was written by Corina Mullin in 2010. It is cited as: Mullin, Corinna. 2010. “Islamist Challenges to the ‘Liberal Peace’ Discourse: The Case of Hamas and the Israel-Palestine ‘Peace Process’.” Millenium: Journal of International Studies 39 (2): 525-46. Mullin analyzes the reasons why Hamas is not used in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Hamas is an organization that focuses on the use of violence in protesting, using Islam as their basis for argument. The dispute between Israel and Palestine has been, on Israel’s side, somewhat apartheid, Palestinian Muslim’s use of suicide bombing and weapons against the state of Israel has been globally unaccepted as an anti-apartheid tactic. The article involves several frameworks including how Hamas is marginalized, how peace processes are normally executed, and the framework of the Islamist movement. Mullin’s research uses reports of acts, behaviors, and events and expert knowledge as her types of data. She also collects data by looking at other documents written about the Israel/Palestine conflict. Qualitative analysis is her method of data analysis because she analyzes people’s behavior. I think this research was very interesting and well put together, mostly because I focus on peaceful protests and its benefits in the Middle East. By looking at Mullin’s analyzation of a violent form of protest, Hamas, I was able to understand other viewpoints. I enjoy studying more peaceful ways to combat apartheidism in Israel, but I know that many Westerners only see the conflict as violent. My classmates might think this would be interesting because it somewhat validates many opinions about why Hamas is a pessimistic global view.