The journal article is titled “Household Responses to Increased Water Rates during the California Drought” it was written by Ellen M. Pint published by the University of Wisconsin Press. It provides a detailed study regarding the price of water for 599 single-family households in Alameda County over the course of 10 years. The article’s topic was to gain a further understanding of household responses to changing water rates in order to answer their research question which is how will single-family households behavior during the course of California’s drought. The type of data needed to answer the research question is organizational data because the study aims to observe the water demands in order to create accurate maximum likelihood models. This goal was achieved through gathering data through applying mechanical observation. An interval data analysis method was used due to the data’s continuous and logical order. I believe that the researched served its purpose of answering its research question by developing multiple methods to predict reactions the final and most precise being the maximum likelihood model. Although, a concern that I have with the research is it is it is fairly shallow research that provides an understanding of the fiscal repercussions while providing no insight into the non-monetary responses. It is also pertinent to one’s understanding of this research that they heavily consider that the results are determined through educated speculation. Seeing as the research is posed to predict the results that California’s drought will have and does not take into account unexpected changes in the condition of the drought like the fact that recent rainfall has severely altered the severity of the drought thus drastically altering water demands.

Pint, Ellen M. “Household Responses to Increased Water Rates during the
California Drought.” Land Economics, vol. 2, no. 75, May 1999, pp. 246-66.
JSTOR, doi:10.2307/3147009.

Tree recruitment in relation to climate and fire in northern Mexico

Jed Meunier, Peter M. Brown, William Romme.

Over the past decades, forest structure in mountainous regions have changed due to factors such as anthropogenic disturbance, varying climate, species competition, and changes in the way we use land. This article looks closely at how fire, climate, and tree recruitment* interact with these factors in the Sierra San Luis mountains of northern Mexico. Researchers found that fires are closely related to wet-dry climate cycles where the climate will go through periods of drought and periods of wet conditions. The greatest times of tree recruitment were tied to a mid-century drought and low fire frequency and also in fireless periods with low precipitation levels.

To answer these questions about tree populations in northern Mexico, researchers had to use demographic data because they were describing characteristics of a population, although it was a forest population and trees rather than people were being described and analyzed through tree-coring.

This data was collected by sampling 30 plots among 3 sampling sites in Ponderosa Pine dominant wilderness which included pinyon pines and Chihuahua pines. Plot sizes ranged from .04 hectares to .37 hectares. Data analysis was completed using spatial analysis tools such as GIS.

From reading this study, I think the research was done quite well although there is a wide range of plot sizes. I wonder if the research would have been more consistent if they had sed the same plot measurement for each tested plot, however that does not take into account landscape changes that researchers likely had to deal with.

*recruitment occurs when juvenile organisms survive to be added to the population to a stage where organisms are settled.

MEUNIER, JED, PETER M. BROWN, and WILLIAM H. ROMME. “Tree Recruitment In Relation To Climate And Fire In Northern Mexico.” Ecology 95.1 (2014): 197-209

Elevated Concentrations of Methyl Mercury in Streams after Forest Clear-cut: A Consequence of Mobilization from Soil or New Methylation?

Ulf Skyllberg, Mattias Björkman Westin, Markus Meili, and Erick Björn
This article, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology investigates the relationship between neurotoxin Methyl Mercury (MeHg) and forestry practices. Hg is formed from the process of combustion of fossil fuels. Long range transport by the atmosphere moves the Me to other locations where it is deposited. The inorganic Hg transforms into MeHg in areas characterized by wetlands and forested regions. MeHg can bioaccumulation in organisms meaning the toxic MeHg is absorbed faster than the organism can remove it. Increased Hg in the environment has also been linked to forest logging actives. The article’s topic is the impacts of inorganic compounds resulting from forestry practices on environments and organisms.

The question this article seeks to answer is to confirm the causal relationship between clear-cutting forest and increasing MeHg concentrations as well as determining if the elevated concentrations of MeHg were a result of the mobilization of Hg is the soils or from new production of Hg. The authors used acts, behaviors or events and detached observations to measure data in regards to the contents of streams. The data was collected at 47 unique forest stands that were subjected to clear-cutting from 1998-2007 and 10 mature forest stands with trees >70 years old. A criterion for the sites was each had to have a consistent stream with a width of .5-1m at the sampling site. No data about the area draining into the stream was collected.

The sites were sampled once during a two-week period in August of 2007. No major precipitation event took place during the two-week sampling period. The data was analyzed quantitatively using statistical analysis to compare data from the clear-cut areas by age and to the reference site. An ANOVA, Analysis of Variation, was used to determine if the data would be a part of one population. This means it was testing to see if there were any significant differences in the data. It was concluded that there was a significant difference meaning clear-cutting was tied to increases in MeHg.

This research was executed well with detailed descriptions of how data was collected and the procedures that the researchers used. I felt that more data could have been collected during a separate two-week period in order decrease the margin for error. The graphs showed multiple data tables in a succinct manner that made them easy to interpret. Overall I felt the article was clear and concise. The aspect that I would highlight would be that there are many implications for removing forests. Not only does it decrease CO₂ sequestration, increase erosion and increase desertification it adds harmful neurotoxins to the environment which damage organisms in areas downstream from the clear-cutting.

Ulf Skyllberg, Mattias Björkman Westin, Markus Meili, and Erick Björn. Elevated Concentrations of Methyl Mercury in Streams after Forest Clear-cut: A Consequence of Mobilization from Soil or New Methylation? Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, 43, 8537-8541.

This article “Our Princess Is in Another Castle: A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming for Education” by Michael F. Young, Stephen Slota, Andrew B. Cutter, Gerard Jalette, Greg Mullin, Benedict Lai, Zeus Simeoni, Mathew Tran, Mariya Yukhymenka sought to find out if the higher use of video games would mean that students K-12 would benefit scholastically. The article seeks to see if video games effect the students, such as their level of achievement and interest in subjects like masth, science, language, history, and physical education.

The topic of this piece was to find the “connection between video game and classroom achievement and to establish the unique affordances and benefits video games may have for school learning.” Their research question was to “determine whether or not the overarching technology has reached enough of a ‘tipping point’ in the past 30 years to support the claim that video games can enhance classroom learning.” The type of data this article needed was reports of acts, behavior, or event. To do this the authors used meta-analysis collecting, at first, academic journals as well as dissertations, thesis papers, and research reports but they found they had to expand their “scope” so they also collected quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods designs, case studies and conceptual articles.

As I read the article I found that, although I believe youths K-12 have an addiction to their technology, I saw the merit in this research. The evidence shows that video games may in fact have a positive effect on students in the classroom. It shows signs of higher motivation, a better grasp on a subject, better test scores, an increase in achievement; however, these findings are by no means found across the board. I did think it very interesting, though, that some students who just observed video games grasped information on a subject better than the actual players, something I would not have guessed.

Each subject had studies that showed positives and negatives and so the question is still only a maybe but it does show the possibilities of what could happen if video games were properly introduced into the academic curriculum.

In the journal Ecology: A publication of the Ecological Society of America, Anne Blach-Overgaard and other ecologists part of the Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity Group in Aarhus, Denmark published an article titled: “Multimillion-year climatic effects on palm species diversity in Africa.” The article demonstrates that the species diversity and richness of the palm species from tropical, subtropical and dry-tropical climates throughout Africa are deeply influenced by historical climatic patterns that runs deeper than previously expected. By obtaining continent-scale data on precipitation, temperature and species richness from the late Miocene period (~10 mya), the Pliocene (~3 mya) and the Last Glacial Maximum (0.021 mya), the results show that climate change affects diversity patterns over multimillion-year “historical legacies” that extended farther back in the geological time scale than previously expected. The article uses a combination of acts, behavior, or events and reports of acts, behavior, or events data to conduct their analysis due to the combination of historical records on the species and data directly surveyed by the ecologists. The data was obtained from public and privates records, as well as detached observation of the species patterns and species distribution modeling created by the authors for this study. Statistical analysis for this study consisted of calculating bivariate correlations between the response variables (species richness) and the potential predictors (temperature and precipitation). A second multivariate analysis was conducted to compare the categorized response variables of total species richness, rain forest species richness and open-habitat species richness. The results included beautiful maps of Africa showing the data collection that easily identify the patterns with intriguing results about how far back climatic changes can affect an entire family of plants. I was initially curious about why the authors chose the palm family (Arecaceae), but they article quickly answered my question by addressing that they are keystone species for tropical and subtropical regions. It just goes to show that what anthropocentric changes to climate we cause today will affect species distribution on the planet for millions of years.

Blach-Overgaard, A., Kissling, W., Dransfield, J., Balslev, H., & Svenning, J. (2013). Multimillion-year climatic effects on palm species diversity in Africa. Ecology, 94(11), 2426-2435. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23597204

I decided to look at the article “Response Styles and the Rural-Urbal Divide” because it provided information about response styles based on sociodemographic characteristics. This has to do with the topic I am dealing with which has to do with high school graduation rates based off of socioeconomic status. In this study, the researchers traveled to the country of Guyana, which is a country in the Caribbean that is currently developing. In this country, they have determined that age, gender and education will effect the different response styles that each local will give to a series of questions that were on a scale from one to five. Before the researches conducted the study, they hypothesized that ARS, which means that one gives an agreement response, and ERS, which means to give an answer at either end of the spectrum, would be lower in urban areas compared to rural areas. This would mean that the people in rural areas would be more likely to agree to something that is false. In their findings, they found that their hypothesis was correct. However, they stated that there are findings where their hypothesis would be wrong if conducted in another country. This study was fascinating because I can relate it to work on my topic. Based on the amount of education one has, students might be able to form opinions and participate in arguments if they are educated on the subject matter. Overall, the source gave much detail and is an interesting study.

Thomas, Troy D., Abts, Koen, and Weyden, Patrick Vander. “Response Styles and the Rural-Urban Divide” Educational and Psychological Measurement Issue 74, no. 1 (2014): 97-115

I selected the Journal, “Criminal Justice and Behavior,” to look at more closely. I chose this journal in particular because it has to do with my general topic of criminal justice. For my research project I would like to look at why certain types of criminal behavior occur, some of the roots causes, and how these could be combated. In volume 41 of the journal, released on November 11^th 2014, I found an article that aligned with my interests. The title of the article is, “A Longitudinal Analysis of Adolescent Offenders.” Steven Pirutinsky from Columbia University is the author of this particular article that I looked at. The Articles research question was clearly stated and is as follows, does religiousness increase self-control and reduce criminal behavior? I believe this is a great research question because it is very specific and allows us to figure out exactly what kind of data will be necessary to collect. In the case of this research question, the most efficient types of data that should be used would be acts and reports of acts. In the case of this study from which there were 1,354 participants and the goal was to see if religiousness lead to more self-control, and in turn reduced criminal behavior. The study was very clear about proving this process rather than the inverse, more self-control leading to higher religiousness. In the case of a study like this the best way to collect data, and the way the researchers did in fact collect the data, would be to do an ethnography. Throughout the study they did find that Religiousness did lead to reduced offending, in the short term at least. This article seemed to have a clear research question from which it completed the remaining five steps of the process. It is interesting and has broadened my view to help me narrow in a specific research question for my topic.

Pirutinsky, Steven. “A Longitudinal Analysis of Adolescent Offenders.” Criminal Justice and       Behavior. vol.14, no. 11 (2014) November, 11. 1290-1307.

Hodgson, Geoffrey M., and Kainan Huang. “Brakes on Chinese Development: Institutional Causes of a Growth Slowdown.” Journal of Economic Issues 47, no. 3 (2013): 599-622. doi:10.2753/jei0021-3624470301.

This journal article notes the multiple factors responsible for vastly accelerating Chinese economic growth since the 1980s, but is aimed at explaining the factors that have and will impede that growth. The authors argue that despite China’s remarkable explosion in GDP, unless the country addresses certain institutional factors its growth will be unsustainable. The institutional factors are namely “demographic shifts and the problem of supporting a larger dependent population; the lack of a developed institutional—legal and financial—foundation for indigenous, advanced private enterprise; and the severe developmental constraints inherent in the existing system of land rights and residency registration” (600). To summarize, the major points are China’s one-child policy, impediments on capitalist private enterprise, and the cultural/economic/political divide between rural and urban populations. I would identify the first factor as demographic and the last two factors as organizational data. To collect this data, the authors primarily relied on public and private records. The authors commonly cited the US Census Bureau and the National Bureau of Statistics in China. The authors collected other data from various other sources; (BBC, Wikipedia, Chinese constitution) however, most of the empirical data came from Bureaus and Governmental agencies. Data for economic trends were quantitative, thus when analyzing GDP and macro-scale trends, I agree with the authors that the best way to collect this data is to look at public and private records. While the authors could have gone to China and asked farmers, businessmen and politicians for in-depth interviews this research would have been tiresome and ineffective. In order to explain China’s overall growth (a hard task to accomplish) the best method seems to be piecing together the data from numerous databases.

In a time where sports and particularly college sports might seem like the most miniscule and unimportant thing in the world, the US still brings itself to watch one of the greatest spectacles in sport: March Madness. And in the midst of a chaotic presidential race, last year’s tournament helped people forget and bring them together with the help of one team and one spectacular title game. When the Villanova Wildcats entered the 2016 tournament they came with an impressive 82 wins over the last three seasons. They also came with the notoriety of being bounced from the dance in the early rounds five out of the last six seasons. They were the Cinderella, underdog, long shot.  This Villanova team was what makes American sports so great: A team that people rally behind, outstanding leadership, the feel good story. After a regular season that landed them a second seed in the South Region the stage was set once again to make their statement amongst the country’s elite. During the dance they not only exceeded the expectations of national pundits they absolutely destroyed them. They edged out overall seed Kansas Jayhawks in the Elite Eight and then a dominating Final Four win over Oklahoma to advance to the National Championship game where they faced off against North Carolina-one of college basketball’s elite and regular title contenders. With 4.7 seconds left, Carolina guard Marcus Paige threw up a miracle three to tie the game at 74. And with overtime looming, Nova stole America’s heart with a game winning buzzer beater by Kris Jenkins that captured the Wildcats’ first title since 1985.

Luke Winn/Sports Illustrated:PHILADELPHIA THREEDOM/ 11.04.16

In the article, “The Interplay Between Media Use and Interpersonal Communication in the Context of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Reinforcing or Substituting?” by Chul-Joo Lee, Lee explores how media exposure and interpersonal communication effect and impact healthy lifestyle behaviors. Lee found that healthy lifestyle behaviors are heightened among people who talk about health issues with their family and friends less often. Which is interesting considering that most people who talk about what they are interested in and it is reflective in their life. The question that Lee is after in this article is whether or not there is a relationship between how the media uses health information and what is the effect of it on people in terms of a healthy lifestyle.  To find this information out Lee tested a sample size 2,107 United States citizens who were noninstitutionalized that were age eighteen and older. To test his question Lee conducted surveys asking about how often exercise, smoke, drink, and how much vegetables and fruits they eat.  For the testing the media Lee asked to rate from one (being not at all) to four (a few times a week) for how often you use print media, television, and internet for health information. Interpersonal health communication was measured the same way.  Lee’s research examines whether not a relationship exists and I think that the approach of this was done affectively. Lee focused on four aspects that are related to health but I think the study could have improved with other aspects of health like sleep habits. I think an interesting part of this study is that print media use did not interact with interpersonal health considering that print media is the original form of media.  This makes me think that digital media is taking quickly making print media obsolete.   

Lee, Chul-Joo. “The Interplay Between Media Use and Interpersonal Communication in the Context of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Reinforcing or Substituting?” Mass Communication and Society 13.1 (2010): 48-66.