The study I chose had a research topic of what species of plants can be used to clean the contaminated soils of mine tailings and smelter activities. The specific question was whether screw bean mesquite could be used as a hyper accumulator of copper in contaminated soils. The Mesquite was grown in contaminated soils and after a specified time were dried and chemically altered in ways which allowed for examination of the amount of copper within the roots and leaves. After examination it was seen that mesquite accumulated a significant amount of copper without inhibiting it’s growth. The data needed were acts, or if Mesquite was able to accumulate copper. The collection method was detached observation, recordings of the percentages of copper among the various mesquite plants. The method of analysis was researcher centered, used a Pearsons correlation comparing the difference in mesquite copper amounts with plants grown in soils of different amounts of contaminations. Overall I think the research was valuable in determining the effectiveness of mesquite as a copper hyper accumulator, and the most interesting thing I found was exactly how much copper could be cleaned up using mesquite. The researchers calculated that over 4.1 years, 4.5 tons of copper per acre contaminated could be cleaned.

Zappala, Marian, et al. “Prosopis Pubescens (Screw Bean Mesquite) Seedlings Are Hyperaccumulators Of Copper.” Archives Of Environmental Contamination & Toxicology 65.2 (2013): 212-223. GreenFILE. Web. 10 Feb. 2017. <http://0-web.a.ebscohost.com.books.redlands.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=15&sid=1a26bcde-a165-4a93-add6-cf5f23b43cab%40sessionmgr4010&hid=4106>

This study on the effectiveness of opening a new grocery store to address food insecurity was published in Health Affairs by Cummins, Flint, and Mathews. The research question was “Does opening up a grocery store in a Philadelphia neighborhood classified as a food desert have an effect on ‘ body mass index (BMI), daily fruit and vegetable intake, and perceptions of food accessibility’ in the community?” This indicates the three data types needed: height and weight for BMI (in this case a report of an “act/event”); reported fruit and vegetable intake, and; shallow opinions of various aspects of food accessibility in the neighborhood. These were collected from samples of two neighborhoods with similar characteristics, one that was planned to receive a new store and one that was not as a control.  Each neighborhood had two survey samples taken: one several years before the new grocery store was added, and one six months after it was added. They also compared participants within the experimental group who adopted the new store as their main source of food versus those who did not. The three types of data collected describe different things, and take the forms of both ratio and ordinal data. I can’t quite follow how they went from the data they collected to the data shown in their results, which seems to be all in ratios that were in a form that could be compared. The results of this study show that in the experimental neighborhood perception of food accessibility improved, but the measurements of BMI and fruit and vegetable intake overall did not change. One significant reason for this was that most people in the neighborhood did not actually change their shopping habits with the addition of the store. Another reason for this could be that the follow-up data collection was only performed six months after the store was introduced, not giving enough time for a change to occur. Nonetheless, I think it is significant that people did not change their shopping habits, and this perhaps indicates a need for further measures to address food deserts, such as nutrition education, in addition to bringing grocery stores to places that don’t have them.

Reference: Steven Cummins, Ellen Flint and Stephen A. Matthew. (2014). New Neighborhood Grocery Store Increased Awareness Of Food Access But Did Not Alter Dietary Habits Or Obesity. Health Affairs. 33, no.2 (2014):28N3-291. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0512

Age Appropriateness and Motivation, Engagement, and Performance in High School: Effects of Age Within Cohort, Grade Retention, and Delayed School Entry by Andrew J. Martin at the University of Sydney digs into the relative salience of age while observing three dimensions of age appropriateness. Martin’s study examined 3, 684 high school student’s academic motivation, engagement, and performance. These high school students were then monitored and later evaluated to test their age appropriateness based on the three dimensions (cohort, grade retention and delayed school entry). It was found that, generally, being older-for-cohort has negative effects, the effects of having to repeat a grade are negative, and delayed entry status came up with negative results as well. Overall, it was found that cohort, grade retention and delayed school entry all result in poor age appropriateness, motivation, engagement and performance in high school.

With Martin’s research question asking: whether or not effects of age in the terms of cohort, grade retention and delayed school entry effect age appropriateness in the terms of motivation, engagement and performance in high school? The type of data needed in order to answer such a question would be acts, behavior, or events and demographic data. I chose those two particular data types because the research method required a lot of observation but also the students grades which were supplied by the teacher. The data gathering method for this experiment would then be, ethnography and public and private records. The method of data analysis would be qualitative data as well as ordinal data, to rank the student’s grades. I, personally, found this research question to be very interesting, yet I found the results to be as I expected them to be. I enjoyed reading about a research question that would need two different types of data to answer it fully- something I have not written about until now.

Martin, Andrew J. (2006). Age Appropriateness and Motivation, Engagement, and Performance in High School: Effects of Age Within Cohort, Grade Retention, and Delayed School Entry. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 101. No. 1, pp. 1-258.

In the article, Effects of Teachers on Minority and Disadvantaged Students’ Achievement by Early Grade researcher, Spyros Konstantopoulos conducted a study, which investigated the effects of teachers on female minority and low-socioeconomic-status (SES) (Konstantopoulos 2009, 92). In the study students and teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms. The sample size was enormously large with nearly 11,000 students all in a total of 79 schools. The data took over four years to produce. All participants of the study were students in Tennessee schools.

Data for the study was entered into “Project Star.” Information recorded included; student outcome (i.e. Stanford Achievement test scores), and student demographics (i.e. gender, race, ethnicity, and socio economic status).  Konstantopoulos also explored whether teacher effects were more pronounced in schools with high proportions of minority or female students. Results showed that all students benefited from having effective teachers. The differential teacher effects on female, minority, and low-SES students’ achievement, however, were insignificant. There were some evidence in mathematics that teacher effects are more distinct in high-minority schools. Finally, teacher effects seem to be consistent within and between schools.

The researcher used multilevel models in order to better determine the teacher’s interaction effectiveness with student gender, race, and SES. Konstantopoulos, also used, “similar methods to explore whether teacher effects were pronounced in high poverty schools.” The effects the teachers made towards the students living in low socio economic statuses were measured as a residual variability in achievement among classrooms within the schools whom participated in the study. Konstantopoulos states, “The distribution of teacher effectiveness consisted of deviation scores that demonstrated the difference in achievement between a specific teacher (classroom) and the average effective teacher in the sample (Konstantopoulos 2009, 98).

I believe this research has and will remain current for years to come. We will also face the issue of poverty, and being able to better understand effective ways in which to better suit students living in low SES conditions can only be beneficial for them in many ways.

DOI: 10.1086/598845

Joaana Blogowska and Vassilis Saroglou work together on the piece “Religious Fundamentalism and Limited Prosociality as a Function of the Target” to ask the question, does religion imply altruism or prejudice and violence? To answer this question, they dive into two traditional claims. One of which is the idea that being really religious implies prosocial tendencies. Prosocial, since I was unaware of its meaning before reading this article, applies to voluntary behavior that is beneficial and in pursuit of doing good and promoting social acceptance. The second historical claim is that religious fundamentalism is associated with prejudice, since its roots tend to be resting in right-wing authoritarianism. The authors compile the data associated with these two claims and try to find if indeed religious fundamentalism also predicts prosociality. Another facet of these claims is that they only apply to certain groups and individuals. In the case of religious fundamentalism, predicted prosociality was found in regards to nonfeminists, rather than feminists and to friends, but not to strangers.

In order to answer their research questions, the authors took on two different experiments. In the first, the data being collected is that of self identity. A group of participating Polish college students were randomly assigned either an experiment or a control condition, and were given surveys that were later evaluated to find how their self identities affect their prosociality. Experiment two was an extension of experiment one, but also looked into the distinction between prosociality toward friends rather than strangers. The participants in this study are from a less random pool because they were either Catholics or had received a catholic education. The conclusion from these experiments is that people are more willing to help people they know rather than strangers, but this is not exclusive to religious fundamentalist groups. Therefor, the argument is that this also fails to contribute to violent tendencies There is, however, data showing that a religious fundamentalists do show some prejudice and hostility.

Although this study was pretty abstract and contained language I wasn’t familiar with, I thought it was really interesting. A stereotype that typically aligns with fundamentalist groups is the idea of violence within such communities. This was an interesting perspective to to take on how violence is expressed, perhaps where it comes from, and if it really exists among typical fundamentalist groups.

Blogowska, J., & Saroglou, V. (2011). Religious Fundamentalism and Limited Prosociality as a Function of the Target. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,50(1), 44-60. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2010.01551.x

The topic of the article Urban Heat Island Mitigation and Urban Planning: The Case of the Mexicali, B. C. Mexico, by Jorge Villanueva-Solis, asks the question, how Mexicali’s, a city in Mexico, rising climate be impacted and potentially reduced by analyzing and modeling its urban structure. The phenomenon called Urban Heat Island (UHI) is the main reason why cities climate is typically warmer than outside and includes impacts on air quality, water demand, and energy. IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is an organization created by the United Nations given the task of creating awareness of climate change through scientific view released a report describing the changes needed in cities to decrease their climate change. They reported the need for urban centers to devote their efforts to adaptation through urban planning and therefore reduce the risks of direct and indirect impacts of climate change. This article focuses on the heightened UHI, how its impacted by urban expansion, and its impacts on the city of Mexicali. Results of the study showed that the use of dynamic modeling as a tool applied to urban planning and focused on the reduction and adaptation to climate change. The studies results also showed that regarding implementation of strategies, results indicated that the most effective results are obtained when the strategy is applied generally. The study found that housing land use can significantly reduce the Urban Heat Island in Mexicali.

Two components of collecting data were used to find the data needed. In the first component, data was gathered using a digital satellite that provided clear information on thermal variation. Thermal characteristics within the city were obtained from the infrared band of the satellite. The second method used dynamic modeling and simulation of scenarios, which analyzed the urban spaces process of growth and transformation. The topic of this research was intriguing to me because it proposed one of many answers to the topic of reducing climate change.  The research for this article proposed that a cities capacity for adaptation and mitigation is the key to slowing down climate change. I believe that a carefully and well plan urban center could end up seeing better climate change reduction results. The topic of climate change reduction is a broad topic that I think will be interesting to many people. I also think that this different way of approaching climate change will be of interest to some people.

Citation:

Villanueva-Solis, J. (2017) Urban Heat Island Mitigation and Urban Planning: The Case of the Mexicali, B. C. Mexico. American Journal of Climate Change, 6, 22-39. doi: 10.4236/ajcc.2017.61002.

Abstract:     http://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=73976

Article:      http://file.scirp.org/pdf/AJCC_2017020716072125.pdf

Sourced from the Ecological Restoration journal, authors Rosaleen G. March and Elizabeth H. Smith demonstrate a data analysis technique utilizing spatial data to locate target areas for restoration in their article “Combining Available Spatial Data to De ne Restoration Goals.” The technique utilizes public soil data from Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) website to identify the natural vegetation characteristic with each specific soil type. This creates a base map of “grouped ecological sites” that then is overlaid with current land use and zoning patterns. The authors tested their method on 2 barrier strandplain peninsulas in the Texas Coastal Bend—Lamar and Live Oak peninsulas to find target areas with ease. Results show two target areas including a highway median that would be ideal for restoration. March and Smith use reports of acts, behaviors or events from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to answer their research question. They gathered this data from public records and imagery from the software ArcGIS. This is the same software utilized in spatial studies courses at the University of Redlands and is available on all the PC computers connected to the school’s server for students to use. By adding the current land use patterns over the blocks of potential vegetation based off soil data, target areas are easily identifiable with by just observing the map. This method of data analysis, I believe, is the way of the future. Patterns in data can be easily identified when displayed spatially.

March, R. G., & Smith, E. H. (2011). Combining Available Spatial Data to Define Restoration Goals. Ecological Restoration, 29(3), 252-260.

Crime & Delinquency: “Schools, Neighborhood Risk Factors, and Crime.” By Dale, Willits, Lisa Broidy, and Kristine Denman.

Their research question is: Do schools contribute to neighborhood crime rates? The data types they used were demographic data, organizational data, and deeply held opinions and attitudes. The data collection methods they used were in depth interviews and public and private records. They came together find if schools contribute to the crime rates in neighborhoods. They were not funded and did everything themselves. They conducted three slightly different hypotheses and found research to be not very convincing. They found that higher level block groups meaning those with either a high or low disadvantaged and instability situation had higher crime rates than those categorized with a lower block level. Their results supported a few different conclusions but the main one is that is somewhat supported their first hypothesis meaning that schools have some influence on crime rates in neighborhoods.

As they also said in their conclusion, this study lacked control in opinions. There has been very few studies previously on this question which leave a decent room for error. Their hypotheses’ were only partially supported which does not look good in my opinion. For the one or two classmates of mine that are doing something related to crime, I think this is something to look into if examining influence on crime rates or causes.

Crime & Delinquency: Volume 60, Number 1

By: Ji Hyon Kang and James P. Lynch

This article examines the impact of victim—offender relationships on the willingness of the victim to call the police in situations pertaining to family violence and whether or not those rates are different depending on the life stage of the victim. The article puts the victim and offenders in three categories: children (adult or young), spouse, and parent. The roles that each family member plays may affect their willingness to call the police because some hold more power, experience and authority than others as well as different cognition patterns. They found that the relationship and age does affect reporting decision. If the offender is the spouse or child, the likelihood of the victim reporting family violence is higher. However, the results showed that reporting rates are not significant different the three age groups. However the results were inconsistent with their three hypotheses.

The articles research question was: Does victim – offender relationships and life stages affect the willingness to call the police in incidents of family violence? The type of data they used was reports of acts, behavior, or events and the data collection methods were surveys and

public and private records. I liked their research and think they did a good job because they touched on family abuse from different angles than what people usually hear about. However, all three of their hypotheses were not true which is interesting. I think my classmates would like

to hear about the rates of the less talked about family abuse relationships.

This article was titled “Genetic consequences of historical anthropogenic and ecological events on giant pandas,” and was written by multiple  contributors because of the project’s focus. This research was conducted because of the growing concern about the Giant pandas’ ability to adapt to the changing climate due to its increasing habitat loss, poaching, and other issues like that.  In this article the researchers focus more on two of the main wild panda populations, the Qionaglai and the Minshan.

There were two main areas that the article focused on– one of which is lesser known. The two areas were the consequences of bamboo flowering and the exact populations where the poaching and removal from the wild are currently taking place. Though according to the research results that the team put together, the panda populations are actually fairly healthy genetically speaking with only a little bit of evidence for bottlenecking in the Qionaglai population of pandas, but that was found in both historical and modern samples which showed a long-term decline (several thousand years) not short-term. Though at the end of the article they made sure to warn that even though pandas do seem to have a fairly bright future now, it is only because of the conservation efforts taken and laws passed by China. Bamboo flowering is a bad for the pandas because after the flowering occurs, the plants die off in 40-100 year intervals and directly reduce food availability.

The main question this article seems to be answering is whether the historical data on the current population and genetic health of giant pandas is correct or if there is currently a distinct loss of genetic diversity in the near future.

In conducting this study the researchers had to gather data for both historical data and current data for their focus groups — the two panda populations. For the historical data they collected skins from institutions and agencies across china, and the deaths of those pandas was contributed to starvation due to bamboo flowering during the 1970s and 1980s or poaching during the 1950’s and 1988 when China  enacted a wildlife protection act. They also collected blood, fur, and feces from multiple individuals whom were either wild or wild, but in captivity and awaiting release. So the majority of the data used was observatory in form.

Zhu, Lifeng, Yibo Hu, Dunwu Qi, Hua Wu, Xiangjiang Zhan, Zhejun Zhang, Michael W. Bruford, Jinliang Wang, Xuyu Yang, Xiaodong Gu, Lei Zhang, Baowei Zhang, Shanning Zhang, and Fuwen Wei. “Genetic consequences of historical anthropogenic and ecological events on giant pandas.” Ecology 94.10 (2013): 2346-357. text.