Journal #2

The evolution of polyandry: multiple mating and female fitness in insects

Göran Arnqvist & Tina Nilsson

Arnqvist, Göran, and Tina Nilsson. “The evolution of polyandry: multiple mating and female fitness in insects.” Animal behaviour 60.2 (2000): 145-164.

This research article found in Animal Behavior examines the topic of the evolution of male and female insect mating rates. In an attempt to contest the predominant evolutionary belief that males increase their fitness (their individual reproduction and survival) by mating with many females and that females only need to mate with few males in order to increase their fitness, the authors ask what the direct effects of polyandry (female polygamy) are on female insects. A meta-analysis of 122 experimental studies addressing the direct effects of multiply mating on female fitness in insects was conducted to answer the question to this study. The type of data needed was reports of acts and behavior surrounding insect mating patterns and number of offspring taken. This information was taken from public and private research records from many institutions and organizations, with the method of data analysis being quantitative analysis since what is being measured is number of eggs produced in one lifetime. The results of this study indicate that females directly benefit from polyandry through increased egg production rate and fertility, however there is an optimal rate of polyandry and any further increase in sexual partners beyond that optimal point is damaging to the female insects. This conclusion is interesting in itself because it goes against the traditional male-female reproduction stereotypes, even though it is for insects. As a whole, this research is very thorough, it took data from over a hundred sources and those sources produced seemingly strong results and conclusions that were very relevant to the current environmental ecology field.

This article, “Reflections on ‘A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming’” by Sigmund Tobias and J.D. Fletcher, summarizes findings from a review of 95 studies on gaming and its possible use in education. The article suggests that for games to help students with tasks in the physical world there would need to be an overlap with the content of the game and the tasks at hand. It also goes over the effect that aggressive games can have on the students, the aggressive content has the possibility of instilling aggressive behavior in the player that they can act out in person. To fix this issue the articles suggests that gaming companies should create games that have “prosocial themes that have been shown… to be effective in increasing outcomes such as conflict resolution and helping reactions.” However, this would not necessarily mean this would decrease aggression, that would require further research. The article does say however that at the current moment the “enthusiasm” over the idea to integrate gaming into students learning curriculum is still not backed up with enough evidence.

The article focuses on gaming and students and more specifically asking whether there is enough evidence to say that gaming can or cannot help students learn. For this article, they required reports of acts, behavior, or events to help them get to a consensus on the data. They would have gotten this data from public records, they examined data from reports and articles already published. To analyze their data, they would have used qualitative data analysis/thematic analysis.

I found that this research better clarified how society is trying to use technology, and in this case gaming, more integrally in everyday life. I felt that this article was successful in showing the possible pros and cons of using gaming to help teach students; explaining that although merit might be found that there really is not enough evidence to support using gaming in the curriculum like some other articles may suggest.

Tobias, Sigmund., Fletcher, J.D. (2012). Reflections on “A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming”. Review of Educational Research, 82(2), 233 – 237. 10.3102/0034654312450190

The dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico has been continually increasing in size in the journal Restoration Ecology, the journal of the society for ecological restoration this problem is being addressed. Many have blamed the agricultural industry for polluting the Mississippi river with nutrients mainly nitrogen. In the article Nitrogen farming: Harvesting a different crop written by Donald L. Hey is an analysis of nitrogen runoff and some proposals on how to reduce the amount of excess nitrogen. The topic of this article is what are some alternative ways to managing nitrogen runoff which transitioned into the question how can farming to be used to mitigate nitrogen runoff. In order to come up with the data necessary for this kind of study Hey used organizational data as well as expert knowledge. The reason these two types of data were used is because there quite a few organizations who have already documented the amount of nitrogen in the Mississippi river so instead of redoing all those test Hey used pre-existing data. The expert knowledge comes with Hey’s proposals to entice farmers to use the alternative methods he proposes this was likely done by interviewing farmers and asking in order to find ways to incentivise farmers to switch crops. After all the data was collected Hey used a Interval data analysis in order to show how the proposed crops will alleviate excess nitrogen around the Mississippi river. Overall this is a very informative article that clearly lays out the information which really shows the point of just how bad the runoff of nitrogen alone is not only the for Mississippi river but also for the Gulf of Mexico.

Journal Two

Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011

Louse J. Slater and Michael Bliss Singer

Climate change impacts the levels of precipitation certain areas will receive in the future. For some locations, climate change will increase the amount of precipitation they receive annually while for others it will drastically reduce the level of precipitation they receive. Precipitation, which becomes fluvial discharge, influences the movement of alluvial rivers. Alluvial riverbeds are comprised of mobile sediment that is transported and shapes the river channel during flood events. The article investigated the degree to which stream bed elevation changes due to climate and whether changes to the climate can be observed through riverbeds.

The data was collected through the US Geological Survey streamflow measurements of 915 sites that were minimally impacted by human activities. For each site streambed elevation above the local datum was determined and then Q, streamflow, was calculated from daily flow rates. This uses the data type reports of acts, behaviors or events and uses the data collection method of public and private records. The researchers did not complete the research themselves but used ratio data that was already available to them through the US Geologic Survey to create equations for delineating rates in streambed elevation change. It was concluded that trends in alluvial streambed elevation were influenced by changes in climate.

This research took data that was already in existence and found new ways to use it and found new conclusions that can be drawn from it. This represents a fascinating part of scientific research. You do not always have to be conducting your own research to make new discoveries and to innovate. In fact, with the data already available more time and resources can be spent on properly evaluation and interpreting the results you gain from that data.

The aspect of this article that I would like to highlight for the class is the degree to which all of the physical processes of the earth are connected. When humans adjust the climate it is changing precipitation patterns, which changes how sediment is transported and deposited, which changes the streambed elevation, which changes the likelihood of a rain event causing a flood. The impacts are so vast that research is being done every day to attempt to understand how the changes to climate that we have already observed are impacting the countless systems on earth.

Slater, L. J., & Singer, M. B. (2013). Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011. Geology, 41(5), 595-598.

Kerryn E. Bell’s article, “Gender and Gangs: A Quantitative Comparison”, discusses her investigation of the risk factors involved in gang membership. Using data taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Bell seeks to answer the question: “are there gender differences in the risk factors associated with gand membership ?”. The data Bell took from the records of Add Health was collected from a national sample of children from grades 7 to 12, in the form of surveys, questionnaires, and in-home interviews. Using this data, Bell looked at neighborhood characteristics, parent-child relationship quality, family disadvantage, safety, and numerous other characteristics to see if they influenced the gang involvement of boys and girls differently. As a whole, she found little variation between how risk factors affected each gender. Interestingly, however, Bell did find differences for Hispanics and immigrants. Hispanic girls are far more likely to join a gang than boys, while first generation girls tend to be less likely than their male counterparts. It should also be noted that this quantitative research differed from qualitative work on the same subject in that it indicates neighborhood disadvantage has a minimal affect on gang membership.

As a whole, I found the article to be interesting and thorough. I was impressed that Bell was carful to use data taken from a national sample, and appreciated how she discussed minor variance between genders and gang-members vs non-members while still emphasizing that these differences were not pronounced enough to be concluded as the results of the study. However, she does admit that because the data is taken from schools, it does not include serious gang youth, meaning that the research must be considered in the light that it is based on incomplete data.

crime and Delinquency, Vol. 55, #3, July 2009, SAGE Publications

“Don’t Rock the Boat: Women’s Benevolent Sexism Predicts Fears of Marital Violence” Francisca Exposito, M. Carmen Herrera, and Miguel Moya- Universidad de Granada

http://0-journals.sagepub.com.books.redlands.edu/doi/full/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2009.01539.x

The article examines how Spanish women’s ideology affects their perception on whether a hypothetical husband feels threatened by his wife’s success at work. Benevolent sexism is a sex role attitude where women accept their traditional status as a wife and mother in order to receive men’s protection and provision. A social perception study was conducted. The subjects were 210 undergraduate psychology students at the Universidad de Granada, they read a vignette where a husband and wife argued over her job promotion. Women’s benevolent sexism confirmed the hypothesis that they perceived the husband to feel more threatened by his wife’s success and thus would be more likely to be violent towards her. When provided with background information on the husband’s ideology (traditional, egalitarian, no information) this had no significance. Other data produced  was the scores for ASI (Ambivalent Sexism Inventory)  used to measure hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. Thus women who scored higher on benevolent sexism (compared to those who scored low on benevolent sexism) perceived aggression even when the man was egalitarian. The method of data analysis used is, “multiple regression analysis to assess participants’ perceived probability that the husband was threatened as a function of women’s benevolent and hostile sexism scores and the husband’s ideology.” In conclusion, the findings supports the hypothesis that women who endorse benevolent sexism are in psychological conflict where they abide by traditional norms and are threatened if they challenge the status quo; however, they have a desire for intimacy with their partner. The data produced is valid because it further confirms past research where men who are gender traditional are more likely to be aggressive towards women.

Herrera, M. Carmen, and Miguel Moya. “Don’t Rock the Boat: Women’s Benevolent Sexism Predicts Fears of Marital Violence.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 34, no. 1 (March 2010): 36-42. doi:10.1111/pwqu.2010.34.issue-3.

In Journal of International Studies Vol 38 No 1 the 2009 article   “‘A Fresh Crop of Human Misery’: Representations of Bosnian ‘War Babies’ in the Global Print Media”, 1991-2006 written by R. Charlie Carpenter discusses the effect that media had on not only infants born during the war in Yugoslavia in the ’90s but also the population as a whole in general. And how that media coverage effected the world’s perception of what was going on during that time. One of the topics I’m interested in is Sarajevo and the steps the city has taken towards recovery since the end of the war. However I’m also interested in the media’s role and what effect they had on it. Carpenter mentions how media. He specifically Western media and how it “has been severely criticized for its role in human rights reporting during and after the war, particularly around the sensitive issue of sexual violence” ( 33) which I’m surprised to hear because as dishonest as the media can be at times I would have thought that in volatile situation like this where the entire country is at war and a city (Sarajevo) is under siege the media would have been much more direct and honest. The topic of sexual violence in the war is something I had never heard prior to this article. However if the media is covering the conflict and the conditions of those suffering why would they cover something as sensitive as sexual violence with dishonesty? I understand that it’s their job to cover the latest events but have some integrity as well.

The Serbs were not just a part of violence that involved ammunition they were also reported to be involved in raping of young mothers. According to Carpenter there were “121 instances where the perpetrators of rape are identified as ‘Serb'” (39) which is horrible and is an aspect of the war I had no idea.

The article Changes of Extreme Climate Events in Latvia by Zanita Avotniece1 / Maris Klavins1 / Valerijs Rodinovs1, focuses on the topic of the recognizably increasing climate, specifically in Latvia, and the effects the changes have on human health, agriculture, forestry, and other categories. All elements of the climate system, including: air/water temperatures, precipitation, river runoffs, ice and snow cover, and many others, are affected by the change in climate.  Reports have shown that near the surface of the Earth, their have been significant worldwide increase in mean temperature, suggesting that climate is changing. Characteristics of climate change not only include changes in mean values, but also changes in the variability of climate indicators and extremes.(extreme heat events and heat waves, extreme precipitation, floods…). This article investigates the changes of indexes describing positive and negative temperature extremes together with intense precipitation as well as the structural change in extreme climate phenomenons in Latvia. The accurate data gathered by this investigation showing the climate fluctuations in a small nation in Europe, I think will be interesting to some people interested in climate change. I myself was interested in the information and data shown by the investigation, especially about the extreme climate events impact on agriculture and human health.

Data was gathered by using trend analysis of long-term changes in the frequency of extreme climate events. Another form of data collected was Climate Data collected daily by 14 major meteorological observation stations in Latvia. Variable data, which included maximum/minimum and average daily temperatures and daily precipitation, was collected by Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre, and weather stations between years 1950-2010. Assessment of the impacts and occurrence of the climate event was done through the investigation of changes of indexes in Latvia.

Citation Information: Scientific Journal of Riga Technical University. Environmental and Climate Technologies. Volume 9, Issue , Pages 4–11, ISSN (Online) 2255-8845, ISSN (Print) 1691-5208, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10145-012-0010-1, December 2012

https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/rtuect.2012.9.issue/v10145-012-0010-1/v10145-012-0010-1.pdf

In the United States it has been shown that males have dominated the faculties of American universities in the fields of mathematics, engineering and science. Many research projects have been conducted to study this phenomenon, attempting to determine if gender actually affects intelligence. Many studies have demonstrated that females preform at higher levels when it comes to subjects requiring phonological sequencing and males preform better in analog imaging. But when it comes to gifted students, are the discrepancies still the same? That is what Paula Olszewski-kubilius and Seon-young Lee wanted to test. They did this by exploring “Gender and Other Group Differences in Performance on Off Level tests: Changes in the 21^st Century and taking organizational data from the off level test scores from 257, 829 gifted students between the years of 2000 and 2008. Of those students 111,796 took the SAT, 94,054 took the ACT and 51,976 took the EXPLORE. Their participants were 52.2 % male and 47.8% female, all between the ages of 4^th to 8^th grade. In their study, socioeconomic and racial status of the participants were also assessed, in an attempt to see the effects those factors had on the performance of the students. The study focused on three questions, the main question being “Are there differences between the scores of male and female students on the math portion of the SAT, ACT and EXPLORE tests and the importance of these differences?” They analyzed their data using  the method SPSS 16.0. For the SAT scores, specifically, they discovered that over all males averaged higher in the math portion while the females averaged higher in the reading portion.

While the study appears to be well done, there were many terms I did not understand and no explanation as to what they were. Nonetheless they were very thorough with their research and gathered a rather large sample size in an attempt to represent a decent portion of the gifted population. One fact that I found very interesting was that true to their stereotypes, Asian students over all scored the highest mean scores on the math and reading tests.

Olszewski-Kubilius, P., & Lee, S. (2010). Gender and Other Group Differences in Performance on Off-Level Tests: Changes in the 21st Century. Gifted Child Quarterly, 55(1), 54-73. doi:10.1177/0016986210382574

“Voters’ Attention, Perceived Effects, and Voting Preferences: Negative Political Advertising in the 2006 Ohio Governor’s Election.” by Jennette Lovejoy, Hong Cheng, and Daniel Riffe question how an individuals political interest is influenced through campaign news, advertising, and negative advertising. The authors conducted a statewide survey and found that individuals who stated that they paid attention to advertisements and negative advertisements experienced effects on themselves and others.  The authors conclude that this finding probably comes from the election race itself.  The authors state the two research questions being asked: Does candidate preference predict attention to political ads in general and to negative political ads in particular? and How well do candidate preference and attention to political ads in general and to negative political ads in particular predict beliefs about the effects of those ads? To gain this information they phoned randomly selected numbers and conducted surveys/questionaries through the demographic of Ohio. The respondents were given a five-point scale, one being not interested at all to five being very interested to show their interest in the governor’s race. They were also asked about the issues that the candidates spoke about and were given a scale to one meaning that they paid no attention to five meaning that they pay a lot of attention.  Lastly, they were asked if they pay attention to political advertisements on television using a scale from one being not at all to five being a great deal. The authors found that political interest was related to whether or not an individual pays attention to political advertising and negative advertising.  An interesting finding was that negative advertisements did not influence a decrease in individuals coming to elections. I think this study illustrates at a shallow level how an individuals political interest is influenced through the media. 

Lovejoy, Jennette, Hong Cheng, and Daniel Riffe. “Voters’ Attention, Perceived Effects, and Voting Preferences: Negative Political Advertising in the 2006 Ohio Governor’s Election.” Mass Communication and Society 13.5 (2010): 487-511.