In the aftermath of a big disaster-natural or human made- that displaces and effects thousands, sometimes millions of people there is an initial reaction to help any way possible. There are lives that have been changed forever. These people just want to be consoled and be told that everything is going to be alright, even that might not be true. And professional sports and their athletes have the ability to be there for these people and help bring up their spirits. In the article “Sport and disaster relief: A content analysis” the authors discuss how pro sports aside from financial donations provide support through a myriad of ways. Obviously monetary gifts are nice and needed, especially in the wake of disaster. They “further assisted in providing needed resources for disaster victims through public service announcements and allow their stadiums to be used as a temporary shelter” (Inoue, Harvard 361) for the locals affected which almost seems to mean more than a financial gift. It’s also nice having the presence and support from a professional organization or individual athlete. They provide emotional support and can have a one on one conversation and bring a smile and love to the victims of these tragedies who might be struggling to cope with what is happening. Visits from athletes and teams following tragedy can help “build goodwill with its consumers” (364)-its fans. The interactions of professional athletic organizations not only puts their brand out there, but more likely than not its “consumers develop positive attitudes” (364) towards these teams and the athlete(s) they encountered. So it’s a win-win for everyone involved. And in general I just think it’s nice to see pro athletes out and about in the community and helping any way they can. It’s a reminder that they aren’t just athletes but also people.

Inoue, Yuhei; Harvard, T. Cody 2015. “Sport and disaster relief: a content analysis”. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 24(3): 355-368. Accessed April 2nd, 2017.  doi: http://0-search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/docview/1690997682?accountid=14729

Continental Wind Patterns Associated with Colorado Alpine Dust Deposition: An Application of the BLM/USFS RAWS Network

Morgan Phillips Colorado Climate Center Colorado State University/Bureau of Land Management

Nolan Doesken Colorado Climate Center Colorado State University

The purpose of this study was not to look at the impacts of dust deposition on snow but instead sought a better understanding of the sources and the climatological patterns associated with the generation of a dust event. The motivation for this research was to determine the mechanisms that cause dust events in order to protect scarce water resources of the western United States. The 2008-2009 season had high numbers of alpine dust deposition events so it was used as a use case for determining the locations and environmental parameters needed to produce years high with dust deposition. The study used data from the BLM/USFS Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) network in the southwestern U.S. to determine wind patterns. The Raw network has been recording interval/ ratio data for approaching 30 years, in 2011, so it can begin to answer climate questions. Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT), an atmospheric trajectory model, along with satellite imagery was used to determine the origin of the sediment being deposited on alpine regions primarily along the Continental Divide in Northern Colorado and the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado. Using this model back trajectories were generated that used the deposition location to show that the dust could have originated in Northern Arizona/ the Southern Colorado Plateau. The article concluded that for a dust storm to generate and deposit snow in the alpine regions of Colorado wind with a daily mean speed of 15 and daily maximum gusts of 44 mph in a southwesterly direction was required. A linear regression analysis showed a correlation between the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and the frequency of these types of high wind periods in the RAWS database. This correlation was determined to be 0.46 for daily mean wind speeds and 0.56 for maximum daily wind gusts during the months of December through April (Phillips, 2011). The 2008-2009 year ranked above the 20-year average in terms of the number of days with high winds but it was not a year with the single highest wind speed so this suggests that other factors, alongside high winds, control dust transport and deposition.

This article showed me the RAWS data set which will be important in adding wind as a controlling variable for years of high avalanche deaths. The RAWS data set is continuously expanding so trends can be further examined and refined. The article also demonstrated the connection between years of high dust deposition and the SOI which I will use to see if the pattern is repeating. The connections between ENSO and dust deposition was not fully developed in the article in terms of attributing direct conclusions about how dust deposition is affected by ENSO however it is clear that a relationship exists. ENSO has impacts further than just wind so it should be investigated in my research to determine if changes in precipitation, generating a drier Arizona/ Southern Colorado Plateau, or changes in temperature influence the generation of dust events. The difficulty with this is that the ENSO does not occur in a linear pattern and thus years that have been labeled as ENSO years will have to be investigated case by case basis in order to determine trends that occur during ENSO years. However, even with that information, ENSO can act in different ways year to year adding to the complexity of making claims about trends impacted by ENSO.

Phillips, M., & Doesken, N. (2011). Continental Wind Patterns Associated with Colorado Alpine Dust Deposition: An Application of the BLM/USFS RAWS Network. Journal of Service Climatology,5(2), 1-11. Retrieved April 2, 2017.

The study uses content analysis research technique to find parenting behaviors in family-oriented, prime-time television programs.  To collect data for the study a sample family-oriented prime-time television programs were selected, videotaped, and coded, using a technique that groups clips together.  The population for the study included all family-orientated television series.  Prime-time television included between 7:00 and 10:00 pm.  The study uses the coding units instrumental, expressive, neutral, authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, neutral, positive, and negative.  The results of the study were that the demographics of the families observed in the television programs being coded include seventeen dual parent families, twelve single parent female-headed families, twenty single parent male headed families, and eight ‘other’ family types.  Overall, the study found about twenty parenting behaviors were observed per program and thirty per hour of programming.  The study also found that more male parental role expressions were observed than were female expressions.  More child responses occurred when there was an interaction between a father and child than a mother and child.  There was no significant difference found in the children’s responses to fathers due to the parental role that fathers have. The study did find a difference when it was the mother.  The study shows that there is proof that television is a major source of messages about life.  An interesting fact is that the study found a large number of single parent male headed households being presented on television.

Dail Paula W. and Wendy L. Way. 1985. “What Do Parents Observe about Parenting from Prime Time Television” Family Relations(34)(4) National Council on Family Relations. 491-499. 

This article highlights the effects of rapid economic and urban growth in Shanghai. The authors describe China’s recent urban explosion and its effects on the domestic economy and surrounding environment. Increased urbanization and domestic output have obviously led to higher rates of air pollution, but environmental degradation is also attributable to water pollution, climate change, and natural vegetation loss. The authors choose Shanghai as the unit of analysis, describing it as China’s “largest and most modern city.” To describe these ecological consequences, the authors choose water, soil, climate, biodiversity, and land coverage as the units of observation. Land-coverage data was collected through satellite imaging and analyzed using specific software. To collect data on air and water quality, the authors found concentrations of different particulate polluters over a 20-year period and compared them with rural/urban areas. This data was collected from the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau. They collected climate data from local meteorological stations in the Shanghai region, specifically the difference in average temperatures. The Shanghai Agriculture and Forestry Bureau provided some of the data on biodiversity, and the authors drew data from contributing scholarly sources as well. The data was compiled and analyzed in different ways, providing a meta-analysis for the overarching research topic. The authors note the socioeconomic dangers of China’s rapid urban growth, but also underline the related environmental factors. Shanghai institutions have attempted to curb the issues by implementing policies since 1990 restricting human-related degradation. This research was interesting because it drew from a variety of resources, from scholarly literature to local databases and satellite imagery, to provide a holistic and encompassing response to the research question. The meta-analysis method seems like a good idea for large-scale environmental studies, where numerous factors are relevant in determining level of degradation and proper policy measures to counteract it.

Zhao, Shuqing, Liangjun Da, Zhiyao Tang, Hejun Fang, Kun Song, and Jingyun Fang. “Ecological consequences of rapid urban expansion: Shanghai, China.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4, no. 7 (September 1, 2006): 341-46. Accessed April 2, 2017. doi:10.1890/1540-9295(2006)004[0341:ecorue]2.0.co;2.

In this article by Eeva Kallio and Anna-Mija Pirttila-Backman, the researchers focus on a collection of research done on adult development in Europe. The article does go over a few different viewpoints including the neo-Piagetian perspectives and the Vygotskian approach to learning. Some of the issues the article covers is how people nowadays are responding to our shifting and complex way of life, how life events affect our well-being and how we think and perceive things; it talks about researcher’s insight into adult cognition, and different “domains” of life, our cognitive, social, and personality domains.

The topic of this piece is the development in adulthood, more specifically this article seems to be looking into different research projects that go over what is affecting adults’ cognition, scientific thinking, and how they are responding to societal/personal strains on their everyday life. To glean information, they use a meta-analysis approach, gathering numerous studies of previously done as well as ongoing research on this topic but each looking at it from different angles. The authors data then would be reports of acts, behaviors, and events, to get this data they would have gotten the reports from public records. To analyze this data they would have used qualitative data analysis to better understand and interpret the information assembled.

This article wasn’t as in-depth as some of the others that I have come across but I thought it was very clear and the topics of research that they went over in the piece was very interesting and were all research pieces I would be very interested in reading myself. Something that I thought was interesting to think about was the relationship between the structure of thinking and the content of thinking, which is the subject of one of the researchers mentioned in the article, Ms. Anna Kajanne. This is a subject I hadn’t ever thought of and I’m quite sure it would be an interesting read.

Kallio, E., & Pirttilä-Backman, A.-M. (2003). Developmental processes in Adulthood – European Research Perspectives. Journal of Adult Development, 10 (3), 135-138. doi:10.1023/A:1023426028821

https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/49701/developmentalprocessesinadulthoode.pdf?sequence=1

The last study, completed by Russell Rumberger at the University of California Santa Barbara, approaches the topic of high school dropout rates from two different frameworks. Unlike the previous studies, this study addresses the topic of dropouts both from the individual and from the institutional level. These levels are addressed through the two different frameworks. The first framework is based on individual perspective and focuses on the individual factors associated with dropping out such as student engagement, student achievement and student’s background. He shows us that each of these factors play a role in this dropout trend and demonstrates this to us through previously acquired data.

The second framework is from the institutional perspective. “While the first framework can provide a way to understand dropping out from an individual perspective, individual attitudes and behaviors are shaped by the institutional settings where people live.” He gives examples of institutional factors such as family factors, school factors and community and peer related factors. This second framework is more closely related to my research project than the latter because it focuses on the surrounding environmental and institutional such as family, school and community factors[3]. For example, He points out specifically “Research has consistently found that socioeconomic status, most commonly measured by parental education and income, is a powerful predictor of school achievement and dropout behavior.” He describes how each one of the factors connects with the dropout rate, but what he is missing is the large-scale correlation. In this study he states all of the many factors and their connections with this topic, but they have not run all of these factors together to see in fact how strong these correlations actually are. I would also critique this study in that in relation to today’s data it is almost 20 years old. Though this study was likely relevant around the time of its publication, there is a possibility that the data has shifted, causing it to be less accurate.

This research was particularly interesting because it pointed out not only the impact on the indviduals who dropped out but also the individuals effect on the economy as well. “dropouts cost the nation money in other ways as well. Research demonstrates that dropouts are also more likely to have health problems, engage in criminal activities, and become dependent on welfare and other government programs than high school graduates.” We tend to ignore the the outside effects that dropping out of high school has on society, but in fact it does effect much more than just the individual.

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/58p2c3wp#page-1

In the article”Characteristics of Foster Family Applicants Willing to Accept Hard-To-Place Children”, author Mary Ellen Cox delves into the topic of the foster care system in an attempt to address the problem of foster parents often being unwilling to accept such children, a trend which she argues jeopardizes the quality of care available to children searching for foster homes. To approach this problem, Cox designed her research to answer two questions: “what number of foster family applicants are willing to foster hard-to-place children?”, and “what type of applicants are willing to accept these children?”. Cox gathered several types of data, including demographic and organizational, from 153 applicants in pre-service training. Using a combination of questionnaires, interviews, and public and private records, she measured the presence of 11 different foster parent resources, as well as the willingness of applicants to accept different types of hard-to place children, such as abused children, siblings, or deprived children. Following the period of data collection, the author then used a data analysis to obtain results. Cox found a high number of applicants were willing to take hard-to-place children, 2/3 for most types. She also found that the amount of total resources was a good predictor of willingness, as was membership in a place of worship, or race.

As a whole, I thought the project was interesting, and had great merit. I particularly appreciated that Cox thought to look at different catagories of hard to place children, which was backed by the fact that the results often showed differences. For example, the high willingness of applicants to accept most types of these children did not extent to those with a tendency to set fires. The author did not give much detail on the method analysis, which I was dissapointed with, but in general the project was well done, and engaging to read about.

Cox, M. E.Characteristics of foster family applicants willing to accept hard-to-place foster children Available from Social Services Abstracts; Social Services Abstracts. (61464283; 200104915). Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/docview/61464283?accountid=14729

The article “An Econometric Analysis of Donations for Environmental Conservation in Canada” written by Steven T. Yen, Peter C. Boxali, and Wiktor L. A is a piece that looks at how government policy can effect donations towards environmental issues. The question behind this research is “how does the reduction of government funding to environmental conservation programs effect individual/organizational interest?”. This question was asked in response to multiple provincial governments in Canada deciding to do budget reforms and at the time in 1997 environmental concern wasn’t big of a priority when first moving into the twenty-first century.  Which lead these researchers to gather and use empirical data in order answer their question. The method the used to measure the changes from individuals and organizations is called a “double-hurdle econometric model” to chart out their findings. As for how they obtained their findings was through organizational data. This was done by asking multiple donation centers and environmental organizations about the records concerning donations received after the policy change. The article itself is well done and a good resource for how different governmental funding plans can alter peoples willingness to donate or join environmental organizations. It is a little on the older side being produced during 1997 but is well done so it becomes a resource and a marker for the years covered by the study. What I think others would find interesting about this piece is that the involvement of government policy and donations in Canada, these two things would seem to be distinct from one another but are actually deeply interconnected.

www.jstor.org.books.redlands.edu/stable/40986946

In this study the researchers were looking into a type of biological phenomenon in southeast Asia called a general flowering or GF for short. They used most of the space in the journal article discussing the various theories as to why the even occurs in the way it does, as well as why the event doe not happen in other tropical areas around the world. GF is unique, because it can occur over thousands of miles and involve hundreds of plant species representing diverse families and lifeforms. It also involves strict mast fruiting. However, there is still plenty to be learned about this type of phenomena as was stated in the closing line of the abstract, “Long-term monitoring and further understanding of GF are essential for the conservation of this unique and diverse tropical forest in south-east Asia, especially in a period of global climatic change.” (Sakai, 2002)

The general flowering is a large synchronization of plants blooming, including trees, shrubs, and grasses. According to Sakai,  In seasonal environments, synchronization of reproduction among individuals occurs, in part, because a particular season is most favourable for reproduction and the survival of offspring. However, the extent of synchronization is usually much stronger than would be expected from the variability of climatic conditions. And is part of why the GF is such an interesting case, because it appears to happen in response to some combination of triggers, — like a shift in climate, but there is not enough research or knowledge to know what is causing it to happen in one specific area of the world. Though General flowering is a phenomenon unique to lowland dipterocarp forests. These forests are characterized by a high species diversity of trees. The detail that helps to separate the General flowering from other similar phenomena is that not only dipterocarp trees but also many other plant species show flowering patterns that are synchronized with the dipterocarp trees.

In this study Sakai summarizes the previous studies done on this subject and breaks down the findings into a language that is easier to understand as well as put their own research into to further prove what is known and help to explain why this is such an interesting and important phenomenon to study. There was not a clear problem or question that was being investigated in this article, though there were charts and new data used to support already existing hypotheses and show a newer audience what is known about the topic and what still needs to be done.

Sakai, Shoko. “General flowering in lowland mixed dipterocarp forests of South‐east Asia.” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 75.2 (2002): 233-247.

In the article Literacy Achievement in Small Grade 1 Classes in
High-Poverty Environments, researchers,  Margaret Haughey
Fern Snart and, Jose da Costa, “explored the influence of three interventions on the literacy achievement of grade-1 students in 10 schools in high poverty environments: small class size, a focus on literacy,and teachers’ continuing professional development.” (Haughey, Snart, and Costa 2001, 301).The researchers conducted the study in order to, examine ways in which  to enhance academic
achievement, most importantly in literacy development, for students coming from low-socioeconomic backgrounds. The researchers specifically examined the impact of three
interventions. The interventions included the following: small class size, a focus on literacy,  and continuing professional development – on the growth and achievement of grade-1 students in 10 Edmonton public schools in high-poverty, and high-transiency
environments. The study, lasted from January to June 2000, started with small classes of 15 or fewer students at the grade 1 level in 10 schools,

In order to conduct the study the researchers asked the following questions: Did small classes enhance students’ literacy achievement? How important was teachers’ continuing professional development in enhancing students’ literacy achievement? What was the influence of small classes on teachers’ classroom practices? In order to answer the research question, Haughey, Snart, and Costa used test results, individual interviews with
teachers in their classrooms, and monthly group sessions with the teachers. In order to obtain test scores the researchers pulled from writing tests, which the district annually administers. The tests consists of two measures, a writing component and
a reading comprehension test. The tests are given to every students using what it
calls the Highest Level of Achievement Tests (HLAT).

The researchers analyzed the data by analyzing the interviews,
observations, group meetings, case studies, and instructional  materials. The team then coded and then categorized the transcribed audiotaped data.

The research conducted by this group of researchers will help with the current study by providing the insight from teachers. Teachers are spending the most time with their students and are able to share the experiences they have with each students learning processes and achievement levels.